Tyrant King Porn Dragon

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 8.5% BF (partial pig and python, neh?)

 

Man, I likes my crazy when it's all crunchy and good with ketchup...

 

Anyway, Black Mountain. The basic gist of the riding down there, at least for the routes we took, is that you climb for the first half of the ride, then the second half is all descent -- Black Mountain was uphill for the first eight miles or so, but it was non-technical, and a fairly easy climb except for the staircase hike-a-bike near the top. The descent went on forever it seemed, and was crazy fun until it ended abruptly and waaaay too soon. ("Forever" and "way too soon" -- how does that work? Like childhood summers I guess.) We were near the cars, but did another short section, up a little and then down to the road, for a total of about 17-18 miles.

 

We had a few mechanicals, so we stopped in at the bike shop on the way home, then somehow drifted by one's and two's over to the Mexican restaurant next door -- our plan, decided in the aftermath of our travel day's lunch stop, was to not eat Mexican again, but they had 42-oz margaritas and tasty gloppy food and the next thing you know... The rest of the afternoon was spent on the porch of our "cabin," basically napping.

 

More bike stories later I'm sure, and pictures eventually as well.

 

Last night I dropped the bike off to get my new fork installed. (Not a hard install, but I wanted them to do the tube cutting etc.) Dinner was Which Brew, possibly the last Monday night there; I met Brian there and told him about the trip, and also hung out with fellow rider Anne. I also got to see Jim & Alison's wedding photos, and later learned about a female cyberpunk author, whose name now escapes me, from Christina. A pretty good night there, all in all.

 

If all goes as planned I'll be picking the bike up tonight, and riding Sals to get the suspension dialed in. (My backup plan is the gym.) Dinner? Probably Which Brew again -- this week is very likely the swan song, the final stretch. It seemed like forever, but now, too soon, it's coming to an end.

 

 

Friggin Finally!

Posse
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Another milestone: this photo just passed the 100-views mark after sitting at 99 views for weeks. The photos from Megan's party were once among my more popular ones, but they got bypassed & left behind...

Lotta cuties in this photo, and they're all really cool people. (This is the original crew, of which I used to say they made feel young but they also made feel old sometimes. Whippersnappers.) Smoe have moved away, and a few of them I don't see much anymore for whatever other reasons, hope they're all doing alright & are happy.

Back With A Vengeance

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 7.5% BF

 

So, one pound a day, that's quite a vacation... lotta bad food choices, aside from the usual suspects: beer, wings, more beer, etc. Oh well, I had fun.

 

To Recap: Wednesday was our travel day, eleven hours on the road starting at 6:15 AM from Greg's house. I traveled down with Doug in Eric's car, while Rich drove Greg and Bob. (Dave -- self-employed and essentially nocturnal -- caught some ZZZZZ's after playing a show, then traveled down on his own a few hours later.) Our "cabin" was really an old house, rural and very nice but on the wrong side of the tracks, tucked in between a trailer park and the recycling center, and with an abandoned factory and power plant up the street. We got there a little before 6:00, unpacked and got ourselves settled in, then hit downtown Brevard looking for food.

 

Unfortunately, they roll the sidewalks up early in Brevard, at least on weeknights, and especially "this early in the season," as the locals kept telling us -- I never found out what season they were talking about, biking, kayaking, or just "summer tourist," but whatever season it was, it wasn't happening in Brevard just yet, and most restaurants were already closed by the time we got there. We ended up eating at Dugan's, an "Irish" (read: redneck, as our waitress informed us) bar which was actually really good; this was also where Dave caught up with us. Our waitress was way cool, and gave us a few nightlife tips, but even the bars were closing by 10:00 or so. (Those tips came in handy later in the week though.)

 

Thursday morning we rolled out of the cabin, consulted with the local bike shop guys, and ambled over to Pisgah National Forest, the entrance being about a mile from the cabin and visible from the bike shop, for our first ride: Black Mountain.

 

To be continued...

Greetings From North Carolina

That's a big 10-4 good buddy, comin' at ya through a 14.4k modem on Windows 98...

The trip down was long (11 hours or thereabouts) but mostly uneventful, maybe a little too much Mexican food, but we only found that out later.

Today was a 19 mile ride in Pisgah, maybe 8 miles up then mostly downhill from there. Killer downhills too: steep, roots & rocks, real fun screamers. A good day overall, then we hit yet another Mexican place, for 46 oz margaritas. Now we are just chilling on the North Carolina porch & rocking chairs.

By the way: me, Rich, Doug, Eric, Bob R, Greg H, and Dave L. We are having fun. Yo later.

Yet Another Milestone

Leopard Suits You
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I can't figure out why people keep checking out this photo, but it just passed 200 hits. Actually, I don't know this girl, but ran into a friend of hers a few days ago who said she had a bit of a self-image problem -- girlfriend, you rock, and don't let anyone tell you different!

Out of here in about 6 hours; posting may be sparse, ie nonexistent, for a few days. See you

Pack And Go

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 8.5% BF (not bad considering I ate an entire Pepperoni pizza last night)

 

Wheels Go Around In Circles: So it turns out that the fork I want (the Fox TALAS) is basically unavailable anywhere, and is on backorder nationwide -- I will not see mine until the 16th. But that's OK, I can borrow Doug's spare fork in the meantime. I was over there last night, we swapped out the forks and I started to realize that maybe the TALAS was a bit more than I wanted -- the pressure was off, I could think rationally again, and I noticed that I never actually used the length adjustability feature on my current fork. Several people had suggested the FS 100 RLC as an alternate, the main difference between that and the TALAS being that the TALAS was adjustable. OK, I don't use the adjustability, so I called the bike shop this morning and changed my order -- and it turns out, they have my new choice in stock. Oh well, I arrived at this point in a roundabout fashion, but if I'd made this decision yesterday I'd already have my new shock...

 

The hell of it is, I am about to go through the same thing with my riding glasses (ditto my regular glasses), my crank/BB, my riding shoes... hey, I notice I don't own a suit anymore...

 

Tonight is voting, drycleaning, the gym, then Which Brew for dinner. Tomorrow we go to North Carolina, next week is Michaux, and the following weekend is the PA trail summit in State College.

 

If I get a moment to breathe, maybe someday I'll get some mathematical biology off my chest...

Taste The Warm Wet Life

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 9% BF

 

Somewhere in Idoru the protagonist sees a Japanese soft drink, apple juice of some kind with "Taste the Warm Wet Life In [whatever brand apple juice]!" as its catchphrase. That was the frame for a flashback to his previous job, as a spy/analyst for some entertainment network (he had an uncanny knack for finding info through traces left in credit records, Internet searches etc): he had discovered the identity of some entertainer's young mistress, and, through her record purchases, realized she knew she was being watched, and was about to kill herself -- he rushed to her home, but was too late to stop her. (This was the incident that got him fired.) The girl's name was Alison Shires, and he thought "Taste The Warm Wet Life In Alison Shires."

 

Anyway, I was in McDonald's yesterday morning, running late and I needed some kind of breakfast. I couldn't help but notice how broken and defeated the workers there seemed, all stooped and overweight and shambling about like sleepwalkers -- and all the while some Disneyesque pop song played, Mariah Carey or similar made-for-TV hottie. These looked to me like two sides of the same coin, and the phrase "Taste The Warm Wet Life" popped into my head.

 

The Madness Of My Need: I am trying to track down a bike store that has the fork I want in stock. I can't believe no one has it, it's driving me nuts.

 

 

More Photos

I Can Lick A Hundred Tigers!
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I just uploaded the photos from yesterday's big cleanup (and ride) at Sals. You know what to do...

I am exhausted. Did another solid ride today, Lehigh and Sals, with some pretty big dogs: a bunch of Bob's NJ friends came out to see the sights. Some fast, hard riding, and I was pretty squirrely in the rough stuff -- I did not feel confident at all, especially in the beginning. (It might have just been fatigue, but I think I'll have to bite the bullet and get a new shock tomorrow. I am leaning towards Fox; Marzocchi may be played out about now.) We were all pretty tired by the end, our total mileage was over 20 and for that kind of technical riding that's brutal.

Doing laundry now. Will hit Porters for dinner while it dries, and then it'll be time to hit the hay. Tomorrow is when I get ready for North Carolina.

Another Milestone

Gonna Party Like It's Nineteen Seventy Nine
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

This picture just went over the 200-view mark, thought I'd commemorate it. The girl in the photo is bellydancing tonight at Which Brew for "Greek Night." I was there (Which Brew) last night, I'll be there tonight.

Rode last night, rode today at Sals -- I was also part of the garbage cleanup there today, which was a phenomenal success -- and I will be riding at Sals again, plus Lehigh, tomorrow with the Jersey boys. My life is the opposite of suck right now.

Except: my front fork is busted, feels like there is no longer any compression damping. I should be fine for North Carolina, but this has happened before and it's a factory-repair-only problem, two week turnaround, so I may be buying a new fork when I get back. Bike season, the money pit, and so it begins...

Meantime, I posted a bunch of pics from the last two birthday parties, you know where to click. Enjoy!

Ain't She Sweet?

