It Is Inevitable. It Has Already Begun.

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 11% BF

 

ZOMG he's really doing it: One of the Sadnogons has been has been promising that he'd be crashing this year's Conservative Political Action Conference. Well he's there now; here and here are his first two dispatches. That's a ballsy move, and some seriously high-caliber writing. Oh, and speaking of Asia...

 

Happy New Year! The year of the rat, Wal-Mart's birth sign.

 

Greetings From The Stealth Apocalypse: Not much skiing going on lately, and the riding has been less than optimal too, but maybe they'll both change by the weekend. Just took a lunchtime walk, and it feels like spring already. I'd say greenup is still about a month away though, if it happens at all.

 

I knew it was coming: Work here is busy by the way, as always when the rest of the economy is tanking. We need more people, and the same is true throughout the industry -- I just got headhunted by a former co-worker. I told him I was totally not interested, and if things didn't work out here (after 20 years) I'd be getting out of the industry anyway. That got rid of him for now, but I think this'll start happening with more frequency.

 

Yoga last night, very good class, then salad with homemade honey-mustard dressing, and black beans with Ray's Rad Chilies. Tonight is the charity drinking-bout.

Flickr Find: Ain't She Sweet?

I am the sea
Originally uploaded by daneli.

Pretty girl, neat photo, there's even a poem! Sometimes it really pays to just click "explore" on flickr.

Wednesday Internet Tour

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 11% BF

 

This is what ugly looks like. So sad, a textbook case of a sociopath and his victim. Meanwhile: so long Sexy Sadie, and happy anniversary Indiana legislature -- a-and we'll never let you live it down... Speaking of dumbass anniversaries, here's a look back for Colin Powell Day.

 

Ooohhhh, creepy! Maybe I won't get that pedicure after all...

 

Gym last night, hit it pretty hard. Finished off that pot roast too, but you knew that. Tonight is yoga. I'll probably make pasta & tuna w/ wilted greens on Friday, so tonight's dinner will just be like black beans and a salad or something  -- tomorrow is that SPCA benefit at Bethlehem Brew Works, gotta start starving now to compensate.

Chick Tract Nation

Sorry I couldn't help it, but here ya go. (Via Pharyngula.)

Tuesday Morning Coming Down

Chili Ride: After Breakfast
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 10.5% BF

Excellent night at Which Brew last night: cheeseburger, some company, and a good mug of beer or two. Quiet night, and an early one (laundry) but fun, which is good because now I'll be buckling down, trying to deal with that weight. Ended on a high note but I have had my party, as the saying goes -- I've gone out, in some form or other, the past five days, and it shows. Oh well, Candlemas is the time for re-dedications...

Tonight is the gym, then the last of that pot roast, photos of which I've posted by the way, along with a few others. Enjoy!

Imbolc: A Fistful of Chili...

Morning weigh-in: 168.5#, 9.5% BF (...and a belly full of beer, and now the scale tells the sorry tale)
 

Rode Friday night: cold, rainy, bad visibility, got a flat. Bagged it, went out & saw friends at Porters.

 

Saturday was yoga/gym/errands, then Which Brew before checking out a new place downtown (Club Beyond) where a friend was playing. I dug the show but I don't think I really liked the venue's atmosphere -- the place is brand new, built and decorated to be a crowded dance club, and it was almost empty. Fill it with people though, and it might make a great place to see a band. Time will tell.

 

Sunday was the Superbowl of Chili at Pearly Bakers. Thirteenth annual I think, and I've been to every one. Good times, good times... Ended up at Porters (again) with Brian, where we were forced to retreat from the bar to a table, to avoid some dude who'd had his share of celebratory beverages, and who was very adamant about the Giants winning the Superbowl, and the Beach Boys being the Best Band Ever. Well he nailed one out of two...

 

The guy left (he may have been asked to), then Brian took off so I went up to the bar, and had a good conversation about SCUBA diving and souvenir-hunting with Bob D, Easton fireman and biking friend from way back. (He goes down to North Carolina, some river where you can find stuff in the silt at the bottom: old bottles & other such like, arrowheads, giant prehistoric shark's teeth. Pretty cool.) Saw part of the game, but it was a long day so I hailed a cab and took the rest on faith -- woke up this morning and it looks like the Giants Won The Superbowl! A-and it's snowing on Christmas...

 

Tonight is yoga, then the Mug Club dinner.

To The Stilled Earth Speak: I Flow

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 10% BF

 

Smackdown: When the S/N! guys are being funny they are really good, but when they drop the humor and get serious -- or, God forbid, angry -- they truly become the best on the net. Go read this -- it's long, but read it all. (Meantime, surge this, and this. Motherfuckers.) I remember arguing with some boob -- actually, he was almost a caricature: right-wing talk show host, named (not ranked) Colonel, lives in a golf course condo development, 35 years old but looks fifty -- and he actually quoted that "We're Winning!" line. He also told me he couldn't serve in the military, because his role was as a cheerleader. I told him he was the ugliest cheerleader I ever saw, before he got swamped by a whole bunch of other peeps giving him a piece of their minds...

 

Quiet Society: Went out after dinner last night, felt like seeing some familiar faces so I went to Which Brew. The place was packed, but except for bartender Kateryna (and one passing acquaintance, but she was reading) there was no one there I knew. Eventually the place cleared out, Perry came in and Christina closed her book, and the three (four) of us had a decent bull session. (Perry grew up in Long Branch, and actually was/is friends with my HS music teacher. I already knew that, but it also turns out that Christina grew up in South Brunswick. Small world.) Busy is good and all that, but I really do prefer the quieter nights.

 

Reading: Anyway, while I was alone in the crowd I began mulling over Male Fantasies, my latest chew-toy. Maybe it's because I don't know all that much about the more esoteric Freudian arcana, and maybe it's because the book is a translation from German -- I've had my "WTF? moments" before, reading translations from the original German -- but I'm starting to think the guy's arguments are a bit of a stretch. It kind of reminds me of those Jack Chick tracts, "Where will You Spend Eternity?" and such like. Pure craziness, but the stories aren't word salad, they do have a narrative, until... some point or other in the tract, some dialog maybe, is footnoted, so you look down at the footnote and find a Bible quote to give the point some authority -- and the quote is a total non sequitur, no connection I can find to the point being made.

 

That's what I keep getting in Male Fantasies: the arguments are closely reasoned and reasonably persuasive, but the examples of proto-Fascist & Freikorps literature the author uses to illustrate and develop them don't quite seem to fit his narrative. The examples are full of stilted prose (see "translations" above), and are devoid of earthiness, and of all but the most cartoonish sexuality: it's more like they just remind me of things like ERB's Tarzan books, or Lord of the Rings -- wait, what?

 

Anyhoo, gym last night; dinner was more of that pot roast before I went out. Tonight I'm picking up some bike rack doo-dads (installing that'll be tomorrow's project), then hitting the towpath. I have a feeling I'll be alone out there. Sunday is the Superbowl, and the Superbowl of Chili.

Pornographies of Flight

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 8.5% BF

 

Best. Pot roast. Ever. Just saying... Had it with a salad and a Stegmeier Porter, the turnips and alterna-roots really worked out well and the meat (a better cut than I usually use) was melt-in-your-mouth good. I only wish it were colder or rainy/snowy last night, this was the ultimate winter meal. I'll probably get the chance to eat this under more adverse conditions, since there's a winter front coming through tomorrow night, and I have plenty left over: I cooked a 3 pound chunk of beef, so I basically have another week's worth of meat, maybe more. Next time, I'll probably go with a smaller piece and use more veggies, to try for a more balanced ratio -- right now it looks like I'll have plenty of meat left over when I run out of everything else.

 

Nothing much to say otherwise. Picked up my old bike rack last night, from the guy I sold the car to. Hit yoga, had dinner, read some Gravity's Rainbow -- I'm up to the Franz Pokler part, the moral center of the book, and maybe my life -- and played with the computer some, but went to bed at a reasonable hour. Overslept, but not by much... tonight is the gym, and I think you know what I'm having for dinner.

Scagnetti On Scagnetti

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 9.5% BF

 

How you gonna kick it? Gym last night. I didn't go light but I did skip the legs, and I did a few other non-standard things, in the hope that a change would be as good as a rest. I hit Taco Hell (kept to the lesser evils there), then bought a bunch of food. I have a pot roast cooking for tonight, with a few experimental features: instead of potatoes I went with turnips and celery root (I think that's what it was). Carrots, onions, leeks, gonna kick it root crop...

