July 20, 2020

It's Monday. I must have put 700 miles on my bike since Thursday. My thumbs hurt, and my body has been sore every day. I've had a few relatively close calls. I had to slam on my brakes on the freeway going 70mph, which is one of the scariest things that has happened to me. And I dropped my bike once in sand and once in gravel while going downhill on a forest service road. The bike is fine, but my pride was not. And I actually found it more difficult to turn and brake when I got back on the road because my confidence melted a bit. I am slowly regaining my confidence. Afterwards I learned from Kris that you're not supposed to use your front brake while offroad, especially when you're on a heavy bike with street tires.

I'm in Queen Anne. I'm nearly moved in with Caitlin. It's 10am and she is making breakfast while she 'works' from home; things are slow at the office. Rockstar, Danni's cat is in my lap, purring heavily and repeatedly wiping his drool on the whale tattoo on my forearm while I type this. I'm drinking the last silty cup of coffee from a french press filled with Raven's Brew coffee, a favorite from my college days. 

My thumbs really hurt from holding the throttle and brake open for so long.

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My plan was to write about sophistication. But I think I already wrote what I meant to in my previous post:

Sophistication is the virtue by which we perceive Quality or excellence (ἀρετή), especially where the material and social world intersect: food, drink, clothes, and machines, but also art.

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There is a parallel between punctuated equilibrium and Heraclitus' lightning.