A Nose That Can See Is Worth Two That Sniff

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 8.5# BF

Oral, anal, genital -- nasal? I think I've discovered a new complex... Actually, I have nothing to complain about right now, just my usual endless obsession. Breathing easy even here at work (land of indoor pollution), no colds or sinus infections, minimal stuffiness... I got a humidifier for Christmas, still must set it up, probably will try to do it tonight.

Light dinner last night (soup & salad), then I went to the gym, then Which Brew while the laundry dried. Ran into Mike and Carole, Scott -- and T and Perry. Oh well, guess I saw that coming. Perry's a nice dude & I'm glad they're happy -- but I wish I found someone new first, because then I would have won.

Linux Voyager, not all oars in water: I was looking at that bash getopts built-in, and it's supposed to replace the getopt(1) command because it's better, but getopt actually has more, and more useful, features. Is this a new version of getopt(1), and reviews were panning the old one? What gives, which one should I use? Going around in circles...

Meantime, tonight will be more XC skiing along the towpath. It's been pretty warm, and the expected new snow didn't really happen, so I hope the conditions are OK.

Got Garlic?

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 12.5% BF

I stayed a little late at work and, since I needed to hit the drycleaner, I had to skip the spin class (most of those classes are way too early for me). So, no exercise yesterday, but I did find out how to use the bash builtin getopts command. (One of those things I should have understood and been fluent with long ago, but self-education means you're gonna find gaps.)
Dinner was tuna & wilted greens in garlic & oil, over fettucine, quite the garlicky delicious treat. The apartment may need fumigating, pores exhaling garlic, meeting-deflection technology, my poor co-workers... Tonight is laundry, soup & salad, and the gym (there's no schedule I have to meet, so I should be OK), then maybe a little more bashing around when I get home.

Ranting to the Masses

Morning weigh-in: 183#, 11.5% BF (uh-oh, wrong direction)

At the gym on Saturday, I was talking with my trainer and she told me she downloaded and installed the Firefox browser, on my advice. I didn't realize she was listening that closely to what I was saying... maybe I should listen more closely to what I'm saying, since I don't remember actually advising her, just ranting and raving about how Mozilla -- I use the big Mozilla "kitchen sink" program, rather than the little pieces like Firefox or the Thunderbird email client -- was so much better than Internet Explorer. Just now I listened to my co-workers' tales tales of woe with kids, home computers and viruses/spyware/AOL/whatever, and simply said "get Slack, and get happy!" I don't even use Slackware (I'm a loser Red Hat man myself), but the slogan fit the moment, hope all this doesn't come back to bite me...

Winter Wonderland

Hey Get Out of the Water
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Friday night I took the singlespeed out in the 12 degree cold, and I felt it especially in my lungs and my feet, much colder than Thursday. Good ride though: got in about two hours of riding, partway down the towpath & back, up the ruins of Hope Road to the missing bridge and back, then I returned via the bike path. After that was Which Brew, with a decent blues band and an empty room -- everyone out buying bread I guess...

Saturday morning I hit Coffee Works (semi-crowded) while the snow was just starting, then the gym (crowded) while the snow got down to business, and finally I went to Weyerbacher Brewery (packed) in the full storm to check out their full house. Very cool, bought a mixed case of Heresy/Insanity, $48.00, sheesh. Give it a year and it'll be priceless... Later in the day I walked downtown to take pictures, but light was already failing so I stopped in Porters -- the only thing open, and quite a lively scene I must say -- and I got some dinner there. I got out of there when some newlywed girl, out drinking with her brother-in-law, started calling me a "pussy" for not doing shots with her. I could sense trouble brewing, made my escape... nice girl though, up to that point anyway.

Today I met Doug & Lori, and Eric & Kris, down in Bethlehem for some XC skiing. It was pretty nice, pleasant if windy day, cold enough that the sunshine didn't ruin the snow. We started at Sand Island, and went about 3/4 of the way to Freemansburg and back, then circumnavigated the Ice House. Click on the photo and you'll go to Flickr, where you can find the rest of my photos.

Tough Love

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 11% BF

As usual it's all my fault: that Flickr.com seems to work fine on other machines/browsers, but I was having a lot of trouble with Mozilla crashing whenever I used it -- turns out that Flickr makes heavy use of flash, and I have avoided downloading the latest version of flash for a long long time. I'd upgrade mozilla, then just link the old flash plugins, and since I never cared to see most flash content I didn't worry whether it actually worked or not... Then all of a sudden I needed it to work, so I had to get the latest plugin, figure out how to get rid of all the cobwebbery of symbolic links I'd built around the old version, and reinstall -- properly -- the new one. OK, it's done now, and I spent some time playing with photos, as my recent posts can attest.

I finished playing around say 8:00 or 8:30, and then it was time to ride. I knew I should get out of the house, I needed the exercise and I even wanted to go riding, but man oh man was that hard to do! I finally got out about 9:00, rode for about an hour (mainly to see if the towpath is rideable after the recent snow: it is), then went to Which Brew to warm my toes and see if there was any local music going on.

Kind of a mistake, nothing going on down there. However: this Saturday Weyerbacher is having a big "open house," and I may pick up a mixed case of their Heresy (basically their Old Heathen, an imperial stout, except Heresy is aged in oak barrels that were previously used for aging bourbon) and Insanity (basically a verison of their Blithering Idiot barleywine, ditto the oak barrel aging). Not much info on the Insanity, but rumor has it that right now it's rated either #2 or #3 barleywine in the US. At the WB I usually have a glass (snifter) of Heresy, but the keg kicked, so I asked for a bottle of the Insanity. I have to say I prefer the Heresy (barleywines are very high alcohol, and also kind of malty), but it had an interesting, vanilla taste, which I thought was cool compared to the chocolaty taste of the Heresy. I was planning to get some anyway, bout it was nice to know what it tastes like before having to own it. I'll probably put these away somewhere; they are the kind of beers that get much better with age -- next winter I'll bust them out and be a hero. Pass the port...

Belated Christmas: Me and Mom

Belated Christmas: Me and Mom
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

One last post before I hit the trails... My mom and I show off some of our Christmas loot. By the way, if you click on the photo it'll open a larger version at Flickr.com, where you can navigate around to the other photos I posted there -- not all of them end up getting blogged.

New Year's Day: Delaware River

New Year's Day: Delaware River
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

More fun with Flickr: another shot of the Delaware from my New Year's Day hike. I think these rapids are "foul rift," and I liked the way the afternoon sun put a touch of gold into the "whitecaps."

Say Watt?

There was an article in Outside recently, about ideal power-to-weight ratios: top cycling medico Max Testa had studied Tour de France winners, and found that the ideal power output for winning the Tour is 2.8 watts per pound of body weight; for ordinary weekend athletes Outside gave a figure of 1.6 watts per pound. This is not a "peak output," but is the level you should be able to sustain for about 45 minutes. (For me, that translates to 264 watts at my "ideal weight" of 165 lbs, or 288 watts for my current weight -- and for those following at home, that would mean 462 watts at 165#, or 504 watts at 180#, and I too could win the tour...)

Anyway, the gym I go to has a bunch of stationary bikes with all sorts of calories/watts/etc output. Years ago I used to use these machines a lot more often, and I remember seeing my power output held sustainably at about 250 watts, so I thought I'd see where I now stood on this issue. When I went in on Saturday, I tried to figure my wattage, and almost died -- 250 watts was amazingly hard, I couldn't keep it up for even a minute!

