Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 13.5% BF
Rode towpath last night, did laundry & then hit Which Brew for dinner. It may have been a mistake, since I plan to go there tonight after the gym: David Cahill is playing and I don't want to miss it.
So Bush is Preznit for another four years -- we're screwed. I hear there's a lot of AutoCAD jobs in Ireland... Too bummed to write any more.
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 178.5#, 12% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 182#, 15% BF
Friday night I skipped riding, went to dinner with the P's and Brian at Tortilla Flat, then stopped by the Steelgaarden at the Brew Works.
Saturday I skipped the gym to do trail work with Bob W and a bunch of JORBA types. I did a ride on the towpath later in the day, out to Sand Island, then up thru Lehigh to tthe top of Suth Mountain -- I was planning on meeting Doug & Greg up there, but time was running out and i just went home from there. Hit the showers, then it was...
Saturday Night: The big Halloween Bash at Which Brew actually started for us at Greg & Judy's, where we ate dinner and got into our costumes. Too much to talk about here, but crazy good times ensued.
Sunday I did a road ride, and just took it easy.
Monday was back to Which Brew for Mug Club Night.
This morning I voted.
Morning weigh-in (Thurs): 179.5#, 14.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Fri): 181#, 12.5% BF
Uh-oh, I'm not liking those recent weight gains. Not much exercise lately, plenty of bad food, happens this time every year.
Got the last of my costume last night instead of going to the gym, picked up a surgeon outfit. That and the clown wig/makeup, and the horror-movie knife (it plays the screeching shower music from Psycho), and I should be able to put something together. Call me Dr. Bozo!!
Moving right along... I went to Which Brew last night, ran into Theresa for the first time in weeks. Things look OK between us (as friends), and we talked for a while. She's had a rough two months apparently, lot of things going wrong in her life.
Linux Voyager: I cribbed a mini Java-based webserver from that Learning Java CD, which is rather primitive (it can only respond to GET requests), but I was able to browse the copy of my web site that I keep at home, as well as any file on my machine that's in a Mozilla-recognized format. I did that Wednesday night; last night I set up a perl script that writes a little gibberish (inxluding date and tme stamp) to a named pipe, then read the pipe via the server & browser. Results were somewhat unpredictable, but it did work. Very interesting, for me anyway!
By the way, the title of yesterday's post was what Renee Zellweger's character kept saying in Cold Mountain.
Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 14.5% BF
Worked late, then hit the gym last night, followed by laundry and a trip to Which Brew for dinner. Before leaving the house I ran into some neighbors, who told me the story of their daughter-in-law: molested by a relative as a child, parental alcoholism and denial, mental health issues later in life, especially after her own daughter was assaulted -- these are people I know & see every day, this is the kind of shit that's supposed to happen to someone else.
Anyway, Which Brew: it was OK, had a decent conversation with some dude about the Easton Skate Park, but all in all I'd say the evening was a wash: some people in there I didn't really enjoy being around.
Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12% BF
I've been on a nostalgia kick for the past year or so, listening to the punk (or post-punk, or punkish) songs I heard on WPRB back in the 80's. It's funny how true those songs sound today, almost like prophecy, and how little I "got" some of them back then...
The CD for the ride in this morning was a Rhino Records compilation of the Gang of Four. One thing I picked up on recently is that a lot of these bands had a thematic schtick: the Dead Kennedys, for example, seem obsessed with WMD's, class war, and genocide; while the Gang of Four focused on, say, the Thatcher era's economic enthusiasms, market forces as instruments of control, and the commoditization of sexuality to allow market forces to act upon it.
("The commoditization of desire" is a phrase I cribbed from Mark Leyner's My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, which came out about the same time as these bands, maybe a little later. Some little kid is giving a "what I did last summer" presentation about a trip across the Midwest on I-80, when his brain locks up and all he can do is stutter "corn -- corn -- corn -- corn -- Stukey's... corn -- corn -- corn -- corn -- Stukey's..." over and over.
His parents take him to doctors, speech pathologists etc to no avail, until at one doctor's office some communication passes between the kid and a cockroach on the wall, and he begins to speak: "Well, yes, with respect to the Interstate. Whereas prostitution constitutes the commoditization of desire, the tollbooth exchange constitutes the eroticization of commoditized mobility..." blah blah blah, guess you had to be there and it really wasn't an important part of the story, but the phrase "commoditization of desire" stuck with me.)
Anyway, back to my story. To be continued...
Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12.5 BF
The weekend:
Friday: My car was finally ready. I scammed a ride home from my long-suffering friend and colleague John, who was kind enough to actually take me to the dealer instead... a big mistake on his part. They couldn't find the keys or paperwork, or the manager with access to the locked room where they might have been placed accidentally, or get in touch with the service manager at home... Keep in mind, this evening pickup is not a special event: I'm at the "evening pickup desk," where they handle this stuff all the time, and the service has already been paid for; in the absence of bureaucratic screwups, getting my car should have been a trivial matter. While they're dithering, I spot the the car in the lot, use my keyless entry to get in, retrieve my secret spare ignition key and the receipt, and finally let John know I can get myself home...
Of course, there's still no happy ending. The valve tap is pretty audible despite "everything they could do," and the "check engine" light is on. All these are isolated incidents I'm sure, no systemwide signs of incompetence to see here, move along...
Lots of things have been on hold waiting for the car to arrive, so I spent most of the evening running errands. I get a call from Eric that they're going to a new Mexican place in Emmaus, but I can't join them, maybe I'll be at Which Brew later though. Even later, I get a call from Heath down at Which Brew, trying to talk me into coming out -- turns out, he was hoping I'd bring some women with me ("it's like a friggin sausage party down here!"), like maybe I'd bring T and some of her friends... sorry dude, can't help you there.
Saturday was breakfast at the coffee shop, then I hit the gym and ran more errands. Getting home, I found a call from Doug, saying he'd be campaigning in the afternoon, if I'd like to join him. A few more errands plus a shower, then over to his house where was gearing up for a trip through his neighborhood. Results were a bit more encouraging this time around and we were feeling pretty good when we finished, and Doug got a hankering for buffalo wings. He and Lori and I hit the Brew Works, but there was more than an hour wait, so we went to McGrady's, which has a better beer selection but the food isn't quite as good. There wasn't as much of a dinner crowd there, and we were early for the Saturday Night partytime rush, so things worked out relatively smoothly. We went over to the Funhouse after that to see what was going on (not much, we were way early for that place). After that I went home, and was in bed by 10:30.
Sunday we rode Blue Marsh: me, Doug & Lori on the tandem, Greg, Brian, and Joe & Cindy. Great ride, followed by a an excellent post-ride dinner (or late lunch) . The rest of the day was laundry & naptime.
Once again, no morning weigh-in...
It was raining last night, but I was going stir-crazy so I put on a raincoat and some hiking pants (not my waterproof pants, but somewhat resistant and fast-drying), and went down to Which Brew for dinner. Quiet night there, and Carrie & her roommate Tara were both working. Of course, they were getting paid to hang out, but it was still pretty cool to monopolize the attention of not just one, but two twenty-something hotties... Same old story though: they were talking about the fun they'd have after closing the bar and escaping, while for me, this was the high point of the evening. I grow old, I grow old, yadda yadda trousers rolled.
I also finished reading Wonder Boys last night. Rereading, actually, and I enjoyed it as much as all the other times.
Got a call this morning, 6:45 AM, the guy I've been riding to work with realized he had a doctor's appointment today. He called another friend to arrange a ride in, but I'd have to be ready in a half hour because that guy likes to arrive a little early. Cue the "Mission Impossible" theme, but I was ready in time; unfortunately there was a tractor-trailer flipped on I-78, two lanes closed and traffic was backed up 6 miles. We took backroads (also congested) and got in at the regular time.
No ride tonight: lights not charged, and I hope to pick up my car. Back on track tomorrow morning, I hope. I hear that stuff springs eternal.
Morning weigh-in: 178#, 10% BF
Car's still in the shop, waiting on "one more shim"... Chain Gang meeting last night at Steve's Pizzeria, good meeting. Nothing much to say today.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 11% BF
As of today, I will have been sans car for one week. The Outback has been in the shop with an "internal coolant leak," aka blown headgasket, which necessitated taking the heads off (expensive), also checking the heads at a machine shop for warping. The car's been there since Monday of last week; heads came back OK, but there was a tap in one valve when they put it all back together, which meant it needed some shims, which had to be ordered since no one local had any... I should get the car back tonight. I owe rides, favors to several co-workers.
Tonight is the Chain Gang meeting, which should have been at my place but there's no way I'd have been ready, so we're having it at a pizzeria nearby.
How bizarre, how bizarre: landlord painted my bathroom the other day. It used to be white, now everything (including trim) is painted purple, with a banana-cream yellow sponge effect overlay. Not sure if I like it, but he busted his ass to do it, and he prides himself on his artistic sensibilities...
