Ordenadores

The family, and specifically myself, went from one seriously wack computer on Monday to 2 computers as of today, both of which are honking fast. Monday afternoon we purchased a new HP at Office Depot. I know. It's lame, gauche, cliche and suburban, but as much as I can turn the thing on and fiddle, I don't know shit about computers, and the family, let's say, less. Henceforth we had to go mainstream. I also giggle(d) at students who preached and preached the merits of Ubuntu. I just say to them, "right, right. we'll all drink the kool-aid soon enough". As much of a contrarian as I am about transportation, you would think I would be the same about computers and drink the Apple drink too, but no. Work stuff is too enmeshed with PCs to take that plunge. I just check and iMacs start at $1199. We bought a 500gig/3meg HP for mid $300s. Granted, we already had the monitor, but that's some difference.

HP further came into my world today at a work PD (Professional Development), what in the old days was "in-service". Through some kind of grant, the school system is providing every teacher in our county his/her own tablet computer, an HP Tablet. It has a swiveling display, tablet-writable surface with writing recognition, lots of ed-friendly capabilities, and plus it's fast to boot. And with it they provided us- those who did not have one- an Epson projector. It's a pretty spectacular setup. I have already used projectors quite a bit in my classes, but I will use it all the time, at least for short spells. I've noticed in education that these bells and whistles can't replace a good teacher/student rapport, but I can certainly open eyes to other parts of the world, and of course use the many web resources out there.

The only difficulty now is getting the personal data from the old, dead computer. The hard drive is viable, provided it's clean, but the monitor/video card is all fubar'ed, so it will be dicey getting it lifted. With the PD today and a late bday party after (for 'L'), I didn't get a chance to ride until the boys and I met wife/mother at Buckheads for a quick bite to eat. That's another 2m commuting, and the boys were very enthusiastic. That's good. I'm planning for long rides for this weekend, but no 250m extravaganzas seem to on the horizon. And NY is around the corner for next week.

Virus

Our computer was infected by a certain, let's say, younger member of the family, rendering everything quite flummoxed. Furthermore, there was a monitor, video card/port etc etc. malfunction, so instead of paying for a the new hardware on a 5 yr-old computer, we bit the bullet and purchased a new one, only the tower mind you. I realized how unfortunately computer dependent I am. Regardless of the blog, that means so internet for anything, weather, Tour, futbol, gardening articles, news, etc. It's really tough, although maybe illustrative of how time can be better used.

I've actually taken several nice rides since last Saturday's 60 miler to Frankfort, and will have update over the next several days.

Long Hollow Road

I'm absolutely wasting my time on the computer, but at the same time I found an amazing resource, at least one to use to explore very desolate, outoftheway KY roads. I've been planning a 'mixed-terrain' ride out of Casey Co. when I take Z to camp next week. I've had some trouble b/c the KY state maps don't agree with googlemaps or yahoomaps. The state map shows Slate Hill road as ending before reaching Long Hollow Rd. I need that as the cut through. While beating around state gov't sites I find this interactive map, much like googlemaps, but one that includes so much more territory than googlemaps. I don't know about your homestead, but googlemaps (and yahoomaps) don't include such detail of rural KY areas. This map does. On this enhanced map below, you can see Slate Hill Rd. ending not too many yards before reaching the other. I also seem some dirt/gravel paths that may connect. Will I get mowed down by a 12-gauge? Will I be attached by vicious dogs? Can I make the connection? Aside from this one spot, these rides are in the 40m range, and include 'mixed terrain' and some nasty steep knobs climbs. I may like the mystery of the map more than the suffering of the ride, but the pics afterwards would be fun, wouldn't they?

