My Recent Obsession (Korea+)

On a follow up to my recent post about Japan, I can't let my interest in Korea and other countries. I'm not certain where my interest started. I think it first hit when I was recommended something from an American band, Against the Current, but for a Chinese produced game, League of Legends.
While I can't find an official video, this is a good link for just the music.

 

And then later I found a more produced version with a lot more stuff.

Now, I've never considered a video game to be a large cultural event but then The Algorithm sent me more music from that title. The best is probably the KDA (Kills, Deaths, Assists), an acronym taken from the game play. This stuff was great. I'm not so sure about the videos themselves but I loved the music. And American and Korean artist were involved.

With this next one, I remember listening to it when I went to volleyball games at the highschools and I was highly annoyed. I find it interesting on my different opinion when I could listen on a better sound system and with a bit of context.

With a bit more of a pop flavor, this song really hits me in my love for pop and women that have their act together. I think this is what attracts me to KDA in the first place, the feminine confidence it exudes.  

The next entry was what primed me for the korean dancing that hits in K-Pop. I'm not incredibly comfortable with dancing and it mostly stems from my own insecurities. I had to learn to enjoy others being able to do this and just get over myself. This dancer was quite young at the time, and I think she just impressed the promoters that she made it on the official video.

My last KDA is Villain. Just to round it out. 

I then found some videos from Girls' Generation. They are kind of a big deal there. I have seen some of the ladies in k-drama. I don't think they are together much anymore. These songs are almost a decade old.

My favorite song from them is "Hoot". It reminds me of a video game I once played, "No One Lives Forever". I love that game.

One of my favorite songs was from "Brown Eyed Girls". I really like this song. But I'll include this video because it is a better quality over the strictly performance video.

These next entries are more current but still a few years old. It just shows how long I've been into this. The song, "GingaMingaYo" really butchers the little english that is in it, but it's just such a strange little song. I first heard the audio and had to search out the video. At least one of the women is Japanese.

(G)I-DLE is a pretty popular group. They have some good songs. I like this one but it is a bit more theatrical than I like. 

Kep1er is another one I follow. Just a nice little song.

I could really go on but I want to move on to some other, more current songs. I found KiiiKiii just recently. They're a pretty young group out of Korea. 

My last Korean Entry is Rolling Quartz. They are more rock than pop. They are currently touring the US. I could really go on and I follow them quite closely.

A group from Thialand, Tippsy, is one I found a few months ago. 

There's a cover band, mostly, from China that I follow, Sixi-Wanzi, that has some good work. Their guitarist is from Mongolia and she shot this video from her home country.

There's some male bands from Mongolia that I like, like "The Hu" and "Uuhai" that deserve some time. While I don't like the "core metal" style, I don't mind the the throat singing they do. I don't know why. It is just more melodic.

My Recent Obsession (Japan)

 Anyone that follows me on Facebook knows I've been somewhat obsessed with the Asian music scene. I know that I have a fascination to learn new things but it seems that it has almost completely overtaken any of the music I listen to. I stumbled across a video of a guy that seems to have the same issue. I'm sorry that I don't have a link to it. It was interesting finding someone that could articulate what I feel. Now, there were some bands that he referenced and liked that I don't. I'm not a fan of "core" metal. I don't like throat singing. But other than that, we vibed. He brought me some insight that when it sunk in, I looked at Tracy and said, "That's it!" He said that Japanese bands were doing progressive music, something that hadn't been seen since the 70's and 80's in the West. Progressive music has a lot of time changes as well as strong shifts in melody. That is the kind of music I like, music that is hard to dance to. So that explains it.

I wanted to post somewhere my favorite songs with a little backstory. I figured this was a decent enough place. These aren't in any particular order. I have put them in a public playlist, as well as others that I'll come across later. This list will change, but probably not the blog post.

I think the first songs I came acrossed, or were recommended to me by YouTube, was IronBunny. It's some guy in cosplay along with 3 university girls doing the singing. His guitar work is amazing.

In more of a concert song, I really enjoy this song. 


This was more of a college project so the band wasn't around long. One of the women, as I found out later, joined what is now one of my favorite bands, Koiai. It was started by Li-sa-X. Li-sa-X is a child prodegy when it comes to the guitar. She was phenomanal when she was 8 and just kept going up from there. Anyway, Kotano, the woman from IronBunny, became the singer when the band consisted of her, Li-sa-X and Hazuka, a guitarist from Nemophila. This video was one of their first releases.
 
Later, they picked up Kanade, another prodigy but with the drums and the basist from East of Eden. The basist isn't official yet but she shows up in this video.

This interest led me to other more mainstream Japanese bands. The biggest of which was one that I had in my Music queue but I never really paid that much attention to it, BabyMetal. That is until I got into their concert videos. The premise of the band is Kawaii Metal, Cute Metal. These girls started in their very early teens and were now in their 20s. Their concert videos were epic. What a production. This video below is still one of my favorites.

Then I found Band-Maid. Another costumed band but my first video video highlighted the drummer, Akane. Holy cow, she could play. And the lead guitarist, Kanami, was a shredder of the first order. 

This is "From Now On". Great song.

I do have other japanese bands/songwriters that I really like. Here are some of them.

Tuki. She wrote an album of songs when she was 15. I think her singing is excelent and so far beyond what a 15 year old should be capable of. This is the video that got me hooked but her whole album is outstanding. This video stars an actor. There aren't any public pics of Tuki which is probably a good thing. She's still young.



Mone Kamishiraishi. I first saw her when she starred in a J-drama called "An Incurable Case of Love" which, to be honest, was kind of annoying, but I liked her. Like some of the stars in K-drama, I found out she was a singer with, like, 7 albums. So here is a good one. It is such a good message too, even if you can't understand the words.

And another.

 

NEK! Another group of phenomenal teenagers. I even bought one of their streaming concerts just to see how they carried the crowd.

Scandal. They have been around a long time. Great band, great songs. 

Hitsujibungaku. I think they are the Japanese Cranberries. I bought their first concert Bluray when it came out. The drummer is an on-off kind of guy and needs a bit of a break from the tour but he's okay.

