At Peace

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 180#, 8% BF

Wow! hope those numbers are, ummm, anomalous...

My grandmother's funeral was yesterday in Brooklyn: Mass at St Patrick's in Bay Ridge, burial in Holy Cross Cemetery. Sad, but I think I'm OK with it.

Been out from work since Monday (a 3 hour fly-by, coming in at noon after renting a car, then leaving early), wakes Monday night and Tuesday afternoon/night, playing catch-up here as well as everywhere else in my life.

Saw a few people I haven't seen in a long time, one major one being Maureen C: her mother was, in some indirect way, my grandmother's cousin, and they also lived in Englishtown; her family and ours were friends especially when we first moved there. I think she and her older brother were my babysitters when I was little. I didn't recognize her but she introduced herself at the gravesite, and we talked for a while before she went with another cousin to visit her own grandmother's grave, which she had never seen. Apparently the area near Holy Cross was where my grandmother's family had settled: multiple generations of her mother's relations, all within a four-block section of Flatbush, lots of aunts & uncles, in-laws, cousins and 2nd cousins...

My grandmother was born (in a house) on Veronica Street, grew up on Cortelyou Rd, married and moved a few blocks away to Snyder Avenue, moved back to the Cortelyou Rd house after her mother's death, living there with her sister and brother (and her husband) before they all moved together to Bay Ridge when the Flatbush neighborhood deteriorated. We drove past a lot of the "old neighborhood" on the way to the cemetery.

UPDATE: wrote most of the above Thursday, finished it today. The current sitrep is that my car is still out getting fixed, my house is a mess, and I feel very run down. TGIF.

Eileen Marie Cecilia (Haran) Barth, 1915-2004

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13.5% BF

On Thursday, a co-worker said she noticed smoke from my car's exhaust as I was coming up Jugtown Mountain, and on Friday on the way home the temperature gauge pinned itself on hot. When I parked the car I could also smell an ipecac-like smell, probably burning antifreeze. It's very likely that I have a blown headgasket, and possible that the actual head may have been warped by the overheating. Gasket = expensive, head = need new car. OK, so it's going in Monday.

Friday night, riding the towpath, ran into Doug & Lori, rode with them back to Bethlehem and made arrangements to eat at Which Brew, but when I got home, I saw they'd called and left a message: we were going to Porters, to meet Eric & Kris for dinner. Brian eventually joined us, and Leather & Lace played that night (and dinner was delicious), so it was a very enjoyable evening.

Saturday morning at 7:30 -- never a good sign -- I get a call from my mom: my maternal grandmother (my last surviving grandparent) had passed away overnight. My parents got the call at 4:00 AM from her caretaker that something was wrong (my grandmother had live-in assistance, like a nursing home only at her apartment), and I guess she passed not long after. Grandma had her health problems (the worst was a case of Parkinson's, but she'd been very sick with abdominal-surgery-serious situation a number of years ago), but wasn't really sick per se, she just seemed to gradually be getting frailer as she got older, and she actually seemed better than usual lately. But, though she was lucid (hearing problems complicated this) and enjoyed having/being company, her thoughts were halfway into the next world I think. She had a long and pretty decent life, and she passed easy, so I guess that's OK.

Monday and Tuesday will be for the wake, and Wednesday is the funeral. Everything will be in Brooklyn, and she'll be buried next to my grandfather. I'll drop off the car tonight, rent a car probably this afternoon or tonight, and take off part of Monday & Tuesday and all day Wednesday to go in to the city.

Anyway, I hit the gym yesterday, riding there -- stopped along the way for breakfast at that coffee shop -- bringing sneakers and running before lifting, then rode home with a stop at the other coffee shop (Quadrant) for lunch. I got home and totally vegged out for a few hours, then walked to Which Brew where I met Brian for dinner. His uncle just died as well (dad's youngest brother, father to the cousin he always visits in Boston), so we were both a little bit on the somber side for partytime Saturday night.

Some interesting facts about Mrs. Barth:

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

She grew up in a different world.

Poisoned!

