Knoxville Gothic

Boy, this place is weird... We are staying at the Maplehurst Inn, which is probably the roughest place I've ever stayed without actually using a tent. They look like they might have been struggling, then recently changed hands and are now in the middle of renovations -- our room is great, but we peeked into other rooms that look completely derelict, and there seem to be several handyman types hanging about, mostly smoking and BS'ing out back. The girl who acted as receptionist (there's no lobby, natch, just a sort of hallway where she was sitting in a chair), was young and pretty, and dressed in an upscale young-and-pretty-girl way, but when she asked us what we wanted for breakfast, you could tell she did not know what "rye toast" was.

The main front door was unlocked, and we were waiting for Emmi to stop by so it was no surprise when we heard a knock on our room's door, but it was a street person, attempting to impersonate a college student, giving a spiel and asking questions from some sort of script, like a cross between a panhandler and a telemarketer. Mind you, this is in the hallway of the B&B...

Emmi came by just then and rescued us, and we hit a place called Tomato Head for dinner, very nice. Some brews and hanging out, then we went back to our base camp, where there were all sorts of weird noises, music etc like there may have been a party on the roof or something (I even heard a puppy barking), but eventually the noise died down and we fell asleep -- to be awakened this morning by the most disgusting, hacking smoker's cough, probably the cook making breakfast.

By the way, we are not alone in our views of this place, check out these reviews -- and the strangest part is that the Maplehurst is rated second best B&B in Knoxville! In terms of location, the place can't be beat, and it looks like the renovations (which seem to have started this year) are creating a really nice space -- and their wi-fi is the fastest connection, and the only encrypted one, we've seen in our travels; the infrastructure is beautiful if currently decrepit, it's just that the place really needs a lot of work.

"The infrastructure is beautiful if currently decrepit." That seems to sum up the crunchier parts of town, which is what we've explored so far. (We only got as far as the first coffee shop -- Old City Java -- but still.) Lots of ancient space reconfigured but not fully renovated, ancient brickwork in need of re-pointing, facades in need of repainting, woodwork on the verge of decay, iron railing on balconies over the street...

The Southern Tour So Far

Whelp, here we are at the Folkstone Inn, just outside Bryson City NC. In a few minutes we're goin in for breakfast, and then we're off to ride the Tsali trail system.

The ride here was long spectacularly beautiful -- we were thinking of taking the uber-scenic Blue Ridge Parkway from Afton, our first stop, but that would have been too long, and the views from I-81 (and I-40) were good enough... Once we got off the interstates, things got way more interesting: windy roads, tacky roadside attractions -- we were on the southern side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and it looked like the road was a poor man's Gaitlinburg, with a Cherokee Reservation casino smack in the middle of it all. Finally, following the Google Maps directions, we ended up some tiny dirt road -- literally no room for two cars to pass, and cliffs on the side -- through the park and out the back of Bryson City. Our B&B is about a half mile, on good roads, from the center of town, but well, Google Maps... Bit we're here.

Upt until yesterday's travel day, we were literally in Waltons country, maybe 20 miles from where the real writer (the fictional John-Boy Walton grew up). The most amazing scenery, beautiful farmland, and our place (the Afton Mountain Bed and Breakfast) was amazing.

We got there late in the afternoon/evening, in the fog, and all we had time for was dinner (at one of the two brewpubs within a few miles of the place); Sunday we did our road ride, Afton Mountain Road past the Cookie Lady's house -- not home? hiding from us? -- and then down the Blue Ridge Parkway and back on regular roads. We were going to add some more to the ride, but the roads I wanted, when we got far enough away from the main roads, turned to dirt so we turned around. Still, we got in a good 40 miles. Dinner that night was at the other brewpub. (Wine people would have even more luck: there are maybe four vinyards within two miles of the Afton Mtn B&B.)

Anyway, next order of business is to find my camera. It's in the car but I have taken no pictures yet, but today's the day...

Ladies' Night

I hit the gym last night (which I positively breezed through), then I went home and worked on the computer for a while, more of that MTO stuff. Since I'd lost my phone -- it was in the laundry, right uh, where I left it -- I had no idea of the timing or finer details, but the overall plan was to hit Brew Works to meet the gang after knitting.

 

So... I head over to Brew Works, and walk in to find Anne, Emmi, Deb, Donna and Lori all sitting together at a table -- talk about being the onion in the petunia patch! They'd only arrived a few minutes before, and were there long enough to get a drink order but they still hadn't ordered food, so I guess I wasn't too late. Lotsa BS and catching up, and much merriment and gossip, a really fun night. (I'm not even going to attempt to repeat any of the conversation, but it was shoot-beer-out-your-nose-laughing funny.) Dinner was tacos...

 

Tonight is yoga, and it'll probably be a night in for me after that; tomorrow is the gym again, and we're thinking of maybe visiting Porter's afterward.

Humpyard Dreams

The railroad slang for it is a "hump yard" (huh huh, huh huh), the place where they couple and decouple trains: there's a hill (aka "the hump") that one track goes over, and the RR rolls the cars up one side, then down the other side to the waiting trains. There's a hump yard along the Lehigh just west of town, and you can hear the booming from the woods at Sals, as the boxcars crash into each other.

 

Some nights when it's really quiet and still, you can hear trains moving across the valley, the train whistles etc, and it's a lonesome but reassuring sound, part of falling asleep -- like rain and faraway thunder when you're cozy in bed. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night, and it was a night like that, really quiet out except for the crickets, but then in the distance, just at the limit of hearing, I heard the crash of boxcars in the hump yard. Coming at sporadic intervals like a dripping faucet, it brought me fully awake, and then drove me nuts as I kept waiting for each next shoe to drop.

 

Got up this morning, and I'm still not sure I didn't just dream it...

 

In other news, I just got a flu shot. Five bucks in the cafeteria, and hopefully it won't give me the flu. Tonight is the gym, followed by Two-Brew Tuesday, aka $3.00 Taco Night, at the Brew Works. (Anne was out there yesterday, but I stayed in, and got another major chunk of that MTO thing done before an early bedtime.)

Creepshows

No morning weigh-in, scale's broken -- how convenient!

 

Awesome, and very productive, weekend. We (me, Anne, Deb, her friend Liz, Heidi, Greg's daughter Julie, and her friend Juan) got in a Friday night towpath ride, before Anne and I met Deb went to the Greek Food Festival, hit brew Works, and ran out of steam. Saturday was a classic "selfish day" -- laundry and other chores, oil change and other errands, then a visit to the gym. I met Anne and Emmi in Tamaqua later in the day, at the picnic-cum-baby shower for Lori and Chris, and then we hit the Greek Food Festival again, and ran out of steam again -- something in that cucumber sauce?

 

Sunday I did the VMB/IMBA Trail Care group ride, about 24 people in all including all the usual suspects. I felt pretty good, and was climbing well, and I was glad to see my heart rate top 180 BPM at one point -- I haven't seen it above 170 probably this whole year. My fitness is finally coming around, just in time for the last weekend of summer.

 

More stuff later in the day (haircut, WV photos to Flickr), while Anne and Emmi were at a wedding, then the whole crew met for dinner at the Brew Works.

 

Why Do Good Girls Like Bad Boys? I always knew Ayn Rand was a crazy asshole, but -- wow!

 

Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta-Touch Me: Some "Values Voters" work their way through what appear to be some personal problems.

 

(With a tip of the hat to Pandagon.)

 

Today is a rest day, lawn and laundry at home, then I have to start getting things ready for our next trip: we're hitting Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee next week, bringing both road and mountain bikes as well as our hiking shoes. Blue Ridge Parkway, Tsali, the Smokies...

 

Still Tired...

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 11% BF

 

...but what a difference a day makes, yadda yadda. I think I got the rest I needed, or at least some of it.

 

Short work day yesterday because of Raj's funeral. (I had a very surreal moment driving on the interstate in mid-afternoon, heading to Allentown for the funeral and listening to Tracy Ullman's "They Don't Know," it felt like I was in some kind of Mob movie or something.) This was the first Indian funeral/wake I've ever been to, and I had no idea what to expect, but with few exceptions -- the crowd was huge, and we sprinkled flower petals on Raj's feet -- it was standard fare, just a room full of people hanging out and grieving together. It was actually a combined viewing and funeral; I was there mainly for the viewing and left just before the start of the service proper.

 

I had a little free time afterward, so on my way to the gym I stopped at home and changed, and I also took a little time to move that MTO program a little further down the line. I got a chance to use it the other day in its incomplete form, and I think doing the final parts by hand told me what my next steps would have to be in the program. I should be done by the time I retire.

 

After that I hit the gym, where I did OK and felt fine, then went back home where Judy, Erika and Sally were visiting with Anne and Emmi. They'd been out to dinner at a local Middle Eastern restaurant and had some Turkish coffee, so the conversation was unusually vivacious...

 

A little socializing with the ladies, a little more programming after they left, and an early bedtime; tonight is the towpath and a visit to the Greek Food Festival, but I'm going to shoot for another early night.

