This past Thanksgiving I ran in a half marathon in Atlanta. It was my first. I loved it.
Anyhow, this sports photography company took this picture, and sent me an email asking if I wanted to buy it. I didn’t notice this goofy guy while running, but now here he is forever placed in my memory of the event.
I’m still deciding if I should buy a print of this or not. It’s both annoying and hilarious to me. Oh yeah, I’m on the left.
A few new things are going on here. It’s starting to warm up a bit in Brevard, and that means I’m transitioning from running to cycling. I’ve really enjoyed running, but at the same time I’m getting a little bored with it, and I’m excited to have the chance to get on my bike outside and not freeze.
My first ride of the season was a 20 mile ride on back roads around Brevard. Except for one incident, I really enjoyed the ride and really noticed the strength that my legs had from past months of running. Looping around a small valley out towards Crab Creek Road, I came up on a section of road that takes an almost 90 degree turn.
As I was nearing the turn I saw a car coming the opposite way. It wasn’t moving exceptionally fast, but I kept an eye on it just in case. Coming toward the corner (I was on the green arrow side in the image), I moved out towards the yellow lines, and then started turning out towards the white line (in my lane) so I would hit the apex of the corner and would be able to keep my speed. As I was at the edge of the white line, I see that the driver of the car decided he would shave off .15 seconds from his drive and cut into my lane. As he was coming over, I noticed he didn’t see me at all. I hit the brakes and my bike was almost completely sideways, my tires skidding and leaving black marks on the asphalt. At the very last moment, for some reason the driver decided to look up, possibly he heard me yelling “WHAT THE FUCK ASSHOLE?!” at the top of my lungs, or saw me skidding towards a head on collision with his Honda, and jerked the car out of my way.
I’ve said this before: I think I handle situations like this very well. Some people freeze up and react by doing nothing, some people panic and cause more damage, but when I’ve been in situations that are like this, I have control over myself and generally act to fix the situation as fast as my brain can function. I also tend to react with some anger.
It was odd to see the car coming straight at me. For those few seconds I was calculating how to get out of the situation, where to turn, how much to pull on the brakes, what would happen if the car hit me, how I should possibly turn my body to roll over the car’s roof, because that’s what I had decided would happen if I didn’t go through the windshield. It was interesting, afterward, to go over what I had thought about in such a short time.
Luckily, I was fine, and there was no collision. The car did slow down and almost stop right after, and I saw that it was a newer gold/champagne Honda with a Brevard College Faculty parking sticker on the back window. After a second of staring at it, I decided I would go tell them to watch the hell out next time, and then they split. The car sped off, and I tried to chase it, but even with the adrenaline and my strong legs, there was no way I was catching it. Oh well.
My second ride of the season was last Thursday. I rode 276 up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was an hour and 20 minutes of almost constant climbing. Riding 276 sure does hurt sometimes, but it’s amazing fun and I always get a huge sense of accomplishment when I finish. My third ride was yesterday. I went on a 30 mile ride out towards Hendersonville, through DuPont Forrest and then down 276 into town. There is a good bit of climbing on that ride as well. It’s fun to get back out on the bike, and I’m hoping I’ll be in a lot better shape for the Assault on the Carolinas this year.
In other news, Scott and I installed the range hood over the stove. I had to run new wiring to the hood. It looks nice. Now it’s time to finish mudding and sanding the office so we can move stuff in there and have less clutter in the rest of the house.
Scott and I have had a visitor since Saturday. He’s an orphan dog that I found in our neighbor’s yard. He has a shock collar on, but no tags. I put a notice up on Craigslist, a classified ad in the Transylvania Times, and called Animal Control. So far there haven’t been any emails from Craigslist, the newspaper said the ad wouldn’t get put in until Thursday, and the Animal Control people start their week on Wednesday apparently, so he’s just been hanging out at the house with us. I hope that his owners come get him soon, because he’s a really sweet dog and I’m sure they’re missing him.
I’ll post a picture of him tonight. For now I’m running around trying to figure out what happened to the server at work.
Oh, also, I finished the design for my portfolio site.
I’ve set a new workout routine lately. Since I’ve got nothing else to do but sit around and type on here before I go to bed in a few minutes, I’ll tell you what it is. Monday: upper body workout at the gym. Tuesday: run about 5 miles. Wednesday: same. Thursday: road bike ride up 276 to the Parkway. Friday: same as Monday. Saturday: long run or bike ride, or day off. Sunday: whatever I didn’t do on Saturday. I’m already in good shape, but if I keep this up, I should be in great shape and ready for the Assault on the Carolinas at the end of the month.
