1327.1 / 13.5 / na

So, 115 miles on the week. I sure didn't get much work done.

1321.5 / 13 / ??

At precisely 1311.7, there on the wire beside Blank Road was a red-shouldered hawk, head feathers all fluffed up as if to say, "you can have a big head - you rode 100 miles this week!"

Mapped (links to large JPG) and profiled (links to small GIF) my new standard route this morning. The elevation seems less than I expected, but 460 feet is nothing to sneeze at, I suppose.

Right wrist a little sore - I try to remember not to rest my weight on the handlebars too much, but tend to do so anyway - at any rate, I overrode my goal this week by 10%, so likely won't be doing the full ride home tonight (and will end up with 115 miles from four days' riding).

It feels good, and the ride was relatively easy to do today. Though I took my time about it.

Early reports of 25-pound weight loss *might've* been exaggerated (but maybe not) - I actually feel lighter, even though I don't perceive any difference in the way I look - still have disgusting, too-large belly, and will need to do something other than biking to really have any effect on THAT.

T is also riding to work. Even though it's "only" a two-mile round trip, it *is* consistent exercise, and I applaud you, T, my faithful and only reader... <g>

Thus we leave road rash for this week (maybe I'll post that last five miles tonite, but...)

1305.1 / 12.5 / 85 mins.

Same route as the morning, and surprise! same time. Will pass 100 miles at about 1311.7, if I remember correctly - maybe I will treat myself to a bus ride home tomorrow.

Really kinda forced myself to make the whole trip this evening, in spite of significant weariness and possible rain, so that it wouldn't be a stretch to make 100 tomorrow. 100 miles is a *fucking* long ride on a bicycle, really, and it'll probably be a while before I attempt it in a 5-day week again.

Two different hawks, both red-tails, that I've seen now a few days running in the same places. They seem to be nonplussed by this wheeled being that passes beneath their wires/phone poles... Along the ride, cattle, sheep, llamas, and on yesterday's side-trip, emus... Not to mention the odd "sleeping" skunk/possum/raccoon in the road...

1288.7 / 12 days / 85 mins.

Slightly different route (actually, my standard homeward route, backwards), eliminates a couple of miles of hwy 116, at the cost of an additional hill or two.

Surprised that this was only 16.3 miles, actually, since the Hessel Road part I did this morning more or less "squares" the diagonal of 116... maybe I didn't get last night's mileage correct.

At any rate, have now done about 78 miles from Monday thru today. Probably will not do the whole ride home tonite, 5 miles to the bus stop is plenty'nuff.

Late yesterday, some wally scheduled a 9:15am meeting for today, so I sat theu an hour-long meeting with sweat cooling on me, and am just now getting around to getting ready to take a shower. There have been days when I was going to lunch by now...

1272.4 / 11.5 days / didn't time it.

It's windy even at 2 in the afternoon - maybe it's alway windy westbound.

As the mileage would indicate, I took another "shortcut" today, on a street that didn't have a "Not a Through Street" sign but deadended anyway. Added almost 3 miles to the trip home. But I wasn't in a big hurry, and now I know about Volkaart Road, so no big deal. Remembered that we pay monthly rent to live here; nothing going on at work anyway, so opted to get home and deal with the bank and realtor.

After today's 35 miles, no worries about hitting 100 by end of day Friday...

1253.9 / 11 days / 76 minutes garage to desk (let's start tracking this, too)

Foggy and misty. Glasses get all sparkly and pretty soon you can't see the road two feet ahead. Have to stop, try to wipe off glasses, proceed. On a longish downhill, you don't want to stop, so you push it a bit... finally, just pushed the glasses down on my nose so I could see with naked eyeballs.

Actually feels LESS dangerous, in the fog, than in the dark or daylight.

$80 later, bike is tuned up, with new tube and a new taillight that's significantly brighter than the old one. And I still have the old one - it fell off in the garage, and I though it had fallen off while the bike was on the rack on the car yesterday... So now we have an extra taillight, and $20 less than we would've had if we'd known the old taillight was still around...

Again had the pleasure of passing another cyclist - I'm NOT the slowest one in the world! I was stopped at the light at Mecham/Stony Point, he rode through just as the light changed. I stayed back for a while, thinking he was going to get up to speed and leave me behind, but he seemed to reach cruising speed while I was still only in 3-5 or so.

By the way, I never use the #1 front gear anymore, and actually only get out of #3 two or three times during the ride. The lowest I go is maybe 2-2, on the biggest hill (Blank road).