No morning weigh-in (forgot), which is probably good since I ate 3/4 of a pepperoni pie last night.
AN OBSERVATION: Blogger seems a little really slow and cranky this week.
It's Over: I haven't seen or talked to Theresa in about two weeks, and before that it was probably two weeks since I'd last seen her. She wasn't answering her phone (screening?) and didn't return my calls; emails would sometimes get replies. I guess if I were really committed to our relationship I could have forced the issue sooner, but I've been drifting in the same direction myself, and drifting was easier... I sent a sort of "dear John" email yesterday, committing to writing what seemed pretty obvious, and got a reply towards the end of the day: she's been taking a beating in just about all aspects of her life (ex-husband has been very sick, extra childcare demands, pay cut at work) and sort of retreated into herself to regroup. Nothing to do with me, but she just wasn't up for a relationship anymore.
Really sad, because I do like her and like hanging out with her, and I think she's been thrown some curveballs in her life and I want her to be happy. But I've also sort of realized that we really weren't that compatible -- as friends, yes, but not really at the more intensely close level of a romatic relationship (else why block each other out in times of stress?), to say nothing of shared-life issues (her pets, my bike obsession). Oh well, I hope we can stay friends, or at least not be awkward when we run into each other. I also hope we do run into each other: her haunts are my haunts, her friends and associates are people I know too, and since I haven't seen her around I tried to let her know that she has as much right to hang out (say, at WB) as I do...
Meantime, back to my "bloodless calculus" of compatibility: no smoking, no pets, no drugs, no tats (OK, maybe one or two)...
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 14% BF
The Weekend:
Friday I was feeling pretty low, the fallout from a rough week. No exercise after work, but I went down to Which Brew with Brian, where we saw a blues guitarist called Charlie Hilbert, very good. Brian was pretty happy since the guy played a boatload of Johnny Cash tunes, then hung out with us between sets. It's official, WB is pretty much a "biker bar": me, Brian, Heath & Hans, Arnie (a confirmed roadie, sad to say), bartendress Carrie (got MTB for birthday), and I even saw Scott S, hardcore biker & co-worker... overheard bits & pieces of another conversation "blah blah Cannondale blah high-end blah." It's soooo 3-months-ago, but I also had a mojito for the first time, and enjoyed it immensely. Those things are deadly.
Saturday was bike trip downtown to the coffee shop, then back home to get my regular glasses before going to the gym, so no time for a run. After that I went home via the bike path, which was in good shape. Housework, computer, walked down to WB (lame) then Porters (only marginally better). An early night.
Sunday was the Central Bucks Bike Club's big Covered Bridges Tour, a hilly 63-mile ride through the backroads of Bucks County. Me, Brian, Joe & Cindy, and also Pete H and his brother. (Also saw Karen F, who rode with me for a while then pulled a Houdini.) Great ride, good day if a bit chilly. Home, naptime, visited Shruty's Pub (open Sunday, Guinness on tap, about 2 blocks from home) for dinner.
Linux Voyager: I was fiddling with the CD player lately, found it didn't work. I spent some time trying to get it running, which I did but still can't burn anything. I think I have to recompile the kernel, or at least make some new module. Soon, soon.
Post-mortem: Things with Theresa are pretty much toast.
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 180#, 8% BF
Wow! hope those numbers are, ummm, anomalous...
My grandmother's funeral was yesterday in Brooklyn: Mass at St Patrick's in Bay Ridge, burial in Holy Cross Cemetery. Sad, but I think I'm OK with it.
Been out from work since Monday (a 3 hour fly-by, coming in at noon after renting a car, then leaving early), wakes Monday night and Tuesday afternoon/night, playing catch-up here as well as everywhere else in my life.
Saw a few people I haven't seen in a long time, one major one being Maureen C: her mother was, in some indirect way, my grandmother's cousin, and they also lived in Englishtown; her family and ours were friends especially when we first moved there. I think she and her older brother were my babysitters when I was little. I didn't recognize her but she introduced herself at the gravesite, and we talked for a while before she went with another cousin to visit her own grandmother's grave, which she had never seen. Apparently the area near Holy Cross was where my grandmother's family had settled: multiple generations of her mother's relations, all within a four-block section of Flatbush, lots of aunts & uncles, in-laws, cousins and 2nd cousins...
My grandmother was born (in a house) on Veronica Street, grew up on Cortelyou Rd, married and moved a few blocks away to Snyder Avenue, moved back to the Cortelyou Rd house after her mother's death, living there with her sister and brother (and her husband) before they all moved together to Bay Ridge when the Flatbush neighborhood deteriorated. We drove past a lot of the "old neighborhood" on the way to the cemetery.
UPDATE: wrote most of the above Thursday, finished it today. The current sitrep is that my car is still out getting fixed, my house is a mess, and I feel very run down. TGIF.
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13.5% BF
On Thursday, a co-worker said she noticed smoke from my car's exhaust as I was coming up Jugtown Mountain, and on Friday on the way home the temperature gauge pinned itself on hot. When I parked the car I could also smell an ipecac-like smell, probably burning antifreeze. It's very likely that I have a blown headgasket, and possible that the actual head may have been warped by the overheating. Gasket = expensive, head = need new car. OK, so it's going in Monday.
Friday night, riding the towpath, ran into Doug & Lori, rode with them back to Bethlehem and made arrangements to eat at Which Brew, but when I got home, I saw they'd called and left a message: we were going to Porters, to meet Eric & Kris for dinner. Brian eventually joined us, and Leather & Lace played that night (and dinner was delicious), so it was a very enjoyable evening.
Saturday morning at 7:30 -- never a good sign -- I get a call from my mom: my maternal grandmother (my last surviving grandparent) had passed away overnight. My parents got the call at 4:00 AM from her caretaker that something was wrong (my grandmother had live-in assistance, like a nursing home only at her apartment), and I guess she passed not long after. Grandma had her health problems (the worst was a case of Parkinson's, but she'd been very sick with abdominal-surgery-serious situation a number of years ago), but wasn't really sick per se, she just seemed to gradually be getting frailer as she got older, and she actually seemed better than usual lately. But, though she was lucid (hearing problems complicated this) and enjoyed having/being company, her thoughts were halfway into the next world I think. She had a long and pretty decent life, and she passed easy, so I guess that's OK.
Monday and Tuesday will be for the wake, and Wednesday is the funeral. Everything will be in Brooklyn, and she'll be buried next to my grandfather. I'll drop off the car tonight, rent a car probably this afternoon or tonight, and take off part of Monday & Tuesday and all day Wednesday to go in to the city.
Anyway, I hit the gym yesterday, riding there -- stopped along the way for breakfast at that coffee shop -- bringing sneakers and running before lifting, then rode home with a stop at the other coffee shop (Quadrant) for lunch. I got home and totally vegged out for a few hours, then walked to Which Brew where I met Brian for dinner. His uncle just died as well (dad's youngest brother, father to the cousin he always visits in Boston), so we were both a little bit on the somber side for partytime Saturday night.
Some interesting facts about Mrs. Barth:
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13.5% BF
Hit the gym last night, and towards the end I got a real craving for pork lo mein, so when I got home I found a local Chinese restaurant in the phone book (not the one I usually go to, couldn't find their number), and phoned in a take-out order. I have a serious peanut allergy, so I made a point of asking "do you use peanut oil or vegetable oil?" and received assurances that the food was safe -- at least, I think that's what the guy said -- but one bite (after eating the eggroll and the wontons from my soup) told me that there was something wrong.
I was so hungry and frustrated (I really wanted pork lo mein), I was tempted to think it was my imagination, but after a few seconds there was no mistaking the fact that I'd eaten something I shouldn't: my mouth and throat were burning/itching like crazy. I tossed the rest of the lo mein (doh!) but didn't try to vomit anything I already ate, figured part of a mouthful would do less harm in my stomach than re-irritating things on the way back out. Lotsa water, some Taco Bell to dilute it, and I settled in for an evening of suffering. I started to feel better around midnight & went to bed, but this morning came waaay too early...
Welcome to my shit list, unnamed Chinese restaurant!
Riding the towpath tonight, maybe eat some safe food somewhere afterward.
Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13.5% BF
Not sure if the BF is correct, since I weighed in after my morning shower, probably a little wet and the measurement is uh, electrical or something...
Didn't do any exercise last night, instead opting to go through the living room and toss out all the old mail/etc lying around, put all the books back on shelves, do some laundry and dishes, etc, etc. Four bags of trash, mostly old junk mail, plus a bunch of newspapers for recycling, and I threw out a lot of boxes I'd been "saving." The room is still not livable by the standard of having guests, but it's getting close. I think I'll move the bed into the spare room, and make my bedroom a den/office/2nd living room. Hitting the gym tonight first though.
I saw an article on Wikipedia today about George IV's trip to Scotland and the subsequent revival of Highland culture as a source of Scottish national identity -- except that it mostly wasn't Highlanders (they'd all been driven off their land and deported) , and it was mostly just the trappings of the culture (kilts, tartans)... kind of reminds me of growing up in Englishtown, where a development -- actually in Marlboro, the next town over -- called itself "Heritage Chase."