Today I started the new side of my job. I’m now doing “maintenance.” Today I picked up rocks, put them in a cart and moved them to a pile. After that I took pieces of wood, put them in a truck and then threw them down a hill. And then finally I walked around a dried lake and picked up trash. Not very interestingly, I picked up about 120 tennis balls, 10 golf balls, 15 frisbee golf discs, a watch, a Swiffer handle, a pair of underwear, a pair of swimming shorts, and a level.
In conclusion, I need a new job.
P.S. Scott and I finished mudding the office tonight. Hopefully we’ll finish the room this week and then at some point soon we’ll start on the flooring upstairs. I’m really enjoying seeing this house come together.
Someone find me a new job.
Cross country skiing was great. Evan guessed we went about 6.5k or so. It didn’t really seem too long, but we didn’t really know all of the trails so maybe we’ll go for a little longer next time. I really enjoyed the running/gliding technique, and it took a while for me to get used to going downhill where they hadn’t groomed the trail with tracks, but I finally started to get the hang of it. I fell a few times early on, and twisted my knee a little bit. It reaffirmed my fear of downhill skiing (I think I’d screw up my knees).
I had wanted to go out again last night, but I was exhausted. I don’t know why but I think it’s the combination of sitting around not doing much all evening and the traveling/altitude but I’ve been exhausted around 8 each night. Tonight I’m going to try to find something to do, but then again, it’s Sunday, so who knows what will be open in Laramie.
It’s supposed to be warmer today, but that means it’ll be in the 20’s. I’m going to walk around on the pond in the park across from Amanda and Evan’s house. I’ve never walked on a frozen pond or lake, so it’s another thing I feel like I need to do in my life. I’ve seen some preview for a movie about the things you’d do before you die, and though I hope I’m not anywhere close to dying, there are a bunch of little things that I want to do, just to experience them or to be able to say I did them. They’re not necessarily huge events like skydiving, though I’ve done that, but I think little things like walking on ponds can be a lot of fun.
I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. Now I have to wrap all of it. I’m a terrible present wrapper and I think I might end up doing it as badly as possible on purpose. It’s more fun that way. Also, I think next year I’m sending out Scrooge cards in place of Christmas cards. Our family friend Marc used to send Christmas cards and on the inside wrote “Bah Humbug!” and I’m going to take it another step. I think I’ll end up making my own and having them printed, but it’ll be fun. Either that or getting a portrait taken at the local Sears or something with a terrible Christmas sweater on and sending that out to people. I’ve got a year to think about it.
I’m rambling now, so I’ll end this. Today we are all going sledding up at Happy Jack after having french toast. It sounds like a very wholesome family thing, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
The Onion’s A.V. Club has released their list of the worst band names of 2007. There are some real gems on there, but I actually liked a few of the names. One of my personal favorites was Fixed Gears are for Jerks and Lesbians. No offense, Evan.
It was a good weekend with Jeff and Liz visiting. Liverpool lost to United at home. Not much fun to see that.
Jeff and I did write a new song (mostly it was him) called I Can’t I Have Rehearsal. A few years ago, Jeff and I had been told that there would be a party at one of our friend’s (we’ll call her Lady) apartment and that we should go. Since there was nothing else going on in Rome, Ga (big surprise), we went. However, something had been lost in translation when they told us about the “party.” It turned out to be a “let’s watch the finale of this fashion reality show on tv” party. Everyone was sitting around, staring at the tv and shooting us mean looks when we laughed or talked, and one ridiculously dorky guy was wearing a shirt that said, you guessed it, “I Can’t I Have Rehearsal.” It didn’t say anything else. Just that. What a huge disappointment of a night that turned out to be.
We also started on a new song called ([Don’t Want] No) Pop-Punk Girl. It’ll be as typically pop punk as we can make it, and it’s sounding great already.
I’ve been working on the design for my personal portfolio site and am aiming to have it finished within a couple of weeks. At the moment it features a very cheery sun and a nice sky blue background. I finished a label for the promo DVD at work, and a little Christmas mailer that will go along with it. It’s always nice to work on creative stuff, even if people don’t expect much out of it. I hope to raise expectations for printed/web stuff at work, and I think I’ve got a good start on that so far.