Las Multiples Espanas

I alluded in an entry a few weeks ago about Phil Ball's commentary on political problems within the Spanish seleccion. Today Phil presents us with another insightful comment in the aftermath of Spain's big win. Here we have left back/pretty boy Sergio Ramos wearing his tribute up top to Puerta. On the bottom, though, he is proudly wearing the flag of Andalucia (in extreme south of Spain). It's as if I won worlds' road race and decided to wave a Kentucky flag instead of the stars and stripes. It's just sort of a weird gesture. Phil importantly brings up another "what if". What if someone from the Catalan faction, say Puyol, wore the Catalan flag? or Basque Xavi Alonso the ikurrina? we'd be talking, as Phil states it, civil war. Imagine a southern sports player, especially a white one (well, only a white one) breaking out the stars-n-bars at a sporting celebration, a worldwide one at that. It's just strange. I also saw Marcos Senna wearing a flag I assumed that was of Brazilian descent. Again, strange. Would that "traitoress" basketball player break out a US flag if Russia won the Olympics? Again, just strange.

Errands

Date: June 28 Sat
Mileage: 7 (Bleriot)
June mileage: 362
Year to date: 960

In my haste to do a brief Saturday ride report from the p.m. Crosscheck ride, I forgot about my morning of errand riding with the boys. 'L' and I rode up to Breadworks for coffee and a muffin in the morning. Later I dragged the every-lazy 'Z' to ride to 'L's' baseball game and then home. 2 very simple neighborhood errand rides netted me 7 extra miles, a few or which make up for me driving them to church today. BTW, I had to fill the truck up with gas on the way to church. How much, you ask? $92.75. I like the stories of Doug sans car or Pete who always seems to ride or everybody's fav commuter king Kent. I at least know Doug and Kent use their cars almost never (does Kent ever drive?). I have a big, fat Toyota Tundra, which I love for carrying people, but also which pains me each and every time I get in it. I paid $4.23/gallon, a pretty amazing price if you ask me. Ridiculous! I'm speechless, really, speechless mostly b/c I actually drive it. Mas bicicleta, ?no? It will make that occasional "I'm too lazy this a.m." commute a little easier to pull off this fall, I would imagine. $92.75, I mean, really.

The Kid

I don't blog too much on baseball. I tend to not watch the sport that I worshiped as a kid. That was the hey day of The Big Reds' Machine: Bench, Morgan, Foster, Rose, Griffey, on and on. In the modern era it's easy to become very blase, very jaded and cynical about baseball; the Steroid Era has done that. Obviously it's much the same as what EPO has done to cycling. For me, it's easier to admire Lemond or Hinault, Merckx, b/c they weren't as juiced up. Did they take junk? I believe they did of some type. Did Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Ruth take junk? Of some type they did, but it didn't make them super-human; it only dulled the day-to-day pain that interfered with a day's work. That is, at least, my non-scientific pile of BS I espouse tonight. Tonight, the Kid joined a very selective crowd: Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Bonds, & Sosa. I hesitate to insert those last 2 names. They represent baseball just like a Pantani, a Basso or an Ullrich does for cycling. Dopage and dirty sports. Maybe the Kid did the junk, but most pundits don't believe so. Maybe they're wrong, but his numbers seem awfully honest, his accomplishments borne of talent and not of a freakish, muscle-bound Sosa-esque or McGwire-esque freak show physique. I was elated when Griff joined the Reds. It hasn't been close to working out, but that's modern small-market baseball, save those bizarre Marlins. It's fun to see an immortal before our eyes in America's pastime. There is nothing better than a dog, a cold one, and 9 innings of summer to kick back and watch.

RNPI

Las Regiones No-unidas de la Peninsula Iberica. Phil Ball, the always excellent commentator of Spanish football for ESPN.com has an insightful article on the Spanish psyche relating to la seleccion. You can read the rest for yourself, but found within the article is an underlying, or evident, commentary on the divisive nature of Spanish football. In discussing Raul's lack of participation in the nat'l side, it also mentions his brand of cheerleading for the nation in such a way that bothers- que les molesta- the other players from other regions. Spain is a nation very divided. The Basques, Catalans, Gallegos and others often want to play for their own national side, think Scottish and Irish nat'l teams as well as England, instead of a UK team. Raul represents the old-school, Francoist, RealMadrid version of a unified Spain under the thumb of Madrid. The post-Franco modern Spain is one of several satellite regions coexisting very tenuously. I would gather that the US was more like this, say, pre-70s. Or maybe before. At one time, New England, the South, the Midwest, Cali, the Northwest seemed all different, distinct. Now we have one big amalgam of McDonalds, Wal-Marts and freeways.