I remember their oleagenous billboard: "distinctive homes in a distinguished community" -- don't make me retch! This "Heritage Chase" was one of the later developments, after all possible living heritage (as opposed to a few Historical Society museum-pieces) had been paved over or homogenized. The new development surround Old Scots Graveyard, which was the original location of Old Tennent Church (called "the new church" at the battle of Monmouth), and which contains sandstone grave markers carved from the ballast of the ship in which they immigrated, fleeing persecution in Scotland. Some of those graves dated from 1702, I wonder how many of them have survived the past twenty years?
By the way, Manalapan is Lenape for "bread and water" (as in "this is good agricultural land"), and the high school teams are the Braves. How long until the Cub Scouts host a Pow-Wow at the Raceway Mall?
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 12% BF
Pleasant evening last night. Got some things done, then went to the gym: run wasn't hard & wasn't meant to be, but the numbers looked pretty fast (8:54 & 8:57 miles) for a conversational-pace warmup... the rest of the workout went well too, I was pretty happy. I came home & played with computer (natch), made minor change to my web page stylesheet, delved a little more into Java, yadda yadda, had dinner (tortellini w/ Louisiana hot sauce), and then read some more Infinite Jest. Bedtime was a very reasonable 11:00.
It looks pretty nice out, and I'll probably go for a towpath ride tonight but my lights aren't charged, so we'll see what happens out on the trail. Sunset is at 6:30 or so; if I leave at 5:30 and ration the lights (and bring an extra -- but also semi-discharged -- battery) I should be fine.
Richard Ellsworth Savage: I see that Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in a new movie about Howard Hughes, which made me think of Stan Ridgway:
Now if I find a product I like
I'll buy up the whole company
Then I'll shave my face and grin
And smile and sell it on TV
And everyone will know me
I'll be more famous that Howard Hughes
I'll grow a long beard
And watch "Ice Station Zebra" in the nude
And grow my nails like Fu Man Chu
And keep a row of specimen jars
Get other people to work for me
Well no...maybe I'll buy
The planet Mars
And build an amusement park up there
Better than old Walt's place
You'll have to be a millionaire to go
And we'll smoke cigars
And lounge in lace
And talk the talk of businessmen
And bosses that we are
So here's to me
The drinks are free
'Cause I just bought this bar...
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13% BF
Well, those low weights didn't last too long at all, did they? "Active rest" day yesterday, did about 45 minutes of walking over at Merril Creek, basically was the only one there. After that I went home, tried out the first two Java examples, then went to WB for the Mug Club dinner. I made it an early night there, but I came home & read for a while so bedtime was after 11:00 anyway, oh well.
I realized something about that Java book: the first chapter, which I thought was the start of an impossibly steep learning curve, was really just "here are some examples showing the main ideas, don't worry if you don't understand because we'll explain it all later." Lucky me! Thought I was doomed...
My cousin's husband is pretty sick right now. He woke up in incredible pain the other day, rushed to the hospital where they said he had a growth near his aorta, had to go to Miami for surgical team that could handle it. Very scary situation, but he's at the special hospital now and they've got a good handle on the situation, which looks a little (but only a little) less dire than originally. He should be undergoing surgery as soon as all tests are completed, probably in the next few days.
Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13% BF
The weekend:
Friday was a night ride down the towpath, where I ran into Joe & Cindy, and then also Doug & Lori. Pretty amazing when you think about it, though maybe I shouldn't be too surprised. Afterwards J&C, also Brian, met me at Which Brew for dinner. Mellow night, but there was an after-dinner shot of high quality tequila involved... The band there was really good, sort of reggae/ska, tight and really talented playing; Unfortunately the rest of the audience (other than our table) didn't seem very appreciative. Brian bought the CD, and I signed up for their mailing list.
Saturday I went to the gym -- almost was late because I was playing with the computer -- where I rode a stationary bike rather than run, and skipped the pushups because my toe (better in almost all respects) still hurts at the tip, and I skipped everything that involved lying on my back because my head was stuffed and I was worried about vertigo. Why did I bother going? Actually, it was a good workout despite everything; Dawn was super resourceful and came up with a lot of exercises to substitute for my normal ones. I also did the first leg exercise of the year, leg raises for the ol quads.
The afternoon was mostly taken with minor chores, especially getting ready for the Gap Gallop century ride. Later in the day I decided to start messing with Java, so broke out that "Learning Java" book and got ready to install from the accompanying CD, then decided to download the next-to-latest version directly from Sun.
Digression #1: I installed the latest "Java Runtime Environment" last week, which allows for Java plugins to run. The very next day, Sun announced the release of a major new upgrade -- doh!Anyway, I got the download going, grabbed the laundry & took it to be dried at the laundromat, and went back down to Which Brew, thought I'd grab some dinner, see this weekend's other reggae band (even better thant the other one). That's where I ran into Theresa, hmmmm...
Digression #2: Sun's Java product nomenclature is very confusing.
Morning weigh-in: 174#, 7% BF
Whoops! Was going to go to the gym (again) last night, but (again) I sat down "just to check my email" and blew off everything including dinner -- well, I ate half a box of Triskets -- went to bed at 1:00 AM. A little too old to be going into a larval stage... nothing I can really point to as an accomplishment either, just browsing the web and generic fiddling.
Nite Ride: I plugged in the batteries; they should be ready for a ride along the towpath tonight. I may hit the Raubsville Inn afterward to see Duende (they're either there or at Pearly Baker's, gotta check).
Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 9% BF
Didn't go to the gym Tuesday or yesterday, didn't do laundry or other chores, instead I got home from work and played with the computer. Last night I sat down, "just for a minute, to check my emails" and didn't get up -- except for a bathroom break / fridge raid about 10:00 -- until after midnight. Among the stuff I did was get my newer version of that gallery maker shell script up and running -- now with a style sheet and unordered lists instead of tables, plus a few more cleanup items, like
link=${photo%[jJ][pP][gG]}htmllink=`echo $photo sed -e "s/[jJ][pP][gG]/html/"`Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF
Nothing much to say: cleaned the kitchen (slightly) last night, also laundry/shopping & played more w/ CSS, lists & my galleries. Nothing to write home about... tonight is the gym, then maybe a little more housework.
Morning weigh-in (Sunday): 173.5#, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175#, 12.5% BF
I stayed in Saturday night, playing with style sheets etc. I'm trying to get away from using tables in my image gallery indexes, instead using unordered lists so they flow to fit the page, but I also want them to look exactly like the tables-based indexes. I think I've got it down, but I was up a little late because of it, which made Sunday morning tough.
Sunday was trail maintenance day at an "undisclosed location." We have an unofficial & quasi-legal OK to be riding/working in the area, but officially we're trespassing -- so shhhhhh! Well, discretion is the better part of valor, so we went up there with two chainsaws & cleared out a bunch of trees downed by the hurricane. We removed the first few trees without any real problems, then came across one next to a yellowjacket nest -- practically on the trail, and very, very angry! Eric & Doug both got stung, though we tried to be careful. I didn't have a problem with the yellowjackets, but I guess I used up all my "careful" on them because I managed to drop a log on my foot. It hurt like hell all day, still hurts and now my big toe is black & blue, but I don't think anything's broken. (I was planning to run tomorrow, think I'll skip it.)
After the trail work, I rode with Doug & Lori up in the same trail system near where we worked. (Eric was up there as well, but we never did find him.) They were on their new tandem, and going kind of slow in the twisty and very technical terrain, and this was fine by me, since I felt tired and my strength/enthusiasm had all drained out the bottom of my foot. Rode pretty good though, was happy with that & had fun.
Sunday evening was back to D&L's house, for a dinner party they put together. Eric & Kris, Brian, and Greg & Judy (just off surgery, first time out of the house in a week); salad, bread & olive oil, pasta w/ sausage & meatballs and Doug's family-recipe sauce; cannoli and other desserts, and beer and wine and great conversation. An awesome evening.
Morning weigh-in: 174#, 12.5% BF
Well, this weekend is the Easton Garlic Festival, but at Which Brew the weekend starts on Friday night so I grabbed a plate of roasted elephant garlic: each clove must have been about as big as a full bulb of regular garlic, and the plate held about half a dozen cloves. Unbelievably tasty, but it wreaked havoc on my digestion. I guess now I'm honorary Welsh...
Anyway: rode last night, 3 hours on the (slightly damaged) Lehigh towpath -- most damage wasn't from the river, but from water coming down off the hills and cliffs, heading for the river -- then to WB as noted. The band there, The Insidious Rays, were awesome, by the way. Hung out with Stu & Kathy before they left, and Heath & Hans Kneller (their bikes were on their car, who else could it have been?) and Margarita, plus about a thousand cute college girls it seemed like.
