Snow Riders

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 9.5% BF

 

Went out last night on the towpath, but I started late (8:00, an hour after my  planned "late start" at 7:00) and wanted to be done by 9:00, so I only went to Freemansburg before turning around -- the snow made for very slow going. After that I met Anne and her friend Lois at Brew Works; Lois was leaving, so we moved up the bar and chatted with the bartender while I grabbed some dinner.

 

Ick Regis: Anne's friend Joyce just wrote a novel, and I was checking it out on Amazon when I came across this blog post. Pretty awesome, and it kind of reminded me of the ending to Kim.

 

Tonight, hopefully, is a group ride on the towpath, like the one last week.

 

Getting My Monday Morning Quarter Back

Morning Weigh-in: 172#, 10% BF

 

Hopefully they (the official morning weigh-ins) will be more frequent in the future. I am not officially a Bedlamite, but I do send a lot of my time over at Anne's now, so I moved most of my toys -- except the computer, but I do have the laptop there -- over to her place, and that pile of toys includes the Official Morning Weigh-in And OCD Scale. Poor Anne!

 

The first week of training is done by the way, and I'm now into Week 2 of "Base Period 1:" the same low-intensity rides as the first week, only more of them, while strength training continues in the gym. Week 1 worked out pretty well, except that I was very tired Saturday morning,(after my Friday evening Towpath ride), and blew off my scheduled yoga and gym sessions.

 

A quick FYI digression: I have three Base Periods scheduled, and three Build Periods after that, each period lasting three weeks and followed by a less intense "rest week," and that should take me into July, when I transition into race mode.

 

So how did I spend my Saturday? Anne and I walked downtown in the snow, got a load of ingredients, and then spent the rest of the day brewing beer. Home brewing is not a very laborious process but it takes a while, and there's a lot lots of downtime while water heats up or cools down, grains steep etc, so, "brewing" really meant we spent the day reading, playing with the computer and watching movies (The Matrix, The Big Lebowski) while the snow fell. We didn't actually finish until about 1:30 AM, but there is now a giant, 5-gallon jug of Porter fermenting in her living room.

 

Sunday was supposed to be a fun group ride, mixed road and offroad around south Bethlehem, but the snowstorm nixed that, and we -- Anne and I, Doug & Lori, and Eric & Kris -- went XC skiing instead, up in Jim Thorpe. We went along the old Switchback Railroad from Mauch Chunk Lake Park to Summit Hill and back; it took us about 2 hours, maybe a little longer. Beautiful day, and great conditions except some places where the ski tracks had been stepped on by hikers and snowshoers -- that's actually illegal in NY state, and I wish that were true here too. Great day though, lots of fun even though I forgot my poles.

 

Dinner was at the Hotel Switzerland, or whatever it's currently called, and I studiously avoided watching the game to avoid jinxing it, but apparently my superstitious mojo wasn't enough, and the Giants lost. A sad day...

 

Tonight is a towpath ride, and tomorrow is a group training ride on the towpath.

 

 

Rest In Peace, Sweetness

At Megan's Party
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

We went to Porter's last night to catch the open-mic show, since some people we know were going to be doing comedy routines routines (it was decent, definitely better than the usual music, and kind of fun to see them learning the ropes), and as we walked in I saw the the board outside said "Rest in Peace, Sweetness." Well, shit.

Sweetness was until recently a regular at Porter's, and you could see him there almost any evening. He told some good stories about his life, but I know almost nothing about him -- not even his name -- except that he had the same birthday as me. He was very good friends with many other regulars and the bartenders too. I hadn't seen him in a while, so I asked recently, and someone told me he had "health issues," which by the way they said it, it sounded like cancer.

Needless to say, things were pretty glum in there last night, especially among the bartenders and regular patrons.

So Far So Good

Partway through my first week of training, and things look good so far...

 

A Humorous Incident: The first ride of the Chain Gang's 2001 trip to Downieville started with a 17-mile climb. The group is working away, just chugging along up that hill... Joe C and I are riding together, and we looked at each other and said something like "this ain't so bad!" Just then, we turned a corner and saw a sign: "Mile Marker #1." So far so good, but we hadn't even started yet, really. (Actually it wasn't too bad, and the 17-mile downhill on the other side made it all worthwhile.)

 

Anyway, I did yoga Monday, rode the towpath Tuesday, did more yoga Wednesday, hit the gym last night, and tonight is another towpath ride; tomorrow is yoga and the gym again, and Sunday is a "wintry mix" fun ride. Mostly cross-training right now, but my plan is to ramp up the cycling volume next week and the week after, to complete my first "base period." (Following a "rest week," my next period will pretty much duplicate this first one, but with somewhat more intense rides and pace.) We shall see -- Tipperary is still a long way off.

