2510.1 / 1255

Short ride out the Rodota/West County trail, where I diverted onto a little double-track out into the mustard fields, which are blooming insanely right now. Nice little ride, nothing special, but it was good to get out and eat some bugs.

2502.9 m / 1238 d.

To Forestville and back, on the West County trail. Whew! Been a long time since I've done this one. It's really rather easy (though I tried to keep up the heart rate and the leg strength by staying in highest gear I could stand) and very scenic. Just a few mild inclines to make it interesting. Anyway, after two years dormant, my bike and I passed 2500 miles today. Got a new, very bright, taillight and got my under-seat bag installed properly, so I'm off to the races.

2486.2 / 1235 glorious smoke-free days.

Just a little jaunt, again, to keep my foot in the door, but a good workout, trying (and mostly succeeding) to maintain over 10 mph in gear 3-7.

2478.1 / 1234 days, dropping the mileage-from-last, as it should be relatively obvious that I rode 8.3 miles since the last ride.

Just a short out-and-back to get some pictures of oaks and mustard in the "golden" evening light: http://www.born-today.com/Vacations/2005/02/02-07.htm.

2469.8 / 12.6 / 1230

Okay, on a roll (sorta)! Second day, twice the miles. My legs were actually a little sore today - from a 5-mile ride! - so I was glad to get out and work it off.

It has been a week since I cut back on the sugar. This means quitting Coke (from a 24-to-60-oz-per-day habit), no longer adding sugar to coffee, and no chocolates, ice cream, or other sugary desserts. I still drink my Martinelli's and cran-raspberry juice (no ADDed sugar, but plenty 'nuff in the fruit juice itself, I reckon) and eat fruit and other stuff that contains natural amounts of sugar, so it's a fairly small sacrifice, but still significant I think. I was a little worried about diabetes, but the net result, after a week is simply a generally better feeling. Another part of it was... just be tired of supporting the big national brands (McDonald's, which I quit a few months ago after seeing "Super Size Me" and Coca-Cola), and maybe just trying to strip away some of the unnecessaries, now that smoking is a distant memory...

Anyway: good ride today - 12 and a half miles! A bit of chafing, but hey, it wouldn't be "Road Rash diaries" without some of that!

I hope to build at least a little bit of stamina for the late-March vacation in Mexico. We've signed up for ocean kayaking off Cabo San Lucas (!), so I want to be up to that and any other tasks. Tomorrow, I may even go to the gym (it has been more than two years). Would you be a little annoyed if your "health club" continued to collect $40/month for TWO YEARS without so much as a postcard to make sure you're okay? They're sorta the only game in town, and... I think... I let stuff like this get to me too often and I should learn to let it go. I could;ve quit the gym at any time, but kept the membership because (a) I don't want to give up on getting in shape and (b) I could afford it most of the time and it was worth it to me for (a).

Onward and upward!

2457.2 / ~5 / 1229 days smoke-free

Road Rash rides again! The bike has been gathering dust for most of two years. It is such a gorgeous day, I had to get out and ride. The back tire may have a leak, but at least held air long enough for this little ride. I want to work up to the 40-, 50-, 60-mile rides again, but let's pretend I never did those , and just get a couple of 5- and 10-milers for now. I note that sometime since the last time I looked, my rear light was broken off. Sigh. I will get a new one, one that takes the same rechargeable AA batteries I have for my camera.

~2385 / na / 366

Yep, we now have a year smoke-free. Two months drink-free. Unfortunately, also almost 11 months job-free.

~2370 / na / 335+

XXX: Triple Icks.

11 Months since the Habit That Dares Not Spark Its Flame. Now, more than one month since any alcohol.

2138.7 / 40.4 / 242

Eight months since the Habit That Dares Not Speak Its Name. Good 40-mile ride yesterday - longest ride yet, and as usual, perhaps a little more than I should've attempted.

AI (2001)

Been a while since I reviewed a movie here but, this one sucked so hard I think my VCR got a hickey. Here is a GREAT example of mindless spending on special effects in lieu of plot, characters, acting... William Hurt, who I generally respect as an actor, tries to keep his head down so his face is not associated with this pile of doodoo, but it's too late - we saw him. Jude Law sneaks in a pretty good performance as Gigolo Joe (in IMDB, Law is quoted as saying, "I would never know how to sell myself as a sex symbol. That's not how I'm programmed").

Haley Joel Osment shows a couple of moments of promise, and an hour of treacly make-it-go-away-ness that ensures his future in horror movies until he reaches adolesence and starts to look like John Elway, and then overdoses on a mixture of drugs and alcohol in a popular LA nightclub with Macaulay Culkin semi-implicated by calling for the ambulance.

