James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

huffster

Well-Known Member
Its amazing how unproductive that all sounded...from a work perspective. Seems you made the best of it and did some other stuff.
 

Dominique

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@Dominique How did you like Zwifting?
is this ok to ask?
asking for a friend.

LOL. Yes, it's ok to ask. Zwifting was interesting. It's better than just doing a trainer ride. Not convinced it's better than spin class (for me). Last night, I used Norm's CX bike, which was more like a torture device ;-). It's way too stretched out for me and the seat was uncomfortable. However, he has power on this bike, and my road bike doesn't.

So we have 2 options, put the CX wheel on my road bike to see if that works, or buy me a power meter ;-) I'm sure we'll try option #1 first. The new spin bikes at the gym also have power, so I am interested in using that more to see if I can bring up my numbers. Although, it's hard to justify the expense.

So, the final answer is that I will certainly try Swift again.
 

MadisonDan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
LOL. Yes, it's ok to ask. Zwifting was interesting. It's better than just doing a trainer ride. Not convinced it's better than spin class (for me). Last night, I used Norm's CX bike, which was more like a torture device ;-). It's way too stretched out for me and the seat was uncomfortable. However, he has power on this bike, and my road bike doesn't.

So we have 2 options, put the CX wheel on my road bike to see if that works, or buy me a power meter ;-) I'm sure we'll try option #1 first. The new spin bikes at the gym also have power, so I am interested in using that more to see if I can bring up my numbers. Although, it's hard to justify the expense.

So, the final answer is that I will certainly try Swift again.
Liked for #NewPowerMeterDay
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
It is late. I am trying to squeeze as much life while I am on the ground between work trips. Thursday I came home from Seattle, as you all well know. It is now late Sunday and I am pressed for time so you will get the short version of the weekend.

Friday

Started the day with this guy, talking to each other. Also had some coffee to deliver to The Tall Guy direct from Seattle.

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Then @Dominique and I went to see this, which was really rather good. The actress was very good at her role:

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As it turns out...

1. We got pulled over for a headlight & taillight out as we pulled into the theater
2. And again on the way home
3. And almost a 3rd time getting off the exit. We tried to evade the police by going into the gas station and after circling us twice he left us and drove away

Saturday

We started the day with these jokers, @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST and @Po123.

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Pete gave us a tour of Sals, which we finally made it out to. I am sure that he invited us 6 times last year but it never worked out. It wasn't going to work this time either because I was supposed to watch Julia as her mom had to work but that fell through. So we were free! It was nice to actually ride outside! Sals is ungroomed and raw as it does not get a ton of traffic. But I enjoyed it and on a fitness level, I did notice that my HR recovered very fast on the ride. D rides a rock feature here:

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Later @MissJR invited us for some Hot Pot (hmm, she happened to be listening to the podcast, so I wonder...) with @Santapez and @UtahJoe plus @Bobzilla. Meal & company were both good.

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Sunday

@Ryan.P joined us on our trek to White Clay:

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Conditions were not perfect but they sure as shit were better than NJ. So I tried to manage a 2 hour loop which turned into 2:45. I have to say again today, my fitness is definitely in a good spot compared to where it might normally be this time of year usually. Feeling pretty good, I have to say. This is sort of what I am looking for The ability to just go out and pedal for however long and just keep going. Felt good to be out 2 days in a row. Here D exits the skills park:

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Went home and worked. With the travel last week and then the next 3 days, I'm hard pressed to keep the work stuff afloat. So I put in some hours tonight to make ends meet and it'll make my Monday way less shitty.

Tomorrow I take off for my 5th state in 5 days (Washington, NJ, PA, DE, Illinois). This week I find out what my actual role will be with the new company. I am so super excited that I may finally get promoted to working the french fry machine. Crossing fingers!!!

Note to @seanrunnette - I am stepping off the plane tomorrow and taking an Uber directly to Intelligensia. Just in case you were wondering.
 

Carson

Sport Bacon
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Lots of DWI grant overtime this weekend, hence the police presence and stops for minor violations.

It may also be that you look like a pot-smoker with that hair.

We had a DWI tonight. His headlights and taillights were working fine and he recently had a haircut. But he decided to eat his fast food in the lane of travel on a state highway. Even Officer Millennial can find you then.

0.18% B.A.C.

Maybe the Subaru dealer was right... get those lights fixed, hippie.
 
Last edited:

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Lots of DWI grant overtime this weekend, hence the police presence and stops for minor violations.

It may also be that you look like a pot-smoker with that hair.

We had a DWI tonight. His headlights and taillights were working fine and he recently had a haircut. But he decided to eat his fast food in the lane of travel on a state highway. Even Officer Millennial can find you then.

0.18% B.A.C.

Maybe the Subaru dealer was right... get those lights fixed, hippie.

this is better information on friday afternoon than monday morning.....:D
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Another day, another city. I am not going to lie, I am a bit worn out tonight. Writing this from the Uber on the way to my boss's house. You get short sentences and pictures tonight.

Woke up at 7:00 and made breakfast. Then we dropped off the car at the shop for a few things, including lights. Then I went home and rode Zwift for 2 hours:

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While on the bike the shop calls, the car is done. So I Uber over, drive back, then get ready to go to the airport, via Uber again. This is me packing for a 3 day trip:

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The Uber driver sucked but we did not die. Got to the airport and had an amazing, or not so amazing, salad for lunch:

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Plane arrived late, so we left late. Eventually it showed up and I managed an aisle seat in the last row. Then a massive woman squeezed into the middle seat and made me feel like a sardine.

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We made it. I read the whole time. It was actually fairly relaxing to not work on the flight. I near the end of the Potter series.

