This year, any run that overlaps a bus route in the West Midlands (that is, on my bus season ticket) will trigger the start of eventually running the full path of said route. For example, Thursday and Friday I did lunchtime runs which overlapped parts of Route 76 — as well as many more — which meanders from Northfield to Solihull (mapped above).
Also, since some of the routes use limited-access/pedestrian-prohibited roads a good faith effort to follow these segments as closely as practical will be mapped; however, rest assured that all runs, including these with alternative run paths, will pass every bus stop.
This will necessarily be a multiyear project and may never be completed. I’ve only run 25 miles since New Year’s Day and have already overlapped segments of all of the bus routes shown here:
Completed so far (as of 12 February 2024):
47 on 2024-01-20 44 on 2024-01-21 30 on 2024-02-04 64 on 2024-02-11 41A on 2024-02-11
The totals for the year [month]: 1134 [74] miles running, 157 [10] pubs, 48 [4] kebabs, 44 [1] fish and chips, 34 [2] short reviews including one in this post. We are now up to date on the write-ahead-to-ensure-daily-posts project and will now return to merely occasional posts. Hopefully, the quality improves but don’t count on it. Here’s the cartoon of the month (not necessarily a monthly feature):
On a trip to Walsall, I was crossing one of the bleak rail bridges the town seems to specialise in (this streetview captures the essence of this bridge) and caught a glimpse of a New Year’s Resolution suggestion:
The resolutions for 2023 were to log 26 new venues, each, for Fish & Chips and Kebabs (completed on 11 and 09 May, respectively); to publish one post per day (prewrites done in June with certain on-the-day posts like Thanksgiving and Christmas pending until on-the-day happened); and, to finish Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (18 January), The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (10 May to beat Debra’s arrival since she gave me the original copy for a birthday back in the 80’s), and Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce (failed). Shameful, but I did read other stuff (you should really read the NONFICTION “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot for instance). No resolutions for 2024, but the Joyce is still on the shelf.
The month started cold. I found a loving home for the lab’s forlorn FTICR. I noticed I was on several publications’ author lists for which I would have been more comfortably buried in the acknowledgements. We attempted a Christmas tree with Jimi (he did well…next year we’ll try baubles). I put in a little more flooring and roof insulation in the attic. We ate and drank too much but substantially less than in Decembers past (for no explicable reason other than I think we might be slowing down, generally). And, my work Secret Santa gave me some laboratory based shot glasses:
This photo could be just some poisoned rats but I never saw any on the street before. Then one turned up early December in front of a house a few doors down, was cleared away, then a few days later another with two young ones turned up in front of the same house. Coincidence notwithstanding, it smells like a gang warning to a big rat and two little ones.
Spotted this shipwreck on the run home from Mad O’Rourke’s the last workday of the year:
No Phones, No lights, No Motorcars, Not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe It’s primitive as can be.
But, now the month and this bastard of a year are over. Happy New year to you all and do feel free at midnite to wish us a happy 38th anniversary.
Sidenote 1 Jan 2024: an old friend did just that, thanks, and it reminds me — as I treat my hangover — of this little meme from two versions of this blog past:
Doug Stanhope’s Celebrity Death Pool suddenly disappeared a couple of years ago (which is fine as no one on my list was harvested that year). I found this other Death Pool on Twitter for the last two years but it has gone to this pay-to-play format so I’m out. Instead, I’ll periodically update this list as the TBD’s (to be dead) dwindle. I don’t really need Twitter anymore, either, now.
No hard feelings at all.
Here are all my picks since 2018 (can’t find the 2013-2017 lists). First the ‘completed’ group followed by the ‘pending’ ones (and the years I had each of them on my list).