Morning weigh-in: 164#, 9.5% BF

 

I put the Turner back together last night, rode it around the block -- man that thing just feels fast. I love my bike... I'm riding it tonight as a final shakedown, doing the towpath with my friend Stu from Which Brew (his wife told me last night to "kick his ass") then tomorrow I'm taking it over to Sals, doing a group ride after the cleanup. Happy Earth Day!

 

Dinner was leftover root crops (turnips, parsnips, carrots & onions) plus some bread. Did the bike thing, hit the gym, came home & computerized for a bit, then went down to Which Brew. Like I said, I saw Stu & Cathy there, and heard the news (good for them, bad for me) that he just took a new job and they'll be relocating to Tampa soon. Oh well.

 

An Insight: Joking with Doug the other day, I realized that every six months or so I get religion and try to clean the house, and that's when I lose weight.

 

Yet Another Desert Epiphany: This isn't new, and I may have even written about it here before but I was thinking about it on vacation, mainly because I saw Blondie songs being used to sell Febreeze on the TV... I once saw a quote about Blondie, saying that she stole a minor good idea (from Patti Smith), and beat it to death. Now I'm not entirely sure that's true, but it seemed to me like a pretty good way of looking at philosophers: they start with some insight and inflate it into a grand unified theory of everything -- like, the will to power is what makes the world go around, and it also moves the planets in their orbits. Whatever, boys.

 

Riding tonight, riding tomorrow, riding Sunday. Going down to North Carolina next week, and riding some more.

Jugtown 8:02

Morning weigh-in: 163#, 6.5% BF

 

Oh Those Social Anxieties: Was the pot roast moist and tender enough? Was the bathroom clean? Did I have ring around the collar? George never drinks two cups of coffee at home... Fear not, everything was fine, but I sure see how that stuff can be exploited -- I wonder if these things were as big an issue before the Age Of Advertising beat them into our heads.

 

The ride was just me, Doug and Eric R, and we were running late so we did a shortened version of the Hellertown loop, skipping some of the later portions south of Easton. Lori was already there when we got back (I left the door open), and Brian, Rich & Linda were walking up the street, so we just about made it.

 

Meeting was sixteen people packed into my living room, pretty rambunctious (I blame the red meat) until Eric B put his foot down, but after that it went pretty smooth. Same situation as the VMB meeting though: too much detail, too many decisions/debates; not all problems should be solved at the meeting. Still, lotsa stuff got done, mostly events and trailwork reports, and we were finished in an hour. After that is was back to the socializing, and playing with my scale...

 

A word about the body fat percentages, for my newer readers: My scale at home determines percent body fat by measuring electrical impedance: when you stand on the scale you're really standing on two foot-shaped electrodes, which turn your lower body into a circuit; the scale sends an electrical signal through the circuit, and uses the circuit's response, along with your weight (and a few parameters like height etc, that you set when you buy the scale) to calculate your percent body fat. Needless to say, there are a lot of assumptions, extrapolations -- the number is not necessarily accurate, and the manual even said not to take any given day's number as gospel; the trends are the important thing.

 

Even that is not quite true though. I find that if I'm dehydrated for whatever reason (a hard workout, say, or some alcohol consumption the day before), the scale interprets this as a lower percent body fat. Meanwhile, my legs have very little fat on them; most of my body fat is in my belly, just above what I suspect is the path of that electrical signal as it goes up one leg and down the other. As I lose weight (and hopefully it's fat I'm losing), the body fat measurements could possibly fail to note the changes, since they're happening just outside the visibility range of the scale's detection system. Thus, even for trends, the body fat could be either too low or two high on any given day. It's a good rough estimate, but in the end those body fat numbers are just a toy. (Check today's number -- one look in a mirror tells me that that can't be true. Note that I rode yesterday and had a couple of beers with dinner. See what I mean?)

 

Anyway, took the interstate this morning, since I was running a bit late. Smooth sailing, until I caught up to yet another backup on the other side of Jugtown Mountain, but my exit was just before the start of it and I was pretty much on time to work.

 

Tonight I'll put the Turner together, then hit the gym; dinner will be root crops & veggies -- all the meat is gone. Which Brew afterward, catch the reggae band.

 

 

 

 

Got R Done

Morning weigh-in: 164#, 10.5% BF

 

Sometimes I surprise even myself... Do a little bit, define "done" down a little, do a little more, define down a little more, and the next thing you know, you're done! For me last night, I was "done" with the housework around midnight: the pot roasts are in the crock pots and roasting away, the house is fairly clean, except for the two "lost cause" rooms (storage and laundry), and I am ready to just go home from here, hop on the bike & host a group ride, then come home and host a dinner party -- the very picture of domesticity!

 

Dinner last night was at Which Brew, a cheeseburger and a couple of Franziskaners. Fred & Lara, Mike H, Bob, Lou, Dave, a few other patrons scattered about the room, and Kateryna behind the bar. A pleasant interlude between cleaning the living room and food shopping, I needed that to keep my sanity. Bob was talking up Musikfest, he's got some kind of VIP membership and an extra ticket to Jethro Tull, so guess who's seeing Jethro Tull on August 7th -- sweet! He also had the date (Oct 12, plan ahead) for the bus trip to McSorley's.

 

Food shop, home, food prep, then the final and most cursory room cleaning: the bedroom.

Rejuvenated

Morning weigh-in: 164#, 9.5% BF (attention K-Mart shoppers, the pig has left the python)

 

I'm feeling much more peppy today, thank you very much. Got up this morning, did my run and felt perfectly fine. As I might have hinted the other day, I think my problem is mostly nutritional wisdom (or lack thereof): improper eating is probably the root cause of last week's crash. I'm on it.

 

Meanwhile, the taxes are done, as I may have also mentioned earlier, and the house cleaning is coming along, maybe just a little behind schedule. (The Chain Gang meeting is at my place tomorrow, and I am cooking two pot roasts which I have to buy and prep tonight, besides finishing the cleaning.) The place will be OK, but more "guy clean" than "fit for female evaluation and judgement." Well, they're all bikers, they're tough, they'll survive...

 

I should also get my Turner back tomorrow night, Rich is bringing it to the meeting. I'll put it together Thursday night and ride it Friday, a milk run on the towpath, and I should be up for Saturday's big Earth Day celebration at Sals.

 

From Red Rain To Sister Bluebird: My musical tastes have been unstable lately, bouncing around from Gang of Four to the Modern Lovers, to Joni Mitchell, to Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" this morning, a song that always reminds me of On The Beach. Probably reflecting the weather's instability as it ratchets its way into full springtime.

 

There's an old joke, the cop's prayer: "Please God, not on my shift," and I think the same thing every February or so, waiting for spring and hoping this isn't the year it fails. Well, I've already heard peepers and seen the bugs return, and this morning the birdsong formed a total cacophony as I ran. My early-spring song is Yes's "Starship Trooper," and I make a point of listening to it when the leaves are new and the sky is a deep and cloudless blue. Tonight.

Back Into The Rapids

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 10% BF

 

Back at work. Back down to 165 pounds. Same old same old...

 

Friday night I went to the Funhouse to see Run Run Run. Met Doug & Lori plus Eric & Kris at the Mexican place next door; we walked out the door and knew we weren't late because there was the band coming up the street... Good show, lotsa fun, saw the usual Funhouse suspects, and also Frank P, whose birthday, as it happens, is on the same day as mine.

 

Saturday was early morning yoga, then a bunch of chores and errands. I also hit Eskandalo for my monthly haircut, where I talked about the show with the owner -- she was one of those "usual suspects" at the show, and has connections with the band. A little BS, gossip, yadda yadda and she cleaned me up real good as per usual.

 

Next stop was Doug & Lori's surprise 40th birthday party, which was lovely. Actually it was more than just lovely, it was a solid blowout. The party was at Carmine's -- I guess that's the place to go for surprise birthdays anymore -- where Doug's mom (hi Toni!) & dad set up a serious spread in the back room, including all sorts of Italian food and a couple of kegs.

(Quote of the night: "You're not on a diet tonight, Don!" Well it's true I wasn't, I chowed down, but that was the occasion for my first good nutritional choice: my first beer went right to my head, so after one or two more I spent the rest of the evening drinking water. Doug's neighbor Brian had a breathalyzer, and I actually blew a 0.00 before I left.)

There were a ton of people there, many of them bikers, the Chain Gang and VMB crowds; I'd guess there were about 50 people total, including Doug's & Lori's families, and of course their non-bike friends. It was almost a small wedding in size. (My gift: dinner for two at Porter's.) The party started at say 6:30, and D&L arrived for their surprise at 7:00, and things were winding down by 11:00 (I suspect food comas) when I got out of there.

After that I went to Which Brew, which was closed for a private party but I had my invite -- yet another birthday party, bartender Andrea turned 30. That was most likely the last big bash there and people knew it, but it was not very funereal, it was another blowout fueled by more free food -- I couldn't look -- and free beer. I was still feeling under the weather so I got a first beer, nursed it, then drank water for the rest of the night.

(Second time in one night I was chugging water in front of an ocean of free beer. The boys from Porter's were guest-bartending so the ladies could be part of the fun, except for Caitlin who opted to work. She was the one I got my water from -- I didn't want to wuss out in front of the guys. I was drinking it out of my mug, so no one else knew.)

