Friday the Thirteenth

Morning weigh-in: 172#, 12.5% BF

Major accident on the way in this morning, on the interstate, right at my exit for work. I took the secondary roads in just for a change of pace (no idea about the accident), found it backed up, took tertiary road and it was backed up, got to work about a half hour late. Not sure what happened, but they had the eastbound lanes all closed and there were rumors of fatalities -- possibly a westbound truck crossed the median.

Anyway, I rode Round Valley last night, and felt good though my time (and cardio/fitness) was way off. Unfortunately, my technical was off as well, since my front shock was acting funny -- not enough damping or something, felt very squirrelly in the rocks. I managed to avoid all rain, which was good, but rain got Musikfest so I didn't go last night. Passed out instead for a while, then played with the computer.

Speaking of fitness: I talked to Brian last night, who told me he saw the cardiologist that Dona recommended. The doctor gave him an echocardiogram on the spot, said his ejection fraction was actually in the upper 30's / low 40's, not 25 like that other test showed (normal is 50-60). Doc said there may have been innacuracies in the first test, or his heart has improved (pretty rapidly) since whatever virus attacked him; he's still convalescing, but that's incredible news. The doctor also said that, if it weren't for his fitness level, the worst-case scenario would very likely have meant needing a heart transplant -- Brian told me he kissed every one of his bikes when he got home.

More 'puter talk: I configured the "modem lights" applet to connect to Epix, and things look good that way but there were still slowdowns... I just happened to check out dmesg, and saw a bunch of "PPP: VC compression error" messages, took the clue and ran with it: this (I know now) is Van Jacobson compression of packet headers, and although a Google search revealed lots of problems/questions similar to mine, but few answers, I think I found a way to disable it for now. That's a job for tonight, hopefully.

Linux Voyager: Ship of Fool

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 13% BF

Playing with the computer the other day, managed to knock out its knowledge of the modem. Pretty easy to fix in the long run (restored a symbolic link), but I also got a look at how kppp works as well as the GNOME "modem lights" panel applet. (Finally -- finally! -- got that to work correctly without having to use kppp, also learned a bit about lock files. Stupid mistake, as usual.) Next up is: why is downloading so slow with my 2.4.26 kernel, especially since the 2.4.18 seems just fine? Looks to me like a bad compile, maybe module problems. (Speaking of which, I think I have a handle on my 2.6.7 problems, hopefully a little time to mess with it soon.)

Didn't ride last night, got to Round Valley and there was a lot of thunder & lightning, so I went home and threw out a bunch of boxfulls of really old computer manuals (The Internet For Macs For Dummies, Hypercard Reference Manual, Microsoft Basic for Mac, etc). I have about a roomful of stuff to work through still, either to toss it or put it in storage (toss, toss), plus lots of sweaters (save).

After that I went overt Theresa's house & watched Cold Mountain with her. It was OK: the book was better of course, and T's original assessment -- chick flick -- was pretty much correct. Pet allergy problems from the visit, sigh.

Will try for another RV ride tonight, then maybe see the Fellas at Bethlehem Brew Works (aka MusikFest) tonight.

All Quiet on the Wednesday Front

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 176#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 175.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 176#, 11.5% BF

Hmmm, let's see... the weekend...

Friday was a night ride up at South Mtn Park with Doug and Rich, who was riding in the dark for the first time. Interesting ride, from about 6:30 to 9:30, 16 miles total (of which maybe eight were very technical singletrack). I think Rich had himself a bit of an eye-opener in terms of both equipment and technique... Afterward, I met Theresa at Which Brew, where we saw the usual suspects as well as Doug & Lori, plus a band (Illinois Slim?). I thought I'd screwed up by arriving so late (T was there from about 7:00), but she was pretty cool about it. She and I drifted over to Porters (where it was mobbed) after WB closed, and caught a set of Leather & Lace.

Saturday was my usual "selfish day," gym, chores etc. I burned two copies of my bear photos (the big, 800k versions) for Dawn & Heather, and brought them to the gym. Theresa was going to see the Dead at the Tweeter Center with a bunch of people, so I stopped by Weyerbachers Brewery where she runs the tours, ran a few more errands and then met her and the show-goers at WB & saw them off. I went to MusikFest that night with Doug & Lori and Joe & Cindy, saw the Red Elvises and got some of that spiced corn on the cob.

Sunday I slept in until 10:00, then went for a road ride. Breakfast (brunch actually, and huge) was at The Coffee Works, kind of cool to ride downtown, get a bite and then ride into the countryside. I hit the Stockertown rail-trail for a part of the ride, which was nice but wasn't really meant for road bikes. Dinner was pizza and a movie (Clerks, now 10 years old) at Theresa's; I got to hear about the show (she loved it, was very happy with new singer). Next time I'm going.

Monday & Tuesday, not much to say: Jacobsburg "recovery ride" on Monday, Tuesday was the Democratic MeetUp at Wegmans. A little better than the last one I went to, since there were more oddballs this time (think "I have an agenda and here's my chance to hijack the meeting and rant").

Anyway, if the weather holds, and it probably won't, I'll be riding Round Valley tonight.