Almost Linear Walks

Almost Linear Walks

Byrichard

Twice in the last two weekends I have done linear rather than circular walks. By linear I don’t mean that I walked from A to B. I mean that I started walking along a loop but when I saw that the routes I wanted to walk were either crowded by couples or people with dugs I will either turn around, or walk across a field to a parallel path that is less crowded.

Busy Weekends

Yesterday I went for my walk. I don’t like walking on weekends, especially sunny warm weekends because that’s when people who don’t walk alone are walking their dogs or with others. It reminds me of my solitude. I also got into the habit of avoiding people during the pandemic, and the pandemic never ended, so I never went back to walking the same paths as others.

Walking Fast

I walk fast, very fast. Nothing says that I have to walk a loop for every walk. Plenty of people walk outwards, along one path, and walk along the same path. Their walks are just a straight line, back and forth. I just got into the habit of walking loops because loops are quite a bit longer than linear walks. They’re also more interesting.

The need for an Easier Walk

The thing I don’t consider enough is fatigue. I believe that I build up fatigue, from walking up to eight kilometres a day, every single day. I could have walked my ten kilometre loop yesterday but I didn’t feel that I had the energy. It’s when you’re tired, and need a rest day that it’s good to go back and forth, rather than push. I still got 10,000 or more steps and I still walked further than most people. It’s just that it wasn’t much by my standard. A rest day is one where I go for a slightly shorter walk than usual.

The Lure of the Project

It’s not just that it’s the weekend, that makes me want to skip my walk. It’s also that I’m task driven. I am currently working on consolidating all of my media drives but this is time consuming, and every time I leave it unattended a messsage pops up, that I need to agree to, before it continues working. If I go for a one and a half hour walk and a message pops up ten minutes into my walk, when I am not there to agree, then the system waits for my return, and I’m stuck with one hour and 20 minutes of transfers.

If I followed my key desire I would just skip the walk but the walk is important for my eyes. They need to focus into the distance, and I need to stay healthy.

And Finally

If my habits weren’t so consistent veering from them would be normal. It is because I am consistent that I feel bad for turning around, rather than walking my usual loop. Fitness wise it’s still a one hour walk, but it’s just shorter than if I walked my loop.

Today is a weekday so I will do my normal walk loop.

The Long Walk and More Playing with Nextcloud

The Long Walk and More Playing with Nextcloud

Byrichard

Two days ago I went for a longer walk than usual. I walked along roads rather than along the narrow agricultural roads I normally use. I wanted to avoid crowds and dog walkers. The thing about solitude is that it’s enjoyable when you are not reminded that you are alone.

Today I will also have to try to avoid people. Some might be really happy for good weather, but not me. Good weather means that the reminder that others are not lonely is brought home. I go on walks to listen to podcasts and get some exercise. That little walk I went up was so good for my health that I had 18 PAI as a result of that single walk.

On a walk like I did two days ago I combine two, three or even four walks together. These are the walks that I started to walk years ago, after my scooter was hit by a careless driver. She hit the back of my scooter so hard that we slid for several meters. I stayed upright but the scooter needed to be fixed. It was. It took time.

Several times I walked to the scooter place to ask “Is it ready yet?” and several times I got a “nope” answer. In the end that walk that I did to check on the scooter became my ordinary walk. It became one of the circuit walks that I would walk daily for several years. I still like the walks. If people walked with smaller dogs, and kept them on leashes, I’d be happier. I would also be happier if people didn’t drive on farm roads as if they were normal roads, because on foot this is dreadful, especially when people drive too fast, too close, several times a day.

More Experimenting with Nextcloud

This morning I experimented with Nextcloud. I experimented with uploading photos from google takeout zips to Nextcloud using both an Ubuntu machine and a mac. The experiment was a partial success. I found that uploading individual pictures from individual folders is clumsy via Linux. I then tried via MacOS and that was also clumsy. Nextcloud can be used for photo management but that is not what it is really designed for.

There are a few features missing. One of these is the ability to select more than one image at a time. I’d like to select a range of images with ease, rather than have to select sixty video files one by one, before moving them.

