Went to the gym last night, immediately after work; after that was the Chain Gang meeting, which we had at Which Brew. Nice enough evening.
Crazy dreams lately, but pretty cool because the predominant colors have been green and blue. Last night was a sort of reprise of the CG meeting, except that we were skateboarding and 4-wheeling, somewhere that looked like a cross between Montana-style Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. It was cool, I saw a whale, a white beluga surfacing almost directly below me, in as I was hugging a tree and leaning over a cliff into a cove. The night before, I was on an island, maybe somewhere in Hawaii, with a lot of corn growing: scenery and situation were a cross between Cloud Atlas and Blood Meridian. I remember having to retrieve my bike (or maybe it was a fish net) at a trail crossing in the corn, blue sky above & corn-green mountain to my right, and having to look both ways, up & down the trail, keeping on the lookout for evil strangers...
Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 13.5% BF
Rode last night, towpath plus about an hour at Salisbury; I barely made it home before full dark. Dinner was beans & rice, then I went to Which Brew, made reservations for tonight (Chain Gang meeting) and wished my friend Scott a happy birthday. Did pretty good, only ordered a piece of dessert & didn't overindulge on the beer, but blew it all by going to Taco Hell on the way home.
Finished reading Blood Meridian. Very good, now highly recommended by me. My only complaint is that, at the end, it gets a little Faulkneresque -- and sometimes, "Faulkneresque" isn't really a compliment...
By way, the trees are pretty much in bloom.
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 179.5#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 180.5#, 13.5% BF
Took yesterday as a rest day, did laundry, dishes etc. Dinner was black beans w/ rice. Tonight will be a towpath ride, possibly with a hot lap at Salisbury mixed in, then beans (red this time) & rice again for dinner.
Friday night was the traditional Lehigh Towpath ride, Brian H and myself, followed by dinner at Which Brew. Early night because I had a pretty big day coming up.
Saturday was "The Running of the Dogs," a race put on by Team Bulldog at Kittatinny Valley State Park; it was set up in a fashion very similar to 24 hour racing, except teams were two-person and rode together rather than 4-man relay -- the race was only three hours long too, which was good. I rode it with my friend Bob W, and we raced as a Men's Sport Vet team, but we did it on singlespeeds. He was on a 29"-wheeled Karate Monkey and I was on my 1x1: one gear and no suspension and my whole body was exhausted by the time we were done. We got in five laps though, or 25 miles, within the time limit, and came in 3rd (third place out of four teams that is, but we were the only singlespeeders in our category). We were happy; we didn't really go out there to be full-on competitive, which is a good thing because Bob was so much faster than me we that were a rather mis-matched team -- teammates had to ride together, and Bob spent a far greater percentage of time riding easy, while I played catch-up, than the word "race" might imply...
Saturday night was a quick trip to Bethlehem, for appetizers and cocktails at the Starfish (nice, but expensive), then wings at Brew Works (much more reasonable). In between the race and the cocktails was a nice long nap.
Sunday we got together again, Bob and myself with Doug and Lori and Brian, plus two of Bob's Allamuchy friends, for some trailwork at Allamuchy. We did about four hours of work, putting in waterbars and diversion ditches to keep the heavy rains from eroding trails, then we got on our bikes and rode about ten miles. Doug and Lori were on the tandem: and it was her first real experience riding (as opposed to say hiking) at Allamuchy, and it was a great day for it too. We had a blast, though Brian tweaked his derrailleur and had to leave early.
After that came a huge outdoor lunch/dinner in Hackettstown, then home and another nap. I spent the last hour of daylight reading Blood Meridian on the porch.
Tomorrow will probably be a rest day, or maybe the gym. G'night.
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 180.5#, 14.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 179.5#, 16% BF
Good ride last night at Jacobsburg. It was the end of a beautiful day, the trail conditions were primo (well, they were OK, but they were dry), and the place was crowded with riders. I ran into Brian H and Lee S (who was on a singlespeed like me), and we hooked up with a few guys who missed the start of the Blue Mtn Ski Club weekly ride, one of whom is a Which Brew regular -- bonus!
We rolled on, ran into Lance K and his friends, who were riding with Jay DeJ, and finally caught up with the Blue Mountain crew. Kevin H and Laurie (the former club secretary for the VMB) were the only ones I knew, but all were familiar faces. It was like a big bike reunion in the woods, though we were all riding at different speeds so we went our separate ways after a meet-and-greet break.
The Blue Mtn / Which Brew dude tried to talk me into stopping at WB for a post-ride beer, but I'd already been out Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week, so I gave my regrets. Dinner was beans & rice w/ tahini and a little bit of hot sauce.
Tonight is the towpath, then I might just stay in because I'm racing tomorrow. I must get the bike -- I'm racing on the singlespeed! -- and other stuff ready, and I could definitely use the rest (& proper nutrition).
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 180.5#, 14% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 182#, 8% BF
RIP Andrea Dworkin. Not sure I really liked her (though as Roy Edroso says, most of what you see about her ideas is not her work but that of her critics -- and according to them she was an asshole & castrating bitch, also ugly), but like I might have implied, I just saw this post at alicublog. It reminded me of of a line, "the commoditization of desire," from Mark Leyner's My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist. I think I wrote about it before...
No workout Monday or Tuesday: Monday was recovery, and Tuesday I was over at H&R Block, suffering from procrastination issues. Tonight is a quick road ride.
Meantime, back in the culture wars...
Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 14% BF
A great weekend, to wit:
Friday I rode the towpath with Brian and Greg P, then went with Brian to meet Joe & Cindy at Which Brew. Nothing unusual or amazing, but very nice just the same. Jake Kaligis was playing, actual band was called the Skulldiggers I believe, very tight, high quality music.
Saturday was my birthday, which I kept pretty low-key. Did my usual "selfish day' stuff, hit Coffee Works, ran & worked out at the gym, errands/chores etc, then worked on the bike. I was going to go out anyway, again low-key but Doug & Lori figure out it was my birthday, so we went um, back to WB with Brian and Eric. Excellent dinner, followed by some birthday beers and an espresso martini -- they joked that I'd never be able to get up in time for Sunday's race, but they have not the gift of prophecy, and I am a hardened pirate...
Sunday was a little rough, but not too bad: I got up at 5:30, met this kid Steve from the VMB on Rt 222 near Dorney Park, and caravanned with him down to Blue Marsh. The day turned out as beautiful as Saturday, maybe nicer; you couldn't ask for better race weather. I was the only Chain Gang member racing (as usual at this point) , but there were about a dozen VMB guys out there. Some of the others did well, but I just managed to beat 2 guys, coming in 30th of 32 in my age group. Beautiful day though, and a great course; overall the experience was extremely nice.
On the way home I stopped at Salisbury (Riverside Park, or Walking Purchase Park, or whatever they're calling it now), and saw Doug, Eric, Rich B and Bob W, just finishing up a ride after doing some trailwork. We're hanging out, and along comes John E with 3 of his neighbors, and then Greg H. Quite a crowd in the woods! Afterwards we hit the Mexican place on Main Street iun Bethlehem, then I went home & slept.
This morning I had to go down to the courthouse for jury duty, but they didn't need me so here I am.
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 182#, 13.5 % BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 182#, 14.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 181#, 14.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 182#, 13.5% BF
Started this post Tuesday but never actually wrote anything, here it is Friday already...
Flickr truly sucks. I'll be looking for a replacement service or whatever, my only problem is finding storage space.