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13.5% BF

Hit the gym last night, and towards the end I got a real craving for pork lo mein, so when I got home I found a local Chinese restaurant in the phone book (not the one I usually go to, couldn't find their number), and phoned in a take-out order. I have a serious peanut allergy, so I made a point of asking "do you use peanut oil or vegetable oil?" and received assurances that the food was safe -- at least, I think that's what the guy said -- but one bite (after eating the eggroll and the wontons from my soup) told me that there was something wrong.

I was so hungry and frustrated (I really wanted pork lo mein), I was tempted to think it was my imagination, but after a few seconds there was no mistaking the fact that I'd eaten something I shouldn't: my mouth and throat were burning/itching like crazy. I tossed the rest of the lo mein (doh!) but didn't try to vomit anything I already ate, figured part of a mouthful would do less harm in my stomach than re-irritating things on the way back out. Lotsa water, some Taco Bell to dilute it, and I settled in for an evening of suffering. I started to feel better around midnight & went to bed, but this morning came waaay too early...

Welcome to my shit list, unnamed Chinese restaurant!

Riding the towpath tonight, maybe eat some safe food somewhere afterward.

Heritage Chase

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13.5% BF

Not sure if the BF is correct, since I weighed in after my morning shower, probably a little wet and the measurement is uh, electrical or something...

Didn't do any exercise last night, instead opting to go through the living room and toss out all the old mail/etc lying around, put all the books back on shelves, do some laundry and dishes, etc, etc. Four bags of trash, mostly old junk mail, plus a bunch of newspapers for recycling, and I threw out a lot of boxes I'd been "saving." The room is still not livable by the standard of having guests, but it's getting close. I think I'll move the bed into the spare room, and make my bedroom a den/office/2nd living room. Hitting the gym tonight first though.

I saw an article on Wikipedia today about George IV's trip to Scotland and the subsequent revival of Highland culture as a source of Scottish national identity -- except that it mostly wasn't Highlanders (they'd all been driven off their land and deported) , and it was mostly just the trappings of the culture (kilts, tartans)... kind of reminds me of growing up in Englishtown, where a development -- actually in Marlboro, the next town over -- called itself "Heritage Chase."

I remember their oleagenous billboard: "distinctive homes in a distinguished community" -- don't make me retch! This "Heritage Chase" was one of the later developments, after all possible living heritage (as opposed to a few Historical Society museum-pieces) had been paved over or homogenized. The new development surround Old Scots Graveyard, which was the original location of Old Tennent Church (called "the new church" at the battle of Monmouth), and which contains sandstone grave markers carved from the ballast of the ship in which they immigrated, fleeing persecution in Scotland. Some of those graves dated from 1702, I wonder how many of them have survived the past twenty years?

By the way, Manalapan is Lenape for "bread and water" (as in "this is good agricultural land"), and the high school teams are the Braves. How long until the Cub Scouts host a Pow-Wow at the Raceway Mall?

Nice Day

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 12% BF

Pleasant evening last night. Got some things done, then went to the gym: run wasn't hard & wasn't meant to be, but the numbers looked pretty fast (8:54 & 8:57 miles) for a conversational-pace warmup... the rest of the workout went well too, I was pretty happy. I came home & played with computer (natch), made minor change to my web page stylesheet, delved a little more into Java, yadda yadda, had dinner (tortellini w/ Louisiana hot sauce), and then read some more Infinite Jest. Bedtime was a very reasonable 11:00.

It looks pretty nice out, and I'll probably go for a towpath ride tonight but my lights aren't charged, so we'll see what happens out on the trail. Sunset is at 6:30 or so; if I leave at 5:30 and ration the lights (and bring an extra -- but also semi-discharged -- battery) I should be fine.

Richard Ellsworth Savage: I see that Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in a new movie about Howard Hughes, which made me think of Stan Ridgway:

Now if I find a product I like
I'll buy up the whole company
Then I'll shave my face and grin
And smile and sell it on TV
And everyone will know me
I'll be more famous that Howard Hughes
I'll grow a long beard
And watch "Ice Station Zebra" in the nude
And grow my nails like Fu Man Chu
And keep a row of specimen jars
Get other people to work for me
Well no...maybe I'll buy
The planet Mars
And build an amusement park up there
Better than old Walt's place
You'll have to be a millionaire to go
And we'll smoke cigars
And lounge in lace
And talk the talk of businessmen
And bosses that we are
So here's to me
The drinks are free
'Cause I just bought this bar...