I also experimented with moving images from one folder to another and that’s chaotic as well, via the command line. The issue is that Nextcloud detects the images, and indexes them, but if you remove those images it then keeps them in the database. I’d like to be able to refresh the database after making such a move.

Mount a Prepared Drive

Imagine that you have a photo archive that is already well organised. Imagine that everything is organised by year, month, date, and subject. With this tutorial you can learn how to mount your external drive. Nextcloud then sees the images and their folder structure and populates either Memories, or Photos, depending on which interface you prefer.

And Finally

After some trial and error I got Nextcloud to work as I expected it to so I can use it to backup photos from my phone automatically. In this regard it’s a great iPhoto and Google Photos replacement. I think I would have Photoprism and Nextcloud running in tandem. I would have Nextcloud taking care of backing images up, from the phone, and photoprism to work as a DAM/MSM solution.

I will experiment and comment, when I have an opinion.

Walking in Heavy Rain
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Walking in Heavy Rain

Byrichard

I knew that it would rain heavy yesterday (at the time when you read this) so I considered running so that I would spend less time in the weather. The issue, at this time of year, is that if you run you need to do so before the sun sets but you also want to wear lighter clothes, for running to be easier.

Ready for Rain

For these reasons I went for a walk instead. I rolled up the trousers to avoid contact between the socks and trousers. I wore waterproof trousers, and a good rain coat. I walked for an hour and a half in the rain and crossed almost no one. In this weather even the dog walkers stay home. That is what I want. I like when the paths are empty of people, when I can enjoy my solitary walks in solitude, without being reminded of my isolation.

I wore barefoot shoes for this walk. They get wet almost immediately as they are not waterproof. Within 200 meters my feet were drenched. That’s what I expected. That’s what I planned for. That’s why my trousers were rolled up. I didn’t want the humidity to creep up my socks, and then my trousers, and into my t-shirt and fleece.

It worked. I stayed dry.

The Inconvenience of Touch Screen Phones When Wet

There is one challenge in such rain. When you get to the end of one podcast you need to find an underpass, or a lending library, or some other shelter. You need to dry the phone screen and your hands enough to use the phone to select the next podcast. After that you can keep walking.

For many it would seem to walk in the rain, but that’s because they don’t walk the same path every single day, for weeks or months, or even years in a row. Changes in weather are like changes in crops, changes in seasons and more. When it rains I see a different landscape. I see where the land is low, and where it is higher. I see where the water flows heavily, and where your feet remain dry.

Golden Hour

The greatest paradox is that despite the heavy rain, and the uncomfortable conditions you can still notice golden hour. As I walked today I saw that the light became more yellow, despite being under the rain. Despite the bad weather there was a discernable golden hour.

As I walked through one village I saw people burning wood in a barbecue. I don’t know whether it was to actually have a barbecue, or just to burn wood. If they were going to cook with it then it shows that the English are not the only people to barbecue in the rain.

As if that wasn’t surreal enough I also saw two children walking with someone dressed in a Santa costume. They all carried umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain. It’s not every day you see Santa walking in the rain with an umbrella.

In the end I wasn’t the only strange person out this afternoon, walking in the rain, as the heavy rain fell. If I was that type of person I would say that this walk was magical. Today was surreal, like Godard’s 1967 film, Weekend, where we see strange things as a car drives through a traffic jam.

And Finally

For many rain is an excuse to stay in. I don’t see it that way. The familiar landscape becomes unfamiliar. The rivers that were barely a trickle are now full. The water that is transparent when the rain has just started has become brown. We can see rivers of muddy water flowing from the Gravière into the river. We can see where the road is low, and water flooded onto a road, and left mud and other detritus. In another location I saw apples strewn about. The rain had made the apples float, and transported them into nearby fields where other crops were growing.

Walking during the rain is unique, and worth doing, when equipped for the weather.

Four Hundred And Sixty Eight Days Of Self Isolation

Byrichard

The pandemic is still alive and well and the hope that we might have had that the pandemic would end has been scuppered because governments refuse to work towards COVID-Zero, and they refuse to be cautious. It is disheartening to see with which complacency governments are sleeping back into exactly the same mistake as last summer. Last summer they allowed the numbers to climb, and ignored the risk of another wave, and this summer they are making the same mistake.


