There is no doubt that past generations used to be better equipped for the handling of grief. Our aseptic modern world has certainly done some incommensurable damages protecting us from all the vagary of life. It’s not all for the wrong reason, mind you. After all, life expectancy has improved and, statistically speaking, we’re simply less likely to face one of the harshest realities of life; its ending.
Of course, globalism and consumerism have brought deaths by the numbers on our shiny flat screen but there are just that; numbers. The covid-19 drama, tonight at 9pm.

The moment the covid-19 death rate passed the threshold of one thousand a day in France last year, the French newspapers, in unison, decided to report only the “deaths in hospital” and were quick to bury the rest of the dead. No pun intended, not today. The “numbers” were everything.

The most difficult part of grieving is that I have to force myself to not think. The wrong word, the wrong image – the wrong thought even – and I will break. But I must think. I need to think. Otherwise, guilt quickly settles in. “How dare you avoid the object of your grief? So soon, already?” says the accusing voice. 

Thinking about Tom Lincoln again, as he carefully assembles the wood planks of his wife’s coffin the day of her death. Would any of us be able to even stand?

Thinking about you mom. Rest in peace.

Never ending Winters…
At this point I think it’s pretty clear we’re witnessing Ragnarok.

Love, Loyalty, Learning. Still not sure if they’re complementary or just three sides of the same coin (shut up). Working on it.

Since I have no desire to go to the gym these days I thought I’d buy an exercise bike. I should have done that last year really but better late than never I guess…

My “usual” gym routine when I train for something is to workout seven days a week for about 90 minutes (60′ cardio / 30′ weight) every day. Usually at 4:30am because the gym is less crowded except for the “regulars”.

I don’t have any goal but I’m sure I’ll come up with something later in the year…

Photos from the last snow storm. Most of it is gone but we’re expecting some more later today…

Thought I’d go to the park for a little stroll 🙂
Not too crowded today. A few firefighters. A Young mother pulling a sledge (the two year old didn’t seem really happy honestly). A few skiers. That’s about it really.

Lustitia has seen better days. That much we can agree on.

Every now and then the weather forecasters predict the snow storm of the decade. They’re usually wrong. Regardless, Denver (and the surrounding suburbs and cities) are bracing themselves.
It seems Monday will be a great day for grocery shopping. The reason being that grocery stores have been emptied by a terrified mob on Friday evening…
As for the snow…well, it just started lightly. Boulder, Colorado is expecting thirty inch (76cm). Denver? Up to twenty four inch (60cm).

Estes Park could see more than two meters of snow over the weekend. Good luck every one.

Sunday, 8am update – So far so good. Only a “reasonable” amount of snow…

“No Curfew / Open Colorado”

Curfew was never that bad in Denver and / or Colorado but the 11pm forced close down of bars & restaurants (versus 2am usually) is getting old. At least we never had a 6pm curfew…like, you know, “some countries” 🙂

I actually didn’t know we still had a 11pm curfew in place. That’s how much I go out these days.
I talked to the group who put up that flag; that’s how I know.

Update: City Park got even more crowded for my second bike ride of the day. Two-step dancing happy people  who put that flag up are still there, enjoying a cold one at the lake, under a warm 20 degree Celsius and a nice blue sky while Parisian cops are removing people from the river side because…Covid-19.

Morning workout, yesterday, shoveling all that snow…

Nice bike ride around City Park before the evening snow. It was good to get out of the house. I still hate seeing people wearing masks. I hate every part of it. I don’t know what’s more depressing really; witnessing this ugly dehumanization of individuals or being stuck at home…

Anyway, this is pretty amazing:

I’m one or two episodes behind but at this point I don’t really expect that show to make sense. Ever. It’s just weird and it’s gonna stay weird.
Anyway, I made an executive decision this week. I’m going to buy a little Ethereum once a week on Monday. Not too much, something like $128 a week (it’s a good number) and just treat this as a saving account of some sort. I started yesterday and oh, look at that! It’s already up 🙂
This is in addition to the 0.08 ETH I’m currently mining every month.

It’s a holiday weekend (Washington’s Birthday) so, of course…
It might actually be warmer at the top of the rocky mountains 🙂

Update: The forecast shows -21 for Saturday night (no risk of fever there) and -22 for Sunday.
I’ll be home playing Tetris, drinking hot chocolate.