 

Still tired, still with the crazy dreams. Tonight is yoga, then dinner, chores, and an early bedtime -- my biggest current problem, other than not having an actual rest day in the mix, is my recent habit of firing up the computer "just for a few minutes" at the end of the evening. Well the internets can wait a day or two, and so can the Leslie matrices; I want to get the house cleaned up a bit for the weekend, and after that it's straight to bed, tonight and tomorrow night too.

 

I saw something about Mary Steenbergen last night, which reminded me of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and from there, that got me thinking about good old Juliette Lewis. (She was totally the "it girl" of the early nineties, and was a major tool in the recuperation of the Lollapalooza icons, but I digress...) I must have been dreaming about Natural Born Killers (1994, co-starring Juliette Lewis), because when I woke up this morning the phrase "Scagnetti on Scagnetti" was going through my head.

 

Beer Muscle Weekend: I first saw Natural Born Killers in maybe 1996 or so, on cable while on a skiing weekend with my neighbor "Crazy Joe" McK and his co-workers. (Big corporate animal-testing facility sponsored a bus trip to Whiteface, Joe & his buds were the employees that tended the animals, cleaned the cages etc. Joe sometimes would bring home rats to keep as pets, and set them free in the backyard, where they no doubt got beat up by the city rats, and eventually eaten.) I remember those guys gossiping about one dude who couldn't make the trip: he tried to steal a monkey by sticking it under his shirt, the thing tore him apart and he got caught/hospitalized. Thinking about it now, they remind me of the prison guards in Maus. Several were good skiiers (like Joe), but I remember they spent most of their time drinking, even on the slopes.

 

Avalon, heteronormative mystical mondegreen: Been listening to the Chemical Brothers lately, mainly because I found the CD lying around... One song I've always liked, but a closer listen changed everything -- I thought the refrain was:

 

Avalon! Avalon!

Blah de blah da blah da, yada dada da da...

 

(The actual lyrics can be found here.) I thought that literally for years, and it was part of why liked the song... I guess I can't really call the new lyrics "heteronormative" though, it sounds like a girl singing.

The Fever

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10% BF

 

Hit Blue Mountain last night, no idea how many runs but I got in a lot of skiing before they threw me out. Word on the slopes was that Main Street and similar trails on the right were "a sheet of ice, totally scraped off," so I just stayed by the quad lift: Paradise, Lazy Mile & the lower section of Challenger, and eventually Razor's Edge where I spent most of the night.  It was warmer than last week, maybe just below freezing but the conditions were surprisingly good, at least where I was hanging out. Pretty empty by weekend standards (no lift lines), but the nicer weather did bring more people out than last Monday. I ended up skiing a couple of runs with two guys from Pottstown, and kept bumping into them at the lift. It was another beautiful night, and there was Sirius again; one of the dudes pointed it out, as well as a bunch of other stars, we were birds of a feather so I told them my "Dog Star joke" story. Just three dorks chuckling on the side of a mountain...

 

I got home around 11:00, had some black beans for dinner and went to bed. I must have worked it harder than I realized, because I had all sorts of crazy fever-dreams, like you get when work-damaged muscles leak protein into your bloodstream. Scrambled eggs for breakfast, gotta replace that protein.

 

That Old Time Religion: Today in 904, Sergius III became Pope, initiating what became known as the pornocracy. I guess I'd still go to church, if they still had strippers.

 

Fever: My friend Greg from Englishtown -- the only guy I know who married and divorced the same woman three times -- worked for his dad, and for all I know still does. His dad made Teflon products for such as the aerospace industry, buying bulk Teflon in pellet form, running it through screw pumps, extruders etc, and machining the bar stock into finished product. Part of the job was keeping the hoppers filled above the screw pumps, and every so often someone working up there would get a whiff of the melting plastic fumes. This caused a malady they called "the fever," and it was pretty nasty: sweating, dizziness, nausea; the end result was that they'd get the rest of the day off, and the next day too. Just a part of their life, and no permanent harm that I could see, but... hmmm.

 

Tonight is the gym, probably alterna-workout but definitely skipping the legs, then it's food-shopping night. Not sure what dinner will be tonight, but I want to have a pot roast cooking Wednesday.

 

One last thing: What he said.

A Quick Tour Of Teh Internets

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 9.5% BF

 

Oh my goodness, they're talking -- openly! -- about the Shock Doctrine right there on the Op-Ed page! (Via Daily Kos, where I also saw this. Such an innoocent time, seems so far away now. My how time does fly...) Meantime, the Liberal Fascism smackdown continues apace, but the SadNo!-gons step back for the big picture, and it ain't pretty. OK, that's enough of that, I feel stupider already. (My two cents: I think the entire concept is the dumbed-down version, of a deliberate misunderstanding of good old Eric Hoffer.)

 

Juno: here there be spoilers. As per usual, Roy does the best movie reviews. I think I may actually see this movie, even if I now know a bit about how it ends.

 

Meatspace: Got the laundry done last night, with obligatory Porters visit (too late for food, so dinner was Taco Hell) while the stuff dried. Odd conversation, if that's the word, with some guy who spoke earnest and rapid-fire Spanish to me, while I nodded and smiled, and said "No compendre," and "Yo no habla espanol," whenever it seemed like my turn to say something. (I don't think he understood me.) Anyway, I'm a little closer to my new mug. The laundry's done, the decks are cleared, and I can hit the slopes with no worries tonight. It won't be as cold as last Monday, but that's not really a good thing.

 

 

 

 

 

Viva La Viva La Viva La Viva La

Whelp, I'm going back to Moab, first week in April; we just booked our flights about an hour ago. Me, Brian, Rich and new father John C, whose wife is sending him off to get him out from underfoot... We don't see John much anymore, and probably shouldn't expect to: he no longer lives outside New Hope, they moved back to Maryland and he's also back among the employed. Anyway, he lives near Patapsco now, and so we promised him a road trip or two this summer -- and in the meantime we have Moab. I better be careful for the next few weeks...

Anyway, good weekend, starting with Friday night's towpath ride. I was by myself, I had no takers on my offer but that also meant I could go my pace and distance. My time wasn't great but it was acceptable, and I felt good at least. After that was Which Brew, where some girl (the jewelry maker) asked me my age, then feigned shock and claimed she would have guessed "thirty-two, tops." My new best friend! Screw the ride, that's what really made me feel good. (One of the bartenders threw a reality check later, by saying I should totally hang out with her dad, but still.)

Saturday was early morning yoga, with a pleasant surprise: Eric & Kris used that gift card I got them and joined me. Bonus: they liked the class. We hit the Coffee Exchange afterwards too, so I guess they got a real taste of my Saturday routine. Kris might be joining me for this Wednesday's class.

Gym, errands, nap, then back to WB to catch Tavern Tan, with friend and fellow PPRAC'ster Dave drumming. Needless to say there were a bunch of PPRAC dudes there, including Heath & Hans, Keith & his cyclocross girlfriend, and Taylor & his wife. (I tried to talk them into joining us for today's ride, but they were doing something on the road, maiden voyage for Heath's new rig.) Good crowd, but I took off a bit early.

Today was an awesome ride at French Creek. Me, Rich, Doug, Joe & Cindy, Pete and Eric B, we did about 20 miles, maybe a little more. We were all riding really well (surprising for January), and conditions were primo. The place was packed too, lots of other people biking, and also hiking, playing frisbee golf, ice fishing... The ride was basically an all-day affair: we started with breakfast at a bagel place near Doug, and ended with an early dinner in Bally. No action shots, but I did take a few photos at some rest breaks. I'll post them tonight.

Now I'm just kicking back, playing on the computer and doing chores while the laundry cooks. Tomorrow I'll probably go skiing.

Can't Tell The Players Without A Program

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 8.5% BF (dehydration?)

 

Alterna-workout nite at the gym, then I hit Which Brew for dinner and some bluegrass. I was physically very hungry but had no appetite (a very weird feeling), and I eventually ordered fish & chips, which I don't often have but they did hit the spot last night.

 

By way of background: Saw friend and blog-reader Mike at the WB, who made the tactical error of asking me about some of the obsessions that he read about here, and got stuck listening to my 200-word-a-minute rants for the next hour or so as I emptied my head into his ear... So sorry about that Mike, and here's a quick Wikipedia tour of what I was babbling about, starting with the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey and interspecies competition equations, moving on through the logistical function, carrying capacity and Hubbert's Peak, and finishing with good old Belisarius. You down with OCD? Yeah you know me...

 

Meantime, the other obsession: Hitting the towpath tonight, maybe with Larry, maybe also with Mike B. Tomorrow morning is yoga so I want to make it an early night.