I'm an uncle again: (my brother Kevin's wife) Amy delivered Kevin Jr on Friday. A little premature, so there are some complications apparently, but it sounds like things will be OK. That's all for now, going out to see the storm/flood damage. Downtown is under water right now -- again. Nothing at all to do with overdevelopment I'm sure...
Morning weigh-in: 179#, 13.5% BF
RIP Mitch Hedberg: wow, only 37 years old. Never heard of him until recently, very funny guy. Glad I got to see him in Philly that time.
Gym last night, then over to Which Brew for dinner. Quiet night, and an early one, at least there -- got home & played with computer, surfed until 12:30 or so.
Tonight is a towpath ride, if the weather holds.
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180.5#, 12.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177#, 15% BF
Towpath ride, two days in a row: I blew off the gym Wednesday, since the weather turned so much nicer by the afternoon, and rode the towpath. Strangely enough, it wasn't in bad shape at all, except one section that was under water. Rode out to Sand Island, didn't need lights until the return trip. I felt a lot faster than last Friday -- thinking back, I was probably bonking -- though I was still around two hours.
Yesterday was beautiful, so I hopped back on the bike and did the same ride. I got out of the house a little earlier this time though, gained maybe fifteen more minutes of daylight & didn't need lights until I was almost back to Hope Road, where the Bethlehem Boat Club is.
Hope Road has been closed ("destroyed" is a more accurate description) since Hurricane Ivan, but the washed-out bridges have been replaced and a there's gravel down, so I took the road up to the Palmer Bike Path. Last night, as I rode behind the old steelyard, I surprised a bunch of older teens smoking pot or whatever. They were all like "Dude, you frightened me!" but all I could think was that -- not ten feet from where they stood -- there was a big clump of trees, inside which they'd have been invisible even to people looking for them. Sheesh, kids these days...
Champagne Supernova: heard that song over the weekend, got a laugh thinking about those kids yesterday but the gist of the refrain has been hitting home: there have been a lot of claims to countercultural or street cred lately, where all I can say is "the opportunity to prove yourself a hero is long gone. Really, where were you when it counted, years ago?" Of course this is about Iraq.
Meanwhile: Rest in peace, Terri Schiavo. Here's some info on living wills.
Tonight is the gym, if it rains.
Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 12.5% BF
Got home last night, did some chores, got drycleaning, dinner at that Chinese place, ready for bed by 9:30 but then I read & um, computed (?) until around 11:30. I'm now reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which is very interesting, but I'm finding that the author's persona -- a major selling point in all the reviews -- is less charming than just plain snotty.
No running, either yesterday or today; the rain makes for a good excuse, but the late nights are what really make the early mornings impossible. I'll run at the gym tonight.
Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 4.5% BF (yeah right)
This post's title is apropos of nothing really, but I was listening to Tori Amos's Little Earthquakes last night, and that's a line from "Tear in Your Hand," my favorite song on the album.
Reading: actually, I already finished The Curious Incident with the Dog in the Night-Time, an early birthday present from my parents( I got it yesterday at the Easter visit); I also got Blood Meridian and Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
Very poor bedtime discipline lately, and I'm starting to feel the effects so I'll probably make it an early night tonight -- ie no playing with the computer when I get home.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 11.5% BF
So Tuesday night I went down to Which Brew, and the place was packed, a very unusual situation lately. I had dinner and talked to a few people, then when things thinned out I moved down the bar, sat closer to my usual Tuesday night homies, yo. Theresa was there too -- she's not a Tuesday regular -- and she seemed pretty bummed out so we got to talking. Next thing I know I'm giving her a big comforting hug -- strictly Platonic of course -- and there in my arms she tells me she'd been sick, and so she went to the doctor, and she has mono. Gaaaahhhh!!!
I played it cool, but when I got home I washed my mouth/nose/face/hands...
More paranoia: Got home yesterday, was thinking about encryption and security. I've been playing with ssh the last few weeks -- it's how I get a shell connection to the Super Dimensional Fortress from home anyway, but "secure shell" ain't the half of what it can do. I created another account (a separate, but very short sweet & painless, Linux voyage) on my machine, ssh'ed into it and displayed some photos via X-forwarding.
Digression: X is the window control system for unix, and it's "network transparent": there is no real difference between a program running on your CPU & displaying its windows on your screen, and running the program on some other machine while it displays on your screen. The problem with this (other than "what's the point?") is that the transmission isn't secure while traveling between machines, but ssh will "piggyback" the X connection over a secure channel. (It can also do the same with internet ports.)
Anyway, I got the X-forwarding to work between accounts on my single machine, but that's not the same as tunneling across a network... I have to find a unix machine where I can run an X-client program and forward it to my display (SDF will do this, but I have to upgrade my account, from a one-time payment of $36 for my current membership level to a $36/year level, just to try an experiment), or find a machine with ssh and an X server, and connect to my home machine from there...
I am also getting back into my exploration of encryption in general, playing with GPG.
Got home in time to ride the towpath in the daylight (didn't need lights until the Sand Island turnaround), river was exactly the right color -- colors, as it reflected the sunset as well as being the perfect shade of gray-green and silver. On the way back, the waxing gibbous moon shone real purty on the rapids & waterfall.
Currently doing laundry. That is all.
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 182.5#, 13% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 179#, 14.5% BF
NOTE: started this post on Monday, finished it on Tuesday.
Friday I went for a road ride, which didn't work out too well: I was supposed to meet a club member at Genesis Bicycles, but he never showed. So, I hung out for a bit, and as I was about to leave Mary M, my friend who works there, told me that Scott the guy who lived near me but moved to Nazareth, more than likely rode to Easton and was taking a yoga class, probably would be up for some company on the ride home. I headed over to Easton Yoga, sure enough his bike's there but the class doesn't end until 8:00 PM (it was only 7:00), no way I was standing on 6th & Northampton for an hour... left a message on his cell, kept riding but the wind was knocked out of my sails and I ended it early. Got home, got a message from Scott: he was now at Porters, or maybe he would be at Which Brew. I went downtown, more missed connections: he wasn't at WB and when I got to Porters I asked the bartender who said scott just left...
Digression #1: Talking to Mary, she invited me on the Genesis "Tour de Turtle" ride and Easter egg hunt at Jacobsburg Sunday. I was like, "are you sure it's a good idea to ride there right now, with the trail conditions as they are?" Trail conditions right now being wet, soft and sloppy, ie easily damaged by bicycles.
Her response was along the lines of "it's just little old me, how much damage could I possibly do?" Well Mary, every little bit hurts, but you also just told me it's not just little old you, it's a shop-sponsored group ride. How come the whole rider community in the Valley is talking about trail maintenance and avoiding damage right now, and Genesis cluelessly (and it's a willful cluelessness) decides to ride the most sensitive area around? At this point in her riding career, she really ought to know better, but that store has always had an insular culture.
So anyway, Saturday I go to the gym, then do some errands, then I have a bit of a picnic: I grab Mason & Dixon and some food from Nature's Way, head up to Riverside Park. I see a bunch of what must be Cub scouts hiking, and also a pretty big father-son bike outing, which stops to regroup right next to me. Pretty cool.
Joe G had a St Patty's Day party Saturday night. I had some fun there, saw Gary & Gina, also Joe's brother Jon (now a pro downhill racer, the dude's amazing); also Joe's sister, which I didn't even know he had. Got some good "growing up with my brothers" stories. I got tired and went home pretty early though, was in bed by midnight.
Digression #2 (in which the news comes home to roost): I'm only a casual observer of the puppet show, but I do at least know about the unending media circuses around Scott Peterson, who begat Michael Jackson, who begat the baseball steroids hearings... who begat Terri Schiavo. This one I've been following for a while, and now it's hatched into the foulest circus of all.
