definitely walking tomorrow, dammit

The government is closing off the local creeks: Yangjae Creek and Yeoui Creek will both be verboten for pedestrians and bikers all day tomorrow, up to midnight. At a guess, this is another silly attempt to keep people from mingling under the now-fading cherry blossoms. The restriction makes no sense, given that we're all still shopping, going to restaurants, and using public transportation in fairly crowded indoor conditions. You'd think that that would be a more urgent problem, but no: cherry blossoms are death. Sometimes, the Korean reaction to the pandemic is little different from the governmental nuttiness that John McCrarey has been writing about over in the Philippines (see this entry, for example).

Anyway, my point isn't to focus on crisis management: my point is to say that I'll be walking down to Bundang tomorrow. It's been rainy all day today, but Weather.com is forecasting a 0% chance of rain tomorrow all day, and I'll be walking during the 10 a.m.-to-2 p.m. window. The walk will start off sunny, then become partly cloudy, but temperatures will go from the high 50s to the high 60s (roughly 14.4ºC to 19.4ºC).

I'm also thinking of re-starting my own Everesting project. It's just a matter of calculating the height of the staircase from the B1 level to whatever my daily goal height will be—either the 14th floor (where I live) or the 26th floor (the last habitable floor), then figuring out how many staircases tall "an Everest" is. The actual Mount Everest is about 8,848 meters tall. Luckily, I took notes about my building's staircase height some years back, so all I need to do is consult my notes and do some quick math.

But first: to Bundang we go! And I've just bought material to make burgers since I still have several of my homemade buns, so there'll be some celebrating happening this weekend.

ADDENDUM: walking from the B1 level to the 26th floor is an ascent of 87.07 meters. I'd have to make that ascent 102 times to do the equivalent of a single Everest. If I did the ascent twice a day (a painful thought), I'd accomplish this feat in 51 calendar days.