July 14, 2025
I'm in a one-track state of mind
Pile-up on track two
And just like that, the engine on track two sees that someone's thrown a barricade across the tracks just a few hundred yards ahead. It looks like a demonstration of some sort, there are people in masks facing each other down, there's an acrid smoke in the air, timbers are burning atop the barricade and dark clouds fill the air.
Air brakes are applied and the crew do their best but it's too late for a graceful stop when Cortisone Dreams comes to a complete halt and its vision of racing the rest of his days down these parallel tracks across the Mojave comes to a sudden, permanent end. There are shouts and screams and chaos when the train plows into the barricade, cars bump violently against each other, buckle and fall on their sides or rise up in the air. There are casualties to be sure, and we can only hope the carnage isn't too bad and favored the more deserving and innocent. The engineer is skilled, experienced, alert, and a firm believer in the Hippocratic Oath and the Serenity Prayer; but hopes and prayers can only take you so far. Some day that long dormant volcano to your east really is going to blow its top and that submerged fault to your left is really going to break loose, and just like that the life you've always known will come to an abrupt, catastrophic end. Some things just can't be helped.
Meanwhile, over on Line 1 Tyenne Travelin' just keeps on keeping on as he races ahead toward the the distant horizon, racing down a monorail now. The passengers inside are all rubbernecking at the catastrophe on their right, thanking their lucky stars that it wasn't them as they look back at the smoke quickly disappearing from view. And then they turn their faces forward, go back to their devices, and settle back in to whatever they were doing before.
Phew! Dodged a bullet, this time.
=============
But hold that thought. First, let's go back to last night when #TT left the hood to escape the worrying risk of another parking ticket and headed over to his favorite watering hole. We left him there, but there was a bit more to his day worth remembering and sharing.
First, he swings by Justa Pasta to return something that didn't belong to him - the serving knife he stuffed into his pocket when the dinner party decided to move indoors to escape the wind and helped Erika clear the table by collecting their drinks and silverware.
It's just past three when he pulls in next to the outdoor seating area. Erika is outside setting up chairs for the evening session and looks up with a smiling but surprised look when he asks if she's missing anything and brandishes the knife. A few pleasantries are exchanged, she accepts the proffered blade, and then suddenly exclaims excitedly and turns to run back inside. Odd behavior - We wonder if she's been smoking something.
But she returns quickly, extending her right arm to him with her own offering: a spare bicycle tube that got left behind. Too funny, and it makes him feel like a pack rat as he drives off laughing before soon returning to whistling Hi-Lily-Hi-Lo.
After that he drives over to Chapman School and finds a bench in the shade to sit at while he waits for the Lab to open its doors at four. He's brought his camera with him and has his eye and ears alert for birds, but none are seen or heard so he finds a few other subjects to focus on while he waits.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
At the Lab he takes his seat staring at the eastern wall for a change because he didn't bring the bike inside to pose in front of the Labrador collage. In front of him are arrayed everything he brought in with him, in the layout that works best: every object lies separate on a light surface, nothing on top of another, nothing hiding behind his ever present iPad where it might get knocked off the table or forgotten. When he leaves all he needs to do is collect everything in sight and then make one last look around in case he's missing something.
He hangs out at the Lab just long enough to wrap up the post of this exceptional day and to write up a summary of the plan for this winter that he and Rocky discussed earlier, and then heads back to the car. His luck nearly runs out though when he pulls into his street, shielding his eyes as he drives into the bright sun, and starts angling across to the other side of the street where there's a vacant parking spot he can slide into when just in time he can barely see another car through the glare driving straight at him because he's driving the wrong way down a one way street.
Trust But Verify saves many lives and avoids many catastrophes, but so does blind luck. You want them both working for you.
At home, the team exchanges hugs and news and then settles in to watch a film he's been wanting to see again: Blowup, a film that came out while he was still in high school and he hasn't seen since - long enough so he's forgotten what a strange, strange film it is. Rocky says she gets to pick the next one and then heads to the bedroom to read the day's journal.
A bit later he goes in to say goodnight one last time, and is surprised to find out that she's struggling to figure out which post he's talking about. She's not sure which track it's on, or which is new or even if she already read it before. And just like that it's obvious that one of these engines has to head for the retirement home, and fast.
============
Phew! Sighs of relief can be heard in the next room and throughout the world, if you listen or read between the lines carefully enough. Thank God He's Sane At Last you can almost hear folks say to each other, although there's still some nervous laughter about the tone, because after all he's still pretty damn speedy and will be until he gets the drugs out of his system.
So what does all this mean, sports fans? I'll come back later and rewrite the about section and retool the track to incorporate some of the features I experimented with in the other side before long. I still have the vision of making this a continuous journal that's organized in a way that makes for manageable reading, and I still want a format that supports digressions to explore parts of our lives that we'd like to remember and share now that they've come back to mind somehow. And we'd like to fill in gaps in our narrative and personal history that explain a bit about where we came from and how we ended up with such eccentric lives.
As just one example, I want a structure that lets me share these two long lost photos that came my way this afternoon and then say something about what they have to do with both my personal history and my life on a bicycle:
And I'll find a way to do it and give the context of these photos when the time feels right, experimenting with some of the ideas I was testing out over in the madhouse. I'm pretty sure there will be a table of contents and appendices for managing material like this, and it won't be long before I start building them in. It'll still be experimental, but on a one track mind.
For now I'll just point out what's probably apparent already:
- We'll be down to one track as soon as we sweep away some of the carnage on line B. It should end its run in a day or two.
- We're still racing away at 35 mpd, but we're slowing down as fast as we can.
- I've changed my mind about sequence and am going to post entries In reverse chronological order so the newest entry is always at the top of the list and pretty much impossible to miss. I'm hoping that other ideas - chapters, appendices, jump tags, a what's new section for significant updates to former posts so you don't have to peer down the track looking for it - will all make this manageable, but we'll have to see. By the time we get to Phoenix in mid-December we'll have laid enough rail to get a sense of whether it's effective or not.
In the meantime relax, look out the window, and try especially hard to love each other right now 'cause it's a jungle out there. Especially down here in this truly mad land we'll be traveling through for at least the next half year or so.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 2 |
1 month ago
1 month ago