In the Bay Area this month we've had steady cool temperatures unlike almost everywhere else in the northern hemisphere. After years in Texas, suffering in the sweltering heat and humidity, I treasure every hour of non-summer. I've ridden my bike in the afternoon without breaking much of a sweat, and even need a light jacket for the descents most days.

The only downside to this paradise of eternal spring is that I am headed to Japan soon for a lot of cycling in the mountains, where it will likely be full-on summer. This conundrum led me to starting "heat training," which is a fancy way of saying I ride my bike indoors with a load of winter clothes on and then getting in a hot bath to stew for another twenty minutes. This sweaty work supposedly means I'll be ready to ride well in Takayama, and likely offers the additional benefit of more blood that should make me faster even here in lower altitude. All I know is that it had better do something, because dripping sweat on my floor multiple times a week while my cat looks at me with confusion is not a hobby I plan to take up long term.

Until Japan I will continue my terrible new torture.

Links

This year I'll be in England for the first time in my life, and I'm half-tempted to try to visit Scotland and Ireland at the same time. I don't have much vacation to spend on the trip since I'm also doing three weeks in Japan though, so I'll likely need to plan a visit another year. In the meantime, I continue to enjoy somewhat ridiculous dramas set in Ireland, like Blue Lights, a show about trainee cops. This isn't the WIRE, but it's definitely an intense look at a community that understandably does not like the police. Oddly, I learned about this show from SBS, the Australian broadcaster, from whom I receive emails for no apparent reason. If you like procedural dramas, give it a watch.

Did your parents tell you strange things as a kid? Did they harbor conspiracy theories or beliefs that you later realized were complete nonsense? Then you will probably enjoy this podcast/show about things these comedians were told by their parents, My Momma Told Me. I have no plans to have kids, but I do think it's funny to tell your kids something ludicrous that they believe until they one day repeat it to strangers only to realize that it's not a generally held belief.

I've banged this drum before, but if you write at all, you should have a personal website you can share with folks. There's a simple pleasure in posting your thoughts and interests somewhere you wholly own, with no ads, logins, or algorithm. I've looked up plenty of old links and posts on my site when I need to remember something, as my site also acts as an archive. In the past few years I've posted movie and book diaries each month in order to not need a service as beige and terrible as Goodreads. I use Letterboxd for movies too, but this week it seems like they're courting buyers that will likely ruin the simple joy of that site too. I pay for a few blogs to support independent media in the hopes that at least someone will avoid being bought by awful people. But, the benefit of a personal website is that you'll probably never make any money from it, or have it suddenly turn into crap after it's bought. It's just you, your readers, and your words.

And finally, in "little ways to improve your life," sell your car. Before you say "no way, I need it for ____," I know it's not a feasible thing for so many people due to the abject failure of the US to fund and build adequate transit or urban density that supports alternate modes of commuting and errands. That said, for a lot of us, many, if not all car journeys can be replaced with an e-bike, bus, or even using a car share, which saves a lot of money and headache long-term. I grew up in Texas, which means I started driving at 15, and drove for dozens of hours a week between friend's houses, church, work, and school. My car was my freedom and my ticket out of the house to concerts and movies. It was my way to get to dates, and a sign that I was an adult, or so I thought. In Austin, the busses around me only came hourly, and getting downtown was quite an epic journey, but now that I live in Oakland, our busses are clean, safe, and frequent. We have a train that goes to a lot of places, and quite a few bike lanes to boot. None of it is perfect, but not needing to sit in traffic and pay for gas has already made my life better. More of my friends are moving to a one-car or no-car household as they come to this realization as well—whether aided by COVID-catalyzed remote jobs, or living in denser neighborhoods. Personal decisions not to drive aren't going to fix the environment, but I do think if we collectively drive less, and walk, bus, and ride bikes more we'll be happier and more community-minded.

Closing

Today I'm off to see Maddie's Secret in what is turning into a movie-heavy weekend—I saw the Odyssey on Friday (it was great). I'm ready for a longer vacation, as work is a little exhausting lately, but as I've told friends who asked recently, my new job is so much better than my previous one, with a great team of people, that other than being busy it's no hassle to sign on every morning. I know it's not the same for everyone I know right now, so I hope that whatever your daily grind feels like, it gets or stays better soon. I stay hopeful that we will one day seize the means of production and create a socialist world here in the US, but until then we can at least take care of each other and thrive, space cowgirls~