Yesterday was as lazy as Saturday was ambitious. One may have been result of the other, but I’ll never know because I have no plans to investigate the matter. I’ll simply take each for what they were worth and move on.
Satur(busy)day
I woke early to meet “Burnt Rubber” near our start for next Sunday’s Black Sheep Hash by 8am. After hiking through the woods, having ideas smashed by housing developments and new commercial development things seemed to be falling in to place nicely. I accidentally “found” a steel post which used to hold a retaining fence. Thankfully my jeans took the brunt of the abuse as they suffered a good seven-inch rip, and my inner calf took only a slight hit because of this. My eye wasn’t quite as lucky unfortunately. While following behind “Burnt Rubber” I got hit in the eye with a branch/sapling which snapped back as he passed. I can see out of the eye, there appears to be no swelling, but there is still minor irritation today. After nearly three hours of hiking through the woods things almost worked out perfectly but there are still some loose ends to tie up. Looks like I’ll be headed up to the area at least one more time this week to wrap up my planning. I’m guessing that the over/under for me getting snared is currently set at three; call your bookie, place your bets.
With one long, arduous, task behind me it was time for a good nap before continuing the day’s commitments.
I awoke to get myself (and camera gear) ready for Saturday night’s racing at the Dick Lane Velodrome. I’ve lived in the Atlanta area for nearly fifteen and a half years and, while I’ve heard of the velodrome, had never visited. The velodrome is in scary East Point (Kidding! I’m one to throw stones?), tucked into a neighborhood. I was surprised not only by the sight of the velodrome but also by the large number of people in it that night. The event had a groovy subculture feel to it, kinda what I’d expect if I attended an Atlanta Roller Girls roller derby match. And who knew how many of my worlds would collide?! I knew that I’d know at least one person there as ITP-reader Steve (aka “Fag Pipes”) was the night’s chief official. And then while seeking parking I (figuratively) ran into ITP-reader Michelle. Later in the evening I saw ITP-reader “Martha” and her man Jerry. Also in attendance that night were two of my Flickr contacts — Andy and Chad. The night got a bit weird when I realized that I also sorta knew one of the riders, Darren who is the owner of Decatur’s The Grange Public House which is where Maigh and I hung out last week. Overall the outing was quite fun.
After the races I decided to drop in on ITP-reader “Gentri” who recently purchased a house nearby.
The night ended much later than I expected… which kinda set the table for Sunday.
ITP Flickr Photo
Since Saturday I’ve been thinking “shooting track cycling is hard.”
What I really need to be thinking is “shooting track cycling is frustrating when you’ve not mastered photographing sports.” I shall return.
Sun(lazy)day
When I awoke Sunday morning I knew there was no way that I was making it out to either ride (ha!) or photograph the GA400 Hospitality Highway Century. Besides the fact that I was beat, I knew that I had taken at least three hundred photos at the velodrome that I’d have to wade through. Luckily(?) the vast majority of these were completely out of focus and hit the virtual trash been immediately (note to self: You may want to learn how to use your camera gear some day.). I’d say about fifty shots passed the “Ugh, that’s utter shit” test and made it to the second round. Having not eaten much on Saturday (a low-cal breakfast bagel sandwich, two sodas, two beers, and a single serving of oatmeal with honey) my stomach continually inquired about food as I sat and “edited.” As the time passed I forced myself to wait until lunch. I was feeling lazy and wanted to complete separating the wheat from my photography chaff before rewarding myself with food.
Food was found at Decatur’s Raging Burrito, who also happen to now serve Fat Tire on draft (or is it “draught?”).
After returning home from lunch I executed a perfect three-hour nap, which was followed by podcast listening, a short stint of reading, and some television watching as I wondered the whole time just how many times the power would go out due to the evening’s severe thunderstorms (the answer was three).
Another ITP Flickr Photo
I don’t own one of those fancy-pants iPhone 3G[s] camera phones.
But given the proper subject and some decent lighting my iPhone 3G does an okay job.
Recharging My Batteries
I’m all for rechargeable batteries. For the past few years I’ve been using them as much as possible, replacing non-rechargeables with rechargeables as the non-rechargeables die out. When I stepped on to my scale on Friday it greeted me with the “LO” message meaning its batteries were low on charge. Yesterday morning I finally remembered this and took out one of my three charges — each of which recharge at a different speed. I put the batteries into the “two hour” charger and it reported that one of the batteries was malfunctioning. This happens often with this charger (which is why I purchased my second charger) so I took all batteries out and placed them into the “slow” charger. This charger seemed to have no issues with the batteries so I went on my merry way. Twelve hours later the batteries were still charging! I found the owners manual for this charger to read that four batteries at the capacity that I purchased would take about fifteen-seventeen hours (YIKES!) to fully recharge. Guess what, they were still not ready this morning. 🙁 I kept the battery charger plugged in today, and if they are not fully recharged when I return home am calling Shenanigans on this whole “rechargeable batteries are good” theory.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – anxious, nervous, scared, I feel “behind” and wondering if I’ll ever feel “normal” again
Current Music – KEXP’s “Music That Matters” podcast, the “Northwest Festival Preview” episode
Website Of The Day – I saw this stop-motion animation called Sorry I’m Late on Channel Frederator yesterday and though that it was pretty cool.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – trail scouting on Saturday
Morning Weigh-In – not performed, no batteries ready
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~8 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 10 (10)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 12
Marta Rides – 0
July Goals
– Regain interest in my life
– Not get fired from my job
– Plan and lay a successful Black Sheep hash on July 19th
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I really enjoyed the races, would have been a little better had we ate before hand. I could see me giving it a try, maybe next year, too much on my plate right now. Heck there were only four girls, I’d have a shot. We drove back to Smyings and grabbed some Lil Azio’s, it hit the spot.
