Reading rainbow

I've read 160 books since the pandemic started. Others baked bread or played Animal Crossing, and I ended up reading. 

I read some analyses of our society, some novels, and some history. I read about the pasts of Kenya and Spain and New Zealand and South Africa.

It is disillusioning to read history -- all the colonizing and exploiting women & locals. My optimism about the world has decreased. But hopefully I will arrive at a deeper happiness someday as a result. Fingers crossed. 

My friend Piaw reads 85 books per year, including in pre-covid years. I like having a friend who is more well-read than me! We discuss books sometimes. 

Biking with friend

I am planning a bicycle trip with my good friend "Zora", and I am excited!

We are planning it for November, because of work commitments in October.

It gets cold in November, and we will need to go somewhere warm such as Florida or Texas.

I learned that Florida has many flat biking trails near the ocean. Temperatures will be between 70F (night) to 79F (day). When we are done biking each day, we can see sights such as Little Havana and art museums. 

Also, there is a little town called Fredericksburg (outside Austin, Texas) with biking trails and interesting German architecture. Apparently they created a dialect called "Texas German".

Ocean or Texas German town??

9/11 book

This month, my book club is discussing "The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11".

It is a fascinating book. Reading it, I was struck that the book only discussed positive stories from that day. One story is how a quadriplegic man was carried down 69 flights of stairs by 10 of his coworkers taking turns. 

Another man thought he would die and decided to cross his arms over his chest (the American Sign Language sign for "love") so that if his dead body were found, his wife would know he was thinking of her in that moment. He survived.

For years prior to 9/11, the Morgan Stanley head of security had forced the entire staff (2700 people) to practice evacuations every 3 months. Many executives were annoyed by these drills. But as a result, he evacuated thousands in an efficient manner. 

I like how the book chose to focus on  kindness and the people who helped each other. There was only one story of a person being selfish. It was about a bartender who refused to open the bar's door while bloodied traumatized survivors banged on it, pleading for help. The bartender kept polishing a glass and repeating that the bar doesn't open for another hour until 11:30am. 

All the other stories were of people who did open their doors and who helped each other. It was heartwarming to read.

Biking

I am intrigued by multi-day bike trips! The idea of seeing a new place by bicycle is enticing. 

Luckily, one of my friends wrote a book about bicycle trips ("Independent Tour Cycling" by Piaw Na). He has given me a ton of advice. 

I started doing 10-mile bike trips, once per week or so. I noticed that my enjoyment is very affected by how safe it feels, especially when I must share the road with cars. 

Aff said that when he bikes in the US, drivers sometimes pass him while shouting out their window, "Get off the road!"

He wants to shout back something to the effect of "If you check your DMV handbook, you'll see that I have just as much right to the road as you do."

"But it needs to be concise," he said. "As short as what they shouted. I can only fit in a few words. It'd have to be something like 'I stay on road!!'"

Biking in the US often feels unsafe. Many times, uber drivers suddenly swerved into the bike lane in front of me, and braked to let their passenger out. The passenger opened their door in a rush, without looking behind them for bicycles. I once biked into an uber car door due to this. 

Drivers in other places (such as Europe) seem much more respectful. In France, I biked 8mph on a narrow 30mph road, and cars drove patiently behind me for several minutes until there was a shoulder for me to pull onto. 

In a single-lane street in Europe, a truck going in the opposite direction pulled over to yield to me. A car yielding to a bicycle! My mind was blown. 

My goal is to get fast enough to go on one of Piaw's group biking trips. This would've been impossible, except that Piaw is currently biking a three-person tandem with his two kids, which has brought him from superhuman to humanly achievable speeds. So I have a shot!

😋

We saw some food left unattended. 

Aff: "That food looks great."

Me: "Just go in and start eating it. Keep eating until you hear someone screaming."

Aff: "...and then eat even faster. Hide the evidence."