Nothing to write
Nothing stood out today
Yesterday it snowed enough for the snow to get some depth. I went for a walk with snowboard trousers, a proper winter coat and the Xero Xcursion Fusion in snow that reached above their rim without getting snow or water onto my socks until I removed the shoes at the end of the walk. They’re minimal waterproof shoes that have “FeelTrue®” soles. These are thin, minimal soles. Despite this my feet felt warm for the entire walk with normal soles.
When I was walking on thin snow I felt that the sole might be sliding slightly but this is probably due to the slightly slushy snow, rather than the soles. Sometimes I had to walk in five centimres or more of snow and they still felt fine. I didn’t feel any concern about snow making its way into the shoes, even when walking where grass or fallow fields were growing. They’re very comfortable.
The advantage of these shoes is that they’re light and flexible. When you walk with them you can walk with your ordinary stride, rather than one adapted to hiking shoes, or moon boots. I thought that I might feel the cold through the thin soles but no such problem. I could walk normally for one hour and fourty minutes without regretting that I was wearing these shoes. That’s great, because hiking shoes can be 200-300 CHF and I got these for 90 CHF, the same price as my other barefoot shoes that are better in summer, and dry conditions.
I did not expect them to be so comfortable. I thought that water could filter through the top, or the gap between the tongue and the sides of the shoes, or through the soles. I had none of these issues. I would rate these for winter walking with snowboarding trousers without hesitation now. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable they were.
When I tested them in heavy rain, walking through puddles I did get water to enter the shoes. With snow they’re fine, because snow isn’t wet until it melts. It’s important to stay dry when freezing conditions could affect your comfort level.
Although not highly scientific I walked in a cold wind two days ago with these shoes and felt no discomfort. It’s not a scientific observation, as I didn’t walk on my hands with my feet in the air. The main point is that despite being minimal I do not find them to be uncomfortable in -2°c with a strong wind and a noticable windchill factor. I didn’t check the “feels like” temperature
Originally I wanted to get the Merrel Tail Glove 7 GTX but cancelled my order due to the wait. I also cancelled my order due to the price. The Trail Glove 7 GTX shoes cost from 160-180 CHF whereas the Xero shoes can be bought for 80 CHF if you shop around. The Xero Xcurion Fusion shoes cost as much, or less than the barefoot shoes and they keep my feet dry.
When I finished my walk I noticed that snow had built up on the road outside of the building I live in. I went down to the garage to get a snow shovel and started to shovel the snow. Part of that shovelling requires walking up and down a steep ramp that was covered in snow. I did not slip, or feel that my traction was in danger once. I was in full control the entire time.
Usually when it snows you need to wear big, heavy shoes that are more tiring to walk with. With the Xero Xcursion Fusion shoes you have the advantages of ankle height hiking shoes without the weight and bulk. These shoes are light and malleable. They do what your feet are doing, without having to adapt your gait to the shoes. The shoes are well suited to casual snow walking, especially when you have snow trousers with gaiters that prevent any and all snow from entering through the top. That’s how shoes should be.
I believe that these shoes are worth trying, especially if you’re used to the barefoot feel but want something that is seasonally appropriate. I was comfortable both when walking and shovelling snow.
This is the day 16+ and 5+ year olds could get boosters and Vaccinate in Switzerland. For 16+ year olds, at least in Vaud, we are now eligible for vaccination, as long as we’re in the country. I am not. I have to wait until I get back. This is a big step forward. Being able to get a booster is good. 5+ year old children should be able to get their first vaccine shortly, although the details are not clear yet.
I wish I was in Switzerland to enjoy the weather. For once, it is snowing, so for once it would be interesting to look at the landscape. I was bored with seeing sunshine every day for years in a row. By the time I get back, the landscape will be boring again. If it wasn’t for the growing number of new cases, I would be driving from CH to Spain on Sunday, not two weeks ago.
