Coasting to the coast
May. 31st, 2009 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleWell, it looks like the wilted trees are not going to die. Which pleases me greatly.
John came back yesterday and we had a little chat. Some things he'd said a while back had been causing me a lot of stress, particularly an offhand remark to the effect that he'd "like to see some income". I actually am generating some cash, though not very much, but it was more the sentiment that had gotten me uptight. The past year has seen a lot of uncertainty, but we agreed that things were basically stable now, and that it was OK to "coast" for a while. Our expenses are now so low, and so much of what we needed to spend money on is now taken care of, that his pension covers pretty much everything else.
This means a tremendous reduction in my stress level. There is no longer any time pressure for anything. I'm not sure why it's been so hard to get anything done lately, but I think it will be a whole lot easier if I can just forget about whatever I'm not doing at any given moment and focus on what is getting done. Never underestimate the value of being told what to do - in this sense, at least, regular employment is way easier than trying to make it on your own. The modernist separation of concerns between "deciding" and "doing" is a lot more important than I'd ever appreciated before.
Anyway, I took off this morning for a 200 mile ride, down the coast and through Sonoma County. I checked the weather in Gualala and it promised to be warm and sunny - which it was, in Gualala. Everywhere else on the coast was FREEZING! So I turned off at Stewarts Point and took a very interesting ride along Kings Ridge Road, which is 16 miles long and about as wide as a bicycle trail. It's really slow, but the pavement is unaccountably excellent. What an interesting route! It goes through areas so remote there aren't any fences, which makes the landscape so much more inviting. The endless barbed wire and "no trespassing" signs everywhere else are kind of a downer.
I was hugely excited to find a new wildflower along Skaggs Springs Road, in the redwoods:
Crappy photo, I know, all I had was my cell phone. Anyway, it's something in the lily family but I haven't been able to identify it. Very interesting leaves, unlike anything I've seen before.
One of the surprising pleasures of motorcycling is the smells. Pine trees, seaweed, skunks, flowers, fungi... it's almost as nice as the scenery itself. I find myself having really strong emotional responses to all of these, and they bring me tremendous pleasure.
After about five hours of riding (this was the extra-extra-scenic route, after all) I came into Guerneville and was surprised to discover that the Sonoma County Pride Festival was going on. Kind of interesting - just a few hundred people, as opposed to the few hundred thousand in SF, but it was much more my kind of event. Totally pleasant and enjoyable, I only wish I'd heard about it earlier so I could have spent more time there. It was held at the Resort Formerly Known As Fife's, in a beautifully landscaped garden along the river. (Why they renamed such a classic location, I have NO idea.) Being uncrowded, green, and quiet, it sure beat the hell out of Market Street.
There was only one guy I saw at the festival that struck my fancy, but boy was he hot. BIG belly, nice round butt, and a scruffy blond beard - just my type. Spoke to him briefly but he didn't seem all that interested. Too bad, he was a local, and I'd sure like to lick him all over. Maybe he'll call.
[What is it with guys these days? Straight men all over the country have started grooming themselves in ways that are totally hot, while what passes for "bear" in the gay world seems to have achieved the impossible task of separating hairiness from masculinity. The trend among the gay crowd seems to be short, perfectly cropped beards that just aren't sexy at all. And please, working out at the gym has NEVER been a substitute for hard labor - just stay home and keep eating those donuts, 'k?]
Got back home at about 6, and I'm bushed! I have no idea how I used to ride five or six hundred miles in a day, I must have been nuts.
John came back yesterday and we had a little chat. Some things he'd said a while back had been causing me a lot of stress, particularly an offhand remark to the effect that he'd "like to see some income". I actually am generating some cash, though not very much, but it was more the sentiment that had gotten me uptight. The past year has seen a lot of uncertainty, but we agreed that things were basically stable now, and that it was OK to "coast" for a while. Our expenses are now so low, and so much of what we needed to spend money on is now taken care of, that his pension covers pretty much everything else.
This means a tremendous reduction in my stress level. There is no longer any time pressure for anything. I'm not sure why it's been so hard to get anything done lately, but I think it will be a whole lot easier if I can just forget about whatever I'm not doing at any given moment and focus on what is getting done. Never underestimate the value of being told what to do - in this sense, at least, regular employment is way easier than trying to make it on your own. The modernist separation of concerns between "deciding" and "doing" is a lot more important than I'd ever appreciated before.
Anyway, I took off this morning for a 200 mile ride, down the coast and through Sonoma County. I checked the weather in Gualala and it promised to be warm and sunny - which it was, in Gualala. Everywhere else on the coast was FREEZING! So I turned off at Stewarts Point and took a very interesting ride along Kings Ridge Road, which is 16 miles long and about as wide as a bicycle trail. It's really slow, but the pavement is unaccountably excellent. What an interesting route! It goes through areas so remote there aren't any fences, which makes the landscape so much more inviting. The endless barbed wire and "no trespassing" signs everywhere else are kind of a downer.
I was hugely excited to find a new wildflower along Skaggs Springs Road, in the redwoods:
Crappy photo, I know, all I had was my cell phone. Anyway, it's something in the lily family but I haven't been able to identify it. Very interesting leaves, unlike anything I've seen before.
One of the surprising pleasures of motorcycling is the smells. Pine trees, seaweed, skunks, flowers, fungi... it's almost as nice as the scenery itself. I find myself having really strong emotional responses to all of these, and they bring me tremendous pleasure.
After about five hours of riding (this was the extra-extra-scenic route, after all) I came into Guerneville and was surprised to discover that the Sonoma County Pride Festival was going on. Kind of interesting - just a few hundred people, as opposed to the few hundred thousand in SF, but it was much more my kind of event. Totally pleasant and enjoyable, I only wish I'd heard about it earlier so I could have spent more time there. It was held at the Resort Formerly Known As Fife's, in a beautifully landscaped garden along the river. (Why they renamed such a classic location, I have NO idea.) Being uncrowded, green, and quiet, it sure beat the hell out of Market Street.
There was only one guy I saw at the festival that struck my fancy, but boy was he hot. BIG belly, nice round butt, and a scruffy blond beard - just my type. Spoke to him briefly but he didn't seem all that interested. Too bad, he was a local, and I'd sure like to lick him all over. Maybe he'll call.
[What is it with guys these days? Straight men all over the country have started grooming themselves in ways that are totally hot, while what passes for "bear" in the gay world seems to have achieved the impossible task of separating hairiness from masculinity. The trend among the gay crowd seems to be short, perfectly cropped beards that just aren't sexy at all. And please, working out at the gym has NEVER been a substitute for hard labor - just stay home and keep eating those donuts, 'k?]
Got back home at about 6, and I'm bushed! I have no idea how I used to ride five or six hundred miles in a day, I must have been nuts.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 07:03 pm (UTC)Cute skinny slutty school boys? Now they're twinks. Plucked and primped.
Hot burly hairy dudes? Now they're bears. Carefully groomed and woofing.
And at both extreme, they have become boring as shit.
I like men, all kinds of men, not cookie-cutter simulacrums.
A plague on both their houses.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 11:00 pm (UTC)Too true.