 

You Down With OCD? I've been trying to floss regularly as a part of the new dental leaf I've turned over, and found the perfect way to get it done: I bought a pack of those flossing picks and brought them to work, where instead of idly chewing on pencils, I now idly floss as I do my thing.

 

Tired

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 175.5#, 11.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 176#, 11.5% BF

 

I guess it could be because I've been going nonstop since last Thursday, but I've been feeling really tired the last few days. I suspect that I'm coming down with something though, or maybe suffering from some seasonal allergy thing, because I've been stuffed up this past week and I've been noticing a little of the positional vertigo lately -- yoga last night was a doozy...

 

Rode Sals Tuesday, felt (and rode) terrible, Brew Works for dinner. Yoga yesterday, felt tired, Brew Works for dinner again. Tonight is the gym (after yet another funeral service), and I know some people are planning to go out, there was talk of a Porters visit but I think I need a night off. Tomorrow I'll be riding the towpath and keeping it pretty close to home again afterward, and Saturday I'd like to get up early enough to hit the gym, and maybe ride there.

 

All The People Who Died, Died: Another rough week. RIP Jim Carroll, and Patrick Swayze, and Mary Travers... also rest in peace Raj Bhalodia, a friend and colleague for the past 17 years. Fifty nine years old, he was helping someone move and had a heart attack Saturday; his service is where I'm going this afternoon. Lotta guys in suits here today, looks like the old days.

The Bash

Well, we're back from the RCST "Bash," four days of camping, biking, partying, and just plain sitting in the rain in the woods...

 

Basic Timeline: Anne and I arrived Thursday afternoon, and spent the evening at the group campfire with the other VMB early birds. Friday was a total washout, a rainy failure of a day, until we turned it around with a surprisingly pleasant ride; the evening chili contest -- I didn't win, again, though the winner was named Don --  segwayed into the now-traditional, and frighteningly successful, Friday Night VMB party, a luau this year. Saturday was still rainy but we did our "big ride" of the weekend, and got back just in time for the BBQ chicken dinner (this was also the night we -- the VMB campsite -- got into a confrontation with our neighbors over our late-night noise); and on Sunday the sun came back out, just in time for the end of the party, though we did get in a nice scenic ride up to the hang glider launch before we left. Back to camp for the last of the packing, and we were out of there by about 2:00. An awesome weekend, despite the rain.

 

(By the way, my big plan of pacing myself, and staying mellow through the luau so I could enjoy -- or at least be alive for -- the Saturday ride, paid off in a big way.)

 

I have pictures which I'll post pretty soon I'm sure; I'm still working my way through the West Virginia stuff so enjoy the recent additions and stay tuned for more...

 

 

 

900/99

Almost afraid to get on the scale, I've been eating so much (and exercising so little) lately...

 

Well, it's 9/09/09, whatever that might mean to you. Labor Day has come and gone, kids everywhere are back in school, and we leave for the RCST "Bash" tomorrow. It's been a week since my last post, and it'll probably be another (eventful) week until my next one, so here are some of last week's highlights before they fade away:

 

I got my teeth fixed  last Thursday (except for the one crown I still need: stay tuned). I am now officially on the road to better dental health, and celebrated with a burrito from Tulum -- my new dentist is in Coopersburg, so I stopped for take-out and had lunch with Anne at home. A really nice break in the daily routine, except for the Novocaine part...

 

We Don't Need No Bodhisattva Part 1: Thursday's moonlight ride was a blast. Me and Anne, Doug and Lori, Eric and Kris, and new cyclist Donna -- a group night ride with more women than men, probably the first time I've ever seen it. We cruised down to the Chain Dam, turned our lights off and checked out the light on the waterfall, and then cruised on home, chasing the trains that rolled along the other side of the river. Though we weren't pushing the pace too hard, we were also not slacking; the pace was brisk and I was a little worried for Donna, but her general runner's fitness kept her right up in the mix. What was I worried about?

 

Afterward we went over to Brew Works for a quick bite. I thought it was "late, wow maybe as late as midnight" when we left, but the kitchen clock said 1:00 AM when we got home -- ouch!

 

Friday night was First Friday in Southside Bethlehem. I was hanging with Anne and Donna, and we met up with Lori and checked out the shops. We stopped in at Clothesline Organics, then went to the Cutters grand opening, over to Home & Planet (nerve center for First Friday), and I escaped back to Clothesline Organics to share a beer with Josh while the ladies visited a shoe store  -- I was pretty estrogen'ed out, and would have paid someone to talk baseball or NASCAR at that point...

 

We also stopped in at Danielle's birthday party at the secret art space. That was very cool, but the space is non-alcoholic so we adjourned to the Tally Ho for a quick one and came back. Billy, Danielle, Fred & Lara, and Joanna, and Pete, and Pete -- a big dance party, lots of transplants from the Easton scene. (Strangely enough I saw Andrea on Thursday, and Kateryna outside Home & Planet on Friday, but they're not transplants: back in the day they were Bethlehemites visiting Easton, and Southside was and is their home turf.)

 

That was another late night, and Saturday is sort of a blur now -- we had a funeral, just a simple graveside ceremony for Sally's mom in the morning, then visited Anne's mom for a barbecue in the afternoon. The funeral was one of the strangest I've ever been to, lots of laughing and stories, and Sally's mom had lived a long and full life, but it was still a funeral and still rough, and emotionally draining, and by the end of the evening at Anne's mom's I was fighting to keep my eyes open. We were probably in bed by 9:00.

 

We Don't Need No Bodhisattva Part 2: I hooked up with another old friend on Sunday morning -- Nick got a mountain bike about a year ago, and after many false starts we finally made solid plans to go ride together at Sals. I had no idea what was going to happen, but we met for coffee at Wired, where he told me he mostly uses his bike for commuting and used to ride BMX when he was younger, so I figured he'd be OK in terms of both stamina and bike-handling.

 

Once again, I was worried about nothing: we basically rode everything there except Boulderama and the stuff near Dodson, and I kept up a fairly good pace but he was right there. (I think maybe it's time for me to get one of those T-shirts: "The older I get the faster I was.") We had a good two hours of fun, but then both our phones started ringing, and texts started coming in; the world had caught up with us and we had to bail. It was a pretty convenient situation for Nick -- his sister just had a baby and was in St Luke's, and he rode right over to visit. I called Anne, out on her own (road) ride, and we met at a very crowded Blue Sky for lunch.

 

That afternoon was a visit to my parents, and I got to see my Uncle Frank & Aunt Pat, for the first time in probably years, since they were visiting too -- they were up for cousin Claire's wedding.

 

Monday was back to Sals with a bunch of JORBA and VMB people, followed by a late lunch at the Brew Works. That was fun, but probably a mistake: we had Donna and Debbie over for dinner, and that was a total food-fest (pasta & ciabatta with nasturtium butter, plus a bunch of Puerto Rican fruits & delicacies that Debbie brought back from vacation -- we never even got to the peach crumble...), followed by another visit to BW, where we mostly just sat and groaned over our over-stuffed bellies.

 

So that was the summer's swan song; yesterday we checked out a "Pints and Policies" symposium at Brew Works ("Get your tail on the trail," basically about the local greenways), and tonight I make chili.

 

(These missives would probably be shorter if I did them more often.)

 

TEACHER: Johnny, can you spell "banana?"

JOHNNY: Yes, but I don't know when to stop: B-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A...

 

Idyll

Yep, "summer is in deceleration" as the saying goes, but yesterday I had half a cantaloupe (from the garden) for breakfast, with blueberries (from the mountain), yogurt, and Anne's homemade granola. Got home from work, and we bicycled over to Coca Cola Park to watch the Iron Pigs game with some friends, and then had dinner at Brew Works. What an awesome day! Except for a lunchtime trip to the dentist it really was close to perfect.

 

Tonight I think is more a chore fest, playing catch-up with stuff that didn't get done over the weekend, lawn and laundry and so on. I think I'll be stopping at the local bike shop, getting a new riding light and dropping the others off for repair; tomorrow we're hitting the towpath for a moonlight ride.

 

 

Time Stands Still Here

Well, not really, there's been a few changes even since the last time I was here, but here we are, sitting on the back porch at Elk River Touring Center, the old grassy field to my left and the forest (Gauley Mountain) rising like a wall in front of me...

Today we went hiking, which was something I never did down here. We went out to the Cranberry Wilderness Area, which is sort of behind, ie southwest of, most of the local biking I know. The wilderness area encompasses a whole bunch of the local tundra-style valleys and peat bogs, high-altitude wetlands that, because of the colder mountain climate, retained arctic flora that came south and established itself with the ice ages, but retreated with the retreating ice everywhere else. Lots of sphagnum, rhododendron (OK, not that exotic), oswego, strange little orchids and cranberries and herbs... I have pictures, stay tuned...