Then I noticed that the power output (also the speed) was constant for any set resistance level, no matter how fast or slow I pedaled. This is where an engineering background comes in handy: I knew that power is resistance times speed, or in this case resistance times pedal RPM, just as speed should be a product of gearing (i.e. resistance level) and pedal RPM. It looks like the bike manufacturer picked some average pedal cadence, figured the bike speed and power output for each resistance level for that cadence, and skimped on the instrumentation. Since wattage and even calories burned, is mostly a gimmick for most people, who wouldn't know or understand if this stuff is accurate, they cheated -- not to put too fine a point on it. This is a fairly prominent sports-equipment company too, one that built their original fortune & reputation on instrumentation fer chrissakes -- no names, but this gives me one more reason not to use their heart rate monitors.

So to make a long story short, on Tuesday I found one of the older bikes, which behaved the way I expected it to (though I can't truly vouch for this one's accuracy either). After warming up I did a bunch of intervals, 1 minute at 300 watts & one minute at 225 watts, fifteen minutes total with cooldown, no problem.

So anyway: I'll probably be taking the singlespeed out tonight; I was thinking of riding Jacobsburg but may just do the towpath. After that, I might go to the ol' WB.

Self Portrait

New Year's Day: Delaware River
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12% BF

A photo of the Delaware (with photographer's shadow: yes I meant to do that), from the Tekening hiking trail near Martin's Creek. This is from my now-traditional New Year's Day hike.

No exercise last night, instead it was the Chain Gang meeting at Brian's house. The meeting itself was kind of amorphous, but we had fun with some old photos (Brian getting rid of a bunch of double prints, "take what you want"), and a couple of videos from past vacations. I got a few good shots of me and some group shots that I'll scan & post to Flickr eventually; meantime, I got excited & started playing last night, uploaded a few of my own...

Colder Than A...

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 10.5% BF

Hit the gym last night, then did another load of laundry and brought the whole batch to be dried at the laundromat. Probably it was because of the cold (nine degrees?), but the place was pretty empty for a change, maybe one other person doing laundry plus the woman who works there -- and a homeless guy hanging out, sitting in an inconspicuous corner. Went to Which Brew for dinner (dim sum, kielbasa chili), and he was still there when I came back for my laundry. I hope he was smart enough and lucky enough to be able to stay there all night, it was killer cold out.

A few weeks ago, I was in Which Brew -- where else? -- on another cold night, when the other Don asked the owner (a practicing Wiccan), "How cold is it? Colder than a witch's what?" I haven't seen him since, think she may have turned him into a newt.

Me & Hans at French Creek

Me & Hans at French Creek
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Some Flickr experimentation, I'll eventually figure out how I want these photos to be displayed here; in the final analysis it might be just like this but we'll see.
This photo is from Sunday's ride at French Creek. I'm on the left fixing a flat, note the stupid expression -- photographer Pete caught me off guard. Hans, on the right, is a friend of mine from Which Brew, who also happens to ride. I usually have my life neatly compartmentalized, family life, work life, bike life, pubcrawler life, this might represent "leakage between alternate universes."

Internet Voyager, on the Slow Boat

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10% BF

Still felt tired, so I blew off the spinning class in favor of playing with the computer last night. I checked out that Flickr, but the verdict is still out: they just moved their servers and their system is still a little cranky from the move. I'll give them a few days to work the bugs out, then start messing around. Meantime, I took all the good photos (ie non-blurry, not too dark etc) from my cousin's wedding last September, fixed them up and put them in a yahoo photo gallery; I also did a little updating and maintenance on my regular site. Busywork, kind of slow going especially the yahoo since it's not set up for automation and I had 40 new photos -- [rant] you can't just say "upload all these and I'll be back later," it's ten at a time, wait, upload next ten, etc... [/rant]

Tonight I'll hit the gym for weights; I brought my gear so I can stop in without first going home, checking the email, messing with the system, realizing it's 11:30 PM... clever eh?

Happy Hour at the Unexamined Life

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 11.5% BF

No run this morning: tired from yesterday. I'll do the spin class after work. I really have nothing to say so it's back to my lunch break...

Actually, one thing of note: I think I'll be ecxperimenting with Flickr, a photo sharing site, and if I like it I may be building all my albums there. Stay tuned.

Nap and Laundry

Just got back from French Creek, maybe an hour ago: very good ride. It was just me and Pete H, and Hans K (who'd never been there); Pete S joined us for pre-ride breakfast & conversation. Four solid hours of riding, though we only did about 16 of the 20-25 miles available -- we were lucky for the most part in that the ground was frozen, only a few wet/mushy areas, but we skipped a big part of the back section since it tends to be wet. Mellow pace, a few stops for food or mechanical problems (nothing major), just great riding. Anyway...

Reading: I finished V for Vendetta, Persepolis II, and In the Shadow of No Towers (ie all the "graphic novels" I got for Christmas), now getting into Bob Dylan's Chronicles. Also re-reading Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, by Richard Farina.

Listening: Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks, the Who Live at Leeds. By the way, the guy whose song I quoted the other day was Julian Cope.

Doing: Laundry. After that comes naptime...

Eating: Curried-flavored tofu & chick peas w/ stewed tomatoes, over rice. It's ready now, goodbye.

UPDATE: I rewrote parts of this for clarity. - Don 1-17-05

A Weekend Fly-By

My posts the last few days were kind of somber, but I had a very pleasant drive home last night so I'm in a better mood, thought I'd say so. The front moved past, the sun was out, and I drove through the Harmony fields and forests into an amazingly beautiful sunset. Since the front passed it's been pretty cold, so we now have plans to ride tomorrow at French Creek; hopefully the ground will be frozen. I had a good time out last night, today's workout went well, and I feel good -- life is good!

Dissolution

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 181.5#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 181.5#, 10.5% BF

No running, no gym, no biking. It's raining, the ground is mush, and I've been staying up every night past midnight, just messing with the computer -- just reading books and web pages I find, nothing other than wasting time. Maybe I'll go out tonight. Meantime, that's all for now.

Rain

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 12.5% BF (so much for suppression)

No exercise last night or this morning. Instead I played with the computer, tweaked some of the style sheets for my web page, attempted to start up a gopher site, put some scripts and some early writing stuff up over there (stay tuned). I also was listening to some of the soundclick radio channels, downloaded a few MP3's that I liked... anyway, I was up late, therefore had trouble waking & so skipped the run, sigh.

Probably going to the gym tonight, no ride unless I go on the road (trails are too mushy), and there's supposed to be some serious ice in places.

Suppression

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 15.5% BF

I took that spinning class last night, then had dinner (& didn't go overboard) at Which Brew, then ran this morning (before the weigh-in, not my usual order for doing things); low weight may reflect dehydration and other "suppression weight loss" effects, though that usually shows up in the body fat number as well, and it's not here today.

Just read an article in the latst Outside magazine, said I should drop 10 lbs -- shut up shut up shut up!! -- I mean, I knew that. Good points though: drop the weight now, better performance in the summer, yadda yadda.

Another Monday

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 11.5% BF

Here I sit on my lunch break in my new Christmas clothes... went down to visit the folks yesterday, belated Christmas visit, very nice, very low-key.

Reading: I just finished Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, about some fundamentalist Mormon murderers and the world that produced them -- I bought that Saturday, along with Fortress of Solitude. For Christmas I got Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis II, Bob Dylan's Chronicles, V for Vendetta, and Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers. Schweet! I finished V for Vendetta last night.

Listening: To Eric's gift, his annual Christmas compilation of songs -- not Cmas songs, just stuff he likes. Don't know the name of it but one song has me totally infatuated.

Pretty pretty, be my eyes,
See through me if you love me at all,
The boat of love has been capsized,
In sight of land but we're cold and drifting.

