Looking Up, Looking Back And Looking Ahead

We got back from visiting my brother last night, long day of travel, from Cape Coral to Bethlehem via Charlotte NC, but we made it -- Emmi picked us up, and we went directly to Brew Works from the airport, in fact. Awesome visit: I'm still not a big Florida fan, but it was really fun to see my brother and his wife and kids, and it's obvious that they've got roots and are thriving there, despite some tough economic times.

Speaking of which... that area is pretty much Ground Zero for the whole mortgage meltdown scene, foreclosure signs everywhere, many houses empty and even gutted -- my brother showed me the house next door where the people even took the doors and fixtures when they abandoned it.

(Listening: Matthew Sweet's "Divine Intervention")

Anyway, my brother and his wife look good, he's construction and she's real estate, so this is an especially tough hit for them but they are muddling through, and the kids are adorable. I took a ton of pictures, and posted them during our Charlotte layover. You know what to do...

(Reading: Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day)

We are now past the bottom of the year, and moving forward, toward more light every day.

You Down With BDC?

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12.5% BF

 

Ran yesterday morning and hit the gym after work, but... well... Two Brews and Tacos are a tough combination to beat. Today will be yoga, followed by Porters, we shall see who wins...

 

It's the last day of the work year for me, and close enough to the Solstice for me to start calling it Bottom Dead Center. I just got a good -- a glowing -- year-end review, and my office is packed up for the big move, which is now rescheduled for Monday (but of course I won't be here). Loose ends, some busywork, then I am out of here for the year! On the agenda: a few days in Florida to visit my brother, maybe some skiing when we get back, some last-minute Christmas shopping of course, and (also of course) plenty of cold cold biking.

 

Democracy In Action: I checked in to FB last night just a bit too late to see this go down, but it looks like some city councilman decided to do some grandstanding (at what he must have thought was little expense to himself), and it backfired in a gratifyingly big way. Ha! Smooth move, Councilman -- some really good backpedaling-weasel quotes in the article too.

 

Midweek, Year's End

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF

 

No ride last night: I got home and just felt too tired/drained -- not so much physical as just ....bleh... Spent the evening playing with GRASS, putting a few more trails into my Sals database. I read about some people who use their Garmin's "Saved Rides" feature, without actually following the saved ride, to show trails etc on the map display, so I created a GPX file of the trail system so far, but my Edge doesn't seem to be able to understand multiple-track GPX files. Oh well, that would have been pretty useful... that's on my to-do list though, generate a Garmin-compatible trail map of Sals.

 

Early bedtime last night, reading in bed by 9:30, and probably lights out within a half hour. Slept like a log, which was good because we got up early and ran this morning: 3.2 miles, 35 minutes, nothing special but I'm happy to note that the leg/ankle pain is a thing of the past. We'll be doing the First Night 5k, and, even if I don't break any speed records I know I can at least get that far.

 

The Weekend: Friday night was Porters; I caught up with Anne & Judy and a bunch of others. Haven't been there in a while, pretty nice to be back even if we were at the "cold table" by the door. We hit brew Works on the way home, saw Doug & Lori.

 

Saturday I did a long-ish ride. It was supposed to be 60 miles, but a late start & an early sunset made me cut it down to 45: I went over Blue Mountain at Little Gap, then came back over Smith's Gap, which was a lot harder than my original plan but probably cut off 15 miles, and maybe an hour, from the ride. Steep, icy in the turns, and unpaved on the south side of the mountain, Smiths Gap was actually pretty scary, especially with all the hunter's cars parked along the roadside (and the gunfire in the woods). The scariest part of the ride though, was back in civilization on Grouse Rd, when a few deer ran into the road and almost took me out on a downhill. I was pretty awake after that...

 

Anne and I joined Debbie and Donna for some window shopping and a Christmas Luminaria walk after dark, then we all crossed over to Southside and had dinner at La Lupita -- once again, we couldn't even get in to General Zapata, and once again our second choice was probably better -- and then crossed back over the river for drinks at Brew Works, where we ran into a whole bunch of other people. All of Main Street was a Christmas Madhouse, by the way: tourists, shoppers and other pedestrians, buses and cars and even horse-and-buggy traffic, and every store was a mob scene. (I posted photos of the luminaria walk.)

 

Sunday I was supposed to go help map a new park, but blew it off, which was good because the ride was canceled due to freezing rain. We walked over to Blue Sky for breakfast (met Donna, her son and his girlfriend, plus of course the usual crew). The rest of the day was reading, cooking (Anne), playing with the computer (me) and movies: we watched Bad Santa (OK), The Virgin Suicides (really good but disturbing), and finally You Can't Take It With You, a madcap romantic comedy (with social overtones) from back in the day.