This morning I fooled with computer before hitting the coffee shop, then a run along the Jersey side of the river & a standard gym workout; after that I checked out the festival downtown. Got home, played more with the 'puter, and my mouse crapped out. Cheap plastic part inside snapped, so I bought a new Logitech wireless optical mouse (3-button w/ mouse wheel, thirty bucks -- sweet!), which I'm using right now. Feels kind of weird, like using a template on the old AutoCAD systems at work, but I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quick.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12.5% BF
Didn't ride/run/lift or do chores/errands last night, instead played with the computer. I don't know why, but I really like playing with bash.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11.5% BF
Heard a cool song yesterday, had to stay in the car to let it finish when I got home from work. I didn't catch the artist/title, but liooked it up and found this:
Whoever watches over all these truckers
Show a little mercy for a weary sinner
And deliver me, Lord deliver me
Deliver me to the next Best Western
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10% BF
I seem to be getting a cold, which was once a monthly occurrence but has been almost unheard-of for more than a year. Sore throat started last night, sinuses seem clogged, I hope it blows over pretty quick.
Ran yesterday, two miles down past Baker Chemical before working out, then went home, did some stuff, and went to WB for dinner. Interesting conversation with a dude I see there on Tuesdays: kickboxer, worked as an "armed security escort" in the Caribbean, coupla stories...
Tonight is a night ride at Jacobsburg, check out the flood damage & see the ol' Gang.
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11% BF
I was going to run this morning -- but I got a haircut yesterday, which means I visited the bookstore in the mall, and that's where I bought some books on MySQL and PHP, thus causing me to stay up a little late reading and playing with the computer... I'll hit the gym tonight (if it's still there after the flooding), do a quick warmup run beforehand.
I have PHP on my computer, but no web server installed; I haven't checked to see if MySQL is around anywhere yet. I'll probably either download the latest Apache or use the handy CD that came with the book, get it all running & start to play sometime in the next week or so. Meantime, I can always use PHP to generate static HTML in various shell scripts, right? (Yes, still messing with my photo galleries script, which I think I'll be finalizing this weekend. I'll probably post version 1.0 in my gopherspace real soon.) Sad to say, freeshell.org doesn't give access to MySQL without special, paid-for privileges & I won't be setting up anything but a private web server at home, so this is all pretty much just wanking. Actually, 2nd order or meta-wanking, since the web page project is already a bit of a wankfest...
There is a bit of an agenda here, however: I think I may have to switch careers sometime in the next year or so, and am looking to get into computers. Web stuff is probably already saturated; my theory is that home-PC tech support will be pretty stable -- you can't outsource the doctor that makes house calls, right? -- but I'll need a bit lot of retraining before that (hardware, software, MSCE, yadda yadda), & I first want to get a feel for the back office of a computerized small business. We'll see.
By the way, here are some photos of the flood damage, emailed to me from a friend (not sure who took or owns the pictures).
Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF
Well, I'm back; flew in last night & was home by about 10:30. Some highlights: flew down Thursday, met my uncle at the airport and, on the advice of my other uncle, drove directly to the rehearsal dinner, where we were two hours early... went to Universal Studios on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and a brunch at my cousin's new house (sister of cousin who got married) on Sunday before flying back. Plenty of hanging out w/ family in the meantime & betweentime.
The weather was good (but very hot), and there was only a little hurricane damage in the Orlando/Cocoa Beach areas I frequented, so when I got home I was surprised to see as much storm and flodding damage as I did around here: bridges and roads out; the downtowns of Easton and several other river towns spent most of yesterday under water.
More later, including many photos (probably in the yahoo galleries), so stay tuned...
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 10.5% BF
Rode the towpath last night, OK but a somewhat sluggish pace, I finished with a 1:35 ride time. I didn't feel tired or winded or anything, but my pace never rose -- 15 mph felt normal, the 18 mph pace from a few weeks back felt impossible to sustain. Allergies?
I also updated my website last night. My "photos of Mike" page was really sort of a letter to his fiancee (the online version was there for comments/input from friends & family, and the final version of the original went on a disk for her), so I went in and changed it to a more public document. It was kind of neat, I was logged in to the epix (Solaris?) system, as well as freeshell (*BSD), plus my own computer, also FTP'ing stuff around like some kind of juggler, what a tangled web I was weaving... Later on (after dinner) I started to add comments to some of the newer galleries, but didn't update the site -- bedtime, you know.
Dinner was Which Brew, quiet night there. Figure I'm on vacation this weekend, no food at home and I don't want to buy anything just to let it go bad... Several WDIY types there, talking about Channel 39's attempt to take over the station. I signed the petition (the print version), and the conversation devolved into "cool bands/venues/radio I have experienced" one-upmanship. Interesting!
Went home, messed with 'puter, bed by 12:30.
By the way, stay tuned for more crap, because I now have a gopher site -- does anybody here remember gopher? It's still around, just gone underground. That's what gophers do...
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 11.5% BF
So, I'm still going to Florida, but I'm going stag and I won't be visiting the Keys: Theresa can't make it, so there's no point in an extended vacation, and no reason to drive down instead of flying. I have my flight & a rental car booked, must make sure hotel can accommodate me for Thursday night. Oh well.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10.5% BF
The weekend:
Friday night was a slow lap (sluggish, no snap) on the towpath, made slower by a flat, then a late night at WB & also Porters...
Saturday was a quick run followed by the gym, then I checked out the P'burg Crit before stopping by T's and dropping off her "certified non-deathtrap" bike. Dinner w/ "the guys" (Doug, Brian & Eric) at JP McGrady's Pub in Bethlehem, kind of a quiet night even so.
Sunday was a group ride at fell Mountain: Doug, Bob, Joe & Cindy, Eric, Rich and Pete and myself. I was hurting (tired and headachey), but some "it's allergies, take an allergy pill" advice from nurse Cindy pulled me through. Rough ride all around, everyone was tired by the end (only 15 miles, but it took 5 hours to do -- 2:20 ride time actually, still tiwas some tough, technical riding), but we were all glad we did it. We met up with a local near the end, and he showed us a few new trails.
Post ride pig-out at that place in Clark's Summit, then the drive home (slept most of the way), then I tried to FTP some new galleries into my site, ran into problems and gave up, passing out by 10:00. Stay tuned: Moab 2002 shots up "soon"...
Strangely enough, I'm not tired today.
Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 11.5% BF
Scared myself last night & this morning, thought there was a major (and really stupid) error on a drawing I checked -- designer/drafter draws it, but the checker makes sure it's correct, and is ultimately the one responsible for mistakes, and this job is already in fabrication. I came in this morning & checked, and everything is A-OK. Phew!
Didn't ride last night, kind of rainy out so I played w/ 'puter, & brought T's old bike to Cycle Funattic for a a safety once-over and new tires. Saw Brian there (he's volunteering for the Phillipsburg Criterium tomorrow) and made arrangements to meet for dinner at Which Brew -- he was a no-show, but there was a gen-u-wine hillbilly dude there, espousing his views on moonshine and cigarettes...
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 14% BF
So, my website is up and running, check it out here. Next up is figuring out a little more CSS, then maybe some CGI and PHP (one big plus from using the Super Dimension Fortress)... first order of business though, is to revamp the blog, take advantage of new features -- HaloScan choked this morning, so I may switch to using Blogger's comments, and will also enable the "archive individual posts" option, probably this weekend sometime. Tonight if it's nice I'll probably ride with Theresa and her son on the Palmer Bike Path.
I think I have it pretty close to ready, so I'm posting my webpage as we speak, FTP'ing the stuff into freeshell.org; it should take another hour, hour and a half to finish.
My plan is eventually to have a series of pages, with 3 columns of stuff on each page: left side for regular navigation on my site, right side for cool links relevant to that particular page, and the middle for content (text, photos etc). The main breakdowns will be: home, Easton, bikes, photos, this blog, and a contact link. I may disable the contact link if I start getting too much spam. I have the skeleton up, and will be fleshing it out as time goes by. I also plan to add comments to my photos, eventually. Except for this blog though, and the start of some galleries, I am really hurting for content.
Once everythng is in place, I'll link my blog to my homepage as well, but right now I'm not sure of my site name, maybe donxfive.freeshell.org? We'll see -- I just tried SSH'ing into my acount, and the file transfers choked, I may not be allowed to do both at once but I'll try it again, find out how to finish the job.
UPDATE: I'm in my shell account, and the file transfers seem no worse for wear, it must have been a fluke or coincidence before...
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10.5% BF
I think I see a disturbing trend here, lots of eating out (damn you, Taco Hell!) --> weight gain this past week. Bit of a post-Allamuchy binge, which is OK but I should put it behind me ASAP.
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 13% BF
Just a quick post, a little info. I've been dabbling in Cascading Style Sheets, a few other things and am now pretty close to putting my web pages up. The key will be the galleries, since I have very little other content right now except for this blog...