And if I seem, to be yawning,
The restless sea, must be my yearning...

I'll find out the name.

Exercise: Hitting the gym tonight for Colette's spin class.

Anti-exercise: It's Mug Club Night at Which Brew.

Rockstar and Lullaby

Morning weigh-in: 181.5# 11.5% BF

Today's featured wikipedia article was pretty cool, and led me to this other cool article. Meantime, approximately how much does 5/8 of a pizza weigh? Probably hitting the gym tonight, then (since I got the new bulb in the mail) I'll get my NiteRider light back in working order.

I think I may have the same disease as this guy, but um, not lately...

Downtime

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 8% BF WTF?

Things'll be slowing down here for a while, I can feel myself running out of things to say... "Downtime" though, in this case, actually refers to today: no exercise, and I'm ordering a pizza for dinner, last hurrah before implementing last year's New Year's Resolution once again. Hey, it worked last time -- at least for a while, didn't it?

UPDATE: Compare this shot, from Mountain Bike Weekend 1994, with this one from MBW 2004. The more things change...

A Brand New Year

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 12.5% BF

I stayed in last night, but was up kind of late playing with the computer; now I'm tired. Good New Year's Eve party at Greg's, followed by a mellow day yesterday -- I went up to the Water Gap to hike, but the place was a mob scene so I went to the Tekening hiking trails down by the Martin's Creek power plant, along the Delaware river. Beautiful day, very pretty water, golden sunlight on the rapids. I took a few photos but I'm not sure if any are real keepers. Wow, blogger's block, nothing much to say so I'll stop saying it... later.

By the way, check out the new photo galleries (the 2004 Moab trip, Parts One and Two) that I just put up.

UPDATE: I also updated the bike page on my site.

Cabin Fever

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 14.5% BF

Almost felt good enough to call myself "better" yesterday, but I'm still not 100%. I went out today though, for the first time since last Thursday: grabbed brunch (coffee, corn muffins) at the Quadrant, then got some non-prescription decongestant/antihistamine and cough suppressant/expectorant, and finally dropped my rear wheel at Broken spoke, to uh, get a spoke fixed. I know I should have just done it myself, but I'm lazy & felt too tired -- in fact, going out wasn't the thrill I'd hoped it would be, it was kind of a drag.

I can tell I'm geting better though, by the way I want to go out. Earlier in the week it was all I could do to just get out of bed; eating, showering or just about anything were major chores, and boredom was not an issue. Now I'm going crazy, online every hour or so to see if anything's changed, looking out the window, basically I'm well enough that my mind is working again, and I'm bored.

How bored? I broke out my copy of Indian Trails of Pennsylvania (a very boring book about a cool subject -- maybe this book is why I'm bored?), I'm running through all the bike forums online, ditto various trail reviews, thinking about riding. I've got ...Cabin Fever!

Reading: I busted out Edward Abbey's The Serpents of Paradise (selected readings from his books, articles etc), and ran across a chapter about when he lived in Hoboken, probably in the late Sixties I'd guess. There was some neat stuff in there about taking the ferry into NYC; it reminded me of commuting with my dad into Battery Park (by ferry, from Staten Island). My destination was Newark, but I'd go that way to save money carpooling w/ Dad then taking the PATH from the World Trade Center into Penn Station. Best part of the day was the ferry ride into New York. That was fifteen years ago, wow.

Merry Christmas!

Morning weigh-in 176.5#, 14.5% BF

All I want for Christmas is some health... missed all of yesterday -- literally, went to bed thursday night, only got up for bathroom & medicine breaks until this afternoon. Now I'm up and about, sort of, but still not feeling much better.

Happy Festivus! I'm So Disappointed...

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 13.5% BF

Well it might not be the flu for Christmas, but I will definitely have sinus/bronchitis for Festivus. I sure won't be going to the Which Brew party tonight... I'm expecting a call back from the doctor any moment, get my prescriptions phoned in (I'm guessing Astelin spray, some antibiotic, and a decongestant/expectorant) -- I may skip out of the rest of work today, especially if the doc sez start the meds ASAP.

Stupid Magic Cauldron

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10.5% BF

Well, I have a sinus infection, guess all that healthy herbal magic couldn't quite stop it. Tonight will be Janna's party and run/bike through the Christmas lights down in Bethlehem. I'll probably blow it off, at the very least the run part (I would have biked), which is too bad because I have a really good "grab bag" present... If this cold gets any worse I'll schedule a trip to the doctor, get a prescription for some antibiotics and that nasal spray.

Hit Which Brew last night for dinner, saw Heath & Hans there, as well as Scott, and Jessica, and Mike & Carole who were just leaving as I arrived. Bartender Maura's off on her honeymoon -- or at least, post-wedding vacation -- and her sister was there in her place. Reasonably big crowd, all of people that know each other, lots of conversation which actually got loud at times but it was still a mellow night. They have a "Festivus Party" planned for tomorrow night, I might have to blow that off as well -- and I have a great present for that one too.

Reading: I recently re-read Neuromancer and I just finished Count Zero; now I'm in the middle of Mona Lisa Overdrive. That'll give me something to do for the next couple of days, sigh...

Drive A Stake Into The River, Cap It With A Bone

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 11% BF

Obligatory Pynchon quote:

"He was my good health," she often says. "Since he passed away I've had to become all but an outright witch, in pure self defense."

Like good old Mrs Quoad, I've been hit with disease, and resorted to a magic cauldron of herbal remedies & potions (teas, oscillococcinum aka "duck sauce," echinacea, vitamin C, etc etc) to hopefully beat it back. That and last night's early bedtime should save me. It's probably just the low humidity messing with my respiratory system -- very cold out, relative indoor humidity at home was 25%, which is bad. (Meanwhile, props to any of my faithful readers who can discover the meaning of this post's title. Hint: they were out of Olympia, and Google probably won't help.) I still feel a little under the weather, respiratory system is stressed out but the "I'm sick" feeling is not there.

Ring out, Solstice Bells!
It's the first day of Winter. Io Saturnalia! "The very bottom of the year," as old T.P. might say. Will probably hit Which Brew for dinner tonight, no workout until I'm sure I have no chest infection. (BTW, I usually have a song stuck in my head when I'm riding. Back in 1998 -- my best year -- I always raced to the instrumental part of "The Whistler.")

Flowing Underground

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 11% BF

Drove along the Muskenetcong River on the way in today, and it had that "glowing green" look about it -- schweet! I also saw some info (on the web, while looking up some info about Mithraism and its underground temples) about the rivers in London, tributaries of the Thames that have been covered over and now flow as sewers; they're starting to recover (rather, uncover) them, and have even been able to stock a few with fish...

-- anyway --

Friday night: I got home planning to ride, but instead worked on that shell script which builds static HTML photo galleries (my photos, the non-yahoo ones, were made by an earlier version). I recently decided to revamp it, using unordered lists and CSS rather than tables for the index page, and also I decided to use "here documents" in the script, rather than loads of echo statements. Anyway, I started playing, never got around to riding, and only left the house at 11:00 PM for the VMB Christmas Party... things were in full swing when I got there: beer pong, a fog machine, bike videos, etc. I made a valiant effort to play catch-up, and ended up sleeping in Doug's basement -- but only after we drunkenly made some of the worst music ever, with some cool new software he got.

