Beguiled At Last

Morning weigh-in: 185.5#, 10% BF

Back On The Linux Voyage: I am back on the guile kick again, and, looking at this tutorial and realizing what was wrong with it (it's old, basically, and the examples no longer work), I fooled around with updating the example and got it to work. Pretty neat, but I'm not sure what that gets me now.

I did that last night. I was going to ride the towpath (after working to 6:30, home by 7:00 and out the door around 7:30) but forgot to charge my lights. Oh well, I really needed the time to do chores, maybe I'll go for a run in a little bit after I fool with the computer -- holy cow it's midnight! Thank goodness for microwave mac & cheese.

Inner Voices

Despite All The Amputations #1
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 186.5#, 11.5% BF

What Once Was Sacred Ground:I posted more photos, this time from my ride at Round Valley last Sunday. I'm closing in on 1000 photos on flickr, so I may may start padding my photo posting just a bit...

Songs From The Heart, Or At Least The Lungs: A lot of times when I ride I get a song in my head, and it's almost always been the same one lately: a sort of stately andante-paced thing, french horns and other non-brassy brass parts, kind of repetitive but with the melody or progression carried by the inner voices. I realized the other day that this song was actually in tune with my breathing on climbs. I wish I could get this out on paper, or make it happen in the real world.

And Speaking Of "Inner Voices:" Monday night was yoga class, and the class was packed. Lot of newcomers, maybe a bit of a New Year's resolution crowd, but also some workshop will be practicing in this class as well. (Different teacher too, one who takes a more physically strenuous approach.) Anyway, among these new people were two friends, girls who bartend at Which Brew, who thank goodness were not near me in class -- someone passed wind in class towards the end, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing, especially knowing that they were stifling themselves on the other side of the room... Hey, I guess gas happens -- it happened to me my first class, and the toughest thing I ever did was go to the second class -- and you can be mature about it, but not on "no laughing in church" day. I saw them later at Mug Club Night, and there was much juvenile snickering.

Wot No Pictures?

Morning weigh-in: 185.5#, 12% BF

Not much to say since last night, just thought I'd record the weigh-in. Tonight is yoga, then Mug Club Night at Which Brew.

Thistle

Holiday Dinner: Group Photo
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

So, last night was the annual Chain Gang Holiday Party, with group photo as seen to the right. Great fun, we had it at Everybody's Cafe in Stroudsburg like last year, but started the night at Rich & Linda's for some hors d'oeuvres & cocktails. Highlight of the night was the gift exchange, since it involved the complication known as "stealing"...

Anyway, after that we went to Siamsa, the Irish pub up the street. First time I'd been there, and it was a bit of a let-down, since I'd heard good things about it. (Instead of being what I expected and would have liked, it was, in Doug's words, "like a bad Friends episode.") One Guinness and I grabbed a ride back to my car at Rich's. Early night actually, I was home by midnight.

Listening: Some words I never thought I'd hear on the radio: "and now for some Jacobite music." It was on Thistle, NPR's Gaelic-music show, and they were featuring some Scottish fiddler and music publisher from the early 1800's. He didn't publish any such tunes -- they were probably forbidden -- but the DJ played a few to give a sense of perspective. No offense, but it sounded pretty much like all the other stuff to me.

I heard that on the way to Round Valley, which is where I rode today. (Stay tuned for pictures.) I'm feeling a little stronger over there, but it's still an uphill battle to get back the fitness I once had, that made riding there more than just a hard-ass slog. I did feel good though that there was another group of riders out there, who started after I did but got ahead of me by taking the easier (and shorter) jeep roads, that I overtook and passed on the Tree Trimmer Bypass. Sorry dudes, maybe I ain't still got it, but that's home turf, don't ya know...