Rode today on the Delaware towpath, with Doug and Lori on their new tandem, and with Brian. Lori's still on injured reserve from running-induced shin splints: doc sez no hills, hence the towpath. Pearly Baker's afterward for late lunch or early dinner. I've been playing wth the computer ever since, but must now do some laundry etc. Back to work tomorrow.
Morning weigh-in (Saturday): 175.5 #, 12% BF
Morning weigh-in (Sunday): 177#, 11% BF
Just got up maybe a half hour ago, I'll be doing some housework here today, after breakfast at a coffee shop -- not sure which one yet, there's still two in Easton; once upon a time there was a third, actually my first choice for breakfast, but the oners got divorced and the place closed. (I called it a "triple play" when a Saturday involved visits to all three...) Well anyway, Coffee & Tea Time is gone, and I typically eat a breakfast bialy or something at Coffee Works on Saturday -- I did it yesterday -- so Sunday looks like a trip to the Quadrant except I was there yesterday too, got a cup to go and some ground beans during the afternoon errand-fest. Hmmm... I like Coffee Works better, maybe follow instincts & go there -- if they're open today! Decisions, decisions...
Back to "reality:" rode Friday on the towpath, a pretty hot lap since I realized (at Sand Island, the furthest point) that I forgot my clear lenses. All I had was prescription sunglasses so I had to get home before full darkness hit -- made it. Yesterday I felt it in my legs, but went to the gym and ran four hilly miles before working out; today I really feel it...
Stopped by Weyerbacher yesterday, and hung out with T as she closed up, then we went to Porter's for lunch. We both had chores, and she wanted to grab a quick nap so off we went in opposite directions (that's where my afternoon coffee run came in).
My one planned activity was to look at her old 10-speed bike, see if it could be salvaged: it could, and I cleaned up the drivetrain, tightened a few loose screws, shot a spritz of lube here & there, and put some air in the tires. I was able to ride it around the block a few times, though the rear wheel makes a funny noise and the tires are no longer roadworthy (easy replace). If anything else was wrong, there would have been serious problems, since the components and frame are so old that new stuff wouldn't be compatible; one bad item would mean replacing the bike, and she seems pretty attached to it.
I called her later, but she got a chill in Porter's maybe, or whatever but she had a headache and a sore thoat all of a sudden, and stayed in. I went to dinner, Carmine's in Allentown, with the Pinkertons (who have their tandem put together and rode it yesterday) and the Riglers.
Many household chores await me today, but first: coffee!
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10% BF
...or I guess I should say Nihil illigitimates carborundum...
So, they removed the MAC machine from the other building here at work, without telling anyone, and today I needed money to get lunch (scramble scramble)... 400 emails waiting Wednesday night, another 177 last night, and I even got a "we think you're sending a virus" email from some dumbass "ISP administrator," no doubt the result of the Allamuchy mailing list fiasco...
Rode the towpath last night w/ Brian and Joe & Cindy, then ate dinner at Which Brew.; met Theresa there. Tonight? Not sure of the agenda, but the Mighty Manatees are playing at the Funhouse, and Three Monks are at WB.
By the way, I really like my new modem, a US Robotics one with lots more blinky lights than the last one, and a louder speaker. Dorky, but cool.
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 177#, 9.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 178#, 8.5% BF
Had a good post yesterday, but Blogger ate it and I didn't feel like retyping, oh well...
Got the modem, got a new serial cable, works like a charm. Tried it last nite after a short ride plus dinner at WB w/ T (once again, 'puter made me stay up late). Tonite is a towpath ride, tomorrow another one -- since I also rode Turesday, I think recovery is coming along nicely.
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 172.5#, 11.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 177#, 9% BF
Trouble at home, I think my modem's fried. It can detect incoming rings, but outbound signals don't seem to be getting into the phone line. Thunderstorm yesterday, maybe a transient in the phone line? Anyway, no internet access at home until the situation is resolved, so only light, lunchtime blogging for a while.
Allamuchy was last weekend. I went up straight from work Friday and camped (though dinner was at a restaurant, and breakfast was also bought at the Boy Scouts cafeteria -- I was really roughing it), and we raced Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday, heat, rain, night and fog, and -- we took third place in the 4-man Masters group! Photos haven't appeared yet, but results can be found here.
Our other team (Pedal ya Pansies) took seventh in the Vet 4-man, a Chain Gang teammate won the Jr 2-man, and of course it was fun to see all the old friends (Beth & Kevin McG, Dave & Selene, Doug V and Scott H, etc etc, but no Gary, Gina, Gerry or Joe G). Of course, we also had the disco ball up and running, and we decorated our campsite (and bikes) with jungle-oriented stuff and little plush monkeys... Totally exhausted on Sunday, crashed by 8:00 or so (except for a mealtime wakeup).
Last night I hit Porters for dinner. That is all.
Morning weigh-in: 175#, 12.5% BF
Getting ready to go to my boss's retirement luncheon, just passing through...
Worked on the bike last night, things look good. I cleaned/lubed the drivetrain, cleaned the cables & housings as needed, and put new pads in the front brakes. (I also got my drycleaning done & did laundry.) Tonight is the rest of the laundry, garbage, and packing the camping and non-food stuff for the weekend; tomorrow is food shopping. I want to have the car packed Thursday night, so I can just go straight to Allamuchy from work Friday. (I was thinking of riding tonight, a short ride to double-check the bike and seat the new pads, but now it looks like rain.)
Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 11.5% BF
It's kind of funny, the past few days I've been getting a feeling almost of surprise, when I'm just hanging out and time passes, like I want and expect time to just stop for a while... of course, this usually happens about 6:00 AM... Tomorrow is my boss Walt's retirement party; he'll be gone to his new home out near Palm Springs probably this weekend. Allamuchy is also this weekend, and the summer is winding down.
Rode last night at Jacobsburg, felt like I was working but my average speed was pretty low -- uh oh. Nothing I can do about it now though, just do the final race prep on the bike, buy food for the weekend and pack. I'll probably be going up Friday right after work.
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11.5% BF
Last week's trip was pretty cool, two days out of the office, followed by four hours of waiting in Parkersburg Airport (for our flight to stop being delayed and get cancelled), then seven hours of driving back to Allentown in a Korean econo-box rental... got home at about 3:30 AM, went in to work around noon Friday.
Friday night was a towpath ride with Doug and Brian (his first time on the bike in maybe six weeks), followed by dinner at Cannons. I found out later that Joe & Cindy went to Which Brew, figuring to meet me where I "always go" -- doh!
Saturday was a "half-selfish day," chores/gym etc, then went to Weyerbacher, hung out with Theresa. We had lunch at Porters, dinner at Which Brew, a really cool day. Sunday was the trail maintenance day, race course prep for the 24 Hours of Allamuchy.
I stopped by T's last night (afternoon really), and we walked downtown to watch some live entertainment -- high school kids, singing and dancing at the riverside ampitheater -- then busted out the Dazed and Confused DVD.
Morning weigh-in: 175#, 12.5% BF
A true fly-by: at home, grabbed lunch & my clothes on the way to the airport. I'm leaving in a few minutes, but first:
I rode Round Valley last yesterday, felt good & fast but my time was about the same as the last (disappointing) ride there. In my defense though, this time I ran into Scott H & Doug V, two teammates from "Freakin' A-", my Canaan team from 1997. Did a little catching up, found out that they're also doing Allamuchy, both solo. My actual, rolling average speed was 8.6 mph, as opposed to 8 mph last time... I always told myself that if I could manage a 10 mph average at Round Valley, out & back on the "hard" trails, I'd move up to expert; this was a loop, partly on the road, and I'm still way off. Oh well.
Stopped by T's last nite after the ride, talked her into meeting me at Which Brew at 9:00 while my laundry dried. Nice to see her, but there were some obnoxious louts (smelly too, according to T, & also bartender Carrie), which made the place less than perfect until they were thrown out.
Morning weigh-in: 175#, 12.5% BF
I was going to ride the towpath last night, but blew it off in favor of errands, chores, and bike maintenance. Dinner at home: 5-grain tempeh stir-fry with peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, tamari and a little tahini, some serious eating. Worked on the bike after dinner, mainly just did a clean & lube, & gave Theresa a call: she saw that specialist, and he said she didn't have a torn rotator cuff, but it was inflamed and she probably would tear it if she didn't follow his advice (rest, special exercises); he also gave her a bunch of killer cortisone shots.
Tonight I'll be riding up at Round Valley, tomorrow and Thursday I'll be in West Virginia somewhere for work, and I'll probably be riding the towpath on Friday.
Yo, later.