Weird how some times I feel quite healthy and "up," and others not - no decipherable reason. Even though it was less painful than it's been in a long time, starting out on the bike this morning, I feel really blah. Whereas on Monday, I was on top of the world, though it WAS quite painful pedalling those first few miles (not to mention the Blank Road hill). I don't know what governs this; wish I did so I could stay home in bed when it's not working to my advantage...

Have ridden 42 miles this week, including Monday's riding and walking - if I ride all the way home today, easily on track for 100 miles (barring further pneumatic "incidents").

"Zoolander" (2001) at the theatre last night. Good clean sillly stupid fun, and I think we needed a laugh like that. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson really pretty funny as rival male models, and Milla Jovovich surprisingly not eastern-european-seeming as seemingly-American-imitating-eastern-european villainess Katinka. Stiller always cracks me up; he has absolutely the perfect mug for the kind of sad-sack comedy he does. As one Alternetter says, could be the next Austin Powers (though not as many catch-phrases; more like "catch-looks").

Have no idea what I'm doing here all day, but brought "Have a Nice Decade: the 70s Pop Culture box," which arrived in the mail yesterday. So, can listen to (some of) that...

1237.3, and 10 days.

Just when you start getting going...

Had thought to take a slightly-longer route, and sure enough, five miles out of town yesterday on Pepper Road, flat fucking tire. I count the four miles of walking the bike as legitimate mileage towards my vague, yet ever-nearer cycling goals. Will attempt today to get the tire fixed and get a tune-up, such that I can ride tomorrow, thursday, and friday. I need, at the least, a tire repair kit; at best, puncture-proof tires -- in fact, I'm just gonna go ahead and look into the GreenTyres. I have already spent, in a little over a year, almost the price of those tires in fixing and/or trying to avoid flats on this bike. The damned star-thistles are exverywhere, and when it's not those it's some stupid little nail or something. Without the liner, and the green goo, I'd probably be averaging one flat per month. Even with these preventive measures, it's about one every three months. One saving grace w/this bike, with the double-sidewall tires I can at least coast the downhills with a flat, keeping my weight as much as possible on the good tire, without damaging the tube (I think). Yeah, gonna get the greentyres.

Weird bigger-than-usual craving when I got in the car this morning - can expect to have these from time to time for the next 20 years, probably - you just hang on tight and it passes.

Stupid drivers who stay in the left lane through Sebastopol until the last minute, then cut in rudely when the lane ends - they KNOW the lane's gonna end; they get all of two or three vehicles ahead, and are still ultimately stuck behind SOMEone on the slow-moving 116, and so they end up with the people they cut off, still fuming, right behind them for ten miles. You risked an accident, possible injury, for this? You morons! Makes me grit my teeth, and I try to mellow out and forget about it, but there they are in front of me for ten miles, and when we get to the legitimate passing lane, there they are in the left lane passing oh so slowly... I must try to avoid this passive-aggressive behavior, though.

Overall, feel good. I feel like I AM losing weight, ounce by ounce, slow but sure, and in a healthy,. positive, way. Still don't know what I'll do when the rainy season starts, but will think of something.

1227.2, and 9 days.

Nothing major, and the ride is pretty routine now, even after a weekend of mostly inactivity. Snake parts everywhere. Red Tail on a telepost along Roblar didn't bother to move as I went by.

We did get about 5.5 miles in at the Coast Trail on Saturday. Last week's hike, as it turns out, was much longer and with much more total altitude gain/loss (see elevation profile at bottom) than originally estimated.

Warm this weekend and this morning. I didn't get started till well after sunrise - almost 8:00, actually - is way too easy to dawdle at the computer in the morning (and to be fair, I did update some of my Born Today index pages - timelines and alphas.

I'm thinking maybe I'll try to ride every day this week and get an honest 100 miles, but we'll see as the week wears on, eh? Today, might make the entire ride home instead of "wimping out" at the five-mile bus stop point. It's nice to get a lot of miles on Monday, and if I slack off later in the week I don't feel so bad. I'm SO sick of being like 25-30 lbs. overweight; I don't like myself this way, and it's something I think I can change with relative ease (non-drinking, actually, will probably take care of most of it), if I just apply myself to this regular exercise. Gotta come up with something, though, for the rain...