 

Tonight is the gym, followed by Two Brew Taco Night, and tomorrow is the last work day of the year for me.

The Red Queen's Race

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Checking in, recording the weight, staying on top of my daily spew, etc...

 

I set up some goals at the Garmin website, and I've been under the gun to try to keep up with them: I'm currently on target for my December running goal, but my cycling goals are weekly and, thought they're not overly ambitious (100 miles this week and next, for example), it's a little hard to stay on top of them with the recent weather (and all my other distractions) -- and each week the grind starts over.

 

Meantime, I went to yoga last night -- I am falling behind there too, and I'm getting really tight again. That abandoned missive I was writing touched on this: a lot of things got me where I am right now (ie with Anne), some of which -- like Which Brew or Christian Springs -- are gone, but that's OK because they were like booster stages or something, they fulfilled their tasks. I think I could even lose bicycling (another thing that brought us together) and keep moving forward, and that's saying something... Yoga is different: it helped me be emotionally capable of being in a relationship, and maybe the changes were permanent, but if my body can return to graceless stiffness, maybe my soul can too. This is something I have to stay on top of.

 

Yoga last night, and this morning was another run (3.25 miles, 36 minutes), and tonight is the gym, a place I haven't seen in more than two weeks -- spot a pattern?

 

In other news: My skin has been very dry and itchy lately, which is my excuse to post this.

 

Winter Project: I think it selected itself, I've been playing with GRASS quite a bit lately, mostly with my maps of Walking Purchase Park.

 

Vapor Lock

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Little bit of suppression weight loss in there -- evening bike and morning run yesterday, dehydration issues etc -- but I'll take the win, especially since last night was tacos and Two Brew Tuesday. Those numbers could have been better, but they also could have been worse. Getting there, sort of...

 

(By the way, one reason for the recent logo-constipation was that I was working on a post, which grew to become an essay, and it kept morphing and growing until it was no longer timely or interesting, and I abandoned it -- suffice to say I have much to be thankful for, and I am.)

 

Garmin tells me I burned 3900 calories on last night's ride, but that seems way excessive, even considering that I was on the Iguana (aka "Old Paint," but also affectionately known as "the 50-Pounder") and I was riding the hilly roads out by Williams Township -- 25 miles, two hours, average heart rate of 125 bpm, no way I had to crank that kind of wattage. Beautiful night for a ride though, chilly enough on the downhills to slow me down, which is just as well: Old Paint has developed a weird, slow precession or oscillation of the front wheel at higher speeds, pulling left then right then left etc, which undermines its claim to better stability on winter roads, and which makes downhills more "interesting" than fun at speed. (At lower speeds it was fine, even on the occasional icy stretches near streams.) You could see the sky getting ready to snow, and passing the power plant, with its cooling towers going full blast, was a total trip. I used to dream quite a bit about power plants, especially some of the bigger ones out in the Tennessee Valley, all sepia colors and strange, skewed perspectives, like my Easton dreams.

 

Anyway, I met Anne at Brew Works afterward, and the ladies seemed pretty jazzed up. Tacos, two brews, and I personally was mellow (read: sleepy), and so we went home around 10:30 or so. I slept like the dead last night, and I think tonight's post-yoga activity will be "quiet evening at home."

 

BTW2: Yesterday was the 29th anniversary of John Lennon's death, but today, the next day, being in school and hearing the announcement over the loudspeaker, was the day I remember. Strange, I know people, adults pushing 30, who were never alive when he was.

 

Knock Knock

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 11.5% BF

 

Hi it's me. I've been here all along, but I have just been too super-busy to write. What's up (besides weight)?

 

Thanksgiving was awesome, and it lasted for the full four days: cooking/eating Thursday (ribs), Friday (the actual Thanksgiving turkey), and Saturday (the turducken); riding Thursday (Lehigh) and Sunday (Allamuchy). Emmi was home, and her college friend visited, and the whole scene was really fun. I posted pictures you-know-where...

 

I managed to hurt my thumb a few weeks back, so I've been avoiding the gym -- you need your hands to do just about anything there -- as well as any really hard riding, so I've been doing a little more running than usual lately. I had a bit of a breakthrough this past Friday, on a morning run with Anne: I wanted to get in four miles, and she suggested the towpath to protect my ankle. (My problems are not wind/fatigue/fitness, but leg pain.) We ran down to the towpath, out approximately to her usual turnaround, and ran back to pavement before dropping to a walk -- 4.79 miles, no pain, and this morning's 3-miler felt fine too.

