Ladies' Night

I hit the gym last night (which I positively breezed through), then I went home and worked on the computer for a while, more of that MTO stuff. Since I'd lost my phone -- it was in the laundry, right uh, where I left it -- I had no idea of the timing or finer details, but the overall plan was to hit Brew Works to meet the gang after knitting.

 

So... I head over to Brew Works, and walk in to find Anne, Emmi, Deb, Donna and Lori all sitting together at a table -- talk about being the onion in the petunia patch! They'd only arrived a few minutes before, and were there long enough to get a drink order but they still hadn't ordered food, so I guess I wasn't too late. Lotsa BS and catching up, and much merriment and gossip, a really fun night. (I'm not even going to attempt to repeat any of the conversation, but it was shoot-beer-out-your-nose-laughing funny.) Dinner was tacos...

 

Tonight is yoga, and it'll probably be a night in for me after that; tomorrow is the gym again, and we're thinking of maybe visiting Porter's afterward.

Humpyard Dreams

The railroad slang for it is a "hump yard" (huh huh, huh huh), the place where they couple and decouple trains: there's a hill (aka "the hump") that one track goes over, and the RR rolls the cars up one side, then down the other side to the waiting trains. There's a hump yard along the Lehigh just west of town, and you can hear the booming from the woods at Sals, as the boxcars crash into each other.

 

Some nights when it's really quiet and still, you can hear trains moving across the valley, the train whistles etc, and it's a lonesome but reassuring sound, part of falling asleep -- like rain and faraway thunder when you're cozy in bed. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night, and it was a night like that, really quiet out except for the crickets, but then in the distance, just at the limit of hearing, I heard the crash of boxcars in the hump yard. Coming at sporadic intervals like a dripping faucet, it brought me fully awake, and then drove me nuts as I kept waiting for each next shoe to drop.

 

Got up this morning, and I'm still not sure I didn't just dream it...

 

In other news, I just got a flu shot. Five bucks in the cafeteria, and hopefully it won't give me the flu. Tonight is the gym, followed by Two-Brew Tuesday, aka $3.00 Taco Night, at the Brew Works. (Anne was out there yesterday, but I stayed in, and got another major chunk of that MTO thing done before an early bedtime.)

Creepshows

No morning weigh-in, scale's broken -- how convenient!

 

Awesome, and very productive, weekend. We (me, Anne, Deb, her friend Liz, Heidi, Greg's daughter Julie, and her friend Juan) got in a Friday night towpath ride, before Anne and I met Deb went to the Greek Food Festival, hit brew Works, and ran out of steam. Saturday was a classic "selfish day" -- laundry and other chores, oil change and other errands, then a visit to the gym. I met Anne and Emmi in Tamaqua later in the day, at the picnic-cum-baby shower for Lori and Chris, and then we hit the Greek Food Festival again, and ran out of steam again -- something in that cucumber sauce?

 

Sunday I did the VMB/IMBA Trail Care group ride, about 24 people in all including all the usual suspects. I felt pretty good, and was climbing well, and I was glad to see my heart rate top 180 BPM at one point -- I haven't seen it above 170 probably this whole year. My fitness is finally coming around, just in time for the last weekend of summer.

 

More stuff later in the day (haircut, WV photos to Flickr), while Anne and Emmi were at a wedding, then the whole crew met for dinner at the Brew Works.

 

Why Do Good Girls Like Bad Boys? I always knew Ayn Rand was a crazy asshole, but -- wow!

 

Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta-Touch Me: Some "Values Voters" work their way through what appear to be some personal problems.

 

(With a tip of the hat to Pandagon.)

 

Today is a rest day, lawn and laundry at home, then I have to start getting things ready for our next trip: we're hitting Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee next week, bringing both road and mountain bikes as well as our hiking shoes. Blue Ridge Parkway, Tsali, the Smokies...