Greetings from a cold, icy, and slightly snowy 53.5° north latitude. It was cold enough that I did not feel like going outside this week, and other than taking the garbage out on Wednesday and the recycling on Thursday, I stayed inside from Sunday to Saturday. 

It was a pretty quiet week, with the focus on reading, music, and watching a few YouTube channels. There was one new beer and a new coffee, one book finished, and a handful of new words. Like I said, pretty quiet. 

Reading Pile:
Book #4 for 2021 was "L is for Lawless", the twelfth book in the Kinsey Millhone series and the second book in 2021 that I have read from that series. L was a good book with a different feel and pacing from the first eleven in the series. This is likely due to the fact that Kinsey spent most of the story outside of California, and I cannot remember her spending much time outside of about ten miles from her home in the first ten books. She did venture to San Francisco in K so maybe author Sue Grafton was feeling trapped by keeping her protagonist confined to a small town. I also note that Grafton lived in Louisville, which is a location in the last part of L, so maybe there was a desire to write about her home town. 

I am now essentially half-way through the series. These are easy books to read and I imagine that I will finish them all, but I doubt I will read them so soon in succession as I did K and L. Two Kinsey books in one month was a bit much, even if they are enjoyable reads. 

New Music:
Lots of music this week, with four artists and five albums in the Music Finds playlist. 

First up was the Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk album I mentioned last week. Honestly, I was expecting more from this duo. The album starts out super strong with "Evidence" and Blakey killing it on the drums and Bill Hardman doing likewise on the trumpet. The rest of the album was good, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for so much more. 

Next were two albums by Nick Cave. The first one was his "Live from KCRW" album, which did not really resonate. The second, "The Boatman's Call" was much better. I thought the first half was superb, but I lost interest in the second half. There was too much melodrama and ennui to sustain me for nearly an hour. 

The third artist was Robohands, a project of London musician Andy Baxter, and the album "Shapes". The whole album was good and "Leaves" and "Ikigai" were outstanding. I am definitely going to queue up more from Robohands in the future. 

Last up was a Finnish psychedelic metal band called Jess and Ancient Ones. I gave their 2015 album "Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes" a couple listens in an attempt to force myself out of my comfort zone. I surprised myself by quite liking the album, especially "The Equinox Death Trip" and "Crossroad Lightning". The final song on the album, "Goodbye to Virgin Grounds Forever" is 22'35" long and would be a great song to listen to at the end of the evening at the Edmonton Folk Fest. Their Wikipedia entry lists the lead singer as Jess, no last name. Their vocals were very reminiscent of Grace Slick and early era Jefferson Airplane. 

And finally, Phil Collins turned 70 this week and Tidal had focus on his music. I was, am, a big fan of his music so listening to some of his music with Genesis or his solo material was a great reminder of what a talented musician he is. Check out this article from Tidal and the link to a Phil-Collins-as-Drummer playlist.

New Beers:
Just one new beer this week, and it was unfortunately a disappointment. Beer #719 was the Radio the Mothership Imperial Double IPA from Collective Arts. This is highly bitter beer with an IBU rating of 100, and with a high ABV of 8.5%. I am a big fan of Collective Arts, and I think they are one of the best brewers in Canada. My average rating for the 16 check-ins I have for Collective Arts in my Untappd profile is 3.53, which is a fair bit higher than my overall average of 3.36. Like I said in the opening sentence though, this one was a disappointment. 

I got a lot of peppery pineapple in the taste and it was quite carbonated, much more so than I would have expected in an Imperial. It did have a nice haziness and color, but the aroma was off somehow. I did have two cans of this and my experience was similar for both so unless it was old outdated stock, I recommend a pass on this beer. (3.0 /5)

New Coffees:
I got a treat this week on the coffee front as I was able to open a new bag of beans. The Espresso Sicilica from Cherry Hill Coffee out of Kelowna. This coffee gives a nice dark espresso with a thick crema and a really nice aroma. The taste is a bit fruity and is definitely more dense than recent beans I have purchased. I bought one bag of this on my own and got another for Christmas, so I suspect I will be drinking this coffee for a couple months. 

