Weekly Log

We skipped town last weekend as a friend was visiting from London and asked to spend some time in Marin county. We rented a house in Monte Rio, an area which I know well thanks to the Jonathan Pon memorial ride, which I used to do every year pre-pandemic. It’s a lovely region and the couple of hikes we did over the weekend were drop dead gorgeous: we took a stroll by Goat Rock Beach and did a 4.5 mile hike in Pomo Canyon trail the next day.

The Pacific coast, south of Jenner Woods along Red Hill trail

Also, this photo could totally be an album cover for an indie synth pop duo from 2008, back when people were always cold:

We are rockstars

I was planning to ride my bike over that weekend and unfortunately forgot to pack in a pretty crucial item: my front wheel, which was left behind in San Francisco after we loaded the car. This was kinda sad as the weather was clement and Wildflour Bread made a perfect destination from Monte Rio. Either way, I still put myself on morning scone-getting duty. And sticky bun. And fougasse as well. Everything was thoroughly devoured.

Pastries from Wildflour Bread

I finally made a dent in my reading backlog: I went through the first two volumes of Bolchoï Arena. The graphic novel is somewhat remindful of eXistenZ, as it revisits the age-old theme of the boundary between real and virtual worlds. Volume 3 just came out and I placed an order right after finishing my reading. I also read the Atlantic’s issue on the January 6 attacks, which are presented as a blueprint for a massive upcoming assault from Republicans on US democracy.

At every level, it seems the GOP is lost in its own separate world and untethered from reality: the conspiracy theories are layering over one another, endlessly. But — and this is a pretty major but — the death cultists are purging the party from leaders who don’t support the Big Lie, and also organizing in many state-level election boards where they change the rules of how ballots are certified. An unlikely break from the madness this week was Trump himself calling his fans to get a Covid vaccine booster – a pragmatic move when a large majority of people who die of Covid every day are leaning red. It’s a pandemic is the unvaccinated and the unvaccinated vote donate to Trump.

Two days after asking Americans to honor the legacy of MLK (tweet), Sinema voted against changing the filibuster rules, which would in turn allow passing stronger voting rights at the federal level. The irony was not lost on anyone, not the least of which on MLK himself.