Tour de Dump

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 12.5% BF

Got home last nite, got a late start but I rode my Hellertown/Williams Twp loop, aka "the hill ride," aka "Le Tour de Dump." This takes me through most of that hilly area just south of the line between Easton and Bethlehem; since this means the ride parallels I-78, it also means I pass several landfills and zoned-for-light-industry areas, on roads with PA-Dutch-country names like "Applebutter." Two roads, Morvale Rd and Morgan Hill Rd, have that King Arthur / Middle-Earth sound sinister, so it would be appropriate for them to have industrial wastelands but they're mostly rural -- except, of course, for that rinky-dink golf course condo complex on Morgan Hill, henna...

Dropping like flies: Just found out, my friend Ron just got married a few weeks ago, very quiet (more like hush-hush) ceremony, and another Manalapan friend, Tom, is supposed to get married in June.

Fire Sermon

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 180.5#, 10.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 177#, 9% BF

To Carthage then I came... (apropos of nothing, just popped into my head)

Monday I took a rest day, and I got a call from Brian pointing out that it was Mug Club Night at WB, so that's where I/we had dinner. Great night: chili, cheeseburger & lemon lager, lotsa peeps including the Kneller bros, T, Ed, Scott, and some 35-year-old TV producer (who looked 50) who managed to get the whole bar in an uproar by vociferously defending his hero, George W. Bush. He started with Scott, who came in on a real tangent, but is loud and monopolizes the conversation at 200 words a minute when he gets excited. Guy turned to me (I was laughingly avoiding the conversation by BS'ing w/ Perry) and asked me sotto voce if Scott was a lunatic. That got me into it -- I got called a "liberal," boo fscking hoo -- then Theresa weighed in, got in his face... when I left a few minutes later, he was looking pretty frustrated, like a bull surrounded by all the picadors. I knew there was something wrong with the guy way earlier, when he told me he just bought one of those new condos on Morgan Hill Road: they're wedged between the dump, the sewage treatment plant and the interstate, but they do have a golf course, hilly and rinky-dink as it might be.

Anyway, last night I did bills, played with the computer, forgot to eat dinner. (I think it's getting close to time for an upgrade. Fedora Core 4, here I come!) Had to get some decks cleared, I have a lot of financial activity coming up: someone broke into the computer system at work and got a look at our payroll records. Luckily they were encrypted, but everyone here has to redo their checking account info, put out fraud alerts on their social security numbers, etc.

Stupid joke: Buddha on the porcelain, chanting "burning, burning, burning, burning..."

And Now For Your Weekend Update

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 12.5% BF

Friday I got in a quick towpath ride, then met Brian, Rich & Linda, and Doug & Lori for dinner at the Aladdin. Had some kind of kebab-like ground lamb dish (no skewers though), plus the usual hummos, babaganouj, fried cauliflower, fatoush salad, turkish coffee... delicious!

Saturday was back to the gym, with Dawn after not seeing her for three Saturdays. Played catch-up conversationally while lifting, heard that her sister saw a specialist for her vertigo & he found a perforation somewhere in her ear: looks like she might have an answer for her problem and she's pretty happy about that. Maybe I should talk to this guy...

Saturday night was down to Which Brew, where Three Monks were playing and it was waitress Tracy's birthday. She and her boyfriend poured some drinks into me a few weeks ago, thought I'd return the favor... but she was working, and the plan was to go across the street to Porter's after WB closed, and I was too tired to wait that long, let alone start partying at 1:00-2:00 AM, so I slunk home with my tail between my legs like a party-wannabe. Great people though, I'll have to do something nice for them.

Sunday was the first fundraiser at Wal-Mart for the PPRAC Cancer Ride. Four hours on a trainer, cycling away and taking change, with Eric and Kris, Kris's dad Frank, and Doug. Lori joined us later in the day, then Greg & Judy came to help. Not sure how much we raised, probably several hundred dollars.

Stopped over D&L's later in the evening, drilled out my old cleats on my bike shoes. Major effort, wore out some drill bits, went & bought more, wore out a bunch of them too (screws are usually pretty hard steel) but got the job done. Doug made chicken tacos, very tasty -- he wanted to show off a new tequila-lime marinade someone turned him on to.

Bedtime after that. Now today looks good, I may do a singlespeed towpath ride if -- if! -- the weather holds out.