Speed Kills?

Date: June 1 Sun
Mileage: 20 (C'Dale Caffeine)
June mileage: 20
Year to date: 618

Another great mountainbike ride on the Cherokee/Seneca loops. I'm just grooving on these trails of late. Insights to follow:

• Speed Thrills!! We've got lots of roots, rocks and logs here in the 'Ville, so the more speed the better to get over obstacles. I used to be scared of this kind of stuff (still am), but with some momentum I find that I clear so much more. The Lefty shock and 29" wheels help even more. The reviews for 29"-ers discuss that they work much better on larger frames; it's overkill on a medium frame like mine. That said, my riding has been transformed.
• Every time I trail ride and come home uninjured, it's a victory.
• I have no actual clue what my real mileage was, but I was out 1.5 hrs and certainly was in my VO2 max/LT much more than your average road ride.
• Neither I nor anybody else actually cares about the previous statement.
• I like it when riders pass me the opposite direction; it gives me a chance to pull over to be "courteous" when really I'm just sucking some more wind.
• Here are a couple comments about the C'dale Caffeine F-29er. (Stupid ass name if you ask me).
  
• I drove 'Z' to church tonight- that's 2 wasted miles of errand riding. I should've made him ride, but then I probably wouldn't gotten the chance to take my own ride.
• We wasted part of the afternoon watching Kill Bill v.1. It's unnecessary and violent, but it makes me laugh.
• We saw The Life Before her Eyes last night. I liked it, as did the wife, and was surprised when I saw how many negative reviews there were. It was interesting, at times well-shot, and had 2 excellent performances by Uma and the teenie Evan Rachel Wood. I find it strange that in 2 days we saw 2 movies with Uma Thurman, both of which express her grief over a lost child from the womb. Strange.
• My May mileage ended up being 138, with pretty much all that coming this past week after tennis and school were over.
  

slow-n-steady

Date: May 30 Fri
Mileage: 32 (Bleriot)
May mileage: ??
Year to date: 578

I surely didn't set any speed records today, but I inched up and over the 2 hour mark on today's slow and flat road ride on the Bleriot. My route took me through Seneca, down the Beargrass Creek Trail, along the river through Portland and back home via the Riverwalk and through the Highlands. I felt slow, went slow and am perfectly satisfied. My avg speed was around 13mph, but that is a speed including lots of stop signs and lights. After about 30min my ass acclimated to the seat- seat time is well-earned, right?, and I resigned myself to having no real legs. Instead I just poked along. Now that I'm home, I have not one single insight nor observation of the ride other than the fact that I actually rode. I am/was pretty shocked to find that today's 32-miler is my longest ride of '08. I had a commuting week with 2 30s the first week of January, but nothing longer until today. Strange.

Beargrass Creek Trail in summer foliage.

Blue ped/bike sign. These are cropping up in more spots. Maybe more dedicated paths will crop up with them.

Shawnee Park meadow. 50 years ago this would've been covered with baseball diamonds in the "hey day" of Shawnee. It's pretty sparse these days.

Gratuitous Bleirot pic. Please note the fender dent. I sort of like it. Would I/Grant call it "beausage"?

I did spend my ride today listening to various NPR podcasts. I find today's kind of ride- no partner, low traffic, low scenic appeal- to be a nice time to catch up. I took in 2 episodes of 'Studio 360', one which included discussion of the new super collider in Switzerland.
Another interviewed an architect who gained inspiration from the lawlessness of punk rock, thusly helping him buck "the man" paradigm of corporate architecture. Unimportant but interesting. I finished listening to our local NPR gardening show, Homegrown, a personal fav. Homegrown dealt extensively with the growth, no, the figurative explosion of farmers' markets. Tomorrow is Saturday, so I'll be trying to buy some locavore fair. I'll be taking the bike too, of course.

And lastly:

5 Precepts

Do not take another life

Do not take what is not given

Do not consume intoxicants

Do not use harmful speech

Do not commit sexual misconduct.