I can’t believe the one dude came back and raced. He laid there on the track for a long time.
I had to buy a new charger. I had two, gave one to Besty and a week later the ‘good’ one I kept, died. When I buy new electronics, I try to make sure they take AA batteries so I don’t have to buy anything extra.
I never actually saw the guy who crashed. I was all the way on the other side of the track and because I was photographing I wasn’t wearing my glasses.
When I return I either need to eat beforehand or succumb to many instructions to purchase something from the concession stand.
I’m too old to start thinking about taking up a new sport. I’ll return to cycling soon (read “once this stupid Black Sheep trail is behind me”) but never see myself clamping into a track bike.
BS! Don’t say you are “too old” you are only a couple of years older than me and I’m far from too old 🙂 .
The crash was scary…I really didn’t think the one guy (in green) was getting back up on his own.
Neither of us had any cash with us, totally forgot. The stuff sort of smelled good but would have been a diet buster on an otherwise healthy day.
Invitation is still open to join Kevin and I for our morning ride. Its short, only about 14 (I ride a little extra to make 20) but it is enough for a pre-work ride.
And – that velodrome is cement – so any crash has to hurt (I remember the road rash all too well from a month ago). Allan says someday he wants to track ride, I say no, that would involve buying another bike!
GA400 ride was crazy wtih people, I heard well over 1000 registered, and there were plenty of walk-ups, me included. the staging on Holcomb Bridge while they were clsoing down the highway was interesting. It was a very hilly course, I think whoever planned it was either a racer boy, or someone that just drove it. There were too many recreational bikers out there that had to walk up many steep neighborhood hills. I just did the 30, it was a good workout. I’m sure I could have done the 60, but I would have been BEAT.
BTW – I’m working on getting rental cars for my trip (I leave Wed.) and there are NO DEALS at the Moline, IL or Denver airports. I’ve been putting it off, but now I’ve got to rent something, and it is killing me to pay so much.
Once again frustrated that I have to wait to give someone $25 bucks before I can pay the state to get a damn sticker for my car.
Barb, two guys went down, it happend so fast I’m not sure but it looked like the first guy, hit someone’s wheel, the second guy went down as an after effect, at first I thought 3 went down but I think the guy who got hit was able to continue.
The second guy was able to pull a bike together (both front and back wheels were messed up) and continued the race. The first guy returned for one of the last races on the night. He didn’t do well but he was out there.
There are so few female racers maybe it would be safer?
I’ve heard anywhere from 1,100 to 1,500 folks rode on Sunday. That is great. It would have been pretty neat to ride 400 but I ran the Comet instead, whoopie!!
I stumbled across this link today and thought you might be interested: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-photograph-water-drops-with-one.html
@Martha: Fewer riders may be safer — until you are bunched. It only takes one other rider to get squirrely and touch wheels to cause a wreck.
@Andrew: Thanks. I subscribe to Strobist’s RSS feed, but somehow missed this article.
It was pretty wild having 5 lanes to ride down (with no cars anywhere), but it was also made me a little nervous, there were so many people going at so many different speeds. I’m sure the cars going northbound thought it was crazy.
the front guy that gets hit doesn’t always go down (just ask Allan, since I ran into his rear wheel,and he just wobbled a little).
Paulie – I’m with you on the waiting to get the emmisions done, I would usually leave & come bck another time. But luckily I haven’t had to wait the last couple years.
I saw photos from a few different vantage points and it looked surreal.
There were two cars in front of me today. Based on the way things are going in my life I figured that I best wait it out today and get it done with. The Jackmobile passed and now it’s up to me to send the confirmation in with my ad valorem payment so I can get a pretty sticker.
Do it on line, save yourself the headache of mailing it, or worse going in person.
Oh, I wouldn’t dream of physically going to the tag office, although I used to when I worked near the one near Brookhaven. Now that I have emissions results in hand I plan to go and submit my payment online tonight.
I hate that I missed the Velodrome meet up, but my day just got too full. I made Steve promise to go with me on a night when he isn’t officiating so that he can explain the ins and outs. Yours and Martha’s pictures were both great and it looks like lots of fun to watch.
I’m hopeful to do the whole tag routine by mail this year. For the last 2-3 years I’ve had to go in person to straighten out one thing or another. No emissions test necessary for the Beast, thank god, but apparently determing the correct value for a horse trailer is a challenge… more so in Dekalb than Coweta.
Barb, what’s one more bike!?!? You’ll hardly notice it’s there. 😉
Debbie, I was wondering where you were, but couldn’t remember whether you even said that you’d be there and figured you might have been out riding the new ride. I’ll definitely return — if for no other reason than to get some concession food 😉
Thanks for the good words about the photos. I could have posted many blurry ones, but unfortunately they weren’t blurry enough to be artsy, but just blurry enough to be aggravating (at least to me). Hell, even those I posted aren’t tack sharp, especially at the larger sizes. 🙁
Really Barb. A track bike doesn’t even have brakes or gears! How expensive could one be? 🙂
I usually go in person to the tag office in East Cobb, there is never anyone in line. Allan went for me this year, he was taking the lawn mower to a repair/tune-up place that was almost next door.
NO MORE BIKES – we are out of hooks already, with 2 extras as it is. Once the garage is built, then maybe, but he would never really ride it…. ya know? Trek only sells one, it is $1100 retail, so at least it isn’t super expensive.