The addiction-which-dare-not-mention-its-name has not reared its ugly head *quite* as much over the weekend as during last week. I don't feel like the various bandaids are contributing that much (not as much as I've felt they contributed in past attempts [which didn't stick anyway...]), but I also feel it doesn't matter -- breaking down, giving in, fucking up, are simply not options this time. It feels SO good to be free of it, even partially free as we are now. This will work, and we will be clear of this hurdle for good. Still, have been grouchy as hell, and could literally end up killing someone if allowed to drive much.

Okay then; to the shower!

1200.0 precisely, and 6 days.

Am proud of the amount of riding I've done in the past few weeks - two hundred miles, most of it in the two weeks since 9/17. If I can keep this up, I may actually lose weight in the coming months. Hope the rainy season doesn't start too soon.

Not much of a ride today really, but had to take the car in for what never seems allowed to be simple & cheap. Tie-rod ends, allegedly, are worn down, and unfixable via lube = $175 (and wouldn't you know, Dave has just gotten a fresh supply of tie-rod ends! I think this is my last visit to Dave's - I always get the feeling they're laughing with glee as soon as I leave). And I still will need to get the front end aligned after that.

To jam or not to jam tonite? Since my music partner doesn't smoke or drink, it's probably okay. But since I had another weird semi-sleep last night, I probably won't be exactly rarin' to rock'n'roll.

Weird, conversations again with old "classmates." Some I look forward to, and hope to keep running; others I can take or leave - it's just as good to do the email equivalent of nodding as you pass, just acknowledging remembrance.

But contacting the Tholens - that's pretty special. Haven't seen any one of them for 30 years - and have looked. Jennifer is the only one I've "spoken" to so far, though she is trying to contact others. These people were my local "crowd" in formative years - age 6-13. Though formative, that's only 1/7th of my life to date, and it's a very old 7th. And trying to address Jenny in any meaningful fashion, having been absent from each other's lives for 30 years, me basically writing to the 12-yr-old I last saw (and reverting somewhat to the 13-yr-old I was when I last saw her) but knowing she has had an entire life - all the mistakes and correct moves one makes in that time: being sent to boarding school, three kids, husband died three years ago, having moved up & down the eastern seaboard, finding her natural parents, losing her adoptive parents, now selling real estate in MD... Trying to reconcile these two poles of *her* life to date. And I really want a friendship there, opportunity to give/receive something of value - this is the closest I'll get to any meaningful contact with my "roots" - so I'm walking a tightrope in some ways, making a new friend out of an old friend. She sent a picture yesterday - I hadn't asked for one - a great help in bringing it all into the present. Her middle daughter looks about like the Jenny I picture - Jenny herself looks completely different. Of course, I have web pages with a jillion pictures from all angles, of me, my wife, my cat, my life. She only logs on at work, so can't write much, so I tend to feel like I'm *pushing* to make things happen, and perhaps overwhelming her, because of course I can sit for hours writing (even at work, like now!), and I write "gushingly," almost at the speed of talking, where she isn't necessarily that kind of writer and may be nonplussed by this whole thing once the initial glow of remembrance wears. And maybe that's as it should be with these things, I don't know. (I guess this all begs the question; this *isn't* a gender thing, and there was never any sexual/relationship-type thing with Jenny; she was younger and sister-like through those years. I was taken in by this family, after schooldays, when nobody was home at my house till 5 or 6.)

I realize that I regret not having stayed in touch with Jimmy AND Jenny - and I realize I'll be going thru much the same stuff with Jim if and when I hear from him. Wonder if he still eats those awful "peanutbutter tunafish catsup and mayonnaise" sandwiches he used to like, now that he makes $100k/yr loaning money to corporations.

I suppose the glaze is already somewhat off the doughnut. I was really preoccupied with "what do I expect from this/what do they expect?" earlier. Now it's sort of settled and I'm accepting what happens.

I have always looked for them over the past 30 years, but had never thought much about what we'd have to say to each other when I found them!

Maybe THIS will cure me of that delving-into-the-past -- I can't think of anyone farther back.

BTW: MUCH more offensive to me than Maher - who does not pretend to be serious - is the "Buddy Lee" commercial on TV showing the stupid little mascot-doll with a bandage on its arm as if it has given blood. This strikes me as wildly inappropriate for a company attempting to make money from their television advertising.

Maher's individual comments did not carry the kind of crassly comercial subtext that a TV ad carries by its very nature.

1190.2 and 4 days.

Tried a different route this morning, actually hitting part of my old 3.5-mile route. Instead of going thru Cotati on Old Redwood Hwy, went down Stony Point to Jewett, over Center Road, to Rainsville and back to Stony Point. (That south end of Stony Point has a lot of traffic and almost no shoulder, so I avoid it.)

