Another Year of Chaos?

 At the close of 2020 I thought that I would never experience another year of such confusion and calamity. Over the next twelve months of 2021, not all that much changed. The Covid vaccinations became available and tentative steps were taken to resume a life somewhat similar to the one I knew in 2019. Then the omicron variant appeared in Africa and within days was in the United States. I was back in the throes of the pandemic once again and it continued into the new year. I had high hopes that 2022 would be the year that the country, and the world, would recover from the confusion and calamity of the last two years.

2022 began well as far as the pandemic was concerned. Case numbers and infections dropped steadily in January and February. There was no new and scary variant popping up anywhere in the world. Schools were open and by early March I was feeling safe enough to visit restaurants and bars without a mask. The winter had been a gentle one and I was looking forward to an early spring.

But events in Asia changed all of my hard-earned optimism. Vladimir Putin, the former KGB operative and current Russian president, invaded a sovereign country. His m invasion and destruction of the Ukraine threw the entire world into a tailspin replete with nightmare images of a possible Third World War. All of the efforts over the past thirty years to build peaceful relationships among North American, European and Asian nations were destroyed in a matter of days. As a nation, we are now left to decide how to react to Russian aggression reminiscent of its actions in the years following the Second World War.

How this will end is difficult to determine. The Russian people are being told lies about the war. They do not have the ability to vote Putin out of office or control his actions in any way. Many of the writers and media people have left the country, fearing even greater crackdowns on their freedom of expression. The oligarchs have money, but no power. In Russia, money does not equal power as it does in the United States. We are left to impose sanctions on Russia and help the Ukrainians with everything we can short of providing American fighters. Our country and NATO have presented a united front which has isolated Russia from much of the world. Prayers and money do not seem to be enough, but for many of us it is all we can offer to the brave Ukrainian people. 

The warm spring weather I had anticipated has not arrived, although there were a couple of warm days last week. The temperatures show no sign of improving in the next week.  I have gotten out for a couple of rides on my BMW R1250 GSA and my bicycle has seen some action. It is not the start to 2022 I had hoped for, but it is still early. One bright spot is that my church choir will be performing at the Easter Vigil Mass. This welcome turn of events is a good reason to get out my Takamine acoustic electric guitar and practice on these cold and wet March days. 

The calendar will turn to April soon, and the celebration of Easter is not far off. Perhaps this is the month that we as a nation can cast off the gloom of the past two years and walk into a bright future of peace and good health. 

I Did What During the Pandemic?

The world passed the one year mark of the Covid 19 pandemic in the middle of March. Each week it feels like we are getting closer to life as it was before the onset of the pandemic, but we have a ways to go. Doing what seemed normal at one time, like eating in a restaurant, feels safe but unusual. Avoiding other people in stores and even on the street is now normal feeling behavior. A friend described receiving a friendly touch on the arm from someone and reflexively pulling back. It will take some time to react to other people and circumstances in way we once did. As we completed one year of this life I began to think about what I had done with a lot of newfound free time.

Wisconsin was fortunate to have a dry and warm spring in 2020, so I was able to get outside when I felt the need. But it was still March and April in Wisconsin, so it was not all seashells and balloons. There were a few things I got around to that I may not have without the pandemic. 

Martin D1

There had been a few songs that I had been playing on my Martin D1 acoustic guitar, but I did not know all of the verses. A couple of them were Bob Dylan songs, so there were lots of verses. The first one I memorized was "Desolation Row". It seemed fitting. I would get out the guitar and set up the lyrics on a music stand in the living room. I learned one verse and memorized one verse every couple of days as I watched the neighbors walk up and down the street in a pandemic daze. There are ten verses, so it took about three weeks to learn them all. Next, I moved on to "Tangled Up in Blue" by Dylan and "This Hard Land" by Bruce Springsteen. That got me through the spring and into the early summer. I did not play as much during the summer, but got started again in the fall.

When the cold weather returned I picked up my Fender Stratocaster American Deluxe electric guitar and start learning lessons out of the "Blues You can Use" book. It has lessons on chord and scales with short musical examples of each concept. There is a CD enclosed that I could play along with. I had worked my way through some of it over the years, but I made a concerted effort to play for an hour each day. I am still playing most days, but life has gotten a little busier since I got the vaccinations in February. My playing skills improved noticeably and it is fun to play along with the CD. 

Fender DeVille 410 and Stratocaster

It was a quiet Christmas, which I did not mind too much. One of the gifts I received was a bird house kit. That allowed me to spend some quiet time in the basement and provide a new home for a local feathered friend. There was some paint left over from touching up the house and the garage in recent years, so the bird's house matches our house. Now I just need a good tenant. 

Available for Rent

Another basement project involved the basement windows. Many years ago a squirrel managed to get into the basement, through the old chimney I think, while we were gone for a few days. The squirrel, of course, wanted to get out and spent the time clawing and gnawing on the wooden window frames. Our basement is just that, a basement, so I never expended the effort to repair the windows. The pandemic presented a now or never type of situation. So on one of my last motorcycle rides in fall 2020 I picked up some wood filler at the local Lowe's. Once again I found some house paint that would suffice to paint the basement frames. Once the windows were painted I cleaned the glass and will take care of cleaning the outside once it warms up. 