Cyprian Latewood

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 9.5% BF

 

Been thinking about Against the Day lately, may pick it up again soon, give it a second read. Not much else to say: worked late, then went to yoga last night, 7-layer burritos for dinner. Read, read, computer (posted a few more pics from Sunday), bedtime. Tonight is the gym, then probably Which Brew for Bluegrass Night.

 

By the way, today in 1984 the first Macs went on sale. I had one, and I still have that computer (with upgrades that made it essentially a "Mac Plus") in one of my closets. Eight friggin megahertz, 128K RAM, no hard drive, the thing was awesome.

Democracy Inaction

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 7.5% BF

 

Well, that was like shooting fish in a barrel, except that the fish didn't actually show up: The Salisbury Twp meeting last night was "a preliminary meeting for public input" about the planned development of, of... what was the name of that park again? Apparently the park in its entirety will be called Lehigh Mountain Park, though a certain portion is now known as Walking Purchase Park, or Riverside Park, or something... Lots of mountain bikers were there, as well as many many residents and a few other interested parties, like a guy who does bird inventories along the river, peeps like that. The project manager, a landscape architect from some engineering firm seemed like a pretty good guy (everyone seemed pretty nice), and things went rather well.

 

The meeting started with an overview of the geological, ecological, and historical/archaeological features of the park, then some presentation of current recreational activities, and then the architect talked about what he thinks should be done to move things forward. (His main proposal: make the park more "park-like," with identifiable boundaries, plus parking areas and information kiosks, picnic and camping and yes, ATV areas.) Finally, there was the public input part.

 

Apparently, the rumor that ATV's would be allowed at the park had spread, because all of the public commenters, especially residents, were there to denounce it. All were vehemently opposed, and strongly voiced their opinions that enforcement of existing laws against ATV use (as well as against littering/dumping, vandalism, and drug use) needed to be a top priority.  I think that the architect was taken aback a bit, and said that his (initial and preliminary) proposal, to allow some ATV use at the park, was based on a survey of current use (like they would decriminalize the trash dumping and crack use, based on a survey of current park use). No one had anything good to say about the ATV's, no advocates showed up to defend themselves -- not surprising really, considering that it would basically be an admission of criminal activity -- and I think that a message was received and duly noted. We'll see where it goes from here.

 

A couple of the VMB'ers hit the Bethlehem Brew Works afterward for dinner. Doug, Spanky, Joe G, Lucas, E-Rock, Jim D, it was a pretty big crew. I was starving, had a cheese steak, slipping is crash's law but tonight it's back to yoga and the routine (hopefully).

 

Rest In Peace: Heath Ledger, cut down in his prime, as was skier Billy Poole. The good die young.

Deep Blue Mountain

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 7.5% BF

 

Ran some errands last night, then hit the slopes at Blue Mountain. I go there around 7:15, and got in nine solid runs in just about two hours -- the place was practically empty (except for some racers, terrain park kids, and other hardcore idiots), no lift lines whatsoever. Bitterly cold, low teens, but the sky was beautiful: clear and starry, and an amazing deep blue, with the almost-full moon coming over the mountain. It's been 15 years since I first saw them like that, but there were Orion and Sirius directly in front of me, right where I left them, whenever I took the older lifts.

 

An OLD SKOOL ski lift conversation:

DONNY DON (pointing): Look, the Dog Star!

DONNY DON (different voice): Are you Sirius? (chuckle chuckle chuckle snort...)

CRAZY JOE MCK: What the hell are you talking about?

(Yeah I slay me, and I've been slaying me for a long long time.)

 

Anyway, I was planning to stay until they closed at 10:00, but then remembered that I had no clean clothes -- and no dirty ones either, since my clothes had been washed but not dried -- so I left a little early and did an emergency laundry run. Porters while the clothes dried, punching my mug club card (I have less than 20 beers to go now, to get my new mug). I saw K-Jo there, as well as Kateryna & Eamon, and also Cliff; I sort of kept to myself, just passing through but it was nice to see them. Sports on the TV, bartender Scott was still on a high from Sunday's game.

 

Not sure what I'll be doing for dinner, but I'll be down in Allentown tonight for the Salisbury Township meeting, heading there straight from work. Looks like a battle royale is building over illegal ATV/quad use at Walking Purchase Park, and this meeting might be the opening salvo. Aside from that, I think I'll lay low for a few days: I've got a bit of windburn on the exposed parts of my face right now, and it's making me look like a purplish raccoon.

 

Reading: Male Fantasies is now the bathroom reader, and Matrix Population Models has been moved to the kitchen.

 

Listening: I'm back on a Jason and the Scorchers kick. Don't know why.

 

 

How 'Bout Them Giants, Eh?

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9.5% BF

 

Friday I was in a foul mood (long story, won't be going there right now), went out to have a bit of an "angry party" for myself, though to be honest I had a pretty good time of it despite myself. Which Brew for dinner after my towpath ride, and when I got to WB I found that Greg & Judy had dinner at Porters across the street, and slipped their waitress Courtney -- who told them where she'd be going after work -- a few bucks to buy me a beer... It was the talk of the bar for a bit ("Somebody bought you a beer who wasn't even here!"), then things settled down and we all enjoyed the sounds of DJ Kaos (aka Art), and I knew he would but he did play "Apache," so all was right with the world.

 

After dinner I went across the street (G & J were long gone) where Eamon bought me a beer -- I didn't exactly drink for free that night but I came close -- and I paid a few back but I owe favors all over the place now -- and so much for being angry and ornery... Post Junction were playing, and they had a few guest singers (people from Stomp who played at the State theater earlier), so their set wasn't the same-old-same-old they'd been stuck in; they're a good band and I'd hate to become tired of them.

 

Saturday: gym, chores errands yadda yadda, out to WB for dinner again, and to catch the Todd Wolfe project. They were good, but it was an early night for me.

 

Sunday was a great ride: I hit Sals with Doug, E-Rock and E-Baum, then we went out on foot to document some quad/ATV damage down by the river. I took over 100 photos all told on Sunday, and will post maybe a third of the least boring ones so stay tuned. (Actually, I already put a few up last night.)

 

Dinner was at Porters, where I caught a very exciting football game. I guess it was the cold and the frozen ball and stiff fingers, but there was a lot more drama going on than I was ready for, almost like a college game -- then I missed the winning FG because I was talking to someone. Whatever, I'll take the win, and meantime: gadzooks, the Giants are in the Superbowl! I wasn't planning to see the game; because of the "Superbowl of Chili" I haven't seen the actual Superbowl in many years and that was my plan for this year too. I guess I'll think of something.

 

Tonight is the last of my chili, then I'll probably go skiing.

What Color Is Infrared?

the creek
Originally uploaded by Razumichin.

Another one I didn't take (and another one of my favorites), but this is more like what I was seeing along that creek.

Spun Sugar at Sunset

Spun Sugar at Sunset - Orten Effect, Jan 17
Originally uploaded by CaptPiper.

I wish I took this picture but I didn't, sigh... this is one of my favorites on flickr. It's not an HDR photo, and it's not quite the same thing going on as what I saw by that creek, but I like the colors and it seemed close enough. I'll keep looking for the photo I was thinking of.

Pearl Pink And Mercury Vapor

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Snowing on the way home, sort of near dusk, I caught a glimpse of that creek that runs along Ravine Rd. The creek was sort of silvery, framed by black trees, covered with gray sky and shrouded in snowy fog, but sky and creek had that slight pinkish tinge that snowfall-gray sometimes gets. Very neat, reminded me of some HDR photos I'd seen. I noticed that the sky was pretty cool in Phillipsburg/Easton too, more pink with a pearly vibe, but also a bit of yellow from the city streetlights.

 

Anyway, hit the gym on the way home from work, then had leftovers. I went out to Which Brew around 9:00, just to get out of the house and see some faces. I was worried that it would be empty because of the storm -- the parking lot was deserted -- and it was quiet but not empty; I had some pretty nice conversations with Perry and his colleague plus a few others. I noticed at one point that everyone around me were schoolteachers -- hmmmm, wishful thinking? Sorry fellas, storm's over, back to work...

 

The WB girls were listening to some alright stuff, but I had a hankering for Patti Smith so when I left I cranked "Gloria" for the ride home. Almost done with A Book of Dreams, by the way. Kind of creepy and sad at the end.