I have to admit that I am still confused about how much coffee I should be using in my espresso machine. The minimum recommended amount seems to be 17 grams of coffee, but I can barely hit 15 g in my portafilter. Cherry Hill recommends 21 g on their site. I did have an issue with my manual grinder and I have wondered for the past few weeks if my grind was too coarse which was therefore not allowing me to pack enough into the portafilter.

I had to get a replacement shipped out to me last week, and I am happy to say that the grind is significantly better with the replacement. The pictures below tell a story. 

There are two grinds in the left image. The coffee in the glass jar was ground with my original Eparé Manual Coffee Grinder (epare.com)Manual Coffee Grinder, and the grounds on the counter beside it are store-ground espresso. You can see how much finer the grind is with the store-ground. After asking a few questions with the customer service team at Eparé, they sent me out a replacement grinder. The image on the right is what the new grinder does, which is quite an improvement. I am happy with the grinder, but I am even happier with the customer service. 

New Words:
There are a decent number of words this week. Some are from recent readings, and the rest are the remainder of the words I flagged while reading War and Peace. 

gabion
[ˈɡābēən]
NOUN

1. a wirework container filled with rock, broken concrete, or other material, used in the construction of dams, retaining walls, etc.

postilion
[pəˈstilyən, pōˈstilyən]
NOUN

1. a person who rides the leading left-hand horse of a team or pair drawing a coach or carriage, especially when there is no coachman.

maunder
[ˈmôndər]
VERB

1. talk in a rambling manner.
   
2. move or act in a dreamy or idle manner.
   

allegiant
[ uh-lee-juhnt ]
ADJECTIVE

1. loyal; faithful.

NOUN

1. a faithful follower; adherent:

courtly
[ˈkôrtlē]
ADJECTIVE

1. polished or refined, as befitting a royal court.
   
2. given to flattery; obsequious.

putto
[ˈpo͞odō]
NOUN
putti (plural noun)

1. a representation of a naked child, especially a cherub or a cupid in Renaissance art.

exsufflation
[ex·​suf·​fla·​tion | \ ˌeksəˈflāshən \]
NOUN

1. the action of breathing forth or blowing
   
2. forcible breathing or blowing out (as in clearing the respiratory tract) : forcible expiration

nous
[no͞os, nous]
NOUN

1. (BRITISH) (informal) common sense; practical intelligence.
   
2. (philosophy) the mind or intellect.

hair shirt
[ˈhe(ə)r ˌSHərt]
NOUN

1. a shirt of haircloth, formerly worn by penitents and ascetics.

The denizens of 53.5° north latitude welcome you to the weekly blog. Or at least, I welcome you. It was a quiet week, with two new beers and one book finished. There was a lot of music listened to, but I want to get through it all one more time before I make any comments, so we will leave that for next week.

Let's get on with it, shall we?

Reading Pile:
Racism is ugly, dehumanizing, terrible. Reading about racism is difficult. Owning up to racist comments or actions is gut-wrenching. But talking about racism is absolutely necessary.

It is easy for us Canadians to talk about how terrible things are in the US, with their overtly racist President who presided over them for four years, and how many of their policies and actions are specifically designed to demean black people. So when I read this week's book, Book #3 for 2021, Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr.'s "Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and its Urgent Lessons for our Own", I tried to reflect on what his book about America says about how Canada has historically, and presently, treats the Indigenous people.

Glaude talks about how the insistence of whites to be included in the future is ridiculous, given that they have never been EXcluded before. The insistence of expecting gratitude for providing rights and freedoms to black Americans is revolting, given that the black people should never have had those right and freedoms stripped from them in the first place. In Canada, this is reflected in how we have parceled out tiny bits of land for the Indigenous peoples and expected them to be happy that we gave them anything at all.