I am confused by this, because when there was BSE and Foot And Mouth, and the first SARS crisis, that I remember of, everyone was told to be careful, to avoid spreading the diseases and more. We washed our hands and our feet, and the feet of animals. There was a genuine care for the well being of animals and humans.


This pandemic is different because it seems that all of the norms for keeping a pandemic under control, and mitigating the fallout have been forgotten. Yesterday the Swiss health minister practically said “There is nothing to worry about for vaccinated people.” Of all the people to make such a statement he is the worst, for the simple reason that it puts us all at risk.


Another interesting aspect of this pandemic is that because it is global we can see what is happening in England, in Israel, in New Zealand and other countries. It means that we can follow this pandemic as it happens, day by day, and decision and consequence by decision and consequence.


Both England and Israel vaccinated, and then reopened their societies, and both thought they were safe but eventually saw that they were not. We can see that Switzerland is making that mistake too, but Switzerland just has to spend a few minutes looking at Twitter, and English and Israeli news, to see what to expect next.


During this pandemic poor decisions are being made despite the benefit of hindsight and this is a shame. It’s a shame because if you’re single, and between friend groups it means that you’ve had four hundred and sixty eight days with a hug, without flirting and without a handshake. That’s a long time to go without those things, especially if we’re meant to get eight to twelve hugs a day.


What is terrible about this situation is that there is no hope of it ending for years at the current level of incompetence that governments are showing. How can a pandemic come to an end when leaders are doing nothing to stop the transmission of a virus. Being under quarantine sucks, but at least self-isolation gives us a hope of the pandemic ending. Switzerland was in a straight line down to zero new cases per day and it threw that away as of this week. Now we will have another winter of self-isolation of solitude. Year two of pandemic solitude. I think that after one summer without a car, one summer with a broken arm, and two summers of pandemic solitude I will be changed forever.


I’m happy to socialise on Twitter, but I feel no need or desire to do anything more. It would be agonising if I had a burning desire to socialise, just as the pandemic wave is getting ready to hit. This time Switzerland got down to 140 cases before the wave started to build up again. Now we’re committed to the next pandemic wave. This time young people will suffer, and that is through the mistakes of adults.


Before I end this post, I want to add that I had my first vaccine on the 5th of May and the second on the 9th of June and that I am fully vaccinated as of the writing of this blog post. In theory, I’m perfectly safe and can resume normal life, but according to the news I’m seeing from around the world this “in theory” is not trustworthy. The vaccine was good for the last two variants, but not for the current one.

Self-Sacrifice and Pandemics

Self-Sacrifice and Pandemics

Byrichard

Self-Sacrifice and Pandemics are intimate friends. In order for a pandemic to end we must learn to do without things that we need. We go without meeting friends for months, we go without hugs or handshakes for months. We go without restaurants, bars, cafés or cinemas for months. We go without needing the internal combustion for days at a time.


Human Contact


I mention all of these things looking at the past 76 days. Yesterday I had my first human to human contact in that many days. Today I shook my first hand. Between yesterday and today I transitioned from being two or more meters from people at all times to being close. I went into homes that were not my own.


For those who were not alone in self-isolation this might seem uninteresting but for many of us, who live in solitude, is a big step towards post-pandemic life. We can return to being within society, rather than on its outskirts. We don’t need to be distant and cold.


Of course the two meter rules are still in effect, but in two specific contexts I have let the rules slide for family.


The Return to Cycling


Although I didn’t make much fuss about the return to cycling this was a big step towards post-pandemic life. During the pandemic, I did not cycle because I wanted to reach only places that I could reach within an hour to an hour and a half of walking. By cycling, I decided the rule was no longer needed. My range of places to go, and experiences to have expanded.


During the pandemic people went on 80km rides, and I could have done the same, but I sacrificed because I believed that the cost to society would be too high, if I was infected and spread it, or if the opposite happened.


