I'm Sorry, Ben

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 13% BF

Well, that "early to bed early to rise" stuff died a hard death: I worked late last night, hit the gym, then went home; I was soooo close to just staying in, but I went downtown to Which Brew anyway. It was pretty good, and I had an OK time but all in all I should have stayed home. The singer, Leechboy, really wasn't my cup of tea, and the evening dragged out to past midnight. I wasn't going to run this morning anyway, and the plan was to sleep until 7:00 rather than (non-run wakeup) 6:30, but I only got moving at 7:10 -- I leave for work at 7:30...

Blasts from the past: I ran into Heath and Hans last night at Which Brew, and I noticed that Heath was walking funny, cramped and kind of stooped over -- turns out he rode with "a bunch of NORBA guys" as he put it, and they layed down a royal butt-whooping on him. I ask him who he means by "NORBA guys," and he names a bunch of young hotshot racers from the Reading area, mostly people I never heard of, but I did recognize one name: Ryan DeWald.

I always wondered what happened to that guy. I remember Ryan D as a teenager circa 1996, riding wheelies through the race-venue parking lots on his Trek Y-bike, winning every local race and moving pretty quickly up to expert, where he still won all the time. His dad would take him to the races, and we would BS about the racing scene, the Grateful Dead, yadda yadda while the junior experts finished their extra laps, pretty cool guy. Last I remember seeing of either of them was an XC race at Whitetail: Ryan was racing for Mt Gretna and I needed to contact them, so he took off his shoe to reveal their number written across his sponsor-provided sock...

I thought maybe he just vanished into senior-expert limbo, or went off to college or moved out West or whatever. It's good to see he's still around and kicking butt, though I suspect he's a pretty familiar name/face to those who (unlike me) still follow the race scene. Apparently, his dad bought a Reading-area bike shop, and these guys ride out of there. Not sure how Heath hooked up, probably through the shop. (Heath was a hurting puppy, but he won some props from me just, for hanging with that crew.)

I asked where the ride was, and he said out by Port Colden somewhere, lots and lots of hills. I asked if there was a reservoir involved, and he said yes... hmmmm, Hamburg?

The Splatter Effect

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 14% BF

Garbage night last night. I had a small pumpkin that was starting to rot, getting all soft etc, so I was throwing it out and -- I dropped it on the kitchen floor, and it burst. Yecch! Nasty cleanup, made worse by thinking that I dropped it because I was trying to minimize contact with the pumpkin in the first place. The smell was very wierd though, not "rotten vegetable" at all, more like some kindof industrial adhesive, something I'd smell back in school or at PPC.

That was at the end of the night, getting ready for bed. Before that, I went straight from work to Kurt's Cyclery and got things moving on gettinng that singlespeed. Picked out wheels, whole lotta components, he'll get back to me on final stuff. I should hopefully have it by Thanksgiving. Dinner was Taco Bell rather than cereal, that plus a little reading before another early bedtime -- Ben Franklin would have loved me, except there were a few unexpected chores so I wasn't as early as the past few days... Got up early and ran again; tonight is the gym, then probably a trip to good old Which Brew see what's up and to see Leechboy play, also maybe drop off that skateboard literature.

Mr. Healthy

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 14.5% BF

The bad thing about cereal whenever I buy it, is that the cereal is all I eat, breakfast lunch and dinner, until it's gone... Worked late last night, then went to the gym and realized I forgot my sneakers. Doh! There wasn't enough time to get them & still get in a good workout, so I blew it off. Dinner was cereal, then I did a little more reading & had a good phone conversation w/ Doug before another early bedtime. Got up early, ran (2 miles) this morning, cereal for breakfast. Tonight I'll be checking out that Surly 1x1, very likely to buy it but I'm not sure what components to get -- I want a fully rigid bike, Hope Mono Mini brakes, and after that I don't know. I should have the bike in a week or so. Another box of cereal to go.

