A Lot of Walking in Circles
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A Lot of Walking in Circles

Byrichard

People think that you need to get in the car, drive for half an hour to two hours, hike, and then drive home for from half an hour to two hours but this idea is wrong. We can do a lot of walking in circles. In reality we don’t walk in circles. We walk in loops. We walk from home to home, but via a different variety of villages. Some days it is the villages that overlook the lake, and other days it is the villages that are under the Jura.


The walks are in almost the same place, but with different dynamics. One takes you along fields, trees, the camino de Santiago and the trail of the Hughenots and the next takes you along vines, orchards, woods and more. They also take you along different groups of people.



Most people seem to walk from village one to village two in a loop. They usually finish within an hour but I often walk from one and a half hours to two, and sometimes three, depending on whether it is summer or winter. There is more time to walk in summer. So much walking, 365 or so days a year, does mount up. Depending on the app it amounts to 2600 or more kilometres of walking. That is a considerable distance. 28,000 metres gained, despite not going up to the Jura, or doing sporty climbs this year. Simple walks, with the occasional bike ride thrown in.




In a normal year I might spend less time doing sports, but the carbbon footprint from driving to do those sports would be higher. I would also have more to write about, as I would have been exploring and discovering new places. At this rate my discoveries were books in lending libraries. I don’t mind walking. I show that I have the stamina to do a real hiking journey, rather than the loop walks. With the way the pandemic I could spend many more walks wearing out shoes going around in circles.






Learning About Canvas And SVGs

Learning About Canvas And SVGs

Byrichard

Other the last week I have been learning about canvas and SVGs. I am not certain that I will use this knowledge immediately but it is good to learn nonetheless.


I struggled with some code when setting up a clock. I went back through the code line by line two or three times before trying to find a version in written form. I did and went through each line yet again. Eventually I found that I was missing one zero. I added it. Saved it, refreshed and then loaded the page again and it worked. I studied for almost two hours today.


Pandemic


Omicron is going to sweep through populations but instead of wearing masks, self isolating and avoiding large groups people will do the opposite and then blame governments for their lack of understanding about the pandemic.


For a year and a half it has been self isolate, wear a mask, social distance and more. The winning strategies not to fall sick have remained the same and yet people pretend to be clueless. The result is a pandemic wave sweeping through Europe and the US over the coming month.


Life continues. We just adapt to being satisfied with what is safe.

Seeing the Pandemic As A Journey

Seeing the Pandemic As A Journey

Byrichard

Last night I was reading and began seeing the pandemic as a journey. The pandemic has been a journey for everyone, but especially for those in solitude. For those of us in solitude, it has required that we completely change how we consume the media and how we interact with the world. We go for weeks without hugs, without kisses, without meals with other people. For weeks, we may exchange a few words at a shop or petrol station but without ever having in person conversations.



This changes us. I believe that this is why I walked two to three kilometres further, sometimes, to avoid being within meters of others. Solitude is painful when we are reminded that others are not solitary. Bizarrely, with time, the pain of pandemic solitude diminishes as we give up on some aspects of life.


Giving up on those aspects does mean avoiding most films, television series, current affairs podcasts. Instead of listening to the usual content, I ended up with podcasts about journeys, whether the American thru-hikes or other forms of journeys. I am currently reading “Le Camino Seule, enfin presque” and this is what made me think of the pandemic as a journey, where we work on ourselves, on our inner journey, while waiting impatiently for normality to return.


It isn’t easy to turn fourty in solitude during a pandemic. It wouldn’t be easy out of pandemic either, because we know that doors are closing. The energy to be lively around toddlers, of not going on road trips and sitting in cafés alone. Of never speaking about “we” because of the never-ending I of solitude.


I am fine with solitude. What bothers me is ageing and theoretically running out of time to experience certain chapters in the standard model life, as I like to call it.


The pandemic has forced us to accept two years of solitude, and to cope with it, to be fine with it. I refuse to accept the fatalism of married people, and people who have a home life. I want society to do what it can to end this pandemic. Teenagers, children and single people are forced to grow old without being able to enjoy a “normal” life because those who are not alone make excuses for not self-isolating.


I like solitude because I am not expected to feel sorry for people who have more than me, emotionally. I am not forced to hear things that make me miserable. Whether we are miserable or not, during this pandemic, depends on what we are subjected to. Solitude is pleasant. Fatalism about the pandemic being out of control is soul-destroying.


Pandemic life is absurd, so the sooner it ends, the sooner people who are not in solitude, do what they can to end the pandemic, the sooner people in solitude, can start experiencing social lives again.


I want the pandemic to end, and I want people in power to stop making excuses for why this evergreen pandemic can’t end. The pandemic could end within two or three months, if we had ambitious optimists in power, rather than corrupt individuals. For clarity, I mean corrupt in the sense that people are too afraid to lose their job, than to fight for human rights. The right to health, the right to live out of pandemic.