Oh, but that's just one possible future.

Some rather expensive voices get no face-time in this movie...

Jack Angel (I) .... Teddy (voice)
Robin Williams .... Dr. Know (voice)
Ben Kingsley .... Specialist (voice)
Meryl Streep .... Blue Mecha (voice)
Chris Rock .... Comedian (voice)
Erik Bauersfeld .... Gardener (voice)

T notes that the most likable character in the story is Teddy, and it appears there's a good opening for a sequel. I rather hope Teddy can become a real bear and maul the other characters in that movie...

1779 / ~14 / 170

Annadel with Randy. Fun! The most "technical" riding I've yet done, mostly single-track, lots of rocks and roots (and mud, after the rain from the weekend! I was pretty much spattered all over with mud). I need some kind of toe-clips, or bigger pedals, for this kind of riding... I got left behind on the downhills, but not so much on the uphills.

~1765 / ~5 / 168

Did the West County Trail again Monday, and attempted to gear up (through a rainy week) to the new trail that goes from Big Rock to Loma Alta. I managed it yesterday, but not without a LOT of stops for air and water. I am a wimp still.

I realize that while I like riding on fire roads and stuff, I don't care to get very "technical." When the road gets a little steep I tend to inch my way down, unwilling to risk going over the handlebars or worse...

1746.6 / ~16 / 158

Checked out the West County Trail from here to Forestville and back. Pretty nice. There's about a mile stretch that doesn't have a paved bike path where you have to follow 116, but even that has a nice little single-track several yards away from the road. Then there are a few places where the bike path stops and restarts for short distances, but it's still really beats the hell out of the ride you'd have to do on 116. Now, if we can get the trail extended to the River and Armstrong Woods...!

On 2/15, I accomplished the stated goal of climbing the Burnside Road hill. The loop urned out to be closer to 20 miles than 17.

My current goal is to make the 17-mile loop that includes the full length (and height) of Burnside Road. I may try it today...

1700.5 / ~15 / 143

Road Rash somewhat ill, but still alive...

Lovely day out, and I managed the Pleasant Hill / Kennedy / Barnett Valley / Burnside / Watertrough route.

I was feeling really pretty down about still not having a job (though at least there have been jobs to apply for this week for which I felt I had at least a remote chance of getting an interview!). And now I'm relying on unemployment $$, having blown through a pretty big chunk of savings $$. And I just sit around here really not doing a whole lot - and not feeling there's a whole lot I *can* do. And the gym is starting to bore me, now that I took two weeks off to travel and have a cold, and I'm now questioning whether I really want "that kind" of muscle --- I REALLY just wanted to be slimmer, after all...

SO anyway, it's good that the weather's not crappy, and I can get out and do some significant miles.

Wore the bike shorts I got for xmas - modestly wearing sweats over them - and a sleeveless shirt to start on this year's tan (ha!). And the long climbs and drops on Barnett Valley and Burnside are good for the soul. Even though I'm *still* unemployed and *still* feel like a leaky money-boat in a vast ocean of non-opportunity, hey, it *is* a pretty world.

Rented and watched some old Burns and Allen shows last night - not as funny as Spike Jones, and George never *was* funny (the difference being that he was trying to be funny in later years), but Gracie had her moments, and was I suppose something of a pioneer as a woman comic...

While I'm not working, I mean to start drawing again - but of course as I worked out today, "All of art is in stARTing," and I haven't done more than buy supplies and think about it so far - there's still the blank page to contend with.

Ah well.

1670.6 / ~11 / 69

One of those days where I make myself get out and ride, and am eventually glad that I did it. The seasons here (and there ARE more than two) are very notceable if you simply get outside enough to notice. Not just walking from the house to the car, and not just going out hiking somewhere every few weeks, but really getting out consistently - to the same places if possible - so you see the subtle day-by-day changes: the difference after one, two, three rain storms. The biking helps with that, and more than the exercise value and the getting thin value and the challenge-and-self-esteem value, THAT is what I REALLY like about it.

Climb-first rides are sorta "more better" on these colder days - I get reasonably warmed up before flying downhill in the sharp breeze (today, 31.5 mph coasting down Watertrough Road).