Squirrel Repair Done

 Another activity that took up some pandemic time was jigsaw puzzles. We had not done puzzles since, well, ever, but finished up four of them over the winter. It takes some time to get started, but once we began the puzzle would become something of an obsession. They were puzzles that had been around here for years and their origins were unknown. We fully expected each of them to be missing a piece or two, but they were all complete. 

Jigsaw Puzzle Fun

I continued to do the things I would normally do during a Wisconsin winter. The snow fell in amounts that allowed the Reforestation Camp snow bike trails to be open all of January and February. By March the snow let up and the trails became too icy for me. In February I participated in a Snow Crown Series race at the camp. I rode in the beginner, or "fun group", category. It was a beautiful sunny winter day and it was nice to be out with other riders. We took a couple of car rides around the area and looked for eagles and owls. We were successful finding eagles, but not the elusive owls.

Snow Crown Race Finisher

We are experiencing unseasonably cold April weather, but warmer days are ahead. I have gotten in quite a few miles on my Trek road bike already and have had some good rides on my BMW motorcycle. Tomorrow I will be getting my Harley Davidson Lowrider S out of storage. It looks like we will be dealing with Covid 19 in some fashion into the summer, but the end of the pandemic is a year closer than it was last April. 

Winter Musings

This Wisconsin winter is one that would make even the most diehard "change of seasons" lover think about becoming a snowbird. The winter weather did not start until New Year's Eve when we received about five inches of snow, but that was a harbinger of what we would endure over the next two months. Instead of the old saw about it's not the heat, it's the humidity, this winter it's not the snow, it's the ice. Bags of salt and sand are in short supply in the local hardware and convenience stores. Yesterday there was a 131 car pileup on the local interstate and a 25 year veteran of the sheriff's department said it was worst driving conditions he had ever seen.

It has been a good weather for snow biking, though. The trails at the Brown County Reforestation Camp have gotten better each week and I have enjoyed my rides. As a newbie at this activity, it has taken me a while to figure out just how much air pressure to have in the tires. Right now I am down to five pounds and that seems about right. The park department does a great job of grooming the trails and encouraging riders to run with low air pressure.

Sharing the road with bicycles

The Chicago International Motorcycle Show was held a couple of weekends ago and that is an excellent mid winter bike fix. Some of the manufacturers passed up the show this year and I suppose it is due to a weaker market than they would like. BMW was there, though, and they showed off the latest iteration of the S 1000 RR. The bike has been almost completely redone and the one they brought had all of the high speed M parts installed. The reps on hand had no information on how much it will cost, but it is rumored that it will be in showrooms by September. They were not letting anyone sit on or otherwise caress this beautiful motorcycle.

2020 BMW S 1000 RR

I picked up a few brochures from the vendors at the show and one was from Michelin. Since my 2016 Harley Davidson Lowrider S is shod with Michelin's I thought it would be interesting to read a bit about the rubber I entrust my safety to each time I ride. After looking through the pamphlet my curiosity was piqued and I went out to the garage to inspect my tires. The bike is hooked to a Battery Tender and covered up in a cold garage. I pulled the cover back and knelt down to look at the rear tire. Surprisingly, the tire appeared to be flat. A quick check with a gauge confirmed this and I soon found that I had run over a nail or something that punctured the tire. It must have happened on one of my last rides of the fall before I put it away. My local dealer will pick it up and replace the tire once the driveway is clear of ice.

Which brings me back where I started. March is only a couple of days away and the first day of spring is within sight. Tomorrow I will be back in the woods on my fatbike trying to make the best of another Wisconsin winter.

Late Winter Fat Biking

Northeast Wisconsin received a good snowfall in mid February and I got in a last ride on the trails at the Reforestation Camp. I went out there in early March after some more snow, but the the trails were closed due to the ice under the snow. Since then I have been exploring the bike trails around Allouez.

I started riding a fat bike in December thinking it would be a great way to get outside during the winter. It proved to do just that, but now that spring has arrived I am anxious to put the fat bike away and get out my road bike. The weather has not cooperated however, so I am staying on the fat bike. The local trails are free of ice and snow, but they are still coated with salt and sand from the winter. I am reluctant to subject my Trek Alpha 2.3 to riding through that, so I am waiting for the county to use the blower on the trail.

The Fox River Trail and East River Trail, the two closest trails, do not connect on either the north or south ends. But if I ride south it is a short ride through De Pere to get from the Fox River Trail to the East River Trail. There is traffic to deal with as well as a few roundabouts, but it is not difficult. Once on the East River Trail, a rider can stay on it all the way north to the old Green Bay Packers City Stadium in east Green Bay. Then it is back on a few city streets to connect with the Fox River Trail.

Yesterday was the first day of spring, but it was not very spring-like here. So I put on my winter riding gear and headed south on the Fox River Trail. The temperature was in the mid-20's, but a brisk wind came out of the north. That made the first half of my ride pretty comfortable and I cruised easily a few miles south of De Pere.

After my usual turnaround the wind made itself felt. My Trek Farley weighs a relatively light 30 pounds, but those big tires provide some noticeable resistance when riding into the wind. But I enjoyed being out and stopped to take a few pictures on the way home.

Late last year the county received some donations and was able to install a few bicycle maintenance stations along the trail. The stations provide a bike stand, air, and a few tools. I have taken advantage of the stands already this winter and they are a nice amenity for riders.

By the time I reached home the wind seemed to have increased a bit and a warm lunch was in order. For now I am keeping the fat bike in the garage, grateful that I have a bike I can ride in this weather.