Digression 2.1: Just for the record, if I ever end up like Terri Schiavo I want to be allowed to die. I'm not fucking kidding.
Anyway, I was reading about the case on Saturday morning and, like it usually does, it reminded me of my grandfather. Later in the day I ran into a friend, whose grandfather had been sick and deteriorating for quite a while. Last time I saw her she told me that, since he refused dialysis, he had to get some kind of shot to keep his kidneys functioning, and he'd reached the point where the family decided it was time to stop the shots and let him pass on. This Saturday she told me that he'd died at home, in his sleep, a few days before.
She also told me about her cousin. I didn't know this but she -- the cousin -- had had spina bifida, and complications from the treatment had left her somewhat "slow" (thirty something, acts like a sixteen-year-old). Anyway, a few years ago her cousin had married (with the family's slight disapproval) some Canadian truck driver, and they now had a 4-year-old son. Turns out, the father had been sexually molesting the boy; they just busted him. He already confessed, and was pretty matter-of-fact about it according to my friend. She was on her way, after talking to me, to go visit her cousin, and I did not envy her.
Anyway, deja vu to see those same issues walking past me as well as appearing on the big screen. I have to say though, that the whole Terri Schiavo thing has got me very upset, like Abu Ghraib all over again. I expect some Elian Gonzales / Ruby Ridge incident before this whole thing is over.
So anyway, Sunday morning I get up to the ringing of the phone: it's Doug, canceling the trail maintenance, so I sleep in until about 10:00, play with computer for awhile and finally emerge from my cave about noon. Brunch at the Quadrant, returned home for more fiddling with the 'puter (delving into the mysteries of openSSH). I felt headachey, so I tried a nap and then, when that didn't work I took some Advil and went for a Sunday drive, north of Bethlehem until I hit 248, then 209 theough the Poconos and home via Rt 33.
Monday I blew off all exercise (despite my plans), ditto chores, to play more with the computer, so this morning I got up early and went for a run. I may do a short bike ride tonight.
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180.5#, 8% BF
Morning weigh-in(Thursday): 180.5#, 13.5% BF
So I was warned I'd better be at Which Brew tonight, so that's on the agenda -- was told to arrive early, but I'm going to the gym first.
Last night was the Chain Gang meeting. Pretty cool, lots of trail advocacy stuff going on, also we broke out the fit kit for our new jerseys. So far only 11 jerseys have been ordered -- long way to the minimum order of 25.
A friend told me what his wife has been going through -- no need to say who or what here -- and I saw her last night. Seemed fairly close to her usual self, but emotional pain/stress was etched in her eyes. So sad.
Morning weigh-in: 180#, 10% BF (damn you Taco Bell)
Saw on Wikipedia that today is the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assasination, oh wow -- then I realized "Ides of March," oh yeah, duh....
It caught my eye because I'm reading Caesar's The Gallic War as well as The Civil War right now. Picked them both up in the Loeb translation, on that last trip to NYC. Gallic War is better I think, at least so far: it seems better written and it flows a little more smoothly. (Then again, GW was meant as an explanation of a foreign war to people who were maybe not that familiar with it, while CW was meant for an audience that was already familiar with the material, having actually lived through the events described. Reading them both 2000 years later, of course the book with more explanatory material reads better.)
Famous story: Caesar was told by a soothsayer to "beware the ides of March!"
On his way to the Senate he ran into the same seer, said "so the Ides of March have come!" and the seer said "but they have not yet gone!" Everyone talked in exclamations back then. (I got that one out of Plutarch I think.)
Anyway, tonight is the gym, then laundry.
Was coming home through Harmony Township today (country roads, mucho hilly, steepest roads in NJ), and War's "Lowrider" came on the radio. Cool song, I was just about to put in a CD but decided to listen through to the end. Anyway, bopping along the country roads and I see an orange flag (or pennant) in the road ahead... come over the crest and it's that dude in the wheelchair bicycle, cruising along, low to the ground like a recumbent, all of a sudden I was glad I heard the song out. Guy's got to be pretty tough to be riding those hills, legendary even on a regular bike, let alone a wheelchair bike -- arm-wrestling contest, my money's on that dude.
Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 13.5% BF
Friday: Blew off the road ride because of the rain, went to Porters instead for dinner w/ D&L and E&K. Went across the street to Which Brew -- you didn't see that coming? -- to catch a few sets of the Foolz, a really good jam band.
Saturday: I went to the gym, continued with the "endurance" workouts. After that I drove to Bethlehem, had lunch at Tulum and went for a hike at Salisbury, checking the proposed new traiils near the baseball field. I went to see Three Monks at Which Brew, but I left early in the evening, needed beauty sleep for the big Sunday ride.
Sunday: Forty miles on the road bikes, with Doug, Joe & Cindy, Greg M, Greg P, and Brian. Pretty tough for this time of year, especially with all the wind. Lunch at Porter's afterward, then naptime.
UPDATED: Minor spelling & grammar corrections.
Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 6% BF
Went to the gym last night, then dinner at WB. (Get while the getting's good: they have this unbelievable "chorizo & spam" specialty chili; that's my new home until they run out.) Interesting conversations with bartender Carrie, then with some guy Joe (who's a sort of real estate mogul I guess, building his empire on 6th & Northampton), and finally with Doug via cellphone . Tonight "The Foolz" are playing there; after a road ride (weather permitting) I'll be heading back down.
Last night's workout felt kind of weird: I cut the weights in half & doubled the reps, starting focus on endurance, and it was disconcerting to lift such light weights -- though by the last reps of the last set I was definitely feeling the burn, in fact it was a far more intense workout than the recent strength ones. Definitely feel it now, too.
Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF
Ran out of things to say. Maybe I'll add something tonight, after chores/gym. In the meantime, today's Dilbert is pretty good...
Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 13% BF
Incredible, freak snowstorm yesterday, a real squall... It was supposed to be just "a dusting" of snow after early morning rain, but the temperature plummeted and the wind blew, roads iced up and maybe 3"-4" of snow fell. Bad visibility, lots of crashes on the highways -- and it all cleared up by the time I had to go home, luckily. It's still cold & windy right now, but last night was just plain bitter.
That was the arctic blast, then I got another blast from the past: ran into Pieter C again, seems he's an amateur rapper/musician of some sort, hangs out with the Dave Cahill crowd. Saw him at Which Brew.
Morning weigh-in: 179#, 13.5% BF
Walked at Merrill Creek Reservoir yesterday. Stopped there on the way home after work, got there just before 5:00, walked out to the dam & took pictures, continued walking and turned around at 5:25 -- sunset aproximately 5:50, this got me back to the car at dusk. Last (actually, only) one there, park guy was waiting so he could lock the gates behind me.
There were a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of birds in the water, mainly Canada geese and snow geese. So loud it was unreal, and the sky was busier than any ten airports. Very peaceful feeling, watching the birds, and the water & sky. It's funny, Merrill Creek seems to evoke in me more of a feeling of fellowship with wild creatures than pretty much anywhere else; even with those cicadas last year it was like "hello, my little friends."
From there it was back to the city lights: home for a few chores, then Mug Club Night at Which Brew (one more time!). Met Brian, got our delicious discount dinners, but the specialty Spam dish was split pea soup so I couldn't partake. Had an interesting conversation with that guy Perry, turns out he's a music teacher, and one of his good friends is Dave Danielson, aka "Mr Danielson" my high school music teacher. Apparently Dave got out of teaching in the mid-80's, divorced & remarried, and relocated to Nashua NH, but Perry keeps in touch & promised to pass on my greetings. Purely a coincidence, but Easton HS is playing "Pippin," which is what Manalapan did my senior year -- I played bass in the orchestra. Small world.
Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF
...and Don's got a new pair of shoes.
Friday: home, Which Brew, bed. Good conversation about music, with a guy who carries the unfortunate moniker of "Crazy Carl," unfortunate (& scary) mainly because the things he said made a lot of sense... also saw that DJ dude Pete. Not the brightest guy, at least not in the way he comes across, but I have to say that every conversation I have with with him expands my horizons -- lately he's had a gig at Lafayette College, modeling nude for the art classes. All the ladies were very interested in what he had to say, and asked a lot of what I would have thought were rather embarrassing questions... Pete took it all in stride though, in fact he was in his glory, and demonstrated a few poses for us -- thank God he kept his clothes on.
Saturday: back to the gym for the first time in quite a while. Saw Dawn, played catch-up on what's been going on since last time. I decided to start focusing on endurance again, so she reduced the weights and upped the reps. Good workout, but it took all my motivation to see it through.
After that I did some shopping (food, and new boots: Asolos again), errands & chores, went back to WB with Doug who stopped by to show me his new car, actually his wife's new car, replacement for the damaged one, and pretty sweet though I forget the make/model. Some chili & some hummos, a beer or two and coffee... saw Hans, and Heath & Margarita, been a while.
Sunday: Jacobsburg trail maintenance, building some rockpiles as stepping stones acroos one of the creeks. The bridge there was washed away by Hurricane Ivan, and this is an interim solution until FEMA money kicks in to replace it. Lots of fun, splashing around tossing rocks in the stream, stay tuned for photos (soon).
After that was a road ride, short & sweet and straight into the wind, then the Banff Film Festival road show at Zoellner. Very good this time, not a weak movie in the bunch, everything really engaged me.
Now it's Monday!
Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF
The VMB meeting was last night, a the Windsor Hotel. Meeting started at 7:00 PM, pre-meeting meeting for racers at 6:30, but I got there at 6:00 for some dinner. Hung out with Doug, Rich B, and a few other early arrivals.
The meeting itself: was good. John E (one o the Salisbury trail dudes) ran the meeting rather than prez Joe T, since he wanted to see about imposing "Robert's Rules" on the proceedings and also act as an umpire rather than someone with their own agenda. Lots of stuff to cover, plenty of debate, things got tedious at times and cantankerous at others, but most of the meeting agenda was worked through. Very fruitful meeting.
Reading: nothing, gotta find a new book.
Listening: nothing, I gotta get some new music.
Tonight: Firkin Friday at Which Brew, cask-conditioned ale, but no music. Maybe go to Porters, or Bluetone instead? Actually, it's also laundry night.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 11.5% BF
No exercise this morning, no meeting last night: got a call from Doug, we were supposed to grab some dinner before the VMB meeting, but he discovered (via Greg H) that the meeting was actually scheduled for today, caught me just before I left the house. So OK, tonight is Take #2.
Linux/BSD/Solaris Voyager: So instead, I surfed. Mostly I surfed that is, then I ssh'ed to my account at SDF (a BSD system) and fiddled with various settings, then telnetted over to the epix.net machines (they run Solaris), fiddled with stuff there. (Funny how epix doesn't have ssh & I have to use telnet, but then they refuse any connection that isn't coming from their dialup connection, maybe that's "secure.") Mostly just bash & configuration experiments; if I were playing music it would have been called "noodling." (I use Linux at home, and hit the other major flavors of Unix in one night, but since I use bash -- with a similar configuration -- on all three, they all act pretty much the same.) From there, I decided to change the way Emacs looked on the home computer, played around, noticed it was 1:00 AM, went to bed.
Pre-Cambrian: Strange dream this morning, just before I got up (technically, it was after I got up for the first time), all I can remember was beach imagery, and the words "phylum" and "radial symmetry."
A change in the weather: Went out to my car at lunch. Very windy -- it would be "good kite weather" if it weren't bitterly cold... Still, there's something you can feel in the air, despite the cold & even with all the snow on the ground: spring is on its way.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 15.5% BF
Got home yesterday, there must have been a power outage: clocks were blinking and the computer was turned off -- after being up for 93 days straight. Dang! Got that up again, surfed and read for a while, then went out to Which Brew for dinner after finishing Chancellorsville 1863; the usual crowd was there though I arrived a little late. Salad, bowl of chili, some Troeggs cask-conditioned ale, tasty.
Today's probably the last day without exercise, I'm feeling pretty good again and starting to want to do stuff (a good sign). Tonight is the VMB meeting and I want to go (haven't been to one in over a year), so nothing until tomorrow. Maybe a morning run?
Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF
A big nor'easter, aye matey, dumped about 8" of snow last night. Snow emergency in Easton/Wilson, tough parking but the streets were in great shape this morning.
Morning weigh-in: 175#, 4.5% BF (WTF?)
Not likely weigh-in numbers: didn't eat yesterday except Taco Bell around 7:00, still affected by medications, especially GI situation with antibiotics. Scale says one thing, mirror tells a different story, hopefully my downtime weight loss doesn't include too much muscle. Meantime, dehydration sometimes lowers body fat analysis numbers, must drink more fluids...
I got a haircut on Saturday, usual place at the Palmer Park Mall; the receptionist said it'd be an hour wait so I wandered around, found myself in the bookstore. I remembered a book I'd heard about, asked for it, and yes they had it in stock so now it's mine -- I basically did nothing but read it for the rest of the weekend. Holy living fsck...
By the way, the book is Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell (here's a better review).
It's basically a set of six linked stories: a diary of an 1850's South Seas journey jumps to the letters of a British ne'er-do-well and composer in 1930's Belgium, then to 1970's California for a battle between a reporter and a nuclear power company, modern Britain, a nightmare futuristic "corpocracy" in Korea, and the center of the book, a post-apocalyptic Hawaii maybe a thousand or so years into the future. Each section, except the Hawaiian one, got only halfway into its story before jumping to the next; then after the Hawaiian story completes, the book runs backward through the sections, completing each story and finishing, back on Hawaii, with the South Seas journal. So what's the book about? Well, each story is about enslavement and the struggle to escape it, each in a different but thematically linked way.
The whole thing was sort of like climbing up and down a mountain, and at the "top" of the book the iron-age protagonist climbs Mauna Loa, with a woman from the last outpost of advanced civilization. (There are several other places and times where a man and a woman ascend to find some revelation, which may or may not be correctly understood.) But climbing down is always very different than going up, and a bit of an anticlimax, and that's the way the book was -- it was probably deliberate too, for reasons I won't mention because it'll give away some of the surprise. I'll just say though, that each section is written the way it's supposed to be, and it was a page-turner all the way to the end...
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 6.5% BF
Totally out of it, tired & groggy, not my usual quick-witted self the past few days. It may just be the germs beating me up, but I looked at the cough medicine and -- surprise! -- it contains codeine. So actually, I may still be coughing at night, I'm just too doped up to realize it...
My friend Brian is a 7th grade teacher, and he told me the other day about a girl they had to send to the hospital, after she claimed she ate a whole bottle of some pills. They didn't really believe her but could take no chances; and it turned out to be a false alarm. Brian said he was trying to get her to 'fess up, told her how not-fun it would be to get her stomach pumped.
That reminded me of the story about when my brother Kevin and I were toddlers, and we (him, mostly) ate a bottle of "batman pills," otherwise know as aspirin. The story as told to Brian was mostly about how he had to get his stomach pumped, because he was too stubborn to drink the ipecac or let the nurse make him gag with a tongue depressor, but I'm thinking now about this cough syrup , how purple it is and how grapey good it tastes, wouldn't you want something this potentially dangerous to taste at least a little bit nasty?
