d&f 9/11/22
Do you feel like you’ve forgotten something today? Something you were meant to never forget? Perhaps it’s that the queen of England is dead, or maybe the stove is still on?
Hm… honestly it’s impossible to know.
Yesterday I was out of town remembering the dad of a great friend of mine over margaritas and oysters as the sun set in the hills of St. Helena. I didn’t get to know him much over the years I’ve spent with his daughter, but hearing his friends and family tell stories about his cycling, music, and traveling exploits genuinely warmed my heart. I lost my own dad 13 years ago and his funeral was particularly upsetting and bad, so it was even more special to see a celebration of the life of a man who lived to the fullest.
In the complete opposite direction of a life well-lived is a life lived in the dystopia of Facebook VR. If FB wasn’t so rich off ads and fomenting misinformation, this sort of embarrassment would surely end them. Until it does, I relish all the posts about the dearth of joy or cool that the blue giant embodies. It certainly seems to me that the eventual fate of any social network is to become a haven for bored parents or grandparents, and as any teen knows, once the parents arrive it’s time to find a new party. Meanwhile, SMTP, RSS, and HTML are still great, and private communities fostered by chat platforms and text remain untroubled. Dinner party > state fair any day.
I picked-up a new book for my ever-growing queue this week, and this article might convince you to read it too. The suburbs and car-centric neighborhoods I grew up in infected me with the idea that a car is the only way to travel, and the sheer expanse of Texas cemented the automobile in my life for too long. After college a combination of being broke and riddled with bad luck meant a bike was suddenly a main form of transportation, but at some point peer pressure brought the car back to my life. Portland was a good place for bike commuting, but again a broken hand ended my cycling career for a few years of fear and frustration. Now that I’m in Oakland, I barely drive my car. With the exception of infrequent trips out of town I bike everywhere and am all too aware of how dangerous, unwieldy, and space-consuming the car is in a city. Biking down a bike lane, there are constant parked cars, signs, glass, and delivery vehicles blocking the path, and immediate resentment from the pilots of metal death machines if I move into the car lane to avoid other cars. When I travel somewhere that a car is unwelcome, and people (whether walking or cycling) are welcomed and centered, I feel such a sense of joy and safety.
If cycling feels too challenging or sweaty, I strongly recommend an e-bike. While not as environmentally friendly as a manual bicycle, the carbon footprint and physical threat of an e-bike is much better than even the smallest electric car. I don’t think we can remove the automobile from streets soon, but every bike or e-bike I see is one less car driving around. You can probably use an e-bike battery to power surgical tools too, but it might be less exciting to write about.
Links
Stoked on bikes? Why not throw a race?
Sorry, today’s edition is mostly about bikes, but hopefully you’ve enjoyed some of it:
Closing
My week of vacation (and a lot of errands) is over tomorrow, and it went by entirely too fast for my liking. One errand was a COVID omicron booster, so I’m hopeful travel abroad is in my future, because April 2020-September 2022 is the longest I’ve gone without a trip abroad for most of my adult life. I think I’ve really gotten to know my city during this time, but I’m due for an adventure.
Hopefully you can get a booster and do some traveling too this fall. The world is huge, and also so small, and the perspective gained by seeing more of it is incredible. Until next week, safe travels, and good memories, space cowgirls~