Countdown to Tokyo

 The flight from Seattle to Tokyo appears to be on time. The flight next to it is going to Seoul, and the flight across the hall is going to Haneda. 

No is lined up yet. There are gate agents milling around the entrance to where people line up. The mask wearing is more pronounced the closer you get to the gate. Masks are mandatory on the flight. 

What are people going to go do in Japan? Everyone seems to have a purpose for this flight. My seat is seat 1A, in business class. ANA is supposedly one of the nicest airlines in the world, and the business class seat is next to the window with a little table distancing it from the aisle. Hopefully there will be opportunities for mask removal. Certainly when turned away from the aisle. 

The United Club lounge was a bit depressing. There's something depressing about watching overweight people stuffing their maws before getting on a 10 hour flight where they'll remain stationary, and then they'll get off the flight and take a taxi so they can sit at home and continue their sedentary lifestyles. There's also something depressing about the amount of people drinking in a priority lounged at 1030am in the morning. Alcoholics gravitate to places where they can drink without judgement. The airport is one of the few places in the world where it's not that weird to drink at 7am. 

Forty five minutes before the flight. People in wheelchairs being loaded on. The prospect of a cappuccino or latte looms. Or champagne. A 787-8 Dreamliner. Watching movies. Reading the Railway Bizarre Theroux book. 

No cold plunge for me today, unfortunately. The streak is broken. Yesterday was 12 seconds, and it felt glorious. Tomorrow afternoon upon arrival there should be opportunity, and also opportunity for yoga. 

One of the gate agents looks as thin as a wisp of smoke and can't weigh more than 50 lbs. It's sunny outside. Spring is coming soon, only a couple months away. No need to travel for a long time. Spring is nice in Seattle. Why flit about the country when you can remain rooted at home. 

They're still not quite boarding.  Any minute now. 

More of a management problem

 He walked into Herkimer coffee, where the girl working the counter was still beautiful but not quite as radiant as the first time he'd seen her. Last time he was there he'd been uncaffeinated, like really uncaffeinated; it'd been two months since he'd had caffeine. But this time it'd been 20 minutes since he'd had caffeine, 100mg in a FocusAid with yerba mate. 

Can I get a 12 oz oat milk latte? He said to the bearded guy working the espresso machine. Men in coffee shops in Seattle tended to be bearded. He himself was bearded, but that was out of sloth. He also believed the beard accentuated his eyes; there'd been some scintillating eye contact in the last few days. 

The beautiful girl didn't ask him how he was doing. The exchange was perfunctory. He took his oat milk latte to a stool by the window, looking out at Phinney Ridge. Behind him he could smell the coffee roasting. What a treat to be in a place where they roasted coffee on site, not like smelly Colombia where the coffee was roasted two months before in vietnam. 

After the coffee he walked around green lake, which was less than three miles but more than two. And then he went back to the boat and did yoga and a cold plunge. For the cold plunge he stayed in the water 10 seconds. That was his goal. Ten seconds. Ten seconds was his goal. And he met his goal. He met his goal but didn't exceed it. He did yoga. The girl at the coffee shop. Radiant. A walk around green lake. Oat milk latte. Oat milk. Oat milk. Oat milk. Latte. Green lake. Radiant. 

Wait! Wait! Actually, he didn't walk around green lake. Or he did. It doesn't matter. Ok, it matters a little bit. He walked around green lake, but then after he didn't go home. He got ANOTHER coffee at milstead. He looked at flights to Japan. 

Ok the flights to Japan part is also a lie. 

He looked at flights to Mexico city. 

His dad had told him that morning that he DIDN'T pass the interpreter test. But it didn't matter. He hadn't expected to pass. 

To the level of what AutoCAD could do in 2000...

Almost none of it is rocket science...

But it's a lot of hard work...

In some ways it's more of a management problem...

Should I Freeze My Membership?