Saturday was "selfish day," when I hit the coffee shop, then the gym, then the natural food store, then the other coffee shop (got one to go), then the farmer's market in the square... After that I drove out to Emmaus to that new bike store, did some more Christmas shopping and got an espresso while I was there. Ran into Hans whose bike was being repaired, also Selene who was just enjoying the bike store / coffee shop scene; Selene & company were riding French Creek on Sunday, but I talked Hans into joining us for an Allamuchy ride. I just made it home in time to get my drycleaning, then worked on the bike, got cleaned up and went to Joe G's party. I just stopped in to say hello, had a beer and then left for Gary & Gina's party. Both parties were pretty cool, but I was kind of partied out (and I really didn't know many people at Gary's) and left early, was home by 11:30.

Sunday I met Hans (who lives in Salisbury I think) at the Easton Perkins; we had breakfast --talked bikes with the manager as well as some guy I've seen at Jacobsburg, doing post-church breakfast with the wife -- then caravanned out to Allamuchy. Ten miles over there in slight drizzle/flurries with Brian and Bob, short & sweet & done before the bad weather, then home, laundry, more online xmas shopping and my weekly afternoon nap.

Now it's today. I have one more "real" gift to get, and two gag gifts (for parties Wed & Thurs), then I'm done, and not a moment too soon.

Ahhh, Friday!

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, I forget the % BF

Busy here today, getting some stuff out the door.

No workout last night, did some Xmas shopping instead, then played with the computer and finally Which Brew for dinner. Standard Thursday night down there, Leechboy was playing -- he's actually very good, now if he would just play the goddamn songs instead of screwing around...

Tonight is the towpath, then the VMB party. I re-registered at their website, so I guess I'm a member again.

That Guy's A Good Salesman

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 14.5% BF

Did the South Mountain Cyclery night ride last night with Mark, the shop owner, and a kid named Steve. I felt pretty good, they took it easy on me for the most part and we avoided the really log-strewn sections until later in the ride, when at least my confidence level was higher. I'm thinking of getting a new rear tire, asked in the shop about the one I usually get, and the other dude who works there recommended -- strongly recommended -- some old-school Ritchey tire that's all the buzz among that crowd. Pretty good tire I'd guess, but I was simply looking to replace my Velociraptor & said so... out on the trail we stopped for a minute, and Mark all of a sudden starts talking up that Ritchey tire. One of the big problems with the WTB tires is how hard they are to get on & off the rim, and he says the Ritchey is super-easy in that regard, then a few miles later he gets a flat and demonstrates. Sold! However, at the end of the ride we all went our separate ways, the shop was closed anyway & so I'll just pick it up some other day.

On the ride we once again saw other lights in the woods. I said I'd invited Heath & Hans, (who start later from a different trailhead) but Mark said he told them to call his cell if they were riding, and maybe it was Jon G. We wait, the lights get closer, and the lead light suddenly goes airborn... yep, it's Jon, Joe G's younger brother and one of the best cyclists I ever met, riding down the trail and jumping rock ledges in the dark. I said hi but I don't think he recognized or remembered me.

I'll probably see him Saturday: his brother Joe emailed me a party invite; unfortunately, I'd already accepted an invite fro a party the same night from Gary & Gina (two more of the really good cyclists). I'm surprised they didn't coordinate their party planning ahead of time since they're all really close. Well, as a compromise, I'll go to both parties. There's also the VMB party this Friday night, at Spanky's house. Gotta love that Christmas season.

Tonight is Christmas shopping, then the gym, then Which Brew for dinner and entertainment: Leechboy is playing, not my total favorite but at least it's interesting.

Lake Woman River

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10% BF

Coldwater, lake woman, loudwater, laughing water... I like the look of the water when it's very cold out like it is now, but my favorite is late winter, when the river is still cold but warmer than the air, and its color is like greenish-gray rocks, and milky, almost luminescent. I like driving along the river in the morning, and riding along it at night.

Hit the gym last night (excellent workout), did some chores & errands, then went down to Which Brew for dinner, got there around 9:45. Tuesdays for a while were the night for regulars (weekends it gets too crowded), but the past few weeks it's been almost deserted on Tuesdays -- except last night the bar section was full (Scott, Ed, T, Joseph of Nazareth, Rachel, etc etc), though the dinner area was pretty sparse, and K-Jo was in da house, working behind the bar. Dinner, good conversation, some attempts to decorate for Christmas... They're having a "Festivus, for the rest of us" party on the 23rd, so I must get one more gag gift.

Saw something interesting about Mohenjo-Daro the other day. I forget what the point of the article was, but what caught my eye was some new theory on why Harappan civilization might have collapsed. Nobody knows, but I've seen speculation that it might have been an invasion of Indo-Aryan nomads, or maybe agricultural collapse when irrigation caused the soil chemistry to change (hello, California!). This new theory said that the civilization was not centered only around the Indus, but also around a second life-giving river, which dried up when seismic activity diverted its headwaters into the Ganges. Like the other theories, this one fits pretty nicely with someone's political agenda: Indian nationalistic propaganda is now pushing the view that the Indus Valley civilization was actually the one mentioned in the Vedas, and this dried-up river has been identified with the mythical Sarasvati. (Judging by the wikipedia articles, it looks like I'm the last to find out.)

An interesting thing I heard the other day: the DJ on WNTI had a contest, played a song & asked "who wrote/sang the original?" The original singer was Pete Seeger, and the song was "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy." Pretty cool, check it out, wish I caught the name of the singer on the radio because he was good too.

Riding tonight, South Mountain. Oh, and one more thing about the rivers: Rumpelstiltskin is my name...

Weekend Update

(Oops, no morning weigh in.)

Friday night I went to Cannon's (voted "Best Dive Bar in America" umpteen times in a row), met a bunch of friends for dinner. The place is just a hole-in-the-wall, one of many in Allentown, but their cook is a chef from some 4-star restaurant who got burned out, and left the rat race behind to cook for us dive-bar types. The food as usual was excellent, good beer and great company but I made it a reasonably early night.

Saturday was errand day, first breakfast at the coffee shop, then the gym (more vertigo problems), then a bunch of errands followed by some online Christmas shopping. That night was the Chain Gang Christmas party, at Madison on Main: very appetizer-oriented, very good but pricey. Lotsa fun, especially the gift grab-bag.

Sunday was more trail work at Salisbury, maybe four hours of moving/breaking rocks and armoring the trails, followed by a one or two hour ride. That place is sweet. I went home, tossed on some laundry and napped until 9:00, when I went to bed...

Friday

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 12.5% BF

Went to the gym last night, had vertigo problems when I was on my back (bench, crunches) but kept going, worked my way through it (muscles performed very well at least). I felt OK afterward, but I was a little headachey -- I had GI distress all day too; all of this probably adds up to allergies of some kind, hopefully not the start of a cold or sinus infection. I almost blew off going out, but I expected to meet friends at WB, also I was hungry and didn't feel like cooking, and I also wanted to see Dave Cahill play, so off I went.

It was the right decision. Dave was awesome, dinner was good too, and I hung out with the usual gang of miscreants... didn't stay long though, got home and was in bed by 10:30. Woke up exhausted at 7:00, still feel tired: typical after a gym night, especially since I changed from "endurance" to a "strength" routine. Think I'll stay in tonight.

The Coffee Ride

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 14% BF

Last night I hooked up with the crew from the South Mountain Cyclery and Coffee Shop in Emmaus, for their weekly MTB ride up on, um, South Mountain. The ride starts at 6:00, which is kind of tough for me to get to; I was running late but they were too, so I got there "on time." The owner of the shop is Mark B, a guy I raced with back in 1997: he and I were both walk-ons for Scott H & Doug V's "Team Freakin A-" at the 24 Hours of Canaan. I'm not sure if he remembers that, probably does remember me from the more rancorous of the Valley Mountain Biker days. Anyway, he was there, as well as Dave Prior and three younger guys. (Heath & Hans would be starting at 6:30 from another location, and hopefully meeting us in the woods.)

