Sunday. A very nice day much like yesterday. Another bicycle ride. I live for this, especially during the colder months when all I do is daydream about riding. And with it being another nice day I had to go. This time in the opposite direction, north to North Bergen. Along the river, since nice views on the Hudson River Walkway. Not connected south of Weehawken. Nah, that would make sense and add convenience.

I pedaled about 13 miles today. At one point I passed an older woman who looked like the older women I knew when I was a younger man. She was probably 20 years older than me today whereas back in the day she was probably 40 years older than me. I made eye contact with her as I went past and she yelled if I had passed her earlier.

I clearly hadn’t since she was walking south and I was bicycling north. I yelled ‘no’ about 20 feet past her and I heard her say that someone nearly hit her as they were passing earlier. She was that loud, enough that I heard her 30 feet away. I rode up to North Bergen in the shadow of the Galaxy Tower. A modern-esque tower on Boulevard East, a block away from where Julio’s Mother lives.

After a short spell to chill out an hydrate, it was back down to Hoboken, riding through neighborhoods that did not exist 30 years ago. I avoided the walkway just for a different scene and in case the woman who was passed was still wandering around and shouting at bicyclists. And there were quite a few bicyclists out today, mainly all men. And the occasional head nod as we cycled in different directions.

Roads that were closed off for construction for a number of years had opened since I was last riding in these parts. I took a chance and followed a hastily designed ramp which was probably created as an afterthought, though it wasn’t designed for bikes it seemed quite narrow for a wheelchair. Hoboken is woefully not designed well for bike riding on the Hudson, unlike Weehawken to North Bergen.

There have been summers in the past when Sinatra Drive was closed to cars on Sundays, making it a pedestrian plaza for a few hours on Sundays, but the drivers made a lot of noise, leaned on their horns, and nowadays are able to drive through on Sundays. Hoboken is trying though. Most of the piers and walkways are now shut off to the public as they are under construction again. I guess they went with the low bid 30 years ago and here we are re-doing it since it started to fall apart again.

Back to work tomorrow. Back to the tumult. I’m glad I’ve taken to applying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s theory on the five stages of death five stages of death to my situation at the job that I once enjoyed. If they’re going to let me go then do it. It’s the acceptance part of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the final stage. For those playing at home, the five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Just get on with it will ya?

One of the habits of trying to write at least 500 words a day is the habit of avoidance. I know I have to write and there are distractions from doing so. For instance, I use Google Drive to write this and also use Google Photos. Both are buttons very close to each other on my browser.

And I figured that I had better start writing and clicked the wrong button and fell down a very pleasant rabbit hole, looking at photos of Bill for a few minutes. A lovely slideshow was created, courtesy of Google which I duly shared with a few variations of Bill.

Presently a documentary on Joe Strummer is on, ‘The Future is Unwritten’. I’ve seen it before and wasn’t keen on viewing it again. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very good. Various talking heads, and associates of Joe Strummer intersped throughout interviews and videos of The Clash.

There were 2 documentaries on Joe Strummer, the other was ‘Let’s Rock Again’. One of the two, or maybe both have footage of JOe on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, close to begging indifferent people to see him with the Mescaleros. The people were indifferent to Joe and it was sad.

Never saw the Clash or the Mescaleros. Each time I had a chance I figured I’d see them next time and then they didn’t exist anymore.

I’d like to think my easy distraction tonight is from riding 12.8 miles this afternoon. I usually do 14 miles but today it was different though the route was basically the same. I did not stop off and buy a cigar en route like I usually do, but would that account for 2.2 miles? No, it would not.

And on top of all that, I’m pretty much tired from all that today, more than I would be if I rode 14 miles. I ride through Jersey City to Liberty State Park. It’s a good ride and I like to think a safe route that I take, but things do happen. Nothing bad happened today though.

It had been raining most of the week and today, Saturday was quite nice and sunny and the yellow grass of Liberty State Park was verdant, and with a week of rain, the ground was dry. There were quite a lot more people out and about in the park this afternoon.

I have an electronic device on my bike as a bell to let people know I’m approaching. It’s nice but it doesn’t register with people generally until the tone goes from bells to a buzzer. I also have a Brazilian Carnival Whistle which I used today and it did get people’s attention. I’d blow the whistle from about 50 feet away and that definitely got their attention.

Pedestrians are one breed and the other are the Citibike renters. They are generally clueless and ride all over the place. And on top of all that, there are the delivery guys. They all have electric bikes and there are a lot of them. They do not follow the rules of the bike lane.

More about them some other time.