King of the Mountain
I used to ride my bike a lot, particularly when I lived in the city. The drivers in the city were much more tolerant of cyclists for two reasons, I think:
- At least some roads were designed with bicycles in mind (certainly not all).
- You don't expect to be able to drive fast on narrow city streets like you do on suburban roads.
After moving to the suburbs, my interest in cycling waned as I realized it would absolutely be the literal death of me. Suburban soccer moms driving actual Chevy Suburbans, thinking they're precision race car drivers and nudging me off the road is just life....
Somehow my job has aligned with health goals, so I'm out trail running these days (fewer cars to contend with!), which got me using Strava again for the first time in ages. And that got me wondering: do I still have any of my KOMs?? It turns out that I have one left (I'm tied for 1st place). I can't even picture this stretch of road, but apparently I was rocking it for ~1,000ft (0.2 miles). It was actually a relatively modest 24mph average speed with a climb. I'm guessing I lucked out with some rare combination of light traffic, green lights and a "running" start.
It's good that my years of cycling haven't been completely erased.
3 Body Problem
I haven't been particularly interested in novels since I was enthralled with every word Neil Stephenson wrote. Well, almost every word. I didn't quite make it through The Baroque Cycle (a series of three books). I read the first one entirely. And then I gave up half way through the 2nd book. I don't recall exactly. I'm thinking that I didn't even start reading the 3rd book. Whatever the case, I definitely didn't finish all three. So....
I watched 3 Body Problem – a Netflix series. I was wondering if there'd ever be a 2nd season when I learned that it was based off a book. In fact, a series of three books. I ordered them and I'm picking them up tomorrow. The only thing that'd make me happier about this, is if the three book set was hardback, but I was too late to the game for that, I guess.
There's a lot of science fiction in this story, but there's also a lot of actual, real science. And I love that. It has a similar appeal as Andy Weir's The Martian for that same reason. It's not smart people trying to sound smart for dumb people. It's smart people who sound smart because they are smart. The best contrast is Scorpion. There are lots of really smart people in real life who can say and do smart things, so you shouldn't have to make up stupid things and try to make them sound smart – which seems to be the basis for Scorpion storylines. It's still an entertaining show of course (Scorpion, that is). My wife finds my involuntary facial contortions hysterical.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading these three books by Liu Cixin. I can either do the six mile walk, carrying the books back up to the house from the valley below, or wait until my wife picks them up on her drive back home. I already did my trail run for the day, so I think I'm just going to wait.
That reminds me of one of the Grand Canyon Death Marches I did. I met a guy who lived in the Grand Canyon. Apparently his family had a house down there from many years prior. As a kid they'd hike up-and-out to get groceries. He was back in town, visiting, during a college break or something. Talk about a great way to stay in shape!
School Talent Show...Tomorrow
The kids informed me last night that they have a school talent show today. J told her teacher she'd be playing the violin. A couple problems with that. (1) J doesn't have a violin, and (2) her violin lessons don't start until later this week. But, J has been learning Mandarin, so we practiced a little this morning so that she can greet the class in Mandarin by saying, "Hello my name is J..." and then proceed to sing a counting song (numbers 1 - 10). It's not much, but I can almost guarantee no other student in the audience could do the same, so, there's a talent.