Anyway, the ride started by going up the mountain on a paved road, maybe a mile of climbing to the trailhead; then came a downhill section of trail that didn't look like it got much use, very hard to even see the trail, and finally we were on some sweet, technical singletrack. We stopped for a bit, and saw lights on another trail so we waited, and it turned out to be Heath & Hans. Ride on some more -- fast bunch of guys, but I think I held my own except for the bigger logs (say 12" diameter and bigger, and there were a lot of them), where I really choked. It was funny, these guys were floating over the big logs, but a lot of the things that slowed them down or gave them trouble (rocks, rough surfaces) I didn't think were all that hard. It was probably the Turner that got me through, but I preferred to think of it as "Don is relatively stronger in the rocks."

At one point we stopped again, and again saw other lights in the woods, this time much further away. It looked like three riders, and somehow these guys surmised that it was Jon Gabor with a few friends, so we waited. And waited, and waited... eventually they were within shouting distance, but we never hooked up.

We rode a little more, over into the parts of South Mtn that I recognize (by the power lines), and finally back through town to end at the shop. Excellent ride! I'm going again next week.

Tonight is the gym, then "Hipster Night" at Which Brew, where Dave Cahill is playing. I'll probably run into Heath & Hans there...

Funny insight: I saw T the other day, and we got to talking. I told her I got another new bike, she told me she got another cat. I guess it's really over...

Imagine

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 10% BF (damn you, Taco Bell!)

RIP John Lennon, killed on this date in 1980 -- he was a year younger than I am now...

You may say I'm a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

I remember in high school, the day he died, or rather the next day when it was all over the news. Basically, the school shut down, nothing got done. (A very large proportion of the teachers were baby-boomers, who were totally devastated.) I spent the day in the band room listening to Beatles songs with the music teacher and a ton of students.

Went over Doug's house last night, and after much hijinks (can you say Dremmel tool?) I got my old cleat removed and the new one on. Tonight I'll be riding with Heath and Hans and Dave P, and whoever the crew is that rides out of South Mountain Cyclery and Coffee Shop -- dark woods, too much caffeine...

Spanky McSpankerson

Morning weigh-in: 185#, 14% BF

Friday night was Which Brew, where the music was a little on the lame side, then Saturday night was the same thing with a different lame-o... I was tired Saturday, took a nap and only decided last-minute to go out because I'd heard that the singer was pretty good, oh well.

Sunday was supposed to be an Allamuchy ride, but I blew it off to help Doug and Eric up at Salisbury. I rode from home, then rode the trails behind St Luke's and into Walking Purchase Park, where I picked up the trailhead for the aptly-named Spanky (actually named for Greg H aka "Spanky" who made the trails there happen, but it does lay down some serious whoop-ass). Lots of difficult fun, as you climb up to the Luby's Loop switchbacks (the Lubys, father and son, are very active in building the trails), down through John and Dave's section, and I caught up with D & E planning out some new trails in the big rock garden. We played around there for a while, then went up to the trail we were working on a few weeks back, extending it another few hundred yards. This area is all rock, a lot like the "goat trail" and needs quite a bit of work, so the progress was slow.

About 2:00 we knocked off and went riding, which is when I found out I broke one of my cleats while scrambling in the rocks... I tried riding for a while but it was not much fun, so I just decided to limp back home. Got home around 4:00, ate -- leftover rice/tuna/kim-chee in pitas, very tasty -- and napped again. Spanked...

Got up later, had dinner at Porters while I did laundry. Tonight is Mug Club Nite at WB after spinning, so Tuesday won't be laundry nite but xmas shopping instead.

Beyond the Zero

It's the weekend, we don't need no stinkin' weigh-ins...

Rode down the towpath last night, down to Sand Island and across the river to the Banana Factory, where I hung out with Doug and Eric before starting my return trip. I saw they had the Christmas City Craptacular going on in giant circus tents, over where Musikfest is held...

Talking with Dawn at the gym this morning, she mentioned it doesn't seem like Christmas, bit of consumerism burrnout going on. I think it's endemic, and the ever-more-strident marketing has sort of reached the saturation point. Sort of like Pavlovian psychology (as explained in the ever-handy Gravity's Rainbow), and the extinction of learned responses in trhe absence of the reward. Transmarginal, ultraparadoxical, the silent extinction beyond the zero... just realized, the events in GR's Part 1, titled "Beyond the Zero," and heavy into Pavlovian psychology (as well as psi and seances, & post-death existence in general), are set at Christmastime 1944.

Sinister quote:

"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.

-- Wernher von Braun

That's the quote for Part 1, and the next page kicks it off wih the famous "A screaming comes across the sky..."

Hipster Central

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12.5% BF

I got home last night, played with the computer for a bit and then went to the gym. It was one of the better nights there, I flew through my workout (which is good since they close early and I arrived late), and really felt like I was hitting a peak. I didn't feel "strong" exactly, but weights seemed lighter and everything felt easy.

I went directly from the gym to Which Brew (get out! really?) where the Sons of Rhythm were playing. More like a drum circle than a band, they were three tribal, rasta-and-hackey-sack-type dudes, with a bunch of bongos, congas, a trap set, and a few more exotic thingies (pan pipes etc). Very, very good actually, though I could see something like this getting old after a few sets -- they'd do pretty good as an opening act, plus maybe an encore guest appearance behind the headlineing band, for some uh, headlining band like that...

Thursday night at the WB is becoming quite the thing for emerging local talent, lotta these cool "under the radar" musicians been playing there the past few weeks, Dave Cahill will be back next Thursday, and much of the Easton arts & music crowd were there last night for the show. Whaddaya know, a local scene!

Okey Dokey Doodley Um, Doo

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 11% BF

Talked to my Mom last night: surgery went OK but took a long time. "Procedure" itself was only an hour or so, but there's pre-op, post-op etc, and then she had to go back yesterday because the cast was too tight & very painful. The doctor fixed that, & now things seem to be on track, slow but sure (hopefully) recovery.

Other than that, nothing happened yesterday... Played with Apache, found there's more to getting PHP to work, and the PHP guys recommend against using Apache2 -- guess which one I've got? Anyway, I'll be downloading the latest PHP4, then delving into those config files some time soon.

West and Wewaxation at Wast

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 11.5% BF

Got home last nite, played w/ 'puter, then rode the towpath for some "active rest" exercise, very slow pace. About all I could muster, actually: worked quads pretty hard on Monday with the weights, then did a "strength workout" spin class. I wanted to get the blood flowing to remove toxins or whatever from the muscles, and I also knew that today would be rainy, otherwise I would have just blown it off. (Looking outside, it's now sunny & beautiful, but today is officially downtime. I don't need much discipline to ride in the rain, but sunny rest days are tough.)

After that was the weekly trip to WB, as laundry did its thing. No Scott there this week though, just Maura & K-Jo working, and Art having dinner. Turns out, Maura's "bachelorette party" was Saturday night, and they ended up having it at Which Brew -- I enjoyed the Philly trip, I guess you can't be everywhere but it sounded way fun, oh well. For dinner I had sirloin stew w/ juniper berries, while the girls discussed C-section vs vaginal birth, and the post-partum looks of their girlie parts, how much they resembled sirloin stew -- nice try ladies, I told them they were amateurs. I also got a tuna steak sandwich with salsa and wasabi mayo. Both things were fantastic, I was starving too.

My mom had her foot operation yesterday, she should be able to take a call today, think I'll do that. Yo, later.