I am still reading every day. I am currently reading a book about the Camino De Santiago. The journey describes quite a few days of rain, and the thoughts of a single woman, on a long hike, for a change. Plenty of books have been written by men. Fewer have been written by women. It is nice to get that perspective for a change.
I usually read until I can’t keep my eyes open, and sometimes I read during the night if I wake up. For two weeks I haven’t listened to audiobooks as I haven’t had moments of solitude. Usually I listen when I walk alone. I still ignore podcasts, I get my news from tweets and news websites. I also get news from sources where I am not forced to spend a specific amount of time. Text is easy to skim quickly.
That’s it for today. I had no daily walk so there is no news on that front.
Despite people doing what they can to keep the pandemic going, by not vaccinating, by not wearing masks, by not minimising social interactions, by avoiding busy shops we are in a 3000 new people infected per day routine in Switzerland. For some reason, fatalists and others have taken the decision that the pandemic can’t be ended, and that we might as well live with it.
For my entire life, I thought that people wanted to cut a pandemic short. Rieux was rational in my eyes. During this pandemic, we see that Rieux is a rare person. Most people find a hole in the wall, and they just leave, without a sense of responsibility or morality. The pandemic is a crisis of morality and responsibility. Everyone speaks about rights, but they forget that rights entail responsibility.
I didn’t know that digestion and cycling could have such an effect on each other. I was cycling straight after eating, and I felt weak in terms of power, and I was struggling to go faster. By the end of the ride, I seemed to have more power than at the start. It’s interesting to see such a change. I didn’t look at the difference in heart rate.
I finally finished a JavaScript course, after taking a break to read around the subject. I feel that I am in a better situation now. I do get some of the concepts. Now it is a matter of consolidating that knowledge by practising.
For months, or even years, I have seen adverts for the Rivella Unlimited Bottle. it is a competition that you can play, and if you win the competition you get a Sigg Rivella bottle that you can get refilled anywhere for free. I thought the idea of putting Rivella into any reusable bottle was absurd and messy so I didn’t try. Today I did.
As I poured the Rivella from a half litre rivella bottle into the Half litre sigg bottle I was afraid that it may overflow and I was careful not to lose too much gas. Eventually the transfer from plastic to metal was complete so I went on my daily walk. I wasn’t thirsty during the walk so it was air cooled by the ambient air temperature. It is currently 6°c according to the Apple weather app via an apple watch. It is fridge temperature outdoors, so perfect for such an experiment.
I drank it when I got home, and it seemed fine. In summer, or if you store rivella in a bottle that has been opened for too long it will ferment. If you try this experiment drink it within a few hours. Rivella quickly starts to ferment so it is an unforgiving drink for slow drinkers.
Coop and other shopping centres often have PET and other forms of recycling nearby so if you buy some rivella, or another drink, you can transfer the drink from one container to the other, and the bottle is recycled within minutes of being bought, and you are then free to walk with the drink in a container appropriate for hiking. Of course aluminium does not crush down into a compact shape once you finish your drink, but at least it can be used for another drink after a quick rinse, or proper wash.
Before I leave you, another use case is restaurants. Restaurants. I often go to restaurants, order a coke, get it in a plastic bottle, and then hike with what remains. If I have an empty sigg bottle I can take whatever is left in the sigg bottle, and leave the bottle with the restaurant, especially if it is glass. It removes the rush of trying to finish a bottle before you leave, or vice versa.
Recycling PET and capsules is not an issue, in Switzerland, as recycling centres can be found anywhere, but there is a justification in walking away with a drink you bought, in a container you own, rather than one you will recycle, when the next opportunity presents itself.
A month or two ago we had the chance to jump on the Substack wagon while it was hot and to ride the wave of new followers and experience a growing community. I could have joined in. I could have become one of those “I’m one of you people” but I didn’t.
Substack Life
Substack went from being a newsletter to almost becoming a community of writers. I say “almost”, because for me to consider a community a community it has to behave like a community. It has to be a network of friends of friends, and it has to be about individuals connecting with other individuals, through their community.
