Tis the Season
22/09/13 07:48
I think today is the first day of Fall, 2013. So far so good. Don't know where this year has gone but gone it has. I best get to thinking about the upcoming holidays and what that means. And then there is 2014. Where the hell has the time gone? I hope someone is paying attention because I'm certainly not. I'm along for the ride day in and day out. Fact of the matter is that none of us has any control over anything except that which passes our lips for the usual three squares a day. Even then, I'm not sure that a lot of what passes our lips isn't determined by habit and good old commercial advertising. Just look at the boxes of Cheerios sitting in bags still unpacked on our kitchen table. More importantly, perhaps, is what we put on those Cheerios and where those little ditties come from. I'm talking berries. Lots of berries. Blueberries. Strawberries. Raspberries. I think Nancy may have even come home with blackberries once. Oh, yes. Mrs Marple is plying her goods and Nancy is taking full advantage. Even when the season has come and gone for one or all of the varieties, Mrs Marple has berries for all who want them. What I want to know is where precisely do they come from. Does he have a magic garden of sorts where fruits and vegetables grow year around? Seems odd enough but who am I to ask the question. Nancy spends a small fortune there and divulges little about how much she really spends. It's probably better that way. I keep my comments to myself and gobble up those berries like nobody's business at every chance. Besides, the season is long gone and soon the berries will be gone as well. Or, will they?
The bike riding is going well. I find myself rushing out the door at work at the hour of 5 to try to make it home so I can squeeze a ride in before darkness sets in. It is a race against time without question. Let it be known that I do not object to riding at dusk but don't otherwise trust drivers to see me when it counts. I can even leave the house when it starts to get dark and get back just in time. That is sometimes a 45 minute ride that takes me north on Ocean Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue and back. It's the funniest thing. When I don't really feel like riding I talk myself into it by saying that I will ride as far as Jenness Beach and back. Invariably, by the time I reach Jenness I have a head of steam worked up and I am off to maybe the next milestone which is the large stucco home just north of the surfing area. If I get that far then I am left with one last leg which I don't always make depending on how I feel. It has more to do with how I feel than how light or dark it is out. My last decision, whether I get to Atlantic Ave or not, is always whether or not I stop by Rye Harbor for a little stretch. Since it is so close to home I usually forgo that pleasantry and just get on home. Then, as the night wears on I feel all the goodness that a good bike ride can leave you with and usually in spades. In other words, I never regret it. I regret not going when I don't go but never regret it after the fact. And the feeling is residual in the sense that I can feel the spring in my step the next morning. It is a good thing.
Speaking of biking, did you hear about the two cyclists that were killed I'm Hampton yesterday? There was a biking event of sorts that had hundreds of cyclists beginning their ride in Hampton and riding north through Rye possibly going into Portsmouth. It was a pristine day with temperatures in the 60's and with a full sun overhead. Apparently, a young women in her twenties crossed the center line and plowed into a stream of the riders killing two and injuring a number of others. We're a good 24 hours away from the event and the silence is deafening. Where are the screams for justice? A twenty something doesn't just cross the road in that fashion without being distracted in some way, shape, or form. Were I to guess, I would say that she was on the phone, texting, or doing something along those lines. Why is that question not being asked? Who is protecting this young women? Why is this young woman being protected? Why are the politicians not yelling at the top of their lungs for new laws to protect the innocent from such savagery? Technology is a good thing but there are bodies strewn along the path of progress reminding us that progress doesn't come without a cost. The ultimate cost has to be measured in human lives and there you have it. Where lives are lost, a price must be paid. Bring this woman to justice and let justice have its day in the sun.
The bike riding is going well. I find myself rushing out the door at work at the hour of 5 to try to make it home so I can squeeze a ride in before darkness sets in. It is a race against time without question. Let it be known that I do not object to riding at dusk but don't otherwise trust drivers to see me when it counts. I can even leave the house when it starts to get dark and get back just in time. That is sometimes a 45 minute ride that takes me north on Ocean Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue and back. It's the funniest thing. When I don't really feel like riding I talk myself into it by saying that I will ride as far as Jenness Beach and back. Invariably, by the time I reach Jenness I have a head of steam worked up and I am off to maybe the next milestone which is the large stucco home just north of the surfing area. If I get that far then I am left with one last leg which I don't always make depending on how I feel. It has more to do with how I feel than how light or dark it is out. My last decision, whether I get to Atlantic Ave or not, is always whether or not I stop by Rye Harbor for a little stretch. Since it is so close to home I usually forgo that pleasantry and just get on home. Then, as the night wears on I feel all the goodness that a good bike ride can leave you with and usually in spades. In other words, I never regret it. I regret not going when I don't go but never regret it after the fact. And the feeling is residual in the sense that I can feel the spring in my step the next morning. It is a good thing.
Speaking of biking, did you hear about the two cyclists that were killed I'm Hampton yesterday? There was a biking event of sorts that had hundreds of cyclists beginning their ride in Hampton and riding north through Rye possibly going into Portsmouth. It was a pristine day with temperatures in the 60's and with a full sun overhead. Apparently, a young women in her twenties crossed the center line and plowed into a stream of the riders killing two and injuring a number of others. We're a good 24 hours away from the event and the silence is deafening. Where are the screams for justice? A twenty something doesn't just cross the road in that fashion without being distracted in some way, shape, or form. Were I to guess, I would say that she was on the phone, texting, or doing something along those lines. Why is that question not being asked? Who is protecting this young women? Why is this young woman being protected? Why are the politicians not yelling at the top of their lungs for new laws to protect the innocent from such savagery? Technology is a good thing but there are bodies strewn along the path of progress reminding us that progress doesn't come without a cost. The ultimate cost has to be measured in human lives and there you have it. Where lives are lost, a price must be paid. Bring this woman to justice and let justice have its day in the sun.