UPDATE: It's later. I forgot to mention: last might on the ride I saw two fox and an owl (small guy, sitting on a log not 10 feet from me, I think I must have screwed up a kill with my lights), as well as the usual boatload of deer. No bats, though.

Back In The Groove

Morning weigh-in: 180.0#, 11.0% BF

Um, kickin' it old school: when the needle scratches across the entire record, can you say it's "in the groove," for each groove it crosses through? How about a New Year's resolution, when you reaffirm it every morning but break it every evening? Anyway, I went to the gym yesterday, did an abbreviated weight workout and took a spin class -- Colette was the instructor, strength workout, lotsa fun and some seriously cool jams. Tonight will be the towpath, then my weekly "while the laundry does its thing" trip to Which Brew.

Linux Voyager: I got Apache to work last night, very easy. Next step is to integrate CGI and PHP, then start messing with MySQL.

It Seems Like Only Yesterday

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 11.5% BF

Been back four hours after four days off, and it feels like I never left. (Alternately: I just posted here last night, and here I am posting again...)

No running this morning, another "get up at 7:00 AM" kind of day since I caught the first half last night at Porters. I plan to hit the gym tonight, take a spinning class -- Colette is teaching it, so I may be able to find out what I'm in for this year with the Science Fair (her husband runs it, sends her out recruiting). It'll be fun, I did it last year and had a ball, I just need to know the date. Meantime, first spin of the offseason.

Funny insight: last week I was reading a bicycle book and riding; this week I'm reading about the matrix and messing with the computer. Hmmmm, maybe it's a good time to bust out the Henry Miller...

Lazy Sunday

No morning weigh-in...

Last night I went with Doug & Lori, also Brian who drove, to see Mitch Hedburg at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby (aka Philly); Eric and Kris also went but drove down separately -- we ate dinner together, and sat tgether as well, so maybe "separately" isn't the right word, but if we wanted to talk to them on the drive down, we had to call... The opening act was Stephen Lynch, comedy singer/songwriter, pretty funny and actually a good musician. Mitch was great at the start and the end of his act, but the middle really sagged, flopsweat so bad it made the audience anxious along with him, and I was left thinking it was deliberate, like some kind of Andy Kaufmann "avant-garde comedy" schtick. Anyway, the shows were good, not superfantastic great, but worth the money and effort to go see them -- not worth another trip though.

Today was a pretty lazy day: woke up to major rain, sacked out until 10:00 before getting up, then playing with the computer. I went out around 1:00 to the Quadrant for some brunch, walked around downtown for a bit -- stopped in the pawn shop, never been there, oogled all the musical instruments -- then came home and read Neuromancer. (I left The Immortal Class at Mom & Dad's, I guess I'll pick up the storyline again at Christmas.) The afternoon was sunny and fairly warm, but I just felt like hanging inside.

I downloaded the Apache webserver earlier, and am now downloading the MySQL database server. Since I already have perl and PHP, I should be able to set up my own LAMP system at home, maybe put in a wiki or something to play with.

UPDATE: I went and saw the Insidious Rays at Which Brew Friday night, and it was the most crowded Iever saw the place. Incredible show, great crowd (hung out with the Kneller Brothers and Carrie the off-duty bartender, also Ed who came in later), lotsa cuties...

When Black Friday Comes

Well, at this point it's come and gone, and taken Thanksgiving with it. Definitely a good holiday this year, here are some high points:

Thursday Morning: no ride. Rain and thunderstorms allowed me to sleep late, then I read about half of Travis Hugh Culley's The Immortal Class, really a great book, though I'm usually not sympatico with that whole bike messenger thing.

Thanksgiving Dinner: was at my parents' house. For once the drive wasn't intolerable, even Route 9 wasn't too bad, at least not bad considering that it was Route 9 South, south of the Raritan River, on Thanksgiving... But I got down and had a really nice dinner with my parents. Mom wasn't too happy with the turkey (substandard bird), but dinner was fine by me.

Dessert: We went down to my mom's cousin Laurence's place, had dessert with Laurence and Marie and their two kids, also Marie's aunt was there. Very lively conversation, mainly about cool movies and bands etc -- influence of the college girls; when family friend Brian showed up, about the same age, things got very lively, very 20-something, young-adult vivacious, kind of neat the energy they all brought to things. Alas, we were old and went home around 10:30 or so...

Ride: I got up a little late, but went out about 10:00 to ride Huber and Hartshorne Parks in Red Bank, actually just down the road from Laurence and Marie's. I brought the Surly, and was riding by about 10:45. It was really sweet, but I think I'm getting a little afraid of that bike -- I can ride just about anything when I'm fresh, but I lose my freshness very fast. About two hours into things I got so tired (arms and back as well as legs) that most hills became either hike-a-bikes, or at least required a rest partway up. It's literally like I'm starting over with this bike, at least in terms of fatigue levels I'm like a neophyte. I rode for almost exactly 3 hours, then went back to Englishtown.

Lunch: My brother and his family went to his wife's parents for Thanksgiving, so they came over today for leftovers at my parents. I got there and Chris was setting up my mom's computer in the downstairs bedroom -- my mom gets that tendon surgery on Tuesday, and she will be living downstairs for a while. Everyone else was in the kitchen, eating Turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry sauce, so I joined them in the kitchen, played with my nephew. Good times, then they took off about 3:45: Tara to work, and Chris & Christopher to see the Spongebob movie. I got out of Dodge myself not long after.

Now I'm home, just did some laundry, and the traditional weekend is just starting. After a quick shower I'm heading down to Which Brew for to catch the Insidious Rays. Later, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Malaise

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 14% BF

Well, not really, but I do feel odd and tired... went to the gym kind of late last night (they close at 9:00), so I decided to skip my regular long workout and do legs, for the first time this offseason. It was good to see that my strength hadn't really dropped since the spring, but I hit the weights kind of hard, all parts of my legs plus a few upper-body things, and I think that's what's dragging me down now.

Hit Which Brew afterward while my laundry dried, got there just in time to put in a dinner order. Place was empty: just me, bartender Maura and that dude Scott -- nice guy, but once he starts talking he never, ever stops -- I can't get a word in sledgewise, can't even sit in peace, and he's physically loud like he's deaf... I like going there Tuesday nights, it's a nice routine: gym, laundry, and dinner at WB, but if Scott's there to harsh my buzz every week I'll pick a different day.

Cool song on the radio last night: "Stranger Blues" by Elmore James

Reading (re-reading): Gravity's Rainbow

More Culture

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 14% BF

Did laundry, played with computer, had dinner, passed out by 9:00 PM, got up at 7:06 --doh! No running this morning, but will hit the gym tonite & do some sort of stationary machine (blech) before the regular workout -- maybe I'll toss in some leg exercises.

Last night's dinner: A nice big salad of baby arugula, then baked stuffed tofu, and saurkraut with a little kim-chee I mixed into it . Microbes are my new friends? Maybe I'll grab a beer downtown tonight...

Monday Morning Blues

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 13.5% BF

Suppression weight loss, dehydration etc, I expect to see the numbers bounce back up in a day or two.

I'm sooo tired right now. Napped yesterday afternoon, went to bed before 10:00, got up after 7:00 AM (uh-oh), and my body feels totally drained... I suppose it's the "good kind of hurt" to be feeling after a weekend, but I think it's time for a rest day.

And It's Good!

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12.5% BF

I picked up my new singlespeed from Curt's Cyclery Friday night, and took it out on the towpath as soon as I got home. That's not the place where a bike like that necessarily shines, but I still had a blast. I ran into Joe and Cindy out by Freemansburg, rode back with them. Doing the old hamster legs, 12-15 mph especially on the way out and my legs were spinning; on the way back we had a a more relaxed pace (they had their dog, and they didn't want to overwork her) butI still had a good cadence, and the gearing felt easy. That changed on the way up from the river though: 5 minutes standing climb, ouch.