Glaude also talks about the need for truth and reconciliation, but how important it is that we know and speak the truth before we can reconcile. I was in my mid-thirties before I even HEARD the term "residential school", but at least in Canada we have started to speak the truth to what we have done. "Begin Again" highlights the lie and illusion of The American Dream and The Promised Land, both of which hide the truth of the racism in America.

The cries of "what about us" and "all lives matter" from whites underscores how distorted the racist view is. It is not that ONLY black lives matter, it is that THEY NEVER HAVE MATTERED in the eyes of so many people. The same could be true about how Indigenous people are viewed in Canada. As Glaude puts it:

Later in the book, Glaude discusses how Trump fits in to today's conversation about race and equality. The important point is that Trump "and his ideas are not exceptional." In other words, admit that America is racist. Admit that this hatred and demeaning of an entire population is a founding principle of America. Trump and "the people who support him are just the latest examples of the country's ongoing betrayal" of the promise of a true and equal democracy.

In Canada, the discussion a few years ago about what to do with the statues of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, pointed out the brutality and cruelty of pretty much every white person in the mid 1800's. This article highlights some of the amazing and awful things done in the name of progress in Canada's earliest days. We are not much better than our neighbors to the south.

I encourage you to read this book, whether you are an American looking to understand your country, a Canadian looking to understand yours, or just someone trying to understand the world in order to start the work in building a better world.

Baldwin's words that Glaude used to title his book are the signal we need. It is not about looking in the past to demonize or glorify, but rather to look to the future and to Begin Again.

Cycling Update:
It was a decent week for riding. The time in the saddle is increasing, even as the distances decrease. Colder weather means slower speeds. Earlier this morning I went out for a one-hour ride in the -19° C weather and only averaged 15.7 km/hr due to the cold temperature. However, getting out a few times in the cold is more psychologically bolstering than it is a cardio boost.

I was able to complete the segment to Clearwater, B.C. Looking up interesting information on Wikipedia did not reveal too much, which is not surprising given the municipality only became official in 2007 and there are just over 2,000 people there. The one fact of note is that the hospital is named after John Sebastian Helmcken, a physician and politician that was key to negotiating British Columbia's entry into the Dominion of Canada in 1871.

Below is the updated image of my progress. I am unlikely to make it all the way to Blue River in this upcoming week, but Valemount (with a U) beckons in the distance.

New Beers:
Two new beers this week, one a pleasant surprise and one a disappointment. I will highlight the pleasant surprise first.

Beer #717 was the Lemon Lavender Radler from Yukon Brewing. Yukon is a brewery that I should pay more attention to. This radler was fantastic and I really, really liked it. It was sweet but not cloying, had nice citrus without the pith, and a smooth taste that was very refreshing. It was the highest rated beer in a long time. (4.0 / 5)

If I were asked to bet last week which beer I would like more before trying these, I would have swapped things around. Lemon and lavender does not sound that appealing to be honest, and the previous drinks from Fallentimber were all really good. Beer #718 was their Hopped Mead. I thought it tasted a bit burnt, and was not nearly as good as their other meads. I also realized that I have never checked in their Meadjito which is superb, so I will buy that again to grab a photo and a checkin. Not every product from a brewery, or in this case a meadery, is going to be perfect of course. One low rating should not take away from how good the rest of their product is. (3.0 / 5)

New Words:
I will close out this week's entry with a few new words, most of which are from my ongoing catch-up of the words I flagged in 2020 as I read "War and Peace".

gantry
[ˈɡantrē]
NOUN

1. a bridgelike overhead structure with a platform supporting equipment such as a crane, railroad signals, lights, or cameras.
   

sterlet
[ˈstərlət]
NOUN

1. a small sturgeon of the Danube basin and Caspian Sea area, farmed and commercially fished for its flesh and caviar.
   

aiguillette
[ˌāɡwəˈlet]
NOUN

1. an ornament on some military and naval uniforms, consisting of braided loops hanging from the shoulder and on dress uniforms ending in points.
   

timorous
[ˈtim(ə)rəs]
ADJECTIVE

1. showing or suffering from nervousness, fear, or a lack of confidence.
   

mantilla
[manˈtēyə, manˈtilə]
NOUN

1. a lace or silk scarf worn by women over the hair and shoulders, especially in Spain.
   

ambo
[ˈambō]
NOUN

1. (in an early Christian church) an oblong pulpit with steps at each end.
   

