Eleventy Billion

That's the number of reasons I have for not updating this in what, two weeks? A few specifics are owed I suppose.

- I've been listening to Times New Viking. They're from Ohio, which I guess can be forgiven. They're crunchy and sound like they record live on a four track cassette recorder.

- I've been losing sleep thanks to Daniel Day-Lewis. It was rumored that Paul Thomas Anderson was thinking about making a horror movie his next project after There will be Blood. When asked about this PTA simply said, "That's news to me, I thought I just made a horror movie."

- I've been rock climbing. Yes, super fun. I used to think I was pretty strong for my size; this is not the case anymore.

- I've been riding. Yes, even last Sunday at Apollo which was probably the coldest day of the season so far. I think it was about 8* when we left and 9* when we got back three hours later. The ground finally froze for the first time this year in Western Pennsylvania. We hit Apollo again today for a quick 10 miles along the ridge. I'm really starting to like that place a lot, though it's too bad it's kind of out of the way.

I'm really not that interesting. I think that's it. Usually when I do think of something possibly worth discussing, by the time I get the chance to write it down, it has already flown out of my head.

Turn around bright eyes.

About two weeks ago, I told myself I was going to get a lot better at this thing. Well here we are, second post of the year. Like most on the right side of the country, we had an unusually warm week which allowed for a bit of road riding. It's a nice change from the mountain bike and an even more welcome exit from the rollers.

I've been riding at night around the lake at North Park. The loop is almost exactly 5 miles around which allows for quick and easy calculation of distance. Also, being that it is inside of a state park, the minimal auto traffic is forced to crawl along at 25 mph. I think I'm more worried about walkers who don't carry lights than I am about getting hit by a car. It's pretty vacant though at 8:30pm and 32 degrees.

I can't help but wonder what I would do if something weird happened. What would I do if some crazy guy crazily jumped out of the woods and onto the road 10ft in front of me? Standing there in the "I'm gonna grab you" position. I don't even know what I would do if they pulled off their fake face and were nothing but a skull-headed space monster. I'm not a big guy by any means. But I bet if 160lbs of bike and me shouldered someone at 18mph, it would be pretty colorful.

It's supposed to get cold again this week with temperatures in the 20's. Hopefully I'll be able to get some time outside though. I've been feeling a lot better and would really like to keep this momentum going. I leave you with this.





I know this video is kind of yesterdays news, but I'm not very good at the internet and therefore just found it. Also they remind me of a guy named Owe who works in my office. He's from Sweden and sounds not unlike the guys in Hurra Torpedo, who are Norwegian. Neat.

Feeling bad never felt so good.

So my PCP confirmed exactly what I was hoping for; I have a sinus infection. Even better, it looks like it's been hanging around for at least a month. I knew something was up. Recently, I have been feeling extremely run-down and at the cusp of sickness. I get a little achy under my eyeballs and my throat glands swell a little. So I go to the doctor and they do their doctor things. Blood pressure is a little on the low side, but it usually is. She checks my ears, throat, and glands; all signs point to infection. So I fill my prescription and anxiously await the day when I don't feel overly tired and totally unmotivated to do anything else except sleep or be fussy.

I got one of those super bicycle computers with GPS. It's a Garmin Edge 305 and the little guy is pretty slick. I'm so easily ammused that I couldn't believe it when I found out you can just mount it and go. No magnets and other junk. Neato. I've even figured out how to upload rides to Motionbased. Watch out world.

Speaking of bicycles, I rode last weekend with a few of the Fisher 29er guys; TJ Platt and Travis Saeler specifically. Mike Friedman from Slipstream / Chipotle showed up on a demo Superfly to help in the effort to rip my legs off of my body. We did about 18 miles through North Park which wasn't quite frozen.