Friday night was Which Brew for dinner, met Brian and saw Stu & Kathy, also a bunch of the peeps who just got back from Prague. Two guys I didn't see were Heath & Hans; I wanted to invite them to the Chili Ride on Saturday. Oh well, I tried via email earlier in the week. Their loss, since that was a good day as well.

The Chili Ride: I thought I wasn't going to make the start, but I wasn't even the last to arrive (not many showed up to ride in the November drizzle anyway); unfortunately I realized, partway into the ride, that I'd forgotten to change to my riding lenses, so I rode back to the car and played catch-up for a big part of the day. I missed a turn, didn't see anyone and so rode around semi-lost until I found myself on the old racecourse by the scout camp, then everything was gravy -- and then I ran into Beth and two others coming the opposite direction. They were the "slow group," and I hooked up for the last few miles and we rode out together. Back to Beth & Kevin's, where they had a their 10th Annual Chili Contest. A total blast: beer, chili, prizes and even a bonfire though it was kind of drizzly so we trooped back inside after a while...

Saturday's ride was on the Turner. Sunday we (Doug, Brian, Pete, Eric, Joe and myself) went to Riverside Park (or Walking Purchase Park, depending on who you ask -- it's in Salisbury behind St Luke's Hospital), where we helped the VMB with their ongoing project to build a trail system there. Amazing job so far, mostly done by that guy John, and also by Creepy Dave (hey, credit where it's due). We did about 4 hours work, put about a mile's worth of new trail in, then Doug Joe and I rode for about 2 hours -- Joe and I on our singlespeeds, Doug on his Turner.

I was a little afraid of how things would work out with the new bike, since it's completely rigid (no suspension front or rear), and Salisbury is a tough place, but the Surly is a well-set-up bike, good geometry and fit etc, and I felt very confident riding just about anything I'd take the Turner over -- more important, I was able to ride it all too. (The only negative is that the ride is harder & way more tiring on the upper body.) The singlespeed part of it was a bit harder to deal with, since I ended up going a little slower than I'd have liked for that gearing. Twisty, rough surface, lots of slight uphill grades after tight-radius turns, I had trouble maintaining momentum and staying on top of the gear. It was tough, but that's why I got it.

Anyway, now I'm filthy, just woke up from a nap while the laundry was cooking. Now it's my turn in the shower.

Fatty Fatty Fat fat

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 12.5% BF

Nothing to say here, just passing through to drop off the bad scale-tipping news...

Oh -- I'll have my new bike probably tonight. If I do I'll be riding it on the towpath; tomorrow is Beth's Chili Ride (on the Turner), and Sunday will be trail maintenance at Salisbury.

How Conveeeeenient

Well, finally got the phone guy out -- although he was supposed to show up tomorrow after 5:00 PM, he was here today in the afternoon while I was at work: landlord let him in. I got a message on my cell that he checked the line, and there was nothing wrong with it, he hooked a phone up to my connection & got dialtone etc, whatever is wrong, it was wrong with my phone. I thought "that's odd, phone and brand-new modem crapped out together" but I bought a new phone on the way home anyway. Just for laughs I tried the modem and it worked just fine -- ATH1 got a dialtone, regular old phone has no problems whatsoever either... WTF?? I figure the guy found and fixed something, like a loose connection outside (where it's their responsibility/cost), and just said he found nothing, so I'd get stuck with the bill for the visit. Fuckers.

Anyway, home phone's working, therefore home 'puter is back on the net. I kept up with my epix account via webmail, but my enter.net address had 1099 emails waiting for me. Right now is a little bill-payment catch-up, then I'm going out for a bite.

So uh, like I was saying...

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 13% BF

Rode last night, then stopped by Which Brew while laundry was drying: not much was going on there, kind of dead. Tonight is the Chain Gang meeting, and I might run down by the river beforehand. That is all.

Pickled

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 13.5% BF

No workout last night, instead fiddled w/ computer & did laundry. Also cooked an interesting dinner, tofu stir-fry with onions, garlic, wilted greens (arugula, baby spinach etc), and also some kimchi plus a little fermented red cabbage. I served it over rice w/ lemon juice, but put some tahini on the rice too which was a bit of a mistake, the flavors kind of clashed. I was up pretty late, so ther was no run this AM; I will either ride the towpath tonight (it's pretty nice out) or hit the gym & run there.

My boss's father just passed away this morning, 91 years old, cancer.

Conversations With Women

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 11% BF

Went to bed a little too early last night, 6:00 PM, and woke up at 12:30 for a little tossing & turning before dropping off again. Got up 6:00 AM, ran breakfast, work and now here I am...

Friday night: I stayed in, another early bedtime.

Saturday: got up early, got an early start on my day's errands, early breakfast at the coffee shop, and got to the gym way early. I only ran 2 miles so I had 20 minutes to kill, did some stationary biking before lifting with my trainer.

From there I drifted from one pleasant social situation to another, common thread was good conversation with various women I met along the way: Violetta and her co-workers at Nature's Way, then Mary M at Genesis, various people at the Quadrant, Maura the bartender, and also Rich F's wife, at Which Brew,and finally I went down to Englishtown for a High School friend's 40th birthday, where his sister gave me the lowdown on her life (kids older, she back to work) since we last talked. Really neat, social glue kind of day. The B-day party was pretty good in and of itself, too.

Sunday Morning I hung out with the parents, but had to leave around noon; I had to get back to Allentown by 2:00 for the PPRAC (aka "Perimiter Ride") kickoff meeting. That went well, as well, and things look good for this year. More on this soon...

I'm Sorry, Ben

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 13% BF

Well, that "early to bed early to rise" stuff died a hard death: I worked late last night, hit the gym, then went home; I was soooo close to just staying in, but I went downtown to Which Brew anyway. It was pretty good, and I had an OK time but all in all I should have stayed home. The singer, Leechboy, really wasn't my cup of tea, and the evening dragged out to past midnight. I wasn't going to run this morning anyway, and the plan was to sleep until 7:00 rather than (non-run wakeup) 6:30, but I only got moving at 7:10 -- I leave for work at 7:30...

Blasts from the past: I ran into Heath and Hans last night at Which Brew, and I noticed that Heath was walking funny, cramped and kind of stooped over -- turns out he rode with "a bunch of NORBA guys" as he put it, and they layed down a royal butt-whooping on him. I ask him who he means by "NORBA guys," and he names a bunch of young hotshot racers from the Reading area, mostly people I never heard of, but I did recognize one name: Ryan DeWald.

I always wondered what happened to that guy. I remember Ryan D as a teenager circa 1996, riding wheelies through the race-venue parking lots on his Trek Y-bike, winning every local race and moving pretty quickly up to expert, where he still won all the time. His dad would take him to the races, and we would BS about the racing scene, the Grateful Dead, yadda yadda while the junior experts finished their extra laps, pretty cool guy. Last I remember seeing of either of them was an XC race at Whitetail: Ryan was racing for Mt Gretna and I needed to contact them, so he took off his shoe to reveal their number written across his sponsor-provided sock...

I thought maybe he just vanished into senior-expert limbo, or went off to college or moved out West or whatever. It's good to see he's still around and kicking butt, though I suspect he's a pretty familiar name/face to those who (unlike me) still follow the race scene. Apparently, his dad bought a Reading-area bike shop, and these guys ride out of there. Not sure how Heath hooked up, probably through the shop. (Heath was a hurting puppy, but he won some props from me just, for hanging with that crew.)

