A Sense of Doubt blog post #3649 - Reprint of Hey Mom #209 - Things I miss - Biking to class and Assorted

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3649 - Reprint of Hey Mom #209 - Things I miss - Biking to class and Assorted

Still in low power mode with reprints.

When I searched for yesterday's, I also found this one, and I decided I wanted to share again.

I miss biking to school.

I used to live a mile from my class rooms both as a student and a teacher. A little farther to the engineering building, but not much farther.

I am a little over 12 miles from school now. I used to ride 12 miles all the time. The longest lake ride was almost 20 miles. The typical bike path ride was eight miles, though I could ride around more and stretch to 10 or more.

Problem here is that the straight shot to ride those 12 miles is up the I5, and there's laws against riding along the shoulder of the Interstate highway.

To stay off the I5 would be 12.6 miles instead of 12.3 miles but up and down HUGE hills as well as another highway that I would have to find a way around and still use bridges.

It's possible, but the hills would kill me. I know, I know, lower gears. But that's still a lot of pedaling, and you still feel the ascent. It's rough.

However, some of what is seen in the other photographs still exists. I have the bookcase, but it's not the main to read bookcase anymore. It was relegated to the garage library. The night stand next to the bed is set up much the same and still has stacks of comics in the lower portion.

I do not keep stacks of comic boxes in the bed room anymore. Well, there's ONE.

In February of 2016, we had not yet made the decision to move.

Next reprint should be from 2017, by which point we had decided to move or were about to decide.

Thanks for tuning in.



Link to the original post I am reprinting below:

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #209 - I Biked to Class Today & Assorted

LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.





Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #209 - I Biked to Class Today & Assorted

Hi Mom,

So, at the time I snapped this photo (above), my bike was the only one chained up, but when I came out of the class room building, there was a second bike, and when I rode to Sangren, there were MANY bikes, but I suspect that several of these bikes belong to people who have left them chained in place for weeks or months and may not represent today's actual riders.

I am very out of shape. This two mile ride (one mile each way) really took it out of me.

It's currently 40 degrees and partially sunny outside. The snow and ice have almost melted, except for the largest snow piles. Temperatures approached 50 degrees yesterday. Cold weather will return later this week with lows in the 20s at night, but the winter is relatively mild so far. I am not sure this is the right thing for people as they think Spring is here and it's just he first day of February.

This is not going to be super exciting stuff. This entry will not feature thoughtful insights on gender, slash fiction, or OCD. But it is very much like our actual conversations, Mom.

Yes, this is cleaned up, Dammit!
there was another two rows of boxes and stacks of comics
IN FRONT of the book shelf

I didn't have an entry planned today, and I have some time before class to write, and so I thought I would work on an entry that mirrors most of our actual conversations.

Prepare for a series of random statements that are about what's been happening, what I have been eating (among your favorite subjects), how I am, what I am doing, what I am going to do, and stuff like that. I may even add some pictures.

For instance, I had something in mind for yesterday's entry as it fit well with obsessing, but I forgot to add it. Seems wise to add it here.

Comics going to the basement

I sorted and cleared away comics that had piled up in the bedroom. I did not take a before picture to go with these after pictures, so the impact is lost on everyone who did not see the bed room before.

I have been slamming through work. I had to stop yesterday as I had worked too much. I am still trying to figure out how to organize my week for maximum productivity.

Saturday night I was so exhausted I was asleep before 9 p.m. This may happen again tonight, though I am not quite as exhausted.

Liesel and I went to breakfast yesterday (Sunday) at Cosmos. I had a farmer's scramble with tomato and onion and mozzarella cheese as well as cinnamon and raisin toast.

I played D&D yesterday (Pathfinder actually but most people do not know the difference) with some friends and we had homemade pizzas by my friend Randall who may open his own pizza business. Really good stuff.

Liesel and I went to Food Dance for dinner Friday night and had the special dinner for Restaurant week. First up was a cocktail flight, which included small portions of sangria, a garden shrub cocktail with beets and gin, an old fashioned, and a ginger beer to cleanse the palate in between drinks. Then we supped on bruschetta, an endive salad (with a drizzle of vinaigrette so light that we did not notice it at all), and a salmon with a dill creme sauce. Very delicious food.


Though I am not reading The Disappearing Floor, it is my all time favorite Hardy Boys book.

I tried to get Liesel hooked on Lost, so far it's uncertain as to whether I succeeded.

Dad and I are going to a production of Streetcar Named Desire Friday night as I have to review it.

I am reading The Girl With All the Gifts  by Mike Carey as my audio book, and Personal by Lee Child for nightly traditional reading, a book I borrowed from Dad. I read comic books, too, so "nightly" reading of an actual book is not accurate. For instance, last night I read Warren Ellis' weekly newsletter, one comic book (current issue of Daredevil), and one chapter of Personal as well as a few web sites about binary trees in Java but only briefly with that content.

This is where I stopped when I had to go to class.

Dinner was waiting for me: reuben sandwiches, pasta in tomato sauce, cucumber salad. I am very privileged. I was just telling my students that my wife is awesome because she is.

I did the first part of the gender spiel today: sexual identity, LBGT, the book Sex on the Brain.

I have to get back to work.

I will leave you with a comic. More tomorrow, Mom.

And from XKCD

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
- Days ago = 211 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1602.01 - 18:29
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2502.13 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3514 days ago & DAD = 169 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.