James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
Today
...I said goodbye to D, Simon, and Bear for what is possibly the rest of the month. To be clear, they are gone to Canada until August. If the border opens for vaccinated people then I will go up with (at least) Zac next weekend. But in reading the news it looks less and less likely every day. I know my wife is Canadian and all. But for a super liberal country and prime minister, Trudeau has a pretty big stick up his ass right now. Anyway, it is what it is and circumstances are what they are. There's nothing we can do but wait it out.
D and I went on what is probably our last ride together this month, caveat explained above. We got up (too) early and hit the road for an early hour before my 8:30 call. We have ridden all 15 days together, 16 rides in total. I did slightly more 1 day at KT and she did slightly more later in the same day on ride #2. But for the most part we have ridden all 30+ hours together in July, which is more than most people can say they rode with their spouse ever. It's been a nice first half.
Jim has come through and fixed the Pivot, so it will be ready for the weekend. This is in the Borat-Much-Excite category.
After everyone was gone I went for a second road ride because I am going to try to just pound out hours this month. My goal is at least 62 hours for an average of 2/day. Sitting at 32 hours in 15 days right now so we're in good shape. In all I did 2:40 today and 44.5 miles. Pretty good for a Thursday.
Julia is flying home from Vegas right now and will end up here later. Zac is out with his friends at some carnival in Berkeley Heights. I will pick them both up later tonight.
In a little bit I will be jumping on the monthly JORBA call. As I have made it a practice to try to not talk about the past or future in the "today" series, I won't be able to discuss it here. But we should have a newsletter coming out soon. And the survey results are on the agenda for sure. Oh and the festival but I am pushing for JORBA members-only admission because attendance will likely need to be limited.
...I said goodbye to D, Simon, and Bear for what is possibly the rest of the month. To be clear, they are gone to Canada until August. If the border opens for vaccinated people then I will go up with (at least) Zac next weekend. But in reading the news it looks less and less likely every day. I know my wife is Canadian and all. But for a super liberal country and prime minister, Trudeau has a pretty big stick up his ass right now. Anyway, it is what it is and circumstances are what they are. There's nothing we can do but wait it out.
D and I went on what is probably our last ride together this month, caveat explained above. We got up (too) early and hit the road for an early hour before my 8:30 call. We have ridden all 15 days together, 16 rides in total. I did slightly more 1 day at KT and she did slightly more later in the same day on ride #2. But for the most part we have ridden all 30+ hours together in July, which is more than most people can say they rode with their spouse ever. It's been a nice first half.
Jim has come through and fixed the Pivot, so it will be ready for the weekend. This is in the Borat-Much-Excite category.
After everyone was gone I went for a second road ride because I am going to try to just pound out hours this month. My goal is at least 62 hours for an average of 2/day. Sitting at 32 hours in 15 days right now so we're in good shape. In all I did 2:40 today and 44.5 miles. Pretty good for a Thursday.
Julia is flying home from Vegas right now and will end up here later. Zac is out with his friends at some carnival in Berkeley Heights. I will pick them both up later tonight.
In a little bit I will be jumping on the monthly JORBA call. As I have made it a practice to try to not talk about the past or future in the "today" series, I won't be able to discuss it here. But we should have a newsletter coming out soon. And the survey results are on the agenda for sure. Oh and the festival but I am pushing for JORBA members-only admission because attendance will likely need to be limited.
JORBA and NJICL socks have been Sock Guy since day 1.
Today
...it was me and the 2 older kids in the house. Kid1 woke up at 10:30 and kid2 after 11:00. I was pretty much done with my work day by 12, mostly. At this point I took kid1 with me to Hilltop to pick up the Pivot which JimV miraculously turned around this week. Many much props to him for that. Things work splendidly now. It's always nice to have a working mountain bike.
I rode Six Mile because, as I mentioned on the 31/31 thread, I wanted to get in some easier miles and that's the best place to do it around these parts. After I dropped off kids1/2 I drove down and did the full loop, lot-to-lot-to-lot. Didn't feel great at the start but I soon realized that I hadn't eaten in a while so I topped off with some blocks and the rest of the bottle and felt better 10 minutes later. This heat really pushes the limits on everything. Any small mistake is amplified.