Don, you're turning into a prude.
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 177#, 11.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday) 177.5#, 8.5% BF (say what?)
Woke up around 1:00 AM Tuesday, couldn't stop coughing, coughing so hard I'd gag, etc, lasted until around 6:00. I skipped work, slept all day and went to the doctor at 5:30. Bronchitis: antibiotics, cough supressant, decongestant. I also asked for and got a new prescription for Astelin spray -- normally I get this when I got to the doctor but it's always "no refills," and I would like to be on it permanently, it's the best stuff I've found yet for my nose. Looked online, saw no long term side-effects (was worried that this might be why I could only get it occasionally), asked the doctor and he said "no problem, here you go."
After that I went to the "Salisbury Trailbuilding Summit" in Bethlehem. Met Doug & Eric for dinner at Tulum, then walked over to the Wildflower Cafe to meet everyone else. (Nice place, really crunchy coffeeshop in Southside Bethlehem, right around the corner from 3rd Street Chicken & Ribs.) The meeting was pretty fruitful, I think we all came away with a consensus of what needs to be done, what we'd like to do first, what we'd like to see in the way of trails, etc. Things look good for Salisbury... We also talked a little bit about Jim Thorpe, possibly doing some work up there in the near future, fix the ice-storm damage.
Tonight is another early bedtime.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 15% BF
Yesterday was a holiday and a snowstorm, so even though I saw a number of stupid accidents the drive to/from work was OK. Today, however, was a real pain, lots of people on the road, and a majority of them were idiots. Not sure if it was Jersey thing, or maybe only something my brother Kevin used to say, but he called them Dickey Moe's, as in "Dickey Moe, the Left Lane Dick." Commuter traffic, high-stress ballet and if someone doesn't know what they're doing it screws everything up -- many of those out this morning. The way home was via Harmony Township and Merril Creek, so I didn't have to deal with all those bozos. (It doesn't take much much to screw up a country road either, but I lucked out tonight.)
Listening: I dug out my old Smashing Pumpkins CD, Gish, and have been listening to it in the car. I used to listen to this a lot in the basement at my old apartment, while doing laundry and working on the bike; the first two songs, "I Am One" and "Siva," were what I'd use to psych myself for races. I still think "I Am One" would make a great start to a bike video.
Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring, a guilty pleasure.
Thinking about: Today is the 62nd anniversary, or so Wikipedia reminds me, of the execution of Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst, leaders in the White Rose Society. They were a group of idealistic German intellectuals, young veterans and college students, dedicated to nonviolent resistance to the Nazis, busted for un-American activities and guillotined on this date in 1943.
Doing: Laundry. I may go down to Which Brew tonight for dinner, something I haven't done in a while, at least not on a Tuesday.
One last thing: Happy 1st Birthday to my neice Olivia.
Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 14% BF
Well, got the car back, on Saturday morning; Doug gave me a ride over. (I blew off the gym since I've been fighting a cold, and the workout would have been right in the middle of the prime car-getting window of opportunity.) Doug & Lori went to look at some Subarus while they were there, but ended up buying a Toyota from Krause later in the day. I think that they were a bit put off by their experiences with the Subaru dealers, and seeing me go through my repair woes may have been the last straw, and they went with what's essentially been "their brand" all along.
Friday night was therefore my last night on foot. I went down to Which Brew, where Three Monks were playing (with a fourth monk on sax/flute), and it was owner K-Jo's 40th birthday party. Good times, and the place was packed: lotsa K-Jo relatives, big fan base for the band. I didn't know too many people though (hung out mainly with Stu), and it was very crowded so I left "early" at midnight. Stu and Kathy went to see Sarah Ayers at the Bluetone, which I probably would have enjoyed but I wasn't up for anymore fun, I was tired and that cough/cold thing was still plagueing me.
So that was Friday night. Saturday was spent getting the car, then playing catch-up with all the chores/errands that needed a car: drycleaning, groceries, etc; Saturday night was back to Which Brew to see the Insidious Rays play acoustic. Once again the place was packed, popular band, this time it seemed to be a very "Bethlehem" crowd, not surprising since they are a Bethlehem band... saw a few people I recognized from the Green Cafe, the Funhouse etc. Again, went home early.
Sunday was a very pleasant ride at South Mountain, me and Doug and Rich B. I felt I was riding the technical stuff a little better than last weekend, and though I was coughing a lot whenever we stopped, I never had any respiratory distress while riding, even on the worst "lungbuster" climbs. Went home, did laundry and took a nap, which essentially morphed into an early bedtime, slept through the snowstorm. Today I got up early, hopped in the car and drove in. lotsa crashes everywhere but my trusty (I hope) Outback made it through...
Morning weigh-in: 176#, 13% BF
Car still not done, they're still waiting for the cable. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Faulkner Subaru, but you suck. Reminds me of that Frank Zappa song "Flakes."
Rode home yesterday into a steady west wind, felt unusually tired and pissy right from the start -- realized I was bonking, or at least some kind of mini-bonk, so I stopped in Bloomsbury and got a few slices of pizza, felt much better. I got home at 7:00, so even with the wind and the dinner stop, I made good time -- I hammered up Washington Street. I'm worn out though, maybe bad nutritional discipline, or maybe just too much this early in the season, but I was totally whooped when I got home, not up for any more cycle commuting this week. When I saw that today would start at around 13 degrees and be windy I called a friend and bummed a ride. I then had some rice, chick peas & tahini, and was in bed by 9:00. This morning was great, I "slept in" all the way to 6:30 before getting up.
Tonight is K-Jo's 40th birthday party at Which Brew. Should be good, I need a weekend right about now.
One last thing: Funny juxtaposition in the Morning call today, Vioxx maker Merck says it'll be back on the market soon, on the same page as a story about the new law limiting class-action suits. Someone over there has a sense of humor...
Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13.5% BF
Rode in to work again today, car still not done. Every day it's the same: weather report is A-OK in the morning or the evening before, I ride in to work and get a call that "the parts are still not in yet" -- they're waiting for a hood latch cable, shouldn't a car dealership just have these in stock all the time? -- and then the weather forecast goes south. Yesterday was supposed to be partly cloudy, but then a storm front blew through (luckily it cleared up before I left for home); today it was supposed to be sunny but now they're calling for snow flurries... Snow, even rain I can deal with, but in each case the new weather forecast also brought a 10-15 mph west wind, in other words a nice headwind for the ride home. Blech! However, every one of my bike commutes is the direct caloric equivalent of a half pound of fat (3 hours at 600 calories/hour), and I'm sure that my metabolism, with a kickstart every 12 hours or so, is burning even more. So it's an evil wind but it's blowing at least some good.
Last night: the Chain Gang meeting was good, and very productive. We had it at Which Brew, where the food and beer were great as always, but it seemed that they were a little overwhelmed by the number of people there on a usually quiet Wednesday night. By the way, Greg H came to the meeting and joined the club.
No morning weigh-in: forgot.
Rode in to work again today, a little colder than yesterday but very pleasant -- I expected the cold & dressed accordingly, of course. Last night I was so tired, I basically had dinner and went to bed, but tonight is the Chain Gang meeting, and we're holding it at Which Brew, so not only do I have to step lively to get home (meeting is at 7:00), I have to be lively for a good while afterwards. My car should be done today, I'm expecting the "your car isready" call as we speak, so I can probably "sleep in" until 6:00 AM or even 7:00 tomorrow...