Greetings from 53.5° north after a relatively boring week, at least in comparison to the previous one. This week was filled with reading, riding, and work, with the added milestone of being caught up on The Mandalorian. I have to hand it to Disney. Mando was such a well-done series with a great mix of comedy and tension. Plus the return of Boba Fett, Bib Fortuna, and Luke Skywalker did not hurt of course.

I am actually interesting in watching the upcoming Star Wars content coming out on Disney+, and this coming from a lifelong fan who had seriously soured after "Solo" and "The Rise of Skywalker".

Enough geeking out. Time to get on with the rest of the update for this week.

Reading Pile:
Book #2 for 2021 was "Cibola Burn", the fourth book in the Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. There are a lot of reasons why I like the Expanse series. Certainly the action is good and the implications of humanity spreading out throughout the solar system and beyond is always fodder for interesting thoughts and speculations. However the best reason to read the series is that the good guys always win. Someway, somehow, they get things to work, but not with a macho, lone wolf bullshit trope, and not with some deus ex machina intervention. They do it with love and an undying loyalty for each other. They are highly principled people, even Amos who could be considered a killer, and the clarity their principles give them drive the forward to do the right thing and ultimately to be successful. Definitely recommend the series if you are interested in science fiction, space exploration, and humanity.

Cycling Update:
It was a good week in the saddle. As I mentioned before, the distance I am traveling is not great but I am happy with what I am doing for the distance I am riding. I rode for just over 69 km this week but got some killer hills in and some good top end speed, which feels really good on my heavy winter bike with studded tires.

From a milestone point of view on my cross-Canada virtual tour, I made it to Barriere, British Columbia. As I virtually ride north on Highway 5, Barriere is the first settlement of note north of Kamloops. According to Wikipedia, Barriere only became an incorporated settlement in 2007, even though it has been home to the Simpcw people for thousands of years. The other interesting note I could find is that Barriere is at the same latitude as Stonehenge, so they have erected a scaled-down replica in tribute.

Here is the updated progress chart. I should be able to easily make it to Clearwater next week.

New Music:
I wrote about 250 words for all of the great music that I found this week, but then Weebly went and screwed up on me and the whole section was lost. Instead of trying to redo it all, I will give a quick summary.

• Another Art Blakey, "Barber" this time, great Cuban sound
  
• Father John Misty did four covers of Leonard Cohen on an album called "Anthem +3"
  
• The New Mastersounds album "Shake It" which was okay, but "Tantalus" from their 2018 "Renewable Energy" album was great, so that album is in my Music Finds for next week
  
• Snow Patrol's album "Reworked", which I listened to because "I Think of Home" showed up in my feed.
  
• "One of These Days" from The Haggis Horns, which I heard from the stream of the French jazz station, FIP
  

New Beers:
I had four new beers this week and either they were all not very good, or I am just in a phase where I am not liking beer. These beers seemed average at best and two of them were definitely below average.

Beer #713 was the Fat Sherpa porter from Establishment Brewing in Calgary. It came highly recommended and my community on Untappd really liked it. I found it a bit smoky but did not really enjoy it. (3.25 / 5)

Beer #714 was Father John's Winter Ale from Howe Sound. This was very aromatic but bland tasting. The winter spices did not really come through for me. (3.0 / 5)

Beer #715 was another from Howe Sound. The Megadestroyer Imperial Licorice Stout got points for originality but again I was not overly impressed. The initial shock from the licorice taste did pass quickly but there are many other Imperial Stouts that I would recommend before this one. (3.25 / 5)

I have now had three beers from Howe Sound and they are averaging 3.06. I think that is enough of a sample to give them a pass next time I come across them.

