The.
The Chinese do not have articles. They Do not say "the Chinese" but instead say Chinese person. Or really China person. Zhong guo ren. Breaking that down, it actually translates like this: Middle country person. Zhong means middle, which is from way-forever back when, at the point they named the country. Of course it makes sense that it was "middle country" because you, the royal YOU, as the subject, are the middle of everything. So China literally translates to Middle Country: Zhong Guo. Ren means person. Chinese person. There is no article. No a/an/the in this language.
I am not exactly sure how you would translate the title of this post into Chinese. The. I title it as such, because the day went as a series of "the" elements. You will see what I mean below. I take notes through the day. I'm a notebook person. So today, the notes started with The this and The that, and it went from there. The The. Not sure how that band name would have translated into Chinese either.
And on to my day. One
The at a time.
The rain. Man oh man, it was just miserable last night. I woke up several times in the middle of the night and it was dropping cats & dogs on the roof. I never had any real doubt that skipping today was the right call. But this would have sealed that decision if I had been harboring any reservations.
The scale. I woke up today feeling thinner than normal so I decided that I would wake up and weigh myself. I thought long and hard about this, because the last time I felt this way, I was disappointed in what it showed me. After going to the bathroom I decided to skip it. I feel better, and if it says I was 1 pound more than last time, what good would that do me? This is something that people who do not suffer from this shitty predilection to pack on pounds do not understand. After slaughtering myself for 15 weeks on the bike, I'm just afraid to get on it and have it say something god-awful, like 205.
The ride. I was up at 5:20 and on the bike before 6:00. After yesterday's race, today was just more pounding out of miles. I did 2:06 on the bike and while I was not paying much attention, I looked up and saw a big arrow on the screen that shows it's someone you follow. Sped up and saw
@taylor185 in front of me and gave him kudos but wasn't going as fast as he was on the day, so I left him go and got back to my movie. Today's ride was just filling up the silo with corn. My analogy machine is broken.
The movie. Watched
Dunkirk. The only reason I know what it Dunkirk is is (is is, I hate this grammatical construct even if it is acceptable by Merriam Webster) because I watched
The Darkest Hour. It was a good movie, not great. It's a good trainer movie as you can let it roll as it rolls while you flip your attention back & forth as needed. Would recommend it.
The Kingdom Trail email. The trails are closed for mountain bikes as of sundown yesterday. It's sad when this day rolls around every year. Not that it's something I
would do, but I
could do it if I wanted to. I could just wake up one day and decide to drive to KT, ride for 4 hours, then drive home. Ok, it's a crazy day, but it's possible. Well, it was. Now it is not until next year. I look forward to the email reopening the trails.
The soccer. I took Simon to soccer which allowed D to go to the gym this morning. He had 2 games, first was a tie, second they won. We saw a really pretty red-orange tree on the way there, and talked about it the whole way from the tree to the field. As a side note, the total drive from our house to the field is about 1.1 miles. Maybe less. But I mean it was still a really pretty tree. On a related topic, I suggested to
@pooriggy that he should buy some candles to ward off the imminent winter doldrums. Oh, and enjoy the trees.
The Chinese school. Dropped Julia off for 12:30 and picked her up at 2:30. Being the first Saturday of the month, the good vendor was there. Every week they rotate and today is the scallion pancake, dumpling, soup dumplings, wonton, and pork bun vendor. I spent $54 there today. This is the shit. I will tage
@qclabrat just for this paragraph alone. First Saturday of the month, WRHS, 12:30-2:30. Best to go at 2:30. No lines and they bring so much stuff they have never come close to running out.
The editing. Finished up chapter 31 today. This was more well-written then some other ones. This makes me remember how some days were good, and others not so good. I think if (when) I do this again, I need to take more time writing the first pass. This editing process is too arduous. And frankly, it's nerve-wracking because I feel like I am constantly remembering possible contradictions that I need to go revisit to make sure I'm being consistent.
The laser show. Went to see a laser show at the RVCC planetarium. It's basically a light show on the round screen to music. We discussed taking them to see the Beatles or Pink Floyd show. But went with this general one instead. I think the kids liked it enough.
The movie. Second movie of the day. Watched Galaxy Quest with the family. Everyone really enjoyed it. This has been a double win thanks to
@seanrunnette.
The writing. Here we are!
The plan for tomorrow. Ride in the morning, where I am hoping to get 2:25 to hit 14 hours on the week. After that D & Zac are going to the NICA ride and I will stay here with Simon and Julia and probably edit 32, maybe even 33? The chapters get a little shorter from here on out which may be easier or it may make them harder as they ended up thinner and may need a little bolstering. I think 1 of the last 8 in particular is ripe for a possible total rewrite. Also plan on going to the YMCA to swim, as noted yesterday. I may start my work week tomorrow night so I can pre-load as much as possible. I'm not looking forward to the next 7 work days.
The end. Porky Pig goes here.