On This First Day Of Spring

I have a bunch of half-written, diary style blog posts that I think I'll abandon, as they're losing relevance by the day. Just a quick note, I'm out of here in a few minutes...

 

Rest In Peace, Deanna. My friend Vito's wife passed away the other day, after a long illness -- she had lung cancer, which she beat but it got into her brain, she fought that (chemo, radiation, surgery), she had a stroke, and finally the game was up. She moved back home a week or so ago and was getting hospice care, and went into a coma just before last weekend. (Her obituary is here.) She was one of the nicest people I've ever had the privilege and pleasure to know, and while there's an Italian a saying, "so good he's good for nothing," she was good in a way that was very effective, she literally was a force for good in this world.

 

I'm leaving work early today to go to the wake, and tomorrow is the funeral. I especially feel bad for Vito -- he's a strong person, but that was at least partly because she was there to cover his back all those years. This isn't going to be easy.

 

Suitable

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13% BF

 

So much for a hard ride: I went out last night but didn't feel like hammering, and since it had to be short I really didn't know what to do so I just rode around West Bethlehem. I hit Doug's house but no one was home, then I went over to Spanky's, where he and Tony D were ripping apart his kitchen -- worried that they might give me something to do, I got out of there as quickly as I could... Tooled around a little more, 8 miles, 45 minutes, done by 7:00 and out the door for the Men's Warehouse.

 

Anne was at a writer's group meeting (listening to and discussing one guy's story of being in the Ukrainian underground as a boy -- wow!), which was nearby, and she met me there. Long story short: the salesgirl and the tailor eyed me up and quickly produced what I wanted, and soon I was the proud possessor of two suits, two pairs of slacks, some ties, socks, and two dress shirts -- it was "buy one get one free night" or something -- paid for just minutes before the store closed. (I pick up the suits next week.) Now that's how shopping is supposed to work!

 

Dinner was leftover Indian food, plus a chicken cheddar & apple sandwich, and one of the Brown Ales we made a few weeks ago.

 

And Another Thing: As a followup to yesterday's post, I thought I'd note this in passing. I remember plenty of guys like this when I first moved to the Lehigh Valley, talk of sovereignty and the Constitution as code for white supremism... A lot of  things going to be crawling out of the woodwork, now that treason is the new patriotism again.

 

Beware Of the Ham Bushes!

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10% BF

 

Oy: This was funny, especially in light of where I found it.

 

Fellow Traveler: In mostly-unrelated news, here's an article about a Windows user who tried Ubuntu, and here's a follow-up. While I would agree that "things are different in Linux" (if someone actually said that), different design philosophies, emphases & priorities etc, I use Ubuntu on the laptop and I think usability is down at a no-brainer level of easy, even -- especially -- when it comes to installing software.

 

Tonight will be a short, hard road ride, maybe hill repeats.

 

 

You Down with EDT?

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175#, 12% BF

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

 

My weekend?

 

Saturday: The tribute to the Talking Heads, a total blowout at Pearly Bakers.

Sunday: Janna's PPRAC charity spinning class, then the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

 

Rode the towpath last night, left after 6:00 and didn't need lights until long after my turnaround -- sweet! It's still pretty muddy down by Freemansburg, so I took the road from there on the return. Twenty five miles in 1:50, burned about 1650 calories... Tonight is the gym, and tomorrow in lieu of yoga I'll be doing a short, hard road ride, maybe hill intervals, before doing some clothes shopping.

 

RIP Waldemar Kulikowski, my old boss, who passed away in California over the weekend.

 

Congratulations James and Susie, on your new arrival! Sierra Rae, 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and 19" long, born 3/9/2009 at 11:08 AM.

 

 

All My GUY Friends Are Party Poopers

So it's Saturday, and I'm sitting at Wired with Anne. Second coffee shop of the day... Rode the towpath last night, then did the First Friday thing in South Bethlehem (me Anne, Deb, Donna, Scott and Joe); we ended up at the Tally Ho but the karaoke drove us out, and our feet took us naturally to Brew Works -- which was packed -- for the end of the night.

Strange thing: I ran into a lot of acquaintances, and friends, and people I knew, but -- except for Joe and Scott, who are really Deb's friends, and Deb's a friend I borrowed from Anne anyway -- I did not see one male friend of mine out last night. Walk into a gallery and there's a friend's wife, step into the Ho and there's an old Which Brew bud bartending, and over at the Steelgaarden we bumped into a biker friend and her whole posse. Dudes! You're dropping the ball, missing opportunities and generally making us all look bad...