Chili Today, Hot Tamale Baby

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 10% BF

 

Good meeting last night, first one of the new regime, held at Brian's house with 6 crock pots of chili. We had an impromptu judging after the meeting, and once again Linda's chili beat mine. I do like Linda, but not on Chili Night... (I took third, so I would still have lost even if she hadn't brought one.) Of course, she keeps winning with her same recipe, and I keep losing with my same one -- so who's got the lesson to learn here, hmmmm?

 

Gym tonight, working off some of that excess chili, then I'm finishing off the last of the pasta & tuna. Things are getting cold again; there will be some offroad riding this weekend, as well as some skiing.

All's Right With My Boring World

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9.5% BF

 

Gym last night, then dinner (leftovers: pasta w/ tuna & wilted greens, and some tomato & bean stew), reading & 'puter, food shopping, then I prepared my "midnight chili" -- so named because that's when I finished prepping it -- and crashed. Today I set the crock pot to cooking before I left for work; it should be ready for tonight's Chain Gang meeting (where I'm no longer Preznit, but I am the new secretary), and of course the house should smell chililicious when I get home... Not much else is going on with me. Been downloading some more music, and doing a lot of reading (duh). I may do singlespeed sprints after the meeting tonight, or maybe just some yoga before bed.

 

This is news? My old neighbor might not agree, but I could have told you this.

 

Reading: Wilhelm Reich made his name in Europe, back in the 1920's-1930's or so, with his psychoanalytic approach to political/cultural studies, so I guess it's not surprising to see his name pop up in Male Fantasies -- granted, it's mostly because the author disagrees with him. Still, it's kind of a weird synchronicity as I read A Book of Dreams, where author Peter Reich (Wilhelm's son) is currently watching old home movies with some European documentary makers, about 10 years after his father's death. The matrix population modeling continues apace, but so far there's no connections to the other things I'm reading.

Kinda-Sorta Dodged A Bullet

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 9.5% BF

 

After my Sunday brain fart, I've been waiting for that "bad news of my own making" trifecta to kick in, and last night the second screwup struck: I went out shopping and when I got to the store I reached for my wallet (thought it was on the passenger seat) but couldn't find it. I tore the car apart -- nothing. Went home, checked my work pants -- nothing. Nothing on the floor, maybe it fell under the bed -- nothing, nothing on the bureau where I empty my pockets, back out to the car for more nothing...Nope, it's gone, with my driver license, plus all my debit and credit cards and I've got like two bucks in my pocket.

 

Luckily the car had a full tank, but that was the last place I saw my wallet, getting gas on the way in to work yesterday. (Fat chance for recovery if the gas station is where I lost it.) Checked the car again, got to work & checked the parking lot to see if I dropped it there, nope. I pretty much resigned myself to replacing the contents, cards etc, and trying to cash a check at the bank (with no ID) to get through the week; I was going to go home at lunchtime to get the process started. One last look in the car before pulling out and -- found it! It was jammed way into the passenger seat's hinge, black fabric wallet against a black fabric interior, but this time I saw it. Sheesh.

 

So I've lost a little time: the meat I should have bought last night, should have been marinading today, for me to make chili tonight/tomorrow. OK, no marinade, but we're back on track. Now I'm just waiting for that third shoe to drop...

 

Anyway, yoga last night, with pasta & tuna for dinner. Tonight is the gym, followed by leftovers and chili prep. I'm back into the matrix population models.

 

Duck Duck Goose

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 10.5% BF

 

So two out of  three days seized ain't bad I guess, but I really did drop the ball yesterday...

 

Friday night was a great ride, followed by a fun night at Which Brew, as noted previously.

 

Saturday was the gym, then errands which included a haircut, so I hit Eskandalo! once again. (Kind of an impulse thing: they recommend calling for an appointment, but I just walked in and sat down to my haircut. I was pretty lucky, the owner said there was a three-hour wait earlier in the day.) Thus cleaned up, I went home & put on a collared shirt, then went back to Bethlehem for some margaritas at Spanky's house -- cocktail party! Greg & Laurie, Doug & Lori, me, Trevor & Christine (who I'd been calling Amy for some reason but we got that straightened out), and Rich & Linda. We hung there for a bit, then trooped over to Cactus Blue for authentic Mexican cuisine. BYO, but Spanky & Rich are professionals, and we washed our dinners down with more margaritas, or Dos Equis if that was your preference.

 

Meanwhile, back at Eskandalo, which has connections to the Which Brew bartender scene, I was told that bartender Andrea's boyfriend was having a birthday celebration while his band played at the Funhouse that night -- be there or be square, or something like that. So, after dinner a bunch of us went there to check out that scene too, even if we proved ourselves lame and old (Steve complained about turning 32, and got no sympathy from us), by leaving before the end of the night. I crashed at Doug & Lori's.

 

That was a pretty good blowout, and I guess I could be excused for slacking on Sunday but I felt good and wanted to ride. I had to run some unexpected errands (old-car-related stuff that didn't work out anyway), and that put me later than I'd want, but I finally got out to Lehigh at 2:00, only to discover that I'd forgotten my Camelbak. I guess I could have done some ride without food/water/emergency tools, but I also had no place where I felt safe putting my car keys. Oh well, put the bike back in the car, go home... Surprisingly nice day too, I was expecting rain or snow. Say it with me now -- D'OH!

 

Went home, read a little from A Book of Dreams, and played with the computer while doing laundry. (Been fiddling with video lately. Last week I managed to break my movie player, and last night I managed to fix it. Life goes on.) Sunday Dinner was at Porters, as is now traditional. Luckily, the Giants had salvaged the weekend -- that happened before I got there, but it was still nice to see the game highlights.

 

Yoga tonight, then it's time for chili prep -- the Chain Gang meeting is Wednesday, and it's a chili contest.

Deus Ex Machina

There was a video I saw once or twice on MTV, way way back in the day. Don't remember the band or the music, but there were a lot of late winter / early spring night scenes, people standing around in the leafless and dripping woods, breath visible but you could tell it was more from damp than cold -- lots of cuts to animals (possums, mice, that kind of thing) scuttling around. The impression I got was the secret life of the woods, moles and roots, trees storing up water and preparing for the energy-burst of spring. A "sap is rising" kind of thing.

Apollo: sun god, and god of prophecy, once god of a mouse-cult... I was riding Friday night on the road, and the air was damp but not too cold; ride was actually a bit hairy on the winter-damaged roads especially downhills, and cars seemed to be a little more confrontational than usual (both of those facts may have been related to poor lighting decisions on my part), but all that made me feel totally pumped for some reason. Hill ride, slow hard climbs, and on two different hills I saw a field mouse scuttling along the side of the road. The January thaw will probably be over soon, winter has barely even started but I can feel spring building.

Listening: Right now it's "Bullrushes" by the Bongos, but just a second ago it was Galaxie 500, "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste." One of my favorite songs, total shoegazer anthem, now I'm pumped again and will be riding offroad this afternoon.

It was a good weekend by the way, more on that later.

I Have Achieved EMPTINESS

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10% BF

 

Whelp, stayed in last night. I was a bit tired and it was already close to 11:00 when I would've left the house; that's closing time at Which Brew, at least on "school nights." Porters would have been my only choice, and then I remembered that Thursday is "open mic night," which used to be really good but is now something I try to avoid...

 

My friend Larry is sick, so he won't be joining me on the towpath tonight. Since I'd be solo I was thinking of maybe hitting the road instead, but I expect that with the rain and traffic and all, the woods will probably be safer so towpath it shall be.

I Still Dream Of Orgone

Reading: Just finished Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, and picked up where I left off in A Book of Dreams. That is some quality crazy going on in that situation...

Meanwhile, here is something for you to read: is this guy every woman? Um, hope not, but he, and the peeps he meets, cover almost all the riders I know, and our moods and reasons for riding. There was no biking involved with our scene, but I remember we had a frog pond too as kids, a-and -- well, here and here are two more good stories, let them be a warning to you...

Just finished cleaning the bike, prepping it for tomorrow. Dinner was bean stew, workout was alterna-gym. I'm feeling cooped up; I may run out for a bit down to WB, or more likely Porters to see some faces.

Say Something Once, Why Say It Again?

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Like I said, last night's bean & tomato stew was tasty (which is good because I have a ton of the stuff left over), but I expected it to be a little more forgiving on the weigh-in front. Good yoga class last night, the teacher called it "fairly easy" but my own personal ass was suitably kicked ... she said she'll have a hard class on Saturday -- gulp! Tonight is alterna-gym nite, and I may make some pasta & tuna for dinner.

 

Short & sweet: no dreams, no incidents, vignettes to speak of so I'm outta here.

