Jun 29, 2020 at 07:02 PM
Your race organizers were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
COVID 19
Jun 29, 2020 at 08:27 PM
And yet, the Mets and the Yankees will resume training in Citi Field and Yankee Stadium on July 1st.
i know i know if there is a point to baseball it's social distancing...
i know i know if there is a point to baseball it's social distancing...
Jun 30, 2020 at 01:09 PM
haha @James Reeder seems safe to me. ... I am interested to see how the race series plays out.. It being 4 weeks in row, I would hope they would stop it if people are getting sick.
Jun 30, 2020 at 04:58 PM
I don't envy the Driveway organizers. Their contracts are probably quite specific on what would be a valid excuse for non-payment of their lease (Force Majeure being thrown around a lot these days), and since the state hasn't declared a shut down, they may be bound to perform and meet the letter of their Agreement, or risk losing the advantageous terms of their lease. Damned if you do , damned if you don't kinda sitch for them
Jun 30, 2020 at 05:03 PM
Can't help but feel for race organizers like the driveway series who are at the mercy of the state and local governments. Government says go ahead and open and the force majeure clause in any contracts the organizer has stops protecting them so they're left in a position of either potentially losing their businesses or running an event where spreading COVID is a real danger- just the worst case scenario lose-lose situation
Jun 30, 2020 at 05:55 PM
@Matt Budofsky I agree but there are other options. The race organizer could share the story with their racers and ask for season entry fees that would be made whole some other way in years to come (additional races, services, discounts, etc)
Jun 30, 2020 at 06:12 PM
@Jules totally agree that if you're creative enough there's a solution that strikes a balance between providing value to the racers and keeping the business afloat. Not sure what that balance is or what a race series like Driveway needs to bring in to keep it going, but I imagine it could have been done in some form or another
Jul 01, 2020 at 08:36 PM
Jul 01, 2020 at 08:54 PM
It's a message without being a message.RichFreeman said:
Jul 02, 2020 at 12:12 AM
at least Alex Howes and Ruth Winder get to maybe wear the jersey and give it a go next season.
Jul 02, 2020 at 01:45 AM
I've been wondering if Howes was just going to make limited appearances in Europe this year, as it's what he did last year. It's surprising, as he seemed like a solid early-break kind of rider for hilly races.eloy said:at least Alex Howes and Ruth Winder get to maybe wear the jersey and give it a go next season.
Jul 02, 2020 at 03:17 AM
Seems only fair that if they can't race and/or have nationals this year they get to wear the jerseys in 2021.
Jul 03, 2020 at 10:24 PM
Newish COVID mutation that's 3-9 x more infectious is outcompeting the original virus and becoming "the virus". 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/health/coronavirus-korber-mutation.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/health/coronavirus-korber-mutation.html
Jul 03, 2020 at 11:58 PM
I’m going out on another limb here but it is looking to me less and less like we’re be seeing close contact organized sport in the USA for some time.
People are debating 2020 racing but I think 2021 is in the balance.
People are debating 2020 racing but I think 2021 is in the balance.
Jul 06, 2020 at 09:28 PM
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-starship-troopers-aligns-with-our-moment-of-american-defeatJules said:^ I like the scifi tie-in and lord knows I love me some Verhoven... I’m also likely the only KCC nerdy enough to have l read everything RAH has ever published...
I don’t thing there is any serious question about SST though - it is a parody.The idea behind “Troopers,” according to Verhoeven, was to create a story that “seduced the audience” on one level, but then make it clear to the audience what they were admiring was actually evil.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indiewire.com/2016/11/paul-verhoeven-slams-starship-troopers-remake-fascist-update-perfect-trump-presidency-1201747155/amp/
Jul 06, 2020 at 10:29 PM
The amazing thing to me is how PV took the book and went completely in a different direction. What began as an extended and I might say “on the nose” civics lesson became a modern art masterpiece skewering american fascistic inertia.