Anyway, good ride last night, but very muddy: after the ride I had to strip in the foyer, quarantine my clothes and clean the floor after my shower; I spent part of the afternoon scraping off the dried grit & mud off the bike, but all is back to normal now. Yoga this morning, spinning tomorrow, and tonight will be a trip to Pearly Bakers to see that Talking Heads tribute -- apparently this is the ultimate buzz thing to do in Easton this weekend.

TGIF

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 11% BF

 

New Shoes: I stopped in at Curt's Cyclery last night and bought a pair of Shimano SH-M182's. Went home, put on the cleats (panic attacks as things seemed not to be compatible, but all was well) and -- waah-LAA! -- I am back in business. I'll be trying them tonight, either on the towpath if I hear from my usual riding partner, or maybe Sals.

 

Tough week, I am glad it's (almost) over. Tonight and tomorrow night are the last nights for the Grand Re-Opening Dollar Drafts at the Brew Works, and since tomorrow night will be Pearly Baker's for that Talking Heads tribute show, I think we'll be hitting the BW tonight. Tomorrow is yoga and the gym, Sunday (if they have any openings) will be Janna's charity spinning class at Everybody's; if we can't make that we may try to do that Genesis Bakery Ride.

 

 

Today In History

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 11% BF

 

Happy 45th Birthday to my brother Kevin! Today is also the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, and the third anniversary of my ankle incident.

 

Not sure what's going on, but my skin is all itchy lately, I'm getting nosebleeds (at least at work), I'm tired all the time and have had to skip several workouts this week, and that sudden jump in weight, wow. The first two I could ascribe to low humidity coming in with this cold snap, but I'm not sure about the  others -- except, I've been using cortisone again, hmmmm...

 

Weekend Recap: Anne and I got in a good ride with Doug on Saturday, mellow and fun despite the cold & wind, then Sunday (when we were supposed to go for a long Genesis-sponsored road ride, but blew it off because of the impending weather -- and it got canceled too, probably for the same reason) we went for an afternoon hike at Sals, probably got in a good 8 miles total while I did some more mapping. Saturday night was Porters, and Sunday night was Brew Works.

 

We hardly got anything from Monday's snowstorm, but there was enough on the ground to do some XC skiing on the towpath.

 

Spin Crash: Tuesday night is when it all fell apart. I went into the basement to do the interval workout I'd postponed from Monday, but after warming up I hit the gas and nothing happened: my heart rate would not rise into the workout zone, so I bagged the first interval, then I was so tired I couldn't even just sit and spin -- I bagged the whole thing, did a cooldown and was off the bike within 20 minutes of starting.

 

Last night was also a wash, but maybe not so bad: I blew off yoga to do a Sals ride, but first had to fuss with my bike shoes (I need to install new cleats and tried to get the old ones off last night, but the bolts are basically welded in place). After an hour of messing around I gave up, then decided I really didn't want to ride at all, even with the old cleats. I spent the rest of the night re-installing Google Earth and playing with some Sals maps.

 

Tonight is the gym, unless I locate some new bike shoes to go purchase.

 

 

Applebutter Headwinds, That's Not Fair!

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 173.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 175#, 11% BF

So I got up this morning, drew up a nice route on Google Maps, then downloaded and converted it to GPX and put it on my Garmin. Worked like a charm, the thing beeped whenever I had to make a turn (though I think it was in "offroad" mode, since it didn't really care about road turns per se, but just noted major changes in direction), all the way until got to where the road was closed -- it had nothing to say fort a while, until I got back to the original route again, but by then I was done.

My route was basically a modified Hellertown loop, only I added Millheim Road and Wassergass Road, and my plan was to got through Freemansburg on River Road, but Lower Saucon was the closed road and I took Applebutter back to Hellertown. Applebutter is a fun downhill in ordinary circumstances, like four miles of just rolling along, but today it was windy, and -- just my luck -- that was where the wind was in my face. I still could roll with almost no effort, but it wasn't the fast or exciting rollercoaster ride I was hoping for. In terms of training, this was a hilly ride and I was working the legs a bit, but my plan was to keep the heart rate kind of lower and more aerobic for the climbs, and, except for one maximum-effort wall on Millheim, I think I hit my sweet spot.

Here's A Little Thing That Is Sure To Please You: I guess I'm on a kick, I downloaded a bunch of other songs Wednesday night, only one I remember right now being Alex Chilton's "Bangkok."