I find it helps, even a little.

must...stop...tennis

i'm in the thick of my world unfortunately being dominated by high school tennis. this is the best chance we've had to win a state title and i've let that goal dominate my life this spring. i haven't ridden in forever and haven't done much of anything else either except go to the boys' soccer games when i can.

the last 2 mornings i've chosen to get out and take a kind of meditative walk, maybe 1 mile+ or so, just to get the blood moving. it's been very refreshing and it's a bit easier to do than get the bike out and all that. one day this silliness will all end and i'll redevelop a normal bike-centered routine.

on the health front, i'm alive. my meds seem to have calmed my ticker. i had my first booze, 2 beers, on Sunday in what seems like 2 months, which for me is a record. this Thursday i go for a sleep study overnight. we'll see whether the sleep apnea thing is legit; they've found a correlation between afib and that condition. a 'darth vadar mask' might be on the horizon for me. if it helps, i'll take it. don't know if the good wife wants that kind of noise in the bedroom, but it will work out.

i'm not practicing anything of late, mindfulness, meditation, good diet, healthy regimen, kindness. i'm just stressed and grumpy. it's a pretty dumb way to live life. but there is always tomorrow, right?

peace to everyone.

Ick! II

It's important to continually learn, and I learned something interesting about technology. Today's earlier entry with the weather.com map showed lots of rain and sleet. I did a "view image" and copied the "image location". I thought I was just copying the image like as if it were a pic. I checked the blog just now and learned that the image, in fact, had changed. It wasn't a static pic at all but rather the dynamic radar for the area. Who'da thunk it? It's just gross outside: 30F, raining, really wet streets, slush, sleet. I would love to ride tomorrow, but not having Nokians for our 1 snow every 4 years I'm stuck riding on icy streets sans studs or driving. Driving it is.

Ick!

Well, the elation of the night has turned into the "ick" of the morning. As this map very capably shows, we're now in a nasty ass zone of rain and freezing junk. It was the thought that counts, right?

Apuntes

Since the DSL is working right now- who knows when it will konk out- I'm going to leave some thoughts:

• The 'Cats are on a 4-game win streak. They won a Fugly game last night @ Auburn, but I'll gladly take a road win right now. Fascinating that they can be 11-9 overall (terrible), but 5-2 in the SEC and 1 game ahead of Florida. Billy G might be a rogue, but at they're performing at least.
• Interesting game between the U.S. and Mexico last night. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-wet back. I shouldn't talk like that, but I hate it when every time our nat'l team plays a latino team the crowd is pro-foreign. It's the hidden sports jingoist in me. If you're here, then quit with the home country crap. If not, move back. :-)
• Altidore looked very good. Dempsey easily has the best foot skills of any of our players. The wings looked terrible. Tim Howard saved us over and over. I never want to play Mx with Vela, Castillo, DosSantos and Guardado starting. They'll run circles around us. An adequate result, in that it wasn't a loss on home soil.
• Real certainly laid a dud last week vs. Almeria. They were 2+ minutes away with a lessened impact; Barca almost drew Osasuna. Instead, Barca got the 3-point swing in the 88'. I didn't watch the game, but it sounded like crap. I did watch some highlights on Ole and they had their chances. They're not unlike UK. If everybody were healthy they would be significantly better. Instead, someone is always hurt.
• Many have done a better job than I ever could, but webmaven Sheldon Brown passed on, much to everyone's dismay. What a great resource and seemingly giving guy. Kent, as often, did as good a job as any reflecting on his influence.
• Please, please, please Obama win some more delegates. I refuse to vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination, so he's my only hope of going vote-less in November's election.

Peace

I have the Power!!

The blog is back after a very brief hiatus. After Monday's reasonable mileage I hit a wall, mostly in the form of some stormy conditions Tuesday. I could've, and should've, ridden but instead spent too much attention to the dire bullshit forecast. The fun came Tuesday night in the form of a straight-line wind storm which knocked power out throughout the area. The next day 3 official tornadoes- very rare for January- were announced, 1 in St. Matthews and 2 in Southern Indiana. Wild stuff. The storm knocked out power out from Tuesday through Thursday. I could've ridden both Wednesday and Thursday morning b/c I was up both days in time. The stress of the situation and the 45F home ixneyed the ride. Yesterday, Friday, was much of the same. When I lose the mojo I lose it. Today has been full of b'ball games, paint tone shopping and soccer soon to come.

