I Feel So Close to You Right Now

I’m writing bec I want to file a complaint to humanity. Apparently, some of our members here are teaching our kids to run when they cross the street. While I was riding my bicycle yesterday, a boy nearly got hit by a motorbike because he ran to the other side of the street. I blame this on stupid adults. I’ve seen them tell kids to run when they cross.

Like in this school where my sister used to go to. There’s this guy who is supposed to be some sort of a traffic officer. When there are kids who would want to cross, he would tell them “Dagan dayun, dali” (Run, hurry up). Apparently, this guy is a genius who has came up with a mathematical formula for accident avoidance: time spent crossing the road is directly proportional to the probability of an accident. That is not how it works, smart guy.

Let’s teach our kids to just walk. Awareness of their surroundings is more important than trying to avoid getting hit. They will not have to try to avoid to get hit in the first place if they don’t cross when there’s an incoming vehicle. I know this is pretty common sense to some parents but for some, and even for those supposedly traffic enforcers, they find this a bit too difficult to understand. I made a safety acronym after my first name, BAL, to help our kids.
Be aware of vehicle speed – let drivers who drive like morons be morons. don’t get in their way, wait until it is all clear Anticipate – always think that there is incoming traffic, no matter how quiet it is Look – left and right, and walk across.

***

 I also want to complain about this song “Feel so Close” by Calving Harris. It runs for 3mins and 25secs and it has the same lyrics. And somehow, I’m so into it. I hear it in my head before I go to sleep, I wake up to it, I sing to it in front of my electric fan. The song itself is the force field. But the redundant lyrics is not so bad. I mean, nothing can get worse than “Ice, ice baby.”

A song with the same lyrics running for 4mins? I mean, the phrase itself does not make any sense. Should adding disco rhythm to it and repeating it for four long minutes lend it some special semantics? Here’s what makes it worse: “Ice, ice baby” is sang by Vanilla Ice. I know some of our folks here have partied to that song, no offense to them. But I just don’t get it so somebody explain it to me.

***

 In this part, I’m talking like it’s Thursday. I know it’s Saturday but the photos came in late so let’s pretend that I’m some time-travel guy who can do narrative-backdate. Exactly a week ago was my last day in Velez Hospital. I had pneumonia. I carried it for a week without knowing it. I thought it’s just cough. Then my voice became hoarse.

I went to see a doctor to complain about my throat. Turns it there’s something else going on. I was diagnosed with moderate-risk pneumonia and bronchial asthma. A couple of days after I was released, I went back to riding my mountain bike and a day later, I’m back to playing football. I’m just glad that my body is very responsive to the treatment I had.

I was spent four days at the hospital, lying down most of the time, watching TV shows with painstakingly long narratives about air crashes and some crime-solving for murders that happened decades ago. There’s also this show about a nurse who fell in love with an inmate and helped him escape. They caught again anyway. I would forever remember my hospital stay for cable television, interns who come in every hour to get my vitals, and my blood pressure which is always at 110/70 even if they took it all the time.

I am happy to be riding again and just this morning, I did a long trail ride again. I have not done this in two months. I love how the trail pumped adrenaline into my blood stream like it was an unregulated IV. I love how my breath is taken away, not by asthma, but by the dreamy landscape. I love how I no longer have to worry if the nurse is inserting the IV right. I already had the mosses under the tires to worry about.

Route: Taptap-Kamandagan-Kanirag-Dita

Ride type : Pedal-all-the-way

 

Thanks to Russ for letting me ride his Jamis Parker.