Cheers! (in any language it's a way of life)

Cheers!
Originally uploaded by kisetsu.

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 15.5% BF (uh oh)

Bikes & beer, the universal language... I'd make a great cultural ambassador! I ran across this photo set while playing around with Flickr tags, seeing who else posted mountain bike photos. This crew is half a world away, doing and enjoying the same things my friends and I do, and in the same ways.

Speaking of cultural voyages: I did my Irish duty, went out last night (tired, no workout) and hit Which Brew for the St Patrick's day party, or as some call it, Amateur Night. Couldn't get a seat at the bar so I stood around, then took a table to eat dinner -- good old corned beef & cabbage -- then back up to the bar where I found a space & finally a seat. I caught some of Dave Cahill's show, but couldn't really get in the sociable/funtime mood, left by say 10:30.

Tonight I'll do a road ride, then probably stay in. I feel a need to catch up on sleep.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180.5#, 8% BF
Morning weigh-in(Thursday): 180.5#, 13.5% BF

So I was warned I'd better be at Which Brew tonight, so that's on the agenda -- was told to arrive early, but I'm going to the gym first.

Last night was the Chain Gang meeting. Pretty cool, lots of trail advocacy stuff going on, also we broke out the fit kit for our new jerseys. So far only 11 jerseys have been ordered -- long way to the minimum order of 25.

A friend told me what his wife has been going through -- no need to say who or what here -- and I saw her last night. Seemed fairly close to her usual self, but emotional pain/stress was etched in her eyes. So sad.

Et tu, Bluto??

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10% BF (damn you Taco Bell)

Saw on Wikipedia that today is the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assasination, oh wow -- then I realized "Ides of March," oh yeah, duh....

It caught my eye because I'm reading Caesar's The Gallic War as well as The Civil War right now. Picked them both up in the Loeb translation, on that last trip to NYC. Gallic War is better I think, at least so far: it seems better written and it flows a little more smoothly. (Then again, GW was meant as an explanation of a foreign war to people who were maybe not that familiar with it, while CW was meant for an audience that was already familiar with the material, having actually lived through the events described. Reading them both 2000 years later, of course the book with more explanatory material reads better.)

Famous story: Caesar was told by a soothsayer to "beware the ides of March!"
On his way to the Senate he ran into the same seer, said "so the Ides of March have come!" and the seer said "but they have not yet gone!" Everyone talked in exclamations back then. (I got that one out of Plutarch I think.)

Anyway, tonight is the gym, then laundry.

Low-Rye-Durr

Was coming home through Harmony Township today (country roads, mucho hilly, steepest roads in NJ), and War's "Lowrider" came on the radio. Cool song, I was just about to put in a CD but decided to listen through to the end. Anyway, bopping along the country roads and I see an orange flag (or pennant) in the road ahead... come over the crest and it's that dude in the wheelchair bicycle, cruising along, low to the ground like a recumbent, all of a sudden I was glad I heard the song out. Guy's got to be pretty tough to be riding those hills, legendary even on a regular bike, let alone a wheelchair bike -- arm-wrestling contest, my money's on that dude.

Tired, A New Feeling

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 13.5% BF

Friday: Blew off the road ride because of the rain, went to Porters instead for dinner w/ D&L and E&K. Went across the street to Which Brew -- you didn't see that coming? -- to catch a few sets of the Foolz, a really good jam band.

Saturday: I went to the gym, continued with the "endurance" workouts. After that I drove to Bethlehem, had lunch at Tulum and went for a hike at Salisbury, checking the proposed new traiils near the baseball field. I went to see Three Monks at Which Brew, but I left early in the evening, needed beauty sleep for the big Sunday ride.

Sunday: Forty miles on the road bikes, with Doug, Joe & Cindy, Greg M, Greg P, and Brian. Pretty tough for this time of year, especially with all the wind. Lunch at Porter's afterward, then naptime.

UPDATED: Minor spelling & grammar corrections.