-- from "I Wanna Be A Boss"

By the way, my mug number at Which Brew is 1919.

UPDATE: Heard two colleagues talking in the men's room, about how we may actually be lucky our FORTRAN compilers are out of date. That got me thinking about a new product: Object-oriented FORTRAN, ("OOF"). I slay me.

Bouncing Back

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 13% BF

Well, those low weights didn't last too long at all, did they? "Active rest" day yesterday, did about 45 minutes of walking over at Merril Creek, basically was the only one there. After that I went home, tried out the first two Java examples, then went to WB for the Mug Club dinner. I made it an early night there, but I came home & read for a while so bedtime was after 11:00 anyway, oh well.

I realized something about that Java book: the first chapter, which I thought was the start of an impossibly steep learning curve, was really just "here are some examples showing the main ideas, don't worry if you don't understand because we'll explain it all later." Lucky me! Thought I was doomed...

My cousin's husband is pretty sick right now. He woke up in incredible pain the other day, rushed to the hospital where they said he had a growth near his aorta, had to go to Miami for surgical team that could handle it. Very scary situation, but he's at the special hospital now and they've got a good handle on the situation, which looks a little (but only a little) less dire than originally. He should be undergoing surgery as soon as all tests are completed, probably in the next few days.

Java Can Wait

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13% BF

The weekend:

Friday was a night ride down the towpath, where I ran into Joe & Cindy, and then also Doug & Lori. Pretty amazing when you think about it, though maybe I shouldn't be too surprised. Afterwards J&C, also Brian, met me at Which Brew for dinner. Mellow night, but there was an after-dinner shot of high quality tequila involved... The band there was really good, sort of reggae/ska, tight and really talented playing; Unfortunately the rest of the audience (other than our table) didn't seem very appreciative. Brian bought the CD, and I signed up for their mailing list.

Saturday I went to the gym -- almost was late because I was playing with the computer -- where I rode a stationary bike rather than run, and skipped the pushups because my toe (better in almost all respects) still hurts at the tip, and I skipped everything that involved lying on my back because my head was stuffed and I was worried about vertigo. Why did I bother going? Actually, it was a good workout despite everything; Dawn was super resourceful and came up with a lot of exercises to substitute for my normal ones. I also did the first leg exercise of the year, leg raises for the ol quads.

The afternoon was mostly taken with minor chores, especially getting ready for the Gap Gallop century ride. Later in the day I decided to start messing with Java, so broke out that "Learning Java" book and got ready to install from the accompanying CD, then decided to download the next-to-latest version directly from Sun.

Digression #1: I installed the latest "Java Runtime Environment" last week, which allows for Java plugins to run. The very next day, Sun announced the release of a major new upgrade -- doh!

Digression #2: Sun's Java product nomenclature is very confusing.

Anyway, I got the download going, grabbed the laundry & took it to be dried at the laundromat, and went back down to Which Brew, thought I'd grab some dinner, see this weekend's other reggae band (even better thant the other one). That's where I ran into Theresa, hmmmm...

Sunday was the Gap Gallop, a century road ride around parts of Northampton County, the Slate Belt and the Poconos; it climbs over Blue Mountain at Little Gap, and returns via the Water Gap (hence the name). A perfect Indian summer day, on the very cusp of autumn color (my favorite time of year), and the ride was awesome. I rode with Joe & Cindy (also her dad for a while, but he was with a bunch of his friends who branched off the official ride after near the end), Rob G, and Janna's boyfriend Eric; I also saw a whole bunch of other people I know. All in all it was a great ride, though towards the end I started thinking that maybe working legs wasn't such a good idea on Saturday. Afterward, I went to Jack Creek for dinner with Joe & Cindy, then went home and crashed.

My plan was to take a quick nap, then maybe run through some finger exercises from the Java book, but I ended up sleeping throught to this morning. Maybe tonight I'll get to it.