Yoasobi. This will give you seizures. She does some anime songs. Well, all of them do.

ReoNa. Great song and video.



Garnidelia. This was first presented to my ears by a cosplayer dressed up like the lead of Spy X Family anime. This is better.

I Have Nothing Left

 The title doesn't tell anything about my current state. I just had a very familiar song come across my feed and it brought up a whole lot of feels. 

The song was by Evanescence and I obsessed over their first two albums. It was such a great band and Amy Lee is a fantastic singer. Their third album, self-titled, was released when I was going through an emotional tsunami. I was coming to terms with my depression on my mission. Before then, I didn't really classify it as depression. I didn't know what it was. So I was dealing with that and finally telling Tracy about it. I didn't really say anything about my mission and Tracy respected that. 

Facebook was reintroducing me to friends I never thought I would meet / talk to again. It started creating webs of connection in my mind. Things were getting sorted out but it was still difficult. It forced me to look at some thing in my life and re-evaluate. The biggest? The church. I identified by my membership and the things I lived by. Now I felt free to question it. It was a very twisted path that got me to feel free to question it and I won't go into it here. But I was going through mental exercises and reading like crazy trying to make sense out of it all. I eventually became verbal with Tracy about my struggles and conclusions. That just fired disagreements and we had started fighting about, well, everything. I'm so conflict-averse that it was taking more of a mental toll on me than I could truly handle. 

So in this year(s) of trying to figure it all out, there came this Evanescence album. And I had finally given myself permission to feel the full range of emotions again. I hadn't done that since I was a teenager. I've always known I was highly emotional but I tried to keep it under control. I don't know if served me well or not.

I don't think it was the first time I listened to the album on the ride home one day. I feel I was quite acquainted with the songs. But this day, I couldn't keep my emotions under control. I was sitting, waiting for the light at Golf and Barrington and I started to cry. Not much at first, but it eventually led to sobbing. I felt as if my world was falling apart, and this song was playing. It spoke to me so much. I eventually had to find a spot to pull over because I couldn't drive any longer. Later, I pulled myself together and drove myself home. I still listened to this album on my drive home for the rest of 2011, I think. I needed a lot of time to cry and the privacy of my car gave me the opportunity.

So I think Amy Lee wrote the song with a TV show in mind. "Being Human", I believe. Aside from maybe the first clause, I could put my own life in the lyrics. Goll, what a mess I was that year.

Cedar River Nature Trail

After more time than I care to think about, Tracy and I hit the trail again. I've wanted to hit the trail again and this was the farthest I've gone to do this. Iowa. Essentially, between Iowa City and Waterloo, Iowa.

So we travelled to a small town called Solon to start the trek. We made a quick stop to Casey's to calorie up and I noticed a huge display of Fireball whiskey. I gave Tracy the side eye. I think I knew what it was about what it was about, but it also looked like the people of Solon had a problem.

After making a quick tour of a catholic church parking lot, I finally got to the right parking lot and geared up for the short ride to Cedar Rapids. Unfortunately, that short distance, 20 miles, was also against a 10 mph headwind. I wasn't looking forward to that.

It was a nice ride. All paved path. Shortly after leaving Ely, I stopped to check the path and someone had passed by telling me that in a forested area up ahead, he had seen coyotes and to be aware of it. Tracy also called me telling me that she couldn't see my location on her phone. I restarted my app and off I was again.

In short order, I came out of the forested area without seeing any wildlife and entered the suburbs of Cedar Rapids. The path started following the river so I went past some industrial areas as well as recreational open spaces and sports fields. With a crossing of the river, I entered downtown. I was immediately met with bars and BBQ joints and the associated smells of smoked meats. I had also started following a group of bikers that had passed me earlier. I knew that I was going to be on the streets of the city and I didn't know where I was going to go. 

Cedar Rapids downtown was quite a spot. For this part of the street, cars and bikes had full use of the street. That was kind of offputting but also, there weren't any cars to speak of so I didn't sweat it too much. I had then passed an open air theater that was packed with people with some band playing. Now I had to avoid all the pedestrians. 

I dropped a bit too far behind the bikers I was following and I noticed that they took a left back toward the river, and I was sure that wasn't where I wanted to go. So, without any signs to guide me, I took a left turn and found myself in Greene Square. I discovered I had passed the trail and got back on it. Aside from some detours, I finally found myself at the motel. Tracy had booked a motel right off the trail.

It was a nice room. I put my bike off to the side of the bed and tried to relax. I normally do 20 mile rides so I'm not sure why I felt so beat. I took a shower while Tracy was off to pick up dinner from a local Indian place. Last time she was in Cedar Rapids with Madsen's robotics stuff, she ate some good Indian food and was looking forward to having some more.

Back in college, my dorm used to have a "mexican" bar and my favorite dish was some enchaladas with rice and salsa poured over the top. The rice made it for me. It was dry and loose. I loved that rice. Since then, I've fallen in love with Basmati rice. It is so good and this meal came with so much of it. I ate my fill and then some. So now Tracy and I have Cedar Rapids burned into our minds as a place with great Indian food.

In the morning I set off again. Tracy was still in the room but I didn't need her for some time. I had miles to go. And I immediately got lost, right out of the motel. I couldn't find the stupid path. I eventually backtracked a bit and saw a small sign outside of the motel parking lot pointing to where to go. So off I went. It followed the main road for a mile or so and then angled off to the north and I was on the trail proper. Nothing of note. The path looked like so many of the others, but it was paved and straight. I eventurally started following a group of bikers and I was having trouble keeping up with them. Even on an incline...oh. Stupid eBikes. That's cheating. Another two that I switched position with were some guys about my own age. One of them kept a pretty frantic pace and I wondered if he was going to have a heart-attack with all the effort he was putting into it. The dude needed to go up a gear, or maybe buy a better bike.

Tracy met me at Center Point and the eBikers stopped there too. "Pickelball and eBikers Club" and they had their own t-shirts. I rested until they all kept going and I thought that I was going to be behind them for the rest of the way. Nope. A few of the women were more interested in talking to each other and I had trouble passing them. I finally did and so now I was between the women and the men in that group. eBikes annoy me and I kept bumping up with this group enough to keep the tradition. Seriously, I don't have this problem with bikers. They are either faster or slower, not constantly bumping into me like these guys.

