I’ve never been good at dealing with life on life’s terms, and being a selfish and spoiled type, easily get down when I don’t get what I want. I got to experience that side of me again this week. My boss finally pushed through the severe pay cut she has been aiming at for the past couple of years. I’m now down to about 60% of the wage I was hired at a decade ago, with less than half the paid vacation, a much-reduced medical plan, no allowances and footing the bill for the company to produce the work it…
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Strange things are at play today, starting with a sunrise that for a fleeting moment created a scene like the cover of a pulp science fiction book from the ’50s or ’60s. The sun was shaped like a perfect disc and rose above the horizon, turning the early morning sky into a hazy shade of pink. Gradation of light meant that this blended into the gray and specks of blue that were also evident and made for a spectacular sight. It was lovely to ride. The light is enormous, and being able to see from the get-go makes a huge…
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Riding today was like floating through the heavens at times, reminding me of one of my favorite songs by the world’s greatest rock band: The Rolling Stones‘ Get off My Cloud. I’d have loved to have been able to keep the scene for myself as I rode through the mists along the Tama River, sometimes staying above the clouds as I rode along the levy. Thoughts were a bit too cloudy for my liking, too, as I go through another character-building, growth stage, I guess. Wasn’t a great start to the day. Struggled to sleep again, as I have for…
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This morning was an absolute ripper, with a fantastic full moon setting on the ride upstream and the rising sun resplendent in its glory as it came up over the Tama River when heading downstream. In-between, mists formed over the river, making it feel like I was cycling above the clouds at times. It was truly breathtaking, yet again. The day was also reasonably pleasant, cool rather than cold. It was truly a morning to savor. Of course, things are never that easy. I woke in the middle of the night, full of anxiety and fear yet again. I’m in…
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Mother Nature turned on an absolute bloody ripper of a morning with the sunrise of the year so far, at least as far as I am concerned. The skies were simply glorious as light broke through, blended with the clouds and created a mix of vibrant colors crossing the spectrum. And the clouds played their part, too, creating swirls in the skies that shaped an otherworldly ambience. It’s the second consecutive fantastic sunrise I’ve seen and was simply breathtaking. I spent a lot of the ride voicing my thanks to Mother Nature for such a stunning start to the day.…
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Nature turned on a absolutely glorious morning – albeit a freezing one. There was a huge moonset in one direction and a delightful sunrise simultaneously in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the only camera Kangaeroo was carrying was on a smartphone. This rarely takes decent pics at the best of times, let alone trying to get a lunar shot, which is challenging at the best of times with the most sophisticated equipment. Then, blessed with a delightfully colorful sunrise and otherworldly cloud pattern on the return journey, positioning and timing rendered photographic evidence impossible. Kangaeroo was not in a good spot…
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Kangaeroo is not a young marsupial. He is old, fat and lazy. Exercise is not his thing. Yet, thanks to the humble bicycle, this exercise-averse old codger can enjoy a relatively healthy lifestyle. Every morning, almost without fail, Kangaeroo wakes, dresses, has a cup of joe and gets on his bike. For the most part, it’s not a long ride, but it’s a ride. Kangeroo has got a lot of cobwebs in his head and these rides usually help to clean them out. They’re back soon after the rides are finished, but even so, they would be much worse without…
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May weather is generally the best of the year in Tokyo, by Kangaeroo’s reckoning, and though it looks like it’s gonna shape that way, it would be nice to say “bye” to the cold until at least the late autumn. The first weekday of May greeted early risers with a delightful sunrise over the Tama River. Rain started falling around midday the previous day, rendering riding as a bit too tough., The rain persisted overnight and into the early hours of the morning. The forecast was for the weather to clear and become sunny by the end of the day.…
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Following yesterday's lousy weather that curtailed almost all cycling, today shone bright as an opportunity to get back onto the bike.
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There have been better days than today, but this one is up there for peculiarity (in a minor sort of way). The morning ride was nice in spite of tiredness that became increasingly more obvious the more Kangaeroo rode. Not helping was having woken before 3 a.m. again and not being able to get back to sleep. Sunrise was spectacular, but fleeting, and didn’t really make for the nicest of photos. Still, it is a wonderful time of the year in Tokyo. Following a morning meeting, there was enough time left before work started to nick over to Costco to…