Scattered Musings

Haven't been riding much, and fortunately not blogging either. I figure I should earn my entries with miles, and since I've been too "lump" to ride, then too "lump" to write. The last 2 weeks have been rain and 45F followed by rain and 40F followed by rain and 45F. After a while I just stopped riding, only to be bitten in the ass by sunny days while I was at meetings and such.

This is finals week, which of course leads to the break, so I'm going refortify the effort. I would be remiss to finish '07 with a whimper instead of a bang. It seems, though, that everything is stagnating at the moment. To wit:

• Billy G's Mildcats are terrible. They're mired at 4-3, with limp losses to biggies UNC and IU. More troubling are 2 losses to near-nobodies Gardner-Webb and UAB. UAB, though, is something like 6-3 vs. UK in the last X years. It all sucks. I can barely watch the games.
• Real Madrid is pretty mediocre too, although their record reflects much more than UK's. Given the first half of La Liga, they will enter '08 at the top of the table, but so many victories, like today's vs. Osasuna reflect lots of ebb and not much flow. I would think that, the way they've been playing of late, they'll lose ground to Barca and certainly in the Champions League.
• In many ways, these 2 teams parallel each other. Both dominated play in the 1950s, but their modern reputations lie primarily on the past. Real is not as good a modern team as Man U. or AC Milan and UK is not as good a program as UNC. Frustrating.
• Dallas lost at home to Philly today, and may have compromised their home-field advantage. They'll have to win out to keep ahead of Green Bay, and I don't like their chances at Lambeau. Frustrating.
• The kitchen project is slightly forward, but it will still be weeks before it is ready for flooring and painting, and we've yet to line up those 2 projects b/c of a lack of knowledge when it's all going to be ready. And there is stuff all around the house. It's a disaster zone. And I'm tired of eating out; I want to cook a meal at home and sit down normally. Frustrating.
• A huge cheating ring was busted at school. It involves website and facebook sites where students trade stolen tests and answers and such. And some teachers had their computers raided. Their "my documents" files were copied and available. As importantly, some of the "best" students were those involved. If my students, many of which are the "best" students statistically on SAT/AP/ACT, represent the modern young person, I would posit that modernity has created an extremely cynical greedy entity void of ethics. And can you blame them? A mixture of sexually unethical lying president and everything else unethical lying president has created a void, an unctious void. My teacher neighbor posited that it all began "in 1963 when prayer was taken out of school". I in turn suggested that the modern unfettered "market approach" meritocracy has created conditions where anything goes and those with less are losers. So either Republicans are to blame in their more recent behavior, or godless Dems are to blame for fomenting the '60s anti-establishment revolution. Whatever the case, I hate looking at 30 different young people and not being able to trust even one. Frustrating.
  
• After having a great Sept/Oct losing 15lbs, I feel anti-momentum coming on. The ice cream, the snacks, the junk. I want, want, to eat well, feel good, and keep losing, but the "monkey mind" sure does interfere. I sit shaking my head but offering not solutions other than ride the damn bike and stay away from the damn junk.

And finally, it's the holidays, but it's all been so crazy that we have no tree and no decorations. I don't feel like receiving gifts nor shopping for them. Our house is too full of shit in the first place. A week ago or so I listen to a Rev. Kusula Bikshu podcast of "Voluntary Simplicity". I think more than weight loss, career ambition or home remodeling, what I would like is the Simplify, and I'm not an empty-nester. I'm 38 and want less stuff. Perhaps that should include bikes too. The fam, though, deserves to get shit if they want shit. I would like a bike ride and the ability to prepare a simple healthy meal for the family, with good talk and laughter. Some Day.