 

I do have a secret weapon this year: Google Calendar. I've planned out all my training periods (if not all individual training activities -- yet) up to the W101 as tasks/events on the calendar, and have been keeping logs of my training sessions (OK, session) so far as comments. My big problem last year was that I started training way too late, and this year I think I have that licked -- I'd better, since the very next day after the W101, we head out to start the PPRAC ride.

 

Yep, I'm doing that too. You have been warned.

 

It's Like I Never Left

Well, I'm back at work, starting yesterday after about three weeks off. Pretty ordinary back-to-work days so far, mostly what I expected.

 

Movie Review: We saw Milk Sunday night, at the 19th Street Theater with Doug & Lori. It was very well done, and the acting was awesome (especially Sean Penn), but it sure wasn't a feel-good movie. (And once again, I managed to see a real downer at the 19th St Theater.) Still, it comes with my recommendation.

 

Trail Review: Things might be a little different after tonight's "wintry mix," but I think the trails at Sals have never been more fun than they've been in the past week. I rode there multiple times including New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, once or twice before that, and also on Sunday when local pros Jay Dejesus and Rob Lichtenwalner held a skills seminar there. Bonus: Anne checked out the seminar as well! She rode there in maybe September, on what must have been her third time on a mountain bike, and was not sure she liked or was confident on those trails. But this -- along with her new, more properly-sized handlebar -- was exactly what the doctor ordered: plenty of people, of all ability levels including her own (she was mid-pack), learning what works and what doesn't in a "just for fun" environment.

 

Last night was yoga, and tonight is a towpath ride, in fact my first training ride of the year, Workout Number One in Week One of my first "base" training period. My goal: once again, I am aiming at a sub-ten-hour finish at the Wilderness 101. If I start now and keep to the plan I've come up with, I should hopefully see some major improvements this year.

 

(By the way, the positional vertigo is back.)

 

 

 

 

 

Just A Few Quick Blogging Moments

Anne's doing the crossword puzzle, Ben's eating breakfast, and Emmi and I are both tapping away on our laptops... Anne and I are going down to Jackson soon for a belated Christmas visit with my parents, but I have a few minutes before we have to get ready.

Plenty of stuff has happened since my last post, but not much that could be called unexpected. I rode Sals on New Year's Eve, an afternoon ride and my last one for 2008, then we had a small dinner party: the crew here, plus Judy and Erica & Toby; we made pizza and had a lot of laughs. After they took off we went to Brew Works (where we were not quite dressed like all the "Black Party with DJ and Champagne" attendees), met Donna and her BF, then when Emmi came by we headed downtown, and saw the annual Dropping of the Peep. Happy New Year! By the way, it was freezing and extremely windy.

Yesterday I did another ride at Sals, my first for 2009, and hooked up with Rich and a friend of his, a downhill guy named Kevin. Still really cold, but the wind had died down, and the trail conditions were awesome, the best they'd been in months. Dinner was the traditional PA Dutch New Year's Day dinner (pork and sauerkraut). I was feeling a little ratty lung-wise, so I crashed for a bit, then we went out but Downtown Bethlehem was closed, dead, and deserted... We stopped into the only place open, the Hotel Bethlehem, and had a quiet beer before calling it an evening.

Retrospective 1.9

Earth Say Cleanup At Sals
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

In between Moab and North Carolina was Earth Day, when Doug organized a trash cleanup at Walking Purchase Park (aka "Sals"), which is unfortunately a prime spot for illegal dumpers. This photo was from the start of the day; by the end of the day we were considerably less fresh but we'd pulled two full dumpsters of trash, and about 100 tires out of the woods.

Nice Day!

Right now I'm sitting in the Dimmick Library in downtown Jim Thorpe. Anne and I came up here this morning and did a hike up Glen Onoko, then grabbed lunch and came over here -- she's doing research for her latest writing project, and I'm goofing off on Teh Internets...

More Recent Events

Just hanging out right now, waiting for the vet to open...

Went out last night to Anne's brother's house in Belle Mead for her family's Christmas gathering. I was the new guy there, though I did know a few of her relatives from Thanksgiving: plenty of brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, cousins playing Guitar Hero in the basement etc, it was a pretty cool evening. Diner was Thai meatballs plus lots of other stuff, and dessert was cake and cookies. Coffee, Pictionary, a gift exchange, much fun but by about 8:00 we all were pretty glassy-eyed (though the kids were still all going strong), and things started to break up. We hit Brew Works for a nightcap after getting back to Bethlehem.

This morning we heard some rustling, like the dog was messing with something. Anne got up and I heard all sorts of commotion: Langston had found a giant Hershey's Kiss and ate it, about 10 oz of milk chocolate -- not enough to kill him but he probably had poisoned himself, and he sure looked very pleased with himself too, which only made the whole thing even more exasperating...

