Slip Face

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 182#, (damn I forget) % BF
Blood Pressure: 136/84, 65 BPM

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 182#, (forgot again) % BF
Blood pressure: 140/84, (wow forgot heartrate too... )

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 181.5%, 10% BF
Blood Pressure: 126/75, 67 BPM

Wow, looks like this week flew by...

Labor Day was my Sals 101 ride. Eleven people showed up including Tom D and Beth McG (the only ones who met me at Genesis), Rob L & Eric as well as John E, and a whole bunch of Dirt Devils out to learn the trail system. Broke my cleat, and there were a few of the usual minor spills and mechanicals you'd expect with a big group, but overall it was a great ride -- Tom D was a hurting puppy (fatigue) by the end though...

Yoga on Tuesday night, more of that new style which is, or at least seems, fairly nondemanding physically; I'd guess it's very conducive to restorative work. There was an older woman in class, maybe in her seventies, who came in on crutches, & took off a removable cast (like an inflatable boot or walking cast, I'd guess) before class. Turns out, she'd had her ankle replaced. Didn't talk to her about it last night, but if she's there next week we'll be getting into some serious ankle talk...

After that was some crap at home, then I didn't feel like cooking so down to Which Brew I went. Pretty nice night, quiet but decent crowd.

Wednesday I hit the gym after work, then fixed my cleat (none of the usual problems with stripping screws, thank goodness), fooled with the computer for a while and then decided (about 11:00, I couldn't sleep) to take the Surley out and just cruise the mean streets of Easton. Downtown, Wilson, over by the cemetery -- the only place I didn't hit was Southside. No lights or helmet: just me, the cops and the criminals -- but I did wear my newly-repaired shoes...

Last night I did a towpath ride when I got home, then went down once again to WB. Good night, as per usual, and this time I resisted temptation and went straight home afterward -- no Taco Hell, no open-mic nite at Porters.

Tonight will be towpath/Sals, lights are charging as we speak, then out to, um...

Bathroom Reader: I've been browsing & skimming that book about medieval civilization again. It's pretty annoying (written in the early sixties by some Catholic college professor, plenty of cringe-worthy stuff, it's like being being trapped in a room with Robert McNamara), but you can follow the general outline through the editorial chaff. The part that caught my interest this time was where the civilization after slowly growing, integrating, blossoming and peaking in the 12th century, collapses pretty quickly not long after the Summa Theologica -- which my author treats like the Medieval Civilization operator's manual -- comes out.

For some reason that slow-growth-sudden-collapse shape got me thinking about my other bathroom companion, the Edward Abbey reader. There was a section in there about dunes in the desert; their characteristic shapes (gradual convex rise on the windward slope, steeper concave drop on the lee, or slip face, side) and how they come to be that way. There's a hill outside of work here, old worn-down Appalachian mountain rather than a dune, but it's the exact same shape and I wonder if forces with similar structure were involved. Now that I think about it, those predator-prey relations follow the same shape...