With a heavy load I entered the elevator and waited for the woman entering the outer door to get in. She pushed a button two floors below mine and I thought nothing of it when she got out. Then the elevator door closed unusually, and then reopened. I took this as a sign that I should climb the stairs for the final two floors lest I get stuck in a stuffy elevator long before anyone could get to it to extract me.
Rolling X 2
I went out for two rides this weekend.
Two!
And both of them took me through “The Intersection” on a bicycle, which I’d not done since the accident on February 27th. Booyah!
Saturday’s ride was done on my mountain bike and followed the Dekalb PATH. I didn’t want to push myself too far, but I was on a mission to make it through the intersection on bike.
Sunday’s ride was with my co-worker Duke and followed much of the standard Stone Mountain route, cut short so that we could ride down to Turner Field and watch our co-worker Darren do some autocross in the Turner Field parking lot. [Note: that straight line from Decatur to Clarkston was caused by me inadvertently turning off my Garmin Forerunner 305 as I rode or stopped. Luckily I looked at the watch at one point and noticed that time had stopped. The actually path out followed the winding path that the straight line intersects.]
I huffed and puffed, and at times I felt as if my chest was going to explode. But I made it. And I’m still kicking. So I’ve got that going for me…
Concerts – 1
Saturday was a strange day. I had the opportunity to meet with some of my Flickr friends for breakfast and then heading out to an auto show to do some photography, but I decided I’d rather stay home.
Update: Now that I see this from where they ate breakfast
I’m glad that I skipped!
After kicking around during the morning I decided that I would head up to Midway Pub for some chicken tenders and a beer as I watched some college football and read a little on my iPad.
As the afternoon passed I had two choices — go for a bike ride, do yard work. You already know which of those I chose.
After getting back and relaxing for awhile I started pondering the idea of heading up to The Drunken Unicorn for the Braids show. But, as day turned into night I was certain that I’d be hanging around the house instead. Luckily I hadn’t purchased a ticked for the show, so nothing was lost.
Instead I watched a couple of the Stanford iOS course videos in an effort to kickstart my development efforts.
Beer: My New Soon-To-Be-Limited Extravagance
If you’ve learned anything about me from these pages it’s that I love beer and drink a lot of it. However, last night I had a revelation — it’s gotten too damn expensive to drink beer out, especially at dinner.
After riding last night my co-rider Duke and I were joined by our co-worker Darren at Fox Brothers Barbecue. For dinner I ordered a two-meat (ribs, smoked chicken wings) and two sides (mac ‘n cheese, brisket chili) platter with a pint of Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. The food, quite plentiful, and was delicious though the brisket chili was incredibly salty, so salty I should have sent it back. However the real shock of the night came when I saw that my pint of beer cost me $7.00!
$7.00!!
FOR ONE PINT OF BEER!!!
Meh, it’s time for be to rebel and start drinking water with my meals again.
9/11 Has Passed Again, Bring On 11/9
I now brace myself for 11/9 when the dyslexics of the world mark the 01th anniversary of 11/9.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, but not completely convinced that all is well
Current Music – listening to today’s “The Story” podcast
Website Of The Day – At least if my camera was as large as Darren’s Great Big Camera I’d have an excuse for not using mine.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday = cycling, ~19.4 miles; Sunday = cycling, ~27 miles
Morning Weigh-In – Wednesday
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 99.5 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 19 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 1
Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
September Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Ride my bike no fewer than 150 miles
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least twice
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose three pounds
2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
ITP-Reader Steve: This is the George’s 50th Anniversary week meetup on Thursday, correct?
Correct sir. More later as I’m off to a meeting…
-FP
I participated in some Bank sponsored volunteer work on the Beltline Saturday. Whacking brush, dragging old tires, getting stung by bees, lots of fun. As I worked, I realized that as these pieces of the Beltline are completed, more hashing trails are being formed- and not even as they are completed. Do you think the hash might be interested in a little volunteer labor some Saturday?
Sunday was a lovely day for a bike ride and I did exactly that with Barb and Michelle. Thank you, ladies, for a lovely ride. As we rode, we were passed by a large group of “hammerheads” and they looked fast, but I thought I might be able to hang. I saw a co-worker today who was in that group and said they averaged 23 for the day!! Maybe I need to get in a bit better shape.
Thursday is the day, Georges is the place. I plan on running at 6, but I’m sure that if you want to just come and socialize that would be fine as well.
“getting stung by bees” OUCH!!!
I would have loved to ride Silk Sheets, but my plans were to ride later and then eat at Fox Bros. I’m not sure I could maintain 23mph these days. A couple of other co-workers (who kicked my ass at Stone Mountain a couple of weekends ago) rode 54 miles on Silver Comet at a pace of 19.5mph — I’m not even sure I could keep that pace at the moment.
And Barb, when Allan is accepting bike projects again (read “can stomach the thought of working on bikes after his experiences over the past two weeks”) BlackJack might need some post-break-in tuning up.
Running and I are mortal enemies at the moment but you can count on me being at George’s Thursday night.
I got one bike ride in, on sunday, as Steve referenced above. I wanted to meet Michelle on Saturday as well, but I had just gotten my hair done, and didn’t want to mess it up.
So, I went to a movie, The Help with a friend (a movie I knew Allan would never want to see). It was an entertaining movie.
I haven’t told Allan yet, but we plan to be at george’s on Thursday.
He drove straight thru from NJ, leaving 1130pm 9/10, getting home about 2pm 9/11. I think he said they stopped twice, once to drop Bruce off in the Washington DC area, once for gas.
Ooops, that should have read “post-break-in” tuneup and not “post-breaking” tuneup since I’ve thankfully yet to break anything on BlackJack.
And wow, Allan didn’t even get to stay up there for the 9/11 ceremonies? That’s seems a shame given the purpose of his trip.
I’m with you on the $7 beer – when did that happen? I’ve noticed a few places that now charge 6 or 7 a pint. It seems like everything is inching up price-wise these days. I also noticed that coffee (my other vice) is now coming in 11 oz bags (instead of 12 or 14). We are in Florida (Indian Rocks beach) for the week, where beer seems to be cheaper for some reason, or maybe I’m just used to Atlanta prices and am grateful to pay 4 bucks for a pint of something decent.
What’s odd about the beer prices is that I am more likely to buy two, $5 beers whereas I will only buy one, $7 beer. Of course I don’t consider myself to be that “average” beer drinker. 😉
Aaah, Indian Rocks beach…. Memories, memories, memories.
I think they could have gone to the ceremonies if they wanted to, but it would have been crazy trying to get there. They went by Ground Zero on Saturday. And – he (& most of the otehrs) were ready to get home, They only sort of had a place lined up to sleep Saturday night (at a firehouse way back over in Brooklyn, and they were in NJ with all their stuff at 11pm on Saturday night). So, they decided to just come hme.
I RARELY buy a beer out & about anymore, $5 or more is the norm, and that is too much.
I’ll ask Allan about messing with your bike – he’s cleaning out Bruce’s van today, seeing what all he has in there, waht has to be returned where……..
I’m in no rush, Barb. BlackJack just needs to have its gears (and perhaps brakes) tweaked. I can certainly keep riding it in its current condition.