Some Googling of "dog" and "chocolate," a talk with the emergency vet, and a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting (which didn't work), and now we're just waiting to take him to the regular vet, who actually has hours on Sunday. Not sure what the story will be: symptoms of chocolate poisoning include over-excitability, but he's sleeping under the table right now...

Retrospective #2: North Carolina

Relaxing
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

This was from the second road trip of the year, down to Western North Carolina (just below Asheville), with a bunch of the VMB trailwork regulars in late April. Me, Doug & Eric, Rich, Bob, Dave and Greg, a rented house down the street from the National Forest, and lotsa beer. Good times!

Retrospective #1: Moab

Jackson Hole: Rich, Brian And Don
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Looking back at 2008... This was from my first vacation this year, Moab and Fruita with Rich (left), Brian (middle) and John C who took the picture. It seems like years ago now, but it was only 8 months (and 10 pounds) in the past.

Christmas Eve

A Christmas Scene
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Well here it is -- at last, or already? -- Christmas Eve. I'm sitting here at Wired, fooling with the laptop and enjoying some coffee. All, or almost all, of my shopping is done, there is snow on the ground though it's currently raining, and we're just easing into the day after Anne's holiday party last night.

Said party was a total blast: a few of my friends, a few of hers, some friends of her son and daughter, Corsendonk and Delerium Tremens and Weyerbacher (and homemade ginger ale and hard cider), and acres and acres of food... The theme was "Fabulous Shoes," but the real theme was probably "comfort food:" I made chili, Anne made chicken and mac & cheese, and Emmi & Ben made sushi and bread, and everyone brought all sorts of stuff. The party itself, aside from the food, was awesome, lotsa good times.

There have been other parties as well: the photo is from the Chain Gang Christmas Party, held at Joe & Dawn's and also awesome. I forgot how much fun my friends can be...

Anyway, now we're just hanging out. It's just past Bottom Dead Center for the year, and we're going to check out a holiday/solstice pageant tonight, Quaker kids singing followed by a potluck dinner.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Snow, Right Here In Christmas City!

Monocacy Creek
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

That's a shot I took today, while walking from Anne's house over to Main Street to meet her at Wired Cafe. The Monocacy (and the original Moravian settlement, aka the "Colonial Industrial Area") divides her neighborhood from that part of town. It was a beautiful snowy day, so I brought the camera along...

Later, I walked over to Southside for an Eskandalo haircut, but the snow had turned to rain and that wasn't so beautiful. Still, the ground is now white and it definitely that "Christmas In Merrie Olde England" look that Bethlehem can get.

Time Flies

Anne and I were walking the other day and for some reason Mike Kucher came up, some story or other, and I was trying to figure out how long it was since he'd passed away. Well here's the old blog to the rescue, because I wrote about it back when it happened, or rather just afterward. Hard to believe, but it's been 5 years. (More about Mike here and here.)

I mentioned Mike's "Cancer-Free For 5 Years" party in that December 2003 post, saying it was two years earlier; that would make the party seven years ago, or the summer of 2001 -- the same summer we (the Chain Gang) went to Downieville, which seems like a long time ago, but nowhere near as long ago as that party...

That party was at Danny M's house, and was probably the last time I saw him and his family, whom I hadn't seen for probably five years before that -- they had four kids including a teenager, and before that I remember her mostly as an infant... I wonder how they're doing now, he was a seriously loyal GM engineer for as long as I've kept in touch.

An Amusing Incident At A Long-Ago Party: At Danny's party for Mike, some totally unfamiliar young woman walks up and, pointing her very pregnant belly at me, says "Hi! Remember me?" Gaaaa!

Turns out it was Steve S's younger sister (name escapes me once again, though I remember older sister Elena), married for a year or two, and expecting their first child, and looking very different from the last time I saw her.

By the way, this is what I wrote around this time in 2004, ditto 2005, and 2006, and 2007. A retrospective, haven't done one of those in a while.

Well It's A Start

The winter's tale
Originally uploaded by ChickadeeD (Carole).

We got a little more snow last night, nothing to speak of though -- the grass is white but that's about it. I posted a picture of the falling snow, but this photo isn't it, just something interesting I saw...

Christmas Vacation!

Well, I'm done with work for the rest of this year, not going back until January 5th. Sweet1 I don't really have any plans, maybe ride Sals on the singlespeed tomorrow morning then play on the computer, set the pattern for the rest of the week... Anne's working, so I don't feel like, say, making travel plans anyway

The Turner is in the bike shop, getting the front brakes worked on, I've got octave up and running (and playing nicely with emacs & gnuplot) and my next task -- upgrading the home computer -- is on schedule. Things are pretty mellow right now, and except for Christmas shopping, I really have nothing to do...

Tokamak A-Knock You Out, Jackalope Knock You Out

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 10% BF

 

Imagine: RIP John Lennon, killed on this date in 1980.