Not reading: Somewhere in my apartment is a paperback, Jan Cremer Writes Again, second book by the artist Jan Cremer. I found the book in the dirt, walking home from the Englishtown Auction in maybe 1980, started reading it aloud to my friends & decided to keep it. Basically "a Dutch 'Easy Rider' out of Henry Miller," as the back cover says, it's a fairly dirty adventure story of our hero Jan, motorcycling through North Africa & Ibiza, and trying to make a life as an artist in Holland. Until a few years ago I didn't even know that the real artist Jan Cremer even existed. If I find it, I'll probably read it again.
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 178.5#, 12.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 180#, 11% BF
Bicycled to work today. Had to get up at 5:00 AM to do it, but it was very pleasant. I got to watch the sun come up as I rode in. Tonight I should get my car back, so it'll be back to slothville.
Six Degrees of Bereavement: they buried that boy yesterday. Seems that everywhere I go, someone is talking about it: their son played ball with him, or he was a schoolmate of someone's kid, cousin, friend...
Reading: Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis. Great book, and I've always wondered whatever became of the author. Also reading Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave, by Ernest B. Furgurson. This is probably one of the best books on the Civil War I've seen, and the only book that actually makes sense of the Battle of Chancellorsville. Both of these are re-reads.
Pretty good weekend:
Friday night I walked down to Which Brew, hung out with Stu & Kathy, then other regulars as the evening progressed. Guy was playing solo guitar & singing, went by the name of "Just Plain Don"... Cheesesteak chili, some milk stout, then I went across the street where some other solo singer/guitarist was playing. It was OK too, but I left early.
Saturday was my friend Pete's surprise 50th birthday party, held at Blue Mountain Vineyards. Very cool, I guess that kind of panache comes with being older & wiser... plenty of food, wine (of course), which got into the usual "what are are you a wine snob" kind of thing. Like cat people vs dog people, I land on the beer side of that fence -- besides, beer-bloat makes for good "checks and balances;" I don't know how to drink wine, have to be very careful not to guzzle it and get trashed. Very tasty stuff though, I found a merlot I liked and stuck with it, except when my buddy Dick S, who's not a wine snob but made a living importing and writing about wine, would recommend something. The party itself (quite apart from the wine) was very good. Pete's in the Chain Gang and also in the Wheelmen so there were a lot of bikers around, people I sort of know, got a chance to catch up.
Sunday (aka today) I went on a bike ride. I rode down the towpath with Brian; he turned around at Sand Island but I crossed the river and climbed up to South Mountain, where I rode with Doug, Eric, and Joe & Cindy. We did a shakedown ride for Cindy's new bike, which Joe got her for Valentine's Day. Great ride, but I put in 34 offroad miles by the time I got home... usually the towpath doesn't really count as "offroad," but today, especially in the afternoon when it thawed, it was a soft, energy-sucking mess. Took a nap, walked down to Porters for dinner, and when I'm done here it's early bedtime for me.
Morning weigh-in: 179#, 12% BF
Car went in the shop last night: oil change & lube, a few minor repairs, & to see if/why it's leaking/burning oil. I didn't arrange for a ride to work today, figuring on maybe bike-commuting on the Iguana. My plan was to use the bike to get home from the dealer, do that as a sort of shakedown cruise for the commute. Things looked pretty grim in terms of time though (I have to leave the house by 6:00 AM, thus wake at 5:00, thus as early bedtime as possible when I bike to work), so I called a friend, left a message to beg for ride. Since I got no answer, I followed through on the rest of the plan, got the bike ready and packed my panniers for the morning, then left for the dealership a little after 10:00 PM.
Weather forecasts were for possible light flurries, but lots of wind overnight & into today -- & they weren't kidding about the wind! Strong enough to have the flags all stick straight out, but it was fairly steady & always from the North. My ride went north for only a mile or so, then cut east, paralleling US22 on back roads all the way to Easton, so I lucked out -- I hate riding into the wind, and this breeze was pretty strong. I was worried about my situation at first, but partway home a little voice said "admit it: you're enjoying this!" I was home by 11:30.
My friend had called me back, leaving a message that he'd be glad to give me a ride -- woo hoo! Another bullet dodged, though except for the early wakeup, I probably would have enjoyed the morning ride too.
Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 13.5% BF
Good workout last night at Brian's: me Brian and Greg on the trainers; sprints, intervals, amazing how hot and sweaty you can get in a cold basement... After that it was laundry night, and I went to Which Brew for dinner while the stuff dried -- but they were closed. I had a backup plan though, & walked over to Porter's for a cheeseseak and a Lancaster IPA.
One of the things I don't like about Porter's is the fact that their bar is small, it doesn't take many people to fill it. If you show up to eat alone, sitting at a table for four in a mostly-empty room can be pretty lame -- especially when there's a lively crowd scene at the bar (not ten feet away). So anyway, I ate pretty quickly (good cheesesteak), then got up and found a few people I knew. My garrulous friend Scott was there, told me what had happened across the street.
Which Brew is very much a family establishment: K-Jo has her sisters as occasional waitresses, her cousin Maura is one of the main bartenders, and Maura's sister sometimes helps out; also, her parents are fairly regular patrons. Others work there of course, but this sets the general tone. Apparently, a cousin, a young guy I never met but who sometimes helps out on Saturdays, was having some kind of leg surgery and there were complications... from what Scott told me -- he was over there -- they got a phone call at WB that he'd passed away, maybe about 8:30 or so, and everyone was so upset (& also had to deal with family emergency) that they closed early. Tragic. I gathered from what Scott told me that the guy was hardly more than a teenager. It'll probably be pretty grim over there for a while.
Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 12.5% BF
I skipped the spin class last night, instead took the singlespeed down the towpath/bike path. Only an hour ride (, then went to Mug Club Night at Which Brew, had dinner with Brian. I was home & in bed by 10:00; morning was a pretty easy wake-up at 6:30 for a change. If this keeps up I'll be able to start running again... Tonight is the gym, followed by laundry. I usually hit WB while the laundry dries, but I think I'll do a little food shopping instead. Meantime, the house is still clean.
Morning weigh-in: 179#, 15% BF
I spent the weekend sort of battling a cold, still on the edge of it & I don't know which way the tipping point is going to go... stayed in Friday night, blew off the gym on Saturday -- spent the day w/ housework, even though it was beautiful outside. Living room, kitchen & bathroom are pretty much up to code now, and the enforced rest did me a world of good.
Between the sinus situation and the medicine I was taking for it, I didn't have much of an appetite. I don't even remember eating dinner Friday night (probably just went straight to bed), and breakfast was all I ate on Saturday, until I suddenly got very hungry about 10:00, decided to go out after all. I went to Which Brew, grabbed a cheesesteak and a Lancaster Milk Stout. I checked out the band (Illinois Slim) talked to Stu and Cathy, & saw Ed there as well, but didn't make it "a night out," went home to bed pretty quickly.
All this sets the stage for...
The Superbowl of Chili: yesterday was Superbowl Sunday, which meant it was also the 10th Annual "Superbowl of Chili" at Pearly Baker's Ale House. I've been to all of them since the beginning. How it works is, the back dining room at Pearly Baker's is emptied of the regular tables, and long tables are set up against all the walls; about 30 different local restaurants and pubs (some caterers as well) bring their chilis. There is a panel of judges for the main competition, and also a "people's choice" award. A five-dollar donation to charity gets you in, and you get to sample all the chili -- tiny little samples, but after 30 of them you're stuffed -- and vote on your favorites. It's a mob scene; outside of Heritage Day it's the biggest deal in Easton every year.