That was after yoga, and after a fairly light (grilled cheese & salad) dinner -- the pork & sauerkraut wasn't quite ready. Since last night was burgers at the newly re-opened Brew Works -- note weight, and that despite a brutal gym workout -- and tonight is a visit to the Mauch Chunk Rod and Gun Club -- stay tuned for a full report, if I live -- we'll probably be eating it (the pork) as an early dinner tonight.

Spotlight On The Mountains Of Madness

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 10% BF

 

Crow Clock Running Faster: I'm usually not ready to get up when the alarm clock goes off, so I just sort of lay there for a while, trying to wake up, and don't actually get up until I hear all the crows flying off to wherever they go for the day -- maybe they're commuters too? -- from their evening roosts by the river. Unfortunately for my wakeup, they time their commute by the sunrise, which means that I've been getting up earlier and earlier each day.

 

I'm Not Gonna Go There: Looks like they shined some radar down through the Antarctic ice, and found the Mountains of Madness. Yikes!

 

Last night was the gym, followed by leftover chicken, and tonight is yoga. I believe Anne has plans to cook pork & sauerkraut tonight.

 

 

I Often Dream Of Trains

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 11% BF

 

Listening: I downloaded a bunch of songs from eMusic last night, including two from Robyn Hitchcock ("I Often Dream Of Trains" and "The Man With The Lightbulb head"), and a whopping 18 by the Dead Kennedys. I also picked up Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" and a few others. Much nerdly rocking out by the light of the laptop last night, I must say.

 

Training: Last night was also interval night on the trainer, and (strange as it may sound) I had a lot of fun -- I was playing with the HRM, and the time just flew by. I felt pretty good too, but I was crushed by the time I was done, all rubbery and nauseous. Tonight is plyometrics at the gym.

 

Speaking Of The Man With The Lightbulb Head: Check out this deep-sea fish.

 

Drinking: A friend was singing over in Southside, but I couldn't make it in time, so I just met Anne over at the Steelgaarden, the club-like "martini bar" downstairs at the Brew Works. I had a beer while I was there, but I wasn't hungry at all, which was good because there was no food. The upstairs part of the Brew Works is closed right now, but will re-open sometime this week with their new kitchen, and not a minute to soon as far as I'm concerned -- the fire was more than two months ago, and I am jonesing for a burger, maybe some wings...

Back In The Saddle

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Rest week ends today, with basement intervals on tonight's agenda -- tomorrow is the gym, more plyometrics. (This week the bike volume is low, just tonight and the weekend's rides, but starting next week the crosstraining will be phased out, at least partially. It's really starting like the end of winter out there.)

 

I don't have much to say otherwise, not much has happened since my last post.

 

Some Music: We met Sally and Joe at Porter's for dinner Saturday night, but we all left when the band (southern rockers, complete with Confederate flag and "this is not a racist symbol, you should learn your history" spiel) was so bad we left. We all went down to Pearly Baker's for the reggae stylings of the Trouble City All-Stars, a major improvement in terms of both taste and general musicianship.

 

Anne and I went up to Jim Thorpe on Sunday morning and tried to ride the Broad Mountain Loop. It was beautiful out, with a light snow falling, but the trail (under the 3" or so of new snow) was all ice and we bailed after only a few miles.

 

Some More Music: We went out to the Tally Ho to see what looked like a local supergroup (really, stars from every Bethlehem band) playing a night of Talking Heads covers. Very fun, and apparently that's where the old Which Brew girls hang out, at least on Sunday: local hipsters take the place over when the frat boys are out of town, and I'd guess that half their boyfriends were in the band. There was a neat vibe despite the smoke, like Jabberwocky on Sunday nights, when the disco was shut down and Joe and I would go to play pool. Good to see some of the old faces too -- I haven't seen Andrea since WB closed in May. Her hair was alternately long/pink and buzzcut/leopard-print, but other than that she hasn't changed a bit...

 

Except for us (and Lee, and also Kelly-Jo), the scene was mostly younger and leaned toward the bartender crowd, as in "we always stay up late, and besides we all have off tomorrow," so Anne and I left long before the show was over, but they'll be playing Pearly's and the Funhouse in March, and I think they'll be worth catching.

 

Sign Sez "Westinghouse," Wight?

I'm back. Never really went away, but the posting has been light because -- sorry, life has been busy and full...

 

Last week was the end of "Base 2 training," and I am now finishing up the rest week, and going a bit stir-crazy too, all grouchy from not exercising. Not sure what base 3 training is going to look like on the bike, but I should be pushing for strength and speed, so I'm thinking I'll add hills and sprints. In the gym I'll be switching to plyometrics, at least for the legs; I did some Thursday, learning the technique, and it really spanked me...