 

Amazingly beautiful sunrise on the way in this morning, all pink solar towers and such, and the undersides of the clouds -- the sky mostly had a roof of cloud, except just over where the sun was coming up -- were lit up with orange and pink. The show did not last long though, when the sun got as high as the clouds the day went gray. But it was good while it lasted.

 

Oh Noes! This is the kind of reporting that hits you right in the, ah...

 

Medical Taylorism: Sure it will save lives, but how will it be received?

 

Yesterday was mostly hanging out and playing with the computer (though I also managed to replace the rear brake pads on the Turner and also find I need new parts for the front brakes): I managed to find and install qCAD, which looks enough like AutoCAD to make it worth trying out I hope, and I also installed Gnuplot and a few other things that make octave work better. Tonight is yoga.

 

 

 

 

 

Drama!

Did a lot of chores and errands yesterday, including some house cleanup and some clothes buying, but that wasn't the dramatic part of the day...

We were down on Main Street at Wired Cafe yesterday afternoon when we noticed sirens and commotion outside. A few minutes later a wave of people came into the (already crowded) cafe, with the news that the Bethlehem Brew Works, where they'd been eating, was on fire and they had all just been evacuated. Anne bumped into a friend, one of the bartenders; she said that it was a kitchen fire, and that no one was hurt or anything, probably just smoke damage. The jinx has struck again, one of our favorite places will probably be closed for a while, hopefully they (and the other businesses in their building) won't be out of commission for too long.

Our plan was to go from Wired to Easton, to meet up with Sally & Joe, and with Judy, who were all at the various art openings going on. We went to the Colonial for dinner, but first we had to get from Bethlehem to Easton in the first real snowfall of the year: lots of slipping and sliding, crashes; we couldn't take US22 because of some huge accident so it was all back roads but we made it.

Dinner at the Colonial was filling but that's about it, supposedly they're under new ownership but the menu (and recipes, and limited beer selection) are the same -- a decidedly mediocre experience thought the place is nice enough.

We got one more blast of drama though, when a domestic dispute erupted at a nearby table: father, mother, adult daughter, the father started dropping some f-bombs, trying (and failing) to keep himself under control; he then vowed to kick some guy's ass and stormed out. Uncomfortable silence, then the mother/daughter left. We saw them through the window saying goodbye; after the daughter walked off the father, still in "berate" mode, came from nowhere to join the mother and they walked off in another direction, tension between them visible from 50 yards away.

After dinner we went to the bar downstairs, where we met Judy and Ed and a bunch of Easton's art people, and Joe & Sally came down from dinner at Porters. There was a band, but the band was about the same level of quality as everything else there and we left.

Anne houseguests last night, as her sister and brother-in-law were trapped in Bethlehem by the snow -- they sell stuff at Christkindlemarkt but live in Tamaqua and couldn't make it home.

So that was a very full Saturday!

The Good Old Days

picture41
Originally uploaded by which_brew.

Believe it or not, this is me. That was my costume for the 2003 Halloween party at Which Brew, my personal best effort and not a bad job if I do say so myself, even if Doug did the makeup for me...

I saw some of the old Which Brew crew last night, Kirk had a party and quite a few people I know showed up -- we travel in at least two of the same circles (roughly, pubs/nightlife and yoga/bike/organic), so there were several groups of people that I knew there.

Linux Voyager: Leaving A Landmark

I have the day off, so I'm sitting in the Caffeine Cafe typing away... Actually, I'm now at Anne's house, got my car inspected in Bethlehem and just picked it up.

One of the reasons I got the laptop was so I could have a computer of my own when I was over here, instead of always using hers. Then I got this, with Ubuntu installed like a good little ideologue, and I found I couldn't connect to her wireless network, and in fact couldn't connect to any encrypted network. D'oh!

Luckily, there were plenty of open wireless access points, and I spent time researching the problem -- it turns out that "WEP Passphrase" is not supported by the Network Manager applet, because passphrases are not supported by the underlying program (iwconfig).

For various coffeehouses the password is their phone number, so instead of putting that into the default "WEP Passphrase" dialogue box -- and why does Network Manager even have such a dialog box, if the option is unsupported? -- I put that into the hex key option dialog box and it worked fine. Tried it at Anne's and it worked there too. Voila!

I ran into a lot of information about wireless driver issues etc, which seemed to be problems from a few months/years ago, and which didn't really help me. I thought I'd write this in case someone has a similar problem (really, just a misunderstanding on my part how this stuff works), this might come up in a google search and save them some time.

Anyway: I hit the gym last night, then then went to Porter's to meet Anne and Judy; I also saw Lou and some other people from the McSorley's trip, and also Mike (the Lafayette network guy from Which Brew), who earned his first mug last night. Tonight is a towpath ride, followed by a "reggae party" at Kirk's house. Tomorrow is the yoga/coffee/gym-and-maybe-bike thing.