 

The rest of this past weekendwas also really nice, mostly spent with friends Debbie and Donna, and a cameo appearance by Anne's sister too. We started with Friday afternoon at the library (internet was down at the coffee shop), then bounced around southside for First Friday (saw WB'ers Andrea and Kateryna at Tulum), before hitting Brew Works (Doug, Lori, Greg, and Arnie). Saturday, needless to say, was fairly mellow, though I did manage to dope out some useful things in GRASS while watching the snow fall. Sunday was a breakfast walk to Blue Sky, then home for knitting (Anne and the ladies -- I played on the laptop), and a nice late-afternoon snow ride at Sals, doing a little more GPS exploring.

 

I was going to ride the towpath last night, but the Turner was such a disaster (and so was my laundry pile) that I took the night off to play catch-up, and while I was in maintenance mode, I also got the Iguana cleaned up and functional. Nothing major -- clean/lube, loosen a few stiff links, pump up the tires and it was all good. I'll probably bust it out for a road ride tonight if the rains hold off. Meantime, I tried shifting the Turner with my bad thumb, and we're almost back to normal.

 

See you in a week?

Holidaze

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12% BF

 

Not Quite Flahute: Rode the towpath last night, pretty nice even with a bit of drizzle coming down. It was supposed to be a group ride, but the majority chickened out: I met Eastoner Mark at Sand Island; he came from home and was at his turnaround. Since he lives over by 25th Street somewhere, we did a bit of the Palmer bike path as part of my turnaround, a part I probably haven't been on since they built the Route 33 bridge. Total for the night was probably 17 miles. I wracked up my hand at Sals on Friday night, some stupid crash early in the ride and I sprained my thumb; right now I have trouble shifting in front, so last night was ideal -- just put it in the big ring and toodle along.

 

(We visited my folks on Saturday, and got in a ride at Allaire. Ibuprofen and middle-ring toodling, easy trails, just a bit of exploration -- I was there probably twice in the last two years, and hadn't been there at all in the previous decade; the place has returned to Terra Incognita.)

 

Stumbling Towards Bethlehem: Anne and I got up early and ran this morning, 3.2 miles in about 35 minutes: no great but not too too bad. Unfortunately that was about a mile longer than my ankle really wanted to go, and it got cranky towards the end. Anne must have noticed:

 

ANNE: You OK? How's your leg?

ME: Not so great.

ANNE: You want to cut the pace?

ME: No, I have... other issues...

 

Yep, there was more of my body awake and functioning besides lungs and legs, and I was happy to get home to a bathroom. (This made for a great TMI Facebook post, and now I know the perfect FB troll.) I'm trying to get ready for the New Year's Eve "First Friday" run in Bethlehem, and we'll also be doing the Turkey Trot together this Friday morning. Much holiday running through the Christmas City...

 

Tonight I get my broken tooth fixed, then if I feel up for it I may join the post-knitting ladies at Brew Works. Taco Night, you know.

 

 

Every Move We Make Is The New Tradition

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 12.5% BF

 

So it looks like weekly blogging, or at least very very sporadic "daily" blogging, and blogtime spent playing catch-up, has become the norm around here...

 

Pretty good weekend: saw my folks Sunday afternoon when they came to visit -- we walked around Monocacy Park, and went to Allentown Brew Works for dinner. Sunday morning was a beautiful road ride with Anne Julie: out via River and Buttermilk Roads, back via Raubsville and Applebutter roads, maybe 20 miles in all. Saturday morning is a blur, so I'm guessing I spent most of it in front of the computer while Anne volunteered to help Donna's running group... Hmmm, what else? Well there's food:

 

Friday: the new (to us) General Zapata in South Bethlehem. (Very good, a lot like the old Zapata's).

Saturday: Brunch at Blue Sky, burger at Ripper's (reminded me of why we usually don't go there -- got smoke?), music and Founders Breakfast Stout at Starfish.

 

Sunday you already know.

 

Meantime, Anne and I went out for ride last night, but first stopped at Cutters to catch their Monday Night Movie showing, "Days of Dirt" or such like. Total bike porn, ramps and jumps and downhilling, and an adrenaline-fueled soundtrack... really fun actually, and neat to see it with Anne. We got amped up, then hit the towpath to continue at a more sedate pace -- I have to say, the towpath was nasty last night, maybe the canal, maybe the sewage plant but it really stank in some places -- and finally we stopped in to see some friends at Brew Works. Tonight is the gym, and probably tacos at Brew Works.

