I got a bunch of comics stacked up in my “Read Pile”. I really out to read them. There are actually twelve comics in there but since I only buy two or three a week that’s about a month’s worth of comics. It’s weird but sometimes I can’t read enough comics and there are other times I let them pile up for weeks. I’ve read a few things lately but I’ve been in no hurry to read them all.
I’m still out there on the bicycle. This is the latest in the year I’ve ever ridden. It’s well into December and last year I only rode until the end of November. At the time that was the latest I’d ridden. I never liked riding in the cold but it turns out that if you dress a bit more warmly it isn’t so bad. What a crazy idea.
Two years ago I finally bought a windbreaker and some thin gloves. And then last year I got some long underwear. It’s that thin modern kind that sports people wear these days. That stuff kept me warm all through November but this year I bought a hood/mask and some bicycle gloves to keep me warm in December. I’m not really sure what makes them cycling gloves. They have some leather pads on the palms and the two small fingers are sewn together like a mitten but otherwise they seem like winter gloves. I’ve been able to keep warm riding in the cold but the wind can still be nasty.
I’m trying to ride later into the year because I need my exercise, I like cycling a lot, and I really don’t want to be on the stationary bike. That’s my alternative winter exercise and it is boring. Even though I watch a TV show or movie while I do it it’s still dull and seems pointless. I usually start up with the real bike again in mid-March so that means three and a half months of the stationary bike if I had stopped at the end of November.
I cycled for the first time ever in some snow flurries. It was a little disconcerting. It was the wind that was the real trouble though. The wind didn’t make it too cold because I had to work so had to ride against it. I was tired when my ride was over. I might change my route too. I’ll stop doing my big loop and stay closer to home and ride a couple of smaller loops. I don’t like riding laps but the roads will be quieter, the hills smaller, and I’ll be closer to home if I get into trouble. Let’s see how long I can keep up the outside rides.
For some reason I haven’t been able to watch any movies lately. It’s weird. I have a bunch of them that I want to watch but haven’t been in the mood. I’ve watched or had on TV shows but have had no interest in putting on a movie. Maybe because I don’t actually want to sit down and watch something for an hour and forty minutes. A TV show is only forty minutes and that’s if I actually don’t get up in the middle of it to draw or some such.
The only movie I’ve actually sat down and watched in the last two months is “Barbarians at the Gate”. That’s an old HBO movie about the story of the hostile takeover of Nabisco in the 80’s with James Garner. Why that one? I’m not sure except I wanted to see it again. I always liked it. I’ve also been watching old episodes of Garner’s “The Rockford Files”. That’s a good show that holds up well. A classic of the 70’s even.
Another show that I watch is “Ancient Aliens”. I only have that one on in the background though because it is so ridiculous. There were six episodes in the first season and I think there will be that many again in the second and I can’t believe they’ve stretched that much nothing into all those episodes. Every show has a bunch of talking heads speculating on how there could have been aliens on Earth back in ancient times. They don’t have one piece of hard proof but that doesn’t stop them from making up endless stories because they happen to think an old carving looks like a spaceship. I sometimes find myself saying, “Oh, c’mon” out loud and having to turn off the show as it gets to nutty for me to take.
The winter means the end of street photography season for me. I haven’t made it down to NYC since October because not only does it get too cold out to comfortably take pictures but the random people on the street to take pictures of dwindle in numbers. And they all start to look the same bundled up in coats, scarves, and hats. The winter is the time to make some of the photos I took in the summer into something finished but I haven’t had the inclination to do that yet. Maybe later. Winter hasn’t even actually started yet.
I’ve been writing my comic strips in bunches these days. For most of the past year I’ve written one or maybe two a night but for the last couple of weeks I’ve written three or four of them in a day/night. I don’t know why and I don’t know if it’s good or bad I just know that’s how I’ve been doing them. Thursday mornings have also become my mornings to work on them and finalize five of them. I used to finish one a night or get them all done Sunday morning or afternoon while watching football but somehow that didn’t work out and I settled on one morning.
I’ve officially sworn off reading any “Top Ten” lists of anything. Or top whatever number. They are just so dumb, arbitrary, and a waste of my time. The last one I read was so stupid that I couldn’t take it anymore. I won’t bother to mention which one it was for fear of having to relive the moment but when I got to the end of the little article I was insulted that the author made me waste my life by reading his list. Most top ten lists I’ve ever read offer no insight into whatever their subject matter is and reveal more about the author of the list than anything else. I’ve decided that life will be better without ever reading a top ten list again. Just though you should know.
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