Post-Op

I'm back. Essentially I had/have a staph infection, probably worked its way in along the incision seam and brewed away inside, but the surgeon said it didn't look like it was too big or that it got to the hardware (which hardware, even so, may have to come out at some later date). I had one operation on Thursday morning, got a PICC line installed, another operation Friday afternoon, all the while getting pumped full of esoteric antibiotics and painkillers, and after the infectious diseases specialist reviewed the lab reports they discharged me today.

No pictures this time around; this trip was grimmer and there was less of a "holiday air" about the whole procedure, though the process itself was a lot less of a hassle than the first operation. Unfortunately, I'm really getting to know my way around Muhlenberg... Once again, cool doctors (saw a lot more MD's & specialists this time around), and waaay cooler nurses & aides than last time. Can't say I had a blast, but it was a lot better than it might have been.

Got some visitors last night, Doug & Lori stopped by for a bit, which really raised my spirits -- Doug also got me home today, so thanks again.

What's next: I am on some oral antibiotics, as well as self-administered syringes I do through the PICC line. I inject myself three times a day for six weeks, and I have weekly blood tests and visits to the infectious disease specialist, but I should be on my way back.

One Final Update

Another quick post, with some info:

1. My operation is 10:15 AM tomorrow; wish me luck.

2. I have posted a few pics on Flickr from my recent towpath ride. (The party pics were not all that good.)

I probably won't be posting until at least the weekend, see you in a few.

Time For An Important Update

The pot roast was delicous. That is all.

Well, Guess Who Needs Another Operation

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 8% BF

Things were looking pretty good, lotsa mobility and the wounds were finally closed and healing, but then this weekend the situation took a turn for the worse: I started getting inflamed, then I got a discharge, which eventually became pus. (I am eating lunch as I write this, so I won't be dwelling on what I saw.) It looked kind of bad yesterday morning, so I called the doctor to see if I could get more antibiotics, and instead was told "the doctor will see you today." Skip out of work, go to the doctor, he looks at the leg and says an oral antibiotic will not be enough -- I will need to have the wound re-opened and cleaned, then spend some time in the hospital getting an antibiotic IV drip -- I go back in on Thursday. Shit.

Worst case scenario, I may need to have a "pick line" installed for home antibiotic IV (goodbye cycling for this year), and may also have the leg wound left open, so it can be regularly cleaned etc, then get skin grafts at some later date. Shit shit shit, shit shit and shit.

Anyway, deal.

Last night I went to Jordan, walked the trails there until the VMB meeting, which was surprisingly fruitful. Meeting was 7:00 to maybe 8:00, when it started to get cold & dark. After the meeting, I met Doug & Lori for dinner at JP McGrady's, then went home and prepped the pot roast. I will be eating that tonight, unless the crock pot burns the house down...

Welcome To My Hell

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 9% BF

Taco Hell! Yes, after eating right for over a month I broke down and had some Taco Bell for dinner. Well, it was that or cereal... I did laundry last night, ran out to dry it and stopped in at Porters for something to eat but I was too late. I spotted it immediately: Doug the cook was hanging at the bar, and he had his dog with him -- a sure sign that the kitchen was closed. Had a beer and "watched the game," fetched my laundry and just couldn't help myself, made the detour...

Don't know what I'm having tonight, but I'll be preparing a crock-pot pot roast for tomorrow. I also got a good tip at Saturday's party for my Bavarian Pork Chops: toss in some apples. Not sure how "Bavarian" the recipe is anymore, but this sounds like a good addition -- I'll try it next week.

Meantime, tonight: I'm going to the VMB meeting at Jordan Park, which is at 7:00, and before that I want to get in some errands, so there will be some general rushing around after work. Not sure when I'll eat, let alone what.

Dancing Fool

Went to that party yesterday, my friend Andrew's "Drinking and Smoking" shindig, after the gym and some errands. The idea was, he would provide two kegs of Weyerbacher (Winter Ale -- my favorite, and Merry Monk) and a smoker, and we would all bring meat or other food to smoke; there were also a bunch of grilled veggies. I brought one of those pork tenderloins, and, planning ahead, I took a taxi... Great party, though I only took a few photos (and only one was coherent), late at night when I remembered my camera, but by that point the party, which started out as a family-friendly afternoon picnic, and then became a fireworks show after dark, had degenerated into a few diehards dancing in the living room. I was right there in the middle of it, but I'm not sure if you can call it "dancing" when I never actually picked my feet up off the floor... Gotta hang out with that dude more often, he knows a lot of really good looking women.

Slept in a bit this morning, got up around 10:00 but with no ill effects other than a general smoky smell to my body. I got out around 1:00, rode the towpath to Sand Island, and ran into Bryan and Marge on the ride back. It was good to see them, and we talked for a bit but hey, the trails were waiting so we saddled back up and went our separate ways. I tried the singletrack along the river, which has been, um, aggressively maintained, and is now non-technical and very easy, so it wasn't as useful to gauge progress as I'd like, but I was riding singletrack.

Flickr Update: No new pics posted (I did take a few at the party and on the ride today, so stay tuned), but I took all my ankle photos, put them in order and made a set. You've seen them all before but now you can enjoy them -- chronologically!

The Internet Reaches Its High Water Mark

In an amazing confluence of politics, Photoshop, and inside jokes, the internet has produced its crowning masterpiece. (I didn't think he could beat either the Easter Bunny or Adam Yoshida pictures.) I guess it helps to know who all those people are, but it's better to check out Fat Chicks In Party Hats. "Wrong on so many levels" has never been truer, but I haven't laughed this hard since Time Cube. Of course, that guy really means it...

My Hopes, Dashed To Pieces

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 9% BF

Got a call last night, just before going to physical therapy: they have a problem with my insurance, so we had to cancel the appointment. Well, at least I found out at home rather than after driving there... Anyway, it was nice out so I went for a ride, about 9.3 miles on the (paved part of the) towpath and the Palmer Bike Path, with about 200-300 yards of very mild offroad. Dinner was leftover pork chops & sauerkraut, with some steamed stringbeans.

Next step: I'm waiting for a call from the therapy place, see if they have the insurance issue resolved, otherwise I'll just have to pick another place. If I don't go somewhere tonight, I'll hit the gym.

Cue The "Rocky" Theme

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 11.5% BF

Bavarian Black Forest Porkchops: How very Walpurgisnacht... Had those Bavarian pork chops last night. I think I'm getting jaded, I came home last night and the house smelled of dinner cooking, but I wasn't as impressed as last time. Still tasted good though, and I steamed some asparagus to go along with it.

Giant Steps: I was going to do a ride last night, but it looked like rain so I skipped it and ate dinner, then I decided to go anyway. Rode around three miles, maybe a little more, mostly in the neighborhood alleys and quieter streets. Ran into my old neighbor, Dapper Dan, and talked for a few minutes.

Tonight is my first night of therapy.

A Victory for Cubists Everywhere: I see that today is not just the anniversary of the start of the Chernobyl disaster, but also of the attack on Guernica.

The Word For World Is Forest

Just got back from a short walk: waiting for the cafeteria to open, I walked out the front door of the building, around and and back in at the side door, past a bunch of flowering, landscaper-planted trees, maybe apple. Nice scent in the air from the flowers, a little like being in the woods when the mountain laurel blooms. (I was disappointed that I couldn't watch spring come this year, except for looking at it from passing car windows. Luckily, the mountain laurel isn't for another month.) I think I'll go for a ride tonight, obviously something easy but I'll definitely be down to check out the river & towpath.

Dinner tonight will be Bavarian Pork Chops, slow-cooking away as we speak, so it should be done when I get home. I did a food run last night, bought another month's supply of meat, plus an extra pork tenderloin, which I'll bring to that dude Andrew's "Drinking and Smoking" party. (He's supplying a keg, but all guests have to bring some meat to cook in his smoker.) That's happening this Saturday -- which is also the season's first trailwork day at Allamuchy, more time in the woods -- and he lives along the towpath, so I may try riding to the party as well.

Meantime, I guess I'll check out the canopy tonight...

UPDATE: I just counted them up. All told, I have 982 photos online.

Sloosha's Crossing

Stayed in Friday night, played with computer.

Saturday I went to Coffee Works for breakfast, then the gym, and then went to the Quadrant for lunch and to buy some unground coffee. I was too tired/footsore after that for any other shopping or errands, so I just went home afterwards & took a nap. Crappy weather anyway, didn't feel like being out.

Saturday night I went out to Which Brew (no band) and met Brian for dinner. Early night for both of us.

Sunday I stayed in most of the day. Got up at say 8:00 AM, but immediately parked my butt in front of the computer, didn't even eat breakfast until noon. As a followup to conversations with trainer Dawn (who's reading a biography of Cicero), I downloaded Xenophon's Anabasis from the Gutenberg Project, and reading it while jamming out to the Electronica charts from SoundClick, weird juxtaposition I know but it kept me entertained...

I kept at the computer most of the rainy part of the day, then when it cleared up I decided to go look at the bikes. I did a little post-ride cleanup on the Turner, only seven weeks after the fact, then I got up some nerve and rode the Surly around the block, then I took the Turner out for a one-mile ride. Seven weeks to the day, and I'm at least technically back on the bike.