Got home at say 2:00 or so, and the band(s) had stopped playing but the party was still going strong when I left. Yeah I got pictures, both parties.

Sunday you know about, mostly laying around, uploading photos and doing that yoga workshop. Tonight was house cleaning, taxes -- note to self: taxes first, then clean, and you won't have to get new W4 forms because you accidentally threw the originals out last week.

Last two things on my agenda are the Chain Gang meeting here Wednesday, thus the cleaning, and retrieving & reassembling my bike. Things should settle back to normal routine after that, at least until North Carolina.

I Care A-Bout, Noo-Tri-SHUN!!

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9% BF

It's not an official weigh-in but I had to do it, I was sooooo scared of what I'd see. Well OK, that wasn't that bad a hit... Great weekend, but fraught with many bad nutritional choices (and a couple of surprisingly good ones). More on all that later.

Happy Birthday To Me: Thanks Mom! I got your birthday gifts. For all you out in TV Land, my mom sent me a copy of Complex Population Dynamics, (why, it's a "theoretical/empirical synthesis!") and also Raising Sand, the new CD by Robert Plant and Alison Kraus. Sweet!

Yoga: I took a 3-hour workshop today on "Intention, Breath, and Movement," Max Strom appearing at Easton Yoga. That was a total kick-ass workout, and way fun. I couldn't believe what I was able to do, and what I came away from the class with. I love my teachers and I know that they're actually some of the best around, but this was truly a quantum leap up -- and those instructors were all there too (as well as instructors from other places), so I figure that what happened today will be a strong influence going forward.

Moab Closure: I finally got all my photos posted, and put them (in chronological order) in this flickr set. And now my vacation is truly over! Good thing I got that done, I already have more photos to post from the weekend.

Yet More Vacation Photos

This time they're from Brian again -- you can find his Picasa albums by clicking here. By the way, it was a good thing the both of us took a lot of photos, because the other guys didn't even bother to bring cameras, unless you count Rich's cellphone...

Hanging in tonight, doing some housework and then taking a bit of a nap, since I want to hit the Funhouse later to check out a band with Doug. I'll be posting some more of my own photos tonight at some point too.

Doldrummery

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 7.5% BF (yikes!)

Ran, and also hit the gym last night, and so much for that rest day. (I had to get my driver's license renewed after work, and was done with plenty of time/daylight to spare.) I've been on a tear, multiple days of nonstop activity, and now the inevitable backlash has started: I am exhausted and sluggish, I ate too much last night (gave myself another "birthday party" at Which Brew), ate too much (and all the wrong things) this morning... I did take it easy though, two miles at a very comfortable pace, maybe twenty minutes total followed by an endurance alterna-workout, lighter weights than usual too. Not quite an "active rest" day, easier than usual but not easy enough apparently, and I expect that now I'll be kind of run down at least until Sunday.

 

I ran into two friends this week, Bryan and Lance, father and son. I saw Bryan at Joe's before the ride, he stopped by on his motorcycle (he was dressed head to foot in leather, looked like he was on his way to a Village People tryout or something). We used to ride together quite often, and he was the one I used to go on cycling trips with back in the day. Powerful guy, used to like climbing in the big ring... he's not much older than Rich, but his knees are shot, even surgery he had this winter didn't help, and now he can't ride.

 

His son Lance I saw at Jacobsburg. He was riding, part of that big Wednesday group thing. I knew he'd had some reconstructive surgery in January or so (ankle: ligaments and cartilage, snowboarding mishap), so I asked him about it and he told me he just finished rehab and was cleared for running/walking, riding and just about all other activities. He usually rides a singlespeed, but was on a new geared bike; he told me the reason was that he was missing so much cartilage now, that the doctor cautioned him against the SS -- like he could ride with gears for the rest of his life, or ride the SS for a year...

 

Two years ago I couldn't walk; last year at this time if I ran more than a mile I'd be in agony. Last night I ran two miles at a pace I used to think was fast and called it "rest." Despite everything, I think I was pretty lucky with my ankle.

Back Almost A Week Already

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 7.5% BF

 

Wow, a two pound hit -- that's what roast beef and birthday beer will do for you. Then again, after Tuesday's ride my dinner was basically Clif Shot Blocks and a couple of carrots, in other words nothing, so there was more than the usual "suppression weight" to be un-suppressed yesterday.

 

Killer ride last night though. I go there about 5:40, just as the main group was about to pull out so I told them I'd catch up. I got ready, then went chasing with Jay, who was chatting and missed the start; we swept up Greg M who was there independently, and George who waited for us, and finally we reeled in the main group. I was doing OK on the (fully rigid) SS, except some of the bumpier downhills, but I made up for it up on the uphills... Not sure of the mileage but we were out there, riding fast, but casually and with many stops, until about 7:30.

 

Then came the meeting. Very productive, which meant there was a lot of tedious back-and-forth. (John was a workaholic on vacation, sitting in on meetings with his cellphone every morning, but his motivation for staying on top of things was valid: you don't try to solve the problems in these kinds of meeting, just identify them, make sure everyone knows what's going on & assign resources to get the problem solved, and then move on. I think we're going to have to learn that lesson.) Anyway, a lot got done. Meantime, word got out that it was my birthday, so there were a few free beers that came my way, also a ridiculous paper hat.

 

It's supposed to be beautiful out, so I'm going for a lunchtime walk. I won't be able to get out tonight (too many chores/errands), and a rest day is what I need anyway. Two kinds of discipline in the world; I have the one that sends me out riding on rainy winter nights, but I still have trouble sitting still on a nice day...

Appomattox! Party Naked! Buy Me Beer!

Morning weigh-in: 163.5#, 9% BF (woo hoo!)

 

Yup, Happy Birthday To Me -- 45 years young today! It's also the anniversary of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox in 1865, and Bataan's fall to the Japanese in 1942. (It's also Sweetness's birthday -- a Porter's regular, he's maybe 30 years older than me.) I guess the lesson here is that I may not like the aging thing but I can't stop it, so just take your lumps and go with the flow...

 

I feel like I'm a million years old today. Last night's ride was not blazingly fast (fast enough), but it was hard. Me, Joe and Cindy, and Greg, on one of Joe's "hard ride" loops. It started innocently enough, with a tailwind-assisted semi-downhill paceline -- we were doing 25 mph and I was like "why this isn't hard at all!" -- but we eventually started hitting all sorts of hills, and the fast pace did not drop. Well it did drop some, but we were still going up some long, steep hills at say, 12-15 mph, just about "cracking pace" for me, I barely able to hold on. Cindy, who did a morning run that day, peeled off after a while, and then I was left alone with the monsters, who absolutely crushed me... (Luckily they both said it was the toughest ride of the year so far, for either of them, or I would have cried.) Our total distance was like 24 miles, and our average was 16.9 mph, which means the ride lasted about 1:25. That makes sense, since we got back a little before dark. Actually I feel like a million bucks.

 

Tonight I'm riding the singlespeed at Jacobsburg, then going to the VMB meeting at the Christian Springs Hotel. I'll be milking the birthday; I expect to get a free beer out of somebody.

Moab: I Wasn't The Only One With A Camera

John and Don in Aa Huddle
Originally uploaded by tahl007.

Brian in fact brought two: one kind of like mine, and one really good one. Not sure which one he used for these, but he posted a bunch that you can check out here.

Positively Splitsville

Morning weigh-in: 164.5#, 7.5% BF

 

Ran last night, my usual two miles out past the old chemical plant and their next-door neighbor, the reservoir. (Hmmmm....) I started well and got up to a good speed, but after the turnaround I tired and slowed down. My faster friends always recommend what they call "negative splits," by which they mean that the second half of your run should be done a little faster than the first, so your run times for the successive halves will actually drop -- well I had what you might call "positive splits." Did a standard endurance workout in the gym after that, the first in about two weeks and it left me hurting.

 

My Other Desert Epiphany: Riding in Porcupine Rim, I kind of came to the conclusion that (barring a really bad crash) you really have to be an idiot to get yourself killed out there. It does happen, but you hear the stories of what actually did happen such cases, and it's always a tale of idiocy.

 

By the way, I've been posting vacation pictures to my flickr account, I have maybe 100 or so posted so far.

 

Hit Which Brew for dinner -- it was Mug Club Night, and also the first "Metal Monday." (Not sure how rigorous their definition of "metal" might be, but the music did rock.) No one said anything, but one of the girls was totally stressed and depressed, and I took from context clues that her relationship must have tanked. Poor girl, she hasn't always had the best of luck guy-wise, and this one did look like the real deal; I just hope I'm wrong and it was maybe a bad day in some other way. Sheesh, you go away for a week and the world falls apart...

 

 

 

 

Ghost Town

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 8% BF

 

Whelp, back to work. Tough wake-up, I'm still used to Moab time. The drive in this morning was quiet, the roads almost empty, as if it were a holiday or something, until I hit a traffic jam about 100 yards from my exit. Several people are out of the office today too, showing some guys from India around NYC before they return home, and the immediate area round my cube is deathly quiet -- ditto around my old office too, not sure why that is though.

