"Love Lockdown"

Oh, the irony of my last post's title before this and the current Level 5 Lockdown. Had to go with a Kanye title here since he just had one of the most rambling interviews I've ever heard with Joe Rogan. But I digress.

If you ever wondered "could I live within a 3 mile radius of my house?", you probably think about big picture apocalypse scenarios way more than I do. Or you're paranoid.

I never wondered about that when I lived in cities where that idea wasn't the worst thing in the world. "Hey, we got Chipotle, delivery, and Chipotle delivery, what else do I need, right?". Well, I'm in a town of about 14,000 people right now at best, and it's not teeming with those type of opportunities.

But it is very beautiful. Even within 3 blocks of my house there's a gorgeous park. It might be worse in some ways if I was trapped in Manhattan with all the amenities in the world but no way to escape. Especially after hours of Zoom and being glued to your computer all day, it's probably better for me to go to the park than play some video games. I'll have a whole section in a minute about a beautiful bike outing I had yesterday.

All that being said, if I'm being honest, I am a little nervous about moving away next week to Galway. Not because Galway's got a higher COVID prevalence rate (not on my list of things I care about), but because I'm not 100% sure if I get there or not. Here are the options for how next Sunday goes for me:

1) 5 Stars- I drive straight through from Killarney to Galway, don't get stopped at all, and settle in perfectly 🙏

2) 4 Stars - I drive straight through until I get to near enough to Galway, but the Garda realize that I'm just trying to get to my place of residence and let me go anyway. Heart attack, but I'll take it! 😅

3) 3 Stars -I get stopped almost immediately and am told to turn back but not fined. I do have a place to live here in Killarney indefinitely, so not the worst thing in the world, but not ideal. 😐

4) 2 Stars - I get stopped about halfway and am stuck in no man's land, let's say near Limerick or so. 😡

5) 1 Star - #4 happens, and I get a hefty fine. 😡💰

I do have a car rented, so let's hope and pray for the top 2, eh? My landlord here is at least nice enough to let me stay here if things go (as they say here) tits up. The two justifications I could *possibly* raise if I get stopped are:

i) this is essential travel because I don't have a place to live, and I will work remotely from my destination for the remainder of this lockdown

ii) i could schedule a covid test in Galway, which would make any travel I had to get there legitimate.

Still considering doing the second thing, though that is difficult for an American to do here.

Now that I've quieted my anxiety about next week, let's reminisce about the coolness of yesterday

"Day Tripper" (The alternate title for this post that I *think* I used already)

Sometimes you just gotta take a bike ride here! I live 3 blocks from one of the most gorgeous parks in Ireland, and you gotta take advantage.

"the road goes ever on and on..."

I also know other locals here feel the same way, saw a whole bunch (well a couple dozen, per capita that's a whole bunch!) out yesterday. Including a wedding party right around this area above.

I had mapped out "what was 5k from Killarney",as well as paranoid explanations to a Garda if I was stopped. I'd like to say I also carefully plotted a course away from the main highways, but that was just happenstance.

Turns out, Muckross House (old looking house/farm) and Torc Waterfall were both *basically* within 5k of Killarney. So I figured I'd take a ride and check them out. Yes, yes, I'd seen them both already within prior travels, but you have to take advantage... plus should be less crowded, right?

Muckross was the closer of the two, and fairly deserted when I got there. I was here last year and dozens if not hundreds of people were milling about, traipsing through the gardens, going to the petting zoo (zoo closed now, sorry, no adorable farm animal pics). Pretty empty by those standards yesterday.

You know those days where the sun is out and it just revivifies you instantly? Definitely one of those. Once I got here, I locked up the bike and took a walk down several of the paths to check it out. Saw a couple of mushroom hunters in one of the more heavily forested paths. But honestly, pretty much had the run of my place to myself. And the cows. But let's say myself.

Once I was done walking around, I had a choice to make: I could turn around and be completely law abiding, or I could go a little further to go to the waterfall. Heck, it was an extra kilometer tops past my lockdown radius, and I always have the "I'm a stupid American who can't convert miles to kilometers excuse".

Naturally, I do love waterfalls, so biked around to there. It's interesting, they have a bunch of great paths from Muckross to Torc, for "jaunting cars", for walking, and for biking. But when you get there, no real place to lock up your bike... wtf?

Anyhow, I did finally arrive and leave my bike chained to a flimsy wooden fence so I could see a waterfall a fraction the size of one I grew up near in Buffalo.

I still dont know what Torc means.

The bathrooms here? Closed. What do you do if hearing/seeing the waterfall makes you have to pee? Poor planning.

I did the short hike to the top and bam! Gorgeous waterfall.

(hoping that slomo effect worked in the video!)

I saw maybe one other person on the trail, but there were at least 10 cars in the parking lot. I began to think "Hey, maybe everyone's just disregarding this whole lockdown thing and Garda don't care".

You know, it's just at these moments that reality can come back and slap you in the face. As I walked down to unlock my bike, I saw a Garda patrol car (an actual one! Not like the Toyota van with "GARDA" sloppily emblazoned on the side I saw in town) going through the parking lot. Naturally, I lazed back a little, took my time before heading out. What would have happened? Probably nothing. It's a bank holiday weekend, and maybe he was just looking to ask some of the folks in cars where they were coming from. After all, how far could a man in my physical condition have taken a bicycle anyway, right?

Ride back was pretty uneventful... I was surprised how much quicker it was than the ride to get there! Only things of note were "bicycle-area pain" due to lack of a cushioned seat/knowledge of bike-riding/bike clothing and ordering myself a burger, fries and a beer to celebrate, and thus erase any benefits, from my exercise.

Random Things:

...where's the "Hoya" pepper?

-As I collected my food from Reidy's, the guy behind me says without a trace of irony or humor, "I'm here to collect my pornstar....[HUGE PAUSE].... pornstar martini?" And the cashier, unblinkingly just handed his order to him. This drink must be way more popular than I had realized, because if you say pornstar in the states in any public (non-AVN) setting, it's going to get a glance or a giggle.

Why must you torment me??? I know!

Moment of Zen