I went thru Urbana and lost them at a cyclist hangout there. (Yes, they exist all along the trails.) Then the next adventure began. I became an outlaw. I was confronted with a "Trail Closed" barricade. I had read up on this and was told to just go around them. So I did. There were a few others breaking the law too but this seemed to be a very quiet part of the trail, in any case. I went along several miles of repaved trail until it eventually went to a closed, unpaved path. I later found out that this was a county line and the county intended to pave the trail but wasn't past just blocking the trail. 

I met Tracy at Brandon. Somehow I missed the big tourist attraction, Iowa's largest frying pan.

Tracy and I talked a bit there, but off I was again. This time, I would be heading through a swamp for 10 miles. And I heard my first cicadas of the summer. It was loud. But that wasn't the loudest. There was an lower tone, kind of like a jet engine, beneath it all. Frogs. The frogs were so loud. Anyway, I passed the small park seen in the top picture not so long along the path. But I wasn't expecting what I encountered next. 

This is an old coal tower from the days of the coal-fired trains. That also explains the open space as this was an old rail yard. This thing was gigantic. I assume it was remote enough that storage was kept above the rails instead of the only other one I've seen where it was fed with a conveyor belt. This was something I wish I had time to investigate. Alas, I wanted to keep moving and avoid all the mosquitos that saw an opportunity for a meal. 

A little further on I found some cows relaxing in a creek. We had a short conversation. 

The bridge over the Cedar River was long and narrow but seemed a lot better constructed than others that I've taken. This was build for bikes, not a repurposed train bridge. No pics, sorry.

I stopped for lunch at La Porte City with a sandwich from the ubiquitous Casey's gas station. A small rain shower went over too. Off again. I had to stop at the next station, Gilbertville, to sort out something from work. I was getting pretty tired. Tracy called to tell me that much of the path was flooded in Waterloo so I couldn't finish were I was planning. So I told her that somewhere in the south of Town was a Kwik Trip gas station and to meet me there. And I did. 

It was a nice ride. 75 or so miles total. My phone kept going in and out of coverage so my tracking app only had 30 or so miles logged. It lost contact around Brandon. ATT coverage of that portion of the country isn't very good. We traveled home without issue and met our oldest who had a few days off and was home for the duration.

Spite

 This is a personal opinion. 

Spite of old men. I think that is what we are seeing. Well, at least the spite of one man. Russel Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

I think we first saw it when he became president, he went and made sure Pres. Hinkley's use of "Mormon" and all the money used on the "I'm a Mormon" campaign went to naught.

Now you are seeing him negate Hinkley's other innovation, small mormon temples. Now they have to be more numerous and larger than what Hinkley brought about.

 

 Spite.

Interlaken

 

This is in reference to a walking tour of Interlaken, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04sQherhM5g.

Just some background, Interlaken was my first area on my mission. I started my mission in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah in May 1986. 

I had a horrible time.

I went to Interlaken two months later having had German crammed into my skull. I arrived at Interlaken West terminal. I walked by that station every day I was there.

For the most part, I haven’t been too vocal about my time there. I was only in the country for a few months before I was sent back to the US. I hadn’t even talked about my mission much until about 10 years ago. My wife knew I did not have a good time and never pressed me about it. 

I didn’t stay in Switzerland long. I was sent back to the US for various reasons. 

So, even after all this time, I think I avoided even videos about Interlaken subconsciously. I’ve watched videos about Grindelwald which was up one of the valleys that I visited once. I don’t know why I decided to watch the video about Interlaken. I think what sucked me in was about 30s in, there was a shot of the West train station. Dang but that made the feels flow, so I decided to stick around. Bennet even sat down to watch. 

The video starts out at the main park in town, https://goo.gl/maps/6J2ywuaEMrBzoy2B7. I really didn’t remember it at the time. I know I should have. I had blocked so much of this out of my head. I hadn’t even looked at the city in google maps until I started writing this. It isn’t that I hated the place. Even now I call it the most beautiful place on the planet. I’ve always felt that way. I was honored to spend the little time I had there, but there was more than just the place. 

The video went on. I honestly did not remember the buildings that I saw at first. Only little by little did that park creep back into my memory. Yeah, I'd been there lots of times. Almost daily. And then they walked deeper into the town. That was a beautiful river but I don’t remember it at all. I was trying so hard to remember it. Tracy knows I have a bad memory anyway, mostly due to things on my mission, like the inability to remember names. I’ve taken her to other things in my mission travels that were much less impressive than my memory tells me. Anyway, the first real thing that I remembered quickly was the dam that had a covered area and the canton flag. That I remembered immediately. 

About the time I was mumbling something about now remembering crossing a bridge everyday, there were other comments. Tracy has been vocal about wanting to go there. She commented on the beauty of the place and mentioned how sad it was that I couldn’t have enjoyed it more. I responded that I really do wish I had enjoyed it. It is a remarkable place. Some resentment was building up in me about that time, and why I couldn’t have enjoyed it. 

Then there was a certain shot that looked very familiar to me. The location is here, https://goo.gl/maps/TwYWhniM872NAcuu6. In the video, it is here, https://youtu.be/04sQherhM5g?t=1810. I’m not sure what hit me. Just that side street. Then he pans and turns east. I gasped. I had so many years of repressed memories unload on me in just a few seconds.

While I was there, there was one family that helped me and was so kind, I can’t fathom it. The Schaffners were so kind to me. They fed me, and helped me with comfort and normality. And now to why this matters.

I had severe depression. It wasn’t tied to being away from home. I’d been away to school for two years before my mission. I had wanted to go on my mission. I wanted to tell people how much the church has helped me with my life. I had such good friends in my church school. I enjoyed my time in the church so much that I wanted to tell people about it. All my time there, I’d been told being a missionary, or a returned missionary, was how you be a good person. I wanted to be a good person. The person I married deserved to be married to a good person.