 

Hooked: Judy recommended some Netflix picks for Anne, so she's been watching the first season of Hamish Macbeth. She watches occasionally while knitting, and I'm sitting there at the laptop, catching the action now and then, and all of a sudden I too have become totally engrossed. Good show actually, even if I can't always understand what they're saying.

 

 

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 180#, 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180.5#, 13% BF

Morning weigh-in: (Friday): 179.5#, 13% BF

Welcome to Friday! It's been a pretty exciting week: Anne's birthday was Wednesday, and Anne's niece Lori had her baby yesterday. (A boy, Jonah Gray [last name redacted]. I can probably get the baby-stats, but don't remember them now -- maybe 7 pounds 2 oz?)Mother and son are said to be doing fine, though husband Chris must keep his distance until his flu passes.

 

Meantime, Emmi took her "comps" on Wednesday, and passed with flying colors (natch). I'm not totally sure where this fits in her PhD program, but my understanding is that it was an oral exam, and that it's a serious milestone, a make-or-break test of the candidate's fitness to continue in the program. In other words, this was a big deal, and she owned it. Congrats Emmi!

 

Ran with Anne Tuesday morning before work, then hit the gym between work and Taco Night. Wednesday we went to the pub at The Farmhouse -- never been there, verdict: meh -- for Anne's birthday, then met Deb & Donna at The Bookstore. Saw some other peeps there as well, in fact I'd say that I had at least a passing acquaintance with almost everyone in the place... It's a bit pricey (and a bit lacking in pub fare) to be a substitute for Porters or Which Brew, but seeing all those people there was a neat experience. Strangely enough, we knew a few people in the Farmhouse pub too, and both places are basement bars. All my friends have gone underground...

 

Yesterday was a bit rough, so after the gym I just went home and we both crashed early. Not sure what's happening tonight, but if the weather holds -- it's not expected to -- I'll be hitting the towpath.

 

 

 

Monday Morning

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 14% BF (uh-oh)

 

Reading: I picked up Anne's copy of James Howard Kunstler's The Geography of Nowhere the other day, and I'm now about a third of the way through. Pretty good so far, but -- already knowing Kunstler's views, and sharing at least some of them -- I haven't found too many surprises, or information I didn't already know. The best part so far was the introduction, where he gives a bit of his own history as background for where his views came from. His experiences growing up with city, suburb and small town resonated with me, and probably do so with many people of a certain age, whose lives and living spaces followed similar paths, but there was also a mysterious and Pynchonesque element, a childhood playing in the abandoned estates at the edge of suburbia... I wonder if he ever read "The Secret Integration?"

 

Moving: Hit the gym Thursday night, major leg workout. Ran Friday morning with Anne on the towpath, maybe 2.6 miles: I only ran part way out, then walked a bit while she went to her turnaround point, and joined her for the return leg -- the ankle still gets cranky after about 2 miles of running. Saturday night was the Cutters ride at Sals, and Sunday we took a road ride to the Emmaus Bakery, got donuts and ate them at South Mountain Cycles. My legs are whooped today. Tonight is "active rest" with yoga.

 

Drinking: There's a new bar in Bethlehem called "The Bookstore." It's sort of a theme bar, set up as a speakeasy: it's in a basement, with a side alley entrance that opens into a book store; a "secret door" leads into the bar itself. It's been the buzz place since it opened a few weeks ago, and we couldn't even get in on Friday night. Anne and I tried again on Saturday, and the place was awesome: 1920's decor and atmosphere, live period music, interesting mixed drinks and a huge selection of Belgian beers. Recommendo...

 

Viewing: After our Sunday ride we hooked up with Larry & Kelly-Jo, plus a few others from the old Which Brew crowd, and saw The Men Who Stare at Goats. Enjoyable afternoon, very funny movie.

 

Computing: I joined/downloaded Skype on Saturday, but have no one else to call except Anne in the other room. I'm at loose ends: now that the MTO thing is finished I need a new "toy project." Maybe I'll look at R again, or maybe some more map/GIS stuff.

 

Corvus Redux

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

Listening: Thelonius Monk, "Locomotive"

I think it was something I ate yesterday, like nut-contaminated food or something, but I really started hurting yesterday afternoon, like all tired & feverish. I felt OK enough to hit the gym, then got dinner at Brew Works as planned, but I felt totally wiped when we got home... I woke up this morning feeling like I never got any rest, still feverish and headachey so I stayed home.