 

mba rara m'eroto ondyoze ... mbe mu munine m'oruroto ayo u n'omuinyo

Bouncing from room to room reading different books: read in Male Fantasies about someone or other's role suppressing the Herero uprising of 1920 or so, hit the parts in Gravity's Rainbow where the "Enzian the Herero vs. his Russian half-brother Tchitcherine" subplot starts to unfold... go into the kitchen where I'm eating that stew (which was lovely, except that the lentils were a bit al dente), and I read in Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail about a thunderstorm haunted by ghost horses, which made the hair on my neck stand up...

"Horses, horses, horses, horses
Coming in in all directions
White shining silver studs with their nose in flames,
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses,
Horses, horses, horses, horses...
Do you know how to pony?
Like bony maroney,
Do you know how to twist?
Well it goes like this, it goes like this..."

-- Patti Smith, "Land"

Discipline

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 9% BF

 

I've been futzing around with the gas mileage on my car: The new car does the MPG calculation in real time based on fuel consumption and speed, and there's an LED that shows your current (instantaneous) as well as average MPG. I've been trying to adjust my driving to keep that gas mileage as high as possible, and I'm finding that I have a lot of bad habits I need to break. It's tough too, retraining yourself and constantly thinking about it, watching that gas meter -- in town it's a losing battle, but I've done pretty well on rural stuff, and have been taking the highway to work lately since that's best of all, even if the interstate is a boring and depressing way to travel.

 

I had to drop off drycleaning last night on the way to the gym, and had to hit a cash machine before that, and I was running late so of course there was an idiot in front of me. Tradesman's van, ladders on top, looked like he was realizing that he might not make it under the low clearance, then decided to go anyway -- this was all while I was driving by the bank, so there was no pressure behind him to make him go forward yet.

 

Well, he overshoots the telling machine, gets out of the van to do his transactions, which take forever, hmmm, looks like he's having a little bit of trouble... He gets back in the van and pulls forward, and the ladders catch on the slightly lower exit clearance. I'm honking away, the ladders are making an infernal racket scraping on the stucco roof and each other, and the guy stops, then pulls forward, hesitates again, and then pulls all the way out, knocking the ladders off the van. Then he parks.

 

I park too (the guy behind me had already backed out and left), and go to the ATM while the van dude starts fooling with his ladders, and I find that the guy actually left his card in the machine. I call over to him and hand him his card while he runs off a string of obscenities -- I notice alcohol on his breath, though he doesn't look drunk or wobbly or anything. I finished my business and got out of there while he was still messing with his broken ladders.

 

Drycleaning, then the gym for the standard workout including legs. Pretty good workout, weights were high but not record-breaking (except quad extension), and I felt strong throughout. Grabbed some Taco Hell for dinner, then went out food shopping, picked up ingredients for that tomato and bean stew.

 

Got home and busted out the crock pot again, as well as the food processor for the first time. (Verdict: it's good, but I can tell that practice makes perfect.) Got everything prepared, cleaned up the kitchen and hit the sack around midnight.

 

I've been dreaming a lot more lately, or at least, remembering them more, mostly disjointed stuff, bits and pieces are all I bring back. Last night I dreamed of cycling though, something I don't remember ever doing before. I was on the road bike, in Southside Bethlehem (only it was a dream-Bethlehem, like the surreal Easton of my dreams), heading sort of west and looking for "Broad Street," which I thought I'd overshot -- I was in a rougher neighborhood, sort of like a cross between Allentown and the Easton's abandoned train station -- but then I found it, and ran into a group of other riders. We were cruising along, fooling around on roads that reminded me of Bike New York, jumping curbs etc... last thing before waking up, I was hanging at the Bethlehem Bike Co-Op, changing a tire.

 

Tonight is yoga, then that stew for dinner.

It Is Not A Tumor!

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10.5% BF (well, that's a relief, I guess)

 

Yoga last night, with another new (to me) teacher -- I think at this point I've taken classes from all but one of the people who teach regularly at Easton Yoga. All but one of the yoga yoga classes that is; I'm not counting things like belly dancing etc... Good class, once again a very different perspective on familiar things; it's amazing how personal yoga can actually be.

 

After that was good old Which Brew for Mug Club Night. Brian was a no-show: he forgot it was coming up, and was doing his speed skating thing. There was the usual W-Brew crew though, pleasant evening as always, even if I did sneak out a little early.

 

Tonight is the gym. (Meantime, I really have to start finding out how to incorporate more riding without losing the other things I've been doing.)

 

 

The Mystery Explained

Morning weigh-in: 164#, 10.5% BF

 

...One mystery at least: I don't know what's going on with the sudden weight loss (not that I'm complaining or anything), but I can say that my lousy towpath experience the other night was because the towpath is just one long, energy-sucking mud pit right now. Total mush, I was able to see exactly what was going on in the daylight yesterday. Sals was a little better, more like a leafy slime coating on the rocks, kind of slippery but that's about it. I'll probably stay out of the woods until it either dries up or freezes again: it wasn't the most ecologically correct thing to do, and my bike, "rode hard and put away wet," now needs some serious TLC.

 

Kind of nice though, I ran into a bunch of younger dudes riding, then we all ran into Joe C and Doug (who knew the guys I hooked up with) going the other way, then I dropped the youngsters on the hills (heh heh), but decided to take the road back to the Dodson lot, where I met Joe and Doug again, and finagled a ride home from Joe. (Saw others out there, and also got a call from Heath that he was chasing me up the Spanky, but I was already done and at Dodson.) Pretty solid ride actually, and I felt great.

 

Some unusual events on the towpath: the river rescue guys were out, rescue truck, SCUBA gear and boats at the Freemansburg locktender's house. Looks like someone fell in the river but I saw nothing about it in the news yet.

 

Home, cleaned up, laundry, and I had some spare time so I took the "Hot Fudge Sundae" yoga class downtown, purely on impulse. This class is a mix of vinyasas with restorative poses, new stuff to me, and the teacher was new to me too, so it was a very interesting experience; I'm pretty happy I went. I also saw Katie (of "Dan & Katie," don't know their last name but they're friends with Greg & Judy) in class, and heard about their baby's first Christmas.

 

Going home from yoga, there was a guy who ran out of gas near my parked car. I gave him a ride to the nearest gas station, stuck around to give him a ride back even though I originally said I couldn't -- then noticed that he was now begging for the gas money. I told him I wasn't waiting around any more, and took off.

 

Dinner was a ribeye sandwich at Porters (making that weight loss even more mysterious) while the laundry dried. I saw Kelly-Jo and Larry down there for a bit, but they just popped in for a few minutes, grabbed some take-out & left. Tonight is more yoga for me, "active rest"in the beginner's class, followed by Mug Club Night at Which Brew, and then I'll be making another crock pot -- this time it'll be bean and tomato stew  -- for the rest of this week's dinners.

Sunday Rejuvenation?

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 10% BF

Considering that I did nothing yesterday, then rather heroically finished that pot roast, a-and then went out and ate a white pizza, with the requisite beers, at Which Brew -- also Porters to catch KEF, after the band at the WB drove me out by playing Journey covers, but I digress -- those weigh-in numbers are kind of low. Something must have been up, fatigue or whatever. Hopefully the one rest day I got was enough.

I'm about to find out: riding down to Sals via the towpath in a few minutes.

New Year's Photos

Appalachian Trail
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Just posted the photos from my hike on New Year's Day, as well as a few from the last Sals trailwork day of 2007. Go check 'em out, yo.

An Army Of Lovers Can Be Beaten

So here I am, finishing off another pot roast, with a little bit of Ray's Rad Chilies to help it go down...

Read any good books lately? Like I said, I have Gravity's Rainbow as my bathroom reader, on top of five other new books I'm working my way through. Thus it was bound to come to pass that I get one more book today in the mail: Male Fantasies -- it's not what you think, but rather a psychological analysis of Freikorps literature (published stuff, cartoons, letters, diaries, etc) -- from my Amazon wishlist. Thanks and Merry Christmas, Kevin & Amy!

That one's going in the kitchen but for now it's on the counter, to be read while I stand -- the place of honor (i.e. on the table) still goes to Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, which is almost done. The mathematical biology books are in the bedroom next to the computer, and the other Christmas gifts are in the living room.

(By the way, the title of this post is a quote from Gravity's Rainbow, a slogan that appears as graffiti in the reveries of one Leni Pökler, after she leaves her rocket-scientist husband and seeks refuge among her revolutionary comrades, in Inflation-era Germany. I thought it was appropriate -- like this -- given the nature of my new acquisition.)