The bogs are protected, so needless to say there's no biking in the Wilderness Area -- until now I've only spied the place from afar, scenic overlooks and the like. Our hike, which was about 5 miles long, took us along some upper meadows, an old abandoned road, and finally out into the bogs on a wooden walkway -- this time I finally saw it all, up close and personal.

Today was hiking, yesterday was the bike ride. We rode up Gauley Mountain on Old Mine Road, through intermittent rain and bright sunshine (sky and weather was very dramatic all day), and then did a short loop on Tea Creek and Gauley Mountain Trails before continuing on the Forest Service roads, out to the Prop's Run trailhead. Eight miles of wet downhill singletrack later, and we were back at Elk River. Shower, some drinks at the bar, and and an awesome dinner -- it's scary how good the food is here -- and we were in bed by 9:30.

We were dawdling this morning, got up late etc and our hike was nothing like yesterday's epic, but I think the mountain air is going to make tonight work out the same as last night. I can't believe tomorrow we have to head home.

Got It About A Week Back

Morning weigh-in: 171#, 11% BF

 

Looks like I've been slacking a bit on the postings, it's been a week since my last one. What's been going on?

 

24 Hours of Allamuchy: This was the one we were doing as a memorial to Brian, and we raced as "Hahl's Disco Roller Dogs." Disco balls and inflatable aliens all over our campsite (plus a few aliens in the woods), disco-era costumes and music, and Karen got a giant vat of hot dogs cooking -- free hot dogs to anyone who would bust a dance move. Anne and I got there Friday night, and the hanging out was pretty cool, including a big group dinner back at Mama's in Hackettstown, but the weather became uncooperative -- huge thunderstorms overnight -- and except for a short, very hot and humid morning, Saturday was a washout. The race started auspiciously enough with Bob racing in a giant hot dog costume, and Cindy took the second lap; I went out with Joe, Karen, Doug and Rich to keep her company, and I was glad because that was the only riding I did -- we put out three more racers, and I was nerving myself up for a rainy night lap, when (at about 10:00) the race directors called the race because of all the rain, and my decision was made for me. Ironically enough, the rain stopped not long after... I was tired and went to bed a bit early, but you could tell there was a lot of unused energy in the woods: lots of hooting and hollering, and the last thing I heard was a crew of racers from other teams coming up to get their free hot dogs...

 

Bodhisattva: Friends Debbie and Donna have both recently taken to bicycling, and while we were camping and feeding the mosquitoes at Allamuchy they were taking advantage of the nice weather back home -- they had a real Adventure Bike ride, Bethlehem to Porters in Easton (and back in the dark) with several of the crustier customers from the local bike scene -- good friends of mine, of course! When we got home Sunday I was still jonesing for a ride, and Debbie was still enthused, so we hit the towpath again. Two days in a row, Deb was a hurting puppy by the time we got back, but I think we had fun.

 

Anne and I also rode with Donna yesterday, a mellow road ride north of Bethlehem. I used to joke that "Bodhisattva is French for sucker," but it's really fun to be able to share in their discovery and enjoyment.

 

Oh My Aching Back: I'm not sure what I did, but I've had a nasty backache since Allamuchy. At first I though it was from camping on a hard surface -- the pain happens only when I'm lying down -- but I'm back to sleeping in a nice comfy bed and it's as bad as ever, maybe worse. I suspect a broken rib, or maybe a muscle sprain, but unless I pulled something last Thursday at the gym I have no  idea how this might have happened. I'm getting a massage tonight, and I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow; hopefully I'll have some answers and a little relief soon.

 

Tonight we're hitting Porter's after my massage, and then Anne and I are heading down to Elk River for the weekend tomorrow (after the doctor visit).

 

 

Short Week, Long Weekend

Here I am on the porch, digesting dinner (steamed stringbeans from the garden, bread, cheese, and a huge, blood-red heirloom tomato, also from the garden -- yum!), just watching the day end... Anne's up visiting Ben until tomorrow night, last chance to see him before he goes to study abroad for a year, so I'm living the bachelor life for a day or so.

Today was the gym, and beside that mostly chores, some stuff around the house and some bike work. I prepped the Turner for tomorrow's ride at Fell, and I also gave some love to the road bike, putting on some new tires -- the old ones were so worn they were almost see-through, and I've had a few flats recently, not a normal occurrence. Not a lot of activity really, even with the puttering-around-the-house stuff, but I'm totally whooped right now. I think it's going to be an early night, because tomorrow's an early morning.

Thursday was a fairly somber day at work, but I managed to keep busy and the day moved along. We hit Porters, a sort of Friday night on Thursday thing, saw the band and met a bunch of people. Yesterday was a full day: medium-longish ride with Anne, then we bottled the beer we brewed a few weeks ago; we finished the evening at Brew Works. Looking back, I think I'm entitled to a night in...

What's Up

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 172.5#, 10.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 170.5#, 10.5% BF

So I'm home for the second day, off as in "laid off," at least until tomorrow when I go back to work, exercise my seniority rights, and start at my old position. Kind of a demotion, but hey it's still a job...

Meantime, what else has been happening? Well, I started going back to the gym, and I also started going back to yoga -- both of them were on hiatus for about a month while I prepped for the W101. I've been pretty careful with my eating too recently (except last night: Two Brew Tuesday and Tuesday Tacos at Brew Works), and I think it shows.

Tonight I may gain back a few; we're going to see that "Julie and Julia" movie and drink martinis. That's after a towpath ride with Anne.

Annie Get Your Gun!

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 171.5#, 10% BF

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 173#, 10% BF

 

I'm doomed. Anne has been looking for a new road bike all summer, something fast but not too pimped-out, and tonight we're going over to Bike Line to pick up her new Trek. (I will post more details, model and size and color etc, as I find them out myself). She's keeping her Cannondale as a commuter/utility/touring bike, which is how it's currently set up, with fenders, panniers, lights and a generator -- in other words, heavy -- but will now have a "fast recreational bicycle" for the speedy fun rides. Since she's already pretty strong and quick on the commuter, she's only going to be faster on the new one...

 

Stayed in on Wednesday night, but last night I hit the gym -- first time in a month -- before heading over to Musikfest, to meet Anne, Donna and another friend. Fish Tacos and Rockwell Red at Brew Works, then we checked out Start Making Sense, the Talking Heads tribute -- again! I can't get enough! -- at the Starfish Lounge.

 

Tonight is probably the maiden voyage for Anne's new bike, and then I may go to the Funhouse to catch The Insidious Rays, yet another band I used to love before they disbanded/disappeared. I'm not sure I'm up for a late night in a smoky bar (we still have a few in PA), and Anne's sister is visiting with her grade school kids, so we'll see.

Wall Of Contusion

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 8% BF

 

There was a little slipping and sliding going on here and there, but the only time I actually fell in Saturday's race was when I was walking: I was crossing some bridge with missing decking, and my foot slipped on the wet wooden surface and I went down hard. I almost fell through the hole in the bridge, but luckily my shin broke the fall... I had a ridiculous lump at first, like something you'd see grow on a cartoon character's head (like, after Bugs Bunny hit him with the hammer), and there must have been some serious hematoma because my foot and ankle are now all purple.

 

My shin's been fairly achey ever since, but I've been doing a lot of walking and standing on it, hitting Musikfest the past three nights. Sunday was best, even though I was at my most tired and sore, because we got to see most of what was there before the vibe turned sour; Monday and last night we were out a little later, when things become not-so-nice, and the mood, especially in areas where the teens (and cops) congregate, turns aggressive, like everyone's just waiting for the spark that starts the big fight. Still, I've seen some good bands -- Sunday was Brazilian music, Monday was Large Flower Heads and Dr Dog, and last night I caught the last part of Start Making Sense -- and we've been having a lot of fun with our home-decorated Dollar Store mugs, which we (me, Anne, Deb and Donna) have been casually mentioning we made at "MugPlatz, over by the old stone buildings" everywhere we go...

Doh!!

Back from the Wilderness 101, where fatigue and slow times forced me to bail out at mile 89 (the final checkpoint, only a dozen miles from the finish). Oh well, that was my first DNF ever, and a worthy one it was... Better luck next year, eh?

I went up with a guy named Dave, an acquaintance from Big Bear and local riding, and he rode a smart & fast race, and finished in 11:30 or thereabouts. Other than that, I saw no one else I knew, but it was still a fun party afterward, even if the faster riders drank most of the beer before I could do much damage...

Here's a view of my race.

Isn't That Always The Way?

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 173.5#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 173.5#, 9.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 174#, 11% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 173.5#, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 173.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Oh well, looks like I wo'nt be Hemingway OR Skeletor anytime soon, two of my favorite muses being beer and food... Speaking of which, we (Anne and I, and Debbie) hit Tap & Table as an alternate venue for "Two-Brew Tuesday." It was pretty much as I'd heard: neat, French-rustic (and almost medieval) decor, a huge beer list with awesome selections and high-ish prices, and, I'm told, fantastic food -- everything they fry is fried in peanut oil, so I think it's best I just avoid their food altogether. Deb got a burger with fries and declared it the best ever, Anne took a bite and agreed, and I had another beer... (As an aside: there was nothing on the menu, nor any sign on the walls, that said anything about the peanut oil -- I'd seen it on their website and asked, and I could tell the bartender knew what I was getting at by her answer.)