Spent most of the day lounging about, did some laundry after I finally got up, finalized the error checking on the MTO program, and, late in the afternoon, I was finally feeling better so I went down to Eskandalo for a haircut.

I stopped in at Tulum on the way back, got a burrito & talked with old friends Andrea and Kateryna, who apparently keep up with the Which Brew crowd a little better than I do -- I got an earful of gossip, nothing too juicy but a lot of who's where and doing what. Kind of nice, then it was time to move along and now I'm home.

Anne's out at a meeting, and she sometimes goes out to BW for a social hour afterward; I may try to catch up but I can feel I'm fading again.

Now Playing: Pere Ubu, "Wheelhouse"

An Experiment: I just wanted to see what this might look like, you'll have to bear with me...

Taking a look at a sample input file:

don@dell-desktop:~/programs/MTO/examples$ cat 4300-fe.in
p1 470 415
p2 1598 457
p3 94 390
p4 94 398
p5 94 398
p6 94 471
p7 94 462
p8 94 432
p9 94 440
p10 94 440
p11 94 55
p12 94 45

Running the MTO program, in a fairly simple way, on the sample data:

don@dell-desktop:~/programs/MTO/examples$ mto -osc fe.matl 4300-fe.in
T-1 188 5 39 5 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-2 1786 18 38 6 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-3 282 5 36 9 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-4 282 5 34 9 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-5 282 5 33 3 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
TUBE: T-1 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 39'-3" (FOR MK-p6)
TUBE: T-1 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 34'-7" (FOR MK-p1), 1 @ 4'-7" (FOR MK-p11)
TUBE: T-2 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 38'-6" (FOR MK-p7)
TUBE: T-2 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 34'-7" (FOR MK-p1), 1 @ 3'-9" (FOR MK-p12)
TUBE: T-2 (1598 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 38'-1" (FOR MK-p2)
TUBE: T-3 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 36'-8" (FOR MK-p9)
TUBE: T-3 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 36'-8" (FOR MK-p10)
TUBE: T-3 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 36'-0" (FOR MK-p8)
TUBE: T-4 ( 282 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 34'-7" (FOR MK-p1)
TUBE: T-5 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 33'-2" (FOR MK-p4)
TUBE: T-5 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 33'-2" (FOR MK-p5)
TUBE: T-5 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 32'-6" (FOR MK-p3)

What the program tells you if you ask for help:

don@dell-desktop:~/programs/MTO/examples$ mto -h
MTO 1.0

This program reads cut tube lengths, returns tube order required.

Usage: MTO [OPTIONS]... [FILES]...

-h, --help Print help and exit
-V, --version Print version and exit
-v, --verbose Prints a bunch of extra stuff to standard output.
-o, --order Tube order will be sent to standard output
-s, --sequence Tube cutting sequence will be sent to standard output
-f, --outfile=STRING if an output file is specified, tube order and
sequence will be writen there
-t, --tubelength=FLOAT maximum shipping length for tubes (default=`473')
-n, --startnum=INT starting number for tube mark numbers (default=`1')
-d, --od=FLOAT tube outer diameter (default=`2.5')
-w, --minwall=FLOAT tube min wall thickness (default=`0.200')
-m, --matl=STRING tube material spec (default=`SA-210-A1')
-c, --config=STRING optional config file, it overrides defaults but
command line trumps


It's a start...

Anyway, the crow thing: I noticed it already starting the other day, but walking home tonight across the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, I saw that the crows were back again with a vengeance, thousands of them all along the river, in the trees on either bank. Pretty cool.

Cowboy Sky

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 15% BF

 

Went out last night for a towpath ride, but first I went over to Southside, and stopped in at Cutters Bike Shop for their Monday night movie: they just got New World Disorder 10 in the shop, and they had a special after-hours showing. BYOB, and they had pizza and some other goodies (owner Lisa whipped up some baked goods & coffee) and there was a good crowd in the place enjoying the show. The movie itself was classic NWD: cool riding in awesome locales, and the jumps/stunts were neat though they did get repetitive after an hour of watching...  I didn't stay to the end, but skipped out and went back across the river to continue my ride.

 

(I've been meaning to check out the new Greenway Project over in Southside, and last night I used it to get over to Cutters from New Street, basically getting on the trail in front of the Wildflower Cafe. It's just an old RR right-of-way that they plan to "improve" with pavement, park benches etc -- this improvement has already happened in front of the new casino --  but I rode the unimproved portion last night, and for mountain bikes at least it's a fully functional bike path.)