 

Tonight is the gym, preceded by a run, and followed by Mug Club Night. Which Brew is open every Monday for the whole of this month I think.

Fun With Epiphanies

Morning weigh-in: 164.5#, 10% BF

I couldn't help it, I had to check the weight, I was worried about the damage I may have done while on vacation. Not bad though.

We got home last night, landing maybe 10:45 PM; I was home by maybe 1:00 AM and in fact made "last call" at Porters -- it truly was late though, and only a few people were there that I knew... Slept in a bit this morning, checked out the Internet, and went downtown for breakfast at the Quadrant, where Violetta's dad had an art exhibit. At 80 years old, and with no prior experience or training, he started painting two years ago, mostly local architecture, and he has like 150 paintings now. It was pretty cool, especially since I ran into Vi (who'd told me to check it out) at Nature's Way, and was able to say that I saw the exhibit if she asked, which she didn't, but I'm back in the Easton groove.

Every morning on vacation I did yoga, a 30 minute routine I got out of a book. There was one pose, involving a bind that I just can't do yet, and every morning I'd do the best I could... Today I took the evening class, and the teacher has us take a card (looked like Tarot cards) from a deck, to use as inspiration for the class. Mine said "Aspire" on it, and had a picture of someone doing that very pose. Well, what do you know!

Reading: By the way, I'm rereading Against the Day. I brought it along on vacation for airport downtime etc, and because so much of the first half of the book involves that part of the country. It's actually a much better read the second time around, not that I was complaining the first time or anything but there's so much going on that I missed a lot that I'm catching this time. I'm on page 352, so I have plenty more to get through.

Things I Realized While Riding In The Desert, Part 1: Maybe it was because of Against the Day, though I felt this way before, but I really came to realize that our civilization (Europe, Asia, Antebellum South or Gulag or outsourced) rests on slavery, and maybe all civilizations.

The Classics

Well, that's it: the last ride was today, the bikes are broken down and packed, and we're getting ready for tomorrow's 6:30 AM departure. The party is over.

We saved the classics for last. Yesterday we did Slickrock, and today we did Porcupine Rim. Slickrock was so tough, even though it was only 11 miles or so, that we were totally spent -- it didn't help that yesterday afternoon was also our shopping trip into town, and what we shopped for was mostly margaritas... We ended the evening at Frankie D's, the Quonset hut bar.

NThis morning was a little rough, we were all moving a bit on the slow side, but we managed to get breakfast down and meet the shuttle with time to spare. We started the ride a little differently, from a few miles up the road and higher up the canyon wall, some new singletrack I'd never seen before, with a few crazy hike-a-bike sections as well. It was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and the mountains still had a snow cover. The riding was pretty good too... I got a bunch of photos, and even some video of Rich jumping a few drops.

Tonight we'll probably hit the local nightlife, and tomorrow the show is over.

Domesticity

It was supposed to be a rest day -- up to Klondike Bluffs for a snack break, but we also tossed in some new (to me) singletrack, some stuff called Baby Steps. We rode some fun singletrack, got lost where these guys got lost last time, and did some killer stuff that was totally new to all of us before getting back on track. The trail ended at the back end of Arches National Park, and we walked out onto the cliffs, and finally had our picnic. The ride back was essentially downhill and fast, except for a few flat tires, and a stop to look at some dinosaur footprints in the rock. Rocking high speed chase back to the car.

Dinner was steak on the grill, and we're doing laundry now (but laundry night has been every night) while taking turns getting massages -- she makes house calls! I'm done, and I am now pretty damn relaxed.

Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, will be Slickrock.

Fruita: Grazing On BLM Land

Today we took a day trip to Fruita, Colorado. We got up early and took the drive down, maybe two hours or so, hitting the bike store there about 9:30. Got some stuff, maps etc, and were on the trails by 10:30.

The trails at Fruita are mostly on public grazing land run by the Bureau of Land Management, and are much more singletrack-oriented than here in Moab: buff and twisty with lots of ups and downs, and just the occasional rocky "physical challenge." Lots of cliffs and bluffs, as we rode along the canyons next to the Colorado River. The trails themselves are configured like at Fell Mountain, one big loop with several smaller loops shooting off the main one. Instead of a big single-loop meal, you graze on a bunch of smaller hors douvres.

So that's what we did. We started on Mary's Loop, took a spin on Rustler's Something Something, back on Mary's Loop to the Horse Thief Bench loop, then after some backing and filling we ended up on Steve's Loop aka "Handcuffs." Instead of completing Mary's loop -- the last section is supposedly lame -- we took it as an out-and back, and raced each other along the cliffs and down the hill. Everyone rode well, we were flying and it was an awesome, awesome day. I took about 33 pictures (stay tuned), but Brian brought his good camera and he was the one who got the best shots.

We had an early dinner in Fruita, at the place which used to be a sports bar but is now a really good Mexican restaurant. Too much food, and it was all good. (We also picked up some good beer while we were in Colorado, where there is no Utah-style "max 3.2% abv" restriction. The beer in Utah is tasty, but it really isn't potent so much as bloating.)

So that was today, another 22 fantastic miles. We're just hanging out at the house now, no idea what we're doing tomorrow.

Without A Map: Like Rain In The Desert

The Old Quonset Hut Ain't What It Used To Be: We hit Pasta Jay's last night for dinner, then went to find the old dive we discovered last time, a scary bar in an old Quonset hut. We found it, but things had changed... it was now a "private club" *(I signed up for a three week membership --$4.00) and the beers were a bit better this time, but it was still good. Cheap too.

Hurrah Pass: It poured last night, and it was still a bit drizzly this morning. We were doing a pretty long ride (Hurrah Pass, Jackson Hole, up Jacob's Ladder and down Amasa Back Trail), and there was some spirited debate on whether we should abort, wait, or start the ride in the rain anyway. We started anyway.

Things went smoothly, even without a map, until we got to the top of Hurrah Pass, where we saw storms bearing down on us. We put on our extra clothes, hunkered down under a ledge and ate lunch while the storm blew through. After that the day was beautiful, and we were back to smooth sailing. Until...

We were going through Jackson Hole, and it was all sand. Somehow we missed our turn, but Brian realized we could take the next right. More sand, but we eventually got to the bottom Jacob's Ladder, a hiking trail up the cliff. Forty minutes of carrying our bikes brought us to the top, maybe 200 feet almost straight up. From there it was mostly downhill, down Amasa Back Trail. Plenty of rock, drop-offs and high speed fun, and then (too soon) it was over.

Membership Has Its Privileges: That private club had some awesome food at ridiculously low prices, so that's where we went after the ride. We just came from there, after ribeye sandwiches and hefeweizens, and now we're just hanging out at home.

Tomorrow is Fruita, Colorado.

This Sovereign Cure

Well that was quick! I'm not back, but John brought his laptop, and he's letting me mess around while he hits the showers.

So Far, So Good: Our trip started with dinner at Which Brew Friday night, me Brian, and Doug & Lori who saw us off. (Also saw many other peeps including Jay DeJesus, who gave us some introductions and greetings to convey to the locals out here, and hopefully they'll show us the good new stuff.) Next stop was Brian's house to crash for a while, then came our 3:00 AM rendezvous with Rich, the 6:45 flight, yadda yadda -- we got upgraded to the best seats on the plane, by the way. Picked up the van, hit a few outlets and got lunch, then picked up John at the airport; we were in Moab by 7:30 & retrieved our bikes.

Today's ride was the Sovereign Trail, we got in about 15 miles of riding of which maybe 8were pure singletrack, the rest being mostly (sandy) jeep roads. An awesome day, we were probably out for about 4-5 hours. Pictures won't do it justice, but I took about 50 of them just in case... (Not posting them until I get back, sorry.)

Next up is dinner, not sure where yet but I know it'll be good, and we'll be planning or rides for tomorrow and the rest of the week tonight.

Double Dipping, Dead Cat Bounce

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 8% BF

 

Hit the bottom  of my weight range the other day, and yesterday the body rebelled: ravenous all day, two breakfasts, two lunches, and a burger at Which Brew, which was lovely. Good workout at the gym though: ran 1.32 miles in 10 minutes, and hit the mile mark at 7:16. Getting there, getting there... Today is a rest day, a "packing day" really, because tomorrow is a travel day, and Sunday I'll be riding in Moab!

 

(I was in the WB maybe a week or so ago, and I mentioned I was vacationing in Utah and someone asked me "Why?" Well, faithful readers already know, but I'll say it again: this is why.)

 

Meantime, Social Security: Here's a quick analysis of that recent report, and of the media coverage thereof, for a faithful reader. Know your enemies Toni, and know that Novakula is one of them.

 

Oh well, you can't be everywhere: I was talking to an old friend the other night, the daughter of my friend and retired co-worker Vito. She's throwing her parents a surprise 70th birthday party, and I had to call to say I couldn't make it because I'd be on vacation. We did some catching up, and I promised I'd swing by & visit her parents when I get home, but I am sorry I'll have to miss this. (I also got an invite last night to a 30th birthday party, which conflicts with yet another upcoming event. D'oh!)

 

See all y'all in a week or so.