Finished: Carl Reiner: 2020, 2019 (29 June 2020, 2 points) David Crosby: 2023, 2022 (18 January 2023, 19 points) Jerry Lee Lewis: 2022 (28 October 2022, 13 points) John Lewis: 2020, 2019, 2018 (17 July 2020, 20 points) June Brown: 2022 (3 April 2022, 5points) Pat Robertson: 2019 (8 June 2023, missed) Queen Elizabeth II: 2022 (8 September 2022, 4 points) Robert Mugabe: 2019, 2018 (6 September 2019, 5 points) Shane McGowan: 2023, 2022 (30 November 2023, 35 points) Ted Kaczynski: 2022 (10 June 2023, missed) Winnie Mandela: 2018 (2 April 2018, 19 points)
Awaiting completion: Andy Andrist: 2022 Betsy DeVos: 2020 Bob Dylan: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Brian Wilson: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Chris Christie: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Clint Eastwood: 2022 Dan Quayle: 2021, 2020, 2018 Dick Cheney: 2022 Dolly Parton: 2021, 2020, 2019 Don McLean: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Donald Trump: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Donald Trump Jr: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 Eric Trump: 2021, 2020 Ghislane Maxwell: 2022 Ivanka Trump: 2021, 2020 James Whale: 2022 Jared Kushner: 2021, 2020 Jello Biafra: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Jerry Brown: 2021, 2020, 2018 Jimmy Carter: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Kevin Spacey: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Lady Gaga: 2018 Lil Nas X: 2023 Lil’ Wayne: 2022 Linda Ronstadt: 2023, 2022 Lindsay Lohan: 2019 Marsha Mason: 2022 Maryanne Faithfull: 2022 Matt Gaetz: 2023, 2022 Mel Brooks: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Michael Cohen: 2021, 2020 Michael Flynn: 2021, 2020 Mick Jagger: 2018 Pete Davidson: 2023, 2022, 2019 Philip Glass: 2018 Piers Morgan: 2019, 2018 RuPaul: 2019, 2018 Sharon Osborne: 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018 Silvio Berlusconi: 2022 Stephen Miller: 2019
The Christmas Eve run started in Dudley (to take advantage of the gale force wind direction) with a stop 1/2 mile into it at the Malt Shovel. It was just after opening and my porter was lovely.
Then, the crowds started arriving with the first group dragging two little boys on crack into the main bar. I made short work of the pint and, just as I was leaving, a large pack — perhaps 25-30 — of Christmas jumpered doofusses (or however the plural of doofus is spelled) started shoving their way through the door. These idiots trailed down the road from another bar so it had to be a pub crawl of some sort.
Looked like more fun than I was having but hard to be sure.
The bartender (and I reckon he’s also the landlord) stood staring at me with his arms crossed the entire visit to the Pretty Bricks. Maybe he thought I was there to nick one of the Christmas decorations or a copy of the Good Beer Guide from ten years ago. Creeped me the fuck out, regardless.
I stopped in the Five Star Fish Bar in Walsall having overshot my turn to the Pretty Bricks pub. For £3 I received both fish and chips for the same price as half this size order of chips, alone, at most other places. There are two probable explanations for this:
1: The fish is going to be dreadful. 2: The place is laundering money.
These are not mutually exclusive possibilities. I can confirm that #1 is true.
Leaving Andy’s, I started a bit of a jog I really wasn’t in to but which would get me to the pub quicker. I got there and it had a really stupid theme but I LIKE a really stupid theme when commitment on this level is displayed.
Mad O’Rourke’s is as corny as it gets but I definitely want to return…hungry, sometime this winter. I already know they can take care of my thirst.
24th: A run with a pub stop after the gym, champagne with Merry Christmas Charlie Brown (it’s alright, you should see it), and Jimi helped with the new jigsaw puzzle. Lowkey, we dined on leftover tuna pasta salad, some cheese, and paté.
25th: A 1/2 hour run, some egg nog, then little sprints of cooking — the feast was successful — until we had dressing, sweet potato pie, roasted guinea fowl, green beans, roasted carrots. Also, made a batch of the beefy bloody mary mix (you know they stopped selling V8 juice over here, don’t you? A travesty).
26th: Gym back open so an hour there then a half hour trot to loosen up. Made a batch of crab/ricotta/dill ravioli with lemon butter sauce for later. Sobering up a little each day until the New Year. Christmas is for the kids, I reckon.
We received some cards and some had letters inside. Debra included some feathers for Jimi (he loves them so much).
Last night we spent some time on the horn to old friends Stateside. Then, it was Champagne and ‘Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown,’ (‘lights, please‘), duck liver paté and crackers.
We are currently preparing a feast for two (no dinner guests expected, which is nice) and doing the same old Xmas crap we do every year…egg nog, more champagne, Christmas crackers, and records. And, a news blackout (perhaps not the only blackout by day’s end).
It is almost perfect. Hope most of you have something similar.
Endless British Pub Crawl (Part 3) 