Rainy Day

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 9.5% BF

I braved the chance of rain, which never came, to ride at the 'burg. The trails were in great shape, but the chancey weather kept a lot of people home, I guess. One or two beginner types on Wal-Mart BSO's ("bike shaped objects," I slay me), a skeleton crew from the Blue Mtn Ski Club, that's about it.

I did see Lee S on the trail, also Judy M and -- surprise! -- Janna B (nee V), checking out her new mountain bike. She's such a monster on the road, it's a shame she never developed a taste for trail riding, but maybe, now that she's on a better bike... Also ran into an old friend, Jim Y from back in the "TreadHeads" days. He was finishing as I was starting, but we exchanged numbers and we'll probably run into each other, he says he rides the 'burg with work friends every Thursday.

Dinner was Which Brew. They had the new Weyerbacher Decadence on tap, but it didn't really appeal to me: tasted almost medicine-y, too much of the herbs/spices/etc in it. The band was good though, jazz trio playing old standards ("Green Dolphin Street," fake-book tunes), Ryan Carr on the drums. His bands keep getting better, but he's still the best member in them: working his way up the food chain?

Storm Coming

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10.5% BF (the pig has passed through the python?)

Not much going on here, especially compared to London right now. Looks really bad, and will probably look worse as information comes in.

Meantime, looks like a scary, rainy Stage Six, with a crash right at the end.

Rode the Hellertown hill ride last night. I felt pretty good; my time was about 1:45-1:50, not my best but OK, and I felt like I was really on top of some good gears on the climbs. After that was Which Brew, but no Brian, for the Mug Club dinner -- saw a few people: Joe M, Mike & Carole, Pete R, but it was still rather quiet. Dinner was Caesar salad, bowl of chili, and an Allagash White.

If the weather holds I might go to Jacobsburg tonight, singlespeed it, but there's supposed to be some major weather coming through. We'll see.

Meantime: Happy 43rd Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Weekend Fallout

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 14.5% BF

We-he-he-hell!! Nice weight gain! Nothing to report otherwise. Last night was laundry, shopping & drycleaning; tonight is road bike + gym, Mug Club Night and garbage.

That Was The Weekend That Was

So, the weekend...

Friday I rode the towpath (no Sals), then had dinner at Which Brew where I met Brian, and also Doug & Lori a little later. Easy.

Saturday I got up, did a little reading, then rode down the Towpath again, caught George Hrab and the Geologic Orchestra at the Bethlehem Block Party. Pretty cool, hung out with Greg & Judy and some of their friends, who have family connections to the band. Kris R also showed up on her road bike, and we cruised through downtown after the Geologic Orchestra show, got some ice cream and then rode through Fountain Hill, until we went our separate ways when I got to Sals. Did a pretty good ride there, maybe two hours, basically my standard loop there: Spanky to the Switchback, then Ridge, Peak, Boulder and Upper Spanky trails, and then across to the Quarry Trail, but I bailed at the scrabbly old ATV climb, dropped down that to the St Luke's trailhead where I saw John E. He was with the woman he sometimes rides with, who's a neighbor of Eric & Kris; they had just come from the block party, said it was a little more exciting than the way I remembered it -- seemed under-publicized to me, but maybe things picked up in the afternoon. Anyway, talked to them for a while, then headed back home via the towpath. Thirty seven miles total.

Got home, showered, then went over Doug's parents's house (shout-out to faithful reader Toni: yo! yo! yo!): D&L, Brian, Joe & Toni (Doug's parents), and Eric & Kris a little later, also a guy named Ron, Joe's friend from work. Doug knew his son when they were kids, & accidentally spilled the beans on some youthful indiscretion... Lots of food, plenty of cool talk around the fire on the patio, pretty mellow though this day was a little tougher than Friday.

Sunday was the hard day. Got up around 7:00 AM, got ready & met others at Joe's mom's house for the Independence Day road ride: about 70 miles including a climb up "the hard side" of Blue Mountain at Wind Gap, and a short-but-sweet 15% grade about mile 50. Very good ride, I felt strong especially towards the end, and the ride was followed by a swim (I think the chlorine messed with my skin & sinuses) and the post-ride BBQ picnic. This was great, lots of people -- there were eighteen on the ride, and more came later, big crowd -- lots of food, and when the sun went down Greg busted out the fireworks. Ohhhhh! Ahhhhh! Smaller than professional stuff, but about the same quality, and very impressive.

Things broke up after that, and I went home about 11:00. Got home, changed my shirt and walked over to Carrie's house about a mile away, where she was having a party. It looked to be (slowly) winding down, but there were quite a few people there still, and I probably stayed until about 3:00 AM before walking home.

Monday I mostly slept in until about 2:00, then did laundry and lay in bed reading (finished Pattern Recognition), until I went over Brian's to say hi: Doug & Lori were over, they were grilling chicken but I'd already eaten, drinking beer but I wanted no part of it, and they got a good chuckle over my sorry state. We went to Hartman's for ice cream, and that was the end of the July Fourth weekend! And now the summer is in deceleration...