 

Meanwhile, back on the towpath... another beautiful night. The sky cleared up by the time I reached my turnaround point (the old Glendon Bridge), but earlier it was a dramatic mix of broken clouds and moonlight, almost like the night backdrop as the cowpokes drink coffee around the fire in some old movie... Plenty of deer out again last night, and another blue heron, and a bunch of glowing eyes skulking in the woods that I took to be feral cats hanging near the old garbage dump. I got home around 9:30, and was in bed within an hour...

 

We got up extra early this morning and went for a run, 2.36 miles in maybe 25 minutes, not too bad but nothing crazy, and then I went inside to start the coffee and start my day, and Anne went on to finish her run. Tonight is the gym (for me) then I'm meeting Anne and "the gals" at Brew Works.

 

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Whew, that was quite the weekend! I think Halloween is an even bigger deal for me than Christmas -- and then, when it does land on a weekend...

 

Our Halloween party -- and Bethlehem's "Trick Or Treat" night -- was Friday night, and Saturday night was the CAT Halloween Costume Bike Ride, which ended at the Wildflower Cafe for a benefit concert (and which was in turn followed by a visit to Brew Works) -- both nights were total blow-outs: Saturday/Sunday mornings were not early-to-rise events. I took lots of pictures, and managed to get all of them posted; I am now fully up-to-date on my photos so go click and enjoy!

 

Yesterday afternoon we visited my friend Vito, my first visit since his wife passed away last March. Needless to say he's still devastated, but he was looking hale and healthy at least, and he said he's been keeping busy which is good (and which is what I expected to hear). He made a pizza and we did some catching up, work-related gossip and such, and we took off about 6:00.

 

When we got home we did a moonlight ride down the towpath, down to the Chain Dam and back. A bit chilly but very pleasant and, with the full moon reflecting on the water, we even rode for a bit with our lights out. (Lotsa critters out too: deer, and some small predators, and a blue heron flying low across the water -- we turned our lights back on so we wouldn't bump into any other trail users.) It was still fairly early when we got home, but we totally crashed, and slept like the dead.

 

Driftdown

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 12.5% BF

 

No yoga last night, and no going out either: we spent most of the evening cleaning (not so bad really, mostly just organizing), and had leftover pot roast, with potatoes and biscuits, for dinner.

 

Idiot vs Simple Task #1: The Turner's brake pads have needed changing for about a month, but I just haven't been able to find the time or inclination to do it. Until... Last night, toward the end of the evening, I decided to put some laundry on, and while that was cooking I tackled the rear brakes -- what a battle! The old ones -- and they were basically down to the bare metal -- came out easily enough, but before the new ones went in I had to bleed the hydraulic lines a little (I guess brake fluid expands over time), and that meant I had to clean out the bleeder valve, which is essentially a hollow screw, that had become filled with dirt. So with the job about 95% complete, I went off on a wild goose chase, spending about an hour poring over this one tiny screw like a jeweler, picking out grit with my smallest Allen wrench and some brush bristles until it finally came clean. Ten minutes later the job was done -- and it wasn't even midnight yet!

 

Idiot vs Simple Task #2: I thought that my toy program was done, except maybe for some minor tweaking, and last night I asked Anne if she would be my test subject and try it out, to see if it made sense. I was about to surrender my laptop over to her when I tried "just one more" test case... It (the recent error-checking stuff I added) didn't work, the program just swallowed the bad data I put in, and kept right on going -- D'oh! I Googled [my error-checking method] and found a bunch of things saying "never ever do this! instead do [some other, more complicated thing]." Oh well, that gives me something to do, next rainy weekend.

 

I heard a train whistle in the distance last night as I was drifting off to sleep, and it got me thinking about Coca Cola Mountain, that time Joe G and I walked up and onto the RR bridge. (It was a winter night maybe 12 years ago, and we were out on foot in a snowstorm, probably on our way to see some band downtown.) We walked out about halfway across the bridge and took in the scene: peaceful and beautiful, almost Victorian with the snowy hills and rivers, and the towns looking like Yuletide model RR sets, and the haunting train whistle blowing across the valley...

 

Well, train. It was nowhere in sight, probably miles away but we could hear the whistle, so we went back across, climbed up onto the mountain, and were out of the way just in time to throw snowballs at the passing train.