Morning weigh-in: 175#, 14% BF
Tired this morning. We (me, John C, Doug, Scott, Joe C, Rich and Bob) rode Allamuchy yesterday in the rain, a tough ride with food-coma-level meal afterward, and I basically passed out when I got home. Woke up later and had a burst of energy: I got the next set of boxes/junk ready for the garbage, straightened up the living room and vacuumed (also used rug cleaner), and did a quickie-clean of the bathroom while doing laundry; the dishwasher went on after the washing machine was done. I was sort of motivated because I spilled coffee as I left the house this morning, I wanted to get that dealt with, and I guess one thing led to another... I feel pretty good about this little project because I've been straightening and reconfiguring lately, but each step forward made things look worse as I tore into the mess, and last night I got the first payoff -- suddenly, I could see a major improvement in the place. Between the ride and the late-nite housework though, I wore myself out, overslept and woke up exhausted.
The weekend:
Friday was a towpath ride, where I met Doug and he broke his seatpost bolt. Spent about 30-45 minutes trying to put in a spare bolt he had, or at least get the broken part out but no luck -- Scott S from work rode by, on the way to Musikfest, and stopped to lend a hand and enjoy our comedic stylings, but nothing any of us tried worked so Doug had to ride home seatless. Luckily I brought lights, because the seatpost snafu put me in the dark on the return trip. I went to WB afterward, met T and her son Kyle, who was up visiting.
Saturday was "selfish day," coffee shop, gym, chores etc, but I also talked Joe C into helping me change the oil in my forks. This turned out to be a little involved but not very hard (he has all the tools and has done it many times before, half the battle), and the forks are working beautifully again. Took Joe & Cindy to dinner as a "thank you."
Sunday we rode at Allamuchy. The plan was for a 40-mile epic, but the weather wasn't cooperating, rain left over from the hurricane etc. We got in about 17-18 miles in about 5 hours; adventures on the wet slippery trails included a few crashes (standard), getting separated for a while (no biggie), some flats and broken chains (minor bad luck), and... John's frame broke. We were at maybe mile 10 when that happened, and he had to limp back to the car via the Boy Scout Camp and the road (he hitched a ride, luckily), while we worked our way back through the woods. What actually broke was his left chainstay, part of the rear swingarm so he should be able to get just that part pretty quickly, hopefully. I had a lot of trouble with visibility as my glasses kept fogging up, something I'd better solve before the race.
After that we had dinner, then home, nap, cleaned the house...
UPDATE -- more Linux: I got my internet connection to work better, and have some idea what was happening though I'm still not sure about what actually was going wrong. Basically, the PPP connection protocol has a provision to compress the packet header information -- I guess that would be information like what the packet contains, who it's from & where it's going etc, as opposed to the actual data that the packet is delivering -- which cuts down on transmission overhead on older, relatively slow dialup lines. The packet (with its normal header) routes its way around the internet and arrives at my ISP, which then compresses the header and sends it to me. My guess is, I enabled the VJ compression on the latest kernel rebuild, and either my ISP was choking trying to comply, or the data was more vulnerable in low quality phone lines. (Alternately, there may be a bug in the newer kernel.) Whatever the ultimate cause, my PPP software was picking up compression errors and stumbling...
The "quick and dirty" solution was simple: I added the line novj to my /etc/ppp/options file, which tells pppd to not use compression. I haven't noticed any real problems, and big files download pretty fast now. So far so good...
Morning weigh-in: 172#, 12.5% BF
Major accident on the way in this morning, on the interstate, right at my exit for work. I took the secondary roads in just for a change of pace (no idea about the accident), found it backed up, took tertiary road and it was backed up, got to work about a half hour late. Not sure what happened, but they had the eastbound lanes all closed and there were rumors of fatalities -- possibly a westbound truck crossed the median.
Anyway, I rode Round Valley last night, and felt good though my time (and cardio/fitness) was way off. Unfortunately, my technical was off as well, since my front shock was acting funny -- not enough damping or something, felt very squirrelly in the rocks. I managed to avoid all rain, which was good, but rain got Musikfest so I didn't go last night. Passed out instead for a while, then played with the computer.
Speaking of fitness: I talked to Brian last night, who told me he saw the cardiologist that Dona recommended. The doctor gave him an echocardiogram on the spot, said his ejection fraction was actually in the upper 30's / low 40's, not 25 like that other test showed (normal is 50-60). Doc said there may have been innacuracies in the first test, or his heart has improved (pretty rapidly) since whatever virus attacked him; he's still convalescing, but that's incredible news. The doctor also said that, if it weren't for his fitness level, the worst-case scenario would very likely have meant needing a heart transplant -- Brian told me he kissed every one of his bikes when he got home.
More 'puter talk: I configured the "modem lights" applet to connect to Epix, and things look good that way but there were still slowdowns... I just happened to check out dmesg, and saw a bunch of "PPP: VC compression error" messages, took the clue and ran with it: this (I know now) is Van Jacobson compression of packet headers, and although a Google search revealed lots of problems/questions similar to mine, but few answers, I think I found a way to disable it for now. That's a job for tonight, hopefully.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 13% BF
Playing with the computer the other day, managed to knock out its knowledge of the modem. Pretty easy to fix in the long run (restored a symbolic link), but I also got a look at how kppp works as well as the GNOME "modem lights" panel applet. (Finally -- finally! -- got that to work correctly without having to use kppp, also learned a bit about lock files. Stupid mistake, as usual.) Next up is: why is downloading so slow with my 2.4.26 kernel, especially since the 2.4.18 seems just fine? Looks to me like a bad compile, maybe module problems. (Speaking of which, I think I have a handle on my 2.6.7 problems, hopefully a little time to mess with it soon.)
Didn't ride last night, got to Round Valley and there was a lot of thunder & lightning, so I went home and threw out a bunch of boxfulls of really old computer manuals (The Internet For Macs For Dummies, Hypercard Reference Manual, Microsoft Basic for Mac, etc). I have about a roomful of stuff to work through still, either to toss it or put it in storage (toss, toss), plus lots of sweaters (save).
After that I went overt Theresa's house & watched Cold Mountain with her. It was OK: the book was better of course, and T's original assessment -- chick flick -- was pretty much correct. Pet allergy problems from the visit, sigh.
Will try for another RV ride tonight, then maybe see the Fellas at Bethlehem Brew Works (aka MusikFest) tonight.
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 176#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 175.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 176#, 11.5% BF
Hmmm, let's see... the weekend...
Friday was a night ride up at South Mtn Park with Doug and Rich, who was riding in the dark for the first time. Interesting ride, from about 6:30 to 9:30, 16 miles total (of which maybe eight were very technical singletrack). I think Rich had himself a bit of an eye-opener in terms of both equipment and technique... Afterward, I met Theresa at Which Brew, where we saw the usual suspects as well as Doug & Lori, plus a band (Illinois Slim?). I thought I'd screwed up by arriving so late (T was there from about 7:00), but she was pretty cool about it. She and I drifted over to Porters (where it was mobbed) after WB closed, and caught a set of Leather & Lace.
Saturday was my usual "selfish day," gym, chores etc. I burned two copies of my bear photos (the big, 800k versions) for Dawn & Heather, and brought them to the gym. Theresa was going to see the Dead at the Tweeter Center with a bunch of people, so I stopped by Weyerbachers Brewery where she runs the tours, ran a few more errands and then met her and the show-goers at WB & saw them off. I went to MusikFest that night with Doug & Lori and Joe & Cindy, saw the Red Elvises and got some of that spiced corn on the cob.
Sunday I slept in until 10:00, then went for a road ride. Breakfast (brunch actually, and huge) was at The Coffee Works, kind of cool to ride downtown, get a bite and then ride into the countryside. I hit the Stockertown rail-trail for a part of the ride, which was nice but wasn't really meant for road bikes. Dinner was pizza and a movie (Clerks, now 10 years old) at Theresa's; I got to hear about the show (she loved it, was very happy with new singer). Next time I'm going.
Monday & Tuesday, not much to say: Jacobsburg "recovery ride" on Monday, Tuesday was the Democratic MeetUp at Wegmans. A little better than the last one I went to, since there were more oddballs this time (think "I have an agenda and here's my chance to hijack the meeting and rant").
Anyway, if the weather holds, and it probably won't, I'll be riding Round Valley tonight.
Morning weigh-in: 174#, 11% BF
Suppression weight: that's the weight loss from dehydration, lack of eating (less food in the pipes) etc that comes just from trying to lose weight. Looks to be about two pounds, since I rested up and ate "normally" and that's how much of a bounce showed up this morning.
Anyway, last night I went to WB to meet T, and it was a zoo. They looked short-staffed, and the Insidious Rays were playing, which brought in a big (and very young) crowd. Margarita came in with Jay DeJ; they were going to hit Touch of Thai for dinner, but that was closed (vacation trip back to the old country) and they were starving. Good Luck! -- the kitchen was running way behind, but they eventually got their dinner.
No run this morning, I was tired & overslept (uh, got up at 6:30 AM). Car seems good though. Tonight is a team training ride at South Mountain, with lights.
Not much happening on the computer front, but I might focus on that this weekend. Time to move forward with my web project, eh?
UPDATE: Here is a race report for the Wilderness 101, with links to photos and results. Uh, what she said...
Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 14% BF
No run this AM: dropped the car off last nite for brakes/oil etc, hitched a ride in with Scott, who works in the burner department here and lives around the block from me. It was time for a rest day anyway, I ran and rode (benchmark, 1:29, good but not great, sign that recovery is proceeding), hit Which Brew to see Theresa, then dropped off the car & walked home, about two miles.
Today was very busy at work, emergency situation (customer changed their equipment in a major way, halfway through a job without letting us know, and our matching equipment is almost completely fabricated). I worked up a solution and just finished plotting out the drawing, when the project manager came by, said the customer had just called to reject that particular fix...
T is hurting today, her shoulder may need surgery. Torn rotator cuff? Bicep tendonitis? She saw the doctor yesterday, first step on the way to the specialist, and his exam may have irritated it. We were going to do the Ice Cream Ride tonight, but it may not be a good idea with the shoulder so I might just swing by & visit her at home.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 13% BF
For the record, my weight was 173#/12.5% post R & D (run & dump).
Didn't do much yesterday, worked late & ran some errands, plus did a few chores etc. Dinner was tempeh stir-fry, w/ plenty o'leftovers for tonight. Ran this morning, of course.
Tonight I'll do a ride, then drop my car off (actually, reverse that: drop off car, return home via bike ride) for an oil change and a brake job.
Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF
Ran this morning, was forced to remember that when my body wakes up, everything wakes up including peristalsis... made it the full two miles without taking any shortcuts, then went home, did my duty and found my weight down to 174# (what can I say, I was curious). I suspect that a lot of the drop was water: I was pouring sweat like a fountain, body didn't calm down until I was at work. Things are a little different from the single-digit temps when I first ran...
Mug Club Night at Which Brew, had some lemony Greek soup and mousaka, plus a Franziskaner Weisbier. T was in earlier but I missed her, I arrived around 8:30 after working late and riding (short ride, slow, still suffering from the W101), and she'd had dinner with Connor at normal-people dinnertime. Hung out with Brian though, his first time out driving on his own since his cardio catheterization (he was at the party Sat, but didn't drive).
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 13% BF
Got up and ran this morning, my (formerly) usual two miles which took me 24 minutes -- a little slower than my 10k target pace of 7:30 per mile. I took it easy though, first time back and it was already hot and muggy. I was a little surprised I got up without a problem, since I slept with the windows open, and the girl down the street had a party. (Parents away? Probably not, but it's a half double, and the people next door just moved out). Nothing major, just a bunch of shouted goodbyes at around midnight, then a few more around 2:00 AM. I notice that the kids on the block are starting to cluster, doing that back-to-school retribalization thang...
Anyway, the weekend:
Friday Night: I rode the towpath after work. I planned on doing a "hot lap" but ran into Joe and Cindy, who were with their dog & so riding relatively slowly. I cut my own ride short and rode with them which was just as well, since I don't think I could have held my pace/effort (I'm not yet recovered from last weekend).
After that I got ready for my evening by wrapping myself in bedsheets. It was Toga Night at Which Brew, with guest-chef Margarita's Greek recipes, togas of course (but we were actually a minority), and even a belly dancer. I met Theresa & her son young Connor there for dinner; he was in tie-dyed sheets & it looked pretty decent, but T's toga was just amazing, easily the best there. She got some fabric and actually made an outfit (complete with wig and cap) that looked like she was an extra in The Robe or something. (She said it was unpleasantly hot though.) She took Conor home and I changed out of my toga, but I only stuck around for the first set of Three Monks.
Saturday: Was my usual "selfish day," but I seemed to be just a little behind schedule all day. Went to the gym & saw Dawn, who peppered me with anxious questions about what I thought of the bear tagging program. Apparently, volunteers have occasionally gotten freaked out about the blood/DNA samples etc... I'm starting to shift towards winter and strength training (I think it may have been a mistake to let the fitness focus be on the bike so much this summer), and Saturday's workout was the first of the new program.
Afterward I stopped by T's, watched The Sandlot (which I thought would be lame but was actually pretty good) and had dinner with her and Connor. The Riglers were having a party, but T had her son and was in for the night, at least in terms of beer blowouts in the woods...
The party, what I remember of it, was great. I ended up sleeping in the Pinkerton's basement. Verrry dangerous to have those foo-foo drinks like Skye Blue or Mike's Hard Lemonade available on a hot day (mandarin orange something-or-other is what got us all)... Joe C calls them "a hangover in a bottle" but I bounced back OK, sort of.
Sunday: We were supposed to ride the Green Blazed Trail in Jim Thorpe, but the morning was very rainy. Doug called me around noon and put together a short ride up at South Mountain. Just him, me and Eric and we were pretty low-key but it was so hot & muggy (and I was still so depleted) that I felt like total death even thought the ride was only about six miles long. Technical riding though, we took maybe three or four hours to do those six miles... I got home and slept for about three hours, then woke up and had a burst of energy until maybe 10:00 PM, got a bunch of chores done.
Tonight I'll probably do a road ride, then hit WB for Mug Night.
Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 11.5% BF
I put my bear photos here, for now.
Yahoo has a pretty crappy interface, lotta bullshit to get what I wanted done, and there was no "do such-and-such to all thse files and I'll be back later," it was all very labor intensive but they're in. Not really happy with the quality of the photos I took though, kind of blurry. I still have to learn how to use that camera.
Riding tonight on the towpath, then going to Which Brew with Theresa and her son for a toga party (Greek theme actually, Margarita is guest chef w/ traditional family recipes).
I think that the race is acting like a big rock in the river: lots of turbulence and other effects downstream. Ive been very tired lately, and the weight's dropping. Shouldn't complain, eh? I want to be below 170# for Allamuchy.
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 175#, 12.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 173.5#, 14.5% BF
My friend/trainer Dawn, whose sister works for the NJ Dept of Fish & Wildlife as a bear control officer, got me an invitation to help out with their annual bear trapping & tagging program. That's what I did yesterday, and it was way, way cool. I'll post more about this (including pictures) later or tonight, but I will say that: we caught two bears (both female yearlings) and saw several others; I handled, carried, measured, and helped take blood and DNA samples as the drugged bears snored away; and I have pictures to proove it. More after the jump...
By the way: it seems that I'm not allergic to the "black-faced yellow cur" dog breed (basically, a bear hound; it's the same breed as "Old Yeller"), but bears, which smell like dirty wet dog, make me itch.
Morning weigh-in: 175.5%, 12% BF
Just a thought: with a little better time management, a few more pounds shed and some interval/hill training under the belt, I bet I could shave off another hour from my W101 time, maybe even more. Wait till next year...
Went and saw Brian last night, recovering from angiogram/catheterization or whatever it's called: he had an exploratory procedure yesterday, in-through-the-groin-and-up-the-arteries to look for heart blockages, w/ optional angioplasty if they found anything. Luckily, there was nothing to find, and he recovered enought to be sent home. Still no idea what's up with his chest pains and irregular heartbeat, but as he said, at least he doesn't have couch potato disease -- very embarrassing for a cyclist!!
I may got to the gym tonight. Tomorrow I'm taking a vacation day, and volunteering to help track/catch bears. Maybe photos?
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 9.5% BF
Well, it's done, and it's well done too! The Wilderness 101 is over and I think I vindicated myself... results here.
My goal was to have an 8 mph average, which translates into a twelve-and-a-half-hour race. My actual time was 12:28:11, so I just made it. I also beat the two friends that I went with: I was one place ahead of Greg, beating him by less than two minutes (after more than 100 miles of racing), and unfortunately Bob had to drop out after about 60 miles.
The race was great, the course well-designed (the same course as 2002 in fact) and it was in great shape, the weather was ideal, and the rest stop volunteers were literally angels of mercy -- and the post race party was excellent, with beans burgers & beer, prizes etc. Gary's girlfriend Gina took fifth in the women's division, got up on the poduim with the pros & actually won money. Others who were there: Gerry M (Gary's friend) -- who was in the bathroom for the prerace meeting, missed the special instructions re: vandals messing with course markings, and got lost for part of the race -- and also Rob L, who finished in 8:37 and then drove down to Michaux for Sunday's race (yowza).
Speaking of beer: there was some kind of brewfest in State College the same day, and some of the participants (vendors? contestants?) were staying at our motel. When we got back from the race, one group invited us to help them finish their beer, but we were too tired. Dang! Timing is everything.
Tip of the Day: Hammer Gel is amazingly effective, if you can stomach it.
And in other news: I came home and found T at least as sore as I was -- she was going down the stairs, tripped over her new kitten and tumbled the rest of the way. Yeeeowch!! Bumps, bruises, scrapes on elbows & knees, and a nice shiner. I stopped by her place yesterday (after a good long nap) , caught the end of the Tour.