My morning routine is now to get up early & get ready, then kick back on the recliner for a few minutes of "foot higher than my heart" before going to work. I usually read a bit while I'm there, nothing big, mostly either short essays or a few pages of some book I already read. This morning I read part of Cloud Atlas, which I've been dipping into quite a bit lately. The part I'm reading is called "Sloosha's Crossinn an' Evr'ythin' After," or something like that. It's the story, told by an old man in Hawaii, maybe 1000 years from now, to his grandkids about how he escaped enslavement when his society was invaded and destroyed. Amazing story for a lot of reasons, but it just struk me how the behavior of the Ten Thousand with respect to the natives in northern Turkey was so similar to what happened to the invaded people in this other story.

Impulse vs. Momentum

Pretty soon I'll have to start weighing myself again, but I don't want to think about that now, after having sausage & pepper pizza for lunch...

I got a coffee grinder a few weeks back, total impulse buy while grocery shopping, but I have yet to use it. I still have a lot of ground coffee to go through, but I may buy some beans this weekend anyway. I'll also have a chance to go to the good old corner coffee shop, where I haven't shown my face in almost two months -- I may actually try for a "triple play:" Coffee Works for breakfast, Quadrant for lunch & bean-buying, and then a trip to that new coffee place on College Hill. I haven't done a triple play since, well, since the last time there were three coffee shops in Easton...

I made an appointment for physical therapy; I'll be going to the same place I went last time, up near Wind Gap. Next Wednesday is my first session.

Drove to work yesterday and today. It felt good to be independent but I was pretty worn down last night, went to bed almost immediately after dinner -- uh-oh, could this be the start of a head cold? Tonight I'll probably stay in; tomorrow I'll try to get out, but I think I'll stick with using a taxi.

It's Getting Better All The Time

Drove in to work today, which means I drove today for the first time since March 5th. Foot needed to stretch a little further than felt comfortable when working the clutch, but it was easy enough to do, and my driving skills were of course all still there. My friend/co-worker Scott showed up, on his bike, just as I was about to leave, and so I gave him a ride to work as well. (He used to live around the block from me but now lives in Nazareth, and I guess he realized he was running too late to continue biking in, took a chance that I'd be there...)

The secret, revealed: I finally figured out what all the skater kids in my neighborhood remind me of. They all look like, like... The Ramones. Healthy Ramones, at least, which is good.

Good meeting last night, even if the attendance was a bit light. There were only seven members there, but we had a nice dinner of burgers etc, then a meeting that I at least thought was very productive. We also looked at a bunch of Brian's Moab photos, and heard some of the stories. Got to show off my foot, got some more advice (skip the betadine, use neosporin, walk on it a little more frequently to help loosen it up). The foot feels a lot better today, thanks to keeping it limber -- and also not forgetting to take painkillers before going to work. Tonight I'll probably try to shop on my own, after some more chili.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Foot is not as happy now as yesterday, it stiffens up unless you work it; sleeping got it pretty locked up, and sitting at work is not doing it many favors either. I've been using the crutches to get around; once the foot/ankle warms up (say 50 yards of walking) it's good for a while, but here at the office most of my walking is about 10 feet max.

Tonight is the Chain Gang meeting, or at least I hope so. Attendance will probably be sparse, and some members have been agitating for a cancellation. We shall see.

Three, Two, One, Castoff!

Yep, it came off today. Mom & Dad came up in the morning, not suspecting that I also had a ton of chores that needed doing, but first order of business was to go to the doctor's office. That was pretty uneventful, the cast came off in what, from stories I've heard, is the usual way -- ie they used a small circular saw, more like a wafer wheel -- gave my foot a little cleaning, and took a few x-rays. When the x-rays were ready the doctor came in, said everything looked pretty good, answered my questions and gave me a prescription for physical therapy. Unfortunately, it turns out that Valley Sports & Arthritis only takes my insurance for surgery etc, not for their in-house rehab, so I'll have to find somewhere else to go.

Anyway, got home, put my other shoe on (tight fit due to swelling; I also think my toes have become a little splayed), and with the extra support of the hiking boots I tried a little experiment -- within a few minutes I was able to walk without crutches. Woo-hoo!

We finished up the chores and errands at my place, which mostly revolved around laundry and garbage, then had a late lunch at Lutzi's (a place I'd passed by hundreds of times, but never been inside... verdict: it was good) before my parents headed home. Thanks again Mom & Dad!

By the way, you can see photos of my cast coming of by clicking here (WARNING: ICKY).

Monday Rap

(Cast comes off tomorrow!)

Cooking/Eating: Had that chili last night, probably my best batch so far. Two pounds of stewing beef (cubed, not ground), two onions, one red and one green bell pepper, the ingredients from two of those "chili kits" (with Weyerbacher Heresy oak-barrel-aged stout), some canned corn, canned diced tomatoes and a can of black beans. I chopped the peppers and onions pretty fine, which I think made a big difference.

The only disappointments were that the meat, which wasn't all that marbled, came out a little dry despite stewing for eight hours (note to self: don't believe the crockpot cookbook, get better cuts of meat), and there weren't enough beans. I may add some red beans today now that the pot's a little lighter, but I basically had the pot almost filled and wasn't sure I could fit one more can of beans in last night.

A few tweaks here and there, but I think I've just hit upon my "standard chili" recipe. Work this one a few more times and I can start branching out. Pork & chicken, chili verde...

Meanwhile, back at the Super Dimensional Fortress: I fixed up some of my photo galleries, there was a problem with the HTML for navigation. I still don't know why my gallery maker script acts funny when I use it on freeshell.

Sunday Night Wrap-Up

(Two days until the cast comes off -- actually, "one day and a wake-up.")

Let's see, last post was Friday...

Friday night I went out to Which Brew, 3rd day in a row there. It was pretty cool, not too crowded even for a weekend, lotsa regulars, and Ryan Carr's trio had a guitarist sit in for some jazzy goodness. Got home kind of late, maybe 12:30.

Saturday was the gym, then a few chores around the house. Though I get to the gym by taxi, my trainer Dawn has been kind enough to drive me home , and this time she had a gift for me: a special boot-like device you step into, and roll on the floor to work your ankle. She's aces in my book...
Later in the day I put on my old college bookbag, gimped up to CVS and bought milk and other necessities. Much tougher walk than I anticipated, another (approximately) mile-long walk but with a heavy pack for the return stretch, and the pavement on this route was not very even. Glad I did it though, and not just because I needed that stuff...

Saturday night was back to Which Brew, then over to Porters. It was that young girl Megan's birthday (she must be all of 24 by now), so a few of her friends, as well as some of the bartenders from WB, ended up at Porters forone last drink. They're all pretty cute & fun people, so a bunch of guys (including me) tagged along. Late night for me, I called for a cab at like 2:00 AM, finally got a ride home just before 3:00 from my friend Bill -- he manages Porters, stopped in as the place closed and saw me on the deserted street; we talked for a minute while cabs drove by, not picking me up. When he came out I was still there so he said "screw the cab, hop in." I was all for it.

Today I slept in until about 9:00, then just hung out. Made chili, which smells awesome and should be done right about now, dinner after this post. Tomorrow I have to go in early, so it's an early night for me.

Reading: The Broom of the System, David Foster Wallace's first novel.

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

(Four days until the cast comes off.)

Saw a porch decorated with lilacs yesterday. Most likely they were plastic, and more than likely it was an Easter thing, but it reminded me of Lincoln who was shot today. Trees seem a little late to bloom this year; it may be the drought.

I had another crazy dream last night, again involving Jamestown Drive: driving around with a bunch of friends (including the guy who drives me home from work) in Bob W's car, while I was in between eye surgery sessions (that -- earlier -- part was pretty freaky), we saw a woman I work with walking down the street on Jamestown Dr, just by that unoccupied house. We stopped, talked and went with her to her house, which was the Benkes's house, only decorated inside with giant slabs of dark wood, like giant slabs of plywood hangings or something -- she claimed they were part of her new sound system, but they looked like the alien decor from Independence Day. The wood had a weird odor too, first time I can remember odor playing such a distinctive part in a dream... Anyway, we hung out there until I got a call on my phone: I was late for the operation on my other eye. The alarm went off shortly after.

H&R Block for taxes, and then Which Brew (again) were the awake parts of my evening.

Long Day So Far

(Cast comes off in five days.)

Not much to say. I got a phone call from Brian last night: they miss me, but not enough to stop them from having a great time without me... It sounded like they've ridden every day since they got there, some days even doing two rides, and everyone is getting along beautifully. (Brian actually sounded surprised to discover that Greg H is a great person.)

Feeling blue and left out again, I decided that the best thing for me to do after that was to go out, so I called a cab and went to down Which Brew. It was a quiet Wednesday night: a few guys were there, talking mainly fishing, though my presence forced some injury/rehab tales into the mix. (Since I usually come in, put my crutches against a wall and sit at the bar, there were a few people there, who have seen me plenty of times since I got hurt and had no idea that I was hurt or in a cast until last night.)

Says Young James To Red Molly...

(Six days until the cast comes off.)

Listening: Among my birthday presents was Richard Thompson's Rumor and Sigh, which means I now have a copy of "52 Vincent Black Lightning" for my very own. Ahhh... -- and if fate, should break my stride...