I bought some dogecoin (120000) last week at around $0.0085 and sold them today…WAY TOO EARLY. Sold at 0.0218 but the price went all the way to 0.0509.
$1600 gain is not bad but it could have been so much better…
Oh well, just ordered some Blue Pan Pizza to celebrate (Detroit style). I’ve never had it. Picture to follow…

The mining rig is still running. About $72 worth of Ethereum mined so far. The graphic card is not super fast but I should be able to mine one Ethereum per year. Current price is $1366 per ETH so I won’t retire on that but it pays for the pizza 🙂

“I am what I do in the dark now, I bleed only for myself.” – Matt Murdock

The moment I heard that quote I stopped the video and searched for it. Apparently I wasn’t the only person to do that 🙂
As a writer, I think that’s one of these sentences that, just after writing them you think; “wow, where’s that coming from? I like it!”

Historically, I’m not a big fan of the Daredevil character. I keep thinking; “A blind person can’t do that. It’s not realistic. This makes to sense!”
On the other hand I’m fine with the falcon millennium reaching light speed. Go figure.

I’m kind of addicted to this show. The violence/gore seems mostly unjustified and I could do without but it’s pretty good. And it sounds amazing on my home theater setup.

I just cancelled the useless HBO subscription and subscribed to Tidal HiRes Audio (on a trial basis)

I’m totally addicted.  The sound quality is phenomenal compared to Spotify & the old regular flavor of Amazon music (which I cancelled two years ago)

Now I need better audio gear. I have a Denon x4700h 9.2 arriving today for Audio/Video.

My Polk Audio Lsim707 speakers are great but very difficult to drive. I’ll be buying a power amplifier plus a network streamer later on…My short list:
Cambridge Audio Azur 851W
NAD C 298 Stereo Power Amplifier

The Musical Fidelity M6s PRX Power Amplifier looks fantastic but $2,490.00 is a bit steep. I’d rather stay around $1500 price tag and maybe buy a second one at some point and run the two of them as “mono blocks”.  The NAD would stand at 650 Watts per channel in bridged mode. That should do it 🙂

I’ve always been fascinated by people’s face. Think about it; almost 8 billion people on this planet. All different. And more importantly than this difference, human’s ability to tell them apart. This ability is a thing of wonder to me.
I can’t imagine something more dehumanizing than these face covering policies. We’re literally hiding the one thing that makes us “an individual in the crowd”. Going outside, biking around city park as become the most depressing experience. Faceless, anonymous drones everywhere.
On the other hand this will make it that much easier to leave this meaningless world for the virtual one. The human sacrifices of the V-World (Caprica) don’t look so bad now do they?
A little landing pad in the front yard for the Amazon Drone to land so we can get food and the latest hi tech toys. Whether for work related meetings, gaming or just a little chat, our only interactions will be that of our respective avatars in the virtual world. One day someone’s gonna go; where’s David? I think he passed away. No, this can’t be! I saw him in VR last week! He just probably forgot to turn off his machine and the computer just keeps on playing…

Good job everyone, good job.

I might elaborate later on. For now let just say that the damage done by Jack Dorsey, Tim cook, and Jeff Bezos cannot be overstated.
Just because you can behave like a fascist doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

I deleted both my Twitter & Facebook accounts. If you’re looking for me, this is where I’ll be 🙂

January 8th, 2021 – A very dark day for freedom.

June 20th, 2020
The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America. This year it remains closed to cars so I’ve decided to bike to the top at 14,131ft starting from Echo Lake. About 28 miles RT.
I had to abort the first attempt last week at Summit Lake mostly because of the wind. This time I decided to push through no matter what. Lots of snow on the road still so the last few miles were painful but I made it.

Amazing views all along the road.

Old insulation was some sort of cellulose powder. Not particularly good and very dusty.

The layer of R11 on top of it was definitely not good enough for Colorado.

I removed all of it, bagged everything and vacuumed.

Added some nice R15 / R19 between the joist and about thirty OSB boards so I could walk everywhere.

Finally, added a second layer of R30 insulation on top of everything. Voilà!