My last semester was difficult and made me doubt my career choice. In the MTC, I saw a side of the church that I had never seen before. I had the salvation of the world start to be put on my shoulders. I was separating myself from all that I cherished and cared about. That was the beginning. I started shedding pounds. Getting into Switzerland, I had to be an extrovert and talk to people about my personal beliefs. While I knew that going in, it hit home. I was an introvert and I had to make even more changes to my personality. To talk to people, I was told that I had to not exactly misrepresent who I was, but not be open about it. I am pretty sure we couldn’t wear our nametags unless we were in the church itself. Sometimes I felt that I was lying to everyone. It wore on my conscience.

Also, and probably most importantly, I didn't receive any money while in Interlaken. I was starving. I don’t know how much you know how little you can enjoy a place if you aren’t being fed. I was already down a lot of weight because of depression and now I didn’t eat because I couldn’t afford to. Even Sister Schaffner, when she took in my pants !Six Inches!, asked me if I had ever fit into them. We couldn’t tell church members anything but positive things, so my companion said something like it was the exercise. 

Seeing their store again made it all real. There it was. Their paper store. Above it was their home. It all came crashing at me. My companion at the time was kind of a jerk, but he did loan me some money so I could buy some macaroni once. I think his expression was, “Macaroni fools our stomachs into thinking that we ate something.” All kinds of kindness struck me then. The members tried their best to feed us. One woman came to church and gave us each 100 francs because “God told her to, that we needed it.” I was so thankful because I could finally eat more than what I snuck out of the Schaffners’ fridge or the lunches that we had with members every third day or so. 

My one trip to Grindelwald was with a family that took pity on us so that I could finally see something. I’m pretty sure my companion was telling people that we (me) simply couldn’t afford to do anything. And that also had created some resentment in me. My parents didn’t have a lot of money and they were funding me and it was the most expensive mission in the world. This was before they pooled money from all the missionaries. My parents had to pay for everything, and yet, for some reason, Zion’s Bank wasn’t getting the money to me. I hated asking my parents for anything, yet I was begging them to get me something. To be clear, it wasn't that my parents weren't putting money in my account, it was that the bank wasn't getting it to me.

But even with all these moments of goodness that had just struck me, the overwhelming feeling was how hungry I was there. I was hungry all the time. Switzerland has incredible food, and I didn’t have any of it of my own resources other than a few yogurts, which was amazing, and a loaf of bread once.

Further on, the videographer walked over a bridge, and by that time, I knew that was the bridge I thought of. Then back to the train station. One of my memories was talking to a man there, waiting to cross the road, and I reached down to pet his dog and he slapped my hand away. I know that was because I’m an overly invasive American for me to do that, but it also made me realize, at the time, that they didn’t want us there. The world doesn’t want missionaries. And that impression was driving the depression deeper. Mind you, I didn’t even know it was depression until I read the symptoms sometime in the 2010s and “Holy Crap, that was me!”

During this portion of the video, I was quiet, and my wife was worried. I had slipped into my feelings. So much had struck me. And I’m still somewhat dismissive. A few years ago I asked my ex-girlfriend what I had said about why I was sent back to the US. She said it was something about the food not agreeing with me. I honestly don’t know what my excuse was at the time, but I was taken by how I had lied to everyone on my mission, trying to put on a good face. My parents knew that I wasn’t getting money. My mission president had tested me on my language skills (no problem there, I impressed him) and also tried to see if it was homesickness. But he knew, even through his excuses that God had changed his mind about my being there, that it was money and my situation. I was starving. 

I hadn’t made it much past the train station again. I have too many feelings about it, and I can’t process it all now.

My anxiety never went away during my two years. I didn’t gain weight back until I got married, I think. After a year out, I did shift my personality because my focus was to return to school and just survive in the meantime. I wasn’t suicidal, but I did want it all to end. I was outrageously unhappy. I wasn’t made for missionary work, even if my intentions were good.

In my return to school, I paid for everything. I worked my way through the next 3 years and Tracy and I even had some savings by the time we graduated. Still, I didn't talk about my mission much until around 2010. It was a dark part of my life.

Something in the Rain

 

I haven't finished this series, but I want to comment on it while I remember it. There are a lot of issues being taken on here. The protagonist, played by Son Ye Jin, is taking on familial expectations, workplace sexual harassment, cultural norms....a whole host of things. She's no stranger to that kind of role. She also starred in "Crash Landing On You" which faced the challenges of having North Korea right there.

I can tell when a story is well written. And I do have a type. The protagonist is usually just a normal person that won't "take it" anymore. In this case, she got tired of her bosses hitting on her all the time. So she's dealing with that, and the fallout that it is creating. There's another woman in the office that is helping her and the CEO root out the people at fault. That is an interesting arc.

She's also facing the cultural issues of falling in love with a man many years younger than she is, and she's almost an "old maid" by her parents' terminology. Well, her mother is the domineering one. The Father is fairly laid back about the whole thing. The twist is that the man she's in love with used to live with them, almost an adoptive child to the family. So everyone is freaking out like she's in love with her brother or something.

The hooks for me? A strong female protagonist. Kicking butt and getting things done, and still trying to balance her life. The boyfriend is genuinely happy, almost giddy around her. He just wants to be with the woman that he's in love with.

And that brings me to another show, an anime, that I'm almost done with, "Say 'I Love You'". It's about 10 years old. Not the best artwork, but all the characters are a little flawed and they dive into the reasons. I don't know what kind of a person I'd be if I'd grown up watching this stuff instead of Bugs Bunny. I'd probably be a better person. Anyway, the story is about an unusually attractive boy falling in love with a "plain" girl, one that is antisocial at that. One of his friends touches her in a "creepy" way and as he tries to stop him from doing it, she turns, roundhouse kicks him mistaking him for the creep, and that's what it takes. He's in love. Like I said, I have a type.

I had a girlfriend in college that had strong opinions. She didn't care if I agreed or not. That stayed with me and I've wanted strong, opinionated women around me ever since. I wanted someone to call me out on any BS I might try to push. I wanted to be better and I needed that honesty to get me there. I still do.

Another, better review.

Dundee. I Really Hate Going Through Dundee

 So Tracy didn't have time for a longer ride elsewhere in the state, so I decided to go up to Crystal Lake via the Fox River Trail. I shouldn't need her to run support, it is a nice, paved path up to that point. So that's what I need to do.