Equus

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 165#, 9% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 164#, 10% BF

 

Fiddler's Elbow 2008: 0-0-1 Hit the gym Tuesday night, but got in a hot lap on the road bike first. Eighteen miles in 1:08 for a 16 mph average, which is good but not rocketboy fast, except that my route took me up Fiddler's Elbow Rd, reputed to be the steepest road in New Jersey. It's a long winding climb with what can only be described as "a wall" at the top, maybe a quarter mile long just below the crest. Winning is riding the whole thing bottom to top, losing is being forced to walk, and I count it as a "tie" if I ride the while thing, but am forced to stop for a break: Tuesday night, first attempt of the season, was a tie. Standard endurance workout after that, then dinner at Which Brew -- I was calculating last night and, what with their May closing, and my upcoming vacations and so on, that might have been one of my last times in there -- there will almost certainly be no more WB weekends.

 

Survivor's Guilt: Have You Ever Been Down? I was thinking about that girl Rachael on Tuesday, haven't seen her alive in maybe 10 years. (She passed away in September of 2000, and for all intents and purposes it was an act of self-destruction.) I haven't thought of her in quite a while, but ran across her obituary the other day when I was cleaning my old office.

 

I remember Joe, deep into his "social phobia" phase, calling me up and asking me to go with him to her funeral -- his sisters, and the rest of his family too, were very close to her, as was his ex-girlfriend, and he couldn't face them by himself. It had been maybe two years before that, that she threw herself at me, all drunk at Mountain Bike Weekend, and I rejected her -- and I do not mean "failed to bust a move" here, it was a smackdown. I remember at the time being all "don't hold hands with a jumper," but I think now it was just a selfish act of cowardice.

Melodrama, megalomania, whatever, but sometimes I get to thinking about what-if's and might-have-been's, like what if things could have been made to work out, maybe AA or whatever, I don't know, and maybe she would have lived -- but I choked, and blew my big chance for happiness despite the heartache & sacrifice that would have come with it, and killed her in the bargain. Anyway, thoughts like that kept me up most of Tuesday night, and yesterday morning I went to work exhausted.

Whatever, it's off my chest. Some days you're Ray, and some days you're Roast Beef. The theme for last night's yoga class was "letting go," by the way.

Beating The Blues with A New Pair Of Shoes: Despite being tired, I ran yesterday morning, my standard two miles at a mellow pace. That made two days in a row, since I also ran Tuesday morning. Last night I passed out after yoga and overslept this morning, but it's OK because today I'm running at the gym before doing an alterna-workout, leaving here as soon as laundry's done and I can put a new load into the washing machine. I'll be packing tonight for Moab after all the laundry's dried.

I am basically out of here tomorrow night, so I promise one more post at least, maybe something a bit more upbeat. Meantime, I posted my Easter dinner pics over at flickr. Enjoy!

Bringing To The Serai Gifts Of Tungsten, Cordite and High-Octane

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 168#, 8% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 166#, 9.5% BF

Busy weekend, highlights being a Friday towpath ride followed by Which Brew & Porters (natch), Saturday "selfish day" plus a Jacobsburg singlespeed ride with late lunch at Christian's Spring Hotel, which was followed by Which Brew & Porters (double natch), and Sunday was a morning road ride followed by an Easter buffet dinner with the family in Jersey. I still remember all my "beat the buffet" strategies, and judging by Monday's weigh-in I guess I won...

 

Apparently some throwaway Saturday-night  remark I made to a friend solved all his romantic problems: he left a message on Sunday that he owes me a beer "or maybe more," but won't explain until he sees me in person. This is killing me, and I probably won't see him until after Moab...

 

Monday (ie yesterday) I started my new job, or rather new project -- I'm still here and I'm doing the same work, but I'm in a different group. I am not swamped (yet), but I am super busy. Last night was "active rest" in the beginner yoga class followed by laundry; this morning started with a run, and tonight is the gym with a road ride warmup.

 

Bring Out Your Dead: A quick tour of the intertubes reveals this, and this, and even this. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

So Said The Dreaming Fishes To The Young Ram

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 6.5% BF (I can explain)

 

Gym last night, with short warmup run on the treadmill. The endurance alterna-workout totally kicked my ass... Went straight to the gym from work, then went straight to Which Brew from the gym. Ate too much, had a few beers, slept like a log, woke up tired and sore.

 

Watersleep To Firewaking: Yep, first full day of spring, the green cusp coming yesterday in the wee hours. Pretty cold out right now, but hey better days are coming. Hitting the towpath tonight.

The Man With Two Brains

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 7.5% BF

 

Arriviste! They are moving me today to my new office -- technically, my new cube, but it is a lot bigger and nicer. I get to keep my old cube too, which I just spent the morning cleaning, since I'll be moving back when I'm finished with this new project I've been put on. So, right now I have two offices, which is good because for a while at least, until my old project is done, I have two jobs...

 

We Be Re-Beguiled, For A Little While: Talking to Mike the other night about some Lisp hackers he knows, I got a hankering to play around with some Lisp myself during my lunch break yesterday. We don't have anything here (unless you count AutoCAD Lisp) so I went over to SDF, where it turns out that guile was broken -- d'oh! I put in a request, was told "an upgrade is in progress, please stand by." And sure enough, it's up and working today -- too bad the urge has come and gone.

 

Anyway, took a spin class last night, then went to the Chain Gang meeting at Pete's house -- finally met his wife Deb, nice woman. Pretty good meeting too, then we spent the rest of the evening going through Pete's old record collection. I was home by 10:30, started plaing with guile on the home computer, then realized I was like someone who has a nice pen and some paper but nothing to write, so I went to bed.

 

Tonight is an alterna-workout at the gym.

My Bike Is Packed, It's On Its Way

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 10% BF

 

Took a trip up to the Poconos last night to drop my bike off at Rich's house. He's one of the ones going to Moab and he's got work-related connections to UPS, and he got us a deal on shipping our bikes out. (We leave a week from Saturday but the bikes are heading out tonight.) Dog allergies, I stuck around just long enough to say hi.

 

Before that was the gym, the "standard workout" but now with endurance-oriented weights & reps for the spring/summer, and before that was my warmup run on the treadmill: 1.26 in 10 minutes, with the mile mark at 7:29. I'm getting there, and another few pounds should be what does it. (By the way, ran in my new sneakers, which were lovely. I also ran on Monday morning, and was going to go out this morning but didn't want to deal with the rain. Wuss factor.) Almost all the pieces are on the chessboard, and I am almost ready to start training...

 

Dinner last night was, well, not much: a couple of carrots and some yogurt -- I was tired, and didn't want to either cook or go out to eat. Tonight is the Chain Gang meeting, where I understand we'll be eating lasagna, but before that I'm taking a spin class after work.

We Walked Him To The Station In The Rain

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 167#, 10% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 167#, 8.5% BF

Well Happy (Belated) Saint Patrick's Day! I actually wore  a green shirt yesterday, though not that horrible "Shamrock Shake" / "Fighting Irish" green, which I happen to loathe...

 

Anyway.

 

I got in a really good towpath ride with Larry on Friday: normally we just go out towards Bethlehem and turn around after an hour of riding, but this time we  we managed to get to my official turnaround point at Sand Island before the hour was up, and finished the entire ride in under two hours -- a personal best for him -- despite some serious headwinds on the way back. We were cruising.

 

Which Brew that night for a bit of corned beef & cabbage, and I also caught the Skulldiggers there, who played songs that actually caused people (OK, one dude) to do a jig. Hanging with Heath and Hans, and also Larry, and a friend of his (who also rides), then along comes Arnie (road), and Rian (road and MTB), and the guy doing the jig starts talking about RAGBRAI and Snowshoe... I joked that one day we're all going to compare notes and find that everyone there bikes, it's a biker bar! -- and Bill's girlfriend, sitting next to us, goes "Oh, you guys bicycle too?"

 

Saturday was the usual: yoga, coffee, gym, errands. (I also hit Bethlehem for a haircut, grabbed lunch and then bought sneakers.) I happened to see Doug & Lori downtown, wished him a happy birthday because I wouldn't be there for the celebration -- I went to Joe G's party that night, a combined St Patty's Day and "check out my new house" party (I posted a few pics). Nice place in the Poconos, nearest town is probably Effort, and yes there was more corned beef and cabbage involved.

 

Sunday I slept in for the rainy morning, then had brunch at the Quadrant. Chores, laundry, a towpath ride later in the day... I stopped in to Porters for dinner, and jammed out to the Pogues while the laundry dried.

 

Yesterday was a bit of a disappointment: I wanted to see a band at that Christian's Spring Hotel, but with a name like Coffin Daggers they sounded a like a bit of a late night. So, I hit Which Brew for dinner (last night's topic of conversation being free software and computer security), then trekked over to the show around 10:30 -- and the show was over! The place was crowded too, like the show just ended, and friends who I saw at Which Brew earlier were there on the porch leaving as I arrived. I was so disappointed I went to Porters, to at least catch some Irish music (and Irish beer) in an Irish-style pub, and saw those same people there too. (The Guinness doesn't count, but between the corned beef and the music I think I've re-established my connection to the ol' cultural roots for another year -- and the secret to being a bore is to tell all.)