Speaking of strides, I went for a walk on Sunday before my parents came up. (Or as my friend at work said, I "went for a limp.") Went down to the hospital, then over and back via Washington Street -- little kids stopping their play to stare agog as I gimped past -- for a total distance of about a mile. Luckily there was a bus stop (with bench) by the hospital, and war memorials (with benches) along the wide, grassy Washington Street median, because my arms had major fatigue. Benches didn't help with the raw spots rubbed into my armpits by the crutches though. Raw spots are just about healed up now, so I may go for another walk tonight.

Dinner last night was the last of the pork tenderloin, with some steamed stringbeans and a bunch of grapes for dessert. Therefore, lunch today is a slice of pepperoni pizza, and one of sausage & peppers.

Ka-boom! Billmon drops the bomb. I sure wish he posted like he used to, ie more frequently.

Someone Likes Looking At My Feet

My Shiny New Toy
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

With 52 individual views (not including my own), this is now the second-most-viewed photo on my Flickr account.

When Meat Goes Bad

Cast comes off one week from today.

Had a major kitchen problem yesterday -- major by my standards anyway: the beef roast I'd put in the fridge (last week) to defrost had gone borderline bad, but also leaked a bunch of blood/juice all over the bottom shelf of my fridge. All sorts of veggies got leaked on (the outside of the bags anyway) so I had a ton of cleanup to do. I cooked that other pork tenderloin while all this was going on, had that with a salad and some broccoli. Looks like I am back under the gun in terms of eating the food before it spoils, since I also had to toss a few bell peppers and some bags of salad (granted, salad goes bad pretty fast) -- the meat I re-froze, to keep it from spoiling in the garbage can before trash day.

In other news, I got to read a translation of that Gospel of Judas they just found. Interesting, but I think the consensus is right: the theological implications are probably pretty small.

Updating Early This Weekend

Just a little catch-up:

Friday night I went out to Which Brew, had dinner and hung out with a few friends.

Saturday I went to the gym, went home and watched the snow, then with the help of Greg's wife Judy I got some shopping & laundry/drycleaning done. I also picked her brain about my short- and medium-term foot prospects (she's a physical therapist, though her experience differs somewhat from the kind of therapy I'll be getting). What she said didn't quite give me the warm fuzzies, but it was good to hear. Basically, I will have quite a bit of trouble with my foot for a while, until tendons re-stretch -- she expects therapy for this to be very painful -- and muscle atrophy will not only affect leg strength, but the atrophy of the little muscles (proprioceptors? -- or whatever she said) will mean problems with balance for a while. When can I start biking and running? She would only say "it depends."

Meantime, my foot feels pretty good, and I've been moving it around a little inside the cast, at least partly to get a jump-start on recovery. I asked her about this too, she said I was probably OK as long as it didn't hurt, but she didn't look enthusiastic. I'm going to do it anyway, since it's the only way to scratch some of the itches under the cast.

Anyway, it was a good productive afternoon -- especially since I'd originally planned to take a nap -- and now I've been the first to see their new boat, and their new kitchen floor. I also got the scoop on flight delays for the Moab trekkers, since Greg called with an update. (I'd talked earlier to Doug & Lori who were driving out: they were making good time, drove through the first night and were in Kansas when I called.)

After that I got two calls: Hans was back in PA for a few days, called to let me know he would be down at Which Brew with his brother, and Joe C said that they would also be down there. Took a taxi, driver told me he'd had a broken ankle once, but the pins broke and they had to re-do it. Gulp! He dropped me at Which Brew with a "good luck!" and I went in, ate dinner, hung out with my friends, deja vu yadda yadda...

Skin: Much better this past week. I've been using that Vaseline Advanced Healing (aka "friggin' liquid wax"), as well as a slightly different bath treatment (it has mineral oil in it, as well as colloidal oatmeal) and a more aggressive use of cortisone cream, and it's been like a miracle cure. Skin's still kind of pinkish-red in areas, but not that inflamed stuff; bleeding has stopped and so has the itching (for the most part). The skincare regimen may have been a big factor, but I think that the rise in temperature and humidity is helping too, and also the extra sunlight and fresh air as I sit on the porch after work.

I'm off to sit on the porch, maybe walk around the block or something, then Mom & Dad are coming up to take me to dinner -- it's my forty-third birthday today!

You're Living In Your Own Private Finest Hour

Had a weird dream last night. Dreamt I was back home (Englishtown); part of it was hanging out at the Humphrey's, or rather on the front lawn, sitting in lawn furniture by a campfire, over near that house next door to them that was always unoccupied, with Peter Humphrey and a bunch of other people, then I was over at the entrance to St. Thomas Moore Church, which wasn't a church but maybe a school or hospital -- I think there was a gymnastic competition going on -- and I got into an altercation with some dudes in a car who came to pick me up, decided to walk home but I left my crutches in the car, and then I was jogging (with my cast) along Jamestown Drive, and then I was back at the campfire, hanging out with Victor Davis Hanson. I have no idea what the real guy looks like, and it was not like in the dream he was all "yadda hadda Bush Churchill Scipio Africanus Islamofascism blah blah," but that's who he was identified as. (At some point in the middle of all that, I found myself in a very, um, non-Euclidian version of the south of France, with Tom A and a bunch of his friends.)

Maybe it was because I finished that bruschetta pizza, and also finshed off the leftover pork tenderloin...

Wikipedia Featured Article: Well, look who made the list! Next up, Nobel Prize.

My friends are off to Moab, leaving today and leaving me behind... feeling kind of blue about it, but not as much as I expected -- woulda been nice though. Tonight Joe C is doing the designated driver thing, chauffering around the wives who were left behind on their "ladies night out." I got an invite to join the fun (George Hrab show at Godfrey Daniels) but I think I'll just get myself down to Which Brew.

Who's That Knocking At My Door?

I was looking at my "security logs" the other day, noticed that every few days someone tries to to log into my computer as "root" from the internet (via SSH), tries to guess the root account password, gets shot down and moves on. It looks like it's coming from different internet addresses each time. I'm not sure if it's someone just screwing around (or multiple people), or if it's one or more malware programs randomly sniffing around the internet for unlocked doors.

I don't have many internet-type services running on my machine; other than mail and a web server, which are both blocked from outside use by my firewall, the only one is the SSH server. That is accessible from the outside, and I want to leave it open, but I think I'm going to lock it down a little tighter: no root access, no access using only passwords. Luckily, I have that new book that tells me how to do exactly that...

Didn't go out last night, by the way, just stayed home with the computer and the leftover bruschetta pizza.

My Hump

Went out last night, down to Emmaus for dinner with Brian. This was that "charity dinner" at the Italian restaurant next to South Mountain Cycles: 20% of the bill went to Mark T to help defray his (ininsured) medical bills following his bike crash. It wasn't really an organized event, you just presented your flyer to them so they knew that's why you were there, and they did the rest. We saw Janna & Eric, and her parents, and Kris and her parents, and a few other PPRAC riders and various other riders there... also saw Mark, who had on a neck brace, and had some discoloration on his forehead but seemed to be in pretty good shape. Not too shabby, considering that he landed on his face, broke his nose & had all sorts of facial lacerations as well as some broken vertebrae & a "non-weight-bearing" fracture in his hip. We exchanged war stories, and despite how well he looked I think he got it a lot worse than I did.

Brian and I subsequently did our share, an antipasto each, followed by two medium pizzas: bruschetta pizza was yummy, the buffalo chicken pizza, not so much. (Brian liked them both.) We gave till it hurt, ordered way too much food, and now I have most of a bruschetta pizza at home on my "to eat list."

Geekout: I see that the Mozilla Foundation donated ten grand to help out OpenBSD/OpenSSH -- good for them! (FYI, that's the flavor of ssh that I use.) Meantime, I took a "How Geeky Are You" quiz last night, got 36 out of 60. It was a poorly implemented quiz, each question -- and they were mainly about gadget-consumerism and media consumption -- on its own web page, reloading advertisements etc each time. That's how I knew I'm not a true geek: I stuck it out, all the way to the annoying end. Looks like I'm not the only one to be less than impressed...

Tonight, if I can handle another food assault, is Mug Club Night at Which Brew.

Thermidor, Tristero Redux

My metabolism has slowed down quite a bit, I now get chilled in just about any situation. Last night I was playing with the computer right after getting home, and I just stopped and climbed into bed, shivering under the covers because I was so cold/lethargic/sleepy. About a half hour of napping and I decided to get up and start moving around. I did a few sets of exercises, maybe a half hour of leg lifts and light-weight, hi-rep upper body stuff, and I was fully warmed up and energized; that's got me through dinner and the rest of the evening. I guess I'll have to remember to keep the home fires going...

Through the Network, Darkly: Saw today that Freenet has just put out a new release.

It's Not Just A Month Of Meat

Try a little tenderloin: Cooked up some pork tenderloin tonight for dinner, pre-marinated in sa peppercorn sauce, one big piece, or half the package that I bought -- it took forever to cook, twice as long as the directions said, and I was done eating everything else before I even cut up the meat, but it was gooooood... I also made some steamed broccoli and some steamed asparagus, quite a bit of both actually since they were both in danger of going bad, and I had to get rid of them. All those veggies meant that I was stuffed when the meat was ready: I planned on eating half of what I cooked but I could only eat a quarter of it. At that rate it'll take four days to eat what I already cooked, then another four days for the other half of my purchase (still have a bunch of veggies to plow through as well), then there's a pot roast defrosting in the fridge (almost a week's worth of food), plus a bunch of pork chops (another week), as well as two pounds of beef stewing meat (a week of chili), in the freezer -- I figure I can eat like crazy, and I won't have to buy more meat for at least another month. (I heard that protein is very important for bone regeneration -- or was it kidney failure?)