Last up for Beer #716 was the Sour Citra from Les Trois Mousquetaires out of Quebec.I picked this up thinking it was a Sour Cherry beer so it was a bit disappointing. Nice pithy taste, but the sour was just there and not really part of the beer. To be fair, I might have been a bit biased since I was looking forward to a sour cherry beer. (3.0 / 5)

New Words:
The first word in the list of new words for this week is right from the title of the book I finished. A few others come from that book and others come from my catch up work with War and Peace.

cibola
[see-buh-luh]
NOUN

1. the Seven Cities of, legendary cities of great wealth believed by earlier Spanish explorers to exist in the SW United States.

codon
[ˈkōdän]
NOUN

1. (biochemistry) a sequence of three nucleotides which together form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule.

hector
[ˈhektər]
VERB

1. talk to (someone) in a bullying way.

chiral
[ˈkīrəl]
ADJECTIVE

1. (chemistry) asymmetric in such a way that the structure and its mirror image are not superimposable. Chiral compounds are typically optically active; large organic molecules often have one or more chiral centers where four different groups are attached to a carbon atom.

nacre
[ˈnākər]
NOUN

1. mother-of-pearl.

boojum
[ˈbo͞ojəm]
NOUN

1. an imaginary dangerous animal.

blackamoor
[ˈblakəˌmo͝or]
NOUN

1. (archaic) a black African or a very dark-skinned person.

mummer
[ˈməmər]
NOUN

1. an actor in a traditional masked mime, especially of a type associated with Christmas and popular in England in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

insuperable
[inˈso͞op(ə)rəb(ə)l]
ADJECTIVE

1. (of a difficulty or obstacle) impossible to overcome.

parterre
[pärˈter]
NOUN

1. a level space in a garden or yard occupied by an ornamental arrangement of flower beds.
2. (NORTH AMERICAN) the part of the ground floor of an auditorium in the rear and on the sides, especially the part beneath the balcony.

Greetings from 53.5° north. Another busy week with all of the COVID support work for the day job, interspersed with a few good rides, some good beer, and good music.

While I cannot, and will not, complain about my life, it is is remarkable how much it has shrunk. I went out today to buy a few groceries and it was the farthest I had been from my house in over a week, bike rides excepted. That might not seem like a big deal, but the grocery store is 1900 m from my house. I am reaching out virtually farther from my house to connect with others than I ever have, but more and more, I am not physically reaching out. I have to wonder if I will be able to connect in person if this continues for another year.

But then again, maybe connecting in person is not something that I really want to do. There was some nasty business years in the making at the US Capitol, and close to home there were pro-Trump rallies. I really do not understand this. Trump is American and we are Canadian. What will a protest in Red Deer, Calgary, or anywhere in Canada do to help support any attempts to overturn the US election? My guess is that those protests were less about Trump directly and more about white solidarity.

I will leave that discussion for now at least and post this image. Imagine being a black police officer looking at that mob.

Cycling Update:
It was a good week in the saddle. I cycled for 72 km this week, putting my monthly total at 101 km. More importantly, at least with respect to my virtual cross-Canada tour, I finished the leg from Vancouver to Kamploops. I have now cycled 863 km since I started keeping track in pursuit of the virtual tour.

Next up is Kamloops to Valemount. Just an FYI as it was news to me that it is "Valemount" and not "Valemont". This third leg will be 322 km and only has four segments. If you have driven this stretch of highway, you know there are very few towns and settlements along the way. Lots of great scenery, but that is it.

Some fun facts about Kamloops according to Wikipedia. The population of the census metropolitan area is over 100,000 people. The word Kamploops is the anglicized version of the Shuswap word "Tk'əmlúps", meaning "meeting of the waters". Kamloops is technically in a desert, and average temperatures for this time of year are just above freezing. The regional airport in Kamploops has the airport code of YKA.