Want The Change, O Be Inspired By The Fat

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 10% BF

I was going to ride the towpath last night, but after dinner (turkey chili w/ rice) I read for a while, then just just felt like "screw it, rest day," and went to bed at 7:30. Slept through until 5:52 AM, when I got up and ran. Only went a mile, peristalsis issues as well as cold head/hands, must relearn how to do this AM thing...

Post-run weight was 179#, 15% BF: turkey chili w/ rice...

Tonight is the gym, then more nothing -- maybe early bed again?

Reading: Gravity's Rainbow.
Listening: Velvet Underground's first album.

Happened to listen to "Venus In Furs" on the way home yesterday, and reached the part in GR last night where General Pudding, in a sort of parody of Kabbalic mysticism, passes through a series of antechambers, each with a single "trial" before the infamous masochism/coprophagia scene. In one trial he sees a coffee can that says "Savarin" but he knows it's meant to say "Severin,"which got me thinking again about the VU: they were big on decadence and depravity, but it really was a rather bookish sort -- "Venus in Furs" being cribbed from, uh, Venus In Furs, and "I'm Waiting For The Man" cribbed from Burroughs's descriptions of junkie life. Bottom line, and after all these years: it wasn't street cred, just intellectualism -- they were sophomoric teenage posers. Ahhh, but they were my sophomoric teenage posers...

Situation Normal

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 13.5% BF

Friday night was a towpath ride with Brian, then we went to Which Brew for dinner. He drove, but wasn't staying late. I liked the band, and heard that Duende was playing across the street, so opted for pedestrian status when it came time to leave.

I can't remember the band's name at WB, but it was a blues band, lotta alumni from Illinois Slim's band, plenty of guest musicians on stage at various times. Pretty cool. I picked up on what must be the 50-something white-guy bluesman uniform: the black beret. Plenty of them there, and in comes Arnie after his show, and he's got one on, high-five's the guest harmonica player as he goes by...

Over at Porter's, Duende was taking a break and they had a guest singer/songwriter on stage. He eventiually gets Dave Cahill up there with him, so I guess I didn't miss Thursday's show after all... Duende came on and rocked, but that's no longer news, they're always good.

About 1:30 I started getting hungry, so I left, ran/walked the two miles (uphill) home, got in car and just managed to make Taco Bell's 2:00 AM closing. Mmmmm, bad food...

Saturday started at the coffee shop, then another 2-mile run along River Road before lifting. (Surprising how good I felt, considering the night before, but really the only craziness was the late bedtime.) I had a pretty full Saturday agenda, but stopped at Nature's Way for a little Grocery shopping: ran into Violetta, who I thought had quit and relocated to Alaska, or at least bact to California to be with Mike. Well, she went to Cali, then she and Mike vacationed in Alaska for several weeks, hiking and camping, and she's back but not really working there, just subbing occasionally while she looks for a job. Interesting alaska conversation, & good to see her again, plus they had a "cultured foods" sampler day there -- I actually ate and enjoyed Kimchi.

Next stop was the Bethlehem Bike Co-op. My friend Damion was there until 3:00, so I dropped off a neighbor's discarded bike for refurbishment (they give them to local kids, ship them to 3rd-World countries, or in the worst case break them down for proper recycling), and we had a long conversation about the Ilick's Mill and Bayard Park skate parks -- that history didn't have a happy ending, which I sort of knew but never heard the full story. I also got to congratulate him, because he's now the proud father of a baby girl.

(I didn't have time to do it in person, but on the way over to the BBC I called Kurt's Cyclery, got the ball rolling for that new Surly 1x1 singlespeed.)

I got home, worked on the bike, tossed some laundry on and took a nap, then went over to Eric & Kris's for a little pizza and Taboo (like charades), plus some other games. Mellow fun, just what the doctor ordered.

Sunday was a huge (and very fast) group ride led by Bob at Allamuchy, followed by an early dinner in Hackettstown.