Linux Voyager, Hush Now: Started messing with ssh, trying things I saw in that new book I got. I wish there were more places I could use it, since it's pretty interesting, but all I can connect to is SDF.

Reading: All the Pretty Horses, first book in the Border Trilogy. So far so good...

Back on the Sauce

Fifteen days until the cast comes off, two weeks from tomorrow.

So, what's new since late last night? Not much! Appetite seems to be on the wane again; I had a bowl of cereal instead of dinner last night. Dinner tonight will be pork tenderloin & some steamed veggies; tomorrow is a trip to Emmaus for a charity pizza dinner (20% going to help with cyclist/mechanic Mark Taylor's medical expenses, after his own -- uninsured -- cycling crash), then Wednesday will be the day I cook that pot roast. That's the plan anyway.

Skin Condition, Code Red: The skin had a real turn for the worse late last week, very likely caused by a change in moisturizer. Similar situation had occured a few weeks ago, the common factor, between the two different new moisturizers, being the term "non-comodogenic" or something, which apparently means it won't block pores -- whatever makes it "non-comodogenic" also makes it extremely irritating for me. Anyway, I got rid of that stuff ASAP and am back on the good old Vaseline Advanced Healing regimen, and things are already better, though the improvement could have been due to the sunning I got yesterday.

An Enigma Wrapped Inside a Riddle, Breaded And Fried

Little bit of an early birthday present, got some books from my Amazon wishlist -- thanks Mom & Dad! What I got was Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy (as a single volume), and SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, an O'Reilly computer book. They came Friday, and totally screwed up my weekend...

The first one I read was In Cold Blood; I wanted to read this before seeing that new (sorta new) movie Capote, which is at least partly about how writing this particular book ate him up. I started reading this Friday night, and it was so riveting I sat and read about two thirds of the book before getting up -- it was after 2:00 AM when I went into the kitchen for a class of juice, so I forced myself to go to bed. Saturday was the gym in the morning, then I came home and finished the book. Like I said, riveting.

Went out last night to Which Brew (they had Decadence on tap) with Doug and Lori, also saw Eric and Kris when they arrived later. Kind of neat to get Lori's take on Capote, since she's a big Breakfast At Tiffany's fan. Meantime, Kris had just come back from Philly, where she saw that Body Worlds exhibit with a friend, and she had a few tales to tell about that.

Today I got up a little late, in fact I got up a little later because of the "spring ahead" thing, spent a chunk of the early afternoon reading the SSH guide. Lotta good info in there, I already see some things I want to do to improve my own use of ssh. Kind of funny to be delving into encryption and secure transmissions right now, total synchronicity when I see that an Enigma machine is now up for sale on eBay. (The actual eBay link is here.)

I did my reading on the porch, got a little sun & air on the long-suffering epidermis; later in the day Eric came by and helped me with some shopping, that and a trip to the Quadrant for some coffee.

Nothing For A Man To Do But Sit Around And Think

Finished off the pork & sauerkraut last night, and the night before was the last of the chili. Tonight I may go out, or maybe I'll cook up some tuna w/ wilted greens. Right now I have a ton of food at home to choose from...

Linux Voyager, Next Port Of Call: I'm thinking of upgrading my system completely from the ground up, since right now I sort of have a jury-rigged version of Red Hat 8 (which was superseded several years ago by RH 9, then Red Hat moved all their non-enterprise to Fedora, and RH 9 was superseded by Fedora Core 1, 2, 3, 4 and I think version 5 was just released), anyway, I think it might be a good idea to just bring the entire system up to date in one shot. I'm thinking of trying Ubuntu, a new distribution that's generated a lot of positive buzz.

Meme, Meme, Roses Are Red

Saw this post about Eugene O'Neill, and the post's title really stuck with me. I remember the song from when I was a kid, but the song that eventually got stuck in my head because of it -- all morning long, and counting -- is "Georgie Girl."

Went out last night with Doug & Lori. They took me to the drycleaner, then we tried getting down to Nature's Way but it was closed so we went to Porter's for dinner. Completely unrelated, but I had trouble sleeping last night from about 1:00 on (went to bed around 10:00), and woke up tired this morning. Long day so far...

Please Christmas, Don't Be Late

Cast comes off three weeks from today. Not that I'm counting the days or anything, just sayin'...

Made "Bavarian Pork Chops" (ie pork and sauerkraut) yesterday in the crock pot: prepped it Sunday night, tossed it in the fridge & put it on the heater before going to work. I was a little worried, since I used "pork lumps" (apparently meant for kebabs, since they came with little skewers) instead of chops, prepped everything before the meat was fully defrosted, and added celery, carrots & potatoes to the book recipe; I was a little skeptical about the smell before it got cooking -- it kind of smelled like bad cabbage when I took it out of the fridge. When I got home last night however, the whole house smelled great, and I immediately made myself a plate, and it tasted as good as it smelled.

I was planning to play on the computer after dinner, but I was so tired and sleepy I was in bed by 7:00. I'd been up late the night before, poking away at the 'puter, bored and desultory browsing long past the point of diminishing returns, so I figure the sleep was a better idea than the internet last night.

Kickass!

Twenty-four days until the cast comes off...

Went out yesterday, took a taxi downtown to do some errands: first stop was to the bank, make sure all funds were in order between my checking accounts, then it was off to the gym. Dawn set up a very serious "lighter weights but high reps" upper body workout, focusing mainly on my chest and shoulders (w/ plenty of other stuff as well), and it beat me into the ground -- but it was a good kind of hurt! I really needed that, it made me feel normal again.

With a little help from my friends: Brian helped me with laundry on Friday -- he picked me up & drove back to his house to dry clothes, we went to Which Brew for dinner while the laundry dried, then we went back, through a DWI checkpoint, to pick up my my clothes. Then, I got a call yesterday morning from Kris, asking if I needed anything while she was running her Saturday errands. She's out the other end of the Valley and I had Greg & Judy on tap for groceries in the afternoon, so I thanked her & took a raincheck. (By the way, her chili is better than mine. I'm working on it...)

Greg & Judy took me to the supermarket in the afternoon; they got a few things for themselves and I got another big order. (I have to say that they have the shopping thing down to a science.)

Since Doug helped me with drycleaning and also picked up a few necessities the other day, I am now very far from hurting on the domestic front. Hopefully, nobody'll ever need this kind of help, but when or if the time comes, they all have some major chips they can cash in with me.

Anyway, today looks reasonably nice out, though probably cold: I may go for a walk later in the afternoon but in the meantime there's breakfast and the internet.

Staying Focused

I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable in the cast, in fact I accidentally tried walking twice in the past two days. I'd be sitting or whatever, and I'd go reach for something, and just get up and got to take a step -- doh! Let it heal, don't break it again, remember you're in a cast...

Been working out a little bit as well. I've been doing mostly upper body stuff with light dumbbells, but have also added leg lifts, leg extensions and "bicycles." I think it's actually been very helpful, especially for the comfort situation: blood flow seems much improved during and after the workout, and the metabolism boost has helped with the constant lethargic/chilly feeling I've been having lately. I will be going to the gym tomorrow, for the first time since the crash.

Chili, Urp: Ate the last of my crockpot chili last night, just to get rid of it so I can clean the pot, and also a piece of baked stuffed tofu. Admittedly a strange combo, but it worked for me.

Terra Incognita, beyond the Linux Voyage: I started messing around with TOPS-20 again, over at twenex.org. This time around, I've armed myself with some documentation, and seem to be doing quite a bit better -- at least, now when things don't work, I can find out why.

I was thinking of going out tonight, some friends are going to see the Philadelphia Funk Authority in Quakertown and I planned on joining them, but now I'm starting to feel a little tired and will probably beg off. Tomorrow's another evening out...

Wow, Doldrums Already

Well, that honeymoon didn't last long... the workday flew by yesterday, but today the time has gone back to dragging. I think I kind of romanticized work when I couldn't come in, and now the reality of indoor pollution, loud & annoying co-workers, and (most important) no nap time has settled in like a dark cloud.

It's what's for dinner: Earlier in the week I made a crock pot of chili, and so I've had chili every night since. I can no longer stand chili. Unfortunately, I have one more night to go in the crock pot -- and also, a friend's wife made me some when she heard I was hurt. I got some more chili to eat before I'm done, but I think tonight I'll make tuna & wilted greens just to keep my sanity.

OK, Back To Work!

My first day back after two and a half weeks, and it feels like I never left...

Not much to say: it's lunchtime right now, had to get a friend to carry my tray but things were pretty normal otherwise, same old food anyway... Morning was spent talking to friends & explaining what happened, and talking to the people who did my work while was gone, and just getting back up to speed here. Now I'm back in the swing of things, not even a problem getting used to it.

The Party's Over

And not a minute too soon, I might add...

