Godspeed You, Black Emperor

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 9% BF

 

As I was driving to the gym last night I heard something I couldn't believe: the DJ said words like "Next up, 'Storm' by Godspeed You Black Emperor." That's a long (fifteen minutes at least, but song ends/beginnings are hard to define with these guys), slow and repetitive instrumental -- probably one of my favorite songs, but not exactly radio material, even if it was WPRB. The song is very sad and haunting, but builds in a really beautiful way. I remember listening to it on the way to Slatyfork, driving over the VA/WV border (basically a mountain pass) on US33, it was was like Doc Melhorn driving to Heaven... I pulled into the gym parking lot, and hung out for about 10 minutes listening to the song.

 

The gym workout was pretty easy: light weights, medium reps; I'm calling this a rest week as I've recalibrated the remainder of my training to fit better with my real-life schedule. After that it was over to Porters for dinner with Anne, and also Judy and Donna. Burger, coupla beers, some wings, the results you can see up top.

 

Tonight is a towpath ride, and then we're meeting Josh and Kim at Brew Works.

And So This Is Thursday

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 8.5% BF

 

What He Said: As they say, go read the whole thing. It's not quite Steve Gilliard quality (wow I miss him, and wish he could have seen the inauguration), but that is one good rant.

 

Back To The Voyage: I downloaded the "R" statistical program the other day, and have been playing around with some of the tutorials. Like octave, it's a very impressive tool, scary powerful even in the baby examples I tried. (I wanted to use this to look at some of the things in Matrix Methods in Population Biology, but the examples given there show results without giving raw data -- but I am sure I can eventually find, say, fish size/age/fertility/mortality data, somewhere on The Google...)

 

Back To The Future: I'm recalibrating my training schedule. I think this week should be a rest week (too many extracurricular activities, such as last night's Chain Gang meeting), and I'll just shift the periods over by one week.

 

Anyway, the meeting last night was pretty fruitful; among other things we decided to:

 

1. continue existing as a club, and

2. open membership again.

 

(We also thought it would be a good idea to shift our focus more towards North Jersey, specifically the Allamuchy area, but that wasn't an official decision, or even an easily-definable one.) Dinner was chili, a bunch of different recipes, with cake and ice cream dessert.

 

Tonight is the gym, followed by a trip to Porters for dinner.

 

Well It's A New Day

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 9.5% BF

 

Not sure how that happened, dinner was a little sparse...

 

We went out last night, to an "Inauguration Ball" at Fred & Lara's: cocktail party, Hawaiian and Kenyan dishes, and there were lots of people in formal dress (up to and including tuxedos). One tuxedo'ed gentleman was a professional magician, who happened to have his props in his car, and so we were treated to an informal "midnight magic" show. We left just after the show, got home just before one. A bit tough for a school night, but there you have it...

I did another 20 minutes on the trainer last night, and tonight is a rest night as it's also the first Chain Gang meeting for 2009.

Some Catching Up

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 171#, 11.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 171.5#, 11.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Saturday): 172.5#, 9.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 172#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 172#, 10% BF

 

We-he-hell! It's the end of an era, and hopefully the beginning of a better one! I've waited a long time for this day, and it's all happening in real time as I write this.

 

What else is new? Well, the training is not going so well, lots of obstacles like weather, but I finally bit the bullet and set up my indoor trainer. Meantime:

 

Last Tuesday we went for a towpath ride. Me, Anne, and a bunch of VMB people, starting at Sand Island. We got to Riverside Park in Easton, turned around, and when we got to the new boat launch -- wham! -- Anne took a spill on some ice, and sprained her ankle (but that's not what it looked like originally). I managed to get in touch with Eric R, and he came down and got us, then took us to St Luke's Hospital, and then picked up a pizza for us. Hanging out in the emergency room, eating pizza... The X-rays showed nothing broken, it was just a sprain, so we got the usual advice and prescriptions (and crutches), and were home by midnight.

 

Anne was not doing well by the next morning, lots of discomfort and pain, and so she finally broke down and took some ibuprofen. That and some R.I.C.E. and she was feeling a lot better by the afternoon, and has improved steadily ever since.

 

Wednesday I took the morning off to make sure things were OK, then went to yoga after work. Thursday was the gym, followed by some dinner at the Apollo (Anne's belated office Christmas party), and Friday I had off but it was too cold to ride, so I took Langston for a hike at Sals. He hadn't been getting his walks lately and was getting antsy, but he basically slept all day Friday and Saturday...

 

 

Sunday we went to Blue Sky for breakfast, then I took Langston on a bike ride at Sals with Rich and his dog, and Joe and one of his wolf-dogs, and a bunch of other people, while Anne hiked the trails over there. Langston was a bit leery of the wolf-dog (me too), but got on well with Sadie and seemed to enjoy the trails. He slept like a log again Sunday night, too.

 

On the trainer last night, and again tonight while she's at a meeting, then we're going to an inauguration party.

 

By the way, there's some new photos up at flickr.