 

Quick Look At Last Weekend: I had off Friday, and rode over at Sals, then the evening's ride was on the towpath with Anne; we met Larry for a bit of the return trip as well. (Total ride time on the towpath was 3 hours because of all the mud., we were whooped by the end.) We ended up at Rippers for burgers -- even before the ride ended I was so hungry and tired, that was all I wanted in this world. Saturday was mostly chores and errands, since I overslept for yoga and was too tired for the gym. We crashed early Saturday night too, but hit Brew works for a bit first. (There was a "Zombie Anti-Valentine Party" at Wired, and Andrew had his wine tasting party Saturday night, but we missed them both. Oh well.)  Sunday -- after a road ride to Emmaus for coffee at South Mountain Cycles -- was bottling of the beer we made a few weeks ago. Anne's niece & her husband came down, and we got down to business, then had dinner at Mama Nina's and Belgian beers at the Steelgaarden. Awesome weekend! I have pic posted of the bottling, by the way.

This has been a rest week on the bike, and like I said I've been busy at work, so last night after my ride -- even with a "rest week" I had to ride Sals yesterday, and got most if it done before dark -- we stayed in. Anne baked cookies, and we just kicked back and read.

Woman opens her refrigerator and finds a hobo lounging inside. She yells "What are you doing in my fridge?!"
Hobo sez "This is a Westinghouse, right?"
"Well, yeah..."
"So I'm just westing!"

Try the veal.

Mud Season Is Upon Us

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 176#, 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 173#, 11.5% BF

 

Happy Darwin Day! Today marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. You know it's coming, so here it is:

 

"It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life and from use and disuse: a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved." -- Charles Darwin, concluding paragraph to The Origin of Species

 

That's probably one of my all-time favorite scientific quotes. Remember the great man today, and don't forget to do something spectacularly stupid, in his honor...

 

Anyway, I tried to do a towpath ride last night, but the path was so soft (and wet, even submerged in places) that it was just not worth it. I got as far as Freemansburg before bailing and taking the road back. It was unseasonably warm and pleasant so the ride wasn't a total waste but I should have just taken the road bike, thaw means mud. (I wanted to use the GPS though, and since I have no way to mount it on the road bike -- I lost the spare bracket that came with the unit -- I went out on the Turner. Oh well, I'll be getting a new bracket soon I'm sure.) Windy, warm, it sure seems like March arrived early today.

 

I'll Take "Logistical Equations" For $100, Alex: Speaking of Darwin, here's an interesting look at that "25 Random Things About Me" craze on Facebook, as seen from an epidemiological standpoint.

 

Tuesday was a hard, full-body gym workout, but it seemed like I just breezed right through it. Very gratifying, my weights (here at the end of the "strength" portion of my weight-room training) are as high as they've ever been. Unfortunately, I went out to Brew Works for dinner afterward -- which was really cool, hanging with Anne and her friends Deb and Donna, but it sort of negated my in-the gym gains, or rather losses... I made up the difference by forgetting to eat dinner last night, not the brightest move either.

 

More Birthday Greats: Today is also the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NAACP. Watching our new President giving a speech at the Ford Theater today really shows that we've come pretty far, though for sure it's not as far as we like to think.

 

Tonight is the gym again, then Porters for Jazz Night. I have off tomorrow.

 

 

Heart-Healthy Nightmares

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 174.5#, 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 174#, 10% BF

 

David Rees Is A National Treasure: Check out my new favorite comic -- at least until Achewood comes back up to speed -- from the guy who brought us Get Your War On. Also, this.

 

So anyway, I hit the trainer last night for some basement intervals, 5 at 3 minutes with 2 minutes rest in between, for a 45 minute workout including warmup and cooldown -- Garmin sez I burned 563 calories. It also had a few nasty things to say about my heart fitness right now: maybe it's because I'm older (it's been years since I did this kind of workout, or worked out with a HRM), or maybe my heart was tired from other activities, but my HR would not go anywhere near the target I had set for myself -- I was shooting for a 180-185 bpm range for the hard parts, and was lucky to get 165-170. Oh well, I have my sights on Tipperary at least, but no one played the Rocky Theme for me last night... Dinner was pork and sauerkraut at home.

 

Movie Watch: Anne and I saw The Wackness on Saturday afternoon (before we went to see Raymond The Amish Comic). I'm not sure everyone will like it, but I thought it was good, lotsa Nineties references, and Ben Kingsley as a doped-up psychiatrist was worth the price of admission even if we did see it at home.