My parents came up this morning (my dad also limping, from tendonitis) and took me to the doctor, where I got the staples removed from my leg and, after satisfactory x-ray results, got my new permanent cast -- semi-permanent, that is, since it's coming off only four weeks from today, I even have the appointment already. Sweet! (You can see me get the cast in my latest flickr photos.)

That means that I now have a clean bill of health, and can go back to work starting tomorrow...

Spent the day/evening yesterday playing with the computer. Dinner last night was chili, which I ate just after Doug came by & helped me with some errands. This afternoon was spent mostly sleeping.

Linux Voyager, Smooth Sailing: I downloaded and compiled the latest Mplayer, something I'd been meaning to do for a while, since newer versions of various video formats have left me in the backwaters of planned obsolescence. Got it up and running, no problems, and it worked well with the new formats, but I still liked Xine (my old standard for MPEG/wmv viewing) better even though the interface is kind of clunky... So, on a whim I set Xine to use the new codecs that came with Mplayer, and now Xine also works perfectly with the new formats. Like I said, sweet!

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Chili

All through the house... The chili has been cooking since about 10:30, should be ready by 5:00 or 6:00, and it smells pretty good despite some expedients I had to take (I had no diced tomatoes, so I used tomato soup, which was a fancy kind with parmesan cheese in it). Like I said, it should be ready in an hour or so; too bad I have like zero appetite right now.

So while that's been cooking I've been reading (see previous post), playing on the computer, and also I went and cancelled my Moab flight plans: four separate phone calls (Travelocity, Travelocity flight insurance, regular Travelocity again, and finally Continental), the final call consisting of 40 minutes on hold followed by one minute of transaction, but it's done. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to do this online, and believe me I was motivated. (I swear, these guys compartmentalize the process so much, like they run from any responsibilities, other than their most strictly routine, and no doubt legally mandated ones like actually flying the plane, as soon as they have your money. If a travel company could or would provide full service, cradle-to-grave care for your trip, I think they would own the industry in a year.)

Linux Voyager, Tossing Things Overboard: I noticed that my hard drive was 50% full the other day (rather, my main partition on the hard drive, which uses 29G of the available 40G, was 50% full). This freaked me out, I couldn't believe that there was so mch stuff on my machine... what it turned out to be, was that almost every time I upgraded some software, I kept the old version in case the new one didn't work out, and I kept the compressed files for the new version in case I had to re-do the upgrade, so each iteration (and I kept them all) would dump another 20-30 megs on my hard drive -- 20 megs here, 20 mwegs there, pretty soon that adds up to real storage... So what I did was park about 1.5 gigabytes of essentials in my 5G "dead storage" partition, then erase about 3 more gigs of old versions of Mozilla etc. I was a little worried at first -- as in, immediately after I pressed the "OK" button -- that I may have left a few library files in among the archives, like say maybe only putting links to the archived ones in my current system, so instead of having a "flash" plugin (for instance), I'd only have a broken link. (I was especially worried about Mozilla, since I'd played fast-and-loose with the initial install, and every subsequent upgrade, and I no longer remember all my clever-stupid shortcuts.) Things seem to still work OK though, so I guess that wasn't the case. Phew, and now I'm back to a more comfortable 35%-full main partition, so I'm downloading more stuff as we speak.

Hoppy, The One-Legged Bookworm

Apparently, Blogger is buggered right now (Sunday night), so I'm just typing this up for later, will post "for real" when they get their act back together...

Been doing a lot of reading lately. I just finished a re-read of Infinite Jest, which I didn't think I could bear to read again -- it's good, but does not end on an emotional high note -- and I'm glad I did: I picked up a lot more that I missed the last (two) times I read it, and I feel it was definitely worth the effort. I happen to have been reading David Foster Wallace's book of essays, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and it's amazing the parallels I see between the essays and Infinite Jest. Kind of funny, there are also somewhat disturbing ankle/surgery parallels between my recent life and the book, let's hope they go no further...

After that I picked up Cloud Atlas for a re-read, but I'm just picking: I'm really only interested in the second section of "An Orison of Sonmi-451." I'll probably go through it all anyway, but in the meantime I've been re-reading that anthology of Outside Magazine's best articles from their first 20 years. That works out nicely; each article, essay or story is just a bite-sized chunk, already perfect for book-nibbling.

Those Outside articles got me hankering for some more outdoor reading though, and I felt like a little nonfiction, so I just started up Cadillac Desert. Again, I think I'll just graze, skipping the less interesting chapters to just hit the stuff I like, even though I've already plowed through the Introduction and the first few chapters. (If I feel like fiction I may pick up Blood Meridian again as well, but that's kind of a fast read.)

Anyway, real life: went out again last night, back to Which Brew for dinner with my friend Greg. It was not quite as bad an ordeal as the night before (understandable, what with the St Patrick's day celebrations & whatnot), and this time I got chairs for both myself and my foot. One good thing about this whole ankle debacle is that I've actually lost about 10 pounds, even with the splint on my foot, and I think it's mainly due to the sudden drop-off in beer and bar food consumption, so I have somewhat mixed feelings about getting back out there... Saw Doug Hawke's new band; they sounded pretty good.

Other than that, nothing much is going on. I spent at least part of the day researching and pricing laptops, and I just prepared a crock pot of chili, put it in the fridge for cooking tomorrow.

I see that blogger's back, so I'll just slap this post down and then it's off to bed.

Another Weekend, Another Update

Not much to say in terms of updates: I've been home since last Monday, but I've been spending most of my time with my new hobbies of eating Percocets and watching the ceiling fan spin around and around and around...

Assume the Position: Been keeping my leg up as much as possible. Monday's visit to the doctor showed possible signs of infection (or else just a slightly-greater-than-normal blood pooling near the injury) so was put on antibiotics; another followup on Thursday showed that it was most likely just edema or whatever, so I'd better let it drain, with the good old "foot higher than the heart" position, which is most convenient on the recliner with a few pillows. Did I tell you about the ceiling fan?

Infrastructure attack! When I got home Monday after the doctor visit, and also after being down at my folks for the weekend, really wanted to play with the ol' computer -- and it was great, but later that evening... the thing crapped out. I was totally panicked, thinking I'd probably have to get a new one (maybe a laptop), but I got in touch with my friend Paul of Twin Rivers Computing (husband of my biker-chick friend Mary, we used to be neighbors when I lived over on Southside), and he came over, swapped out my bad power supply, and now everything's fine again. Sigh.

Meantime, while I was recuperating and my car sat in front of my friend's house waiting to be returned, it managed to get hit.

Escape: I'm bouncing around a little here, but I guess I'm going by themes rather than chronology. In between Monday's return home and Thursday's computer fix was the Chain Gang meeting. It was good to see everyone, even f I wasn't the person with the most internal metal in the room: Linda had a bunch of rods in her back; I hadn't realized that her surgery was so serious. Then, I stayed off the percocets all day yesterday, and took a cab to Which Brew last night for St Patrick's Day. That was definitely worth it, even if it was a bit of an ordeal and I probably won't be going out again on a weekend for some time. I hung out with recently healed fellow-injured-biker Kirk, Art & his brother, Ed, and a quite a few cuties. Ahhhhh....

Today I'm kicking back, doing laundry/dishes, trying not to kick myself -- it's beautiful out, and this would have been the day I got to help with the bear denning and cub census in NJ, for which I'd managed to wangle an invitation as a volunteer. Oh well, there will be other years, and other bears.

By the way, here are a few more ankle shots, which I actually posted up on Monday night. Um, enjoy!

Weekend Update

So here I am, down at my parents ("parents'"? "parents's"?) house...

Thursday: The surgery went well, and was pretty easy in terms of what I had to do: they wheeled me in to the OR, put me on the table, there a were a few businesslike conversations going on, then the next thing I remember was being in recovery. My first memory, while I was still pretty "out of it," was saying something like "my left calf needs to be stretched" -- I said that in darkness, then opened my eyes to the recovery nurse telling me to breathe deeply. I was thirsty, but they only gave me a little ice, and a small amount of water. Back to my room, where they made every effort to get me to wake me up, then decided it was too late for discharge, got me a room, told me I could sleep but by then I was awake anyway... More work getting water/soda; they didn't like the way I was guzzling it & were worried about post-anesthesia nausea. The overnight was pretty tough, with pain and discomfort, and I now have less respect for Morphine the Great And Powerful, which didn't seem to do shit...

Friday: Spent most of the day at the hospital, saw my surgeon -- Dr. Mitch Cooper, who reminds me in some ways of my high school friend Ron -- and he gave me the info on the operation: one plate, 7 or 8 screws, all on the outside bone because the inner one wasn't as bad as the x-rays originally indicated. The plates/screws are titanium, because I have a problem with nickel (as in, rashes from stainless steel watch bands, etc). Doc said I'll get my regular cast at my Monday appointment. I was told I could leave "any time I want" just after I ordered lunch, so I stuck around for that, left the hospital around 2:30-3:00 or so.

The ride home was uneventful (I was pretty doped up & slept), then I just vegged around Friday night.

Saturday: More vegging out, then saw my brother & nephew when they came to visit. Watched the Princess Bride, which I'd never seen but I know half the lines anyway...