 

Tonight is the gym, then I'm bringing my bike (packed last night before Which Brew) to Rich's to be shipped out west. Vacation's coming...

 

Readin' Some Poetry, And Drinkin' Some Beer

Morning weigh-in: 165#, 9% BF

 

Ride Report: Hit the 'burg with Joe G last night. We started around 6:30 and rode until dark, then went back to the cars, put our lights on and went out for another hour or two -- we got in almost exactly 18 miles in total, with maybe two and a half hours total riding time. It was good to get out on real trails, even though they were a little beat up from the winter (we were also worried about mud, but it wasn't bad). The temperature was a little higher than our recent rides, and Joe's lungs were a little more thawed out -- and his technical skills neutralized any fitness advantage I may still have -- so I was huffing and puffing to keep up. Funny how I've been working on the indoor training, the strength, cross-training & cardio, the spinning and the road rides, and thought I was pretty awesome, but when the rubber finally hit the offroad for real, I saw how much work I still have to do.

 

Like I said, it was good to be out; that was probably my first real offroad ride of the season. Bike performed well too, except for a few minor and not-unexpected "brand new rear derailleur cable" issues.

 

Tavern Report: After that I went to dinner at the Christian's Spring Hotel. Pretty nice place, but I'll get my three negative observations out of the way first: they need more parking, Thursday night is "cigar night" in the bar room, and they only take cash -- other than that the place is awesome. There are other rooms in the place (pool room, library, and dining room -- the last two of which are non-smoking) if the cigars bother you, and I believe they are working on solving the other two. The food is very good, ditto the beer selection and the jukebox, and any bar with a library is going to get my seal of approval...

 

The basic setup is this: you walk in the front door, and you're in the (relatively small) bar, which is like a public room circa 1880 or so; off to the right is a hallway opening up to the dining room and, in the back, a pool room and a library. I sat at the bar and got a Vanilla Java Porter -- luckily I had the cash, because I asked "you take Visa?" only after my first sip... I finished my beer and hit a nearby ATM, then came back and got dinner, a roast beef sandwich. (The cook told me that he roasted the beef himself that day, from midnight until about 11:30 AM, and the potatoes came from Padula's potato farm, a place I've been driving past fro about two decades on the way to Jim Thorpe.)

 

I wandered around the rest of the place, library, pool room etc, while waiting for my food, but ate at the bar. (Good book selection, by the way; I sat and read some poetry while sipping my Anderson Valley Double White and waiting for dinner.) Had a good conversation with Lynne, the bartender/owner, about their place and their philosophy of what they're trying to achieve there, the renovations they did, and their future plans, and all the while while their jukebox played "Honky Tonk Blues," "Jambalaya," and "Blitzkrieg Bop." That place is just too cool for skool... It probably won't be on a Thursday, but I am definitely going back.

 

Tonight is Which Brew (St Patty's Day informal party with the Skulldiggers), after one, or maybe two towpath rides. Tomorrow is a busy day for me, since I want to get a haircut and new sneakers (both must happen in Bethlehem) besides all my other stuff.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 8% BF

 

Bike: All is well. It took me all of five minutes to finish the adjustments, and now the front derailleur shifts just fine. I can't believe I lost sleep over that... I'll be giving it a real test tonight at Jacobsburg, sunset riding with Joe G -- we're bringing lights, but should get about an hour of daylight before we need them. Woo Hoo! Tomorrow is the towpath again, and I may do double-duty, riding early then meeting Larry later for the "real ride." This Daylight Saving Time is the shit.

 

More Reverb! Via founding member Roy's blog, I see that there's a Reverb Motherfuckers tribute at Sleazegrinder. That too is the shit.

 

By the way, while working on the bike on Tuesday evening I heard fire engines. City sounds,  I thought nothing of it until I realized that they were getting unusually loud, and I could also hear the diesel growl of the engines as they came to a stop... I ran into the front yard, and there I saw police cars blocking the street, and two fire engines plus a UGI truck out front. I turned around, got a quick glimpse of my unburnt apartment, then went back to watching the show: no biggie, there was just a gas leak across the street and they had to take the proper precautions while fixing it. I took my own precautions by returning to the bike work, figured I'd be safer with several buildings between me and and any exploding neighbor's house.

 

Reading: I'm just finishing up the first part of Male Fantasies: Women, Floods, Bodies, History, ie the "Women" part. Very tedious, but it helps to know that this first started out as a doctoral dissertation: there's been a lot of backing and filling, examining this blind alley and exhausting that possible interpretation; he's been laying the chess pieces out on the table and now he's finally making his moves -- in the section titled "Concluding Remarks" or "Preliminary Findings" or whatever. You know, back when I was a kid there used to be a thing called "the abstract," which could have made this process a little more palatable...

 

Back in the Eighties, my friend Steve had a party at his Keyport storefront apartment while his more mature roommate was away. A bunch of us were out his back window, on the roof of the store, and started jumping up and down on a pipe out there. The pipe broke and natural gas came pouring out, like a lot of it really fast. The party panicked, the street was evacuated -- firemen in the apartment forcing us outside, cops at the door making us leave our beers behind -- and I'm pretty sure we made the Keyport papers.

 

Anyway, last night was yoga, with that turkey sub for dinner afterward. Tonight I'll probably check out that Christian's Spring Hotel for dinner after the ride.

Frustrated!

Morning weigh-in: 166.5, 8% BF

 

Well I got the stuff I needed yesterday, so I took a rest day and did some bike maintenance. New cassette in the back, new chain, new rear shifter cables, and new front derailleur. Everything went well except the derailleur... I expected a few problems; installing and adjusting a front derailleur is kind of a black art, and one I have not practiced lately since the old derailleur lasted seven years, but: I took it out of the box and it was the wrong type (it'll probably work anyway), it was missing a bolt and the bolt from the old one didn't fit (I found a spare in the shed), and finally I had problems getting it to shift correctly -- in other words I finally got to the Square One of Black Art that I expected. Loosen things up, make slight adjustment, tighten everything back down, test the shifting in the repair stand, try it while riding up and down the alley, say a few choice cuss words, repeat ad nauseum...

 

Didn't get it to work. I'll be messing with it again tonight, before and after yoga, but after about three hours last night I just decided to put it away, and was so frustrated I didn't want to cook anything healthy -- I wanted comfort food. Dinner was at Which Brew.

 

Won't You Be My Neighbor? I got there around 9:30, and got a burger and a beer. It was a bit crowded at first, last remnants of the true dinner crowd, but it thinned out fairly quickly after 10:00 or so. Hanging out with Christina on my left (I think that's her name, she was drawing something she called "sacred geometry"), Dave to my right (another engineer, he took off then came back to show off his new puppies to the cook -- all the girls there are total "dog people"), Kateryna tending bar, and her boyfriend hanging out to give her a lift home. It's a world I know, and there were good conversations on all sorts of subjects going on. I kind of realized it's more than just my neighborhood bar, that place is really my ... neighborhood.

 

Anyway, tonight is yoga, dinner will be a turkey sub, and I will most likely be riding up and down the alley, wrenching, and cussing under my breath deep into the night.

Eureka!

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10.5% BF

 

You Down With DST? Got home last night, or rather I should say yesterday afternoon, and was on the bike by 5:15 for a hot lap down the towpath, my operating term for the ride being civil twilight. I had one mishap, when a stick kicked up into my rear wheel and actually broke off the tire's valve stem -- boom! -- but even fixing the flat I made it down to Freemansburg and then back home before the sun went down.

 

Another Revelation: Not much talk about good old biomathematics lately, but I have started messing around again. Most of what I'm looking at is background, less numerical/modeling than analytical, blah de blah, "...here we see that stability is determined by the Jacobian at the equilibrium point, whose determinant is purely imaginary in this case. Returning to the phase plane we find..." -- c'mon, c'mon, get to the good stuff!

 

Anyway, I have been seeing a lot of information about predator-prey and interspecific competition models, their derivations from first principles, underlying assumptions etc, and sure enough, Lotka-Volterra is problematic: the underlying assumptions are, as I suspected, simplified to the point of being incomplete. Hmmmm, just as I suspected... I'm not sure I understand the rationale behind the improved model yet, though.

 

Linux Trainwreck: Don't know what I did wrong, I thought I solved this last year, but my computer does not believe that it's Daylight Saving Time yet. Easy enough to fix I'm sure, just replace some old file with the current one, or I can do some research and do it right... Funny how I have so much computer/math/science on my plate all of a sudden, now that winter hobbies must give way to summer ones.

 

Sol Invictus: Sun came up as I drove to work today; for a while I was driving straight into a solar tower. God's fist smashing through the bell jar like some KMFDM video, yeah...

 

Tonight I may take a rest day, and if things work out -- as in, my Fed-Ex package of bike stuff arrives -- I'll be working on the Turner, getting it ready for Moab. (Otherwise it's alterna-workout nite at the gym, as my legs are shot.) Dinner last night was black beans and a salad, and that's probably what tonight's will be as well.

 

By the way, yesterday's "Donny the Revelator" did not refer to me. Just sayin'...

 

 

In The Cathedral Of Saint Donny The Revelator

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 10% BF

 

Pretty good weekend, pretty good...