Last night's towpath ride was a bit slow and difficult (sort of like the one on New Year's Eve), so today I blew off all exercise and in fact slept in until almost 11:00. I plan to stay in tonight and read (natch) unless Brian calls me back -- we had tentative plans to go skiing tonight, but I have not heard from him.

UPDATE: He just called, we're not going. Besides, it's raining.

UPDATE #2: Check this out. That "code pink" ad is basically straight out of my new book...

More Goodbyes

Rest in peace, Andy.

Curufinwë

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 9.5% BF

 

One thing I really like about the higher metabolism and lower body fat, is that I no longer feel cold the same way -- I'm back to just leaving a coat in the car for emergencies (and of course dressing appropriately when playing outside, but that's usually less clothes than you think anyway), feeling invigorated by the wind rather than chilled to the bone...

 

Huck 08! So the Iowa caucuses have come and gone. I'd feel OK voting for any of the big three Dem candidates, so I'm not as interested in Obama's win as in Huckabee's, and the turmoil it's causing in the Republican establishment. Meantime, here's another view with an interesting, if sad, look at his base .

 

Lifted last night, alterna-workout, then there was the crock-pot-and-reading fest, as already documented -- I am also working through that Matrix Population Models book, by the way. Tonight is the towpath, then Firkin Friday (cask-conditioned Raspberry Imperial Stout) at Which Brew. The group trip to Amsterdam should be back by now, so Larry P should have some good stories to tell.

The Whip, Sangraal, And The Lake Of Piety

At one of the Christmas parties last week, two guys gave the hostess a gag gift (consisting of a negligee and a riding crop), then told the following story: they were out, with kids in strollers, to get her some gift, and they were at a loss for gift ideas so one called his wife at work. She replied that she was busy and "just get her something slutty."

So, off they went to an adult novelty store at the mall, where one guy -- big, heavyset, large beard and shaved head -- waited outside with the strollers while the other went inside. He asked the clerk for something slinky in a certain size, "for a friend," and she kept looking dubiously at the big dude outside with the strollers, and trying to steer him toward the larger outfits...

There was much juvenile snickering of an adult nature, and later the talk turned to merkins. Now, I knew what a "merkin" was (you'll have to look it up yourself) from Gravity's Rainbow, but not everyone there was as well-read, so the discussion got interesting once again -- but I now believe I'm also the only one in that crowd to see Dr Strangelove. Anyway, just for laughs I looked up "merkin" in Wikipedia the other day, and found this quote from Lolita:

"Although I told myself I was looking merely for a soothing presence, a glorified pot-au-feu, an animated merkin, what really attracted me to Valeria was the imitation she gave of a little girl."

So then I had to look up "pot-au-feu," and found -- that's what I've been eating for dinner these past few weeks! What I had for dinner tonight. Small world.

Anyway, the reading material at the dinner table is Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail, where our intrepid adventurers have just arrived home from a second trip to Rennes-le-Château. Not sure what they ate, but they are discussing the very real possibility that the whole set of Grail-shaped mysteries centered on the town could just be one very elaborate hoax, albeit one so large and complicated as to be a paranoid wonder in and of itself -- like, oh I don't know, maybe the Trystero...

That's what's in the kitchen; Gravity's Rainbow is my current bathroom reader. I happen to be doing some bathroom reading, not even going to bother explaining what's going on but all of a sudden there's a passage about the Grail. And the circle gets tighter...

Introvert Day?! Nobody Told Me...

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10.5% BF

 

Well that explains my relief! Been there, done that.

 

Anyway, very good yoga class last night, followed by leftover pasta & tuna and some computer fun. Tonight is the gym, then some more pot roast plus laundry. I'll be skiing again this weekend, probably Saturday or Sunday night, so this cold snap is my friend -- but it would have been nice if the cold weather hit last week: they'll be blowing snow all night, and morning conditions will be primo. Things should still be good in the evening though.

Back To Work

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 9% BF

 

Not much to say, I think I covered everything with the last few posts... Back here at work after two weeks off, and I fell right back into the groove without missing a beat -- but I'm working on a new and different project, so the groove is a bit amorphous, and it's easier to define whatever I'm in right now as "the groove."

 

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf? The geese here have figured out that those coyote statues are fake, and have now taken over the lawn and lake out front.

I, Proteus

Well, here it is, 2008.

Rode last night down to Sand Island, but the island was closed off (probably for First Night, and for all I know that's where the fireworks were being launched too), so I couldn't really get into town without some backtracking. I wasn't interested in hanging around anyway -- it was kind of cold out, maybe 20 degrees -- so I just turned around. Hard slog, working the whole way out and back, and my time was about two hours. I was on my front porch at exactly midnight, when everyone came out their doors with noisemakers and fireworks.

Decided to go out after all, so I cleaned up and walked to Porters, where I hung with Mike, an ex-Genesis employee from way back. They had an unusual show going on: two DJ's, and apparently it was a record release party for them too. Pretty nice, and I did get a "real" New Year's after all.

Played with the computer this morning, then went for a hike at the Water Gap, on the AT starting from behind the Deer Head Inn. I got a bunch of pictures, so stay tuned. This afternoon was Judy's New Year's get-together. Nice people, most of whom I only know from other parties she's had but I did see Ann, Lee and Pete, so I felt at home. Older crowd, my age to about mid-50's I'd guess, more socially confident and the stories are better than the usual scene... Got my "good luck" pork and sauerkraut (a local "PA Dutch" tradition), plus lotsa cake and munchies... at home, dinner tonight was that pot roast, plus a salad.

Cha-cha-cha-changes: Was looking at my New Year's resolutions from last year. I'd have to say that #3 was a bit of a mixed bag, but all in all I think they were good ideas, and now that I'm finally seeing some results on #1 & #2 I think I'll just keep them all for this year as well -- with the added intention, of doing whatever it takes to take it all to the next level. I'm purposely leaving that a little loosely defined, we'll see where it goes...

Auld Lang Syne

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 9% BF

Woke up this morning totally wasted, legs destroyed from the previous several days of play, especially the skiing yesterday. I'm not used to that anymore. Got on the slopes a little before 9:00 AM and got in an even dozen runs before I quit at 12:30, my quads were burning. My arms and upper body were shot too, since I went out straight after skiing to play hod carrier at the Sals trailwork day. I was going to do a morning yoga class today but I just hurt too much...

It didn't help that last night was my "New Year's Eve." I met Brian for dinner at Porters, and we stayed for a few to punch the clock: I'm more than halfway to my new mug, and Brian is almost done. As I was getting ready to leave, one of the bartenders (I know him because he dates one of the Which Brew barmaids) came in off duty and wanted to socialize, but I just couldn't hang -- a couple of beers and a big meal on top of all that fatigue, and all I wanted to do was get some sleep. I was home by 9:00 and asleep by 9:15. Awake at 4:00, played with the computer until maybe 5:30 then crashed again, woke up at 8:00 for real and decided to blow off any physical activity until tonight. Too bad, it was beautiful out, but I got some shopping and other chores done, and now I have another pot roast waiting in the crock pot for tomorrow. That crock pot does rock.

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot: One of the bartenders at Porters, a guy named Matt who I credit with causing me to like hanging there again -- not that it was bad or anything before -- said his goodbyes last night: he's relocating to go back to school. Oh well, good for him but I'll be sad to see him go.

Tonight I'm riding out the old year on the towpath, hopefully I'll be in Bethlehem for the midnight fireworks -- I may try to hook up with Brian, since he'll be with speed-skating friends, watching the show from somewhere near the historical graveyard. I'll hike the new year in at Sunfish Pond, then I'm stopping by a friend's place for an afternoon get-together. I'll be bringing the bundt cake.

Happy New Year! Catch y'all on the flip side.

dont u no me im ur native son

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 10% BF

Checking in, still fighting that cold, just playing with the 'puter and eating some breakfast. I'm out the door to go skiing in a few minutes.

I consider yesterday duly seized: yoga in the morning, coffeeshop breakfast, then the gym, some errands, and then the towpath for what I hoped would be a hot lap (eh, not so much) but it was good nonetheless -- I also checked out the singletrack along the river, and it's in excellent condition. The day was a total "brick workout," and by the time I was done I felt like I'd been hit by a ton of them.

I was tired and hungry and the pot roast was all gone, so after cleaning up I walked downtown for an early Which Brew night, last one of the year. Gobbled down a ton of food, hung out and talked with the early evening regulars (there is a regular Saturday dinner crowd). Mark, cousin of one of my co-workers, was showing me his new i-pod thingie, pretty sweet little device. We started talking gadgets, iPhones, talking vs texting -- bartenders (younger) said they prefer texting, while us oldsters went with talking.

