Tuesday, August 9, 2016

At This Moment In Time

I am at the library.
I owe the library 23 dollars; but if I just get that to below 20, I can again take out CD's.

I'm in no hurry to take out CD's, because I would have to listen to them in the computer room and it just wouldn't be the same.

I have 6:20 remaining on this session.

I have sent to the printer some sheet music, some of which is out of the Mel Bay books, some out of William Leavitt's "Berkley" book, which was like a bible at the music store in my home town, where all of the instructors either had gone to Berkeley or had a lot of musician friends who did.

Al Di Meola and Steeley Dan come to mind as artists who were placed upon turntables like pedestools and held up to us as shining examples of what we could achieve if we faithfully studied the Berkeley book.

There were 3 volumes, of the Berkeley book; and there was a heavy emphasis upon sight reading; I guess this is OK, but the skill of being able to have a chart placed in front of you that you have never seen and to be able to read it is cool, I mean if you are in a band playing a swank party and someone requests "Love Will Keep Us Together," by The Captain & Tennille, then there would be no excuse for a Berkely College of Music graduate (at $16K per year) to be unable to give the Fakebook score a quick once over and determine that the chord progression is just like another song; ...It's basically "I Will Follow," by Carol King, sped up a bit in a different key; with just that little different part in the middle...you might think.

So, I enjoyed my bike ride this morning immensely. I actually was riding at my leisure and was taking actual leisure -the real deal- truly happy to have a bit of time off to do things like explore...

The Lafitt Greenway


Yes, I have discovered a bike trail. 
A bike trail that runs right by my apartment 3 blocks away. It then makes an "as the crow flies" shortest distance between 2 points; with just one "S" shaped slalom in the middle journey into the heart of the French Quarter; intersecting it about 4 blocks from the Lilly Pad.

In the home bound direction it continues past the apartment, comes within a block of the Rouses Market on Carrolton Street and then goes as far as City Park. 

I think if I was still homeless and had a bike and had discovered the Lafitt Greenway Bike Trail, I would be camping out in City park and getting there through a 20 minute commute on the trail. I would be well out of the range of the sub-cycle class skeezers.

As can be seen in the photo above which is typical of the aspect presented to the cyclist along the majority of the trail, there are plenty of lights, positioned about 200 feet apart and shining with Digital Age LED hyper halogenic titanium brilliance. The result is that it is always very easy to see that nobody is within at least 50 feet of the track, and if you are going fast enough there is security in that you can't imagine someone coming out of the bush 50 plus feet away and sprinting fast enough to catch you. Anyone that fast would be a lightweight stick man like that Bolt guy who holds the world record for the 100 and or 200 meter sprint, and would be easy to fight off.

Left: This trail in Tammany Parish, on the other hand, I would not ride at night, because I can imagine crime scene tape around an area just off the trail.

On those occasions when some suspicious (i.e. young African Americans in hoodies) fellows are meandering along, perhaps on foot up ahead, there are plenty of conduits to jump off the trail and use the city streets (at your own pothole risk) to go around the potential highway robbers.

So, I went for a ride on the thing this morning; not in a hurry to go anywhere and totally enjoying it; without that annoying ebb and flow of mood whereby a pleasant thought is countered with a "yeah, but..." rebuttal. Coming from the same brain nonetheless.

I have some amaranth and some barley soaking in the apartment, and I think I will stay in and enjoy myself; perhaps get some bath salts and find something on the little FM radio.

Everything has become so "hand to mouth" lately, as I have lost almost all of the fear of being totally broke that I used to have.
Of course it was addictions that were worrying me.
"Good God, I've only made enough for maybe 2 more beers!" has been replaced by "Well, I seem to have just enough to buy my food and return home to have an excellent meal and not worry about the 17 cents that are all I have left at this moment in time....

6 comments:

  1. Bike trails are great!

    We've got 'em all over where I am. One goes out to Alviso, one goes all the way down to Morgan Hill, and a bunch go other places.

    I know about ambushes on bike trails, that was a factor on the Santa Ana River Trail in Orange County, if riders went into certain parts of it. Lighting helps, but also, make sure your bike runs really quietly, and also keep in mind that people with young/good eyes can see you pretty far away and even more so if they use any sort of cheapo little binoculars.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, but in order for them to stay invisible to you they would have to stay way back from the track or they would be illuminated; and that is too far a distance to catch a bike going, say, 12 MPH...it's all trigonometry LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep if you're not making a ton of noise, moving fast, they don't have time to react.

    The way for them to win is to put a wire across the trail, or to post a guy ahead on the trail to tell 'em a guy's coming but blacks/crackheads are no more intelligent enough to do this than coyotes are. Pretty much any defense against coyotes (stealth, speed) will work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Leave a one dollar bill laying in the trail; or a pack of cigarettes positioned to display that it is almost full; or both; in fact drop a couple of those little baggies that drugs come in to; anyone who doesn't know what they are might still stop for the money, -kind of a catch all. When they stop to pick it up; Converge from "all 4" directions...during the daytime; leave an undamaged banana -to try to rob a yuppie..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Remember those joke nickels with nails welded on, that you could pound into the asphalt and then stand back and laugh as people tried to pick them up?

    I should make some nickels and dimes and quarters that way, I've got the solder and stuff, and send you some to prank people out there, it'd be funny.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think they need to be welded; there is a quarter that is near the casino that has been there as long as I have....
    I think it is a ploy by the skeezers to find out who has money based upon who doesn't even seem to notice it vs. who keeps trying to pull it up even though it is obviously nailed....lol

    ReplyDelete

Only rude and disrespectful comments will be replied to rudely and disrespectfully. Personal attacks will be replied to in kind, with the goal of providing satisfaction to the attacker.