I asked where the ride was, and he said out by Port Colden somewhere, lots and lots of hills. I asked if there was a reservoir involved, and he said yes... hmmmm, Hamburg?

The Splatter Effect

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 14% BF

Garbage night last night. I had a small pumpkin that was starting to rot, getting all soft etc, so I was throwing it out and -- I dropped it on the kitchen floor, and it burst. Yecch! Nasty cleanup, made worse by thinking that I dropped it because I was trying to minimize contact with the pumpkin in the first place. The smell was very wierd though, not "rotten vegetable" at all, more like some kindof industrial adhesive, something I'd smell back in school or at PPC.

That was at the end of the night, getting ready for bed. Before that, I went straight from work to Kurt's Cyclery and got things moving on gettinng that singlespeed. Picked out wheels, whole lotta components, he'll get back to me on final stuff. I should hopefully have it by Thanksgiving. Dinner was Taco Bell rather than cereal, that plus a little reading before another early bedtime -- Ben Franklin would have loved me, except there were a few unexpected chores so I wasn't as early as the past few days... Got up early and ran again; tonight is the gym, then probably a trip to good old Which Brew see what's up and to see Leechboy play, also maybe drop off that skateboard literature.

Mr. Healthy

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 14.5% BF

The bad thing about cereal whenever I buy it, is that the cereal is all I eat, breakfast lunch and dinner, until it's gone... Worked late last night, then went to the gym and realized I forgot my sneakers. Doh! There wasn't enough time to get them & still get in a good workout, so I blew it off. Dinner was cereal, then I did a little more reading & had a good phone conversation w/ Doug before another early bedtime. Got up early, ran (2 miles) this morning, cereal for breakfast. Tonight I'll be checking out that Surly 1x1, very likely to buy it but I'm not sure what components to get -- I want a fully rigid bike, Hope Mono Mini brakes, and after that I don't know. I should have the bike in a week or so. Another box of cereal to go.

Want The Change, O Be Inspired By The Fat

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 10% BF

I was going to ride the towpath last night, but after dinner (turkey chili w/ rice) I read for a while, then just just felt like "screw it, rest day," and went to bed at 7:30. Slept through until 5:52 AM, when I got up and ran. Only went a mile, peristalsis issues as well as cold head/hands, must relearn how to do this AM thing...

Post-run weight was 179#, 15% BF: turkey chili w/ rice...

Tonight is the gym, then more nothing -- maybe early bed again?

Reading: Gravity's Rainbow.
Listening: Velvet Underground's first album.

Happened to listen to "Venus In Furs" on the way home yesterday, and reached the part in GR last night where General Pudding, in a sort of parody of Kabbalic mysticism, passes through a series of antechambers, each with a single "trial" before the infamous masochism/coprophagia scene. In one trial he sees a coffee can that says "Savarin" but he knows it's meant to say "Severin,"which got me thinking again about the VU: they were big on decadence and depravity, but it really was a rather bookish sort -- "Venus in Furs" being cribbed from, uh, Venus In Furs, and "I'm Waiting For The Man" cribbed from Burroughs's descriptions of junkie life. Bottom line, and after all these years: it wasn't street cred, just intellectualism -- they were sophomoric teenage posers. Ahhh, but they were my sophomoric teenage posers...

Situation Normal

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 13.5% BF

Friday night was a towpath ride with Brian, then we went to Which Brew for dinner. He drove, but wasn't staying late. I liked the band, and heard that Duende was playing across the street, so opted for pedestrian status when it came time to leave.

I can't remember the band's name at WB, but it was a blues band, lotta alumni from Illinois Slim's band, plenty of guest musicians on stage at various times. Pretty cool. I picked up on what must be the 50-something white-guy bluesman uniform: the black beret. Plenty of them there, and in comes Arnie after his show, and he's got one on, high-five's the guest harmonica player as he goes by...

Over at Porter's, Duende was taking a break and they had a guest singer/songwriter on stage. He eventiually gets Dave Cahill up there with him, so I guess I didn't miss Thursday's show after all... Duende came on and rocked, but that's no longer news, they're always good.

About 1:30 I started getting hungry, so I left, ran/walked the two miles (uphill) home, got in car and just managed to make Taco Bell's 2:00 AM closing. Mmmmm, bad food...

Saturday started at the coffee shop, then another 2-mile run along River Road before lifting. (Surprising how good I felt, considering the night before, but really the only craziness was the late bedtime.) I had a pretty full Saturday agenda, but stopped at Nature's Way for a little Grocery shopping: ran into Violetta, who I thought had quit and relocated to Alaska, or at least bact to California to be with Mike. Well, she went to Cali, then she and Mike vacationed in Alaska for several weeks, hiking and camping, and she's back but not really working there, just subbing occasionally while she looks for a job. Interesting alaska conversation, & good to see her again, plus they had a "cultured foods" sampler day there -- I actually ate and enjoyed Kimchi.

Next stop was the Bethlehem Bike Co-op. My friend Damion was there until 3:00, so I dropped off a neighbor's discarded bike for refurbishment (they give them to local kids, ship them to 3rd-World countries, or in the worst case break them down for proper recycling), and we had a long conversation about the Ilick's Mill and Bayard Park skate parks -- that history didn't have a happy ending, which I sort of knew but never heard the full story. I also got to congratulate him, because he's now the proud father of a baby girl.

(I didn't have time to do it in person, but on the way over to the BBC I called Kurt's Cyclery, got the ball rolling for that new Surly 1x1 singlespeed.)

I got home, worked on the bike, tossed some laundry on and took a nap, then went over to Eric & Kris's for a little pizza and Taboo (like charades), plus some other games. Mellow fun, just what the doctor ordered.

Sunday was a huge (and very fast) group ride led by Bob at Allamuchy, followed by an early dinner in Hackettstown.

Save It Up For The Weekend

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 15% BF

I was going to go out last night, but I felt tired and headachey after lifting. I got home around 8:30-9:00, skipped dinner and was in bed before 10:00. A loud "POP" outside, followed by my printer running through startup diagnostics, woke me around 1:00. Power outage, maybe a transformer problem? Reset the alarm clock, then slept through until 6:00, then 7:00 -- I guess I needed that.

So, I didn't get to see Dave Cahill play after all. That would have been nice to see, but I could probably find a reason/excuse to go out every night -- and now I don't have to feel so bad about going out tonight, because Which Brew will be serving cask-conditioned Weyerbacher Winter Ale (my favorite, and the first batch of the year), and I wouldn't have wanted to miss that... Hitting the towpath first, trying to get into the night-riding groove.

Saturday I'll lift again, then go down to the Bethlehem Bike Co-op, drop off a neighbor's discarded bike for "recycling" and talk with Damion about how he used to organize skate park volunteers. Sunday is a ride at Allamuchy.

Back to Reality

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.

Another Goddamn Post-Mortem

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.

Into The Rapids

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.

It's The Time Of The Season For Weight Gain

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.

All Right, Then!

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.

The Commoditization Of Desire

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...

Monday, Already

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.

Friday, Already!

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.

Pizza, But Still No Car

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.

Car-Free For A Week (and other fallout)

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...

More Post-Mortem

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)...

More Sitrep

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.

At Peace

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.

Eileen Marie Cecilia (Haran) Barth, 1915-2004

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:

• She once told us, reminiscing at Christmastime, that she remembered delivering her mother's homemade whiskey as a child.
• She never learned to swim, and I'm pretty sure she never learned to drive, and I don't think she ever lived outside of Brooklyn.

She grew up in a different world.