 

Idiot vs Simple Task #3: We use homemade laundry soap, and we ran out while Anne was out of town last weekend, so I tried making a new batch myself. Looking at the ingredients (lye soap, borax, etc), I kept getting the phrase "sturdy pioneer stock" stuck in my head, but the stuff was actually very easy to make. I put the new batch down in the laundry area of the basement, and forgot about it. I just got a "My Hero!" email from Anne after she went to do laundry and found it -- I win!

 

Tonight is the gym, then more cleaning-type program activities.

Bachelor Weekend

Morning Weigh-in: 177.5#, 14% BF

 

OCD Alert: I have to figure out a new morning routine. Normally I get up and make coffee, then I weigh myself just before showering, but lately I've been eating breakfast while the water boils and the coffee brews, so there's no chance for an "official" (ie pre-breakfast) morning weigh-in on the bathroom scale, unless I hit the scale before heading downstairs. I guess that'll work, it worked this morning anyway.

 

On My Own: Anne was out of town at the knitting convention, so I was basically on my own for a rainy weekend. Ran a few errands, did a few chores, hung at Wired, and generally managed to occupy myself while avoiding injury, illness or burning the house down... Some highlights: the Haunted Walking Tour of Easton on Friday, Mike & Tracy's going-away party (plus a few events in South Bethlehem) on Saturday, and trailwork at Trexler Game Preserve on Sunday. I have pictures for all of these, so stay tuned.

 

Fiat Lux: I picked up my bike lights on Saturday, and gave them a try last night on the towpath. Just a milk run, maybe six miles out & then back -- I was running late after doing some other bike repairs, plus laundry and yadda yadda, supposed to meet Anne at 9:00 or so -- whoops! Better to cut it short, especially since the batteries might need a few charge-discharge cycles before they're back up to spec. In terms of performance, they worked beautifully; it was a real pleasure riding with that kind of candlepower again.

 

Tonight is the gym, then most likely "Two Brews And Tacos Night" at Brew Works. Anne was in Connecticut at the convention, and Debbie was vacationing in Puerto Rico, and two bartenders got engaged over the weekend --  the team has a lot of catching up to do. (I made a pot roast on Sunday, but we've been eating it for two days now with no end in sight; it's time for a short break.)

 

Update

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF

 

One week later and I'm still messing with that program... I added those command-line options, and have been tweaking/adding functionality ever since. Two more additions (an optional output file in addition to standard output, and an optional configuration file), and I think it'll be a finished product. No biggie, just gotta find the time...

 

As it happens, Anne will be out of town this weekend, so I'll be sort of at loose ends anyway. I do have a few things on the agenda -- chores/errands, rides, and one going-away party for some friends moving to Vermont -- but the weather might be a bit unfriendly, and my plans for a parental visit are on hold, and so there might be no better way to spend at least one rainy day than with my feet propped up (or my butt planted at some coffee shop), messing with the laptop.

 

Speaking of coffee shops... I was in downtown Easton last Saturday morning; my plan was to hit the Coffee Exchange for breakfast and laptoppery, between an early-morning yoga class and the gym. After an awesome yoga class (so awesome I decided to blow off the gym) I walked over, in the rain, to the Coffee Exchange, only to find the place out of business. D'oh! I guess you really can't go home again, so instead I went around the block to the Quadrant. Nice brunch sitting by the open fireplace, and I bumped into Judy there as well, and chatted rather than browsed through lunch.

 

Anyway, Tuesday night was a short ride on the towpath with Deb and Donna, maybe 12 miles and finishing just after dark, then we met up with Anne, and Doug & Lori, for dinner afterwards at Brew Works; last night was a slightly longer towpath ride, followed by chili at home. Tonight is the gym, then Porters.

Blessed Are The Lazy

Well that was a lot easier than I would have thought -- I used gengetopt to do all the real work, and now I have options added to the MTO program. I should have realized, programmers pretty much hate tedious grunt work (like, say, MTO's), so whenever there's a tedious programming task, you can be sure there's some tool to automate or simplify it...

 

That was early in the evening, and also later in the evening; in between was dinner with Anne's friend Mike and his new GF. We were going to eat at Mama Nina's on Main Street, but it was so crowded we decided to go around the block to the Apollo instead -- a very wise decision. Dinner was awesome (me: sashimi appetizer, brisket sandwich, and a martini), and Mike's friend was really nice. She had a lot in common with Anne, and even knew some of her old friends.

 

Home by 10:00 or so, a little more computer fiddling, and an early bedtime. Tonight is the gym, to be followed by an evening at Porter's. It's been a while.

 

Whatever Happened To The Armored Changeling?