 

Movie Watch 2: Electric Boogaloo We also saw Gran Torino on Sunday afternoon, with Perry, Didi and her friend Sarah, downtown at the Boyd. If you've ever heard the cliche "I laughed, I cried," about a movie, well for this one it's true. Totally awesome, highly recommended.

 

Tonight is the gym, and tomorrow will be a road ride in lieu of yoga -- hey it'll be almost 60 degrees out! Meantime, here's a part of Friday night's ride.

Short And Sweet

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 11% BF

 

Rode Sals last night, or rather hit a part of it as part of a short road/offroad ride: I did a loop from Anne's house over to the hospital, then up to Dodson on the road and down to the Reeb trailhead via the Yellow and Red Trails. (Total distance was 4.84 miles, which I did in 40:44 for a 7.1 mpg average. Avg/Max heart rate was 146/172, and total elevation gain was 748 feet, most of that coming from the climb up to Dodson. Thank you Garmin! Note: I have the data for this and another ride online, where you  can play it back and watch the dot on the map go around and around while monitoring my speed, heart rate etc... I'll make some of these publicly visible, but not the ones -- like this latest -- that have personally identifying geographic info. So stay tuned!) Trails are still snowy, but not too bad.

 

After the ride Anne and I went to Porters to hang out with Judy, and Erica and Toby. It was the first of the new Thursday Night Jazz thingies, and last night's band leader was someone Judy knows.

 

Now He Belongs To The Zombies: Rest in peace, Lux Interior. I saw that yesterday, and have been surprised by the number of people who had memorial comments -- I thought The Cramps were pretty obscure. The variety of types of people who were remembering him was surprising as well, though some I know were fans from way back... Speaking of which, I need a haircut, think I'll get one tomorrow.

 

Stepford State Update: What a bunch of tools!

 

Tonight I may do another one of those Sals quickies, then it's back to Porters for Sally's birthday. Tomorrow is yoga/gym, then we're seeing Raymond The Amish Comic in Doylestown.

 

 

Nerdvana

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Breakfast yesterday was small, and so was dinner, but I had a huge turkey (and cheese! and mayo!) sub for lunch -- a-and so much for suppression, yoga last night was pretty tough but there's no sign of it in those numbers.

 

Reading: I'm getting towards the end of Everything and More by David Foster Wallace, one of my Christmas presents. It's basically a history of how mathematics has come to grips with the idea of infinity, and believe it or not, it's actually a real page-turner, a real pleasure to read, especially if you're a fan of DFW's conversational, idiosyncratic style. Next up is a book about the Golden Ratio, which should be interesting but probably isn't as well-written as EaM.

 

Navigating: I plugged the GPS into the laptop last night, and it turns out that accessing the data is a piece of cake, the whole thing just appears as an external drive. The data is organized pretty logically in files and folders, and it turns out to be fairly easy to extract to various mapping/training software & websites. This may not be true about moving stuff the other way, like installing new maps or software updates onto the Garmin, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it -- for now it does what I want, and more.

 

(Looking up from the laptop last night, where I was watching animated graphics  of my location, elevation, speed and heart rate from a recent ride, I saw myself surrounded by little electronic gadgets (camera, GPS), wireless mice, and books about numbers, and realized I had achieved... nerdvana...)

 

The only problem with re-animating my nerdly-ass avatar (aside from the obvious ones) is that I was always a bit absent-minded. Today I walked out of the house without my gym stuff, so scratch that. I think I'll be doing a short MTB ride, maybe something at Sals, a Dodson-to-Reeb downhill through the snow. After that is Porters, to check out the new Thursday Night Jazz.

Bela Lugosi's Dead

Morning weigh-in: 171.5, 12.5% BF

 

Some exercise suppression going there, but probably not a lot. I think that's mostly "no dining out for a few days," and "the chili is all gone, if you know what I mean..."

 

White Nose Fever Comes Home To Roost: It looks like that bat-killing epidemic has finally reached Pennsylvania. 

 

Took the Turner out last night. I was supposed to do a Hellertown hill ride but the roads were just too scary/slippery, I didn't trust the cars I'd run into so I just tooled around the neighborhood, rode down to the towpath and around sand Island, then around in circles through West Bethlehem, mostly just testing out my new toy, which seemed pretty cool -- now I just have to figure out how to get the data out and into a mapping/training program...