Solitude


Yesterday someone spoke about feeling uncomfortable saying no to meeting friends during the pandemic after I had done the same. My reasons for not meeting those friends were:


  1. It would have required crossing seven or eight towns and villages at rush hour
  2. The group would have been from seven to nine people large when the scientists recommended that groups be no larger than five individuals
  3. The meeting was too late for me to include it within a bike ride, and I don’t want to return to using a car every single day like I used to.
  4. The location would have required me to drive for two and a half hours to three hours at best.


The emotional cost of this was huge, because I really did need to be sociable for the first time in over 70 days and I couldn’t, because couples who were not lonely and in solitary confinement went together anyway.


If you were not alone with yourself for seventy plus days then you cannot understand. As a joke I started to say that I was a pandemic hermit because of the self-isolation.


Driving to Do Things


So far during the pandemic the furthest I have driven is to the top of a mountain. I can get there within fifty five minutes so that shows how close it was. For sixty to seventy days I never crossed the Canton/state lines. I still haven’t been into a city.


The Brits got angry with Cummings for the road trip and I do understand that anger. I felt it when I saw people do touristy things at the peak of the pandemic in Switzerland. It made me angry that I self-sacrificed whilst they went on as normal, and it made me angry because of their apathy towards other people and the rules.


In a pandemic we must all sacrifice, and behave as a united society because solidarity is important, but also because the more seriously people take lockdown rules the sooner a pandemic is over. The less self-sacrificing people are, the more drawn-out the pandemic lasts.


Still Not Over


The pandemic is still not over, but at least those of us who were in solitude for over two months can re-emerge and re-integrate society, one small step at a time.

Day 60 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – The Sixtieth Day of Solitude.

Day 60 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – The Sixtieth Day of Solitude.

Byrichard

It’s the sixtieth day of solitude for some of us and if we look at Twitter we see that people in other countries are suffering. One person spoke of the dark dog whilst another expressed distress. A third expresses another emotion. Around the world we see people suffering and trying to cope in their own unique ways.


I went for my daily walk but I wasn’t fully motivated so it was a relatively short circuit. Just 7.65 kilometres according to my SUUNTO Spartan HR Sports Wrist, Black. It’s the watch I’ve been using for at least three or four years by now. I am no longer tracking with the Apple watch as I was tired of deleting duplicates.


There is a cruel irony in society going from soft lockdown to rebooting in safe mode because our consumerist habits can return and crowds are re-emerging but as single people living alone we are stil not allowed within two meters of others unless there is plexiglass or we’re on a video call.


I saw a large crowd of people all standing together. I write this as a joke. The “crowd” was a cluster of toddlers at a kindergarten. They were going out of their classroom to play on the swings outside. I didn’t linger as I saw this as I was starting my walk.


During most of this walk I felt warm enough to open two layers of clothing. In theory I would have been happy in a t-shirt while I was sheltered from the rain. I wasn’t rained on but the wind was active so when I was exposed to it I closed my layers.


I passed over the motorway and it’s back to pre-pandemic levels. People are once again using their cars as much as before. It’s a shame that despite the short re-starting of society the use of the car is so quick to grow in amplitude.


In the US the pandemic is affecting farmers. According to the New York Times meat plant closures mean pigs are gassed or shot instead. Some slaughterhouses are closed so there is no one to process the meat in some cases and in other cases the animals have become too big for the slaughterhouses to deal with them. Plenty of animals are dying needlessly as a result.


On the lighter side of the news people are experiencing flute solos at Stuttgart Airport. It’s interesting that they would choose to do this. It reminds me of an industry, although only theoretically.


The Economist wrote a column titled Casual sex is out, companionship is in but this column is boring because it looks mainly at dating apps and the cardinal sin of dating apps is that it forces lonely people to know who is interested for exorbitant amounts of money. They speak about video dating but the best app I played with was Seesmic back in the day. I’m still in contact with many of those people. Seesmic was as effective as Twitter for creating new friendships and relationships, back in the day.


