I listed a number of places to order coffee from a previous post.
Here are some more places for you to try some beans:
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.
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 Strikes by Erik LoomisI read this next one a few months ago.
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. KendiAnd here are some of the mysteries:
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
A Red Death by Walter Mosley
Lucky at Cards by Sheldon LordAnd another recommended read:
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
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.
During the times of ‘Rona I’m not listening to podcasts as often as I was previously. I’m not commuting so I’m not listening to them with any regularity (or reading in the same way). But I do try to fire up something to listen to a few times during the week.
Here are some of what I’m listening to and have queued up. Below that are my old “regulars” that I still recommend and like (maybe with a note or two)
Queued up:
Winds of Change. Recommended to me by multiple people, mostly because of novelty, but many because they know I’m from SA and SA has a special place for Scorpions trivia.
Bumping up in priority: Scene on the Radio (multiple recs, seems very timely with what’s going on right now).
New for me:
The Reset Button from Dylan Tweney*
The Adulting Well Podcast*
*I work with both of these podcast creators. Not sure why I feel a need to disclose this, but hey.
My regulars:
The Moment with Brian Koppelman (I’m getting selective w/ episodes – but I’m a big fanboy)
The Cycling Podcast – due to time conflicts, I’m getting more selective with the episodes as well- but I still really enjoy this.
Media consumption has been tricky lately. Have you been keeping up with your podcasts and reading in the same way as pre-quarantine?