I started out as I normally would I burned up the miles to Elgin without incident. I've never actually cycled through the city completely so it was somewhat new. I did lose my water-bottle on one of the sidewalk bumps, as I would do frequently on this ride. Still, no issues. The trail north of Elgin was a bit bumpy but no real issues going up until Dundee. There's a crossing on the major east-west road that makes no sense at all, and Dundee makes you cross every road. I almost crossed that road at a bad time because the lights were stopped only a few seconds in each direction and ... well, it is just a dumb setup considering how busy this trail is. I did spot a button to push when crossing but it isn't situated where us poor slobs on bikes can get to easily. At some point, I noticed that finally both directions were red and I crossed. Then just a lot more crossings. And bikers don't like stopping so often. It is hard to get going again, we have to downshift, stop, push ourselves up and then get back up to speed. Then another street. There's a reason these bypass most of the traffic. But I understand that pedestrians can like these. 
Anyway, I got my way north of there. I didn't hold back. I figured I was hitting 15mph or so, which is a lot on my bike. I kept pushing, crossing the Fox at Algonquin. It was a nice ride up the bluff. I noticed at the switchbacks that a bunch of kids were walking up the embankment with their bikes. I kept pushing forward and reached the top along with the kids. I did the hill probably 4x faster than they did. But kids. Sometimes they don't think things through.

The ride up to Crystal Lake from there seemed to be a constant upward grade. The worst hill on the entire path was about where I turned around and it was a bridge over a very busy road. Anyway, I turned around at the corner and wondered why, a few years earlier, I was struggling with the path. I mean, I was at my wits end then coming to Crystal Lake from the North. The path was kind of unreasonable but it was only 15 miles, for Pete's sake. Anyway, I've found that I my stamina is quite a bit different now.

The path back was a joy. I hit top gear, verifying that the grade was now working in my favor. I just followed my earlier path, doing a good clip. Yeah, my thighs were starting to bark at me but I was doing fine. I stopped at a park to go to the bathroom and stretch. Then I started off again. The slight rises I anticipated from my earlier traverse proved to be no issue. 

Then came Washington Street. I was so busy trying to figure out how I was going to get through this stupid town again that my mind wandered from what I was doing. I have a bad right eye at the moment and I tend to turn my head farther than normal to make sure the path is clear. So I was concentrating how to cross this busy street and make sure that, no, there really wasn't a car in either direction. I didn't pay attention to what was on the path in the opposite direction. I don't think I was going very quickly at that point. 

"Hey!"

I found I had drifted left while trying to negotiate the crossing. Opposite me was someone heading straight for me. I moved right, and he was turning that way too. Nope. I turned back to my line. And so did he.

Bang!

I ended up standing on my bike. At some point I had come to a stop. I can't recall but because my arm hurt so much later, I must have hit my brake hard. I think I pulled all the muscles in the process. The other guy was stopped, head down, draped over my bike. He struggled at something on his shorts and I realized he was hung up on my brake handle. I pulled if off. He struggled up. By now, a few drivers had stopped and got out of their car to help. I looked down and my bike tire was well and twisted. So, I would have to call up Tracy to come get me. 

He was banged up pretty bad, I don't think he was that angry. "It is what it is." and I think that on top of everything else, we were both distracted by the crossing and I think he had a good head of steam built up. Neither of us stopped before crossing, so we both screwed up. His bike was fine. He got up, called his significant other and off he went. I snapped the picture above, called Tracy to come get me and hauled my sorry butt to the parking lot acrossed the street to wait.

When I told her that I wanted to take this ride so as not disturb her day, we got a laugh out of it. On the way back home, she suggested that since we had the bike already loaded, we might as well take it to the shop. So we did. New front wheel, new shifter (as the brake lever had broken at some point) and I might as well get that bad bearing in the crankshaft fixed.

So that is what happened. I had a scrape on my hand, and I wear gloves so I think they protected me, a bunch of pulled muscles in my wrist and a phantom pain in my thigh. It hurts, but it isn't bruised.

I'm going to live with the stupidity of the whole event for now. I did learn something. I'll leave it at that.

Familiar Wife

 

I recently finished up the KDrama "Familiar Wife" on Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and that was in sharp contrast to the previous one I watched, "My ID Is Gangnam Beauty" which frustrated me (And I don't recommend). That type of movie usually chooses protagonists that I cannot identify with, or are just not personable. 

Anyway, I was looking for a good romance, at least better than that previous attempt. I poked around my Netflix list looking for something non-netflix. This is not anything against Netflix. They produce some good things. I was looking for something that might disappear if I didn't watch it. I found "Familiar Wife" with its slightly science-fiction premise, that of time travel.

You enter the story with a man in a bad marriage. It starts sympathetic toward him. He's the protagonist as you spend the most time with him. It started with the couple with two young children. It was a false path as I thought this was moving towards a comedy about this couple trying to cope. Nope. You soon saw some behaviours that were disturbing. The man was lying. The woman was raging (for reasons) most of the time. In a particular slapstick moment, she threw a crab leg at the husband for one of his inconsiderate decisions. I was playing this in my mind trying to see how, if real, the man could make this situation better. 

The end of this phase was of the wife destroying a game console, the man's only "escape" from this reality. Holy crud, these people are horrible to each other.

Years ago, the man helped out this girl in a assault situation, later to become her tutor. As the story moved on, because of this act, he didn't get to go out with the pretty, rich girl and he wondered what life would have been like if he had dated her instead. So, and just suspend your belief here, he finds a way to go back in time to do just that.

So he's back in time. He dates the pretty, rich girl and ignores his previous wife. He is happy.
But fate brings back his former wife and she is soon invading his space, his dreams and thoughts. 

Some introspection here, as that is part of my interest in these shows. I'm not sure if I ever contemplated personal changes like what this person did. There are some points in my life that I wish I didn't go through. I do realize that they defined me. I wouldn't be the person that I am without going through those times. Still, it wasn't pleasant. 