Today I woke up with a quantum leap down in my level of pain/discomfort, in fact I stopped taking the percocets (which I'd been popping every four hours like clockwork for the past few days) this morning, will probably only need them again for sleeping. Finally got upstairs at my parents, where the computer is, and have had my butt planted here ever since.

Tomorrow I should be home, and I should be back to work Wednesday.

Ankle Update

I have two separate fractures, one in each of the bones of my calf (tibia and fibula, I think) just where they attach to the foot. I am going in for surgery Thursday, getting a plate on the outside bone and some pins in the inside one, after which will come six weeks of being in a cast -- then no doubt several months of therapy.

Here and here are more photos, some that my friend Brian -- who broke his bike frame just a few minutes later -- took during the "rescue." Tough ride!

Oopsie

What a revoltin' development! Riding today at Lehigh, I slipped, hit a rock with my foot, and -- broke my ankle. Quite disturbing, my foot was pointing completely backwards just after it happened. Managed to twist it back, get it comfortable, and my friends -- among whom were two nurses and a doctor, luckily -- got me un-dislocated & splinted up for the trip out of the woods (I actually sat on my bike while friends pushed it, all I needed was a Burger King crown). A quick ride to the hospital, a splint/cast, some Vicodin and now I have to get an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow...

I Talk To The Wind

Said the straight man
To the late man
"Where have you been?"

"I've been here, and
"I've been there, and
I've been in between."

Well, got my car: tires & inspection are done, but there's been yet another snafu in getting the camshaft, so it's going in again next week -- this time, I'm getting a damn loaner. Meantime, I just got back from a cold and very breezy singlespeed ride down the towpath, and now I think I'll walk on down to Which Brew.

I talk to the wind,
My words are all carried away.
I talk to tthe wind,
The wind does not hear.
The wind cannot hear.

Where You Been?

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 4.5% BF (um, yeah)

Back to posting, just in time for the weekend after a busy and frustrating week.

Car: The car is still in the shop, which seems to have planning/communications/inventory problems. Hopefully I'll be getting it back tonight, but I thought that yesterday, and also Wednesday, and I took off work Tuesday because I thought I'd be picking it up in the morning (morning comes & goes, car is still not ready & I'm stuck at home), ditto Monday...

It went in for an oil change and inspection, but it needed tires to pass so I had to get tires ordered -- then, I thought they were on the car but found out they hadn't even been ordered yet -- then, while waiting for tires the replacement camshafts arrived, or maybe they didn't, but they're also going in hopefully either today or yesterday or... something...

So, I've been carpooling, and meantime I have not done any shopping/drycleaning/errands for a week.

Skin: It looked like it was really improving, previously damaged areas are almost healed but it took a sudden turn for the worse over the past day or two. I wonder if there is still some irritant driving it -- I stopped my cereal-with-organic-whole-milk-breakfast routine, on the off chance that the milk (from grass-fed cattle) could be the cause: no change. The irritant could be environmental, so I must now start looking around for other possible causes, like new detergents or whatever.

The doctor visit has been postponed, first because of the improvement, then until the car issue resolves itself. By the way, excema is also aggravated by stress...

Work: We are mucho busy here. I am also being trained in some hot new 3D design software -- self-trained actually, which sticks in my craw a little; other people were sent out for several weeks of off-site professional training, which still managed to leave them with their heads spinning. I am supposed to put in an hour or so a day when I have nothing else to do, see if I can dope it out... Well I did pass 8th-grade math, in fact I aced 18th-grade engineering math back in the day, so this should be a piece of cake, and it is some seriously cool stuff.

I think I could use a weekend, in fact, I could use a whole month of them.

And By The Way...

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Just In Case You Were Wondering

Yes, I can pass 8th-grade math:

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

An Icy Wind

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 6.5% BF

So cold/dry lately, I think I may be dehydrating through my skin. I drank two pints of water in the night last night & still had a low percent of body fat -- which I think is not as accurate for body fat, so much as it is for hydration...

Meantime: car's in the shop, getting an oil change, new tires and inspection. I walked to Which Brew Friday night, hit the gym (via the singlespeed) Saturday, back to WB Saturday night to see the Roamin' Gabriels (very good), then rode Allamuchy on Sunday with Doug, Rich, Bob & Karen, Lee, Dave, and some couple I didn't know. Very cold, but a very good ride. Um, bike needs work.

That is all.

Except this: skin's doing OK but not great. I've pretty reached the pre-selected date where I give up & see the doctor; unless there's a dramatic change I'll probably make an appointment for this week.

Time Flies When You Don't Post

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 8.5% BF

Not much to say...

Wednesday night was the trail maintenance get-together at the Wildflower Cafe in Bethlehem. Not as rancorous as we (OK, I) thought it would be, though there were some rough patches (mainly between two different cliques of downhillers), some of which don't really look like they will end up getting smoothed over any time soon... Step one is communication though. We also started getting our act together for removing the trash lying around up at Sals.

After the meeting, then some bike talk with Dave (he lives in Bethlehem, rode his new bike to the meeting), Doug and I went over to JP McGrady's and met a post-work Eric for a quick beer.

Last night I was extremely tired after work, so no gym/run/etc, just dinner (tuna & wilted greens) and I was in bed by 9:30.

The Man With The Lightbulb Head

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 6.5% BF

Well, the benadryl didn't do much for my skin, but it sure helped with the ol' insomnia -- I basically passed out last night after dinner (chili, rice, salad); even though I had a ton of things that needed doing I just couldn't keep my eyes open, so I just went to bed.

Forgot to mention: Among my errands on Saturday was a trip to the barber. I've been going downtown to this old-school Italian guy named Leo, who cuts it pretty short but leaves the top somewhat longer, ie clippers on sides & back, scissors up top. It has a ridiculous egg-headed look before I brush it in the morning, maybe even after...

Free Milk! Oatmeal In My Hair!!

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 13% BF

Friday night was a run rather than the towpath (wind, time constraints, whatever), then I walked downtown to the good old WB to see the Insidious Rays -- who apparently decided to put their worst foot forward, starting with their lamer and more annoying material, but the show got a lot better when they hit their stride with the "good songs" ...

Saturday was gym/chores. I was in the organic food store, and I wanted to get some milk but they were all out. A woman buying four half-gallons actually gave me one of hers, which was way cool of her. I think it threw a monkey wrench into her planning though, because she sorta forgot that it was already paid for by her, so I got my milk free. Don't know her but the cashier said she's a regular; I'll make sure she's covered next time she gets milk.

Saturday night was a party down by the towpath: "Bad Andy" had a wine-tasting party at the house he's fixing up. Electricity & a functional bathroom, fireplaces & coal stoves but that's about it, no insulation or internal walls except the bathroom. I brought some chilean merlot, sampled a bunch of stuff but nothing really made an impression. Had a nice creepy/scary walk there along the towpath (his backyard abuts the right-of-way), much longer on foot than I realized, maybe as much as 4-5 miles. I therefore left early, a little before midnight, so I could get home at a reasonable hour, be ready for morning.

Sunday was another crockpot of chili, and a morning ride with Doug at Lehigh. I filled the pot before leaving for the party, so all I had to do was just put it on the heater and hit the road. Good ride, though I felt a little under the weather, no real high-intensity endurance right now. Got home, took a nap and then ate chili...

Today I decided to work on the underlying cause of my recent/ongoing itch problem, namely dry skin. The humidifier is back on anyway, but I also went online, found a few home remedies to help with moisture. The key apparently is hydration of the skin from the outside, then preventing dehydration with oils. Showers are out, baths are in; soap is out, colloidial oatmeal is the new clean. I went and got some of that stuff earlier, poured a bath & soaked for 20 minutes, then put on a nice coat of sealant/moisturizer while I was still wet. Right now I feel sticky and greasy at the same time, and my hair is stiff with dried colloidial oatmeal (I don't think I have all the bugs worked out of my methodology), but my skin feels pretty good. Next I'll pop a benadryl to stop any allergy-related itching, and if that bath stuff gets too expensifve I have plenty in the pantry...

Pow! Welcome Back

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 182.5#, forgot BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 182#, 9% BF

The Which Brew "Anti-Valentine Party" was pretty cool, but not really much of a party, more like the usual Tuesday night at the WB. I had exactly one beer and a turkey sandwich (after coming from the gym), and gained three pounds -- this after eating chili (and having a beer with it) several days in a row, and losing weight earlier in the week. I must conclude that going to Which Brew & simply breathing the air there is the actual fattening factor...

Last night I went home "early" (ie at the normal time), did a few club-related computer and printing tasks, ran my two mile run, and then went to the Chain Gang meeting. Decent meeting, I think we covered a lot of ground, especially in the areas of trail maintenance and gossip about other clubs.

Tonight is laundry, dinner, the gym, and then grocery shopping while the laundry dries.

Like Deja Vu All Over Again

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12.5% BF (I think I've seen those numbers before)

Went straight from work to the gym to take that spin class, arrived early so I did some major stretching beforehand. Same woman taught as last time (two weeks ago), and it was a similar workout, but the music was radically better -- anything would have been an improvement, but she had a good mix and I was happy.

After that I went home and finshed off the chili. I'll probably make another pot this weekend, or maybe try a diferent recipe. Amazing results -- though I think there's room for improvement in my chili recipe -- without all that much fuss or effort.

