Unconnected thoughts on events of my day. Did some reading today, while having coffee at Starbucks, I was reading Rumpole and the Angel of Death by John Moritmer. Mortimer was a barrister (Britspeak for lawyer) and a wonderful writer. His most popular character was Horace Rumpole, who was played by the late Leo McKern. I like to imagine that Mortimer is up in heaven, having a good claret with Leo McKern and arguing with St. Peter to let some "poor old darling" into heaven. One of my favorite passages from Rumpole is below.

"Our hotel was a plastic concrete nightmare of a building situated for the trading estate outside the nearest town. It had all the joys of piped music in the coffee shop, towels in a thiness contest with the lavatory paper, and waitresses who'd undergone lengthy training in the art of not allowing their eyes to be caught." Rumpole and the Way through the Woods by John Moritmer

The second book I am reading is Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father. This is a fascinating book and I am kicking myself for not reading it before the election. I can't help skipping and reading to see how things come out. My favorite passage so far, where he's talking about his grandparents, when he lived with them in 1970s Hawaii.

"Their principal excitment now came from new drapes of a stand alone freezer. It was as if they had bypassed the satisfactions that should come with the middle years, the convergence of maturity with time left, energy with means, a recognition of accomplishment that frees the spirit. At some point in my absence, they had decided to cut their losses and settle for hanging on. The saw no more destinations to hope for." Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama.

Read that passage and see if you are going to vegititate in front of the television and watch Lost or Desperate Housewives. I tried to veg, but instead got on the bike path and rode 9.3 miles. It was not a fun ride. I started out well and hoped for a 10-mile ride at a speed of 12 mph. Initially things went well and my speed starting out was 11.9 mph. But by the end of the ride I was slowly losing speed, my but hurt and my knees and legs were very tired. Still I was pleased with the ride.

I having burned a bunch of calories with my bike ride, I went to Moo Creamery . Moo Creamery is a new ice cream palour/restaurant that has just open on Truxtun Extension. They have burgers and pasteries and homemade ice cream. One of the ice cream flavors this evening, was "Bacon Love." I think I had once seen a Swedish Art Movie by that title once, so I passed on that flavor. I had a chocolate milkshake instead. They brought it out in a soda fountain glass and it was delicious. I'll probably never go back there again because chocolate milkshakes are like black tar heroin for me except that the milkshakes are chocolate.

Capitano Tedeschi

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First Bike Ride of 2009

I had my first bike ride of the year Saturday afternoon. I am very grateful, the weather was sunny in the late afternoon. When I got up and went out into the morning fog for coffee and bagels, I didn't think the sun would ever come out. But it did, and for thirty-five minutes I rode my bike around the my neighborhood in southwest Bakersfield.

The air was cool and felt brisk. It was sunny with the pale straw yellow light of an early winter afternoon. My pace was slower than normal. That was due to the fact that I hadn't been on a bicycle in a while.

Cycling has taught me many things. It has taught me to be self-sufficient, I carry tubes and tools for all manner of emergencies. It has also taught me to evaluate risk and take action to avoid or eliminate them. There is great joy in being able of getting on a bicycle and riding a few or many miles. There times of great frustration as when I find I've run out of energy half way into a ride. Then, cycling isn't any fun and I am constantly nagged by the ruthless thought "the faster you pedal, the sooner you get there."

Capitano Tedeschi

30