My/our participation has evolved into something of a ritual: some outdoor activity beforehand, then the Chili Contest, head next door to Mother's (much lesscrowded) to regroup, then a walk up the street to Porters to end the day. This year we started from my place and did an MTB-on-road ride, dropped downtown to Coffee Works for breakfast, rode around near the library and Easton Cemetery, then took the (snowy and difficult) trail along the Bushkill to 13th Street and back home. "We" in this case was myself, Brian, Eric and Doug & Lori -- Lori also volunteered to be designated driver, after she saw us in action last year... The ride was very good, up until we hit the snow, then it was difficult but doable (barely). We spent a little more time than we should have with this phase of the day, and arrived waaaay late to Pearly Baker's: usually we get there around 11:00, an hour before the start, and get a spot on line inside the bar. This time things had already started by the time we got there, and we were waiting down the block; warm weather was a lucky break but it was quite a while before we got to eat any chili. The bar was crowded, and inside "the chili room" was total chaos as usual, lots of people & great chili -- bumping into people, juggling a cup of beer, pencil and score sheet, Doug and I got matching chili stains on our shirts but we managed to get most of it in our mouths. Saw a few familiar faces, but not as many as I expected, no Pete H or Dick S... of course, we didn't spend much time in Pearly B's after the chili, so maybe I just didn't see them. Mother's, Porters, home, early bedtime & I missed the Superbowl for the umpteenth time in a row...
Morning weigh-in: 183#, 11.5% BF
In one of the eulogies for Susan Sontag I read of her habit of going tirelessly from museum to gallery opening to concert etc; last night I sort of emulated her, in a little more lightweight way of course, except for actual weight. I started with the Laurie Anderson show at Zoellner, very good. I was surprised when I saw a friend from Which Brew there, then another -- and another! Some, but not all, were wearing black... Meantime, I was there "with" Eric & Kris, but we arrived separately, sat apart, and we only talked for a bit before/after the show, no retiring to anywhere for post-concert activity.
After the show I went back to Easton, got there in time to got to Which Brew where I expected some up-and-coming local musician -- nothing, and the place was practically empty. I broke down and ordered chili cheese fries, which may explain those weigh-in numbers... The few people in there were going over to Porters, because Maria from Duende was hosting a folkie-type amateur night. I went over too, and it was cool for a bit, but I got there just as Alex (also from Duende) finished a set, and the next few guys weren't my cup of tea. School night, getting close to midnight, went home.
There've been some colds moving through the office, now I think I may have caught one. Maybe sit back this weekend with a copy of Illness as Metaphor -- hope my emulation stays lightweight.
Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 11.5% BF
No exercise yesterday or today: last night was the Lehigh Valley DFA meetup and tonight is Laurie Anderson at Zoellner.
The meetup was so-so, and I cut out early. Big crowd, in the "atrium," (ie the Main Street Commons mall corridor) rather than inside Brew Works, certainly not the "drinking liberally" scene I expected... same faces as LV Democrats, same bullshit from the crowd, though I like the group leaders. The parking situation was horrible; I parked in a tow-away zone behind Main Street, thinking "it's after hours, this store is closed & no one will care." Funny feeling diring the meeting so I went outside, there's a Bethlehem (maybe dreaded Parking Authority) cop in the alley, looks like he's checking cars -- I got to mine tout de suite and got out of there, couldn't find anywhere else to park so I went home. Hopefully, tonight will work out better.
Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 12.5% BF
Saw a cool quote about Ayn Rand the other day:
In regard to objective reality, I find an irresistible urge to digress intoSo anyway, what is the definition of paranoia? When it all starts fitting together... like seeing this, and then this, and then this (on top of this). Maybe it's just fiscal desperation trickling down from the federal level, but it sure seems that local officials have been whoring even harder than ever lately to build their libertarian dystopia. It's like what happened to the town in that Sgt Pepper movie; maybe we can just name the area Pottersfield and be done with it.
Rand's view of nature. She hates it. Nature's only purpose is to
provide raw material for factories. A beautiful park is only as good as
the crops you could grow on it once the trees were cut down.
Morning weigh-in: 181#, 14.5% BF
This article was in today's Morning Call, only their version was titled "Creating a buzz." I happen to know this dude's mother, who used to work here until she got laid off a few years ago. Russian woman, also suffered from positional vertigo on occasion, amazingly pretty, even with a thirty-something son... Her son has been doing this kind of thing for years, originally as an assistant to someone else, who put celebrity parties together (rent a beach house or disco, invite a bunch of rich, famous, semi-famous or just good-looking people to schmooze and get photographed), now it looks like he's on his own & hitting the big time -- at least, according to the hype.
By the way, I linked to the Sun-Sentinel article rather than the one in the Morning Call, because I found a link quicker via Google News than I would have rooting around on the Call's clunky website -- and that reminds me of this little gem: apparently the researchers found that teenagers wouldn't deal with bogus websites, and concluded that they were less savvy than their elders???
Morning weigh-in: 182#, 15% BF
I went on a day trip to NYC yesterday. I'd totally forgotten that we'd all made plans at Friday's dinner to go in on Sunday, until Lori P called Saturday night, finalizing the plans and and asking what time I thought we should go... oh, oh yeah, going to the city yes yes of course I remember...
Anyway, we drove in to Jersey City ("we" being myself, Doug & Lori, and Kris & Eric: Eric did the driving) around 9:00 AM, parked at Pavonia Station and took the PATH train to the World Trade Center, aka Ground Zero -- the train goes right through the hole where the buildings were, stopping where I'd guess the original station was. Very weird feeling, the biggest buildings in the world used to be right over our heads.
We didn't have much of an itinerary, just planned to find ourselves at the Guggenheim at some point in the day. Our first stop was for brunch at a vegetarian place in or near the Village; the food was very good, despite an "if you have nut allergies leave now" CYA warning on the menu. We then went walking around, browsed a few funky shops, looking at the buildings and the people. At one point we found ourselves outside CBGB, and at another point we were outside McSorleys and decided to stop in for a quick one -- I was the only one who'd ever been there, so I bored regaled them with tales from my misspent youth, some of it misspent right there in that very room... The place hadn't changed much, a little quieter maybe, almost empty but it was still early on a Sunday afternoon. Cat sleeping on a chair by the coal stove, patron and his dog at the bar, a few elderly Irishmen talking quietly, and the bartender and waiters as um, brusque as ever.
Two stops: we hit The Strand, a huge used/discount bookstore (I got three books from the Loeb collection: Julius Caesar's Civil War and The Gallic Wars, and the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England), and Paragon, a huge sporting-goods store where Lori found cycling shoes at a ridiculously low price. Strangely enough, they said "Lori" on them, probably a contraction of "lorica" but you take what omens you can get.... By the way, did I mention that these stores were huge?
After that we made our way uptown via the subway, then over by the park to the Guggenheim. This was kind of a disappointment since the main exhibit was mostly Aztec sculpture; we found the "recent acquisitions" wing and also checked out their permanent Kandinski collection -- also managed to find a Chagall or two -- which was cool, but not really cool enough at $18 apiece for an hour or two of gawking. (We got there at about 4:00, left a little before their 5:45 closing time.)
Back outside, a little walking and back into the subways down to the Village again, find a place for dinner before heading home. A bit of work, hungry walking in the cold before we found a really cool place whose name I can't recall, just a pub really, but with pub food that really hit the spot. After that was the PATH ride to the car and the drive back to Pennsy; I was home by 11:00.