This Will Make You Cry: Here's a little something, not really about cycling. Don't forget, it's not too late to donate to the PPRAC ride. Good Luck You Guys (and Gals)!

This Will Make You Laugh: Anne saw this in the NY Times and checked it out, then sent it to me -- it's where I got the above link.

Well, last night was the Brew Works, and today is the start of Musikfest, and I'm out of here for the tomorrow's Wilderness 101. I also posted more pictures; you know what to do.

Interludes

Morning weigh in: 170.5#, 11% BF (Yeah it's a Sunday, but I felt like bragging.)

An Incident At The Hippie Deli: We went for breakfast Friday at a fairly popular (and crunchy) Ithaca deli, which shall remain nameless for fear of lawsuits. We happened to sit near the exit, which was also where the trash bins were -- trash bin, maybe one or two different recycling bins, and composting, they were really into it: while I was sitting there, one customer admonished another one for misusing the trash bins, and made him re-do his garbage.

They leave, we continue eating, and eventually an employee shows up to take care of all the refuse. Anne was about to say "Wouldn't it be funny if they put it all in one bag?" when that is exactly what this guy did. We actually stared and watched everything he did to make sure we weren't imagining it, but sure enough, he dumped all the oh-so-carefully separated refuse into one big bag and tossed that in a bin outside.

Arachnology: We had a houseguest the week before last, one of Emmi's scientist friends stayed over while passing through en route from Knoxville to somewhere in New England. She arrived while I was out riding, and I caught up with her and Anne at the Brew Works -- it turned out that she's an entomologist and a spider expert. I asked her to tell me "in layman's terms" what her research was, and tried not to drool when she said she studied the effect of spider predation (who are, in her words, "the lions and tigers of the little world") on the impact of other insects on leaf mold formation. I asked her if she was talking about something like the Lotka-Volterra equations, and she just chuckled.

Anyway, we're winding down from vacation and getting ready for work tomorrow. We got back Friday and unpacked, then we did a fairly long ride yesterday, stopped in at Hans & Kim's wedding reception picnic, then stopped in at Toby & Erica's housewarming party, then utterly crashed... Today we're making beer -- rather, Anne's making beer, and a cherry pie, and I'm fooling with this interactive-TV lightning-box doohickey until there's some heavy lifting to be done. It's stupid hot and humid, and I'm trying not to move too much.

Meantime, more pictures, this time of our hike. Enjoy!

Yeah I Ate Pie For Breakfast...

...but that was back in Vermont, where it's all about "when in Rome." Right now I'm sitting in The Owl Cafe in Ithaca, drinking coffee and getting ready to go enjoy dinner at the Moosewood Restaurant (if we can get in), and a cucumber-infused gin and tonic at Felicia's Atomic Lounge -- well, maybe not in that order...

We've been bouncing between really nice hotels, and camping, all week. First was Middlebury VT, where we met Ben, then the three of us went up to Silver Lake State Park -- we were told of a great place called "Silver Lake," with lots of hiking, and primitive camping, but ended up at a "family friendly" lakeside camp, which happened to have the same name, and (unlike the other place) happened to be on the map. Oh well, we had fun, and I finally got rid of my "biker's tan" on the beach.

The next day we climbed Mount Abraham, an awesome hike, and then went back to civilization in Middlebury: we saw the new Harry Potter movie, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would, and had dinner at the local brewpub.

The next two days were camping between Lake Saranac and Lake Placid, and it was definitely a mixed bag. We finally found some good roads to ride, but local traffic, and road conditions, were pretty bad especially between the two towns. (We did find some good stuff, with the help of some local bike shops.) Camping was fun the first night, then the next night was rainy, and the tent leaked so we slept in the car, and I got positional vertigo again, and puked up my spaghetti & meatballs...

Things were trending downhill, so yesterday we high-tailed it out of there. We found a laundromat -- long story, but basically they don't have many near Lake Placid -- and relocated our base camp, with our wet camping gear & clean clothes, to Ithaca. It was time for a nice hotel again, so we're staying at the Holiday Inn downtown. Dinner, drinks, a good night's sleep, and a good ride, and things are looking up once again.

By the way, I've posted pictures: some shots of a recent ride at Jacobsburg, and of our first camping adventure. Enjoy!

Supercaldera

Well it's been a rough week, but now I'm on vacation, and last night I finally committed to the W101 -- as in, paid and registered -- and I also got us those reservations for Elk River in late August. Right now I' supposed to be getting ready for our Vermont/Adirondacks trip, packing, getting an oil change etc, so we can leave around noon, but I just thought I'd touch base here first -- I'm bringing the computer, so I'll post (and post pictures) as I can, but I wanted to say that though the world will never be the same, at least things are starting to look up and feel normal again.

Goodbye My Friend

Brian Poses On Porcupine Rim
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

This is a shot of my good friend Brian Hahl, posing last year at one of his all-time favorite places in the world. Brian passed away about an hour or two ago. There's not much more I can to say right now. I love you, brother.

Let's Try This Again

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 13% BF

 

It's Crunch Time: My Wilderness 101 training is starting to come down to the wire, and I really do not feel ready. Looking at my training logs (via Garmin Connect), I have to say that, if I don't reach my goals at the 101, I blew it basically back in April and May:

 

Month     Miles       Training Time

Feb        130.9       15:49:45
Mar        319.8       34:16:19
Apr        261.8       26:09:03
May       276.4       26:24:48
Jun        258.2       27:04:06

 

(June was a special case, since I spent two weeks prepping for, and recovering from, Big Bear -- where I first noticed that I was in trouble.)

 

The numbers don't really look that bad, actually, but there is a dip of about 20% in both miles and time from my original march statement of intention. Rain, and refusal to ride in it? Other slacking? I know that at least some of it is due to offroad rather than road training, which is a shame since I've been pushing the road miles (and road hills) these past two weeks, and already see an improvement.

 

With the race only about 3 weeks away, it's really too late to do anything new; I'll just have to continue the way I'm going and hope for the best. I think my "biggest bang for the buck" at this point ,is to try to lose some weight: if I can get below 170 lbs by race day I'll be a lot happier -- I'm coming into this about ten pounds heavier than I weighed last year.

 

Last night, by the way, was a really nice ride at Sals. Pedals worked, I tightened the headset and that stopped its weirdness, and trail conditions were primo. Despite what I said above, I think I'll ride there again tonight.

UPDATE: wrote this at lunch but only posted it now at night. Sals was good, and so was Brew Works...

 

 

 

Mission Aborted

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 12% BF

 

Better Luck Next Time: I was set to ride Sals last night (once I finished cleaning/lubricating the bike after Friday's adventure), but on the way over I was having trouble staying clipped in to the left pedal: nothing looked wrong with either the pedal or the cleat, but I'd pop out at odd and inopportune moments. Not fun, possibly dangerous, I turned around after getting partway down the Orange ("Roller Toaster") trail. I can't be sure, but I suspect that the pedal was the offending part, since it took a beating on Friday, and the shoes/cleats worked just fine on Sunday's road ride. I got home, mowed the lawn (still no photo evidence, heh heh), and after dinner I replaced the pedals with the somewhat newer ones on the singlespeed -- the right pedal came off just fine, but the left one was sort of seized on to the crank and put up a struggle; I also noticed that the spindle bearing was pretty gummed up (and there were a few holes knocked in the housing for water to get in too), so I think the pedal was at the end of its useful life. That's my dominant foot, I guess it just takes more of a beating than the right pedal...

 

(Dinner, by the way, was awesome: Anne grabbed a bunch of string beans from the garden and steamed them, and we had cheese and avocado sandwiches with piles and piles of string beans.)

 

That's Living: Sunday's ride worked out a little better. Anne and I rode through the Durham township area (my recent stomping grounds) to Reigelsville, and then down to Milford on the Jersey side, then we rode back to the Reigelsville Inn where we met Larry who rode down the towpath from Easton. Outdoor seating by the canal, some lunch -- menu was mostly seafood so I just had bread, but it was good bread -- and a couple of Magic Hats, and finally we made our way back to Bethlehem via similar Bucks County back roads. Sunny day, life was good on Sunday... We had dinner outside too, at Brew Works.

 

Firecracker: No ride Saturday, but Anne and I went to her mom's house for a BBQ with all her brothers and sisters and their families. Good times, spent mostly stuffing face (rather than painting the porch, which we arrived too late to help with). We hung out most of the day and checked out the town fair, but skipped the Jim Thorpe fireworks, opting to escape before the roads got crowded, and got home in time to catch the Bethlehem ones from the porch steps. (Stay tuned for photos.)

 

A Short Epic: Here's a link to Friday's ride. I'll post pictures for this event soon as well.