One More Night

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 7% BF

Whoops! Was going to go to the gym (again) last night, but (again) I sat down "just to check my email" and blew off everything including dinner -- well, I ate half a box of Triskets -- went to bed at 1:00 AM. A little too old to be going into a larval stage... nothing I can really point to as an accomplishment either, just browsing the web and generic fiddling.

Nite Ride: I plugged in the batteries; they should be ready for a ride along the towpath tonight. I may hit the Raubsville Inn afterward to see Duende (they're either there or at Pearly Baker's, gotta check).

Ghost in the Shell

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 9% BF

Didn't go to the gym Tuesday or yesterday, didn't do laundry or other chores, instead I got home from work and played with the computer. Last night I sat down, "just for a minute, to check my emails" and didn't get up -- except for a bathroom break / fridge raid about 10:00 -- until after midnight. Among the stuff I did was get my newer version of that gallery maker shell script up and running -- now with a style sheet and unordered lists instead of tables, plus a few more cleanup items, like

link=${photo%[jJ][pP][gG]}html

rather than using something like

link=`echo $photo sed -e "s/[jJ][pP][gG]/html/"`

Really kind of dumb way to do something, when the shell will do it for you...

I also sat down and installed the latest Java runtime library, and installed the mozilla plugin (finally). Don't know what the big deal was, why I had a mental block about it, but it's there now... of course, then I had to mess with java-enabled stuff like yahoo chats, then I had to fool with IRC chat & chatzilla, then at midnight I opened up an O'Reilly book on Java I got a while ago -- now I'm chugging java, trying to stay awake.

Speaking of staying awake: we just had a meeting about another company reorganization (European and North American energy companies will be managed together), plus a bunch of corporate/financial/stock stuff. (Some things were very interesting though, like product and technology-focus strategies for the next few years.) Anyway, lunchtimes over, back to (real) work.

duh

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF

Nothing much to say: cleaned the kitchen (slightly) last night, also laundry/shopping & played more w/ CSS, lists & my galleries. Nothing to write home about... tonight is the gym, then maybe a little more housework.

Busy Beavers, Bees, and Blackfoot

Morning weigh-in (Sunday): 173.5#, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175#, 12.5% BF

I stayed in Saturday night, playing with style sheets etc. I'm trying to get away from using tables in my image gallery indexes, instead using unordered lists so they flow to fit the page, but I also want them to look exactly like the tables-based indexes. I think I've got it down, but I was up a little late because of it, which made Sunday morning tough.

Sunday was trail maintenance day at an "undisclosed location." We have an unofficial & quasi-legal OK to be riding/working in the area, but officially we're trespassing -- so shhhhhh! Well, discretion is the better part of valor, so we went up there with two chainsaws & cleared out a bunch of trees downed by the hurricane. We removed the first few trees without any real problems, then came across one next to a yellowjacket nest -- practically on the trail, and very, very angry! Eric & Doug both got stung, though we tried to be careful. I didn't have a problem with the yellowjackets, but I guess I used up all my "careful" on them because I managed to drop a log on my foot. It hurt like hell all day, still hurts and now my big toe is black & blue, but I don't think anything's broken. (I was planning to run tomorrow, think I'll skip it.)

After the trail work, I rode with Doug & Lori up in the same trail system near where we worked. (Eric was up there as well, but we never did find him.) They were on their new tandem, and going kind of slow in the twisty and very technical terrain, and this was fine by me, since I felt tired and my strength/enthusiasm had all drained out the bottom of my foot. Rode pretty good though, was happy with that & had fun.

Sunday evening was back to D&L's house, for a dinner party they put together. Eric & Kris, Brian, and Greg & Judy (just off surgery, first time out of the house in a week); salad, bread & olive oil, pasta w/ sausage & meatballs and Doug's family-recipe sauce; cannoli and other desserts, and beer and wine and great conversation. An awesome evening.