The images below are the updated chart of the legs and segments to date, and a map view of the next leg to Valemount (with a U, remember that!).

New Music:
The last few weeks have really seen me get into jazz. This week that trend continues with a bit of journey into swing and R&B.

The first find in the Music Finds playlist this week was the album "HH" from Lionel Loueke. HH is short for Hang Up Your Hang Ups. I assume that at least since Hang Up Your Hang Ups is the first song on the album. Loueke is a jazz guitarist from Benin and I love his style. The HH track I mentioned above, Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man and more are all really good songs. I added the songs and the album to my Tidal favorite list so looking forward to seeing more from him and seeing his music influence my feed.

The second find was the album with the journey into swing and R&B. "Last Man on Earth" by Big Boss Man is a fifteen-track album with great guitar, a bright horn section, vocals from multiple guest artists, and a nice clean percussion in the background. I favorited a third of the album so I will definitely be listening to more from Big Boss Man in the future. Note that this was a 2014 recording, so new to me but not new.

New Beers:
Two new beers this week, both from Alley Kat. First up and coming in as Beer #711 was the latest in their Dragon Double IPA series, the Loral Dragon. This one had a striking amber color and had a nice maltiness. I found the taste had a bit too much pepper in it which took away from the malt and the hops. Still pretty good stuff. (3.5 / 5)

The second beer and coming in as Beer #712 was their 2020 Holiday beer. This year Alley Kat brewed up a Milk Stout which was a nice change. There was a nice creaminess in this as you would expect from a milk stout but it could have used a bit more flavor. I compared it to the Situation Iconic Milk Stout which I rated at 4.0 out of 5 and this was close but not as good. As with the Loral, still pretty good stuff. (3.5 / 5)

New Words:
I was going to catch up on a few words I have flagged in War and Peace, but I thought it would be appropriate to only have one word this week. If there was anything good out of the US Capitol Insurrection, it was that I learned a new word watching the news reports. Many of the media reports discussed how Trump had "fomented" the rioters. Apparently you can foment or ferment discord and rebellion, but you cannot forment it (with an r) as forment is not a word.

foment
[ˌfōˈment, ˈfōˌment]
VERB

1. instigate or stir up (an undesirable or violent sentiment or course of action).
2. (archaic) bathe (a part of the body) with warm or medicated lotions

Happy 2021 from 53.5° north!

I took last week off from writing as I needed time to rest, recharge, and reflect. It seems everyone else had the same thought, especially in regards to reflecting. A lot of content crossed my feeds about how crappy 2020 was, how glad we can be that it is finally over, and that better things are ahead.

I have multiple problems with those statements and the underlying attitude that creates statements like that. First of all, it is not guaranteed that 2021 will be any better and I am concerned that people are setting themselves up for a great disappointment. Second, not everything was bad in 2020 and it is important to recognize the good instead of simply bemoaning the bad.

The following text was something I sent to a person I got to know somewhat in 2020, somehow who I have followed online for a long time. The pandemic and the disruption to our lives was terrible, not mentioning the impact to human life across the world. However, I was able to take some solid positives out of the past year, and I hope this helps you reflect on your year more positively as well.

As 2020 came to a close, news outlets, consulting groups, social media networks, independent journalists and pretty much every other organization came out with a summary of 2020, and of course the focus of many of these summaries was COVID. Two that I really enjoyed were from Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey. I featured the McKinsey charts on changing leadership behaviors from McKinsey a few weeks back. The one chart that really staggered me was the one about how many children are now learning from home. See the image below.

In other news, the cybersecurity industry was stunned by the extent of the SolarWinds breach. From a day-job point of view, I have read a lot about this and have a good understanding of what this means. I also have some information that is probably circulating in the CISO circles globally but is not public knowledge. In addition, I have a few subscription services that I could reference, but those are behind paywalls. As a result, I will stick to information in the public domain.