Other than that, today was a pretty quiet day. I am now alone and have 3+ hours to do whatever I want, which will likely translate into doing nothing at all productive. Then I will complain that I never have enough time to get shit done. That said, laying on the couch prevents the couch from floating away, amiright?
New blue bling:
...it was me and the 2 older kids in the house. Kid1 woke up at 10:30 and kid2 after 11:00. I was pretty much done with my work day by 12, mostly. At this point I took kid1 with me to Hilltop to pick up the Pivot which JimV miraculously turned around this week. Many much props to him for that. Things work splendidly now. It's always nice to have a working mountain bike.
I rode Six Mile because, as I mentioned on the 31/31 thread, I wanted to get in some easier miles and that's the best place to do it around these parts. After I dropped off kids1/2 I drove down and did the full loop, lot-to-lot-to-lot. Didn't feel great at the start but I soon realized that I hadn't eaten in a while so I topped off with some blocks and the rest of the bottle and felt better 10 minutes later. This heat really pushes the limits on everything. Any small mistake is amplified.
Other than that, today was a pretty quiet day. I am now alone and have 3+ hours to do whatever I want, which will likely translate into doing nothing at all productive. Then I will complain that I never have enough time to get shit done. That said, laying on the couch prevents the couch from floating away, amiright?
New blue bling:
Today
...was a full day of living life as a solo guy, but not really. I wake up and there is no wife in bed, no dog looking for attention, no kids making a mess. When I go downstairs and see a dish, I know it's my dish. If I see a seltzer can, I know it's my seltzer can. It's a lot easier to keep the house clean. But it's also a lot less satisfying to live life like this. It's odd, in a way. I'm connected to the family via text/FaceTime right now so I'm not alone, per se. But in the physical sense, I am. It's neither here nor there, as I know this time in our lives is being dictated by circumstances beyond our control. It's just completely abnormal.
On that note, the border is not opening this month so I can confirm the family will not be together a single time in July. How's that for peculiar?
I met Kirt, Jim, and Capers at Ringwood today and pretty much almost melted like a chocolate Easter bunny in the oven. I drank 3 bottles and 2 liters of water and still just totally ran out of any steam. In the last 20 minutes or so, I was walking every hill, no matter how big it was. I was tapped out, totally and completely. As mentioned in the 31/31 this is about the worst I have felt since the old Mooch 50k days. It's been 10 years at least since I felt this bad on a ride due to dehydration.
This is why I laugh when people suggest I do one of these 100 mile MTB events. It's just a non-starter. I was on the couch 2 hours after the ride ended, drinking a bottle of seltzer, and I tried to get up. At this point, both hamstrings lock up totally, just abject pain searing through them both. I spill the seltzer all over the floor and I am yelling at who-knows-what to fuck off, because this hurts so much. I try to stand up to stretch them out but mother of god, that is a terrible idea as it only makes it worse. I am then struggling to stand up on seltzer-soaked hardwood floor and I am imagining me falling into the coffee table knocking myself out. I manage to sit down and I am light-headed at this point. But I survive.
It took about 3 hours after the ride to recover to some version of normalcy. In this time I started watching The Serpent on Netflix, and I changed my NYTimes subscription from home delivery to digital. I want to support but it's just a waste of money. I found a special so I'll pay $1 a week for the next year.
I did stuff around the house and around 4 hours after EOM (End of Meltdown) I felt well enough to do some yard work. I did not mow the lawn because that seemed dumb. But I did finally built the firewood rack with cinder blocks & pipes, then I stacked the firewood because the irony of this was just too rich. As I was loading this into the wheelbarrow this is when I really felt like a loner living in the woods by himself. Who in their right mind is stacking firewood on a day like today?
...was a full day of living life as a solo guy, but not really. I wake up and there is no wife in bed, no dog looking for attention, no kids making a mess. When I go downstairs and see a dish, I know it's my dish. If I see a seltzer can, I know it's my seltzer can. It's a lot easier to keep the house clean. But it's also a lot less satisfying to live life like this. It's odd, in a way. I'm connected to the family via text/FaceTime right now so I'm not alone, per se. But in the physical sense, I am. It's neither here nor there, as I know this time in our lives is being dictated by circumstances beyond our control. It's just completely abnormal.
