Rants and Raves

Author: Kenneth

Random Covid Thoughts 2

preamble/disclaimer- I’ve seen some crappy posts on social media criticizing people for being “lazy” during ‘Rona, or people criticizing others about using food or their couch as a coping mechanism. That’s shitty. I’m not trying to do this or weight-shame anyone. My intention is to write this in the style of a Kedrosky Daily Graph

Like many others in SF, our company switched to WFH in March of 2020. We later made WFH a permanent thing (at least for us… for now).

Unrelated, I happen to track my weight. Sure, it may not be healthy psychologically, but at one point I was interested in the “quantified self“ and tracking weight (mostly the moving average as described in the Hacker’s Diet) was a part of that.

A nine year old weight tracking chart. Drop off starts with COVID SF Office Closure and SIP

More Coffee Beans For You To Try

I listed a number of places to order coffee from a previous post.

Here are some more places for you to try some beans:

Beans from Mr. Espresso – I also like the Triestino Blend. Love the packaging and the stylish scooter gentleman.

Random Covid Thoughts 1

It’s February and we’re coming up on a year of COVID 19 (in the US). A year of life-altering changes, SIP (shelter-in-place), quarantine, pods, less socializing, work changes and stress. That’s only scratching the surface (I’m not going to touch the political third rail today)

In no order here are some random thoughts I have:

I miss my friends, but I haven’t minded being forced away from a lot of people. I miss seeing my family.

I used to hate working from home, but have gotten used to it. I need certain personal rules in place to follow to tolerate it though. I can’t stand being on Zoom all day (I have a customer facing role and like talking to the customers, but then have tons of internal meetings too).

I love cooking and still do. I haven’t really improved any of my skills though. Cooking almost all meals at home does make me want to reorganize my kitchen -or makes me want to move. Wanting to move will be a different post.

Health and exercise are a lot more important than I realized. Family even more so.

Some Book Updates

Here are some titles I’ve gone through since my last update. I’m still doing my alternating cycles of non-fiction then a detective/pulp or other fiction.

A History of America in Ten StrikesA History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

good history and overview- shows impact right up to today

A good one that turned out to be timely as we are now at Labor Day weekend.

I read this next one a few months ago.

How to Be an AntiracistHow to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A lot to digest. And a lot of homework for me to be a better ally and an antiracist



A popular and timely book: (well, it shouldn’t need to be timely, but it is). Well-written and thought-provoking.



And here are some of the mysteries:

Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1)Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars





I’ve read other Mosley books, but not any of the Easy Rollins series. They were in my “to read” list after watching Luke Cage when it came out on Netflix and they dropped so many interesting titles in references on the show.

A Red Death (Easy Rawlins #2)A Red Death by Walter Mosley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Still engaging with the characters.

Lucky at CardsLucky at Cards by Sheldon Lord
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




I think this one was a Lawrence Block title and I breezed through it. Pretty fun pulp. Looking forward to his Scudder series at some point.

And another recommended read:

What I Talk About When I Talk About RunningWhat I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



More Mask Stuff

Some people have asked where I got the masks that they’ve seen me wear in my selfies from the bike. Most of those are Eliel Cycling Masks. These are great for my rides.

Quick notes on the Eliel: thin material, like jerseys. Great on rides and during runs. They come in 5 packs too.

The only downside that I can think of is that on my rides that are longer than 2 hours, they do tend to stretch a bit so when I’m on my way home on the bridge, the wind can sometimes blow the mask off my nose. This is likely my fault if I’m on a 2.5 hour+ ride because I pull the mask under my chin when I eat/drink more.

I also got two “Pandanas” recently from Pandana USA based in Boulder. I just got them so I’ve only worn one once on a ride but it worked really well.

I tried the Coolmax one on a 2 hour+ ride that was a mix of SF “summer” and real summer and I wound up keeping it on the whole time like I do with the Eliel masks. It was fine.

The ear hole things on the side helped too when I got back to the windy bridge, but I didn’t really need them.

I’ll try my non-coolmax one soon and report back. I highly recommend these so far.

FYI – We also have two from Rickshaw Bags in SF which we wear while doing less strenuous stuff.

Oh, and shout out to the Paceline Forum for the Pandana info. I found them via an older thread.