With Substack it went from “Wow, notes look great” to “My follower numbers have exploded”, “oh so have mine”, and that’s when I disengaged. People behaved the same way on Twitter and the community was degraded into a network of strangers following each other and fighting for attention. Within the space of hours the network that it could have become was degraded to a popularity contest. I have no interest in these. If I wanted to join one I could socialise in the physical world of bars and other places.
What I don’t like about Substack, and social media in general, is that it’s about users creating content for the owners of the social network, and then making money off of our backs, without giving us anything in exchange. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other networks have all made this move.
On Blogging
With tools like WordPress, among many others we have the freedom to generate content, and choose whether to pay for our own hosting, and manage our own websites and attempt to monetise them, or jump onto Wordpress.com and other solutions. and just create content for the pleasure of it.
I mention pleasure, because with blogs we write because we have inspiration. Either we have done something that we want to share, or we have an opinion on something, that we want to get out of our minds, by putting it on screen, and then forgetting about it.
I prefer to blog because although it could be e-mailed to someone it is usually just one post, in a timeline, among many others. People can look at it, think “this is dull and boring” and move on. With blogs there is no obligation to read any post. It’s all about whims.
With Substack the opposite is true. You write a post, you e-mail it, and people have to swipe to it, keep it on screen until it’s marked as read, before moving on.
I like e-mail for private conversations, but feel that newsletters et al would be better served by being blog posts that we can opt in to reading. or skip and ignore.
And Finally
I prefer blogging to Substack Newsletter writing for two reasons. The first is that I want to write about anything, rather than on a specific theme. The second reason is that I don’t want to generate content that someone else will benefit from, more than I will. I don’t want to be used and exploited. With blogs I do not feel that way. With Substack I do., I went from being a person to a statistic within hours of Substack Notes being created.
Yesterday I spent some time looking through Apple Health Data Sources. I see that there are plenty of data sources. These are the Apple watch, the iphone, Alltrails, move, connect, stepsapp, pacer, Suunto, Ingress and three more that are marked as inactive.
Move is the app that gets data from some Casio watches. Connect is Garmin connect and gets step data from Garmin devices. If I take steps and they are logged with a casio or a garmin device they do not count in iOS apps but if I take steps with Garmin and Casio devices without also wearing the Apple watch the same steps are not counted.
The Apple Fitness and Health apps have access to all the same data. Everything goes to a central database on the iPhone. It’s from the iphone that the data is not shared transparently between all other apps.
In practice whether you have a suunto, Garmin, Apple Watch or other fitness tracker each device should feed, or retrieve data from Apple health, and each should display that data, regardless of which device you wear.
Whether I wear my Garmin, Suunto or Apple watch I would like all three to access health data transparently so that I can choose which individual watch I want to wear on a specific day. I don’t want to have to wear all three of them. Not that I do. I only have two wrists. 😉 I can only wear two at once.
The privacy argument is moot, because each app can be granted access to Apple Health, and Apple Health can be granted access to each app. This means that all the data is already transiting both ways for all apps.
When you buy a Casio or other watch the battery is expected to last from three years to ten years, and you are expected to replace the battery when it dies. With the Apple watch, now that it is four years old, the next step would be to swap the battery. The Apple watch is now at 70 percent. The battery costs 79 CHF to replace.
When the Suunto battery got low on the Ambit 3 I got a Spartan, but when I replaced the Spartan I went for a Garmin, so I lost the ability to keep my old log going, and had to migrate to the Garmin app. With the Apple Watch we’re on yet another silo. Every brand has a silo. With the Apple watch it’s worse, because you have the fitness app, but then you have all the third party apps. Everything would break at once if you stop using the Apple Watch.
I would love for Garmin, Suunto and Apple wath to allow the free flow of tracking data in both directions, so that I could choose the best device to wear, and the best app to fiddle around with. Strava is the giant in the room, but I don’t want to use an app where I have to pay a premium for added functionality.