survived

I survived today's walk, but it felt like a close one. I had my phone screen open to hit the emergency-services line at a moment's notice. It was only a 9.4K walk (my Naver phone app said 10K!), but I didn't follow my ritual of taking my meds before walking. That worked against me. I did stop and rest a few times to give myself a chance to catch my breath, let the angina settle (it had started up within the first five minutes and was almost intense) and continue the walk at a much slower pace. For all that, I survived, and I will live to walk another day. But things have definitely deteriorated since the beginning of this year. 

Here are some pics of today's slow-old-man's stroll, with images of some travel companions met along the way:

a rose in the cool air, probably glad summer's over

flowers just waving their genitals about

think of a collection of roses as a group of leering frat boys (or girls!)

the view down the Tan Creek, looking toward the Han; the ramp seems to be mostly done

under-the-bridge view (Samseong Bridge...?)

crossing over per the ritual; look at all of the cranes

They're going to be changing this area into something over the next few years. Hard to say what, especially with all of the yearly flooding. I think they should invest in raising the level of the ground if they want to develop this land into anything worthwhile—something other than a huge parking lot that's only usable at certain times of the year.

two colorful cranes

This little car stalled out about 25 seconds after I'd taken this picture.

I had wanted to shoot video of the above little car, which I think was electric... then it died right as I got my camera ready. Fucking timing. There was a crew of young people standing around and watching it perform; I wonder if this was some sort of science/tech thing, with a student team trying out a vehicle before entering it into a contest. Given the vehicle's stall-out, I further surmise that whatever this vehicle is, it's in the early stages of development.

slug, slugging along

This guy was rolling along at a sedate pace. I could relate.

From this angle, the ramp looks almost fully done. It now cuts across and above my path and hits the one-way road it was meant to hit. I predict it will alleviate traffic for about a week, but just like road projects in the US, this build took so long that traffic has doubtless built up in the meantime, so whatever problem the ramp was meant to solve won't stay solved for long. Not as long as people keep buying cars and choking the air with pollution.

on the way back and looking east toward the Lotte World Tower

lots of little furries out (and not the human deviants—we don't have that wacko shit in Korea... so far)

the footbridge signaling arrival at my neighborhood

dilapidated, but still with its own weird poetry

the ramp down toward my building (off in the distance and to the right of the main road)

The cooking I failed to do today will be done tomorrow. For a keto "gyro pizza":

• oven-dry salted tomatoes; oil up and sprinkle with Italian seasoning; this takes a few hours because you have to go low and slow
• slice up frozen beef and lamb and mix with olive oil and spices (instead of grinding)
• chop up some dill pickles (not sweet pickles)
• chop up some black olives
• thinly slice some Korean chili peppers to use in place of green peppers (capsicum)
• prep tzatziki sauce with cukes; chop up remaining raw cukes as a sprinkle
• crumble feta
• grate mozzarella and boil down some heavy cream to double cream to make white sauce; be sure to add seasonings (salt, pepper, powdered garlic, powdered onion, some Greek-friendly herbs); mix feta in, maybe add dill
• lastly, prep the keto pizza dough; bake a few minutes to harden, then spread toppings (meat, olives, dried tomatoes, chili peppers); bake another ten minutes
• add tzatziki and cukes, slice, eat... preferably just half, but probably the whole thing