Caught a little bit of the music before I left, first set of the Skulldiggers. They played Arlo Guthrie's "City of New Orleans," and for some reason it really grabbed me. But I had to go: I was tired, it's more than a mile uphill walk, and the day was starting to seize me back anyway.

PS Kick-ass road ride with Joe on Friday, a real confidence booster.

Friday Fly-By

Morning weigh-in: 165.5#, 12% BF

Just popping in to record the weights. Sun's out and I'm meeting my friend Joe around noon, rendezvousing on the bikes somewhere out by Carpentersville. Gotta leave around now, but in the meantime, I leave you with this. As someone said, this will not end well, but my plan all along has been to be stringy & unappetizing by the time we resort to cannibalism...

The Days Fly By

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 11.5% BF

I was thinking of either skiing again or riding this morning, but it was raining. I guess I could have done either one anyway, but I am pretty tired from yesterday's skiing and yoga, and tonight is alterna-workout nite -- I may bust out the singlespeed and cruise the neighborhoods later this evening, my Easton street sprints workout.

Today was just laundry, general housework, and of course fiddling with the computer, but we're talking mostly just browsing, even though I've been messing again with that Octave, trying different things etc. That kind of play just eats time.

I remember when I was hurt/sick last year, making all sorts of promises to myself -- bike every day, get back into skiing, get a pedicure, etc -- as soon as my foot was healed. By the time it was over I was totally jonesing, ready to make up for all sorts of lost time, but (in the case of the bike) within a few weeks it was no longer a joyous gift and luxury, I was more like "eh, whatever" when I missed a ride. Now I have the skis: I had big plans to ski every day, maybe take a trip over Christmas -- one day on the slopes and it's back to "same old same old, think I'll take a day off." Still haven't gotten that pedicure...

BTW and TMI: My left big toe, the one I dropped a log on once, has a bad case of "old man's toenail." I cut and file and buff, but nothing seems to help; that pedicure would probably be a good idea if I weren't so embarrassed to show the toe.

Anyway, had that pot roast last night, though I cooked it more like "New England Boiled Dinner:" just a bunch of carrots, celery, onions and potatoes (you can actually buy this combination pre-cut in a bag, like a salad - who knew?), some onion soup mix and a chunk of meat. It cooked in the crock pot for about 8 hours, and I had it with some salad and a Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. It was so good, I'll probably do the same thing again tonight, or at least hit the leftovers.

I'd like to do a NJ road ride with my friend Joe tomorrow -- he's also off, this crappy weather is getting to him too but the morning weather should be cooperative enough for the road -- but I haven't heard back from him yet. I'll do a little bike prep while the laundry continues, then I'm off to the gym.

Wow, That Was Bad

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 10.5% BF

Just got back from skiing. I was supposed to go very early this morning, like roll out of bed and leave, but I decided to dick around with the computer when I got up, and then I realized I had to buy veggies for the pot roast I wanted to cook, then I had to cook it... Suffice to say I did the things I had to do, but didn't actually hit the slopes until about 12:30 or so -- and by then the place was a mob scene, mostly teenagers and families.

Still it was fun, except for the part where I realized how much I now truly suck at skiing. I did about six runs on the easier slopes before I even tackled anything harder (never did hit the diamonds), and kept it slow and cautious. Things did start coming back to me, but I was sure surprised at how off my game I really was, and how un-confident I felt, too. Oh well, it will all come back I'm sure, and at least I didn't screw up too badly in front of those teenagers... Skis & boots felt good; I didn't notice anything amazing about them though, but I didn't really give them the chance to shine yet.

Anyway, I got out of there just before the rain started to fall, now I'm uploading Christmas photos (check 'em out) before yoga. After that -- well, there's a pot roast with my name on it waiting in the crock pot.

Le Bon Sansculotte

I'm back. Didn't even skip a day...

Reading: Got Peter Reich's A Book of Dreams (thanks Mom - I can't believe you got this, even used it's so expensive), also Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail and that new Charles Schulz biography. All are awesome, and I'm almost done with the first two.

Listening: I forgot its name, but I played it through a few times on the drive home, and already have some new favorite songs... that collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss -- Raising Sand is the name. My nephew gave me that.

Eating: Soon enough anyway -- my uncle gave me a food processor.

Merry Christmas!

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 11% BF (wow even after all that cheese)

Merry Christmas Eve, anyway. I'm out of here, heading down to the new ancestral home for the holidays in a few hours, light/nonexistent posting for a bit. Bringing the bike, I might hit Allaire tomorrow morning -- I haven't been there in years. It's not the greatest place, but it's close to Jackson and I figure it'll be mostly snow-free.

The Year In Review: I'll leave you with this: it looks like Achewood is now Time Magazine's #1 Graphic Novel for the year -- it's a webcomic dammit! But I'll take the validation...

Also: And for those keeping score, my new (to me) skis are K2 Apache Recons, while my new boots are Nordica Speedmachine 10's. Those reviews make them seem pretty extreme, but I guess I'll grow into them.

Have a safe and happy Christmas.

"Hark! The herald angels sing,
Mrs. Simpson's pinched our king."

One Last Camera Dump

Frieda?
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I posted my photos from last night's Solstice Party, which was a total blowout by the way. Unfortunately, I didn't start taking any pictures until relatively late in the evening, when things had already shifted into hijinks mode; the earlier mood of the party was more like "food and conversation."

(The guy in the sweater is Larry, who I've been riding with on weekends lately. We were out on the towpath earlier in the day, and also tried the singletrack along the river, but found the snow down there less than ideal for riding. It was a serious "resistance workout:" two hours of slogging, and we probably went ten miles...)

Anyway, I stayed over last night, hung out for a bit in the morning (Fred made us all a killer breakfast), then went and finished my Christmas shopping. I also picked up my new skis and boots -- my plan was to go skiing tonight, but this warm, rainy weather is more suitable for laundry-type activities. Oh well, maybe later in the week.

More Party Photos

Styling!
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I just posted more photos on flickr; this batch is from last night's VMB Christmas Party. Had a good time there, but it was a late night which caused me to skip yoga this morning...

I'm leaving in a few minutes to go to Fred & Lara's "Solstice Party." Should be good.

Woo Hoo! Another Milestone!

Don't Ask
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 10.5% BF

This photograph is my 2000th one on flickr, which means I posted a bunch this morning, mostly from the re-gifting party last night. Go check them out, most of them are better than this.

Good day yesterday: rode the benchmark in 1:45, not bad for this time of year, my mellow-ride intentions, and the fact that I was on the Iguana. Wed roads, spring tights, it was pretty chilly, at least for my shins... Got home, few chores/errands, hit the gym for alterna-workout nite, more chores, then I went to the party. Very strong sense of community last night, lotta social interactions, some of them of a revelatory nature that I am still digesting...

Off And Spending Money

Morning weigh-in: 169.5#, 11% BF

Tuesday was my last day of work until 2008, so I went out (on foot) to celebrate... Yesterday I spent most of the day recovering, which meant playing with the computer, walking around town, and riding the Iguana, until it started to rain.

Finally went to Nestors and bought some ski boots. The process was much easier than I would have thought; those guys really are experts and had no problems working with the ankle. I paid for that expertise though: the boots themselves came to about $699, and I also got them fitted, got special insoles, got some work done on those new (to me) skis...

Ah well, the skis were my Christmas present to myself, and "in for a penny, in for a pound," as the saying goes -- the boots should last for a long time, too, through at least a few sets of skis. Meantime, I found out yesterday that the skis I did get usually sell for about $900, so I'm ahead of the game -- and my inner miser can console himself with the fact that this is a drop in the bucket compared to what I'd spend, without batting an eye, on the bike. Of course, actually riding the bike is usually free, unlike Teh Downhill.

Evening yoga (many many back bends), dinner at Which Brew: Caribbean Beef. Tonight is the gym, then back to Which Brew for the re-gifting party. It looks super-nice out, I may go for another ride in a few minutes.

Advent And Stillness

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 11% BF (been there, done that, seen those weights)

 

Bad food choices yesterday for the most part, lucky break I wasn't punished too severely for it...

 

Things seem quiet, all the world is waiting for this year's Bottom Dead Center. I don't have much to say either: yoga last night, followed by a whole lotta nothing, unless you count the computer and reading. River colors were so-so this morning. If I finish what I'm doing here, I may take the rest of the week/year off -- I still have to buy new boots, but I want to go skiing in VT this week sometime, maybe hit Von Trapp for XC as well as downhill at Stowe. Meantime, tonight is the gym.

