Well, I’m downloading episodes of this american life to try to ease the pain of labor day traffic. While doing so, I will take also take advantage of internet access (not working at home) to update the blog with some mindless drivel.

Friday, jen and I went down to Baltimore to meet people from Proteus at a Jamis trade show. They were debuting the new 2006 line, and jill wanted us to see them and get a chance to talk to the reps about the new bikes. There are two that were immediately drool inducing and got worse the more I ogled them.

The Jamis Sputnik is a fixed gear road bike (doesn’t seem to have track geometry) flat black Carbon fork and (I think) a light as balls steel frame. It’s drilled for brakes so there’s no need to be a tough guy. It’s going to retail around $800. It’s rad.

The Jamis Exile SS is even more drool inducing. I’ve accepted that I really like mountain biking no matter how bad at it I happen to be. Test riding bikes around the shop is making me think that I might be interested in full suspension. After building up a few bikes, I have come to realize that disc brakes aren’t as complicated as I had perceived them to be. The Exile SS has both. AND it looks great with it’s thin tubing (I really like the look of fat tires and skinny frames). Now while I have told myself previously that these are both things I neither want, nor need, I am trying really hard to convince myself that I don’t want one of these.

No Comments || Topcs: bikes

so I have been training for the dewey beach tri since may or so, mostly in baltimore. Sadly the harbor is less than swim friendly, so that part ive done on the way to work in bethesda, but otherwise the bikes and runs ive done almost entirely in baltimore city. Ive come to really enjoy different parts of it , weather it be running by drunks in fells point, to the glorious smell from h&s bakery on alicana, to the stentch of the harbor, to the constant hum of the dieing industry of locust point, to the sunday rides in druid hill park smelling the bbq and keeping up w/ pocket rockets, to the tourists at the harbor, to the small stretchs of cobel stone that rattle my handel bars, and everything in between. Tonight though I had one of the best fringe benefits. I went for a quick ride to fort mchenry and around locust point / ottobien etc, and stoped by the whole foods downtown to pick up a gift certificate for some old friends who have a new “edition”… anyways that is besides the point. While looking around at all the goodness of whole paycheck… I notice some people I recognize.

Kima and omar from the wire… ok not the charectors, but the actors who play them. .. The funniest thing about it all was that I saw omar standing outside by a suv, kind of dancing next to it, as bmore club/house pumped out of it… I didnt think much of it, because afterall this is baltimore… I didnt even realize it was him untill he was inside. I was very much star struck, so I tried to act all unasumming as I watched them pick out vitatmins… I wanted to say something like…. “um, you guys are cool and stuff..” but I also wanted them to feel comfortable, and not have another geek gawking over them. As I got back on my bike to head home I got up the courage to just roll buy and say “keep up the good work”, omar thanked me, I tried to clip in and roll off, and missed my pedals , come on I was star struck, at which point omar said …

“be carefull out there”

I like to think he meant “this is baltimore baby, be carefull on these streets, the game is ever where”, but I think he meant… “dude dont fall over your own legs” … to celebrate I came home and put on some rod lee.

1 Comment || Topcs: General, baltimore, running/triath

Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I did call my aunt in New Orleans last night to see if she had evacuated the city. Considering that the last time we talked, I ended up screaming and hanging up on her, it took a lot for me to make the call. She said a lot of mean things after my mom died, and we have had no contact since then (unless you count the random bizarre emails about the lakota healer, but that’s another story). At any rate, she has not left the city and plans to ride out the storm. In the meantime, I’m not sure if the call upgraded me from the “reprehensible” category to which she assigned me, but I do feel better for having made it.

Edit/Update: My aunt did call me back this morning to let me know that she is fine and her property did not flood. It was a short, but civil, conversation. I’m really not sure that I want to be in regular contact with her, but at least we can have a low-drama discussion if necessary.

1 Comment || Topcs: General

(at a later date, I will explain why that title is hilarious to jen and I).

So I just completed the Naylor’s Beach Triathlon this morning. I thought I would try and update the blog even though the interweb is broken in our house . So my aching body is hanging out at Mayorga Coffeehouse in silver spring.

We arrived at the site yesterday afternoon just in time for the pre-race meeting. Nothing spectacular was announced except that the water was 82 degrees so wetsuits were a bad idea. After the meeting was over we ran into a punk rock guy and girl. This is something that you RARELY run into at all these events. It turns out that their names are Carolann and Matt and they are very nice people. It was nice to be around “similar folk” in what is usually a bastion of very wealthy yuppies (albeit usually friendly yuppies). We spent a fair amount of time commenting on bikes. It’s funny, because I like to think that I have a pretty nice one, but I had one of the cheapest ones there. But these are the interesting bikes of note:

-schwinn world sport with aero bars (this middle aged woman smoked me)
-a trek mtn bike with aero bars and bar ends but the wheels had been removed and replaced with really nice 700c wheels
-a red surly cross check (I like the red better, but they don’t make it any more)
-a GMC walmart bike. I think this is fucking awesome because you can’t buy a road bike for under $1000 anymore.