The man comes to the realization that his life isn't what he really wanted. He finds he is still attracted to his former wife. His present wife holds her wealth over him, she is self-centered and demands his attention by virtue of her being rich and pretty. While working with his former wife, he comes to the realization that he was the cause of her transformation into the horrible person she was in that former life. He eventually decides that he is a horrible person and he doesn't want to hurt his former wife with his presence and increasing attraction to her. While he is having his dreams and thoughts invaded by his previous life, his former wife is having the same. He eventually tells her that they were once married and the thoughts that she's been having are his fault and how sorry he is. She accepts his apology on the condition he does penance by her side. 

And another time travel happens. Just accept it.

So we now have her trying to start a romance with him and he is a firm bachelor. He feels he is poison to whatever relationship he would enter, let alone with her. So a LOT of psychological stuff happens. At least, from my point of view, she has to overcome his own knowledge of what he is like. He knows what he is like and it is demonstrable that he is bad for the women in his life.

They do get together and it is adorable. I find the characters very likable. The last episode is fan service with the man coming to terms with who he is and becoming a devoted father and husband, respecting his wife's (Yeah, he gets married again.) decisions and space. They communicate and make the marriage work. They even open the door to an argument in one scene where they both get a bit hysterical with each other and they take a breath, and just make it work. 

I enjoyed show because it made me think. I want to be a better person and I like seeing the trials of other men trying to be better people. And yes, this is written for the women in mind, clearly. But, because of the things that are brought up in this type of show, I don't think I'm doing too bad. It isn't that I'm all that great, but I've learned how to change. A lot of people never learn that. And there is an unnerving amount of empathy I had with the main character. I've come to the realization that at points in my life, I've been the a****le. I've had a point in my life when I wanted to run away from people because I felt that I was toxic, that a healthy relationship seems to be out of my grasp, that I didn't deserve to be in a relationship. I also had a wife that clawed me back and we have a better life. 

It's a good show. There are some corny things in the show. Suspend belief and just let it through. 

There is one thing that I haven't found yet. At one point, there's someone that also used the time-travel thing, but it wasn't obvious who it was. At least, it wasn't obvious to me. There are other characters that are shown in transformation, so I have my guesses. Anyway, it wasn't the best Kdrama that I've watched, but the previous one I viewed was pretty bad, so this was exceptional in contrast.

I Will Love You

 I will love you with no regard to the actions of our enemies or the jealousies of actors. 

I will love you with no regard to the outrage of certain parents or the boredom of certain friends. 

I will love you no matter what is served in the world’s cafeterias or what game is played at each and every recess. 

I will love you no matter how many fire drills we are all forced to endure, and no matter what is drawn upon the blackboard in a blurring, boring chalk. 

I will love you no matter how many mistakes I make when trying to reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. 

I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided to spend your time during study hall. 

I will love you no matter how your soccer team performed in the tournament or how many stains I received on my cheerleading uniform. 

I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. 

I will love you if you cut your hair and I will love you if you cut the hair of others. 

I will love you if you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater to take up some other, less dangerous occupation. 

I will love you if you drop your raincoat on the floor instead of hanging it up and I will love you if you betray your father. 

I will love you even if you announce that the poetry of Edgar Guest is the best in the world and even if you announce that the work of Zilpha Keatley Snyder is unbearably tedious. 

I will love you if you abandon the theremin and take up the harmonica and I will love you if you donate your marmosets to the zoo and your tree frogs to M. 

I will love you as the starfish loves a coral reef and as kudzu loves trees, even if the oceans turn to sawdust and the trees fall in the forest without anyone around to hear them. 

I will love you as the pesto loves the fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves the ikura and the pepperoni loves the pizza. 

I will love you as the manatee loves the head of lettuce and as the dark spot loves the leopard, as the leech loves the ankle of a wader and as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. 

I will love you as the doctor loves his sickest patient and a lake loves its thirstiest swimmer. 

I will love you as the beard loves the chin, and the crumbs love the beard, and the damp napkin loves the crumbs, and the precious document loves the dampness in the napkin, and the squinting eye of the reader loves the smudged print of the document, and the tears of sadness love the squinting eye as it misreads what is written. 

I will love you as the iceberg loves the ship, and the passengers love the lifeboat, and the lifeboat loves the teeth of the sperm whale, and the sperm whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. 

I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its parents, and the parents love the sound of their own arguing voices, and as the pen loves to write down the words these voices utter in a notebook for safekeeping. 

I will love you as a shingle loves falling off a house on a windy day and striking a grumpy person across the chin, and as an oven loves malfunctioning in the middle of roasting a turkey. 

I will love you as an airplane loves to fall from a clear blue sky and as an escalator loves to entangle expensive scarves in its mechanisms. 

I will love you as a wet paper towel loves to be crumpled into a ball and thrown at a bathroom ceiling and an eraser loves to leave dust in the hairdos of the people who talk too much. 

I will love you as a cufflink loves to drop from its shirt and explore the party for itself and as a pair of white gloves loves to slip delicately into the punchbowl.

I will love you as a taxi loves the muddy splash of a puddle and as a library loves the patient tick of a clock. 

I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. 

I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. 

I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a shingle falling off a house. 

I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp and as a blimp operator loves to chase after it. 

I will love you as a dagger loves a certain person’s back, and as a certain person loves to wear daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair of binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home. 

I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. 

I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. 

I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled. 

I will love you until every fire is extinguished and until every home is rebuilt form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. 

I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. 

I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a nest, although honestly I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try. 

I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. 

I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. 

I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog. 

I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you don’t see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. 

I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and no matter how I am discovered after what happens to me happens to me as I am discovering this. 

I will love you if you don’t marry me. 

I will love you if you marry someone else – your co-star, perhaps, or Y., or even O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women can be allowed to marry – and I will love you if you have a child, and I will love you if you have two children, or three children, or even more, although I personally think three is plenty, and I will love you if you never marry at all, and never have children, and spend your years wishing you had married me after all, and I must say that on late, cold nights I prefer this scenario out of all the scenarios I have mentioned. 

That, Beatrice, is how I will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way.

~Lemony Snicket

https://gatheringbooks.org/2011/02/14/a-loveletter-to-end-all-loveletters-lemony-snickets-the-beatrice-letters/

Lemony Snicket is the "writer" of the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books.

