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shannon_aJanuary has mostly slipped away. For me it's been routine. (Not so much for the wife.) I've back to work. I've been hiking on Saturdays, but nothing new and exciting. We managed to get our first Saturday game in since September, with a Microscope session to kick off our this year's Clockwork Campaign. I've been gaming on Wednesdys and Thursdays. I've mostly homebodied on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays because it's cold outside and K. has a broken foot. We ventured out one Sunday to get yogurt and write on campus, but found that Yogurtland went out of business in October.
And so life goes on.
But today I came up with a slightly more exciting day out that wasn't just a walk to Tilden or Orinda. I went up to San Pablo to have a delicious shrimp lunch at Popeyes, then I biked through San Pablo (and El Sobrante) and down San Pablo Dam Road to the San Pablo Reservoir.
Lots of San Pablo going on.
There was more excitement than I expected in El Sobrante. That's because protesters were out blowing whistles and holding signs that said, "No Richmond Methadone Clinics in El Sobrante." When I saw them as I biked through I said, "Yay!" And that made people perk up and smile. But those smiles didn't know what to do with themselves when I started chanting "Heroin Users Die! Heroin Users Die! No Sympathy for the Sick! Heroin Users Die!"
Which is pretty much what they were saying too, but were too cowardly to admit.
Now, I could understand if people didn't want a methadone clinic in their residential area. I wouldn't either. But this is a methadone clinic going into an ugly cement block building next to another cement block building across an overly-large, over-busy, overly-fast street from an endless row of dying strip malls. It's practically the definition of where a methadone clinic should go.
But what really pissed me off was the coded racism of the protest. They weren't just protesting a methadone clinic, they were explicitly protesting a *Richmond* methadone clinic. That's a city that is majority black and hispanic. And if there was any doubt about the coded racism, the blinding white pallor of the protestors made it obvious. El Sobrante is 60% white; the protest was about 96%.
I lost my cool by the time I hit the third or fourth group of protestors and one called out to me specifically. I told her, "F*** your lack of compassion."
El Sobrante is Trump's America.
Funny story: Richmond is a really weirdly shaped city. It totally encloses the town of San Pablo with a strip of land to the east that's just one or two hundred feet wide that runs from the Hilltop Mall area in the north to the Alvarado Park area in the south. The planned methadone clinic is in that strip of land, not in San Pablo (to the west), not in El Sobrante (to the east), but IN RICHMOND. In other words, they're keeping their dirty Richmond methadone clinic IN RICHMOND.
I parked my bike at the Eagle's Nest Trail between the San Pablo Reservoir and Tilden.
I walked into the Reservoir area, then northward. Theoretically I was following Old San Pablo Dam Trail but it disappeared as soon as I got into the Reservoir area. This is typical for EBMUD. Still, I walked what might or might not have been a proper trail right along the wasterside. It was a beautiful trail with trees all along and the Reservoir to my right.
I walked a bit more than a mile to get to the entrance to Kennedy Grove. I've been there a few times, but just at their picnic tables and greens. I did sit at a table for a while and write. But then I decided to explore a bit more of the park. It's not very large, but it does have several miles of trail. I did a big loop around the southernmost trails, about 3 miles total. It was more trail with lots of nice trees. It climbed a few hundred feet up a hill and gave me awesome views of the Reservoir and other lands that side of the hills.
I was amused that two different people on the trail asked me if I knew how much further the top was. I usually don't get that on the trails. But maybe Kennedy Grove attracts less experienced hikers.
Then it was back through the Reservoir to my bike then up to Orinda then back home via BART.
Plans for another hike: get up to Inspiration Point, take the the Inspiration Trail down to the Reservoir, walk north at the Reservoir to the Eagle's Nest Trail, then hike back up that. And that'll complete my trails at the Reservoir, since I'd previously gone south from Inspiration Point to Orinda and have now gone north from Eagle's Nest Trail to Kennedy Grove.
I have 649 days left on my EBMUD Trail pass.
(May Trump have fewer days left in his presidency.)
I was happy to do so much biking. I haven't been doing much of that lately, but in the last few days I've been overcome by the thoughts of open roads, of community floating by on either side (sadly, including racist protestors) and trails that go on forever. The trip from San Pablo to Orinda is definitely hard work at times. My Fitbit tells me that I got into the cardio zone for 65% of my ride from San Pablo to the Reservoir, then 75% of my ride from the Reservoir to Orinda. Good stuff! And tiring!