 

Tonight I'll be trying for a ride, probably on the road, if the rain holds off.

That Was The Day That Was

Well, here it is: the 4th of July, and we are about to head up to Anne's mom's house for some BBQ, fireworks -- and a little porch painting...

We were up there yesterday too. I was riding, and met Anne at her mom's house afterward. Breakfast at Blue Sky, VMB ride on Green Blaze (22 people, 15 miles in 4 hours, mud, blood, sweat, rain and a dip in the lake), JT visit, then Tulum and a little First Friday before I totally ran out of steam. Yeah it was good!

And now I'm off to do at least some of it again. See ya!

Like Pina Coladas And Getting Caught In The Rain

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 12% BF

 

Well, today marks the one-year anniversary of "Anne and me" as an actual relationship. Time flies when you're having fun, nyuk nyuk...

 

(This is what I wrote two years ago, and this was three years ago, give or take.)

 

I did a singlespeed ride on the towpath last night, moderate pace (as far as my heart was concerned, though my legs were spinning away like hamsters), out to my turnaround point at the 3rd St bridge in Easton and back, just under 2 hours. The post-ride plan was to stay in, but I got a text from Doug & Lori, who also did a towpath ride on the tandem, and who were outside at Brew Works having dinner when they saw Anne ride by (she got home just as I did, basically) and invited us over.

 

Once again, a most pleasant evening, hanging out on Main Street. A couple of summer beers (Blueberry Belch, Hefeweizen), conversation, and people watching, and then we saw Heidi who told us that Greg and the VMB post-ride crew was inside -- they couldn't come out because outdoor seating was closed by then, but we went in to visit by ones and twos. The weather was very pleasant, but there was lightning to the south and eventually a bit of a drizzle, so D&L took off and A&I went inside. We eventually made our escape, and had to ride home in the rain, which was surprisingly pleasant.

 

It poured all night, which makes for good sleeping weather, but when I left for work I noticed that my car's rear windows had been open all night in the rain. Doh!

 

Get em while they're not extinct: Had a banana with breakfast, and two with lunch. Tra la la, la-la la la...

 

Tonight is the gym, then I'm meeting Anne at Sette Luna for dinner with Toby & Erika and Judy.

Sometimes The Light Don't Shine

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 173.5# 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 175.5# 12.5% BF

 

Playing: Fun ride Monday night, playing with my new toys: I developed this route at MapMyRide, downloaded it into my Garmin and tried following it, but I had a late start and had to cut things a bit short. Still, and despite a disappointing average speed (hey it was hilly!), I had a great time. Beautiful night too, by the way, blue skies and perfect temperature.

 

(I've been doing a lot of exploring over that area lately, trying to develop some new bike routes as well as a back way to work. I drove in via the bridge in Milford yesterday, got semi-lost -- there's one crucial section of my route, that apparently is no longer a road though it's on all the maps -- and went home pretty much the same way. Got semi-lost again, looking for that non-road, and got home about 15 minutes late -- I found out this morning that the highway flooded in that crazy storm last night, and the backup, on my normal route, would have been more than an hour.)

 

Listening: I maxxed out my eMusic download quota for the month of June, first time I did that in a while. I downloaded the new Dinosaur Jr album just the other day, and also new albums by Deer Tick -- never heard of them but loved the name -- and Japandroids. These last two were new to me but popped up in my "based on what you already downloaded you'll also like these" list; Deer Tick's pretty country, while the Japandroids are more grunge/garage/twee, but both are good. I think the computer knows my taste!

Reading: Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach. Yeah, nerdvana, and I'm back to playing with GRASS. We'll see where it leads.

 

I skipped riding last night and I need the miles, so tonight I'll be hitting the road again -- barring another torrential downpour, in which case I'll be doing the usual Wednesday night yoga thang.

 

These Things Come In Threes

RIP Michael Jackson: I was never much of a fan (though I did watch the cartoon as a kid), and I would have been just fine if I never heard "Billie Jean" or "Thriller" ever again but they're all over the airwaves... Here is the best elegy so far. So sad in so many ways.

 

RIP Farrah Fawcett: I didn't have the poster, but I think my brother Chris did -- I was always more of a Kate Jackson fan myself, but she turned out to be a really good actress after the Charlie's Angels days. She wasn't as young as Michael Jackson but this is still a bummer.

 

Shine On, Diamond Steve: A high school friend passed away on Tuesday. I still don't know much about the circumstances, but Steve had had health problems recently, maybe diabetes or something, and he was a guy who wasn't likely to walk away from his appetites... Best guitarist that I've ever known personally.

 

A Most Pleasant Interlude

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11% BF

 

Anne and I were planning to ride the towpath yesterday, when we got a call from Doug: he was wondering what we were doing because he wanted to ride as well. Long story short, he came over and we rode down to Riverside Park in Easton. Sometimes fast, sometimes mellow but it was a really nice social ride. The path is amazingly green right now too, very pretty.

 

Tonight I'm riding Fiddler's Elbow before the gym, then meeting Anne and the post-knitting crowd (ie her friends Deb and Donna) at Brew Works. Still didn't post those turtle pictures...

The Itch

Morning weigh-in: 176.5, 13% BF

 

Interesting weekend, not much riding...

 

We hit Porters on Thursday night, and saw The Doug Hawke Experience as well as a boatload of the crowds old (Arnie, Rathi, Dave, Bob, Doug & Lori), and new (Judy, Donna).

 

Friday I got in a short ride, maybe 15 miles (and still feeling the effects of the previous weekend) in between chores, then we took off for NJ for Lara's birthday BBQ -- yet more of the old WB crowd, and also some of the yoga/bellydance crowd. Good times, and once again there was an impromptu magic show.

 

Saturday was to be Greg's long road ride, but I took a look at the radar and decided against it. I went to Anne's yoga class instead, then we hung out at Wired for a big chunk of the afternoon. (I got some more done on that MTO program, and finally wrote a makefile for it.) After that we caught a movie (Last Call) at the film festival. Dinner was at the Tally Ho with Donna & Joe, and then we all met Doug & Lori at the Brew Works.

 

Sunday was kind of mellow, but then the sun came out and we took a walk along the canal. I took a bunch of pictures, mostly of turtles (including one huge snapper); I'll probably post them in a day or two, so stay tuned. Dinner was at the Brew works.

 

I was pretty tired yesterday despite not doing much, mainly because I took a bunch of benadryl. Skin problems, eczema sort of simmering along for a month or so, and it really exploded while camping last weekend -- poison ivy? -- then got worse over the past week.

 

Meanwhile: We hadn't seen Anne's friend Deb in a few days, then Saturday afternoon she reappeared on the scene, telling a tale of an insect bite, hives and incipient anaphylactic shock, and driving herself to the hospital -- she did the wrong thing there, but she did one thing right: she said she took benadryl, and a little lightbulb went off over my head... I spent all day yesteerday feeling doped up and lethargic, but the skin is doing much better now.

 

Tonight will hopefully be a towpath ride on the singlespeed, and tomorrow I think I'll bring the road bike to work, and ride before hitting the gym.

Every Angel Is Terror

Wow. Saw Metropolis last night, a restored and almost-complete version, with live score provided by Sports For Kin. That was opening night for the Southside Film Festival, and I think it's going to be hard to top -- that might have been the Lehigh Valley's cultural highlight of the season.

 

Anne and I also went to the opening-night party at Home & Planet, but it was way crowded (and I hadn't had dinner), so we slipped off to Lehigh Pizza, grabbed a bite before following the sounds of bagpipes (they had a bagpipe procession with police escort) over to the Packer Chapel at Lehigh -- which is a "chapel" in the sense that the summer mansions at Newport are "cottages;" this thing was a serious gothic pile -- where the movie was shown. Lotta people there, and Opening Night (the party as well as the show) was like a "who's who:" Anne and I walked over to the party with Scott and his brother, and we ran into Donna, and Deb & James, and also Nick & Alison, and Trevor & Christie, and some people Anne knew, und so weiter...

 

I won't do too much of a movie review, except to say that the "almost original" version was longer and very different from the one I have on VCR, some scenes that were added are crucial to character development, and to just plain moving the plot forward. The movie makes a lot more sense now. Strange to see so many new cultural touchstones this time around too: Robot-Maria as "whore of Babylon" (never noticed that before), the worker city flooding like something out of Male Fantasies, and oh! that Gernsback Continuum architecture... The whole event was a Pynchonian nerdgasm.

 

The musical performance was nothing short of amazing, a "shoegazer/post-rock" ensemble made even better by the cathedral acoustics. I said it before and I'll say it again: this was a big deal.

 

Another Year, Another Nap At Sideling Hill

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Jeez, you go away for a few days, and the world falls apart... (and meanwhile, back in the USA).

 

Also: Imipolex!!

 

Well, last weekend was the 24 Hours of Big Bear. I took off Friday and left about noon (OK, noonish), and met up with the rest of the Sid's Bikes crew a little after 5:30 -- they fielded three teams, which made for a pretty big campsite -- then camped, raced, camped and raced (and camped and raced) some more, and then hit the road Sunday afternoon. Home by 7:00 or so, but I am just now starting to recover...