I’ve heard that the worlds of RAH described as fascistic but Im not sure that was the message I got as I read them.
Maybe when I’m done re-reading (well, audible) the Foundation series I’ll revisit it. Goodness knows the Dune books were wildly different as an adult in2020...
meanwhile Lisa has a covid positive patient the other day who refused to self isolate, wear a mask or stop showing up to her retail job... so America... Fuck Yeah.
meanwhile Lisa has a covid positive patient the other day who refused to self isolate, wear a mask or stop showing up to her retail job... so America... Fuck Yeah.
Jul 07, 2020 at 04:27 PM
Going to re-read the book over the next couple of weeks. Will let you know how I feel about it V the film. Sorry to hear about Lisa' patient. 'Murica.
Jul 10, 2020 at 09:14 PM
I am really, really looking forward to a day when some admin can click the "closed" button on this fucking thread. Perhaps I'll still be young enough to ride my bike when it happens
Jul 11, 2020 at 11:18 AM
I had to take the train into town for a dentist appointment and was worried about being on the covid express. The trains were not crowded, though it was mid-morning. 1 out of every 10 people had their masks at half mast, either below their nose or completely under their chin. I watched several people pull their mask down while texting and then put it back up again, probably something about it being in their periphery when looking down. And they were constantly adjusting it, touching their faces.
And several people on each car I was on, transferred a couple of times, had no mask at all, including one guy who, at 11:30am, got on with an open beer. And I'm not sure if that was because life is tough, or life currently is pretty easy without work, the cops, people in the city.
I tend to think that some people have very hard lives, making it acceptable not to care about catching the virus, because that misery becomes a state of existence.
Everyone has their own story, though, their own defiance or fear, but it does seem like, until there's a vaccine or a cocktail of drugs that can be tailored to individuals the way they do for HIV and Aids, that this virus is a brother-in-law on the couch of our lives.
Jul 11, 2020 at 11:52 AM
I want to read more of this.
Jul 11, 2020 at 03:34 PM
Reminds me of the Ghandi quote "There are people in the world so hungry God can only appear to them in the form of bread." While hunger in our country pales to that seen elsewhere, nobody seems to have a monopoly on despair.Bruce van-Schalkwyk said:I tend to think that some people have very hard lives, making it acceptable not to care about catching the virus, because that misery becomes a state of existence.
Jul 11, 2020 at 06:03 PM
Oh my god. This is so spot on
Bruce, You have a great way with wordsBruce van-Schalkwyk said:this virus is a brother-in-law on the couch of our lives.
Jul 11, 2020 at 09:52 PM
+1PatrickGrehan said:Oh my god. This is so spot onBruce, You have a great way with wordsBruce van-Schalkwyk said:this virus is a brother-in-law on the couch of our lives.
Jul 12, 2020 at 01:24 AM
You guys make me blush from 6 feet away.
Jul 13, 2020 at 11:32 AM
BTW , hows the book coming on?Bruce van-Schalkwyk said:You guys make me blush from 6 feet away.
Jul 13, 2020 at 03:38 PM
The other morning I was reasoning with myself, thinking about the time when I dropped my hours at the bookstore and sat in Bryant Park one summer on the uncomfortable metal chairs, at a metal table, writing longhand in a notebook, trying to finish a draft. And making little money in one of the world's most expensive cities.
And later, being a member of a writer's space in Union Square because libraries aren't open early enough and close before I got out of work, arriving early to write for an hour before walking over to my corporate job on 5th ave.
That was before cycling.
And I was thinking, that creative time I need, that expanse of hours before and after writing which acts like a bubble to my creativity, a cushion, really, where I can feel safe and allow myself to explore my thoughts, where the threat of chores, of Jira tickets, coding datapoints under deadline, can't reach me or pull me into a hard reality.