Sunny morning. I should leave earlier to avoid direct sun in my face (and in the faces of drivers who don't always notice they're sharing the road with me), but it's nice to have that crisp and clear weather. Still sweating like a pig when I finish my ride to work or home (or even the five miles to the bus stop) - thus Toby 's comments, which aren't at all meant to be mean, but "Hello, sweaty stinky old man" is NOT what I want to hear -- and though I sweat a lot, at this point there's not a lot of impurity in it, and honestly, I don't think I stink, not even of "sweat." When I put the shirt back on in the afternoon, it's a little stiff from salt but doesn't smell of anything. Doesn't bug me THAT much, but given my current state, he could get his head ripped off one day.

Unable to sleep normal hours lately - spending time awake from 11:30 or 12:00 to 2:00 or so, updating "Born Today" pages (never can resist a chance to plug it!), and then falling asleep on the futon with the TV on. Oh well; whatever it takes to get through the next few weeks/months/years...

Need to have discipline in my life; like to structure my days. Trying to ride the bike Mon/Wed/Fri is part of that, as it is part of trying to improve lung power, get in shape, maintain a sane weight, save wear&tear on the car, save gas, and expend personal energy.

Both local mom'n'pops have "failed" me in terms of daily latte service. Now I go to Starbuck's, and though almost everything about them annoys me, they can reliably make the same latte every time - even at 5am, if I should ever get in that early - without blasting their stupid family-values opinions at me.

Speaking of which, How 'bout the backlash to Bill Maher's comments! People are getting WAY too sensitive behind this thing. Don't people understand (rhetorical question) that the function of a good, not to say GREAT, comic - as of any good entertainer (and this includes "infotainers" like columnists and talking heads) - is to push the envelope, to push our buttons and see which produce a ringing sound? Especially a comic whose TV show is called "Politically Incorrect"!! Maher has always pushed those buttons. People desperately need to get a sense of humor. And a sense of perspective. Truth be told, he's right, to some extent: it does take a certain courage to fly an airliner directly into a building. These people were NOT cowards in that sense - they were highly-committed individuals, believers in their religion. (So sue me!) However, there are cowards behind them.

~1173.0.

Made it almost to the bus stop after work before plit. plit. plit, then plitplitplitplit and I'm getting soaked. Major thunder and lightning off to the west - cool when you don't get to see it much (and when there's like 20, 30 seconds between lightning and thunder so you know it's pretty far away).

Called T from the payphone with genuine downpour soaking everything in my wallet while I located her card.

Then, power goes out at the gas station, and for the traffic lights nearby, so everything gets really messy.

Still, got my 21 bike miles yesterday.

Raging raw nerves. Took a longish walk around the block, which helped - actually helped more than M&Ms or tic-tacs. Onward!

Supposed to be good weather for the rest of the week. Hope so; hope to get another 50 miles by friday evening!

1168.6.

Actually starting to feel the benefit (after feeling the detriment Saturday) of all this exercise, and not only got to work a *teeny* bit quicker, but was able to keep up a relatively strong pace through the entire 16 miles (except for the major hills) this morning. Also "sprinted" (for me anything over 20mph) the last mile or so to work. Toby, seeing me newly-arrived, said I looked "ruined." If I could somehow get it down to an hour - e.g. averaging 16mph - that would be pretty cool. As it is, I average between 11 and 12 mph, I guess...

Not much new seen on today's ride, but for dead deer and garbage bag along the shoulder of 116 that I saw from the car yesterday so was already watching to avoid. But the ride definitely felt more doable than it has (and more so than I had been imagining during my bike hiatus).

Saturday, 10-mile hike seemed to take out my right leg, but it was okay sunday and today - just a little muscle soreness (which one can generally expect after a 10-mile hike that includes at least 1000 ft of altitude changes, if one hasn't been doing such hikes regularly). Really, Lake Ranch and Ridge trails are very nice, and I'll do 'em again -- slower -- someday.

Not gonna talk right now about the item that is newly missing from my life (though just noticed I mentioned it earlier anyway, so...). Maybe later. Feeling it quite acutely, but will prevail this time, dammit. Underestimated, somewhat, the amount of habituality I've developed at work over a year and a half...

The bus-in-the-afternoon plan seems to work pretty well, though I'm still not sure what happens if the bus arrives with two bikes already on it. The stop is located such that I'm looking at 15 more miles if the bus is full. Well, there are always pay phones nearby, and hell, if I keep up the pace I've done the past two weeks, another 15 won't be a big deal.