Tonight I'm heading back to the gym (running, weights), then I'm off to Which Brew for their Anti-Valentine's party.

Nothing To See Here, Move Along

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 15% BF

Not much to say today since I said it all last night, just thought I'd get my weight posted.

A Quick Tour Of The Weekend

Friday night I was supposed to go riding the towpath, with my friend Mike from up the block, but we were only about a mile into the ride when I got a sudden flat. While I was fixing it he says "there by your thumb, isn't that a slash in the tire?" Sure enough, there was a 2" long slice in the sidewall, no idea how it got there. I put a piece of cardboard behind it and we limped back home. He was OK with the abbreviated ride since he'd done a singlespeed ride earlier in the day, but I was pretty much shot down.

Saturday morning was coffee, then the gym, then I blew off the rest of my "selfish day" errands to do a little trail work at Sals. Me, Doug, Dave, John E and the Joe L, putting in a new trail. I'm not so sure about parts of this trail but we did some good work in other areas. We got to be in the woods for the first hour or so of the snowstorm, very nice.

Saturday night I made tuna & wilted greens over pasta, then got all the ingredients together and started my first crockpot experiment: chili. I put it on the stove at midnight, the it cook until I started eating around 6:00. I pronounce it quite delicious! After dinner (the tuna dinner, Saturday night) I walked in the snow downtown, to check out a surprisingly happening Which Brew, which nonetheless closed early.

Today I slept in a little, played with the computer and then went XC skiing with Doug & Lori at Jacobsburg. On the way back we stopped at Brian's house -- he had two crockpots cooking, the bastard -- to see his new toy the Pinzgauer, a six-wheeled, Swiss army-surplus vehicle. Very cool, he took us around the block a few times.

Went home, had two bowls of chili, took a nap, dug my car out (hours after all the other neighbors did it), and here I am ready to start the new week tomorrow...

Faster! Faster! Faster!

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 12.5% BF

So I worked an hour late last night, leaving at 5:30. My plan was to:

1. Pick up the Iguana (getting new derailleur cables) from Genesis,
2. Stop home to drop off the bike and grab my drycleaning & gym stuff,
3. Get to the cleaner before their 7:00 closing, then continue on to the gym.

Strangely enough, it worked just like that, except I got stopped by a State Trooper, got a warning for speeding, and a ticket for not wearing my safety belt. Could have been worse I guess...

Anyway, went to the gym, arrived a little after 7:00, had a great workout except aerobic (ran on treadmill and did not feel very strong, or fast, or enduring), and was out of there by 8:45. Home, check email, then out again to do get dinner at Which Brew while the regular laundry dried: Gonzo Project were playing, incredible bass player, and I had an interesting conversation with K-Jo's dad, who apparently has been investing in my employer's stock.

A good night, got a lot of stuff done, and was in bed by midnight or so.

Oh, Whoa, Whoa, I'm On Fire

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 6.5% BF

Worked late. Got home last night, ate dinner (baked stuffed tofu, sauerkraut, a salad), did some schtuff, including laundry and computer photo follies, then went for a run around 10:00. Back to the 'puter, then bedtime at 11:30.

Linux Voyager, Navigational Difficulties: My camera's memory card is "double-sided;" there's 128 Mb per side, and which side you're using is controlled by a little sliding switch on the card. I hardly ever fill the card with photos anymore, since I regularly offload the photos onto my hard drive --so what this means that I usually only use one side of the card. Last night I was cleaning up my memory card, and on a whim I checked "the other side of the card" and found a whole bunch of photos dating all the way back to 2003...

What to do? Most of them I know I've already messed with, one way or another, even putting some in galleries, but I'm not sure if I'd archived the full sized files even for those I recognize, let alone being sure about every last photo.

What I wanted to do was check that the full-size versions of the photos are on my hard drive, then erase them from the card, but there are so many of them that to confirm each photo manually would take hours. I'd like to be able to use a simple script, saying something like "for each of these files, look on my hard drive and let me know whether or I've archived it already."

Unfortunately, the directory structure of my photo archives were evolving back then, ie my early file storage didn't follow a standard pattern from photo set to photo set, thus the simple ways to do this are ruled out. To compound the problem, I habitually renamed my photos back then when I archived them, so even sophisticated approaches to "take this file named blahblah.jpg on my memory card, go look for a file with the same name on my hard drive" won't work.

What to do, what to do? I had a lot of fun with find, locate, and grep last night, but those photos are still on my card...

Fire: Meanwhile, my whole upper body is itching like mad, my skin has broken out in some kind of hive/ecxema dealie. This been been going on for about a week; I suspect that it's the result of a minor food allergy -- like maybe that flavored coffee?? -- taken in small doses over a period of time. I tossed the last of that shyte out when I restocked with my normal blend last weekend, so I guess now I'll just have to wait for my body to detox & calm down.

That leaves me in a quandary though: I was planning to do work a little late, do some chores, hit the gym, and finally have dinner at Which Brew while the laundry dries. I'm OK with the rash and the gym, but I'm not so sure about my weight progress and a bar-food dinner; also, though I do want to stop in, see who's there, and say hi, I'm not quite as OK with that rash and socializing. We'll see how I feel tonight.

Hi My Name Is Arnold Snarb

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 12.5% BF

Went to the gym last night directly after work. Felt really good, I was a little surprised but I'll take the win. Dinner was two lentil & spinach burritos when I got home, followed by a little reading and some computer play -- I created a new set of my favorite "nature/outdoors" photos on Flickr.

Reading: Just finished re-reading Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Wow, so good it's hard to believe that it's actually his (second) worst novel. Meantime, I'm still working my way through Wittgenstein's Poker, which just keeps getting better and better.

Just thought I'd mention, Steve Gilliard is on fire today. Then again, the world is on fire...

Some Photo Housekeeping

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 9.5% BF

No exercise or chores last night: I uploaded a bunch of recent photos to my flickr account, including shots from Sunday's chili festivities and a recent hike at Salisbury; I also upgraded to Flickr Pro, the non-free but non-crippled version of the service. Enjoy! Enjoy them all, now that they are all available...

Back to Reality

No morning weigh-in, afraid of the scale today.

Friday night was Which Brew, with the Company Jazz Trio and a lot of cool people.

Saturday was the gym, followed by many errands. For some reason I had trouble consolidating my movement, found myself going home & out several times, wasting time when I wanted to do a little cleaning -- what are you laughing at? I had friends coming over Sunday and wanted to at least have the place straightened up...

Saturday night (actually, evening) was dinner with the Chain Gang at Cactus Blue, an "authentic Mexican" BYO place near Doug. After that they went bowling but I went over to the WB to catch some of Devil's Shame. Good decision, since I ran into Pieter and Jordan, two kids (now late-twentysomethings) that used to be tagalongs in the early MTB days. They used to win races at the junior level, but I doubt if either has ridden a bike since they got their driver's licenses. Nice to see them though.

Sunday was the Chili Contest. 'Nuff said, but I'll say more: we started with a pretty mellow ride around Easton, checking out the ruins of the suspension bridge to Island Park, the old locomotive and RR junk, and the abandoned train station. More adventure bike than workout. Afterwards we met Brian -- recovering from food poisoning, so he didn't want to ride but did go to the chili contest -- and hit Pearly Baker's. After that we drifted around downtown, Mothers, the pawn shop, the Quadrant coffee shop, then over to Porters before we called it a day.

Meet The New Leaf, Same As The Old Leaf

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 12% BF

No exercise yesterday. I decided to do a ride after dinner, then realized -- too late to change plans and go to the gym -- that all my outdoor exercise gear was in the wash. So I finished the laundry while doing some computer stuff, then hit Which Brew while it dried. Good conversation with Scott U, about the weird adventure we shared with a very strange character on Saturday night. (We ended up walking around Easton about 12:30-1:00 AM with some dude who claimed to be part of Easton's "Center Square hippy scene" pre-1973, after which he decamped to Florida/Jamaica/Tucson. Personally, I think the guy spent a lot of time in Bullshittistan.)

Speaking of Scott, Scott S stopped by the house last evening before I went out. He finally picked up that bike (that he'd loaned to some girl downtown years ago), was riding it to where he parks his car but the tyres were flat. I got the pump & got him going on his way.

Turning the Corner

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 15% BF

Happy Groundhog Day! This ought to help you celebrate. The sun is turning in the sky -- though (and as any subterranean-dwelling groundhog will tell you) the true harbinger of spring is water: dripping from the trees, flowing secretly and seeping up from the ground, whitening your breath in the damp air by the bonfire...

Do you reject the glamor of evil? Today marks the end of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Warnography fans know it as the bloodiest battle in all of history.

Nobody tells me nothin: Get well soon, longtime reader Toni! Rumor has it that you injured your hand, hope it's not too serious.

Well, last night was Mug Club Night. I made it an early one, gothtere early, ate dinner with Brian, kept it to two beers (Bell's Kalamazoo Stout, yum), and was out of there by 10:15 -- in bed by 11:00. Still kind of tired, been that way for a week or so -- maybe the extra work, maybe overtraining, maybe just spring fever come early... Weighed myself before going out (unnoficial wt 180.5#) so I only took a half-pound hit.

Tonight is the towpath, switched from Friday's ride to avoid more pennies from heaven.