 

Bloodbath: We had layoffs here yesterday, including a few in my department. I think I'm safe for now, but it was not a fun day.

 

Tonight is yoga, and tomorrow is the gym. I noticed last night that my heart rate refused to go very high, which is understandable given Monday's intervals -- I need a cardio rest day or two.

 

 

Fire In The Belly

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 174.5%, 12% BF

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

 

Well, winter is half over, and the days are getting lighter, and I am so behind on my training it's not funny.

 

Weekend Recap:

 

Friday I had off, so I planned to use the day to run some errands -- which really meant that I hiked around Sals with Langston, then drifted over to Wired to get in some quality time with the laptop. Anne was at the library, doing research on local history for her next project, and eventually joined me there, and then Deb came by and we absconded to the Brew Works, where we decided that hamburgers at Rippers was a good idea... I was basically done by 9:00.

 

Saturday started with yoga, then it was back to Bethlehem for a busy day -- we were brewing beer with Anne's niece Lori & her husband Chris. This is a slow process, heat water, cool water, wait for grains to steep, boil stuff etc, lots of downtime (snacktime, BS'ing about music time) between tasks but it took most of the day. When things were finally done and we could leave the beer to ferment, we went over to the Tally Ho. Perry's birthday, we saw a bunch of the old Which Brew crowd -- it really hasn't been that long but it feels like forever since there was a Which Brew and a Which Brew scene -- and caught up with all the news and gossip. I'm happy to say most seem to be doing well and seem happy.

 

We didn't stay long, we were going to see Steve Forbert in Jim Thorpe. Awesome show, just him on stage with guitar and harmonica. I didn't know too much of his newer stuff, maybe a few songs were semi-familiar from Anne's iPod, but he did play "Romeo's Tune" at the end of the night. He also played a song about middle age, which I thought was going to be all like "huh huh, huh huh -- lumbago!" but instead was an extremely heavy look at, well, my life...

 

Sunday was the annual Superbowl of Chili at Pearly Baker's. Me and Anne, Brian, Eric, and we also saw Dick S and his wife, among many others. Seventeen chili entries, then we escaped the crowds by going to Mothers and eventually Porters. Anne drove home, and I napped through the Superbowl, then got up and read a book about infinity.

 

Gadget Alert! I just got a new toy, a Garmin Edge 705 combination GPS and heart rate monitor. I haven't really messed with it much yet, it came last night and I only played a little while it was charging. It looks really sweet so far, but it looks like I'm in for another voyage of discovery too, since the device needs supporting software, and that software don't run on Linux... (The GPS shows up as an external drive and I think I can get to the data, so I'm halfway there.)

Corvus

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

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 175#, 11% BF

Morning weigh-in: (Thursday): 173#, 12% BF
Morning weigh-in: (Saturday): 173#, 12% BF

 

There are a lot of crows in Bethlehem, and they all seem to live on the south side of the river, just west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge. Riding at Sals in the late afternoon can be positively spooky, as they return by the noisy, cawing thousands from wherever they spend the day, and you can see them from West Bethlehem just after dawn, fanning across the sky from a single point on the horizon, like winged monkeys from the Wicked Witch's castle. Pretty spectacular, actually, and it happens every day.

 

Unfortunately, all this has attracted a bunch of crow hunters -- I didn't even know there was such a thing -- who set up loudspeakers by the river, playing crow "crowd scene noises" as decoys, and blow them out of the sky by the hundreds. Tinny canned crow laughter and bird parts raining down from the sky...

 

Godspeed You, Black Emperor

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 9% BF

 

As I was driving to the gym last night I heard something I couldn't believe: the DJ said words like "Next up, 'Storm' by Godspeed You Black Emperor." That's a long (fifteen minutes at least, but song ends/beginnings are hard to define with these guys), slow and repetitive instrumental -- probably one of my favorite songs, but not exactly radio material, even if it was WPRB. The song is very sad and haunting, but builds in a really beautiful way. I remember listening to it on the way to Slatyfork, driving over the VA/WV border (basically a mountain pass) on US33, it was was like Doc Melhorn driving to Heaven... I pulled into the gym parking lot, and hung out for about 10 minutes listening to the song.

 

The gym workout was pretty easy: light weights, medium reps; I'm calling this a rest week as I've recalibrated the remainder of my training to fit better with my real-life schedule. After that it was over to Porters for dinner with Anne, and also Judy and Donna. Burger, coupla beers, some wings, the results you can see up top.

 

Tonight is a towpath ride, and then we're meeting Josh and Kim at Brew Works.