Where I go overboard thinking about pre/post @helsinkiin2017
Ever have one of those moments when you’d been thinking about something, planning it out in your head, and then someone comes along and says something innocuous that sends an overdrive signal to your train of thought? It’s that moment when everything changes, and the possibilities start branching out until you need a machete to start making headway again.
I’ve had one of those moments this week. I plan on going to Helsinki in 2017, on the assumption that they are going to host that year’s WorldCon (They are, but only if people like you and me make it happen, dagnabbit!). My sweet stated that if Helsinki won, she would come with me, as Finland’s the only Scandinavian country she missed on her inter-rail adventure before university (um, correct me if I’m wrong, Boj, you aren’t here while I’m typing this ;). (And she’s back, and she comfirms that this is true. She remembers Stockholm as the place where she first saw a battery-powered bike light (as opposed to a dynamo-powered one). It appalled her.) ). We like biking, so I proposed spending a week or two after the con traipsing around the countryside, camping and biking and having a generally awesome fun time. This would also give me an excuse to buy the Brommie that I’ve been coveting for the last n years, with n > 5. I started planning, got a little excited, and then tweeted about it.
Eventually you’ll have to stop watching this and continue reading, right? Right? Please? OK, 5 more minutes… Image snagged from cultofmac.com. click on it to read an awesome review of the Brommie
That’s where it got interesting. A few people replied saying they had the same idea, and the discussion moved to scandinavian rail passes. And then my head exploded. We could multi-modal the whole thing! We could hit all the countries! Heck, we could even bike back to Zagreb (Um, Alps, Chris. Alps.)! We could bike most of the way and take the train instead of climbing the Alps! We could bike the North Sea Cycle Route!
While I was flying high in my fancy, my sweet took careful aim and fired off a, “don’t assume we can leave the kids with my dad, plan to have them along too.”
My balloon began to deflate, until I remembered! Time! Time is on my side! Yes, it is! Helsinki’s in 3 years, which means my children, all genetically predisposed to spending ludicrous amounts of time with their butts in a bike saddle, will have 3 full years to learn how to handle 50+ km days. K2 can already handle a 15k ride, and K1 could probably bike to Vancouver if I’d let him. And we’d be taking trains anyway, so what if we take them a bit more often? The only real hassle would be the bikes, I think. And having to haul crap for the rest of the family. And the fear that K3 not being able to do longer rides but being too big to shove on the back of my bike. (I have a secret master plan to start off in Copenhagen, and get used bikes for the kids there, or buy a Bakfiets, dump K3 and said crap into the bucket and sell it in Helsinki, though that means rail travel would be difficult if not impossible) But still, adventure! Bike paths! Muesli for breakfast! Wait, I already have muesli for breakfast!
Anyway, This is completely silly, since, and I repeat, it’s THREE YEARS AWAY!!!, but it’s all that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of days now. It’s taking a toll on my productivity. I promised I’d submit something to my writing group on Tuesday, and I haven’t started it, for instance. And I might have added a comma to a line of code yesterday, only to remove it before shutting down for the weekend. Now that I’ve written all this out, I think I can move on, and go back to gonzo bongo mode once Helsinki wins. Because they will win, right? People? Com’n!
PS: I promise if Montreal wins, I’ll bike there too. It’s only 180km, after all, and I won’t have to deal with Air Canada and their draconian anti-bike policies…