Maybe not enemies
🔗 “Worse than I’ve ever seen” - Paul Wells
I’m not here this week to tell a story of despair. I was impressed by what I saw of the Alberta government reponse to the opioid crisis, which reflects a level of ambition and concerted effort over time that I rarely see in government action anywhere.
I’m glad to see this getting pragmatic attention, rather than rhetoric
Welcoming George to our family
So far Lucy is mostly ignoring him
🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃♂️ 2024 Milton Sprint Triathlon
My third year in a row for this one and, despite pouring rain for the entire race, it was still fun and well organized. My times across the three have been within minutes of each other. Although this one was slowest of the three, given the conditions, I’m happy with the overall results and ended up 12th in my age group. At least in the swim, it didn’t matter that it was raining.
🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃♂️ Ready for tomorrow
🇵🇹 Lisbon trip
The second half of our Portugal trip was fun too. We stayed in São Vicente, to the east of the historical core. Lisbon is certainly bigger than Porto, so we used the transit system much more extensively and the Lisbon cards came in really handy with their access to transit and attraction discounts Castelo de São Jorge offered some great views of the city, after a pretty steep hike. A sailboat tour was a great way to see the city, especially since it included beer.
Finished reading: The Dog Sitter Detective by Antony Johnston is an entertaining and easy to read murder mystery 📚
Finished reading: The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss is a fun interlude of the Kingkiller Chronicle series 📚
Finished reading: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie is a good continuation of a great series. Includes some interesting ideas about AI 📚
Finished reading: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson has a good twist on the humans-colonizing-other-worlds narrative, along with his usual, highly technical descriptions 📚
🇵🇹 Porto trip
The Porto half of our Portugal trip was great fun. We stayed on the west side of Bonfim, relatively close to the historic district and walked (seemingly) all over Porto. The one exception was taking the 500 bus out to the ocean for the afternoon. We also took a day trip out to the Douro Valley for a couple of winery tours and port tastings. Well worth the trip for gorgeous scenery and tasty wine.
🏃♂️ Today’s run was a fun exploration of Porto
Gorgeous views in Porto. We’re having a great first day here
🔗 Variations on the Theme of Silence
Silences that close us off, refusing connection, shoring up the ego at others’ expense—those are dead silences. But the letting-go sort, the silences that hold space or keep vigil for someone else? They are alive.
🏃♂️ Nice to be mostly on trails for today’s run
🎧 Perfect albums
On Hemispheric Views 110, Jason asked: Pick in your mind a perfect album. And I think it’s mostly open to interpretation, but I’m kind of thinking an album that you would say you could just start from beginning, let it run all the way through, without skipping songs, without moving around, just front to back and just sit there and do nothing else and just listen to that whole album.
Finished reading: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter is entertaining. Takes a relatively simple premise about parallel worlds and really works through the implications 📚
🏃♂️ A misty run this morning
🚴♂️ Nice to get out of the basement for a proper ride outside. First one of the season!
The coffe and pastries halfway through were very helpful.
Finished reading: Jinx by Matt Gemmell is a fun read. I enjoy these characters and the settings Gemmell places them in 📚