I guess I have two years to maximize my biking shape, because there just won't be as much biking exercise in Hawaii.
And so life goes on.
But today I came up with a slightly more exciting day out that wasn't just a walk to Tilden or Orinda. I went up to San Pablo to have a delicious shrimp lunch at Popeyes, then I biked through San Pablo (and El Sobrante) and down San Pablo Dam Road to the San Pablo Reservoir.
Lots of San Pablo going on.
There was more excitement than I expected in El Sobrante. That's because protesters were out blowing whistles and holding signs that said, "No Richmond Methadone Clinics in El Sobrante." When I saw them as I biked through I said, "Yay!" And that made people perk up and smile. But those smiles didn't know what to do with themselves when I started chanting "Heroin Users Die! Heroin Users Die! No Sympathy for the Sick! Heroin Users Die!"
Which is pretty much what they were saying too, but were too cowardly to admit.
Now, I could understand if people didn't want a methadone clinic in their residential area. I wouldn't either. But this is a methadone clinic going into an ugly cement block building next to another cement block building across an overly-large, over-busy, overly-fast street from an endless row of dying strip malls. It's practically the definition of where a methadone clinic should go.
But what really pissed me off was the coded racism of the protest. They weren't just protesting a methadone clinic, they were explicitly protesting a *Richmond* methadone clinic. That's a city that is majority black and hispanic. And if there was any doubt about the coded racism, the blinding white pallor of the protestors made it obvious. El Sobrante is 60% white; the protest was about 96%.
I lost my cool by the time I hit the third or fourth group of protestors and one called out to me specifically. I told her, "F*** your lack of compassion."
El Sobrante is Trump's America.
Funny story: Richmond is a really weirdly shaped city. It totally encloses the town of San Pablo with a strip of land to the east that's just one or two hundred feet wide that runs from the Hilltop Mall area in the north to the Alvarado Park area in the south. The planned methadone clinic is in that strip of land, not in San Pablo (to the west), not in El Sobrante (to the east), but IN RICHMOND. In other words, they're keeping their dirty Richmond methadone clinic IN RICHMOND.
I parked my bike at the Eagle's Nest Trail between the San Pablo Reservoir and Tilden.
I walked into the Reservoir area, then northward. Theoretically I was following Old San Pablo Dam Trail but it disappeared as soon as I got into the Reservoir area. This is typical for EBMUD. Still, I walked what might or might not have been a proper trail right along the wasterside. It was a beautiful trail with trees all along and the Reservoir to my right.
I walked a bit more than a mile to get to the entrance to Kennedy Grove. I've been there a few times, but just at their picnic tables and greens. I did sit at a table for a while and write. But then I decided to explore a bit more of the park. It's not very large, but it does have several miles of trail. I did a big loop around the southernmost trails, about 3 miles total. It was more trail with lots of nice trees. It climbed a few hundred feet up a hill and gave me awesome views of the Reservoir and other lands that side of the hills.
I was amused that two different people on the trail asked me if I knew how much further the top was. I usually don't get that on the trails. But maybe Kennedy Grove attracts less experienced hikers.
Then it was back through the Reservoir to my bike then up to Orinda then back home via BART.
Plans for another hike: get up to Inspiration Point, take the the Inspiration Trail down to the Reservoir, walk north at the Reservoir to the Eagle's Nest Trail, then hike back up that. And that'll complete my trails at the Reservoir, since I'd previously gone south from Inspiration Point to Orinda and have now gone north from Eagle's Nest Trail to Kennedy Grove.
I have 649 days left on my EBMUD Trail pass.
(May Trump have fewer days left in his presidency.)
I was happy to do so much biking. I haven't been doing much of that lately, but in the last few days I've been overcome by the thoughts of open roads, of community floating by on either side (sadly, including racist protestors) and trails that go on forever. The trip from San Pablo to Orinda is definitely hard work at times. My Fitbit tells me that I got into the cardio zone for 65% of my ride from San Pablo to the Reservoir, then 75% of my ride from the Reservoir to Orinda. Good stuff! And tiring!
I guess I have two years to maximize my biking shape, because there just won't be as much biking exercise in Hawaii.