On that note, the border is not opening this month so I can confirm the family will not be together a single time in July. How's that for peculiar?
I met Kirt, Jim, and Capers at Ringwood today and pretty much almost melted like a chocolate Easter bunny in the oven. I drank 3 bottles and 2 liters of water and still just totally ran out of any steam. In the last 20 minutes or so, I was walking every hill, no matter how big it was. I was tapped out, totally and completely. As mentioned in the 31/31 this is about the worst I have felt since the old Mooch 50k days. It's been 10 years at least since I felt this bad on a ride due to dehydration.
This is why I laugh when people suggest I do one of these 100 mile MTB events. It's just a non-starter. I was on the couch 2 hours after the ride ended, drinking a bottle of seltzer, and I tried to get up. At this point, both hamstrings lock up totally, just abject pain searing through them both. I spill the seltzer all over the floor and I am yelling at who-knows-what to fuck off, because this hurts so much. I try to stand up to stretch them out but mother of god, that is a terrible idea as it only makes it worse. I am then struggling to stand up on seltzer-soaked hardwood floor and I am imagining me falling into the coffee table knocking myself out. I manage to sit down and I am light-headed at this point. But I survive.
It took about 3 hours after the ride to recover to some version of normalcy. In this time I started watching The Serpent on Netflix, and I changed my NYTimes subscription from home delivery to digital. I want to support but it's just a waste of money. I found a special so I'll pay $1 a week for the next year.
I did stuff around the house and around 4 hours after EOM (End of Meltdown) I felt well enough to do some yard work. I did not mow the lawn because that seemed dumb. But I did finally built the firewood rack with cinder blocks & pipes, then I stacked the firewood because the irony of this was just too rich. As I was loading this into the wheelbarrow this is when I really felt like a loner living in the woods by himself. Who in their right mind is stacking firewood on a day like today?
I did some long ride on hot days last year, and I honestly don't know how. The best is when people say that when your legs cramp, you should just keep riding through it until they go away. Like what are your leg cramps like that that is even remotely an option?
Today
...has been a long day. I woke up at 4:00 feeling more or less like I had been drinking all night. I guess this should come as little surprise given the shape I was in yesterday. I made myself an egg sandwich and a cup of coffee and laid on the couch and watched The Serpent, episode 3 of 8. In my head I keep thinking this show is called The Pheasant. I have no idea why.
Rewrote some copy on the 4th JORBA mailing that I'm reworking, which I think leaves 2 more to finish. I then started on the Laundry Advocacy Room Project (LARP) which I have been thinking about for some time. I suppose being alone does push you to do stuff you've been putting off for a while. The effort here is meant to organize this bike clothes mess and make some sort of sense out of it. I cleared out some stuff, measured other stuff, then came up with a plan.
Went to Home Depot for a clothes hanger bar, and a few other things. While I was out I also went to Trader Joes, then Black River Roasters to pick up 2 pounds of coffee. I'm not quite out but I will be this week and I don't want to push that to the edge for no good reason.
When I got back home Pat informed me that the wiki plugin had been installed so I started working on a POC for a park series I want to do. As you might be able to guess, the first park is Ringwood. The survey that we did 2 weeks ago was driven by this project I had in mind, then JManic took it to the next level. At the end of the day the park data is what I started to dig into, and Ringwood was rated awesome the most often, followed by Sterling. But Ringwood was far and away the #1.
The concept is going to be called, So You Want to Ride...and each park I add will fill in the gap there. So You Want to Ride Ringwood, and so on. The target audience is myself. They say when you create something (often times the written word but I think this can work for anything) you need an audience. Well in this case the audience is me, or a doppelgänger at the very least. You have to be in NJ for work on Monday. But you decide to come Saturday and ride your mountain bike for a few days and you hear Ringwood is great. So You Want to Ride Ringwood. Get it? I started the Ringwood page today.
Then I took a nap.