1146.9!!

Riding the 16 miles to work (and 16 back) was starting to seem impossible. A few things made me start again:
- being a total wimp on a couple of recent hikes.
- planning to quit smoking.
- dependency on oil from the middle east.

So, while it took less than a year to get to 1000 miles, it took another four months to get the next hundred (and only two days' riding to get fifty more).

Sunday, took the bike up to Armstrong Woods, rode all the rideable roads, and then attempted the road up to Bullfrog Pond. This is an extremely steep, winding road. I made it about a mile (and about 600 ft elevation, I think) before turning around.

Monday, I rode to work and back, getting slightly lost on the way back, for a total of 34 miles. Decided I will ride all the way IN to work in the morning when it's not windy, and do the partial-bus ride home in the afternoon when it's windy, for around 22 miles - a respectable distance to ride every couple of days or so, hopefully enough to get and keep me in a little better shape. The wind is SO friggin annoying! Kills any momentum I get -- and 225-lb pack-a-day me, I need all the momentum I can get!

This morning, started out in the dark at 6am, and paid and paid for the 9.1 beers I drank last night while pedalling the 16.1 miles to work. But actually made it in what I think is record time - just a little over an hour. Actually haven't had a real strong urge to drink, but have sorta felt I "should" since I won't be drinking for awhile after tomorrow night. Stupid? Perhaps, but I only get two more days' worth of stupid.

Light mist dots my glasses, forcing periodic stops to wipe lenses... It's actually more likely cars will see me when it's dark, I think, with my blinking taillight more contrasting against darkness than against light... Red-shouldered hawk crossed my path (about twenty feet in front of me) on Old Redwood, swooping up onto the top of a phone pole with some little morsel I couldn't quite make out - mouse or lizard, likely. A treat.

DSL connection - finally - appears to be more or less permanent on my home machine. Was able to surf and email and FTP to heart's content last night.

The Caveman's Valentine (2001): Stunning visuals and a great performance by Samuel L. Jackson manage to override a weak plot.

There are multiple levels in human interaction:
- There's the literal face value of words that one communicates.
- There are cues such as body language.
- There is a near-psychic undercurrent that comes between the lines.
- There is an undercurrrent that you imagine, and you know you're imagining it.
- There are levels that you imagine, and you think it's real.

People who can communicate effectively on all of the first three levels tend to do very well in life, and people who don't, don't.

"Crazies" like Jackson's character in this movie may deal ONLY on the third level and up, and are thus unable to cope successfully in communication with others. Those who are grounded in the "reality" of the first and second levels are only getting part of the story. You know, when someone says something to you that's completely innocuous, but you feel a completely different undercurrent? I often feel that I'm missing half of what's being communicated in certain interactions, because I get the first-level stuff, and some of the second and third levels, but fail to interpret and respond to it quickly enough to communicate effectively there.

It seems like these levels of communication almost contain a definition of the range between "sanity" and "insanity."

Discuss amongst yourselves...

No miles, but another five getting home last week...

Monkey Bone (2001): An entertaining movie, even though the actor-who-acts-like-he's-acting stars. Great visual effects, a lot of fun action, and here and there an amusing Hollywood self-referential gag. Wait for Chris Kattan's turn as Fraser returning to life in the body of a dead olympic athlete chased by doctors who want to harvest his organs. Meanwhile, Bridget Fonda is typecast as a sleep-researcher/eminently-forgettable weepy girlfriend, schlepping through another one.

12-hour day yesterday, expecting much of the same all week. Kinda fun, in a masochistic way.

1068.1.

Managed to make myself bike-and-bus it today, after more than a month off from biking. It's a short ride, but it's a ride. I think my rear tire is flat--at least it's low, but with the double-wall tire, it's barely noticeable. There are a couple of route options besides Sonoma State, in getting to a bus stop. I can ride up Stony Point and over on 116 to Redwood Way, which actually seems maybe the best option. Might try it tomorrow or Friday (and time the ride to work from there so I know when to leave in the afternoon).

Still holding a job, for now.

Lots of movies.

Drinking has sorta seeped back into our lives, especially around the July 4 stuff. I woke Sunday after a many-beers Saturday, thinking, "I haven't felt THIS bad since..."

Uh, that would be "Wednesday."