Here’s the race recap (I have been inspired by joe from single speed outlaw’s report from the SSWC):

The swim started and I was trying to go way too fast, but still keep away from the pack, I may begin to rethink this strategery. I was turned around by the kayakers and jet ski swim marshalls at least a half a dozen times. The current was strong (so they say) so the swim felt like far more than 1500 meters. I know that I swam far more than 1500 meters because I can’t track for shit. I may begin to start training breast stroke instead because this is always my fallback when I get really far off course. Here is my best approximation of my swim. The black lines are the course and the red lines are my route.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments || Topcs: running/triath

*

…I’m the owner of a new bike with two water bottle cages. I put them to use yesterday, when I managed to reach down, grab the bottle, drink, and put it back without falling. While a car was passing me.

I got mad skills, yo.

*I accidentally took a copyrighted image from Crystal Waters’ amazing site, bikegirl.com, and she was nice enough to contact me asking for the photo credit that she deserves. So, here it is, belatedly.

7 Comments || Topcs: General

This last weekend, it started to sink in that we’re almost done cleaning out the house. Most of the major stuff is done: The junk man is coming tomorrow to haul away the things that are too big (or too flamable) to be left at the curb. A woman who collects goods for charity is coming Tuesday to see what kitchen and furniture items can be reused. The Colt has been towed away. Only the attic and shed are untouched; there isn’t all that much left in the basement to sort through. My house doesn’t really feel like the home I grew up in anymore, although I’ve never lost the sensation that any minute, my mom or dad will walk in the door. Several times this weekend, in the basement, I looked up the stairs, expecting to see any one of our cats peering down at me. It’s a very wierd feeling of being in a place that is all at once familiar and yet altogether wrong.

I spent a lot of time sorting through the bundles of mail that my mom had stashed all over the house. I always thought that she started hanging on to every bill and paper that entered the house when my dad died, but it turns out that his death only coincided with her running out of space to hide the mail out of sight. My sister found bank statements and letters from 1975 in the back corners of her closet. Mixed in were letters, cards, pictures and pieces of scrap paper. found all sorts of things: forgotten dollar bills, drafts of plans for carpentry projects, vacation guides to places we never visited. I know that both of my parents never planned for the future they found, and I know they both wanted much more time than they got. It was hard to see concrete evidence of their unfinished plans, but as I sorted, I tried to keep in mind what my mom said after my dad died, and again when she knew she had little time left: No tears, and no regrets.

I know that she wasn’t saying that she was ready to go, or that she hadn’t wished every day that my dad were with her. It was her shorthand for something more like this: Your life is made up of the choices you make and the consequences they bring. How you deal with them defines who you are, and how you treat your family and loved ones shapes the person you become. In the end, I don’t think my mom had regrets about her choices or her relationships. I have regrets of my own, so my job now is to figure out how to live so I won’t have any. In doing that, I’ll find a way to honor both my parents with the life I chose for myself.

It’s a struggle to keep that in mind as we proceed to dismantle the house and throw out so much that my parents always hung on to, whether it’s the puzzles in the basement that we put together as a family or the bills that show that some years, the puzzles were the only family fun we could really afford. It’s not that I think I’m dishonoring them in selling the house, but it feels as though I’m slowly severing the last connection that I have with them. When the house is sold, I’ll be choosing to move on, which hurts.

1 Comment || Topcs: General

… its the coffin, they carry you off in …

so last night me and cherokee were talking about the end of 6 feet under. There has been allot of coverage on npr about it, and seeing as I listed to at least 2 1/2 hours of npr a day, Ive been hearing allot about the little show that could. I havent very intently watched it, but when I did it was a quality show, that didnt really skirt issues or mince words. Looking pretty deeply and honestly at the american family, and all the time w/ this undercurrent of end and death. This is what one of the npr stories was about. Unlike most tv shows, it deals with death non stop, even when no one if dieing, there is an undercurrent of death.

So this is all a precursor for this conversation we were having. I used to be terrified of death. Thinking about it constantly, and almost weekly having pannic attacks about it. Normally about the concept of life ending and not understanding nothingness etc. I always accounted this to my lack of faith, but eh… this was how I lived from childhood untill id say oh just before holden was born. For one reason or another I just stoped worrying about it, and just said I cant dwell I must just live. Accepting, yes I will die, and turn to worm food, but hopefully in the big fish kind of way, much like my grandmother, and her mother before I will live on in memories. Anyways, cherokee never really had this fear, once again I always wrote it off to her catholic upbringing.