When I woke up I finished up the first phase of the laundry room, which is to have a place we can hang the clothes which is out of the way. Check ✔️
After that I started to mow the lawn and did the soccer pitch which is just 1 of the 8 segments I mentally segment my lawn into. That was more the seeding of the "lawn mowing" idea, however. After segment 1 I went inside to take a break.
It is now only 11:55 am. It is going to be a long day. It has already been a long day. I am tired rereading this.
I hop out for a road bike ride and a few miles from the house I'm caught by Ed Torianello who used to do the High Gear A rides with us, and lives a few miles down the road. He was in a very talkative mood today, and when I say talkative I mean that he rode with me for the remainder of my 26.5 mile ride and he talked literally the whole time. I now know more about Ed's life (wife, kids, grandkids) than I ever knew in the 10+ years I have known him to now. He rode with me all the way to my driveway, in fact.
I then eat a really late lunch and watch episode 4 of the Pheasant Serpent.
Back outside I weed whack, then mow segments 2-3-4-5 of the yard, leaving 6-7 as well as 8. That last segment is the big one, encompassing the majority of the back yard and takes the most time and will still be long tomorrow when I wake up because that's not getting done today. I then determine that my sweating is done for the day and shower up, calling the physical portion of my day wrapped up.
The last 3 hours of my day have been used up by running into town to get some non-alcoholic beer as well as going to Acme, for a total of 5 stores today. I didn't manage to get to Costco because I was just too tired. I got home and ate half a pint of Jeni's parfait which was delicious, then topped off the upside down dinner with another salad but this time topped with garlic/rosemary roast chicken parts that I got at the store. Edited a JORBA shop proposal letter that Joy is working on for us, and then extended an invitation to the JORBA Development Committee to her, which she accepted. So now we officially have 3 members - Joy, myself, and JManic. Looking to add 2 more.
And now, I will use the remaining hours of my day doing what I have been putting off all weekend, which is assigning work to the offshore resource that starts her day at 5:00 am every day. I now regret not just doing this Friday evening. Sometimes I really dislike my past self.
...has been a long day. I woke up at 4:00 feeling more or less like I had been drinking all night. I guess this should come as little surprise given the shape I was in yesterday. I made myself an egg sandwich and a cup of coffee and laid on the couch and watched The Serpent, episode 3 of 8. In my head I keep thinking this show is called The Pheasant. I have no idea why.
Rewrote some copy on the 4th JORBA mailing that I'm reworking, which I think leaves 2 more to finish. I then started on the Laundry Advocacy Room Project (LARP) which I have been thinking about for some time. I suppose being alone does push you to do stuff you've been putting off for a while. The effort here is meant to organize this bike clothes mess and make some sort of sense out of it. I cleared out some stuff, measured other stuff, then came up with a plan.
Went to Home Depot for a clothes hanger bar, and a few other things. While I was out I also went to Trader Joes, then Black River Roasters to pick up 2 pounds of coffee. I'm not quite out but I will be this week and I don't want to push that to the edge for no good reason.
When I got back home Pat informed me that the wiki plugin had been installed so I started working on a POC for a park series I want to do. As you might be able to guess, the first park is Ringwood. The survey that we did 2 weeks ago was driven by this project I had in mind, then JManic took it to the next level. At the end of the day the park data is what I started to dig into, and Ringwood was rated awesome the most often, followed by Sterling. But Ringwood was far and away the #1.
The concept is going to be called, So You Want to Ride...and each park I add will fill in the gap there. So You Want to Ride Ringwood, and so on. The target audience is myself. They say when you create something (often times the written word but I think this can work for anything) you need an audience. Well in this case the audience is me, or a doppelgänger at the very least. You have to be in NJ for work on Monday. But you decide to come Saturday and ride your mountain bike for a few days and you hear Ringwood is great. So You Want to Ride Ringwood. Get it? I started the Ringwood page today.
Then I took a nap.
When I woke up I finished up the first phase of the laundry room, which is to have a place we can hang the clothes which is out of the way. Check ✔️
After that I started to mow the lawn and did the soccer pitch which is just 1 of the 8 segments I mentally segment my lawn into. That was more the seeding of the "lawn mowing" idea, however. After segment 1 I went inside to take a break.