 

Friday night I hit the towpath despite the rain; I did a shortened out-and-back, turning around at the mud pit that is Freemansburg, but I did get in about 20 miles total. I was a drowned rat within minutes of starting but I had a great time -- right clothes, right gear, yadda yadda, my biggest issue was, as always, visibility. Conditions were actually better on the towpath (except at Freemansburg), than they were last week: the rain had flattened down all the freeze-thaw stuff, and the surface was actually hard and fast. I finished the ride by 7:00 or so, was showered and out the door again by 7:30.

 

Scooted over to Which Brew, where I met Joe & Cindy for a beer -- they were having dinner, but I was meeting my friend Greg at Porters, 8:30 dinner reservations so I couldn't stay long. The gossip is all about the double-secret training regimens we all may or may not be implementing, and as the winter winds down the intrigue is starting to get thick. Talked bikes with Joe, went across the street and talked more bikes with Greg, whisper whisper gossip gossip, we're like a bunch of old ladies but it's gonna be a fast, fast year... Excellent dinner, caught a bit of the band and then went back to WB but Joe & Cindy were gone. Jammed out to local drummer Ryan's band (Ryan: yet another biker) and then it was bedtime.

 

Saturday I overslept, but made it -- barely! -- to early morning yoga, a nice solid vinyasa class. (That is a great way to start the day.) Breakfast at the Coffee Exchange, hit the gym for my last "super-hard strength workout" before the start of the season.

 

I went out a bit early, maybe 6:00 and it was back down to Which Brew for dinner. There's a definite Saturday afternoon crowd there, and it was actually packed. I was there too early for the dinner specials so I just hung out and BS'ed, then ordered (and ate) an entire artichoke pizza -- I guess I should say we're not talking full-size pizzas here, maybe just a bit bigger than bar-pie size, but still.

 

Ticket To Heaven: The last time I ate a whole pie at Which Brew, I got involved in a conversation with a dude who's not quite a regular there, but everyone knows him. Fit guy, runs, and he's pretty OK but I think he's a little slow, and he has a tendency to monopolize your conversation, mostly talking about his running -- I ended up talking with him again Saturday for quite a while. The guy's harmless and I give him credit, he'll talk to anyone, which is good because it makes things easier if we all do our share of socializing instead of having one person trapped...

 

Before my friend Vito retired, he'd make me help him with the computer stuff at work, and when I' get exasperated he'd laugh and say that he was my ticket to heaven, in that I was stocking up on good deeds. That dude was talking to some girls next to me, and I think one of them was a bit uncomfortable so I used that phrase, and told her that her time with him was "her ticket to heaven." I think she was a little relieved to hear it, mainly because she was not trapped by herself with some crazy stranger...

 

(Actually there was a bit of crazy talk, which amounted to his version of "guy talk" to me, and which I won't repeat here but it was a real eye opener.)

 

But like I said, I give the guy credit, and I have to say he's paying attention: I once mentioned the name of my employer and he remembered it that Friday, and back on that Friday he mentioned a band he liked (Gov't Mule), and this Saturday he brought in a CD to loan me. I gave it a listen, not really my cup of tea (sort of corporate blues-rock) but there was one song I dug, "John the Revelator." It's an old song and a good one, but I have heard better versions.

 

Anyway, a lot of talk about a short night -- I was home by 9:00 or so.

 

Sunday was another early morning yoga class, ashtanga this time, and pretty strenuous. Brunch after that, then I met my friend Joe for another Sunday afternoon river ride. It was cool, maybe in the forties, and windy, but the sky was an awesome blue, like a big bell jar without the Sylvia Plath connotations, or maybe some giant cathedral. River Road was flooded in some areas, and in others it was iced over or torn up by the winter, so we had to go slow (the wind didn't help, except when it was at our backs). It was a long ride, maybe 40 miles, but not fast or strenuous at all; we even stopped to check out an old cemetery and found some pre-Revolutionary graves. He and his girlfriend were having a pot roast for dinner and he invited me to join them, but I actually had my own pot roast leftovers to finish -- besides, I didn't want to drive all the way to the Poconos, where they moved, just for dinner. I got home, inhaled my pot roast, and did the "laundry nap" thing for the rest of the afternoon.

 

I'd call that 2.5 days seized, and well seized.

Back In The Game

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 10% BF

 

I think the pig might have left the python... Actually, the drop in weight is probably more like "suppression weight loss," though I made a conscious effort to stay hydrated yesterday.

 

Gym immediately after work, starting with a run (two un-timed but slow miles outdoors, maybe 20 minutes, in shorts & tee shirt, in daylight) and finishing with the alterna-workout. Saw Janna, wife of faithful reader Eric B, after the class she taught. At first I thought it was yoga because everyone went in with yoga mats, but apparently it was some ab workout. One hour of abs, better you than me... Also saw Vi, who took the class.

 

Dinner was leftover pot roast. I probably have one more day's worth of food in there, but I'm meeting Greg M for dinner at Porter's tonight after my ride.

 

That's The Name Of The Game: Yes I am back in the game, but the game is really called "spend money on the bike(s)," or rater maybe spend a lot of money but do it efficiently. Back when I was racing/training seriously, I'd have to replace the entire drivetrain at least twice a season (on the mountain bike), and I'd burn through tires in a matter of weeks. I was smart enough to keep a small inventory of spares, and had "preferred customer" accounts at several mail-order bike stores, discounts, free shipping upgrades etc.

 

A Conversation at a Race, maybe last year:

DON: Wow it's good to see you guys, where have you all been?

OTHER RACERS: We've been here the whole time, you're the one that left...

 

Riding with my friend Joe last weekend, I noticed him eating these sort of energy jellybeans. I'd tried them last year and liked some of them, but complained to him that I had trouble finding the flavor I liked at local stores (not everyone carries them). He was like "You can get them from Performance.com. I have the preferred membership; you could probably sign up for that, and with free shipping and the discounts that purchase alone would be worth it." You know, I used to know that.

 

Buying some components today, I want to get the bike ready for Moab, which is coming up faster than I realize.

 

 

Writer's Block Redux

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 10.5% BF

 

I got home yesterday and all the clocks were blinking, meaning that the power must have gone out at one point, and that made me worry about my pot roast: I suspected everything from slight undercooking to food poisoning. All was well (after yoga, which wasn't until later anyway), dinner was delicious and I am still alive. I washed it all down with another one of those Long Trail imperial stouts. A good hearty winter meal -- winter seems fairly over, but so what?

 

Tonight is an outdoor run, followed by an alterna-workout at the gym.

 

 

Can't You Hear The Alarm Bell Ringing In Your Heart?

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 7% BF (I was hoping for some "pig in a python" action, oh well)

Today is my brother's birthday. Happy Birthday, Kevin! It's also the anniversary of this lovely event.

Ran last night on the treadmill: 10 minutes, 1.23 miles, hit the 1 mile mark at 7:38. After that was a pretty good "standard workout," probably the last of those before I start transitioning into a more endurance-oriented regimen for the bulk of the season.

Dinner was Taco Hell, then came food shopping where I bought the ingredients for tonight's pot roast. This will be another one with a nod toward the old school root crops (parsnips, turnips), aiming for that pot au feu kind of vibe, and a really good if smaller cut of meat.

Can't You Hear The Tocsin In Your Heart? Couple of the younger guys at WB were busting on me for wanting to hear some Patti Smith on Monday night. Philistines, I'll show them... so I put on Horses on the way to work yesterday. Listening to "Gloria," there's a part where she sings:

I was at the stadium
There were twenty thousand girls called their names out to me
Marie and Ruth but to tell you the truth
I didn't hear them I didn't see
I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock
And I heard those bells chiming in my heart
Going ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong.
Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong...

And for some reason that reminded me of the French Revolution. Take it away, Tom. Just reading that again got me all fired up...

Ulysses: Today's ride in was accompanied by Led Zeppelin II. I was totally in the mood to crank "Whole Lotta Love" and hammer US22, but the roads were rainy and congested, and I came to a dead stop, one more nebish commuter in a traffic jam, just as we got to the guitar solo. Damn.

Alarum: I am behind the eight ball in terms of training. Late July seems far away but it's not really, and I really should have put in more miles on the bike by now. This weekend I will probably start getting myself together, and start biking in to work next week. (Back when gasoline was $1.00/gal, I calculated that bike commuting would only make sense economically -- ie the extra time spent would pay off in saved gas money -- when gasoline got up to $4.00/gal. I can and do bike commute for other, non-economic reasons like pleasure or fitness, but this summer I think we'll reach that payoff point.) If I already had the base miles in, I could move up to more intense workouts, but I guess I'll just have to continue climbing that ladder from the rung where I find myself. Tonight is yoga by the way, the more athletic class.

Anyway, that's that, and I will leave you with this. I'll just say that the mind is only a tool, and that guy supposedly had (the outward trappings of) a powerful mind, but one look and you could tell he was all tool.

Cheese!

Morning weigh-in: 169.5#, 8.5% BF (WHAM! CRASH! POW! Tumble tumble...)

 

(Well tonight is the gym, and I'll be running beforehand so maybe I can get back into the game.)