The closest we have to online flirting in an open society is Tik Tok. On Tik Tok you see that we can play, flirt, and collaborate together in a way that is similar to what we did on Seesmic back in the day. During this pandemic Tik Tok may be the only place for us to have fun. Last night I did a planking duet, and I see a few more duets that tempt me. We will see if I get round to them.


I really need to play and laugh. Tik Tok made me laugh out loud several times yesterday. It is an oasis of companionship in a sea of solitude. As I mentioned at the start of this post, plenty of people are unhappy and struggling to cope during this pandemic so we must do what we can to endure it, and to come out ofthe other side in a good mental state.


I’ll leave you with a video about cooking Lasagna and cake in a van for a change of ideas.





A Demain.

Day Twenty-eight of ORCA in Switzerland – A Photo Walk
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Day Twenty-eight of ORCA in Switzerland – A Photo Walk

Byrichard

Today I went on a photo walk. Since walking far is now out of the question if you want to be consistently socially distanced it makes sense to go out with a different purpose. When the purpose of the walk is to take photos you can afford to walk up a hill, or between two people to avoid being too close.


A cat naps in a courtyard in the middle of the day during the 2020 Pandemic in Arnex-Sur-Nyon.


When I passed by the barn where cats love to spend time I found at least two of them having their afternoon siesta. Sometimes at this barn you can find quite a few of them.


Easter Road traffic during the 2020 Pandemic between Founex and Nyon.


Motorway traffic was quite dense today. People were apparently choosing to drive from one point to another. We will see what the impact of this public holiday will be on the number of new cases one to two weeks from now.


Three groups of people walk along an agricultural road in between Eysins and Mies.


This weekend plenty of people were walking along agricultural roads and as you can see they’re walking two to three abreast. These are single lane agricultural roads so if I had been walking along these roads I would have come within two meters of many people.


I really wish that during the pandemic people would have the same decency as hikers on narrow paths. That decency is to walk in single file, and to allow people enough space to pass safely. I look forward to when I can walk my ordinary paths, without worrying about passing too close to people.


People walking during the 2020 Pandemic in the Canton de Vaud, with the Alps in the background


Aside from having the pandemic as a reason to avoid large groups such as in the picture above I think another motivation is to avoid the feeling of loneliness that some of us could feel. Tomorrow will be week six without human contact for many of us. No hand shakes, no conversation closer than a meter and a half. No break from the solitude of a pandemic.


Solitude is when you’re alone living as usual. lonely is when you’re reminded of what you’re missing and you pine for something that you may not really need. When the order is to stay two or more meters away from people for one and a half months seeing other people with the company of another person is already sub-optimal. Imagine seeing a crowd of up to five people.


I started compiling a collection of hiking documentaries on Youtube. One of them is a hike from Switzerland to the mediterranean and the others are hikes in the United States. It may seem paradoxical that after so much walking I would be thinking of walking even more but I love the idea of walking for a few days and seeing different places. I like the idea of leaving civilisation for a while.





There’s a good chance that rock climbing, via ferrata and other sports will not be possible for at least a few weeks so it makes sense to think about things we can do alone or in small groups. Maybe this will be the year when I do at least one variant of the Via Alpina. We will see, once the pandemic has run its course.


Camera used to take pictures










Day Sixteen of ORCA in Switzerland – Pandemic Solitude

Day Sixteen of ORCA in Switzerland – Pandemic Solitude

Byrichard

I was writing a Facebook post when I thought of the term Pandemic Solitude and I love it so much that I wanted to use it as a title for today’s blog post. For most people during the pandemic the order is, stay with the people you live with but avoid being close to others.


When you live with no one this means that you should avoid being close to anyone. Yesterday and today I exchanged words with petrol station workers from two meters away, and with a plate of plexiglass between us. I also talked to a scooter shop owner and here too I stayed about three meters away. It might sound distant in other times but that’s intimate during a pandemic.


Imagine if you were in this situation during a pandemic. How long would you cope with it? That’s why the graph for the rate of infections in Vaud makes me melancholic. That graph, although it’s not getting worse, is staying constant, and at that rate of infections, it means we’re in it for the long haul. It has been steady for five weeks and it could go on for another five weeks or more.



