Commute Cosa
Date: Nov 19 Wed
Weather: 25F/46F, breezy in the p.m.
Mileage: 13
November mileage: 348
Year to date: 2821
Short commute today, but best laid plans laid waste. I'm interested in getting back in the gym for a little lifting this winter. My avoidance of weight loss/gain has gotten me to a point where some of my pants are too tight and MORE importantly, it all seems to have a bad effect on bike wheels. To wit, I have have 4 bikes with spoke issues: Bleriot (detensioned but tightened), Crosscheck with rear broken spoke, Blueridge with rear broken spoke and 9.2.5. with front broken spoke. I can make excuses, but they're broken and I cand imagine my present girth being the best for them. The plan was to ride straight home, change and hit the gym for short workout before 'Z' got home from chess. Instead, when I got on the TrekSS in the hall (my hall is pretty long), I noticed a strange wiggle. Thinking something was wrong with my pedal, I tested it out to find that the left crankarm was loose. I think it's the same that I had previously "fixed" at Clarksville after some onorous squeeking eminated for seemingly months. Instead of charging home for the gym workout, I instead gingerly pedalled over to the updated On Your Left cycles. I've been in that shop a couple times and the staff couldn't be nicer. Just the other day I bought a tube and some lube. Today, one of the big, burly wrenches put some good torque to the crankarm and away I returned home, but not the gym.
On other bike issues, I received a little RBW bday package today, goods ordered on the 3rd that Keven forgot about. I'm not going to say any more until some pics ensue.
Returning to the commute. This a.m., with 25F, I went straight for the short, quick climb up Valley Vista to start the day. Normally i detour to get an extra- but flat- mile. Today the hill did the trick getting the blood flowing to stave off the cold a.m. air.
And on a different note, I took Midway Bikelog's suggestion to listen to Radio Lab out of NYC public radio. This weekend's episode is about Choice. One of the segments discussed the connection between emotions and choice. Can you divorce emotions from choice? Can you be Spock? It spoke, to me, to the heart of the Buddhist notion of equinimity. That balance struck in Buddhism is choiceless awareness, neither craving nor despising. It's a reality based on balance, minfulness and dissolution of desire, all for the purpose of ridding yourself of suffering from th desire. This episode posited that without emotion, there is not choice to speak of. A man who had a tumor and had lost his ability to emotional connect had also lost his ability to choose. There was no reason to choose b/c there was no emotional response, "Yes, Quickbeam!" "No, GMC Tahoe!" This scientific assumption/hypothesis would say that the choicelessly-aware Buddhists were full of shit. And it could be. So much of Buddhist philosophy is predicated on giving us Choice, because you give us the Suffering when you give up the clinging, the Choices. A conundrum for sure, but an interesting program. Check it out.
Weather: 25F/46F, breezy in the p.m.
Mileage: 13
November mileage: 348
Year to date: 2821
Short commute today, but best laid plans laid waste. I'm interested in getting back in the gym for a little lifting this winter. My avoidance of weight loss/gain has gotten me to a point where some of my pants are too tight and MORE importantly, it all seems to have a bad effect on bike wheels. To wit, I have have 4 bikes with spoke issues: Bleriot (detensioned but tightened), Crosscheck with rear broken spoke, Blueridge with rear broken spoke and 9.2.5. with front broken spoke. I can make excuses, but they're broken and I cand imagine my present girth being the best for them. The plan was to ride straight home, change and hit the gym for short workout before 'Z' got home from chess. Instead, when I got on the TrekSS in the hall (my hall is pretty long), I noticed a strange wiggle. Thinking something was wrong with my pedal, I tested it out to find that the left crankarm was loose. I think it's the same that I had previously "fixed" at Clarksville after some onorous squeeking eminated for seemingly months. Instead of charging home for the gym workout, I instead gingerly pedalled over to the updated On Your Left cycles. I've been in that shop a couple times and the staff couldn't be nicer. Just the other day I bought a tube and some lube. Today, one of the big, burly wrenches put some good torque to the crankarm and away I returned home, but not the gym.
On other bike issues, I received a little RBW bday package today, goods ordered on the 3rd that Keven forgot about. I'm not going to say any more until some pics ensue.
Returning to the commute. This a.m., with 25F, I went straight for the short, quick climb up Valley Vista to start the day. Normally i detour to get an extra- but flat- mile. Today the hill did the trick getting the blood flowing to stave off the cold a.m. air.
And on a different note, I took Midway Bikelog's suggestion to listen to Radio Lab out of NYC public radio. This weekend's episode is about Choice. One of the segments discussed the connection between emotions and choice. Can you divorce emotions from choice? Can you be Spock? It spoke, to me, to the heart of the Buddhist notion of equinimity. That balance struck in Buddhism is choiceless awareness, neither craving nor despising. It's a reality based on balance, minfulness and dissolution of desire, all for the purpose of ridding yourself of suffering from th desire. This episode posited that without emotion, there is not choice to speak of. A man who had a tumor and had lost his ability to emotional connect had also lost his ability to choose. There was no reason to choose b/c there was no emotional response, "Yes, Quickbeam!" "No, GMC Tahoe!" This scientific assumption/hypothesis would say that the choicelessly-aware Buddhists were full of shit. And it could be. So much of Buddhist philosophy is predicated on giving us Choice, because you give us the Suffering when you give up the clinging, the Choices. A conundrum for sure, but an interesting program. Check it out.
Comments
funky stuff.