 

Dinner last night was at Which Brew, Mug Club Night. I had an entire white pizza. Sigh.

 

I remember seeing a movie about "death and dying" or whatever in high school, where some young man had terminal cancer and was living in a medical hostel. His mom kept visiting him every day, until he put his foot down and told her not to treat him any differently than if he'd moved out under ordinary circumstances -- ie stop visiting him every day just because he was dying. I think Which Brew might be the young man, I'm the mother, and that weigh-in was the foot...

 

Yoga class last night before dinner, and I ran before work yesterday. No run this morning -- I forgot to set my alarm last night and overslept.

 

Crazy dream: I dreamed I was in maybe Freehold, in a ranch house in some rural/farming area (like maybe Mike Mike's old house, but on flatter land out by Tennent Road), hanging with a bunch of friends. They were nobody I know, completely made up faces but they were my high school buddies, and in fact we were all younger, a bunch of twentysomethings partying late on a Saturday night. We went outside and were about to pile into the car to go to the diner when I realized "Hey wait a minute, it's not Saturday night it's Tuesday morning!" Eyes popped open and I've been chasing myself ever since.

 

Not sure what I'll have for dinner tonight, but I think I'll cook a pot roast tomorrow.

Donny Neurosis Sez Fade To White

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10% BF (A line has been drawn in the sand? Not likely but I'll take the win.)

 

Friday night was the towpath ride, followed by a visit to Which Brew and Porters (on foot, you know the drill). It was snowing, which made for an interesting ride: the snowflakes in my headlamp made it seem like Star Wars or something, until I got sick of not seeing and turned it off. The snow was coming down pretty heavy, and by the river the ground was covered; I thought there was a lot more on the ground because I encountered a lot of rolling resistance, but I think the ground itself was just soft from all the recent freeze/thaw cycles. Very strenuous workout. Walking downtown, I saw that this snowfall would be a bit of a disappointment: it just wasn't sticking, and by the time I walked home it was more like a light rain.

 

Saturday I got up early, but blew off my "selfish day," because it was "VMB day on the slopes" instead at Blue Mountain, where they got a bit more new snow than we did. Arrived 8:30, right on time to meet everybody else, and walked in the lodge only to realize I'd left my wallet home. D'oh! Back in the car, raced home, got it & raced back: I lost an hour, which hurt since I only wanted to be there for the morning session. Oh well, I was there and on the slopes... Did a few runs by myself, then ran into Rudy, who happens to be a ski instructor, and he gave me quite a few pointers especially in the moguls, my arch-nemesis:

 

Rudy: OK, do this, this, this, and especially this. Follow me.

 

Don: Right behind you, I'll just WHAM! CRASH! POW! Tumble tumble floop flap flop.

 

Rudy: Good, good! Now try [whole lotta advice of a much more rudimentary nature]. Like this, follow me.

 

Don: Right behind you, I'll just WHAM! CRASH! POW! Tumble tumble floop flap flop. Wow, that sure was a fun lesson, time to move over there where it's smooth.

 

Rudy: No way! We're sticking with it until you're confident in this stuff!

 

Don (but not out loud): Well I hope you brought food, cause we're gonna be here a while...

 

Poor Rudy! We had some serious fun, and I think I "got it" eventually, but it's not like I'm a tabula rasa: I have years of self-taught bad habits to overcome, on top of my recent years of not skiing.

 

After that we just did a few runs and called it a morning, then did the tailgating scene for a bit before we left, scoping out the hill and trying to guess where they might put in the proposed bicycling trails. The rest of the day was chores/errands, and in the evening I hoofed it back to WB.

 

Sunday morning was a continuation of the chores, car wash etc, then I did a ride with my friend Joe, who was back down in the area to finish moving stuff to his new house. We cruised & schmoozed, not exactly a fast pace (though faster than two weekends ago), and maybe 35 miles total. I had plans and was meeting people after the ride, so of course I got a flat about a mile from home, which took me from "pressed for time but essentially OK" to "late."

 

Last night was the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and instead of meeting my friends beforehand I called and arranged to meet them there. Doug & Lori, Eric and Janna, Kris and Eric, Brian & some speed-skater friends of his, pretty big crew and I saw others there I knew as well. (Shout-out to my lurkers: Hi Doug! Hi Eric! Check out my recent photos Eric, there's a good one of you.) Lotta good films, plus a few not-so-good which is par for the course, but there was one scene in a ski video with a contre-jour shot of a ramp: the sun peeked out from behind the snow, and they used the flareout to morph into a sudden fade to white. It went with the music and the action in a way that made my night. Don't know why but that was just plain badass.

 

 

Activities Checklist

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 8.5% BF

 

Another day, another trip to the gym followed by a birthday party at Which Brew... It was alterna-workout night last night: no legs, but I did run first on the treadmill: 10 minutes, 1.25 miles for an 8 minute average pace (I passed the mile mark at 7:44), or a 7.5 mph average. Not a bad warmup, but for reasons of my own I need that to be more like a 7 minute pace.

 

I didn't get to talk to Lee until the end of the night, he was sitting in with that pickup band of bluegrass enthusiasts, the "Frost Hollow Rounders," that plays there on the last Thursday of the month. Just a bunch of guys, whoever brings an instrument gets up and jams, it's pretty cool. Anyway, beer and conversation with the people sitting next to me; dinner was a "Mini Me" salad with chicken, fairly healthy if you don't count all that mozzarella -- but that's what makes it good! I did manage to give Lee a "Happy Birthday" shout-out as things were winding down, and he told me he's now officially old enough to retire. He looks maybe 10 years older than I am, so I took that to mean he's about 55 rather than 62-63, either that or he's remarkably well preserved...

 

I'm riding the towpath with Larry tonight. The Rabies are playing at the WB and I'll be there, but I'll probably make it an early evening. Tomorrow morning is the VMB ski trip to Blue Mountain and I want to do the morning session, getting there as early as possible so I can split right after lunch.

Continuing On My Primrose Path

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 169#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 168#, 10.5% BF

 

So I hit the gym Tuesday night immediately after work, then went directly to Which Brew for Michele's birthday. Pretty cool if low key, just a bunch of peeps hanging out: her present from me was a beer, though many others were more socially adept and got her real presents & cards too. I sat next to her old boss, the Cosmic Cup coffee shop guy (whose name I forget but who bikes), and we talked bikes for a while until he had to abscond.

 

Oops! It was good while it lasted, but I think I put the bullet through my "successfully chatting up the young cuties" streak that night: pretty girl sat next to me at the bar, we got to talking and it was cool to talk to her, especially because she had a really neat laugh. Until... out came the birthday cake and I mentioned that wow, Michele was finally, like, an adult -- my twentysomething conversational partner was gracious enough to roll with it, but that part of the room got a little cooler after that.

 

Speaking Of Kids These Days: Take it away, Roy. Well, he can say it, he's the one with the street cred.

 

Back at the party, I started talking with this guy in the seat to my right. He'd originally relocated from Brooklyn, went to Ft Hamilton HS and I remembered just enough Brooklyn (Cortelyou Road, Holy Cross, Bay Ridge) to keep up my end of that part of the conversation. It was kind of neat, the guy was good at reminiscing. Only downside to the night, other than that it was a school night and I couldn't really let hang too late, was the hit I took next day on the scale. Beer and birthday cake and two kinds of hot wings, sigh.

 

Last night was yoga, where I was the only student in the class, which was pretty neat, individual instruction, but it also felt kind of weird at times. There was no hiding/slacking in the back of the class, luckily the teacher catered things to my needs a bit, and backed off when I started to fade. Dinner afterward was pasta/tuna & wilted greens. (By the way, I posted pics last night of a recent winter walk.)

 

Tonight I'll either be riding Jacobsburg with my friend Joe, or, if he can't make it (he may have to study for a test), I'll just hit the gym. I was going to avoid WB until the weekend, but I got an email that another friend is having a birthday party tonight there, complete with his band playing, so I expect I'll stop in for at least a few minutes.

An Army Of Dorks To Burn The World

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10% BF

 

"If you truly believed in the Constitution you'd let me build a nuclear reactor in my mom's basement." -- saw it somewhere once

 

Last Night: Went skiing last night, after a bag-o-salad dinner. I got there kind of late, say just before 8:00, and only got in about eight runs before calling it a night. The conditions were OK if not perfect, icy in some areas and slushy in others but generally acceptable, and it was warm enough out that I was skiing with my jacket opened. The place was quiet but not empty, at least not until just before closing. I scrammed around 9:45, about when everyone else did too.

 

Reading: Got back into Male Fantasies, and it seems to be getting more compelling, maybe because the author is getting around to agreeing with me: enough of this red nurse, white nurse, sister/prostitute psychobabble, these guys were basically just dorks, and in a lot of ways they were angry that the proletarian women they encountered, instead of admiring them for the shiny dorkitude they were into, regarded them as the dorks they were. Unfortunately, the dorky thing they were into was weapons.

 

This Night: Hitting the gym tonight, then going to Which Brew for a friend's 30th birthday, former barmaid . I am not the only one in Swan Song Mode, and like in the closing months of Weyerbacher, there will likely be a lot of parties and theme nights at Which Brew.