 I don't know if I'll post this but I just wanted to do a bit of writing this balmy January 5th morning. I don't know why it's so much warmer today than yesterday. Definitely didn't need long underwear this morning. This morning for coffee I had one BIG tablespoon of grounds with hot water poured over it. Twice. Poured the water over it twice. That was it. Tomorrow coffee will be axed completely, and I'll have either mate or just cacao in the morning or whatever. Today NO REFINED SUGAR FOR THE LOVE OF YAWEH. 

Ginger is sleeping. Darren and I are trying to figure out where to go, and when to go. Should I just keep my SBP membership for this month. Cuz like I feel like we might leave in the next few days, or we might leave like midway through the month. And if we leave midway through the month then what am I gonna do till then but climb?

Climb.

I wanna climb outside but there's rain in the forecast from now till the endtimes. 

I don't really wanna go to westport this weekend. 

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Today is a 1:15 longer than yesterday. The sun sets at 4:32pm. It rose just before 8am. Civil twilight lasts till 5:09pm. Nothing super exciting. The next milestone is the 8th, when sunrises finally start getting earlier, moving from 7:57am to 7:56am.

Around the middle of the month we have several milestones:

 1) A two minute daylength increase on Jan 16.

 2) The first 6pm nautical twilight on Jan 17.

 3) The first 9-hour day on Jan 19. 

4) Civil twilight till 5:30pm on Jan 23. 

And FINALLY, 5) the first 5pm sunset on Jan 26. Which is no longer "middle of the month" but whatever, who's counting? Slash I'm counting. I count every day. 

Going to SBP Fremont in a bit. Can't decide what the goal should be. Climb as many oranges as possible?

OK I'm gonna go down there. Should I freeze my membership?????

Japan, Maybe

They call it sunshine in a cup. This is what I think about as I sit at Forecast Coffee, in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighborhood, drinking an oat latte. This is not a decaf latte, which means in a couple hours there's a decent chance I'll have a nervous breakdown. I'm kidding, of course. Well, maybe emotional breakdown. Coffee seems to have that effect on me. But possibly not GOOD coffee. Good coffee, or rather great coffee, can send me into a state of euphoria. Like the time I was in Berlin and I went to a coffee shop in (I think!) the Prenzlauer Berg district, and now I can't remember for the life of me what it was called, but I came out of it feeling like I'd just taken ecstasy and spent the next couple hours marauding through the streets and swinging from tree branches.

I was going to go to Squamish today, but my shoulder is hurting and I don't know if I can be bothered to drive up there. It is supposed to be dry, though. But then if I climb there that could hinder a possible Gold Bar session on Wednesday. My body needs rest now, and needs it bad!!!!! Last night I didn't drink too much. Maybe three or four drinks. Maybe five? I don't think so, though, because I never even felt that buzzed and certainly never drunk. You see the drinking was spread out over a long period of time. A glass of beer at the beginning. Two or so brandies with ginger beer later on, and then at the end of the night a glass of sparkling wine. Throughout the WHOLE evening, though, sweets. Lots of sweets. Sweets make my body feel so bad. So inflamed. But hey, it was New Year's Eve. It's not the end of the world. 

Speaking of end of the world, the world is reborn today, this first day of two thousand and twenty three. The sun isn't exactly SHINING in Vancouver, but it's pretty damn nice outside. The oat latte is just starting to kick in. I have half a mind to do a LONG walk around the city, a randonée, if you will. I find that after coffee a long walk can be the best idea. You definitely don't want to sit around. Hell, maybe I'll even still drive to Squamish. Why not? I could walk around the Grand Wall, check out boulders, maybe even climb a bit if it's somehow dry. But then again, my shoulder. 

Tomorrow I leave early to drive back to Seattle, where I'll be dog sitting for a few days. I'm excited. I'm also excited to go somewhere after that, somewhere far away, and warm. Mexico City, maybe. Hong Kong, maybe. Japan, maybe. Australia, maybe.