Pandemic as Journey

Pandemic as Journey

Byrichard

Although not discussed as such the pandemic is an interior journey in the same manner as thru hikes as they are called in the US and pilgrimages in Europe. We start with one identity and one life and we have to adapt it to suit the things that can be realised during a pandemic.


We are in solitude with our thoughts so we need to work on our inner character, ready to resume post pandemic life, once that opportunity comes back. Whenever that may be.


The Evergreen Pandemic
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The Evergreen Pandemic

Byrichard

We are currently living through the evergreen pandemic. I give it this name because the more time passes the more we remain trapped in it. Every time progress is made restrictions are loosened and we revert to the way things were.


An almost empty beach


I don’t feel there is anything new to write today. Enjoy the picture.

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One Hundred And Eighty Days In a Row

Byrichard


Writing one hundred and eighty blog posts in a row is a challenge. I would say that I have learned something but I haven’t. Some days inspiration comes easily and other days I struggle to find something to write.


We are in a pandemic and most days resemble the one before and the day after. Most days are not unique. We are grinding through this pandemic until someone competent takes control of the country’s response. I would like them to work towards Covid zero but leaders are not confident enough to set that as a goal in many countries.


I know the image of a bird has a slope on the water


If only this was a photo blog I would not be struggling to write content every day.

Views Of The Sea
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Views Of The Sea

Byrichard

The pandemic is alive and well at the moment and life in pandemic mode continues. We dream of opportunities to flirt and we walk by people while wearing masks even if they do not, to remain safe. I would like for people to do what they can to end the pandemic but that is an empty dream


View of El Portet


A concrete dream is that shops in Switzerland are once again asking for one person per household to shop at a time and this is positive because despite the government failing to do something at least the shops do. It shows both that the situation is getting worse, but also that people are taking things more seriously.


I am in a safer part of Spain so I feel safe. I am still masked anytime I am near other people and I still observe the wind.


Garmin Solar Instinct with Calpe in the background.


I am still wearing the Garmin Instinct solar but I find it hard to charge. Most of the time it is hidden under layers of clothing and when I took it off and left it by a pool it was back in the shade by the time I went back to it. I can see such a watch being in its element in summer, rather than winter, even in Spain.


I find myself considering emigrating from Europe to escape its defeatist pandemic attitude. I am tired of people making excuses to empower the virus, rather than to block its progress. I want soft lockdowns and self isolation. I want masking to be done properly and I want boosters to be more easily accessible.


I have been studying Bootstrap and so far it looks like a great tool. I will write more shortly. For now, I leave you.

Pretending To Be The Invisible Man
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Pretending To Be The Invisible Man

Byrichard

If you’re wearing a mask, glasses, a hat, and have a fleece that covers your neck you look like the invisible man. I have been thinking about that recently, as I look at my reflection. Imagine if I was completely transparent. Pandemic times would be an excellent moment to hide that we’ve had an accident in a lab that made us invisible.


Of course we are not invisible. We are just dressed for the weather, and the risk of being contaminated by Delta or Omicron, or the next variant of interest, whenever that may be.


En pleine 5ème vague de Covid-19, comment contrôler la transmission du virus chez les plus petits? Genève prend un décision inédite en Suisse romande: masquer les élèves dès 8 ans. Une mesure qui suscite la colère chez les parents et le corps enseignant. Fribourg de son côté préfère le dépistage massif dans les écoles à chaque apparition de cas dans une classe.

RTS, today


If a canton decides to make children safe, by asking to wear masks from 8 years old then parents should be happy. If they are angry then the RTS has failed to inform and educate Swiss television viewers, and so has the government. I am currently in Spain and I see plenty of children wearing masks to go to school, but also to sit at tables, and to play. The idea that masks are uncomfortable is rubbish, especially after you wear them a few times.


I think something else is uncomfortable. The idea that the pandemic, in Switzerland could go on for years at the current rate. We are five waves in, five. By now you would think that people had read a few articles, watched a few documentaries, and had a few conversations that had informed them about how this virus has worked. They don’t seem to. They seem as clueless as during the first wave.


We are in a pandemic, but people are not being given an accurate image of the situation. They are being massaged into thinking one thing, rather than another. They are being kept malleable. This malleability makes it hard to get everyone vaccinated, but also makes it hard to get people to mask up.


That is why Spain is so nice. You see that not everyone is wearing a mask, but whereas in Switzerland, you are an eccentric lunatic for wearing a mask in the street, in Spain you are almost normal. That feels pleasant. You see people walking alone, speaking on their phone, young people, not so young people, and others. You even see children playing while wearing a masks.


These are the images that Switzerland should show Swiss people. “Look, people do like wearing masks” or at least “look, life, with a mask, is almost normal.” I don’t understand the hatred of masks.


That is why emigrating from Switzerland might be worthwhile, to move to a nation where there is a hope of the pandemic ending sooner, rather than never.