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

 

Où sont les enfants de fée blindés d'antan? No ride last night. I was going to meet a friend before the VMB meeting and get in a quick Sals ride, but he couldn't make it and I just blew it off. Once upon a time I would have gone riding and blown off the meeting, or maybe rode to the meeting (I walked), and I would have rode Monday night and not been tired, and not cared about rain or cold...

 

Oh well, good meeting, over at Cutters, the new bike shop in south Bethlehem. Lotsa good stuff starting to happen, in terms of trails and access, lots of events -- rides, parties, trailwork days -- coming up too. I picked up Anne's new brakes from Bob afterward, then met Anne and the Naughty Knitting team for tacos at Brew Works. Tonight we're going out to dinner -- I'm not sure where, but I can guess -- with Mike and his new GF.

 

Linux Voyager, A C Change: I decided to straighten up and fly right, at least with respect to that MTO program I wrote... My program as written is basically a filter, gobbling up the standard keyboard input (which had better be in the correct format, since there's absolutely no error checking), doing its thing, and then spitting out the results (in their own, different, arcane format) onto the standard output. No options, no error checking, something meant to be used by me and no one else. I took care of a lot of that stuff with shell wrappers, plus redirection, xclip and spreadsheets for my I/O.

 

What I think I'll do is rewrite the input to at least be able to handle bad data more gracefully (and also accept input files on the command line), then add command-line options to make some of the (currently) more hard-wired parameters more flexible, and finally figure out what the useful output should look like. With any luck, by the time I get around to finishing this I'll think of some more stuff to add, and I'll never finish...

 

Three Days

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF

 

One of the nicest weekends (not counting those vacations) in quite a while:

 

On Friday we did some reorganizing and consolidated bookcases -- a big deal in a bookish house like ours -- then we went out for a ride at Jordan: Anne and me, with Donna (first time on real trails), and Greg & his daughter Julie.

 

Anne and I went out for dinner later, and met up with Donna and Greg again, as well as E-Rock's roving birthday party (Doug & Lori, Eric, and Mike & Pam) -- which was good, because before that it was just the two of us, alone at a giant table in a very busy restaurant. Debby and Joe came in a little later from some concert, and had to sit at a nearby "overflow table;" we moved over there when the birthday party absconded to the Steelgaarden, but that's about the time I ran out of steam and we called it a night.

 

Saturday I woke up on time to do the things I wanted (basically, early morning yoga followed by a visit to the gym), but I felt so worn out that when I found I'd washed all my gym shorts at the same time, and they were all still wet, I heaved a sigh of relief and went back to bed... It was a fairly nice day, but after breakfast I spent most of it parked in front of the computer, doing pretty much nothing unless you count Facebook and coffee. (Anne spent the afternoon making hot sauce from her bumper crop of habaneros.) We went for a really nice walk along the canal later in the afternoon. the colors were just starting to change down there, and the afternoon light was beautiful. Dinner was at home: ribeye steaks, spelt with caramelized onions, and carrots cooked with honey and ginger.

 

We decided to break from our usual Saturday night routine, so we walked down to the Old Brewery Tavern (where, strangely enough, we both got proofed) to check out the scene there: cigarette smoke, and lots of TVs playing college football  -- I can't even be in a room with a TV or I'll end up staring at it -- but the music was nice and they had a few decent beers. We hung out for a while then went to the Starfish (packed), and met up with Doug & Lori and a whole bunch of other VMB members. No smoke, even better beers and (live) music, and only one TV (showing Goldmember) that I eventually just faced away from. An awesome night and another late one, but I felt a lot better than the evening before. (On the way home some angry-looking woman passed us walking the opposite direction, then later seemed to be following us. We were able to laugh about it in the morning, but at the time it was kind of creepy: we took evasive action once we noticed, and took a less direct route home.)

 

Sunday was beautiful, so after another awesome breakfast we did a road ride north of town. Two of them: Anne had volunteered to lead a road ride later in the day, as part of the CAT Open House, and so we did that too, and were joined by a bunch of other people, including Donna and Debby. Both rides were about 25 miles long; the group ride was at a mellower pace and took longer, but our total "outdoor time" was about five hours. After that we met Debby and Donna for dinner at Brew Works.

 

Tonight and tomorrow are MTB nights: towpath tonight, Sals tomorrow before the VMB meeting.

 

 

Threepeat

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12.5% BF

 

Not much to say, same old same old, I just dropped in to post the weigh-in. I have a few new pictures up though, so you can go check them out if you want. Yoga last night, gym tonight, rain tomorrow.