 

 

Mellow

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 9.5% BF (Holiday season, steak-and-beer weekend, what did I expect?)

 

Here's a fun thing, and if they're to be believed, you're helping feed the poor too!

 

Walked around downtown yesterday in the rain: lunch and a coffee purchase at the Quadrant, then I stopped in at Porters later in the day. No food, just punching my ticket -- I am now about 20 beers down, of the 60 you have to drink to get your mug. Caught part of the Steelers game, saw some peeps, walked home, still raining. Played with the computer for a few hours,  noticed that the sun finally came out, but it was too late in the day to take advantage so I just went and dug out the car. That was some nasty ice-glazed snow, I had to bust out the camping shovel because the regular ones just couldn't deal...

 

This morning was cold but beautiful out, perfect sky, clouds and sun like breaking fresh bread, one of those rare days when the winter sunlight is golden rather than silver. Drove along the Lehigh & Muskenetcong Rivers on the way in, and the light on the water was my favorite gray-green "light on cold water" color. Bonus!

 

Tin Soldier On A Pale Horse

There is apparently a dude in North Jersey who looks just like me, guy by the name of Barry that the Piccatinny crowd knows. I'm constantly hearing "Wow you look so much like him it's uncanny," and in fact I was at a restaurant once in Newton, and as we left, someone knocked on the restaurant window and chased us outside to say hello, thinking I was Barry...

I never met the guy, and everyone involved seems to get a kick out of the fact that we've never been seen together, like Superman and Clark Kent or something. Well I didn't meet him last night either, but I got to the dinner late, and Barry had been there, early, and left only moments before -- I ended up in his seat. The party was upstairs at the Long Valley Pub, where there are two staircases, and apparently he went down one as I was coming up the other. Much chuckling as we figured that out. (If that was a movie, they'd cut that scene as being just too implausible.) Pretty good party overall, too, nice people. Crazy-fun drive there too, Rt 57 then over Schooley's Mountain, via roads that seemed just one step up from dirt.

Which Horseman? Meanwhile, back at the stealth apocalypse... no, the other one.

Anyway, going to deal with the car now (the old one), I pretty much have it towed and sold, just have to go make the final handshake. After that I may go for a walk or a ride, depending on what I find on the ground outside. I might be going to a wake this afternoon: a woman I used to work with (she retired several years ago) passed away Thursday. The viewing is in Rockaway though, and I don't know what road conditions I'm willing to deal with. We'll see.

Happy Easter!

Found an Easter egg last night, in fact two of them: playing an old CD on my new car's stereo, and when it got to the end there were two tracks I'd never heard before. This was a Fu Manchu CD from 2000 or so, and I'd played it to death years ago -- it seemed impossible that I wouldn't know every note of every song on it, let alone finding two whole unfamiliar songs. Turns out they were bonus tracks in MP3 format, and since I now have an MP3 player built in to the car stereo, it just played them like the others. Well whaddaya know...

Anyway, rode last night with Larry, then caught Steve McDaniels at Which Brew, plus a little bit of Post Junction at Porters. This morning was yoga and then the gym; now I'm getting ready for the Picatinny Arsenal mountain-biking engineers Christmas dinner -- Joe & Dawn both work there, and I ride (and hang) with that crew on occasion.

And finally, your word for today is ergodicity -- that's the term that describes a population model's independence between initial conditions and long-term results. The example I was playing with the other day was not very ergodic.

Oh, And Another Thing...

Go read this. Wow.

In The Shadow Of The Wolf

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 10% BF

 

Well that wasn't so bad! I had the dates mixed up -- the "regifting party" is next Thursday (a-and Which Brew was closed last night anyway because of weather), and the VMB Christmas party is next Friday. Car is still parked where I left it, but there was no snow emergency even though schools (and work here) got out early. Went home, played with the computer, then went to the gym but it was closing too. Porters was still open though, so that's where I went next, had dinner (Irish peasant stew & a cheese plate) and a Corsendonk Chistmas Ale, huge bottle. So, there's some un-suppression in those numbers up there... Usual Porters crowd, but I also saw Tim S there; usually I see him at WB of a Thursday.

 

Went home, prepped the bike for tonight & got the batteries charging. A little more with the 'puter, then early bed. Funny, I've been sleeping well, and with the early bedtimes I've been waking up refreshed every morning about 4:00 AM, then falling back to sleep -- and waking up tired at 6:30. Wazzap widdat?

 

Lycanthrophobia: We used to pay a guy to walk his dog by the lake here, to chase away the geese, but the dog got downsized and now we've got these sort of scarecrow-thingies, very lifelike coyote statues placed here and there around the grounds. It seems to work, but I noticed the other day a colony of geese by one of the evergreen "landscape features," all packed together on the visual leeward side of the bushes -- where they couldn't see the coyotes, and the coyotes couldn't "see" them...

 

(Had a dream last night that I was the sole, severely wounded survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn, and I was exhausted, dying, lying trapped at the top of a cliff over the Colorado River, and just waiting for the Indians to catch up with me before throwing myself over it. Cut to a medium-long aerial shot, watching my blood cascade down the cliff into the water, where the wolves were waiting in the shallows. Next thing, I'm partway down the cliff, waiting for the wolves to close in, as they move along the cliff face like goats.)

 

Anyway, tonight is the towpath, then maybe WB or just more computer play, and tomorrow is yoga/gym/Jacobsburg, then that dinner party at the Long Valley Pub.

Constant Whitewater

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 10.5% BF

 

What A Revoltin' Development: Turns out that there are two people living in my apartment, one named <me> and the other named <me> Junior; one of them owns my old car (his name is on the title), and the other has a driver's license plus other forms of ID, and can prove that he exists... I cannot sell the car until that gets fixed, maybe some time after Christmas -- the paperwork is in, but the PA bureaucracy may grind a little slowly at this time of year. Oh well. Car was "parked"  (read: "broken down") on a snow emergency route, so I called and had it towed into storage before the cops came and, uh, had it towed into storage...

 

Meantime: Yoga last night, then Which Brew for dinner, broccoli soup and fish 'n' chips. Very early night though, I was in and out by 10:30 so I could finish messing with the car. (The roof rack is basically rusted on, I may ask the shop to cut the mounts off so I can salvage the racks & crossbars.) Tonight is a late night here, then alterna-workout nite at the gym, followed by the Which Brew "Re-Gifting Party" -- I'll be ditching that Xmas Elmo P.O.S. from the Chain Gang party, not sure what I'll come home with.

 

I have a Christmas party tonight, tomorrow night, and Saturday night. I don't feel up for the season and I'm already dreading it.

 

 

Insects And Cobwebs

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 9.5% BF

 

Is that you, Shaun Ryder? Wow I had a dream about this last night, must have heard it on the news or somewhere & not realized. (I was at work in my dream, and I told my co-worker, who happened to be George Bush, that I had the President's cell number. I then told him what the number was, and he crank-called it -- using my phone.)

 

Busy evening: I dropped off the rental car and picked up my dry cleaning, each within minutes of the place closing, and then I went to the gym. Dinner unfortunately was Taco Bell, but I got two (relatively) healthy 7-Layer Burritos instead of the usual ground beef calorie fest. After dinner I cleaned the old car. I still have to take the roof rack off -- it was almost midnight when I got to it last night, and I was just too tired -- but it should be ready for sale/junking by tonight.

 

Finger Exercise: Working my way through the first and thinner of those two bio-math texts. I've been basically bouncing back and forth between Chapter 1 (insect populations, types of competition, and stability analysis of the population size), and Appendix A ( ie "the math you need for Chapter 1"). Very information dense; the second, larger book seems much more conversational in tone, though I've only looked at the introduction so far.

 

 

Got It, And Other Odds & Ends

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 10.5% BF

 

Picked up the car last night, car-purchasing process took forever but now I have my new Outback -- I may be able to sell them the old one too, we'll see. Doug helped me move cars around, and so he and Lori got the first ride in it; we went to Brew Works for dinner afterward. It was a very early night though, went home after dinner, bed by 10:30.

 

Quote of the night: I was babbling last night about my computer adventures, Lotka-Volterra, Achewood, blah de blah blah, and Lori said "Why can't you just be into porn?" Oh you're a riot Alice...

 

No yoga last night (obviously); tonight will be the gym. In other news, the humidifier is now back up and running, pumping 1.5 gallons of water into the air per day  -- indoor air at home feels great.