 

THE TEAMS

 

Lactose Intolerant: me, team leader Steve, Brett, Christian, and Ken. We were really just out for fun; as long as we didn't get hurt, or come in dead last or anything, it was all good.

 

Mud Sweat and Gears: these were mainly Lehigh Valley people (Jeff & Dave K were the two I know) plus Sid's sponsored racer -- and current NJ champ in his age group -- Dave C.

 

Sid's Bikes And Beer: My old co-worker Scott and some Sids team racers. These guys were fast.

 

THE COURSE

 

Here is the official map, which looks like an early version, not quite the final racecourse as it was laid out. The course was just about 13 miles long, with maybe 1600 feet of climbing, and it was all singletrack. Unlike the last time I was there (2007), recent weather had been very wet, and big chunks of the course were slippery slop or peanut butter -- in other words, classic West Virginia.

 

THE RACE ITSELF

 

I personally was disappointed with my three laps (here, here, and here), and suspect that it was because things were slightly more technical than I was expecting, and I was skunked by what I call "the over/under," where I lost a lot of time floundering on stuff only slightly beyond my ability to handle well, mostly the slippery rocky uphills. (In 2007 the course was only slightly easier, and I swear I was flying around it that year.) Oh well, I wasn't the fastest on the team, but I also wasn't the slowest; I pulled my weight and I was pretty much the "mid-pack Sport-class finisher" I always was, so I guess it was OK. As a test and a wake-up call for the Wilderness 101, however, I'd say I have to really build up my high-intensity endurance, and I better do it soon...

 

EPILOGUE

 

Anyway, I finished my last lap around 2:00, chomped a couple of sandwiches and said my goodbyes (smart move: I packed up before my last lap), and took off. It all caught up with me about an hour later, and so (once again) I pulled into the Sideling Hill exhibit area and took a power nap. Back on the road, home by 8:00 or so -- got there just after Anne finished some major garden chores, talk about timing -- and dinner at Brew Works. Ta-Da!

 

I've been resting and cleaning up since, and tonight I'm seeing Metropolis (with a live band for the soundtrack) on the big screen at the Southside Film Festival.

 

 

 

Shuffle On Down To Big Bear

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 11% BF

 

Oh well, back to weekly spewing -- which astute between-the-lines readers know, means that the weight's gone back up... it also means I've been very busy at work, and also at home, and yadda yadda, but -- well, there you have it: the real reason. Meantime though, I updated photos last night, and there are a lot of new entries from recent events: Ben's "Russian Party" (a week ago Sunday),  Brian's surprise 50th birthday party (last Saturday), the Talking Heads tribute (Saturday night), and a Jim Thorpe ride with Anne on Sunday. Those pictures are probably all I'm going to say about those events, so go check them out!

 

The house is suddenly very quiet again. Emmi left for Knoxville on Sunday, but Ben's girlfriend visited for a few days, and some of his school friends have been coming around, so things stayed fairly lively until last night, when Ben left for school (and ultimately St Petersburg, Russia -- he won't be home again until August of next year). I guess "bittersweet" could describe the mood last night.

 

I haven't been getting much riding in this week, since most of my time has been spent prepping for the race this weekend. My bike is now ready (and I hope I am too), I have found and and transferred all my camping gear from the apartment to Anne's basement, and now all that's left is tossing it into the car and hitting the road tomorrow morning -- the rest of my team should be down there by the time I arrive. Stay tuned for stories and pictures...

Errata

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 13% BF

 

An Observation: I had a lot of problems the other day at Round Valley, mostly in the technical stuff and especially at the beginning, but when I got to the Anaerobic Detour climb I went right up it, like "why was this ever a problem?" (That may be an exaggeration.) I may have not been warmed up or whatever, or maybe not used to the rocks yet, but I think that this ride, plus my performance last Friday, at Sals on the greasy rocks, tells me where I should put the training emphasis over the final two months...

 

New Photos: I posted a few more the other night, mostly my "keepers" from the wedding. Go check them out! I will have more, from Sunday's "Borscht and Natasha" soiree for Ben.

 

Wow, A First: Playing with that MTO program, I decided to add some parts to it. I added a bunch of stuff, maybe an hour's worth of coding over the past week, then last night I put some finishing touches on and -- the damn thing compiled, and ran correctly, on the first try! I take what triumphs I can get...

 

We stayed in last night, and feasted on pork & sauerkraut. Budget concerns, weight concerns, and a butt-whipping at yoga made that one a no-brainer for me, but Anne's also still fighting that cold -- I am too, but she really got hit a lot harder -- and she had an early morning trip to Philly on the agenda. She and Emmi were NetFlixxing their way through a season of "Monk," Ben and Dan were having a college-style bull session on the porch, and I was stationed at my laptop.

 

Tonight is the gym, followed (maybe) by a walk down Main Street to check out the "Tunes At Twilight" concert, starring Dan DeChellis. Tomorrow I have off, but it's supposed to be rainy.

Cushetunk Smackdown

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 12.5% BF

 

A little bit o' suppression weight loss there, after last night's Round Valley ride. I was going to do an out-and-back, but various problems -- including a serious lack of freshness or strength or whatever, but also some mechanicals and such like -- induced me to make it a loop. The place still kicks my ass...

 

Dinner was a taco at Brew Works, where the post-knitting crowd was a bit somber: Anne's got the same cold I have (except maybe worse), and her friend Deb got the word from the vet yesterday, that one of her cats must be put down because it has cancer. (There was also this drunk fat guy hitting on her, which didn't help things.) It was an early night, and we were home by 10:30 or so. Tonight is yoga (for me), then an evening at home.

 

Salad Days

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11% BF

 

I haven't actually been eating any salads lately (see weight above), it's just for the last few days, that the world outside my work window has looked like a huge cauldron of steamed greens...

 

Wedding Cake: Erika's wedding was last Saturday. Awesome party, and I took 114 pictures (and a few videos) -- I'll post the keepers within a few days. Judy made the food (and she's a known good cook but even so it was all shockingly good), Kelly Jo and Arvids catered, and Eamon bartended, and Ben DJ'ed, and the rest of us partied... Anne and I got there hours early so she could put the finishing touches on the cake, and it was beautiful, but in the end some kid bumped into the table, knocked some layers over and it was only fit for eating after that. Nom nom nom... Anne took it in stride, but it was a shame that Toby & Erika couldn't see it in its glory, luckily I have pictures.

 

One neat surprise was a cameo by West Coast Megan, who flew out to be at her best friend's wedding.

 

Let Them Eat SS Video Linux: I took some video at the wedding, but held my camera sideways for a more upright shot. Now I have sideways video, that I need to rotate -- what to do? What I did do was download MEncoder, and use that to rotate the videos. I have no other video editing tools, and really know nothing about video. Hmmmm, new project?

 

The rest of the (four day!) holiday weekend was taken up with riding, BBQ's, and sleeping. I got my Turner back from the shop, ready (I hope) for Big Bear, so tonight I'll be riding -- for the first time this week-- eating/drinking, and then sleeping. Tomorrow is yoga, and a visit to Anne's brother Joe.

How's That Function?

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 173.5#, 6% BF (WTF?)
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 175.5#, 12% BF

 

Blog Watch: I truly love Doghouse Riley, but I think he's been working his way up to an aneurysm lately. Too many fools for someone who doesn't suffer them gladly... "Kumbaya" indeed, and I love that first comment!

 

Conjunction Junction: That little musical Wednesday night was pretty cute, even if it wasn't quite Broadway. I have a photo or two that I'll eventually post, but the basic setup was: about a half dozen kids did the acting (and sang and danced) onstage while a chorus, split into two groups, sang on either side. There was a framing device,  "new teacher working through her lesson plans and first-day jitters," but most of what went on was the song-and-dance. They did most of the songs I remember, and a few I'd forgotten. Cute, fun, and I thought Anne was going to die laughing when Deb and I started singing along. Donna did a good job with her kids.

 

To Understand Recursion, You Must First... That little MTO program I wrote was interesting in terms of real-world uses, yadda yadda, but my real reason to write it was because I wanted to play around with linked lists and recursive functions. Well, mission accomplished, I must say. Back in the day (before you could buy such things, like way back when I was in college) I wrote a bunch of math functions for heat transfer problems; some of them, like Bessel functions, were based on recursion, but I rewrote them to be iterative since they were sooooo slowwww -- it was an overhead thing, I was overloading the limited resources of my little Mac Plus. Funny how things come full circle after 20 years, but though I used a mishmash of iteration and recursion in this new thing, I think the recursion seemed to work much better than I remembered it.

Hey Nineteen: I forget now if it was my BS (1988) or MS (1990), but my graduation for at least one of them was May 19th, which I have always heard sung to the tune  of "Hey Nineteen." Well here it is, either nineteen, or 21 years later -- someone who was born on my graduation is now officially old enough to drink.