Spinoza

 Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.

(Spinoza) : God would say:

Stop praying.

What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes... ➤ you will find me in no book!

Stop asking me "will you tell me how to do my job?" Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or bothered. I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.

You are absolutely free to create in your life. Heaven or hell.

I can't tell you if there's anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing after, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised. I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?

The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.

- Spinoza

Stupid Cable

So Friday morning, I noticed that my console into Amazon was slow. I did a couple of speed tests and found my upload speed was horrible, somewhere around 10kbps. Almost unusable.

Called the cable company, after 20m and talking with the agent. Hangup. Great. Have to start over with someone new. 

Decided to try the "chat" feature. Couldn't make it work. Tried it in Microsoft's Edge browser instead of Chrome. Worked awesome. Worked with an agent for some more time. Eventually, I'm standing in the corner where the cable modem is, he wants me to reboot everything, including my computer. OK, but I'll lose the chat. He makes me reboot anyway.

So after everything restarts, chat is now off for the day. I have to call again.

Get a hold of an agent. Same song and dance. I get annoyed and don't want to do that. He remotely reboots modem. Says speed from his end is fine. I ask what kind of test he's running because depending on the path, you can get a false success. He doesn't understand, I've gone off script.

Finally set up an appointment for a tech. I want to make sure I cancel because when someone else complains or some other test is run, a piece of their equipment will reboot and everything will be fine. "That isn't what happens." Yeah, sure. I work in IT. I know how it works.

Decide to check up on my modem. It reached End of Life two years ago. It is probably still fine, but if that is the case, the cable company will still blame it. Get Ellie to order me a new one. *cough* expensive. (My kids have prime. I don't.)

We suffer with crappy internet all weekend. My kids, used to gaming, are all kinds of ticked off.

Sunday morning. 9am. Internet is gone. Not just slow. Gone. Great. New modem is scheduled to arrive at 11am. Amazing. 

10:45. Internet is back on. Full speed. F'ing thing happened just like I expected. They rebooted their equipment and it is fine now.

11am. New modem arrives. Now have a debate on if I need this expensive modem just so I can stay where I'm at. Tracy convinces me to replace our old modem.

9am Monday, replace the modem.

Technology sucks. Especially when you understand it.

Also, next time they try to convince you that a rented modem is better than your own, they lie. They control the entire thing and it is their protocol. They do all the updates and configuration.

A Weird Way I Learn

 I watch train videos. I mean, like cameras set up in the cab of trains and record the train's going down the track. I really have no reason to do such a thing but I do see some interesting things. I think it calms me in a way. I mean, in my cube at work I had three monitors and one of them was running a train video off Youtube, unless I needed it for coding purposes. I would get the random person walk by and notice it and ask me what it was. (Hmmm, maybe I used it for a conversation starter too.) Back in 2019, I was riding the rails across Russia, doing the whole Trans-Siberian Railroad. Dang, I learned a lot from that. Anyway, this is another story.

So lately, I've been riding the railroad in Southern France. I don't know why that struck me as interesting but there I was, noticing what that part of that country was like. It was gorgeous. So anyway, I'm tooling around and if I see anything interesting, I go to maps and see if I can find it. In the early part of the video of this particular train ride, I noticed water along the side of the tracks. I figured it was a canal of some sort, as I've done plenty of bike rides along canals here in Illinois. I didn't think too much of it. It didn't even spike interest for me to look it up on the map or even the history. 

BTW, later in that train ride it goes on the high-speed rail section to Paris. 320 kph! That is impressive. I also looked up the TVG network and how they connect to cities, as at that speed, you don't go through city centers. Dang impressive what they did there.

Anyway, along comes a couple videos from The Tim Traveler. I love this guy. ,He seeks out strange little facts about places and I enjoy his work. This time, he talked about a canal, in Southern France. Hey, I've seen one of those. This was about a canal that had a large number of locks in an area and a guy wanting to see if he could make that an easier transition. 

Here it is on Google Maps.

While it took me a bit to understand what this was, I was also fascinated that the canal that I saw in the train video was part of a system that connected the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Fascinating, I didn't know anything like that existed. I don't think it is in use now, but wow, 

A little while later, he posted another one of these beasts.

Here that one is on Google Maps.

I think it is kind of ingenious. Making a moving canal to take boats up a slope. And the second video explains it better. 

I learned a lot about France by paying attention to some online people and checking things out on a map. I don't think I'll ever get there in my lifetime, but I do feel smarter by watching these things.

Some more weirdness:

The Great and Spacious Building

"Let go of what you know and honor what exists." 
--David Bazan

In the religion of my youth-middle age, there's a parable, story, or tale about a vision that involves a large building. In it are people that are mocking those that have chosen a particular path in life. In this case, it is laughing at those that chose to follow Jesus.

26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.

27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.

28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.

 I mention this because I found that these verses had exerted a good deal of control over my search for, if I can call it this, reality. I didn't want to feel shame over my beliefs or how I had chosen to live my life. But here's the rub. I learn by reading, asking questions and being convinced of particular stances. One of the greatest thing people can do is ask, "Why?" I had come to the point of asking "Why?", not only of those that were educating me on my chosen beliefs, but also to swim across that river of water and ask of those in the building, "Why?"

I think a lot can be learned by questioning your own beliefs. You can also ask those you know, love and respect in other things, why they hold different views about life, love, family, etc. I asked those that were knowledgeable in diverse things, "Why are you laughing at those over there, eating?". I asked that metaphorically, of course. They had their reasons. They also asked me to test things out. Their attitude wasn't of mocking. Most had been there and had struggled with the same things I did. Now, maybe their paths were different but they also were once believers. At some point, they just couldn't anymore. They wanted something that was real, concrete, consistent.

I just mention this because, while the imagery is good, the premise is flawed. There are some things that people believe that are ridiculous. Christians can ridicule Hindus. Muslims can ridicule Christians. Lutherans of the Right-side Synod ridicule Lutherans of the Left-side Synod. We all spend our time in the Great and Spacious Building. 