That extra time is gone. The way we wistfully look back on our childhoods and can't quite see the moment, the day, the year we become adults because of an event, a death, a move that forces us into responsibility, foists it onto our shoulders, so I look back on that and think about the luxury of time that I had.
I was reasoning that this is the way it works, and I need to work with what I have. I think about this terrible Jack London quotation about writing, “You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” I hate its brutality, its force, and that it's correct, that there's no good time and so I need to take any time that I can find.
Mostly, I refuse, I'm disappointed, a petulant child upset he can't have what he wants, and ironically, that sense of responsibility, of duty, that change into adulthood that took my writing time away, works to my advantage and I can use my skill at creating routines, workout schedules, and form it to my needs for writing.
But how, how do I follow a routine, any routine, when the news every day is about the sick and dying, the fighting, the marching, the battles against sickness, against civil rights violations, against the torn fabric of society, where my phone, my open tabs, my index finger follows the death-scroll through the news, through the caverns of dead and mostly forgotten and dying and recovered who go back to pink slips and crushing hospital bills?
And then I remember Anne Lamott, who wrote, “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining”, and I think, my creativity is the lighthouse, guiding me, allowing me to see in this darkness, albeit through an ever rotating thin stripe, but I can just make out the rocky landscape, I can navigate safely to the shores, or out to sea if need be where I can float and be free. And love is the lighthouse. And my team is the lighthouse. And that lap I did on Saturday with teammates. And I reach for any light I can find these days, for any stripe of vision across the cragged landscape that gives me a sure footing.
So, yeah, the novel is going slowly, and I'm almost done with a major rewrite that's tightening the plot, dialogue, and starting to think about the next stages of rewriting, from very specific word searches and updates, to overall character development and scene enhancement. Admittedly, I have taken a break because, well, but I'm starting to feel that nudge forward again, and your question reinflates my inspiration.
It's going well. Thanks for asking.
Jul 13, 2020 at 04:11 PM
@Bruce van-Schalkwyk I miss your old morning ride reports, but I'm delighted to know that energy is going into work that's important for you. I guess you'd just better brace yourself for a sea of orange, blue & white at your first book signing...
Jul 13, 2020 at 07:54 PM
Jul 14, 2020 at 02:05 AM
Since we're commiserating and all, I've been not only seeing groups ride, but looking at pictures from the "pickle juice race series" you can find them on Facebook.
Mask doping is a thing. Some people just take a piece of cloth and safety-pin it to their helmet straps with a single pin on each side. Paraphrasing one commenter, it's a nose drape. In contrast, there's a shot of Constantin Schreiber of Veselka who looks like he's sucked his mask flat onto his face.
THere's a discussion about whether the mask doping is the fault of the racers or the officials.
And extra bad news. Not everyone gets immunity from Covid after they have it once. https://www.vox.com/2020/7/12/21321653/getting-covid-19-twice-reinfection-antibody-herd-immunity
I guess the key is to plumb the depths of despair and then figure out how find faint beams of light to ride in. And maybe that will get you to the surface.
Mask doping is a thing. Some people just take a piece of cloth and safety-pin it to their helmet straps with a single pin on each side. Paraphrasing one commenter, it's a nose drape. In contrast, there's a shot of Constantin Schreiber of Veselka who looks like he's sucked his mask flat onto his face.
THere's a discussion about whether the mask doping is the fault of the racers or the officials.
And extra bad news. Not everyone gets immunity from Covid after they have it once. https://www.vox.com/2020/7/12/21321653/getting-covid-19-twice-reinfection-antibody-herd-immunity
I guess the key is to plumb the depths of despair and then figure out how find faint beams of light to ride in. And maybe that will get you to the surface.
Jul 14, 2020 at 02:41 AM
BTW, for those who want a carbon-fiber mask, Selle Anatomica, doesn't only make saddles.
https://selleanatomica.com/products/filtering-mask
https://selleanatomica.com/products/filtering-mask