The planet will fight back

 I'd first suggested this idea last year when discussing the Covid 19 pandemic.  It was intended as a joke (see previous post about awful sense of humor), but gained traction when I received a prophylactic antibiotic course against Lyme Disease after my first tick bite this year--in February. Now, to further accentuate the idea that if we change the climate from the one in which we evolved, the new one might not treat us so well, there are fires on a scale to degrade air quality to dangerous levels a thousand miles away.  Yes, fire was natural, and there are even tree species like pitch pine that evolved specifically to take advantage of it, but twice in one month in New England to see air quality warnings due to fires?  It's almost like the climate changed.

You almost can't see the clouds through the haze,

nor the forest thoroughly of trees.

Luckily there was a pandemic?  I have a good, it such a thing can be good, supply of KN95 masks, which, in addition to fending off failures who fail to isolate when sick, are quite effective at filtering small particulate matter.  Plus, now I needn't even deal with the chore of taking it on and off when going inside or out.  Yes, I rode in a mask yesterday after 10:30 once I could smell smoke despite a hopeful earlier departure under clear air quality readings.  Everything old is new again, right?

Speaking of old/new, check out my recent thrift store hi-viz poseur jersey.

No, I don't even know what the Tour de North County is, but I did win the junior New England Championship way back in 1991!

Hey, news flash, I'm weird!  I know masks for many, maybe even most, have been a nuisance, but my outlook is based on an evaluation of cost versus rewards.  Masking costs me nothing, except maybe some social awkwardness, and I'm well used to that.  Did I mention, I'm weird?  No, I'm not doing sprint workouts, never in fact, and I did luck out in the lung lottery such that I can usual smile and talk even when my legs are hurting like heck, but modern mask material technology like in a KN95 truly works well both at passing the air you want and not passing the crud you don't.  Use one and think how much more easily you'll breath in twenty years when your exercise today didn't include the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes.

But despite the justifiable enmity from the planet, it is still a quite rad place to explore, even if once again I find myself giving a nod and a thank you to Google for their mapping.  Years ago, a friend told me that Google, in their desire to enter the mapping foray at low cost, i.e. not buying existing map data, had decided they could less expensively create their own maps by subcontracting analysis of satellite images to India.  While I won't confirm more than, "That is what my friend told me," the side effect suggested by the same friend is that what would count at a through way in India, but might not in the A's US, is  (quite happily for those of us who enjoy a slightly dodgy road free of Dodges) shown on Google maps as a road.  On my way to Warren, the Goog directed me down a "Not a through street" to a wonderful rough road that began with a gate.  Yay!

 The other perk of not-car-accessible roads is that both sides of the gate see a lot less traffic due to the lack of a thru-put option.  Not only was the non-road road lovely in and of itself, my whole approach to Warren was generally serene.  OK, there was no firm intention for Warren other than it being a general direction, but it did end up as my turn-and-head-home point.

Years ago, I lauded tag sales as the perfect pre-race workout.  They are usually on Saturdays with most mountain bike races on Sundays, they provide entertainment of many sorts for a gentle ride, and sometimes you'll luck into just what your wanted whether you knew it or not.  In recent years, my personal stockpiles have increased while my standards have decreased, so I now more generally pass by the yards sales in favor of the more dubious free piles, but in the center of Warren, I glance at the roadside sale as I rode past (aren't homonyms fun!?!) and was enticed by the large pile of tools, many with plugs, especially since I've been vaguely seeking a replacement belt sander for my old Craftsman with burned out and unobtainable motor brushes.

By some standards, I was lucky, by others, less so.  For $10 I became the new possessor of a 3"x21" belt sander, but I did so 25 miles from home.  Riding a bike without a rack.  Luckily, or again, possibly less so, the sander handle was designed perfectly for hooking over a handlebar, and while I transferred all signaling and shifting duties to my left hand, it was pleasantly unobtrusive to ride with an extra nine pounds hanging on the right side of my bars.  Yup, one more example, bikes, and riding them, can be pretty damn cool and then some.  Try it; you'll like it!