I spent a perfectly good morning waiting for the drywall guy to come, only to call him again at 12.15 to find that he had experienced a lead somewhere, so no drywall fix, no ride, and no kitchen progress. We'll get there, but Ack!! Tomorrow, the bike.

Embark!!

I will now put on many layers and will embark on a not-too-long adventure. Glad I'm not Doug up there in that pinkish/purplish area.

It could be you...

or me. Apparently Aaron Copland. Open meadow or field. Dapper suit. A dame by your side. A fetching steed on which to roam.

Afuera

It's 1.15p.m. The fam is at various church-related activities and I now have time to ride. Por otro lado, afuera provides me 39F and rain. Damn. The right side of my brain says "no", the left "yes". Which side shall vanquish the other? And Real is on TV right now (almost getting scored on by bottom-of-table Levante) and the Cowboys a bit later. Modern life is a bitter pill taken of options.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I love this quote, one that begins Micheal Pollan's latest NYTimes article. I've been impressed with his foodie worldview since reading An Omnivore's Dilema a couple summers ago. I will definitely ascribe my food goals to Pollan's notion of what is "food" and what isn't. I'll put such long-term goals on that shelf with compassionate Buddhism, 100% cyclo-commuting, 100% renewable energy usage. These are things for an ideal world that some people have the cojones achieve. Me, I don't know. Maybe a little some days.



Moved some Brooks saddles around today. I mounted a recently purchased dark-brown Conquest on the LHT. This one pictured was listed for $94.00 at Ben's Cycles (home of the orange Milwaukee SS). I got mine for a sweet $50 "under the table". I even found a review on a mtbike site. Next I moved the B-17 to the Blue Ridge. That one needed a new saddle after soaking the last one and sending it decidedly leftward and way crooked.


I really wanted to ride today, even with or because of the 15F temps, but alas. The workers were here trimming the windows and I ran multiple errands mostly pertaining to the house. There's always tomorrow, hopefully.

SS Last Ride

Date: Dec 31 Sun
Mileage: 21 (Trek400)
December mileage: 275
Year to date: 2777
iPod: shuffle

• Last ride of 2007. 2007's total is 2777. To compare, 2006 gave me 2648 by blog count, 2573 by Duc's Excel count. I trust the math on Excel much more than mine, so I'll take the 2nd number. I'm pleased to beat last year's total. 2005's total was only 1418, so I'm making progress.
• Longest single-day ride this year was 46 miles on 2 different occasions. The largest day total was 53 in November during the epic Riverwalk excusion.
  
• Last year's last ride was on the Trek on a semi-rainy day. Today's ride was nice and sunny and upper 40s, but I took the Trek out again. ironic? synchronous? And for some reason, I decided to ride single speed, staying in my 4th cog the whole ride. I would say the combo is something like a 40x17 or so. It was sort of fun actually.
  
• It's the rough 1-year anniversary of getting the Bleriot. My good wife accuses me of being a generally dissatisfied person, and I think she's right. That said, I am 100% satisfied, very much so, with the Bleriot. I wouldn;t change one thing on it, although I may jump back to the CdlVs just for fun. The Grand Bois are great though.
• My high month was 454 miles (Nov.) and low month 72 (May, height of tennis season).
  
• I sometimes blog about my beloved UK Wildcats. The team is SO so terrible right now. A total disaster. Guess we Cats fan got it coming to us after the Tubby incident.
• Real is at the top of La Liga standings, with a clasico win over Barca @ the Camp Nou.
  
• I'm still "Buddhish", but seemingly too undisciplined to take the next step. Monkey mind/Habit energy hard to neutralize.

Peace to all beings. Hope you leave our arbitrary 2007 designation happy, successful and satisfied. Hope next year's arbitrary 2008 designation leaves you even more. Thinking of you friends and cycling acquaintances alike.

I am

Inert.