One consistently good source of analysis regardless of topic is Lawfare. In this post, the timeline of the attack is discussed. It is vital to understand that this is not something that was done, discovered, and remediated in a few weeks or months. This was an attack that was planned and executed years ago, and was executed with serious skill.

Even if we could wave our magic wands and remove the affected versions of the SolarWinds software, the scope and scale of the access this breach provided means we will be working to remediate for years. It is not hyperbole to say that we might never know the impact and cost associated with this breach. I am sure I will have more to say about this in the future.

Reading Pile:
I had a goal in 2020 to read 52 books, or one a week. I hit a terrible reading drought in September but still ended up with 48. I had to finish four of those books in the last ten days of the year, but a book read is a book read regardless of when it is read.

Book #45 for 2020 was "The Great Hunt" by Robert Jordan, the second book in the Wheel of Time series. I finished the first book in the series back in September and was really glad I read the second book. I have had issues with the length of the series and a few of the gender stereotypes but I think this read of The Great Hunt helped clarify what Jordan was trying to do with his characters. Yes, the brooding-emotionally-distant-male and feisty-but-emotional-female tropes do exist, but the characters do have depth beyond the stereotype. I am glad I re-read this and am looking forward to the third book in the series.

Book #46 was the sixth and final book in the FunJungle series, "Tyrannosaurus Wrecks". My younger daughter and I read all six books in the series in 2020, and I said in late November I was not sure that I needed to finish the series. However, the final book in the series popped up as a loan from the library and so we decided to plow through it. In the end, it was an enjoyable book, and a great series, and I am glad we read it together. But six YA books in one series in a year was a bit much.

Book #47 was the Tolstoy classic, "War and Peace". I started reading this on January 1, 2020, and finished it on December 31, 2020. I did not read a chapter a day as I suggested a year ago, but I did follow along with the Reddit book group for a large portion of the year. This was a book that made me think a lot, and I think that reflection was worth the 1224 pages and 366 days of reading. There is probably an entire long form post about War and Peace, but I am not sure I could say anything that has not already been said. Let's leave it at the fact that I am glad I read it.

Book #48 and the final book for 2020 was "Wyrd Sisters", the sixth Discworld book from Terry Pratchett. I really wanted another Rincewind book as I find him a wonderful if hapless protaganist, but the Witches were really interesting characters - funny, intelligent, completely stupid, all at the same time. I am looking forward to reading at least a couple more in this series in 2021.

And finally, we need to get into the books for 2021. Book #1 for 2021 was "K for Killer" the eleventh book in the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. This was a really enjoyable story with a few gasp-worthy moments and a decent enough story to keep me up late two nights in a row. The elapsed time in the book was less than a week, so the story moved along quite quickly, and that kept me reading. It was not the tumultuous ending that some of the other Millhone / Grafton novels have had, but in a way that made this one more satisfying.

With that book started and finished in the first three days of the year, I am on pace to read 121 books in 2021. I probably will not get quite that many, but you never know what the year will bring.

Cycling Update:
I felt pretty good about my cycling in the last two weeks, even though I only rode for 112 km. The fact that I am getting out is part of it, but my rides are getting more challenging. It feels good to push myself up a hill, especially on a heavy, old bike with studded tires in the middle of winter.

I finished the segment to Merritt and am twenty per cent of the way to Kamloops. According to Wikipedia, Merritt has a population of about 7,000 people, with an economy focused on ranching, farming, forestry, transportation, and tourism. Being only 87 km to Kamloops and 270 km from Vancouver, it is probably close enough to other centers to have what it needs and far enough away to remain a small town and close community, but honestly on the drive to the coast, it has never been more than a pit stop for me.