It is now only 11:55 am. It is going to be a long day. It has already been a long day. I am tired rereading this.
I hop out for a road bike ride and a few miles from the house I'm caught by Ed Torianello who used to do the High Gear A rides with us, and lives a few miles down the road. He was in a very talkative mood today, and when I say talkative I mean that he rode with me for the remainder of my 26.5 mile ride and he talked literally the whole time. I now know more about Ed's life (wife, kids, grandkids) than I ever knew in the 10+ years I have known him to now. He rode with me all the way to my driveway, in fact.
I then eat a really late lunch and watch episode 4 of the Pheasant Serpent.
Back outside I weed whack, then mow segments 2-3-4-5 of the yard, leaving 6-7 as well as 8. That last segment is the big one, encompassing the majority of the back yard and takes the most time and will still be long tomorrow when I wake up because that's not getting done today. I then determine that my sweating is done for the day and shower up, calling the physical portion of my day wrapped up.
The last 3 hours of my day have been used up by running into town to get some non-alcoholic beer as well as going to Acme, for a total of 5 stores today. I didn't manage to get to Costco because I was just too tired. I got home and ate half a pint of Jeni's parfait which was delicious, then topped off the upside down dinner with another salad but this time topped with garlic/rosemary roast chicken parts that I got at the store. Edited a JORBA shop proposal letter that Joy is working on for us, and then extended an invitation to the JORBA Development Committee to her, which she accepted. So now we officially have 3 members - Joy, myself, and JManic. Looking to add 2 more.
And now, I will use the remaining hours of my day doing what I have been putting off all weekend, which is assigning work to the offshore resource that starts her day at 5:00 am every day. I now regret not just doing this Friday evening. Sometimes I really dislike my past self.
Today
...I felt pretty lousy most of the day. I really did a number on myself Saturday, and as I told D earlier, I was probably remarkably close to heat stroke out there. I would say, "Live & learn," but I've been through this before and I guess I fail to learn. Anyway, I paid for it again today by feeling like shit and having a headache most of the day.
With that out of the way, at the end of the day, Monday is off the table and we can move on.
But first, FIL update! He's getting stronger by the day, and was able to stand up again. He's looking more alert and he can say some words. They took the tracheotomy tube out which is a huge step forward. This has been a good time for D to be up there as he's making progress almost daily.
Border opens to vaccinated Americans on August 9th.
Julia was at the house so I wasn't a total bachelor today. She more or less keeps to herself and I more or less work, but I did have someone to chat with now & again. She is still on Vegas time so she gets up late and her meals are all offset. But I think she's happy to be home.
Packed up 1 of the DH helmets and shipped it back via USPS because it was too small. I removed all the hardware in the bathroom and re-anchored it to the walls so they fit snugly. Mowed lawn segments #6 and #7, not back-to-back. I replaced my PM battery on the road bike. We set the Jungle group ride to pasture as well. I pretty much didn't do anything of any significance at home nor at work from start to finish today, truth be told.
I intended to get to the CR Monday ride but the day didn't work out that way. I ended up on the road spinning at a remarkably easy pace, which is probably what I should have done yesterday. Oh well.
Currently watching The Pheasant-Serpent #5 (of 8). Then who knows what I will do. Of course now I feel great. But it's 9:00 and dark out and the day is about done with. So it goes.
No pics but I will post a Facebook memory of 6 years ago when Iggy gave me this. It still hangs on my wall in the office and means something special to me.
...I felt pretty lousy most of the day. I really did a number on myself Saturday, and as I told D earlier, I was probably remarkably close to heat stroke out there. I would say, "Live & learn," but I've been through this before and I guess I fail to learn. Anyway, I paid for it again today by feeling like shit and having a headache most of the day.
With that out of the way, at the end of the day, Monday is off the table and we can move on.
But first, FIL update! He's getting stronger by the day, and was able to stand up again. He's looking more alert and he can say some words. They took the tracheotomy tube out which is a huge step forward. This has been a good time for D to be up there as he's making progress almost daily.
