I had to do a temporary cancel on travel by Amtrak train and car pooling to see concerts as an Icy Death Snow Blast slammed Virginia a second week. If you can’t drive the roads or take trains well it is what it is, and you just have to deal with it. It strengthens my resolve to ride bikes more in Spring as stormy ice from excessive use of gas cars is blamed by scientists as a major cause of global warming by this good article “Why We Still Have Brutal Cold Snaps” by CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/15/climate/why-extreme-cold-during-global-warming/index.html
I saw many great shows in DC, Norfolk, and Fredericksburg before the pandemic. I even saw Depeche Mode rock the stadium in DC. Thankfully many shows are at last returning to the areas around north Virginia and DC, and I plan to begin checking out shows again. As a single lady with no boyfriend or husband I have to increase my social area to meet people and date. Message me if you’re interested in car pooling.
Happy New Year’s Eve To All! Here are some bike meet up park lunch photos for New Year’s Eve! Downtown in this area has been way too wild and violent for night events lately. I am just doing lunchtime meetings and BBQ for a while on weekends.
My daughter Alexandria is visiting my aunt Jeannie in San Jose, California for part of Christmas Break. So far freezing airports didn’t block her in for travel, and she sent me an airport photo. Some weeks I am proud of being a single mother even if it is really expensive.
Thanks to my family Anne and Alexandria and my park bike club friends for many great gifts at this year’s frequent Christmas Holiday parties in Virginia.
It was horrible news that a truck killed one of my Texas friends this week on I-35. It made me very homesick to visit Texas. They were a friend from Elysium in Austin I knew from my student years when I graduated University. I have loved spending time with my family in Virginia, and lunches with bike groups in Virginia. However the last 8 times I went out at night downtown in Virginia people tried to take money from my purse, people tried to drug my drink, con-artists swarmed me, gang fights broke out next to me, and gunfire rang all night. Every person I have tried to date in Virginia has been horribly abusive verbally and physically. Nights out for concerts in DC, Baltimore, Austin, and New Orleans have been great for music and nice friends for me in the past few years. It is therefore my vow and New Years Resolution NEVER to go out at night in Virginia again, and if a good band is on tour I will ONLY see them in a town outside Virginia. I will NEVER date a Virginia person again. If constantly going on road trips and train trips on the weekends is what I have to do, then it is what I have to do. The death of my friend reminded me that I had more and better friends every time I was not in Virginia. The government needs to spend more on clean and constantly running public transportation so that people do not have to get killed by trucks. I traveled internationally in my teenage years, and other countries far more poor than the USA have clean trains you can take bikes on everywhere at all hours. Uber is a tiny band-aide on the gushing wound that is a horrible transport system in the USA. The working class has to suffer as the rich have private airplanes and limousines taking them everywhere. The rich in private airplanes then vote on how much money is spent on public transportation, and make it worse every year. This spending cycle creates a horrible death toll daily.
A great article on e-bikes and the environment. I have had e-bikes before, and am getting a new one soon. Amazon has many bike to e-bike conversion kits that are amazing. I am a person who has had asthma since I was a kid so the air pollution scares me. 5 dollar gas some years is scary, and backup plans are needed more often by the year.
Frozen History 7 Publishing Book Review Podcast 