New Beers:
Looking at this entry, it might seems like lots of new beers in the last two weeks. However, five beers in fourteen days is a new beer every 2.8 days which is only a bit faster than my pace since I started logging on Untappd. (For the record, my pace is one new beer every 2. 98 days) The five beers this fortnight were a dark ale, a strong ale, a scotch ale, a sour, and an IPA. Definitely winter beers in that selection.

Beer #706 was the Squid Ink Cascadian Dark Ale from the Olds College Brewery. Not bad, a bit bland but I think that was by design - a dark ale without the big booziness or powerful flavors of a winter stout. Decent enough to drink the four pack, and happy to support our local great agricultural college and brewmaster program. (3.25 / 5)

Beer #707 was the Hot Summer Nights IPA from SYC Brewing in Edmonton. This was a really good beer. There was a lot of juiciness, and the hops were strong but not overpowering. Easy to drink fast but watch out for the relatively high ABV for an IPA. (3.75 / 5)

Beer #708 was another 2020 Alberta Beer Week Unity brew. This one was led by Railyard Brewing out of Calgary. A decent beer with a lot of flavor. Seemed a bit flat but might have just been my can. I will look out for other beers from Railyard after this one. (3.25 / 5)

The fourth beer in the last fortnight was another Alberta brew. Beer #709 was the Haskap Aromatica Sour from Odd Company Brewing in Edmonton. I really wanted to like this one more than I did. Great color and aroma. The flavor seemed a bit off though, but that might have been because it was not cold enough. (3.0 / 5)

The last beer in the fortnight was from British Columbia. Beer #710 was the Hopraiser West Coast IPA from Howe Sound. Howe Sound is a brewery, a brewpub, and an inn in Squamish. Sounds like my kind of place. Back to the beer, the Hopraiser was not bad. It had a fair bit of hops and a fragrant aroma. Got a bit of malt in the taste but other than that, it was a bit bland. (3.25 / 5)

New Words:
Lots of new words this week, partly due to all of the reading and partly due to the fact that I am catching up on all of the flagged words from War and Peace over the year.

hie
[hī]
VERB

1. (archaic) go quickly.

insuperable
[inˈso͞op(ə)rəb(ə)l]
ADJECTIVE

1. (of a difficulty or obstacle) impossible to overcome.

homunculus
[həˈməNGkyələs, hōˈməNGkyələs]
NOUN

1. a very small human or humanoid creature.

odalisque
[ˈōdlˌisk]
NOUN

1. (historical) a female slave or concubine in a harem, especially one in the seraglio of the Sultan of Turkey.

passel
[ˈpasəl]
NOUN

1. (informal) (US) a large group of people or things of indeterminate number; a pack.

hikikomori
[hiˌkēkəˈmôri]
NOUN

1. (in Japan) the abnormal avoidance of social contact, typically by adolescent males.

emesis
[ˈeməsəs]
NOUN

1. (technical) the action or process of vomiting.

cep
[sep]
NOUN

1. an edible European and North American mushroom with a smooth brown cap, a stout white stalk, and pores rather than gills, growing in dry woodland and much sought after as a delicacy. Also called king bolete, porcini.

obstreperous
[əbˈstrepərəs]
ADJECTIVE

1. noisy and difficult to control.

mansard
[ˈmanˌsärd]
NOUN

1. a roof which has four sloping sides, each of which becomes steeper halfway down.

holographic
[ˌhäləˈɡrafik]
ADJECTIVE

1. (pertaining to wills) a handwritten and testator-signed document and is an alternative to a will produced by a lawyer

ingenuous
[ˌinˈjenyo͞oəs]
ADJECTIVE

1. (of a person or action) innocent and unsuspecting.

cotillion
[kəˈtilyən]
NOUN

1. an 18th-century French dance based on the contredanse.

chibouk
[CHəˈbo͞ok, SHə-]
NOUN

1. a long Turkish tobacco pipe.

balalaika
[ˌbaləˈlīkə]
NOUN

1. a guitarlike musical instrument with a triangular body and two, three, or four strings, popular in Russia and other Slavic countries.