Border opens to vaccinated Americans on August 9th.
Julia was at the house so I wasn't a total bachelor today. She more or less keeps to herself and I more or less work, but I did have someone to chat with now & again. She is still on Vegas time so she gets up late and her meals are all offset. But I think she's happy to be home.
Packed up 1 of the DH helmets and shipped it back via USPS because it was too small. I removed all the hardware in the bathroom and re-anchored it to the walls so they fit snugly. Mowed lawn segments #6 and #7, not back-to-back. I replaced my PM battery on the road bike. We set the Jungle group ride to pasture as well. I pretty much didn't do anything of any significance at home nor at work from start to finish today, truth be told.
I intended to get to the CR Monday ride but the day didn't work out that way. I ended up on the road spinning at a remarkably easy pace, which is probably what I should have done yesterday. Oh well.
Currently watching The Pheasant-Serpent #5 (of 8). Then who knows what I will do. Of course now I feel great. But it's 9:00 and dark out and the day is about done with. So it goes.
No pics but I will post a Facebook memory of 6 years ago when Iggy gave me this. It still hangs on my wall in the office and means something special to me.
Today
...I talked to KenS for over an hour about JORBA stuff. We feel pretty good about the direction things are going. Nothing much to share but I will say that I'd really like to see a new logo for the org by 2022. I think the org is ripe for a rebranding and nothing says that as much as a new logo. Don't know about you but I like color.
JManic bought us tickets to the Letterkenny show at MSG next February. I think Mad Dan is going as well as a 4th unknown guy who I apparently met at a wake once. True story. As the guy who doesn't drink, I'm probably the default designated driver. Lucky for you guys.
Finally got to Costco today with Julia. I did not mow lawn sector 8.
Hit up CR for day 20 of the 31. I did a full loop of the park for 2+ hours which will be my loop for when I write the So You Want to Ride Chimney Rock page. I have not been moving that ball forward much this week but then again it's only Tuesday. I felt pretty beat at the start of the ride so I ate a Clif bar (nut butter, way better than traditional) at the 30 minute mark and felt better at the 40 minute mark. Pretty good ride, and in the parking lot I saw someone we met at the gazebo at the top of Black Bear in Kingdom Trails. Another true story.
After this ride my GPS told me I had to rest for 4 days. Mind you, this doesn't even have the Ringwood data from Saturday because I forgot my HRM.
Pheasant episode 6 now.
...I talked to KenS for over an hour about JORBA stuff. We feel pretty good about the direction things are going. Nothing much to share but I will say that I'd really like to see a new logo for the org by 2022. I think the org is ripe for a rebranding and nothing says that as much as a new logo. Don't know about you but I like color.
JManic bought us tickets to the Letterkenny show at MSG next February. I think Mad Dan is going as well as a 4th unknown guy who I apparently met at a wake once. True story. As the guy who doesn't drink, I'm probably the default designated driver. Lucky for you guys.
Finally got to Costco today with Julia. I did not mow lawn sector 8.
Hit up CR for day 20 of the 31. I did a full loop of the park for 2+ hours which will be my loop for when I write the So You Want to Ride Chimney Rock page. I have not been moving that ball forward much this week but then again it's only Tuesday. I felt pretty beat at the start of the ride so I ate a Clif bar (nut butter, way better than traditional) at the 30 minute mark and felt better at the 40 minute mark. Pretty good ride, and in the parking lot I saw someone we met at the gazebo at the top of Black Bear in Kingdom Trails. Another true story.
After this ride my GPS told me I had to rest for 4 days. Mind you, this doesn't even have the Ringwood data from Saturday because I forgot my HRM.
Pheasant episode 6 now.
Wait, what?
Get those other guys a Puppers.
Check your msgs
Tickets secured, hope there's room on the drunk bus.
FTR: Shotgun!
Have you ever tried the nut butter ones? This is like gourmet shit.
In fact I have not, but now you have piqued my interest
White chocolate macadamia nut Clif bars are pretty much the only food I eat on the bike. Will give the nut butter a try though.
FTFYHave you ever tried the nut butter ones? This is like gourmet shit.