If you walk around at the moment you see that they have cut corn, sunflowers and beet. You also see that there are piles of beet in fields, queues of tractors waiting to send them on a train journey and more. Agriculture is busy at the moment.
This morning I heard quite a few sirens of emergency vehicles and as I looked out of the velux I saw a column of black smoke rising. I was curious as to its origin. I thought “Is it a car or is it a building.” It turns out that a car had decided to start burning while being driven on the motorway. I saw no mention of injuries or other. It seems a strange thing, for a car to spontaneously combust. I wonder what mistake led to the fire.
Recently I have been very good at picking up books, but terrible at actually reading them. I want that to change. There was a time when I was reading 8000 pages a year, and this year I have managed just 2900, in theory. I want that to change. I want to get into the habit of finishing books again. In 2015 I read 29, and this year I read just twelve. My reading habit has really changed since then. I took a journey back in time and read plenty of James Bond books.
I skipped recycling today because the experience of driving and shopping this morning was unpleasant. The obligations of normal life, without the rewards. Pandemic life.
Until today I didn’t know what catkins were because I never looked them up. “A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals…” according to Wikipedia. They are out at the moment and I know this is unusual because a few days ago I saw an article about how it was unusual to have pollen warnings at this time of year.
The Swiss weather app shows that there is a lot of pollen. It’s quite funny because if you look at the map of snow and the map of pollen you see that where there is snow there is no pollen, or at least that was the case. With wind movements this situation could have changed. Winter is mild. Pollen is early. Plants are adapting to the changing climate by pollinating out of season.
Before the pandemic, when life was normal, I would go to three or four events per week organised via websites. These days, on meetup.com things are organised every two weeks, and for just 15 people at a time. This means that if you’re not first to sign up you’re on a waiting list and you could be social once every few weeks, rather than three times per week. This frustrates me.
There is a simple solution. There is a demand for events to be organised. I recently bought fresh Via Ferrata stuff and may start doing them regularly once again. I want to accertain that I am comfortable with the sport after such a long break, and once this is done I can create my own via ferrata and walking group. I would organise things at least once per week, maybe more.
The biggest nuissance with Meetup.com is that it requires a monthly fee for having a group. The result is that groups are created, run for a bit, and then destroyed to avoid paying for longer. The alternative is to use Facebook but I absolutely hate what Facebook is and what it represents. Every time it abuses of peoples’ trust it and gets caught it never apologises.
I have car and I have three seats. Like I used to do before the pandemic I can pick people up in Nyon, drive them to and from the activity, and when it comes time to say goodbye they can contribute towards petrol and the cost of having a group.
I would never charge people a fee to participate in an activity because that goes against my ethos, but having people pay a fair share towards petrol is the right thing to do. If you don’t charge people for the petrol used, they abuse of our kindness as drivers.
There is an added benefit. The problem with group activities is that when they end people rush to the train, without saying goodbye and I find this really strange. Before the pandemic there would be a stop at a bar to have a drink, and then drive home. In the Pandemic age that stop no longer occurs. I find this to be a shame. At least by driving from Nyon to the via ferrata or hiking location there is a moment for conversation before and after the journey.
I could be like others, and take the same trains as they take but that would increase my costs for participating in events. It also doubles or triples the journey time.
Last week I walked an extra eight kilometres rather than take a train, so it isn’t that I want to use the car. I have spent five or six years doing almost all of my bike rides and walks from home. The point of the car is to expand my range, once again.
And Finally
As I got to the end of this post I noticed that I am included in the hike that I thought was overbooked, and I see that other people are doing a VF at the same time on the same day and now I am torn about which one to do. The beautiful irony.
The old paradox is back. Nothing to do for the entire week, and then two activities to do at the same time.
First things First, I have had a lot of fun at festivals, and I have volunteered for a few. What I object to is the noise pollution. In the 21st century we could avoid that noise pollution, so we should.
And now for the rant, now that I have told you I like festivals, when they don’t get in the way of other peoples’ desire for silence, for sleep.
As I write this I am in a sleep deprived state because I was unable to sleep according to my circadian rhythm due to a music festival. The sound engineers that work at music festivals are pretty dumb, so they build powerful stacks of speakers that are so loud that you need hearing protection at the music festival, and the surrounding countryside is filled with noise pollution.
I Know, I Know, They Don’t Care.
I know, I shouldn’t insult an entire profession for taking no pride in their work, and not taking any responsibility for the harm they do to the surrounding countryside. They can’t help it. They’re just not very bright.
I write this for catharsis, because for five hours yesterday the music festival upwind from where I live was noisy from 1900 to 0100. I felt like going to sleep earlier as I knew I had to get up early. In the end I failed to get to sleep until an hour or two after the noise pollution ended.
Highly Polluting
In the 21st century, and given the audience, you would expect music festivals to be environmentally friendly. They boast about “compostable cups” and recycling and more. They then encourage columns of cars to park on crop fields, where, if it rains, or if vehicles are leaking oil, the ground becomes polluted with festival goer hydrocarbons from cars.