Sunlight Growing In The Belly Of The Earth

Happy Candlemas! No morning weigh-in: I overslept and forgot about it in the morning rush. I expected good things, since I was pretty good yesterday (lunch was broiled chicken sandwich, dinner was baked stuffed tofu w/ sauerkraut and steamed asparagus, and I hit the gym after dinner.) Tonight is Mug Club Night, so I don't know what tomorrow's scale will show.

TOPS-20 Voyager: I got an account at twenex.org, started playing around with that. It's so strange, you think you know computers -- and after a few years I think I know my way around Windows, Unix and Mac (the old Mac), at least enough to use them -- then I come across this, and even though I've seen and used similar things, it's really like a foreign language. Can't figure out how to actually do anything yet, but I'm definitely becoming a master at typing "help."

Actually, I don't know how into Teh Twenex I'll get in the near future, since my next project will be "Operation Crock Pot." Stay tuned...

Junkyard Art

Here's a photo of the giant chicken at the junkyard.


















And here is a photo of, well, I guess it's Atlas holding up the World Trade Center and some bikes.

Time For Some Java?

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 8% BF

Lunch & dinner yesterday were the two halves of a turkey sub. I worked late, then went to a spin class at the gym -- my first in a few years. I thought the instructor was supposed to be my old Gangster teammate Kim (she runs their aerobics program, teaches a kickass spin class), but it was some woman I never saw before. Good enough workout I guess, but the music (Loverboy? Loverboy??) was enough to make me gag...

Evening was spent reading about chess, and Wittgenstein, and fiddling with the computer.

(Meantime, something I didn't mention the other day: that blueberry-cinnamon flavored coffee kind of grows on you, and it's also got an incredible kick; I was wired the other day from just two cups.)

So anyway, sudoko. There's a girl in Easton, forget her name but she dates the old singer from Rhino Campground. Super-duper hottie despite the gorilla-girl aesthetic, she can sometimes be found hanging out on quiet nights at Porter's, doing what I originally thought were acrostics, but it turns out they're the hot new puzzle from Japan (via England?). I happened upon some references the other day, looked it up and ran across some interesting Java programs that deal with this -- maybe I'll pick up where I left off, playing with Java... so it looks like I'll be drinking lotsa coffee, typing away, talking faster and faster, playing chess and running shell & awk scripts and java programs and -- help me Too Much Coffee Man!!

Oh, and by the way, check this out.

The World Is My Idea

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 6% BF I think I'm detecting a pattern...

A chicken in the rain: Went out yesterday, took photos (coming soon) of the welded metal sculptures down by the junkyard, and I couldn't help but notice that the junkyard itself was practically empty. No doubt it's because of the high metal prices worldwide, as China's demand for steel keeps rising; there are probably a lot of scrapyards looking barren these days. Sure hope they don't decide to break up the sculptures and sell them too.

Sneakernet: After that I stopped by Brian's house, where I tried my pen drive on his computer. It worked fine, all the stuff I put on it was available. After that we hung out for a bit, had some chili he made in his crock pot: we talked chili, crock pots and slow-cooking recipes...

Tractatus Logico-Catfighticus: After Brian's I went to Barnes and Noble, picked up two books on chess (sigh), a slow-cooking (ie crock pot) cookbook, and Wittgenstein's Poker, a book about an altercation in 1946 between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper, at the monthly meeting of the Cambridge (or was it Oxford?) Moral Science Club. Good story so far.

One More Show I Don't Have To Watch: Kung Fu Monkey takes on Lost.

How To Waste Time On A Sunday

Here I am, sitting in front of the computer: rain has been predicted, so no ride is planned; as I'm typing this I'm drinking blueberry-cinnamon coffee (yuck), surfing the web, reading the blogs and news aggregators, checking all my emails, futzing around at the Super Dimension Fortress (just checking in on the bulletin boards, etc), and, um, watching the chess games hosted over at the International Chess Club -- I'm using xboard, and connecting through their internet chess server, didn't even know such things existed.

Needless to say, what that really means is that I had lunch at the Quadrant yesterday, where a bunch of people were all playing chess. They were also out of the coffee I like, only had enough for themselves until the big Tuesday shipment arrives, and so they sold me a small amount of their, um, less popular beans to get me through until then. I feel like a junkie; I guess I'll have to pick up Chess For Dummies or something, create an excuse to hang out there and await my fix. Back home, the computer consistently whoops my butt; I'm not sure I have the patience to really learn the game.

Anyway, good thing I killed my television, freeing up my life like this, I reeeallly learned my lesson, never again will I sit staring at a screen, mesmerized and turning into a mushroom -- a-and this time I mean it! At the rate things are going, I'll be eating breakfast just as the sun goes down...

Kalidasa's Triumph: My job is done here, it's afternoon now and the rain should start soon, though the radar looks like we're in a bubble of dryness for now. It was beautiful out yesterday; I was going to take some pictures downtown and over by the junkyard, but the camera batteries were dead -- keep your powder dry dammit! All batts are now fully charged; I think I'll eat some breakfast, then go out and take those pictures, so I'll leave you with this artist's conception of the space elevator.

Good Days Bad Days, You Know I've Had My Share

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 181#, 8% BF

Rode Wednesday night at Sals, with that dude Mike and also Rob W. Started 8:00 PM, rode for 2 hours or a little more -- crowded night in the woods, saw a guy walking his dog, some teenagers hanging out in a car at one of the parking lots, and apparently a dumper or a towtruck at the other lot. Good hard ride though, really glad I did it, and then I came home and crashed.

Thursday I was going to hit the gym, but I felt tired so I blew it off, then got a call from Joe & Cindy: they were down at Which Brew for dinner, and so of course I joined them.

Hung out with them, also Hans (who was there with Heath & Margarita -- they looked very happy together, which was a pleasant surprise). We jammed to the Gonzo Project, featuring an amazingly good bassist, and then after J&C, H and H&M all left I stuck around & mingled, said hi to a few others. Very good vibe last night -- if booze and bar-food weren't fattening it would have been an ideal evening.

Woke up this morning, scale told the sorry tale, and today was a retirement luncheon here at work so I haven't been exactly dieting today. Oh well, keep on keepin' on...

Tonight is a towpath ride, singlespeed most likely, and possibly again with that dude, then back to Which Brew (a friend is DJ'ing) and Porters (for to hang with Doug and Eric).

Tell Me Somethin' Good

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 10.5% BF

Annual review at work yesterday, another good one (as per usual)... Worked late on a rush job, then went home feeling hungry & tired. I was supposed to run out to Staples (shipping replacement Xmas present), felt sooo tired I almost blew it off, but after eating a bowl of cereal I went anyway, saying to myself I'll blow off everything else (laundry, running, healthy food) to just do that one errand and then eat at Which Brew. Felt so good about my decision (and my performance evaluation) I decided to reward myself & bought a USB pen drive while I was at the store.

Cue "New Toy:" One gigabyte of flash memory -- that's about a thousand floppies, remember them? -- fits in my pocket or hangs around my neck lke a locket, connects to any modern computer. Cost me a little less than $60. Got it home; it was trivially easy to set up and use, but now it was like 9:45. I decided to run anyway but was running out of time if I wanted to eat out.

I ran, and I felt good even though I got a face full of rain/snow, and I really didn't feel hungry when I finished; though I would have liked to go down & check out the WB scene, I stayed in and played with the new toy. Of course, there's not much to do with a pen drive: I put some files on it, took some files off, checked the capacity, moved things from one USB drive (the camera's memory card, mounted through the printer) to the other, yadda yadda.

This morning the scale had a present for me...

The Battle Is Joined

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 10% BF

This diet thing seems to be stuck a little, looks like I'll have to go into double-secret overdrive... Had tempeh & veggies stir-fry last night, with another Summer Blonde, then totally crashed, still way tired from Sunday. Funny, that was my weeknight ride in the summer, no big deal, got it done in under three hours (racing daylight) but the other day it took about 5.

Tonight I'm working late, then it's laundry & groceries, plus a few errands (I may also buy a pen drive); don't know what dinner will be but exercise will be a run.

By the way, after Sunday's ride -- where I ended pretty strong, standing sprint up 19th St -- some dude in a pickup followed me into the alley, stopped & called me over when I got to my house. I thought "uh-oh, pissed somebody off," but no, he was a neighbor, saw me riding and wanted to know where I rode. I explained Sals to him (talked to him like he was a beginner), he said he knew it, but had only been there once. He also said he races Sport, and rides with Rob Lichtenwalner a few times a week, and was OK with riding to Sals to do a ride. We exchanged numbers; it looks like I have a riding/training partner! Back to "uh-oh" though: if he's hanging with Rob and racing, he's probably a pretty strong rider.

The Last Of The Summer Blondes

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 10% BF

Typical weekend, but my legs are now totally fried: Thursday was a gym workout (I've been focusing on legs lately), Friday was a towpath ride on the singlespeed, Saturday was another good gym workout, and yesterday was a towpath/Sals ride, which put me over the edge into burning-leg territory.

Friday and Saturday nights were also Which Brew nights, pretty happening crowd both nights.

Had a beer with dinner last night, one of the Summer Blondes (I actually have a few left). I got a variety case at Christmas and have yet to touch it, must finish older purchases first before they go bad, falling behind on my drinking...