Death By Garlic

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 12.5% BF

Well, this weekend is the Easton Garlic Festival, but at Which Brew the weekend starts on Friday night so I grabbed a plate of roasted elephant garlic: each clove must have been about as big as a full bulb of regular garlic, and the plate held about half a dozen cloves. Unbelievably tasty, but it wreaked havoc on my digestion. I guess now I'm honorary Welsh...

Anyway: rode last night, 3 hours on the (slightly damaged) Lehigh towpath -- most damage wasn't from the river, but from water coming down off the hills and cliffs, heading for the river -- then to WB as noted. The band there, The Insidious Rays, were awesome, by the way. Hung out with Stu & Kathy before they left, and Heath & Hans Kneller (their bikes were on their car, who else could it have been?) and Margarita, plus about a thousand cute college girls it seemed like.

This morning I fooled with computer before hitting the coffee shop, then a run along the Jersey side of the river & a standard gym workout; after that I checked out the festival downtown. Got home, played more with the 'puter, and my mouse crapped out. Cheap plastic part inside snapped, so I bought a new Logitech wireless optical mouse (3-button w/ mouse wheel, thirty bucks -- sweet!), which I'm using right now. Feels kind of weird, like using a template on the old AutoCAD systems at work, but I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quick.

Channeling My Inner Dork

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12.5% BF

Didn't ride/run/lift or do chores/errands last night, instead played with the computer. I don't know why, but I really like playing with bash.

A Little Mercy

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11.5% BF

Heard a cool song yesterday, had to stay in the car to let it finish when I got home from work. I didn't catch the artist/title, but liooked it up and found this:

Whoever watches over all these truckers
Show a little mercy for a weary sinner
And deliver me, Lord deliver me
Deliver me to the next Best Western

Rode last night at Jacobsburg (w/ Doug & Lori on the tandem, Greg M, Greg P, Eric, and Joe & Cindy, as well as seeing Rich B, Lee S on his BMW motorcycle in the parking lot, and Dave J as he was leaving). Lots of damage from the storms & flooding: many bridges out, including small trail bridges (Doug et al fixed a lot of these) and even a few of the big ones. Some trail damage made the trails more technical though, which was fun, a guilty pleasure.

I'm still sick though, and felt like hammered shit after the ride so I went straight home & to bed -- no dinner. Felt a lot better overnight and this morning, thanks to my good friends Actifed, Ibuprofin, Echinacea and Vitamin C. I'm still passing the "neck test"* though, so tonight I'll be heading to the gym, see how I feel there.

*Neck Test: if you're sick and it's below your throat, don't exercise, but if it's above your neck do a warmup, and if you feel up for it you can continue the workout.

Not the Return I Was Expecting

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10% BF

I seem to be getting a cold, which was once a monthly occurrence but has been almost unheard-of for more than a year. Sore throat started last night, sinuses seem clogged, I hope it blows over pretty quick.

Ran yesterday, two miles down past Baker Chemical before working out, then went home, did some stuff, and went to WB for dinner. Interesting conversation with a dude I see there on Tuesdays: kickboxer, worked as an "armed security escort" in the Caribbean, coupla stories...

Tonight is a night ride at Jacobsburg, check out the flood damage & see the ol' Gang.

Finding My Way Back To The Same Old Same Old

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11% BF

I was going to run this morning -- but I got a haircut yesterday, which means I visited the bookstore in the mall, and that's where I bought some books on MySQL and PHP, thus causing me to stay up a little late reading and playing with the computer... I'll hit the gym tonight (if it's still there after the flooding), do a quick warmup run beforehand.

I have PHP on my computer, but no web server installed; I haven't checked to see if MySQL is around anywhere yet. I'll probably either download the latest Apache or use the handy CD that came with the book, get it all running & start to play sometime in the next week or so. Meantime, I can always use PHP to generate static HTML in various shell scripts, right? (Yes, still messing with my photo galleries script, which I think I'll be finalizing this weekend. I'll probably post version 1.0 in my gopherspace real soon.) Sad to say, freeshell.org doesn't give access to MySQL without special, paid-for privileges & I won't be setting up anything but a private web server at home, so this is all pretty much just wanking. Actually, 2nd order or meta-wanking, since the web page project is already a bit of a wankfest...

