D&F 1/14/24

Happy rainy new year! Since we last met, I’ve alternated between hibernating and cycling, with a little fever to end my year. I’ve seen Wild Parrots with Drew, Thanksgiving with Rory, and invested in a record collection. All told, 2024 is nice. With therapy to help, I’m trying not to fixate on the potential outcome of the 2024 elections in the US, and instead do what I can to help around Oregon and California while enjoying time with my cat and loved ones. When you mention the rain in the Bay Area, the common response is, “we need it.” I can’t argue with that, but it would be nice if we could spread our rain out more so it doesn’t dump on us for two-three weeks a year, then settle on desert drought.

Today is a gray one, and a time for riding bikes with serious fenders and a rain coat. I’m saving my energy for a ride I’ll be on as you read this—Point Reyes Populaire, a 100ish km journey from San Francisco to Point Reyes via Lagunitas and Nicasio, and back. One friend dropped out due to illness, but I know at least 4 other people doing the ride, so it should be a hoot. Monday is a holiday and likely a day to recover from the serious Sunday effort. Let’s get something together for you to read this weekend and on your holiday:

Links

• Friendship first! This isn’t a new lesson for the queer folks reading this newsletter, but it’s an important one of everyone. Friendship and community is a much better organizing principle for our lives than a romantic partner or nuclear family, as it tends to be less tumultuous and encourage connection and long-lived support. The isolation of the modern houses, cars, and families is a big part of the weird political shift right, I feel, as it engenders a fear of the other, and keeps the world out of our view and experience. Not only do friends and communities have a tendency to grow us, but they require us to go outside of our own spaces to build third spaces with other people. Many of my friends with children are embracing, while not a co-parenting model, a much more communal attitude towards their children and families, as that support is much more positive than the “mom stays home and dad goes to work” antiquity. I have a lot more I could say about this topic, but if you want to chat about it, maybe we can get a drink or you can join SFR for a long ride.
• If you ride bikes you probably know this in your heart, but drivers break way more laws than cyclists. This doesn’t even count the number of drivers who roll stop signs or speed “just a little bit”. The sooner we get cars off the roads the better off humanity will be.
• On the topic of long rides in the Bay Area, we currently have access to a bike lane across the bay from Richmond to Larkspur, but that access is being threatened by shortsighted, selfish, and environmentally deranged drivers. Marin famously could be part of the BART network if political pressure from a few people hadn’t destroyed our chance for easy commuting in the 60s. While I still think a train that circles the bay makes the most sense for all transit users, a bike and pedestrian lane is the other best option as it encourages sustainable travel and recreation all over these cities. Personally, I love being able to ride out my front door, up to Richmond, and then on to Mount Tam or down to San Francisco via Sausalito. There’s something special about getting so much coastal sun and joy as you commute to a party or office, despite it taking around three hours. Perhaps in the next decade we can engender political change that makes all of the bay part of a good transit system—maybe even high-speed rail?
• One terrible man is largely responsible for the lack of high speed rain in California, and his name stinks (Musk). In addition to mostly losing money and buying other people’s successful projects only to threaten them with failure through his incompetence and utterly abhorrent public persona, he reinvented digging tunnels underground to send a car through at medium speed in a claustrophobic nightmare with limited use. When I visit Japan I marvel at their transit system and the closeness it brings to the various islands, only to return to a supposedly world leading country with aging trains, giant highways, and massively subsidized parking.
• My friend Lena revealed to me this week that there is now a medicine that can extend the life of cats by years. This invention came from Japan (I’m noticing a trend), and since Snorri has kidney issues I’m beyond excited to know it’s an option for him. Snorri, maybe you’ll live to 30?

Closing

With the hope of Snorri’s immortality fresh on my mind, I’ll end today’s newsletter. I’m not sure what cadence I’ll send these out in 2024, since weekly became a strain as news and time dried up near the end of the year, but I’ll try to get at least one edition out a month. In the meantime, I’m still publishing my thoughts, media diet, and other errata to brookshelley.com which also has an RSS feed. In an effort to write more this year, I bought a Ghost that I plan to carry around during travel. Maybe I’ll finally finish a short story or make progress on a novel? For now, I need to flip a record over, and make some lunch. Happy new year/あげおも space cowgirls!