The noise pollution is a serious problem. Near Nyon there are two big festivals. Caribama, which is taking place now, and Paléo, next month. Both festivals are filled with altermondalistes who want a greender planet, corporations to be socially responsible, and yet for a week each, these festivals make noise pollution several nights in a row from 1900 until 2 or 3am. For those weeks it becomes challenging to sleep.
Yesterday I had two fans going, at full power and I couldn’t block out the thudding from the bass that the music festival was pumping out. If I had wanted to, I could have listened to the festival for free.
FOMO
Although governments, the Far Right and the media they control have said that the pandemic is over it isn’t. Music festivals were a source of psychological torture because they reminded us that whilst we were self-isolating and trying to avoid long COVID the alcoholics, and less intellectually bright, were getting drunk and enjoying themselves, with no thought or consideration for the impact the substances, sleep deprivation, and long COVID could have on their health.
I Have Volunteered at These Events
I am not against these events, as such. I used to enjoy them as a young adult. It’s as a middle aged “grumpy” man that I hate them. I don’t hate them for what they are, but for their disregard for people’s intimate sphere. I dislike them for their invasion of the private sphere, through noise pollution.
In the 21st century, in the age where we can’t mow lawns between 1230 and 1330, where we can’t vacuum on Sundays and more, why is it socially acceptable to allow such noise pollution until two or three am for a week at a time?
I thought that festival goers wanted a fairer, greener, more responsible world, and yet they pollute fields with parked cars, make it impossible to sleep and more.
Do festival goers not realise the paradox of wanting a fairer world, despite their own selfish behaviour?
Let us sleep. Lower the volume. Be kind and considerate of those that are not participating in your event. Show empathy.
Today was a different to recent days because we spent it within the clouds, rather than beneath, or above them. It is hard to be above the clouds when you are near lake level. SRF has two nice time lapses of clouds flowing over a mountain as if it was water, or dry ice. Choose the one you prefer.
It is estimated that a tenth of the Swiss population could be sick with covid-19 at the moment. If a tenth of those people had long covid then Switzerland is faced with 87,000 people with long Covid.
“Environ une personne sur dix a contracté le Covid ces dernières semaines en Suisse, a dit Urs Karrer, vice-président de la task force scientifique de la Confédération devant la presse à Berne. Les nouvelles infections se concentrent actuellement surtout chez les enfants de moins de 10 ans.
One million one hundred thousand cases of Covid have been detected in Switzerland, out of a population of around eight point seven million. In theory that’s an eighth of Switzerland that has fallen sick, if we ignore second and third infections of the virus.
There are two challenges to face. The first of these is to see whether we can get through the current wave without being infected, and that’s unlikely for parents of children and people who are exposed to others. The second challenge, it to see how much longer this pandemic will last. At the moment, with the speed at which new variants arrive. Three, within a matter of weeks, it looks as though new variants will emerge faster than vaccines and as if we will have many more waves.
Some countries stand out by the way in which they are not trying to make things better.
And Finally
I am still studying and learning. I will continue to study for as long as the pandemic lasts, because it is the one thing that is guaranteed not to be taken away from me. It also provides me with a sense of accomplishment every day.
Yesterday I set off for a bike ride planning to go from Nyon to Gland, and then up and around before heading back to Geneva and then from around Versoix riding back to Nyon.
Instead of this I rode from Nyon to Gland and decided to go further and once at Gland I rode a little further and I ended up in Rolle. In Rolle I continued going thinking I’ll turn off and head to the top of Aubonne and ride to Geneva. Instead I went up to the Signal de Bougy and from there enjoyed the ride back down towards the foot of the Jura. I continued this way and when I got twards Trelex I ran out of water.
I thought about stopping at the petrol station but didn’t think “If I continue to La Rippe and Divonne I can find a water fountain. Eventually, I did, in Crassier. I took on a little water and cycled on the cycling/walking path to Divonne, went around part of the lake and then headed back to Switzerland. Once in Switzerland I turned right and headed for Versoix via the top route. I went down the road that passes by the observatory and then at the roundabout near the swimming pool I turned left and when I got to the intersection where I had to choose between Mies and the petrol station or going left I decided to go left.
By this point of the ride I was running out of energy to pedal. I stopped for a minute or two and then set off again. I was running really low on energy and I had just enough strength to keep moving forward. When I was crossing Borex towards Signy I was feeling so tired that even my arms were fatigued. I really felt low in energy. I finally made it to the station, got an electrolyte drink, some chocolate and headed home.
When I got home I collapsed on the couch but that wasn’t enough so I lied on the floor for a few minutes, just to rest a bit. It’s rare for me to exhaust myself like this. I did do two of my regular rides in a single ride.
I did cycle up from the lake side to the Signal de Bougy. I did race one postal bus down a hill and try to go faster than a TPN bus as it crossed the border. In theory I should have stopped around Trelex when I ran out of water but didn’t.
According to the Suunto watch it will take me 89 hours to recover. I’d call that a success. I went from wanting to do a fourty kilometre loop to doing an 80 kilometre loop, with a nice climb thrown in.
I was probably tired because I did this 80km ride on two pieces of money cake, without a proper lunch. 😉 This circuit took me about three and a half hours with no stopping for the first hour and a half or even beyond. With two or three snacks I would probably do this ride without suffering so much.
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