There is a bit of an agenda here, however: I think I may have to switch careers sometime in the next year or so, and am looking to get into computers. Web stuff is probably already saturated; my theory is that home-PC tech support will be pretty stable -- you can't outsource the doctor that makes house calls, right? -- but I'll need a bit lot of retraining before that (hardware, software, MSCE, yadda yadda), & I first want to get a feel for the back office of a computerized small business. We'll see.

By the way, here are some photos of the flood damage, emailed to me from a friend (not sure who took or owns the pictures).

Back From Florida

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

Well, I'm back; flew in last night & was home by about 10:30. Some highlights: flew down Thursday, met my uncle at the airport and, on the advice of my other uncle, drove directly to the rehearsal dinner, where we were two hours early... went to Universal Studios on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and a brunch at my cousin's new house (sister of cousin who got married) on Sunday before flying back. Plenty of hanging out w/ family in the meantime & betweentime.

The weather was good (but very hot), and there was only a little hurricane damage in the Orlando/Cocoa Beach areas I frequented, so when I got home I was surprised to see as much storm and flodding damage as I did around here: bridges and roads out; the downtowns of Easton and several other river towns spent most of yesterday under water.

More later, including many photos (probably in the yahoo galleries), so stay tuned...

A little bit of catch-up

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 10.5% BF

Rode the towpath last night, OK but a somewhat sluggish pace, I finished with a 1:35 ride time. I didn't feel tired or winded or anything, but my pace never rose -- 15 mph felt normal, the 18 mph pace from a few weeks back felt impossible to sustain. Allergies?

I also updated my website last night. My "photos of Mike" page was really sort of a letter to his fiancee (the online version was there for comments/input from friends & family, and the final version of the original went on a disk for her), so I went in and changed it to a more public document. It was kind of neat, I was logged in to the epix (Solaris?) system, as well as freeshell (*BSD), plus my own computer, also FTP'ing stuff around like some kind of juggler, what a tangled web I was weaving... Later on (after dinner) I started to add comments to some of the newer galleries, but didn't update the site -- bedtime, you know.

Dinner was Which Brew, quiet night there. Figure I'm on vacation this weekend, no food at home and I don't want to buy anything just to let it go bad... Several WDIY types there, talking about Channel 39's attempt to take over the station. I signed the petition (the print version), and the conversation devolved into "cool bands/venues/radio I have experienced" one-upmanship. Interesting!

Went home, messed with 'puter, bed by 12:30.

By the way, stay tuned for more crap, because I now have a gopher site -- does anybody here remember gopher? It's still around, just gone underground. That's what gophers do...

Sudden Change in Plans

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 11.5% BF

So, I'm still going to Florida, but I'm going stag and I won't be visiting the Keys: Theresa can't make it, so there's no point in an extended vacation, and no reason to drive down instead of flying. I have my flight & a rental car booked, must make sure hotel can accommodate me for Thursday night. Oh well.

Lost Weekend

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10.5% BF

The weekend:

Friday night was a slow lap (sluggish, no snap) on the towpath, made slower by a flat, then a late night at WB & also Porters...

Saturday was a quick run followed by the gym, then I checked out the P'burg Crit before stopping by T's and dropping off her "certified non-deathtrap" bike. Dinner w/ "the guys" (Doug, Brian & Eric) at JP McGrady's Pub in Bethlehem, kind of a quiet night even so.

Sunday was a group ride at fell Mountain: Doug, Bob, Joe & Cindy, Eric, Rich and Pete and myself. I was hurting (tired and headachey), but some "it's allergies, take an allergy pill" advice from nurse Cindy pulled me through. Rough ride all around, everyone was tired by the end (only 15 miles, but it took 5 hours to do -- 2:20 ride time actually, still tiwas some tough, technical riding), but we were all glad we did it. We met up with a local near the end, and he showed us a few new trails.

Post ride pig-out at that place in Clark's Summit, then the drive home (slept most of the way), then I tried to FTP some new galleries into my site, ran into problems and gave up, passing out by 10:00. Stay tuned: Moab 2002 shots up "soon"...

Strangely enough, I'm not tired today.