As I walked I saw that spring is still moving forward as planned and that’s when I came up with the thought; “This year spring, for Humans, has been delayed, but flowers and trees are budding and flowering.



Usually at this time of year people would be heading to the beaches, to the mountains and to other places and they’d be enjoying the first rays of the spring sun, and they’d be working on getting their summer chrominance, or at least load up on Vitamin D. This year most people are staying home.


Those that you see the most are mischievous children, enjoying a world where parents and grown-ups are not around to tell them off. Imagine all the mischief they’re up to.


As we’re speaking of grown-ups being invisible I’m also puzzled by the lack of people posting on social media. I would have thought that everyone would be using social media and that conversations would be vibrant but there is no vibrancy. Information services are tweeting and posting to social media but individuals are absent. Where is everyone? Why wasn’t this the opportunity that we thought it would be.


It doesn’t matter, but as a result I have kept my Twitter and Facebook tabs closed. During this crisis, social media is failing us.

Day Four of Orca in Switzerland – Exploring the Trail Less Travelled
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Day Four of Orca in Switzerland – Exploring the Trail Less Travelled

Byrichard

Today is Day Four of Orca in Switzerland and I saw that the Canton in which I live has the most active cases of COVID19 so my motivation both to go to shops and to go for walks has taken a hit. At the same time I don’t know whether it’s COVID 19 that is having this effect or the fact that I walked a theoretical 197.2 kilometres since the start of this month for the March Activity challenge.


All I have to do now to complete the challenge is walk 7.8 kilometres a day for the next ten days and I’m done. Easy goal. I’m impatient for this challenge so that I can return to cycling, no matter whether it’s on the indoor trainer or outdoors.


Exploring The Trail Less Travelled.


Today I went off exploring the trail less traveled. I walked towards an Ingress portal and then I took a right turn and walked along a trail. I could have taken the road and crossed a bridge to get to the portal but the muddy path is an excellent option because it keeps me away from people.


The path wasn’t too muddy but I did have to scramble over a tree that had fallen to the ground and avoid slipping on mud. I captured the portal, full deployed and then I went off exploring.


A nice little hidden waterfall just 30 centimeters high.


I love walking along this river because you would never believe that you’re so close to Eysins and Nyon. If you stood quietly you could probably hear both. It’s nice because it’s secluded but it’s also nice because you could imagine children playing by this river on a hot summer’s day.



I walked beyond the waterfall but at this point the path becomes more challenging. I could have gone across and towards Nyon but I chose to go down towards the river. The river, is less full of water than it was a few days ago when the rain was heavy so I could sneak a little further than on previous explorations.


The layers of rock strata, and trees growing up around them


The image above shows a safe bit of cliff but there are moments where you feel that it’s precarious. Erosion is slowly eroding the soil away and trees are falling forward, into the valley. I wouldn’t recommend exploring certain segments on a rainy day.


During the quarantine, the message is to stay away from people. By exploring snickets in forests you achieve this goal easily. No dog walkers, no families on a walk, no one.


Quarantine can be boring, and it can be lonely, especially for those of us living in solitude who still have the fortitude to endure loneliness for society at large. Exploring is a nice way of living in the moment. It’s a way of finding things to write blog posts about, but it’s also something to show others, once solitary people, are once again allowed the company of another human.


Staying Local


During this pandemic, I am trying not to use the car and I use the scooter as little as possible. I try to stay within walking distance for everything. My logic is that by traveling further I would come in contact with more people and I might bring the virus from an infected region to one that was clear of the virus.


At the moment we know which Cantons are affected but we have no idea of whether villages or towns are clean. If we knew that villages or towns were clear of the virus we could go into reverse quarantine. Rather than keeping people isolated, we could keep them insulated. By this, I mean that shops, handshakes, and social life could be restored. Of course, this is unfeasible.


Before I stop writing for today I did see people start to wear masks, and gloves, attempting to isolate themselves from the risk of contagion. I’m still washing my hands, and simply staying home when not on a walk, and washing my hands as soon as I get home.


What is your pandemic footprint. Mine, is just two at this moment in time.