An observation: Lori pointed out while we were walking around downtown, that very few people we saw were fat, and she attributed it possibly to the fact that they all walked wherever they went. I wasn't ready to agree just then -- we were near NYU, lots of the people around us were college students or starving artists, ie the sample could have been skewed in any number of ways -- but by the end of the day I had to admit she might be on to something. There were very few overweight people. A strange contrast, once you noticed it, to the Red State - Blue State rhetoric and imagery. (To be honest, many of them looked smoker-thin rather than really fit or healthy.) (BTW: There was a recent article about the difference between thin and fat people, that difference being about 300 calories per day of fidgeting.)
RIP George Mitchell: I found out today that a friend of mine, a former co-worker, passed away on Friday. He had colon cancer years ago but beat it (it seemed pretty mild), was laid off maybe a year later. I heard that he'd been sick again recently, another bout and that's what took him. He was maybe fifty five, sixty at most: wife, daughter in college or just graduated, and a son in the Army (West Point alum). It must have been a pretty low-key affair, the funeral was Sunday which seems pretty quick.
UPDATE: Just got back from the gym, spin class with Colette, where I ran into Pieter Cooper before the class. He was one of the kids in the Chain Gang junior racing program, but I remember him from even earlier, when he was about fourteen and would go on the Genesis MTB rides -- now he's in college (actually , he should have already graduated, the slacker). Small world, time flies...
Sangeet is Hindi for "music," and is the name of a show on WPRB, which I was listening to this morning. "Music of the Indian subcontinent," classical and folk, Bollywood dance numbers, world beat and hip-hop. What caught my ear when I first turned on the radio was a very simple flute melody, with sitar behind it. Reminded me, with the snow on the ground and the cold clear air, of Kashmir, Nepal, someplace high in the Himalayas, with a touch of incense in the thin air... Next song of course was some filmi pop, kind of broke the spell.
Reading: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, plus others. Sangeet also happens to remind me of George and Irma Rajamuttu, the grenadine-soaked conspirators living next door to protagonist Gnossos Pappadapolis, and their record collection. Small world.
I was on my way to Coffee Works this morning when I heard the music, but last night I met Doug & Lori, and Kris & Eric at an upscale Italian place on College Hill called Juliana's. Good food, some decent BYO wine that they brought (fine by me anyway, I can never tell good wine from bad), good talk which became depressing for a while: several recent sexual assault and child molestation/porn cases came up, a bit of a buzzkill.
Crazy... so when I got to Coffee Works there were two high school girls working, and a bunch of their friends there, all BS'ing with this big fat old guy, shabby, suspenders and a gray-white Santa Clause beard, that I've seen down there a few times lately. I opened the paper, saw the stories we were talkng about last night, plus another, and another... The fat guy started looking pretty creepy and ominous, until one of the girls said to him "we should get this [brand of cream cheese or something] at home, Dad." Um, OK, and the mom of one of the workers was sitting next to me at the counter, calm down...
Listening: Right now I just downloaded a Duende MP3, one of my favorites: a live version of their song "Overboard." I've got the CD, guess I'm just stocking up in case something goes wrong. I'm also downloading "West Virginia," a song thak kind of reminds me of the way I feel about Easton, or at least the Easton of my dreams. (I dream a lot about Easton. No plot, just drifting throught the streets and houses, almost like an alternate universe, brickwork and downtown, night and alleys...)
After Coffee works I went to the gym, met Dawn there. Excellent workout, I feel pretty strong on the weights especially my legs. Dawn's heading up to Maine for some snowmobiling, and I won't see her again until almost March; when she gets back I think I'll start switching from strength back to endurance workouts.
Tomorrow is hopefully a road ride (reasonable conditions and I'll break out the Iguana) otherwise I might go DH skiing at Blue Mountain. When the song finishes downloading I'll listen to it, then hop in the shower & go out for some dinner. Yo later.
Morning weigh-in: 181#, 8.5% BF
Went to the gym last night, again getting there a little late and again running out of time before I ran out of exercises... I got there a little after 7:00, and I was doing alright, on schedule up until about 8:00 when the yoga class got out. My friend Violetta had taken the class, saw me on the way out, and engaged me in conversation -- something she's very very good at! Twenty minutes of talking about Alaska, bikes, health & finances, just enough time to put me in the hole & I didn't quite dig out. She used to be a member of the health club, quit and now has re-joined; I guess I'll have to relearn my "friendly but short gym greetings" technique.
After that I went to Which Brew to see Alex Radus play solo. He's half of the duo Duende, and as good as Maria is I've often felt that Alex is the better musician and singer. Last night however, though he was very good, I felt that he was missing something -- like Maria -- to complement and balance his style. (He did have a few guest musicians on stage for one or two songs, and that was good. And in case I've given the wrong impression: the show was fantastic, he sang and played beautifully, and it was definitely worth seeing. I really like those guys, Alex and Maria, and sort of hold them to pretty high standards -- and my "missing something" feeling last night may have been just because I'm too used to hearing the two of them together; someone going in with no preconceptions would have been blown away.)
Anyhoo, when I got to WB the first thing I see is a car stuck on ice trying to get out, one other guy pushing and it's going nowhere. I go over to help and it's Perry's car, he's got about six feet of slightly uphill ice to beat and he'd be on dry pavement, and we just can't get him there... I go inside, recruit another volunteer, turns out he has a 4WD truck and towing chains -- nope, that didn't work either, but Perry was able to roll backwards out of the lot, through the space that the truck dude vacated. Later in the evening, Murph got stuck and we went through a similar drill...
UPDATE: I guess I missed the news, but it looks like Duende broke up. Damn, no wonder the new Year's Eve show ("fifth anniversary of our first gig") was such a big deal, and I had to miss it.
I'm not sure what's up for the weekend yet, but I think I'll be staying in tonight, I'm tired. Next week is the same out-on-a-school-night drill: Wednesday the Democrats for America are having their Meetup at Brew Works, then Laurie Anderson is at Zoellner Arts Center on Thursday.
Just dodged that bullet: unplanned (forced) outage at a power plant near Nashville, they need people to go and take advantage of the unscheduled shutdown to measure a few things. Would I be willing to go this weekend? Uh, yeah (never say no), but then it transpires that a service guy is available and they're sending him. That's good, Nashville is expecting an ice storm, and we know how those can be, just ask Pap Thomas...
Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12.5% BF
Actually, not that different. In fact it's the same old same-old, except maybe refracted, run through a coordinate transformation to the mirror universe of Bethlehem... Instead of me riding the towpath to Sand Island, we (others being Doug, Greg, and Eric & Kris) skiied it, starting from Sand Island, and then went out to Bethlehem Brew Works for dinner afterward rather than going to Which Brew. So except for the differences, it was exactly the same...
The skiing was better than I expected, though the towpath had been walked on and the snow flattened. It was a little colder than it was during the day, maybe mid-twenties, so there wasn't any slushiness or stickiness (which I was worried about), and the footprints were for the most part so constant it was like a flattened track to ski in rather than annoying postholes. We started out towards Allentown, but only got as far as the railroad "humping yard" because the path was plowed from that point west. We stopped, watched the trains move around the yard, headed back, and made the mistake of trying Sand Island itself: the snow over there had been beat up so much by pedestrian traffic that it was frustrating rather than fun, so we headed back.
Brew Works was OK: food was good and draft beer so-so, though Doug went downstairs to the Steelgaarden and got some amazingly good bottles of belgian stuff, for himself & for Lori who joined us. I had a cheesesteak, Kris had some wasabi tuna thing, and everyone else sat too far away for me to get a good look at their food.
Tonight should be the gym, then I'd like to see Alex Radus (the guy from Duende) play solo at Which Brew.
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.
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.
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...
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...
