It's the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine

In the "Before Times" people gathered in crowds to celebrate momentous events. For birthdays, weddings, and various holidays people could gather in reception halls and eating establishments and eat an amazing variety of food. There were places where people gathered in large auditoriums and watched moving pictures showing epic stories. There were large stadiums filled with 30,000 to 50,000 people watching overpaid athletes play sports with millions more watching on TV. If you didn't want to be part of the crowd you could go to any of the many well stocked grocery stores and buy food and cook an intimate dinner at home.There were endless travel options available from cruises to the Caribbean, a trip to Rome, or tours of mysteries of far away lands like China. We didn't know it at the time but it was the golden age of humankind.

                                            
I am a science fiction fan and have watched many apocalyptic end of the world movies This week as the number COVID-19 cases increased and the government took more actions to try to slow the spread and flatten the curve I got the feeling like we are in one of these movies. To be clear I'm actually not overly worried that the world will descend into a state of lawless chaos. I think our state is doing the right thing and in a few months we will all make it out the other end of this with some interesting stories. I think the best analogy is that this is similar to what felt like to during WWII when the government had to put restrictions on travel and ration food and supplies.

Even with the new restrictions my situation isn't too bad. I work from home anyway so work is more or less the same as usual. We were well stocked before the crisis and have been able to get most of the stuff we need to hunker down and carry on. These restrictions will mean, however,, that I won't range as far and wide on my normal bike rides as the weather gets warmer. The PFW and most other clubs have cancel all club rides to support the push to slow the spread and have everybody practice social distancing.

Even though the governor has asked everybody to stay home and only travel to get essentials it doesn't mean you can't go out and exercise. You just can't congregate in groups and must keep your distant from other. With this in mind I did go out for a ride today and invited a few people along. The people I ride with are losers, loners, insane people nobody would go near, people who understand the seriousness of the situation and know how to follow CDC guidelines to keep themselves and the people around them safe. We did ride farther apart than we normally do and when we took a break we still kept our distance. I actually brought a visual aid with me (a six foot string with a nut on the end) that I spun around my head to show what a safe distance is. Jim took a video of it so I hope he posts that.
 

 

It was good to catch up with everybody and see how they were fairing during this crisis. Everybody is anxious, of course, so its important to get out and exercise not only to feel better physically but also to improve your mental state. I intent to keep riding as much as I can. I will probably keep the rides a little shorter and stay close to home. That way I can bring all the food and drink I need and won't have to worry about going into a store and possibly leaving with more than the food I bought. 

This is definitely one of the worst crisis to befall our country and really the whole world. I am both heartbroken and encouraged by some of the things I see people doing around the world. There are many wonderful random acts of kindness. Especially seeing the people sing from their balconies, in Italy, as way to come together and lift their spirits in amid their tragedy.

I do believe we will get through this even though I think there has been a few missteps in the initial response. As Winston Churchill said 

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else"

So hunker down and stay safe. Here are a few tips to help you. 

• To escape a pursuing zombie you will need to out-run it, and this means being in good shape
• Always double tap. When in doubt, don't get stingy with your bullets.
• Wear a seat belt. You won't be driving along easy roads anymore: with numerous things to avoid you need to be ready for a crash!  
• Before getting into the car and driving off, check the back seat for any hiding zombies.

Sorry, these are for the zombie apocalypse. That will be next summer after something goes awry with the COVID-19 vaccine causing some people to turn into zombies. (I'm sure the SyFy network is already working on this movie.) In any case just follow the CDC guidelines and you will be fine. I also recommend reaching out on social media and keeping in touch your friends and family.  Although we can't physically meet we can still stay in touch and help each other through this. 

Social Distancing

So I wasn't able to ride last week because I had a cold. And before you ask, no it wasn't COVID-19 just a normal head cold. Based on the news the word of the day seems to be "Social Distancing" and I suspect it will be one of the top words of the year. It turns out I'm a natural social distancer. I work from home most of the time. I only occasional go to big gatherings like concerts or plays and haven't been to any in over a year. I have very few family gatherings. In fact the only regular social gathering I have is my weekly bike rides with the Insane bike posse. To some this may sound like a very solitary existence but its really not.

I spend at least 15-20 hours a week on web conferences usually with video talking to the 30 or so people I work with. I have known most of them long enough that we talk about our lives as well as getting work done. Web conferences are not a good as physically getting together but its close and gives me some social interaction with the people I work with. Besides The team I work with is dispersed all over the world so it is very hard to physically get together anyway so we have go use to interacting in this way.