Oh well. Restarting the regular bike rides will help my mood a lot, I think. I've really missed it, and feeling my slim physique going horribly flabby inch by inch, pound by pound... I'm probably more tan this year than I've ever been (except maybe summers with Grandma by the lake age 10 or so). So at least I *look* like I get out a lot.

Panic (2000): This is almost exactly the point where Dark Humor turns to simply Dark.

Dude, Where's My Car (2000): Dude, where's my audience? Stupid, stupid, stupid. It had some funny moments, but christ, it was really stupid. I know, this was not a film that was gonna premiere at Cannes or anything - it's geared for adolescents, but even for a ten-year-old (who would theoretically be too young for this PG-13 movie), this one would be hard to watch. Did I mention how stupid it was?

I still have a job for now, and probably at least for another month - if this product is successful, I might even last through the release and for an indefinite amount of time afterward, but the worrying is almost worse than unemployment. More farewell emails from Marketing people yesterday. It's very difficult to manage any kind of enthusiasm for productivity, but as usual in a situation like this, one must try to maintain pride in one's work even while the walls aare crumbling around one.

Have suspected for some time that this would happen, but had placed it a few months further down the road.

The "Anthracite" FIMO is very cool. Takes quite a bit of working (and hand-warmth, I think) to get it non-crumbly, but the black with silver glitter makes everything you do look good.

State and Main (2000) movie within a movie... ensemble cast... morality play... Kinda fun.

My company has laid off a large number of people, and I am pretty much convinced that this entire 'satellite' office will eventually be discontinued. Though the original 10+-year-old company here produced the only products that are providing revenue for the two-year-old parent company, and everyone I've dealt with (and many with whom others here have dealt) has betrayed a certain predictable amateurism, by that very token, they won't be smart and keep the smart people. Logically, I might have several months before I get laid off. But logic hasn't been a highlight of the emanations from the parent office. I fully expect to be laid off any day now, and it's really tough to do anything productive under that expectation. Truth be told, if the job market was the same as LAST June, I may have already been outta here. Just searched techs.com for the 707 area code and "writer" in the description, and no matches are found.

Within my own department, this office has been more productive, more reasonable in disputes, more efficient, and more innovative than our counterparts in the other city. This is true also of the group in the third city -- all of whom were laid off last week. We've done a certain number of stupid things just to allow the parent group to contribute.

Be that as it may, I have created some nice things with FIMO clay this week at my desk. :-)

We have a post-mortem meeting now to discuss what could be improved and what should be repeated "next time." The irony in this is not lost on me.

Haven't been here in a while!

"Thank you for your patience," said the Frod representative after I blew up (well, more than I usually blow up - I got really sarcastic) about waiting eight weeks for their "silent rebate" check and finding it hadn't even been started because they got *copies* not originals, of the receipt for repairs, and didn't bother to let me know.

This came on the amazingly frustrating coattails of dealings with Pacific Bell and SBC for DSL service at home, which ultimately ended with me cancelling the order and thus remaining with no internet connection. And dealing with the other office at work again (and continuously) and their whimsical changes to the template that's been out there for review for more than three months.

The thing is, it wasn't my patience that got things done. I've always been patient, and crap like this NEVER gets done.

Haven't ridden the bike to work in almost a month. To be fair, there's been a lot going on - the reception went very well, all family members got in and out okay, and the County put on its best for that weekend for visiting Ohioans, Washingtonians, Coloradans, etc. 50-hour work-week last week.

Recently, a gradual lapse back into weekend drinking, and the first weeknight drinking since before xmas. Mixed feelings. I really like it while it's happening; afterward not so great. But it DOES add to music appreciation, to the point where, when I don't drink, I rarely listen to any of the 1200+ CDs in the house, and I'm kind of at a loss for anything to do. And drinking on a Friday night seems to provide enough recuperation time before work Sunday or Monday.

"Space Cowboys" and "Cast Away" last night. Not much to say about either, but neither was as bad as I'd expected/been led to believe. Figure "Cowboys" as a vanity romp for Clint Eastwood - he gets to play with NASA toys, maybe, in the course of presenting a forgettable but somewhat entertaining story. "Cast Away," similarly, gives Tom Hanks a vanity part in a film we can presume is underwritten by FedEx, where his most prominent co-star is a volleyball - pretty easy to look good with THAT kind of competition! Seriously, while not entirely believable, it kept me awake, and I generally liked the way things developed - it could have taken certain predictable "uplifting" turns and didn't. It made me think how I would fare, physically and mentally, if stranded on a tiny deserted island. Guess that's worth something.