Do The Hump

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 173.5#, 12.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 174.5#, 6% BF

 

Damn you, stupid three-dollar taco night...

 

Beautiful ride last night: I went out via Market Street into Freemansburg, then out via Buttermilk Road and back on Wassergas, then crossed over the hill and came back to Freemansburg on Applebutter Road. I left around 6:30 and got back a little after 8:00, home just before dark.

 

Anne was at knitting while I rode, so we met at Brew Works after our respective things. It was a bit subdued at first, but Scott came in, then James, and things livened up; we got home around 11:30

 

 

Tonight we're going to see Donna's elementary students put on a musical, one based on Schoolhouse Rock.

 

Carpe Weekendum Procrastinatus

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 10.5% BF

 

A quick recap...

 

Friday night was awesome, and it all started with a singlespeed ride on the towpath: I left a little after 5:00, and maintained a 15 mph average (legs spinning like hamsters) to Easton where I hooked up with Larry and Kirk, and took a more leisurely return ride -- we still hammered, but also cruised for a bit and talked, made a few pit stops, and towards the end we ran into Joe G out with his wolf-dogs, which necessitated more stopping and schmoozing etc.

 

When I got home I pulled straight into the backyard, which is looking really good right now I might add, and knew Ben was home when I heard him and Anne talking on the porch -- cool! His other ride plans fell through I guess, and he came home a day early with his dad.

 

Anne was on her way to meet the Main Street Gang at Mama Nina's, and was actually leaving when I got there, but she stuck around while I hopped in the shower. We were up there in about 20 minutes, and our table was not yet ready so we waited outside on the street. Scott and Deb both live on Main Street, and we're only a few blocks away, and Donna's a regular part of the crowd, so it was like we were hanging out on the front porch or at a block party or something. Deb said she loves it there, but also said living on Main is like living in a fishbowl -- then she went and greeted Nina, all the wait staff, and half the clientele... we saw, and said hello to (and gossiped about) what seemed like hundreds of people during dinner. After that we went to the Steelgaarden; we sort of lost Scott, Donna and Deb in the crowd but met up with Doug and Lori. I have to say, that was probably my most pleasant "Bethlehem evening out" probably since the Funhouse days. Maybe it's just that summer is finally showing up, but it sure was nice.

 

Saturday started with an awesome yoga class in Easton, then Ben and I were put to work digging sod back home. This was the first step; Anne plans to replace much of her front lawn with terraced gardens. Hot, dirty work but we got a lot done before running off to Wired, to do nothing for the rest of the afternoon. We continued the nothing at Brew Works, but dinner was at home, followed by Pineapple Express. Yikes!

 

(By the way, I got the final part my little project to compile, but it was crashing out -- some tweaking over the weekend, and this rough first draft seems to work fine.)

 

Yesterday started with a short bike ride with Ben and Anne, over to Blue Sky for breakfast, which was followed by some backing and filling, chores, etc before we went down to see my folks. That was really nice: we hung out for a couple of hours, they grilled up a bunch of steaks, and my sister in law came over with my nephew towards the end of the day. Back home and tired, but I had the insight that allowed me to fix the program -- as soon as it was working, we sat down and watched Matrix Reloaded. I'm beginning to suspect that my original opinion was correct: the first Matrix would be the best. We shall see, we have the final movie waiting at home.

Looking Back

I happened to notice that I've been doing this for six years (almost exactly, my first post was on May 12, 2003), so here's a retrospective:

Here's what I wrote on this date in 2003.

Here's what I wrote on this date in 2004.

Here's what I wrote on this date (or close to it) in 2005.

Here's what I wrote on this date in 2006.

Here's what I wrote on this date (approximately) in 2007.

And here's what I wrote on this date in 2008.

My life like a pornography of motion, shutter speed set at once a year.

Pollinator

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 10% BF

 

Got a bunch of stuff done yesterday, which included mowing the backyard and paying some bills, but the main thing was bringing the Turner in for some service. Saucon Valley Bikes, I just made it there before closing and ran through a huge wish list: new chain, cassette, and crank/BB/chainrings, new pivot kit installed, and the front fork overhauled. Probably take around a week for stuff to arrive, and another several days for the work to be done; I'll be doing a lot of road rides, as well as finally busting out the singlespeed -- I found the missing GPS mount, and so can set up the SS like the others.

 

I was planning on staying in, but I got the call that the Naughty Knitters were going to Brew Works so I met Anne & Company over there. (Two of the company have not been getting along, and the evening was a bit subdued, but it looks at least like things are on the way to being patched up -- I fully expected the traditional Tuesday evening to not happen.) Two Loco Limes and four tacos, and we were out of there.

 

Tonight will probably be the last of the really nice days this week, so I'm doing a road ride, once again exploring the area east of Hellertown. Anne got more meetings, so I'm on my own for food though there's plenty of leftovers, and the garden is now in overdrive.

 

Halcyon Daze

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 12.5% BF

Nice ride last night, out through Freemansburg to my Williams Township roads (took Valley View for a change of pace), and back via Hellertown: 19 miles, 1:16 ride time, very pleasant. I wanted to ride out to the start of Wassergas Road and take that all the way back, but got a late start, and when I hit Raubsville Road I just made that the turnaround point. Got home just before dark, then met Anne at Brew Works, where she was catching up with some friends. Dinner was pasta pomodoro, washed down with a CH-47. It's a little cool out, but summer is here.

Tonight is a bit of a rest, since I'm bringing the Turner in for some work, then maybe doing the lawn or such like after that. Stupid summer...

Meantime: I can't eat them so I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about, but the big buzz lately has been the wild morel crop. Anne got a bunch yesterday, and everyone seems to be going out mushroom hunting. Me? I'm just gonna rock down to Electric Avenue...

Monday Lunchtime Quarterbacking

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 12% BF

 

Back In The Game: The weekend turned out to be pretty nice, and of course that meant I'd be making up for lost time... I had off on Friday so I went out for a nice medium-sized road ride, basically a mashup of my old Hellertown/Williams Twp and Mud Run "benchmark" rides. Almost exactly 45 miles, and almost exactly 3 hours, not great but not bad considering the hills, headwinds, and traffic I had to deal with at various times. After the ride I met Anne at Wired; I left there to go on a towpath ride with some friends, but just as I was about to start it it started to rain, and I was tired, and radar blah blah... I made a few phone calls, killed the towpath plans, hopped in the shower and -- the sun was shining again when I got out. Oh well, no biggie except I canceled a group ride over the nonexistent rain.

 

Saturday was Raystown Lake. I was up at 5:30 AM, and driving by 6:30, met the VMB contingent at their campsite and I'd guess we (me, Doug, Bob, Rich and "wolverine" Mike) were riding by 10:00 or so. Awesome place, and the trails were very different from the type I'm used to: somewhat wider & smoother, but twisty and with a lot of up-and-down; the climbs were big but they had plenty of built-in breaks, and the downhills had plenty of opportunities to become airborne. Deceptively simple-looking stuff, aerobic and tiring at speed.

 

Mike's bike suffered a mechanical and he had to turn around, then we ran into Kevin and Mark from NJ. Mark turned out to be lightning fast, and he and Rich -- and how did he get so fast all of a sudden? -- managed to wear out the rest of us chasing them. When we got to the trail junction which was sort of our point of no return, some of us (Rich and Mark, plus Doug and Kevin a little further back) continued on, but Bob and I took the return trail. I needed lunch!

 

We got back to camp, relaxed and had something to eat, hanging out with the rest of the VMB crew (Heidi and Dawn, and Mike who was stuck with a broken bike), and then I decided I had to get in a few more miles, it was now or never so I hit the smaller (and less complete) Eastern section of trails. It was nice over there, not as nice or as finished as the first trails I saw, but I was tired so I might not have given them my all... Five more miles or so, at a very slow pace -- did I mention I was tired? -- and I was done for the day. Pack and go, and I was home by 8:00 or so, just in time for the evening's drama.

 

Back On The Boat: My plan all along was to try and get my full 120 miles in, despite only having three days (in a row) to do it this week, but when I woke up on Sunday I was all about kicking back. While Anne went to get her mom, I sat down at the computer and put in two solid hours on that MTO program. I have no idea yet if it will pay off, but I am now about down to about an hour's worth of coding before I'm finished. In terms of my map obsessions, I also made a few wrapper scripts for gpsbabel.

 

After that came Mother's Day. Anne drove her mom down for a visit, and her sister also came down, and after breakfast at Blue Sky (highly recommended) we checked out the downtown Art Fair. Some coffee at Wired, some tea and conversation at home, a pretty nice end to the weekend. Dinner was salad from the garden.

 

Tonight I'll be hitting the road.

Thursday Afternoon Quarterbacking

So the rain, coming down all week, may have just stopped, too bad for the ducks but I'll take it... I was going to race Michaux on Sunday, but since I didn't know of anyone going, among those I'd normally hang out with -- and also because of the rain -- I just blew it off. I didn't ride Saturday though it was nice enough (pre-race rest, just in case I went) and I haven't done any riding since either.