Of course I also have my wife who will now be home a lot more now since the college she works at has closed and changed everything to online courses. Unfortunately this won't work for her since she teaches water aerobics in the pool so there is no easy way to teach that remotely since none of the student have their own indoor pool.

Both my wife and I being home full time should not be a problem as we will celebrate our 30th anniversary this week so we get alone just fine. I would offer some wisdom about what it takes to have a long successful marriage but won't for two reasons. First every couple is different so there is no "one thing" or set of rules to follow to have a good marriage. Two I'm not exactly sure what I did to make the our relationship last so long. I only know that I'm glad to still be with her after all these years.

Today I was feeling good enough to go for a ride. Jim had a ride out of Blackwell Mills but I'm still not at 100% and didn't want to have to push myself as his rides have become faster lately. I did a 35 mile loop around the backside of Allentown. The nice thing about doing a solo ride is that I can try a few roads that I won't even take the insane posse on. For example I know Breza Rd has some gravel but someone told me it was rideable where as others told me to stay away. So I tried it today.

There is a short unpaved stretch of about a half a mile with the usual random pot holes and occasional washboard gravel but it can be ridden. It is like Woods road. You can ride on it but probably shouldn't so I don't think I will try it again for a while. The other good thing about being on my own is that I tend to look around more and noticed this carving on Polhemustown Rd which I never noticed before.

I'm not sure if it is new or I just never saw it before. Somebody put a lot of work into it as it is one of the better carvings I have seen.

 It felt good to get out and ride after close to two weeks being stuck in the house with a cold. I no longer have cabin fever but do miss riding with other people. I should be a full capacity by next weekend so it will be good to catch up with everybody and see how they are handling the situation. For me the restrictions on gatherings and social interaction won't make a lot of difference in my day to day life especially because we had a good supply of toilet paper before this all happened.

Leap Day Trail Ride

Although I have been riding over the past couple of weeks I really haven't had anything to write about. This Saturday however I decided to take a ride on the Columbia Trail and saw some interesting things along the way. It was a cold weekend which is why I decided to do a trail ride. I wasn't expecting anyone to join me since its a long ride to High Bridge but was happy to be joined by Laura and Ricky.

The Columbia Trail is build on an old central Jersey railroad that was once used to transport iron and coal from mines in Morris County. The tail is 15 miles long and goes from High Bridge to the other side of Long Valley. The trail is mostly hard packed dirt and gravel and is well maintained. We did hit a few muddy spots but nothing that was really difficult to ride through.

There is a lot of good scenery on the trail especially near High Bridge where you are riding above and along some branch of the Raritan river. We actually decided to leave the trail about a mile in to ride the road and path next to the river. This let us get some close up pictures of the river.

And feeder streams

As well as the Columbia Trail bridge that goes over the river.

We got back on the trail just before Califon and continued on toward Long Valley. Last time we did this trail we actually road up the 30% hill on Middle Valley to prove it could be done. This time I was feeling a little sluggest and didn't want to bother.

We continued on toward Long Valley. Although it was mostly sunny when we started it had clouded up. It was about 30 degrees when we started and it didn't really get much warmer so I was happy I had my warmest gear on.

There is not much real scenery the last 5 miles to the end of the trail. We turned around and headed back to a coffee shop in the middle of Long Valley by Schooley's Mountain Rd. It was good to take a break as I was getting tired. I have noticed this year that the cold seems to affect my riding. It just seems to take more effort to maintain my normal pace in the cold.

The place we stopped "The Coffee Potter" was nice rest stop and comfortable place to hang out.. Not sure about the quality of the coffee but there were plenty of goodies to eat and they had normal drinks and gatoraid. 

After the break we had about 10 miles to go to get back. There was some light snow flurries on our way back. I had to take a brief rest break a Califon because I was feeling like I was about to cramp. The brief rest break seemed to allow the gatoraid I drank at the coffee shop to kick in because I didn't cramp for the rest of the ride or during my ride in the car.

The last 5 miles back to High Bridge are probably the most scenic of the the trail . During winter the trail is not as colorful as during the summer or fall but there are a few other interesting sights to see. There are these gnome homes which are bird houses with some gnomes or fairies in them. There is also some wood carvings along the way like the owl at the top of this post. However my favorite sight was the dinosaur pile.

No sure what this is for but the large brontosauruses/dragon thing has a speaker in its belly so I'm assuming that it plays music or some dinosaur sounds sometimes.

By the time we got back to the start we had just over 30 miles in. It was a long ride for a cold day. We also did about 1600 ft of climbing, according to my GPS, so it was a good workout. I haven't been on this trail in a few years and am glad I did it again. Hopefully the next time I do it the weather will be a little warmer.