1659.5 / ~14 / 66

Today's bike ride actually almost accidentally included the fearsome Burnside Road hill. Have been doing rides somewhat less than, but similar to, this one since being laid off 11/1. And working out at the gym most weekdays and some weekend days. Not that I'm "buff" or anything, or eve *want* to be - just tired of my flab, as noted below, and pleased with the progress I've managed from just a little of this working out'n'stuff. Have been absent from here because my profile on the QuitNet seemed to receive all of my journalizing for awhile, but now "the Q," like SO many other things, has annoyed me and I have left in ... well, not a HUFF, per se, but perhaps in a SNIT (cf Austin Lounge Lizards' "The Illusion Travels by Stock Car"). So perhaps I'll continue here now.

1600+ / 48

No more job. Still trying to decide if I resigned in the face of layoffs or was laid off outright.

At any rate, we're good for a few months of this before the situation becomes really desperate. I'm riding the bike about 10 miles/day. Also joined the gym and worked out there for the first time today. Really wanna be done with the "hate handles," as with the Addiction That Dare Not Speak Its Name, and this will help with both - and with general sense of well-being during these difficult times...

My new standard bike ride is nothin' to write home about - hence no blogging - but it is enough to keep me in reasonable bike-shape. Need, however, to exercise other parts of my body than my legs!

Holding at 1561 for now / 38

Rain. Good, long, hard, help-you-sleep rain, pattering all night outside the open window, making a nice clean smell inside. I actually slept thru my usual weird 1:30am wake-up. Woke briefly for the usual 3:30 non-event, but ultimately managed to sleep to 5 - latest I've slept in several days!

MUST join gym now. Sit-ups are helping the "abs," but dunno about "love handles" - I don't think there's an exercise that reduces those, other than overall sweating-out stuff. Be that as it may, weighed in today 11 lbs under my weight at the Dr about two months ago - so now a svelte and compact 214. More, I *feel* "muscular." Not Schwarzenegger-muscular, but maybe closer to Linda-Hamilton-muscular (which really is more my ideal anyway), like there's less fat and more muscle on me, like I have actual *strength*. MUST join gym to maintain this through the rainy season.

Have another book to edit. 88 pages. Should get me through today better than yesterday.

Halloween tomorrow: a night that at times carries for me a boatload of "triggers." I spent a few consecutive halloweens going to the exotic-erotic ball, which had already become something less than its original concept by then, but was still pretty fun insofar as it was one night I could dress up in drag and probably not get beaten up. Even at time looked pretty good, and might even have "passed," as they say. Six or seven years ago, went with a girl on whom I had an unrequited crush... Steve, in auburn wig, black lace teddy, leather mini, lime-green fishnets over purple tights, high-heeled ankle-high boots, with assorted chains and leather hanging on here and there - Pat Benatar meets Stephanie Powers. Or something. Wobbling along with a drink in one hand and a cig in the other, flirting with everything that moved and some that didn't.

You know, no regrets, but also no need to revisit. A period in my life that I look back at now with a mixture of "awe," "aw, shucks," and "awful." Be that as it may, H'ween can STILL (obviously) be a night for drinking and all that goes with it. One of those nights where you get the day off in advance NOT really because it's your birthday but because you know you're gonna wake up late, with a need to assess the damage! How nice, to sit home with a bowl of candy, half-hoping no kids show up so we can eat it all...

It's a strange and wonderful new life. I'm slowly getting used to it.

~1561 / 37

Pretty much a five-mile sprint (well, MY version of a sprint, slightly faster and sweatier than my normal speed) Friday to get to the bus. Slight chance of rain today - any excuse to avoid the usual bike ride! WILL join the gym this week.

Pretty good weekend. No biking, but nice hike on Saturday; pure laziness on Sunday.

The Addiction That Dare Not Speak Its Name, and Life, have thrown me a variety of curveballs (AND spitballs, AND sliders, AND...), but it seems like previous battles with TATDNSIN did prepare me somewhat more for this time, and I'm also going through a whole lot of other crap that seems, in a way, to strengthen my resolve. "That which doesn't kill you blah blah blah." Every single moment is an opportunity to succeed or fail, and trite as it seems, one moment at a time wins the hour/day/week/month.

Still, I often want to just curl up in a ball and hibernate through the next three or four months.

Sleep has been weird, of course. I seem to wake each nite at 1:30 and 3:30, before waking and getting up at 4:30 -- the earliest I can stand to allow myself to get up. On weekends, I then fade again at 12 or 12:30 in the afternoon and again around 6. This will pass, but it's freakin' annoying NOW.

Work should be picking up somewhat now. Being busy will help, I think. I dunno. Sometimes I question why I am doing this. I was on a somewhat pleasant path to oblivion with nothing standing in my way and here I have to go on this self-improvement kick -- for what?

Circular logic: I do it so I can continue to do it.