On 16 February 1934, the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament, made June 23 the national holiday Võidupüha in Estonia. That's "Victory Day" in English, marking the victory of Estonia and Latvia in the 1919 Battle of Cēsis against the Baltische Landeswehr ("Baltic Territorial Army"), the forces of the Couronian and Livonian nobility, during the Estonian War of Independence. Yeah, it's complicated. The holiday was banned by the German occupation during World War II, and by the USSR when they took over Estonia in 1944. Võidupüha was reestablished after Estonia regained its independence in 1992. The Estonian President traditionally lights a fire on the morning of Victory Day, from which the flame of independence is carried across the country to light bonfires in other many cities. The state flags are not to be lowered on any government buildings during the night of Võidupüha. Today I dropped my van at Precision Trailer Hitch in Sun Valley, just past Burbank, and biked back over the Sepulveda pass to Venice. I'll bike back tomorrow to pick up the van with its new hitch receiver, so the Domane can ride back to Venice on the Küat rack, instead of in the back of the van. Interestingly, that'll be the same distance, but more than twice as much climbing, Sherman Oaks is 800 feet higher than Venice, and Precision is 300 feet above Sherman Oaks. So the ride today felt really good. I was faster on some segments of the Sepulveda climb, maybe because I've done it several times lately. That's even though I was passing two lanes of cars going 2 mph all the way from Sherman Oaks to Sunset Boulevard, after LAPD Seargeant Shiou Deng and the driver he was helping were killed on I-405 earlier this morning. I-405 was still closed. Many of the slow drivers were blocking the bike lane. I don't know why that happens. I did a lot of lane splitting. Credits: https://w.wiki/EZLs https://odmp.org/officer/27419-sergeant-shiou-deng