S1: 代

September 28, 2024

Today is the annual celebration of Confucius's birthday.

Today is the annual celebration of Confucius's birthday and I'm literally next door to the Confucius Temple and—on account of my translating it for them—I have a copy of the script being used in Qufu at the Grand Ceremony that's currently being broadcast all over the world.

So, of course, I needed to visit the Temple and, of course, I needed to make a video about me visiting the Temple, and I needed to pick a very solemn rendition of Happy Birthday played on traditional Chinese instruments as the background music.

Even knowing that completely modern things also get zero maintenance until they need replacing, it still infuriates me to see wood in this condition

Knowing what the potential lodging situation is like in all the directions ahead of me (to the extent that I've even called the one hotel with a phone number), I'm annoyed with myself over how much time I spend at the Temple. I really don't want another night ride but all of this "enjoying myself" is chipping away at a limited amount of daylight.

By the time I'm eating lunch outside the Temple and being thoroughly charmed by the aunties who have never seen or interacted with a foreigner and who are just so gosh darn excited by me, the sky has begun to look ominous enough that I actually check the weather report.

There were just few enough of them and they were so smiley about it that it was charming.

No rain forecast for today but tomorrow is expected to pour. Cold rain, heavy winds, and another look at that one likely hotel to the west where the pass over the mountains isn't quite as high as to the north and it's not that long before I'm deciding that staying in Dai is the best way to do things.

By the time I've made it to the next hotel, inspected the beds and found them appropriately squishy, and gotten checked in, I'm sufficiently feeling the need for a nap that I fall asleep fully clothed on top of the blankets. And despite tossing, turning, and just generally feeling really cold, I won't manage to wake myself up and get a spare blanket or turn the heat on until after the fever I didn't know I had has broken.

I've always wondered if these were edible

It looks like it's basically food coloring

One of my nutso bonzai friends that likes winter so much that she goes ice swimming says my 12 hours asleep plus the amount I'll sleep the next day sounds like I may have had a mild case of hypothermia.

Whatever the specific problem was, I definitely had a mild fever and I definitely slept enough that the guesthouse owner was starting to be a bit concerned over me, so today is marked as a Sick Day.

On the one hand, this historic stele looks like it's gone through an acid bath

On the other hand, this modern one is in sufficiently poor condition, it's probably a problem with the local rock

Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 586 km (364 miles)

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