Then last night she said “i dont fear death, but fear the moments before that Ill think I didnt do everything I wanted to”, as she looked up from her work. This has stuck with me all night, all this morning, and im still thinking about it. Its not the death we should fear but our lack of living while alive. We spend so much of our lives fearing things which are a joke, and spending our time on so much non important shite. Thats what we should fear, not living life. So tonight we start our lists…. and buy some red pencils … im not messing around.

2 Comments || Topcs: General

I continue to be interested in doing things that beat me up. Today I thought I would give “cyclocross training” a go. Basically, I found a nice park with a long grassy stretch and hills at both ends. Rode toward a playground, quickly unclipped, picked up my 24 pound bike, ran across the playground, got back on and kept riding. Over and Over and Over. That shit is ridiculously hard.

But even harder was when my left foot didn’t unclip and I bit it hard.

I’m still interested in what a race will be like. It’s probably in my best interests if I try it and hate it.

2 Comments || Topcs: bikes

So it’s no secret that I am not super crazy about running about 80% of the time. The other 20% is a bizarre opposite where I’m really glad that I force myself (not as often as I should) to run because it’s pretty awesome (sometimes). Yesterday was one of those days.

I woke up and went for a ride to the agricultural center and back. It was about a billion degrees. I flatted out on powder mill road in full sun. Changed my tire, drank all my water and rode to proteus to fill up my water bottle on the way home. I also managed to get a cycling jersey farmer tan (this is usually avoided by wearing heavy metal t-shirts instead). In the end, I think it was about 25 miles, not sure though.

This has nothing to do with running, but then I went home and jen and I rolled out to

Boordy Vineyards for the Charm City Run XTERRA SCRAMBLE 5K. We heard about it on wednesday and the selling point was that it was a run through the vineyard followed by wine tasting. I decided to sign up and asked if jen wanted to. Despite being off running for about 3 months, she said yes and signed up for her first race ever.

It was hotter than HELL. jen was a little bit jumpy because of the competition aspect of it. I was fine, because I have become very accustomed to placing very poorly in competitive events. We ran at a reasonably slow pace but the heat made it seem BRUTAL. As we hit the first water station, jen ended up with a gatorade because she kinda grabbed it and kept going. Not being a gatorade drinker, she handed it to me saying that she couldn’t finish it. I proceeded to dump it over my head as she told me that it was gatorade and not water.

We finished and then the real fun began. Post-running on a hot ass day, there is nothing more that I want than CHEESE. I scarfed down tons of cheese and crackers in preparation for the wine tasting. Here is a quick recap of the wines and my opinions

port: eh.
eisling ice wine: amazing, we bought a bottle.
bottled sangria: OK.
chilled apple: good but I would rather have cider
riesling: very good
boordy blush: very good
vidal blanc: like a pinot grigot but not as good.
petit cabernet: I haven’t tried too many cabernet sauvignons but I don’t like this one.
cabernet franc: good. Almost as good as the Shelton Vineyards.

OK, enough of the yuppie crap. In the end, jen won a raffle for free saucony shoes from charm city run. fun run, good post run deal, free shoes, awesomely hot evening of running with my cool wife!

2 Comments || Topcs: bikes, running/triath

so this past week the fam went , as we say here in bawlmer, downey ocean, in our case it was to my moms house in bethany de. As with all good trips to the shore, it was everything while nothing at all, all at once. We did most things we set out to do, but at the same time set out to do basicly nothing, so it was easy to accomplish. I did a brick of swimming and running , in the ocean no less, and that worked out better than I was expecting. Cherokee started running, and did pretty well, hopefully we’ll pick up on that tomorrow if this heat lets up. We did some reading, alot of chilling, and even more ice cream eating. Yet most of all we basked in the fun that is holden on vacation. Really he is fun, sure a pain in the arse, and every small trip involves a supply of snacks and basic supplies, but I have to say the shore is funner with him. For one, your own personal must do everything schedule gets pushed aside, because your more flexible then him, and there is some small comfort in that. Also his need for naps ensures your time for catching up on movies and reading, forced calm. Having some one to keep you home at night at the shore, means you can perfect important skills like, how to make a home made rum punch. But most of all seeing him get excited and show real honest pleasures out of the simple shore fun , makes it 100x better. We found that he doesnt hate the water as much as we feared, he doesnt seem to find eating sand as disgusting as the rest of us, he enjoys dipin dots just as much as cherokee, he has mastered the concept of yes and no as in would you like some fruit “no no nono no” would you like some ice cream “yesssss” , the mere sight of a carosel can set him into a excitement panic attack, and that he has mastered his first sentence “there it is” as in “hey holden wheres the carosel?” “there it is”. Plus he has found that unlike his hatered for hats, he doesnt mind sun glasses, as seen below. So yah in short…. shore good time, not looking forward to returning to the real world in oh 6 hours.

4 Comments || Topcs: General, parenting