I want to honor, for the current time, that which is real. I want evidence and proof and something I can grasp with mind and body. For now, that is what my brain needs. I lived with faith for many decades. I just grew tired and needed firm ground beneath me. I have no need to mock. While from this perch, I might not fully understand what took me so long to get here, but I'm here now. No reason to point at others and laugh. I appreciate and respect most people on this planet, but beliefs are open for discussion.

It is a good thing to ask, "Why?"

 

Cold Fire

While dropping off Ellie for her internship, I popped in some safe Rush into the radio and the song Cold Fire came up. I can't say that it is the most memorable song but it struck me this particular morning. For me, the song is about daters/lovers discussing their views of life with the female of the pair being more forceful in stating her outlook.

And it reminded me of a discussion I had with Tracy just the previous night. I paraphrase my observation, "There's a fine line from being viewed as insecure and my showing respect for all you do and having your own time and your not having to deal with my demands and requests."

So there's this negotiation that happens in a relationship about views and time and discovering what the other needs to have a meaningful life. While I've become more deft at doing this with someone who has shared her life with me for over 30 years, I can still appreciate what others that date have to do to be comfortable with the process. And I am more than aware that I go through a similar negotiation with my non-romantic relationships too. I like to talk about a lot of things that many are not comfortable discussing and I have to find out what limits exist there too.

I was told once by a former classmate that she never expected someone in her past to be so romantically minded. While that might be true, the execution of my thoughts and feelings are definitely lacking. And I know the difference between the "ideal" and reality. As the woman in the song states, "This is not a love song. This isn't fantasy land."

It was long after midnight
When we got to unconditional love
She said sure my heart is boundless
But don't push my limits too far.

I said if love is so transcendent
I don't understand these boundaries
She said just don't disappoint me
You know how complex women are.

...

It was just before sunrise
When we started on traditional roles
She said sure I'll be your partner
But don't make too many demands.

I said if love has these conditions
I don't understand those songs you love
She said this is not a love song
This isn't fantasy land.

Don't go too far
The phosphorescent wave on a tropical sea
Is a cold fire
Don't cross the line
The pattern of moonlight on the bedroom floor
Is a cold fire
Don't let me down
The flame at the heart of a pawnbrokers diamond
Is a cold fire
Don't break the spell
The look in your eye's as you head for the door
Is a cold fire.

I'll be around
If you don't push me down too far
I'll be around
If you don't push me down.

Last Ride of the Year, Unfortunately

 

My last ride of the year wasn't meant to be this. I was going to finish up, and I had been shooting for, a 120-mile ride that started by Wisconsin Dells and finished in one of my favorite cities, Winona MN. But I was tired of trying to convince Tracy to do an over-nighter in the age of Covid and as I was so dependent upon her for these, I guess I would just have to wait. So I tackled Military Ridge. It was a shorter trail, about 40 miles or so, and to make it more interesting, I didn't start at where it merged with the Badger State Trail and where I started that trail. Instead, I looked at the map of Madison and found a pathway that should be interesting through the town. 

I started at Olin Park, on the right of the map, and I would go north on the causeway and then get on the main path past the University and down to where the path started to head west on Military Ridge proper. I want to start off that I thoroughly enjoyed Madison. It looks like a nice place to live. Aside from some snark from my wife about parking where my journey began, knowing full well how my insecurities rise for putting her through this nonsense, the start was inconsequential. I think one of my knots gave out on the bike rack and I dragged a line for some time and it was shredded but the rack was still usable. That is one regret I have, not having a proper bike rack on the car.

Anyway, the causeway was a nice ride. I had to stop a few times to take pictures. You can see the capital also in this shot, as well as the skyline.

When I reached the other side of the causeway, I was joined by a woman on a bike that helped me with the signal to cross. It wasn't obvious on what to do to activate it. She was a pro in more ways than one. She had a trailer attached to her bike and she was a vet and that was her transport around town. I had an idle thought on what she did in the winter but the light was green and she was off. I had a general idea where to go but I decided to follow her for a bit because if anyone knew the pathways around town, she would. She led me up a side-street and an ally and a short path and boom, I was on the path I wanted to go. In short order, I went past the old rail station that appeared to be under rehab for shops or a museum. I couldn't tell which.

I also got to nerd out going past the University. Yeah, I stopped to take a picture. Some co-eds walking by probably thought "Grandpa's doin' grandpa" but I don't care. Shortly after this, Amy Shira Teitel, one of my intellectual heroes, posted this so I don't feel so bad.

I also passed by a diner I've wanted to eat at for years. There it was. Huh.

The rest of the ride through Madison was pretty and uneventful. I was mostly trying to be inconspicuous as Covid was in full bloom and I didn't want to breathe on anyone and the paths were somewhat crowded.

I wish I could give a good impression of the path, but it was very similar to the Badger State Trail. but had more turns. There were a few more "free libraries" along the way and smaller towns had parks along the way for riders to rest and recuperate. Tracy wanted to find a few places to shop along the way as a few of the towns were unique in crafts and arts but I don't think she was successful. 

There wasn't a whole lot to make the path memorable along the way aside from a nice park in Klevenville, a town of three houses with its own free library and a nice diorama showing how important the town was once.

Ridgeway was the nicest town for me. I was getting winded and they had redone the old depot and a nice park was alongside the trail. Going out of town, a nice church greeted me. 

The last leg of the path was the most brutal. It was like they decided to make it more difficult. The path started having more severe slopes, it had some paved stretches but then it broke up into potholes and macadam gravel. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was still on the path as it seemed to take a tractor path through a field and went awful close to some homes. I didn't want some guy running out of his house wanting to shoot me for trespassing. but it did settle down for a bit as it was to the side of a major highway and soon I saw Tracy parked in a DNR lot and I knew my ride was done. Dang, I needed a drink. I would have killed for a Dr. Pepper right about then. I think we did find one in town.

The ride home was a bit more interesting. I had placed her 40 miles outside of Madison and the best way of going home was a diagonal on the back roads. It was an adventure by our tame standards.

And so ended my year of biking. I still need to take a few more trips in Wisconsin to do the paths I want to do. Hopefully this death and sickness will leave us next year and we can go about our lives easily once again.