 

What have I been up to? Well, Saturday was a domestic interlude, as Anne and I got around to fixing her fence; Sunday we got up late and walked over to Blue Sky for breakfast, and then spent most of the day just goofing around, like on the computer and such. Monday night was yoga, Tuesday was the gym followed by dinner at Brew Works, and last night was yoga again, followed again by Brew Works as we had an impromptu birthday celebration for a friend. Despite the activity, I have been avoiding the scale...

 

Back On The Boat: Some more Linux voyaging this week, as I played with the computer itself, rather than using the computer to play with other things...

 

Ubuntu inherited a neat "package manager" from debian called apt, and it really makes installing or upgrading software a breeze. Software that's available through the package manager is presented as packages, which I think are just lists of what needs to be installed to get the software to work -- this includes other software (also represented as packages) that the original software depends on. The package manager then does all the heavy lifting, including resolving all these dependencies and finding the software where it's stored on the internet, and installs the software. This can be done from the command line, but there's also a graphical user interface, which has the advantage of showing all available packages. (It also checks daily for software updates.)

 

But a lot of the software isn't really associated with Ubuntu/Debian, and apt-style packaging might be an afterthought for the developer, who may just be a hobbyist like myself. Usually, someone eventually makes a package for the software, but the inevitable result is that the latest version available through the package manager lags the actual latest version. OK fine, usually the latest packaged version is good enough, but what if it isn't?

 

That's the boat I found myself in the other day: my GPS unit uses a relatively new file format for its output, and while there are websites that let me convert the files from that format to others (like Google Earth's format, which I use a lot), the main GPS conversion program was only recently updated to handle the new format. This latest version came out in maybe October, and there is as yet no updated package available for my system.

 

The solution was to just do it the old-fashioned way, downloading a compressed file containing the program source code, then running ./configure and make to install it. This always was the most satisfying way to install stuff, it always felt like I was really getting my hands dirty under the hood and I poo-poohed the package managers even as I used them. Until... partway through the install process, the compiler barfed a bunch of error messages and the process ground to a halt. I Googled the errors, found I had unresolved dependencies (which I then resolved using apt-get), and on the second try everything went fine. Thus I was hoist on the petard of why apt beat make...

 

Rough Week: Tuesday was a bad day at work, we had a major round of layoffs. It was a deep cut too, about 14% (say 50 of 350) at my office was let go. I'm still here and I think I'm safe for now, but if there are other rounds I'd probably be vulnerable. (Cutting any deeper wouldn't leave a viable company, but that's not any insurance.) Lot of my friends are gone, it's been lonely and depressing all week.

 

A Voyage Of My Own: I first got the laptop so I could play with programming, specifically that material packaging program I was fooling with, but with all the other things going on in the real world (yoga, biking, date nights), as well as competing computer projects, and diversions -- Facebook, anyone? -- this was pushed to the back burner, which is a pity because it's not a big task: what I've dragged out for six months (and counting) could have been finished with just a few hours of concentrated effort.

 

I have not given it those hours of concentration, but watching gpsbabel compile the other day sort of gave me the bug again. I rewrote a big chunk of the program into more modular form, getting the new version of the test program to work just like the original, and the other day I finally wrote the meat of the packing algorithm. I'll probably finish it over the next week or so, but now it's probably a moot point: I don't think I'll need it at work, and I sure don't feel like giving to them as a parting gift. Pity, but I'm having my fun.

 

Tonight is the gym, then it's an early night at home despite having off tomorrow. I'll probably get in a good road ride (rain or shine, dammit!) plus a bit of towpath tomorrow, and Saturday is the big Raystown Lake Grand Opening. Sunday is probably more riding, plus Mother's Day festivities.

Today In History

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 10.5% BF

 

Whelp, today is the first anniversary of the last day of Which Brew. (Synchronicitously enough, I saw Carrie, one of the original WB waitresses, out on the town the other night at Brew Works.) So much water under the bridge, it seems like more than just a year has gone by...

 

Last night was a fairly good road ride, the shorter version of my Freemansburg-Williams-Wassergas loop. Twenty three miles, approximately 1:30 ride time, 1500 calories, sweated like a pig but it wasn't as bad as Monday night. Dinner was "pasta pomodoro with chicken" at Brew Works, where I caught up with Anne and a few friends.

 

Tonight my plan was to go to yoga, but if it stays nice enough I may blow that off to do another road ride. Dinner? Not sure yet.

 

Sproing-oing-oing!

Wow, you go away for a weekend, and spring has surely sprung, like an unwatched pot boiling over. Greenup was just starting around here when we left, and there was a noticeable lag in the season as we went north, and on the way home it was likewise noticeably greener heading south, but I was over at Sals today after work, and it's practically midsummer over there. Hot like midsummer too, low nineties.

Northampton, Mass

So here I am in Northampton, just back from a nice road ride (44 miles round trip plus a brewpub lunch) to Greenfield, the next town north of here... Yesterday was 25 miles on a nearby bike path, basically to Amherst & back, followed by dinner at a local brewpub, and breakfast was at a coffee shop. A guy could learn to like this...

We're up here visiting Anne's son Ben at college, saw him last night at the pub with a bunch of his friends. (In other words,this is just a quick min- vacation, checking to see whether or not he's been eating right.) We'll hook up with him again tonight or tomorrow, and head home in the afternoon.

These rides were a godsend, since otherwise this whole week was a wash: time commitments after work, bad weather, if it weren't for yesterday and today the week would have been a disaster mileage-wise, rather than middling-OK. (Granted, the weather's great at home as well as here, and even if we stayed home I probably would have been riding anyway, but still...)

Also this weekend: today is the big outdoor chili cook-off on Southside. I got home Thursday night and found the house in complete chaos, as Anne & Debbie made a huge vat of chili from a bunch of invasive plants they'd foraged that afternoon. Josh & Kim also came over and a good time was had by all as we made a huge mess. Good times! Debbie and Josh served it at his store today, and I hear it was a big hit, there are no leftovers. I hope they saved us some!

We're going out in a bit to do some people watching. Northampton -- home of Smith College (Emmi's alma mater) and with a bunch of other schools nearby -- is a neat town with a very crunchy Northeast vibe.

Et Tu, Aubade?

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 10.5% BF

 

Wow, it's really like Groundhog Day now: here I am again, and the weight and the weather are still the same.

 

Not much to say. I got in a good ride yesterday, 19 miles, though my average speed (approx 14 mph) was a little below par because it was a fairly hilly ride. (Dinner was leftovers at home, and bedtime was on the early side -- I've been trying to get my ass up a little earlier in the morning.) Tonight I'm riding offroad at South Mountain, then we're going to Porters -- I thought that BC Bluezin' was playing tonight and we made plans accordingly, which included telling a lot of other people about it. (Singer Bev is part of the old Hack's Diner crowd, a good friend of Anne, Judy & Deb from way back.) Oh well, I'm sure we'll still go, and whoever's playing will be great, but I may have some 'splainin' to do...

 

By the way, Pynchon has a new novel coming out in August. I already have it on back order.

Groundhog Day, Get Off My Lawn!

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 10.5% BF

Hi it's me. Just popping my head in for a moment... I don't think I've ever gone more than a week without posting, except maybe when I was on vacation or something, but I've just been very busy lately.

 

So, what have I been up to? Well, for a few weeks I was riding like it was going out of style, then it did sort of go out of style: I was supposed to be getting in about 120 miles per week over the two weeks prior to this one, and probably got in only half that. Bad timing, rain/snow (snow!), and sunny days when I had other commitments, etc. Oh well. This week's a rest week, but I'll be getting out today and tomorrow, and probably Saturday, and Sunday too.

 

Meantime, I've been well (despite, or maybe because of, the anti-Lyme antibiotics), though I can't say the same for Anne -- she's fine now, but she was hit hard by a nasty bug several weeks ago. Fever, chills, muscle aches, multiple doctor visits and prescriptions, but now she's much better. And now there are two jars of antibiotics on the kitchen counter...

 

What have I been up to? My birthday was last week, and we went out for a bit Friday night, and Sunday was Easter with Anne's family, and in between was yoga and the gym and Porter's And Brew Works, and a lot of time on the weekends at Wired (a coffee shop on Main Street, and just as much a Peyton Place as any of our other hangouts), chatting over coffee and playing with the computer.

 

I finally got the hang of that GRASS software, imported my Sals GPS data as well as topo maps, property boundary maps, and some aerial photos, and had the program "georectify" them into one big database. I've been trying to make sure our trails don't cross the park boundaries, but between the uncertainties in the maps and the GPS data, and the tendency of our trails to encroach on the property line-- a design flaw IMHO, and for more than just trespassing reasons -- I really can't say for certain that we haven't crossed that line.

 

Well, tonight is a road ride, and tomorrow I'm riding the other Bethlehem trail system. It's supposed to be beautiful through Sunday night.