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I went to a Ramen place that was highly recommended but it was a 60-90 minute wait. F that. Around the corner was The Girl & the Goat, which is also recommended. FIrst was duck:

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Then chickpea fritters:

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Then goat:

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Holy crap was good. @fidodie suggested the Purple Pig on my Facebook pics but I have been there twice before and wanted to try something new.

Then I went to get us coffee:

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Now I am going to hang out with the boss for like 8 minutes before I fall asleep on whatever piece of furniture he gives me for the next few days.

I hope he has something for dessert. I could use some dessert.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Is the river still green from the weekend?
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
Westin Chicago River and Michigan Ave location have the Peleton bike in their training rooms.

For future considerations
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I left it out of the narrative for the most part yesterday, but overall the day was one of those days where nothing went precisely right. I figured there was no reason to belabor it because in the grand scheme of things, nothing was especially bad. And generally, I think it's best to make the most of what any given day brings you. having said that, I would be lying if I didn't admit that the imminent snow wasn't a presence in my mind yesterday. I wasn't sure what to make of this snow coming to NJ. Flight was scheduled to leave Wednesday at 6:25 from Midway and land 9:25 in Newark. Ok...I'll sleep on it.

Did a little work with my boss last night but I was tired so went to bed around midnight, CST. Woke up and made myself some coffee. After checking the website, Southwest was basically warning that if you had a flight to any of the 3 NYC airports tomorrow, then well...good luck with that. I drank coffee and checked work mail while my boss overslept by almost an hour.

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I think it is only fair to present the good as well as the bad on these trips. So today, I give you the opposite of yesterday's culinary windfall. Here is this morning's breakfast, straight from Chik-Fil-A:

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Thankfully Kai stole all my hash browns so it was only partially as bad it was supposed to be. After breakfast I cancelled the Wednesday flight and booked the 10pm out of Midway. Scheduled landing time was 1:00am EST but it would get me ahead of the storm and home before I got whited out into Thursday.

30 minutes later that flight was cancelled too.

So I rescheduled for the 6:25 today, and gave up dinner with the crew. As it turns out the guy who was supposed to come in from Austin for 2 days stayed 3 hours, so I really didn't need to be here for 2 days. So no big deal in the end. Unfortunately I did not get to spend a whole lot of time with the guys out here. I also may be back out here next week for a one-day trip when the VP or the Health Care "vertical" comes out for the day. We'll see.

Lunch was a steak sandwich. This was actually good. The fries were worse than they look. And they don't look very good.

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Took off for the airport at 3:30 and with traffic and a long ass TSA line it took a while to get through to the gate but I made it with enough time to spare. I imagine everyone going east is trying to do so today. So this place was jam-packed at 5:30 as these were the last NYC flights heading out of Chicago for the day. I met a guy while boarding that did the exact same thing I did: rebooked for 10:00 then rebooked for this flight when it was cancelled immediately after.

I skipped dessert yesterday and could not stand for that again today, so I bought this as the airport:

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Flight was absolutely flawless. Again I read, and as I sit here have only about 25 pages left in the series. It has been good and I am now ready for Universal's Harry Potter World.

So what about work? I went into this day with cautious optimism. I leave Chicago and come back home with total uncertainty. They have told us point-blank we absolutely will not be losing our jobs. Given what I have seen today, in combination with having gone through other buy-outs like this, I tend to believe him. But I do not have as much optimism for our future. I feel that we may be absorbed into the "pod" system that they have and the free reign to actually make a difference may be throttled with this new setup. I'll reserve judgement for next week when we learn more but I can say that nothing was really learned today and I come away from this meeting a little disappointed.

Last week when I went to Seattle I mentioned that I was able to button my work slacks for the first time in a while. I was able to button them, put on my belt, then I would unbutton them because they were just a hair too tight. Today I was able to go through the day with them buttoned. I know it's just a week but the hair that was too-tight has fallen out.

Came home to dinner, the best meal of the day. Best meal because it tasted the best and was eaten at home. Double win, and thanks to my sweetheart @Dominique for making me dinner.

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The facts of life, the facts of life.

Today continues my lack of things going precisely right. After my ride today I found that my throat was a little sore. I may be getting sick. I am definitely getting sick of this weather. I think everyone is feeling a little sapped from this crap. Yeah yeah lemons lemonade, but sometimes you need to say F this. So F this. I am ready for spring.

I finished Potter last night. I started To Kill a Mockingbird - One of the classics I had never read. I am pretty sure the Dumbledore character was originally created by Harper Lee, no? He was just disguised as Boo Radley at the time.

I have nothing especially productive to say on this day. So I will leave you with this childhood memory:

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rottin'

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The facts of life, the facts of life.

Today continues my lack of things going precisely right. After my ride today I found that my throat was a little sore. I may be getting sick. I am definitely getting sick of this weather. I think everyone is feeling a little sapped from this crap. Yeah yeah lemons lemonade, but sometimes you need to say F this. So F this. I am ready for spring.

I finished Potter last night. I started To Kill a Mockingbird - One of the classics I had never read. I am pretty sure the Dumbledore character was originally created by Harper Lee, no? He was just disguised as Boo Radley at the time.

I have nothing especially productive to say on this day. So I will leave you with this childhood memory:

fol-cast-tease-today-160411_44890f6a512a3596492f90100b3d3fdf.today-inline-large.jpg

I connect with this image, as I had a crush on Jo. Interestingly I happened to marry the "tough" girl in real life...too
 

jnos

Well-Known Member
But he decided to eat his fast food in the lane of travel on a state highway. Even Officer Millennial can find you then.
Wait. This is illegal? Serious question, is it legal if I keep one hand on the wheel? Also, are we talking burger and fries or chinese food with fork/chopsticks? Asking for a "friend" who has been known to eat burgers and/or fries while driving.
 
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