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11.5% BF
The meeting was interesting last night, mainly because there really was no meeting, just a dinner and some watching of the Tour.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 13.5% BF
Worked late, then picked up the Turner from Bike King: new Hope brake lever on the right side, some new chainrings & a general once-over, plus a new cycle computer. Looks good! I lubed it last night, as well as cleaning and lubing the road bike.
The Wilderness 101 is Saturday. Yesterday and today are rest days, then Thursday and Friday (which is also a travel day) are "easy workout" days -- this according to the precepts of Consistent Winning, which I think is a crock of rich chocolatey goodness but it's the only system I know.
After the bikes were ready I went to WB for a quick dinner. Ran into Joe G, and feel I would have been happier to have stayed home; I certainly don't regret our parting of ways.
And of course, tonight is the Chain Gang meeting.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5%, 12.5% BD
Rode last night, did the "benchmark" ride. I really need to get a new cycle computer, find out what my actual distance is with this, so I can start using it as a benchmark again.
(This is called "the benchmark ride" because that's how I used to use it: a very well-defined course of about 25 miles, that I could compare day-to-day fitness on by checking my ride times. I started using it back when I lived on Southside, but when I moved I had to change parts of the route so "benchmarking" sort of lapsed, since results were no longer directly comparable. I moved years ago though, so I should just consider the new route the standard, and start over with the benchmarking.)
Anyway, my time was 1:25 for probably 24 miles. Not bad, since some of this is city riding (lights, traffic etc). I felt really good, smooth and fast, almost effortless when I got on top of the right gear -- some of those roads have recently been resurfaced.
Dinner was the rest of that leftover Chinese food (crispy beef in orange sauce), then after the ride I had some baked stuffed tofu, plus a little saurkraut. Ran around, did some shopping afterward, hit Wal-Mart for velcro tape and played with the blood pressure machine: 121/76, with a pulse rate of 91. Pulse was elevated by riding, I wonder if pressure is the same? I once was 100/60, but my resting heart rate was 52 at the time...
This morning I did something I haven't done in a while: got up early and made breakfast. Coffee, oatmeal with blueberries, should do that more often!
I pick up the bike today from Bike King, where it was getting some stuff done that I didn't feel like doing myself, I may do a short easy ride to check it out. From the office window, today looks beautiful.
Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11.5% BF
Kernel Panic: built the new 2.6.7 kernel, but forgot everything I learned on the "training run" building 2.4.26 -- mainly, I forgot to make sure there was RAM disk support. (I need that for the initrd image, which I need for treating the CD-RW as a SCSI device, which I need for ... ) The new kernel's makefile has a generic "make install" which is pretty nice, does a bit more of the actual "put the files where they're supposed to be, with the proper names" part of the install. Anyway, a quick look back at this entry got me what I needed, and the kernel booted OK ...except the mouse didn't respond, and I got some kind of error that the mousedev module couldn't be found (among a bunch of other modprobe errors). So, I'm still using 2.4, and some further research/tweaking is required.
Meanwhile: No exercise, or anything else really, yesterday. I did some laundry and played with the computer, ate some Chinese food on the way to the supermarket, but blew off shopping after eating. Currently re-reading A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and the Silmarillion.
Dept of good news/bad news: Theresa is now working part time at Weyerbacher Brewery, for a few hours on Saturdays when they have tours. That is, tours with free samples -- uh oh! Just when I was really planning to watch my weight...
Well, looks like the rain has stopped, but I'm already in "lazy mode" today. Dinner with T last night (we walked to WB, after walking to Wordell's and not really liking the menu). Also: ran for the first time in a while yesterday, two miles before working out at the gym. Really, really slow: about 24 minutes, but it was hot and I was no way going to push it.
Linux: got the latest 2.6 kernel, ran "make menuconfig" and should be ready to build it. Maybe today? But in the meantime, there's laundry and shopping and generic housework awaiting...
Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13.5% BF
Hmmmm... looks like Blogger has been improved yet again... fonts, photos, a few more html tags as buttons, and a raw HTML editor. Verrrry interesting!!
Rode last night, did a loop out near my "benchmark ride," but a little bit hillier. At the end of the ride I saw co-worker Scott on his bike at the corner of 13th & Northampton. He'd done the Genesis "Ice Cream Ride" and was waiting for another rider to come up in his car, follow him home and pick up a spare pump bracket. I went with them, hung out for a bit. It was a kind of nice way to end the ride.
Brain rot: didn't play with the computer last night. Forgot to pay my phone bill & they turned off the line. Oh well, something to do at lunchtime. (In my defense, they now send three separate bills instead of one, I'm so confused...) Last thing I did Wednesday though, was to download the latest kernel, maybe I'll build it this weekend, get my video card back up & running.
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 174.5# BF forgotten
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177.5#, 13.5% BF
Got knocked out by a 24-hour bug, starting around midnight Tuesday. Here's the news otherwise:
Pump it up: I went out for a towpath ride Tuesday night, but before I left I checked the tire pressure -- it was like in the mid-20 psi range! I sort of noticed they seemed mushy on the turns on Saturday, I also noticed I felt slower and more sluggish than usual but didn't bother to make the connection or remedy the problem. Anyway, I pumped them up pretty high for me lately, about 40 psi, and felt like superman on the path. I felt so good that I decided to really push it, and ended up with a 1:24 burn time (approx 16.5 mph avg for 23 miles). Nowhere near my old records (1:28 for 25.4 miles, or 17.32 mph avg), but not bad! This won't do me any good at the Wilderness 101 I'm sure, but it's still a confidence boost even if I torched my lungs a bit. I can't believe I used to ride 55 psi on 1.95" tires...
After that I hit the showers, then met Theresa at Which Brew. Typical night there, very cool especially since the Mug Club Night (already postponed from last week because of the July 4th holiday) was cancelled because Kelly Jo was sick. That night of course, I got sick too, and found that T also took Wednesday off because she got hit by something. Coincidence? Probably not, but the bug didn't get caught Tues nite, more likely it happened much earlier & was caught by all of us from some other source.
Yesterday I stayed home, played some more with sed and found I could get some rudimentary template control, but it's pretty unwieldy; I also think I have a handle on my slow internet download problem, if not the solution then at least an understanding of the problem. I also got a haircut, and dropped my bike off for repairs at Bike King. It was Heath's birthday last night and he called, so I dropped by WB one more time for a quick hello.
ONe more thing: I got an email from "PayPal," looks like someone was on a phishing expedition. More on this in a day or two maybe.
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 13.5% BF
OK, so I haven't played with awk yet, but I'm starting to look at sed, and I'm getting a little deeper into scripting with bash. The context, of course, is still that script to take a bunch of JPEG files and generate a photo gallery for them.
Right now the script creates a directory called "html" in the working directory, and one called "photos" (with a "thumbs" subdirectory) there as well, then for each jpg/JPG file in the working directory it makes a smaller, thumbnail version of the file in "photos/thumbs", moves the file itself to "photos", and generates an HTML file in "html" to display the original file. It also makes an HTML file in the working directory to serve as an index, which displays the thumbs as links to the display files. The display files have links to each other -- "next" and "previous" display files, as defined by their order in the index -- as well as a link back to the index.
I used this to make my "Photos of Mike" Gallery, which shows how the resulting pages work together. (The explanatory text on the display pages was put in with an ordinary HTML editor; this text, and the linking structure on the display pages, are why I used HTML instead of just displaying the photos. If you look at the navigation links on the bash vs the awk pages you'll see why I thought my link structure was a good idea.)
My problems with the script as it stands are mostly related to its lack of flexibility. I'd like to have more control over the photo file selection, and maybe have the index and page display files be written from templates; I may also make a lot more of the "hardwired" stuff be variables, with default variables that can be superseded by a configuration file. These can all be command line arguments, options etc, and the configuration file could be just another shell script, but the templates may be tricky... hence, sed and awk.
In the long run, it may be easier to just port this to perl, but in the even longer run, an entirely new web page structure, based on CGI or CSS, may be the smarter move. (I spent some time experimenting with forms last night.)
Morning weigh-in: 175#, 10.5% BF
So the Fourth has come and gone, and now Heritage Day has passed...
Friday: nothing much happened. I worked late, went to Which Brew and then crashed early.
Saturday: I felt tired but went to the gym anyway, then when Dawn didn't show (& I remembered we'd cancelled) I just blew it off. Some housework, then I did a slow, medium-long ride on the Lehigh towpath: brought the camera, took pictures of Bethlehem Steel, the new trails behind St Luke's Hospital, and the trainyard west of Sand Island.
Sunday was pretty interesting. I went with Theresa and "Murph" (aka Mike Murphy -- I've known him for years & just found out his real first name) to a brunch at Margarita's house -- where Jay DeJesus showed up on his road bike, then to Mary Merritt's annual party to watch the fireworks. It was pretty cool, saw Violetta (who will be leaving for Alaska soon), and also John & Sue Zorn with their daughter Kayla, who is probably about 2, maybe a little older. And of course, the fireworks were awesome.
Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 10% BF
Very busy at work this week, trying to get something out by today. That is all.