I’ll go for a long run today, as I didn’t get any exercise this weekend. I want to be ready for the cross country skiing in Wyoming. Plus the altitude won’t help.
I need to start taking pictures again.
I got a great 1 hour run in yesterday. My legs are feeling stronger each week. Near the end of the run I went by a house I pass by most times I’m out running. This time, however, I saw a bunch of police cars and a van or something, and the whole yard was taped off. After I got home I switched on the tv and the Asheville news was in front of the house. Apparently someone found a body in a shallow hole in their back yard. Not something you usually hear about in Brevard. I thought that was pretty weird to find a dead body in your back yard, and then I realized Scott and I live next to a graveyard, so hey. A couple of months ago an old couple from Hendersonville (the next town over) were reported missing in the woods. The woman’s dead body was found, after weeks and weeks of searching, 30 feet from their car (who dropped the ball on that one?), and the man is still missing. Someone took one of their credit cards and withdrew $300 from an ATM in Tennessee somewhere. Interesting times in Brevard.
Today I’m working on an ad for work that’s going in an outdoor magazine that is distributed in the blue ridge mountain area, really from Virginia to Georgia. It’s coming along pretty well. I love being able to work on stuff I can add to my portfolio. It’s also nice to have something physical that I can look at and know I actually produced something at the end of the day.
I registered hallpenn.com the other day. I’m planning on putting up a portfolio site, but I need to check out pricing for hosting. My last deal with free hosting went belly up because the guy helping me turned out to be a piece of shit compulsive liar and all. Anyhow, I should have a design for the site pretty soon. Speaking of portfolio sites, my friend Phil finished his lately and I think it’s great, so check it out.
I’m still not at all in the Christmas spirit, especially after it was 75 degrees and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt yesterday. I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t feel like it’s close to Christmas. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m getting older, that I live away from my family, that no one around is all about Christmas, but it’s like every year I’m more and more of a Scrooge. At least last year Lauren was all about Christmas and as much as I might have protested, I actually enjoyed it. Well, except maybe for the Christmas music.
Jeff and Liz are supposed to be coming up from Savannah this weekend, so that’ll be fun. Maybe Jeff and I will record some songs, but I’m guessing the chances of that are slim. Scott was mulling around the idea of putting together the grill his dad gave him for Christmas and having a cookout thing this weekend. It’ll be fun to get a bunch of people over to the house. First off, we need to get the old stove and fridge off of the deck and I’ve got to prep the chiminea this week.
My run yesterday was great. I wasn’t all that much faster than usual, but I felt like I could run for hours. I think the long run on Saturday really helped my legs and I felt like I had an extra lung yesterday. I should say my legs felt great until my ankle clipped the bolt thing on the side of a fire hydrant while looking to see if I could cross the road. I couldn’t cross because some old guy was trying to be nice by slowing down to let me go across instead of just going through the intersection which would have let me cross after he passed, but I couldn’t see if anyone was coming behind him. I hate it when people do that. I mean, kudos on being courteous, but follow the laws. I never trust people that are being nice in cars. Half of the time they’ll wave you on when someone is speeding up from behind them and if you went, you’d be roadkill thanks to their imagined good deed. Anyhow, I’ve been looking at training plans for marathons, and I think I’m going to start one seriously. I’m basically already following a loose plan, but I figure it’d be better to really be prepared for whenever I decide to run 26 miles.
Work has been bothering me lately. I enjoy the job, but everything I’m trying to get done is stifled because the guy that worked here before me had everything so screwed up and unorganized that I have to clean off three things, find where five other things are and then back them up and delete half of the personal files he left on the computer all so I can do one freaking thing.
So I had an idea to come up with a top ten list along the lines of Christmas presents you never use. I got as far as the personalized bible from the ex-girlfriend/boyfriend and then stopped because I knew the idea was petering out already.
On Saturday, Scott and I went on a longer run, actually on a really short route I used to ride on my bike when I was really getting into shape years ago. It’s a fun little route out behind town through a few open fields on roads that are usually pretty empty until you get on the highway leading into South Carolina. My legs are starting to hurt from the constant road running I’ve done lately. I’ve been balking at doing more trail running. Even though I love it, it’s just getting dark so early that I’m a little nervous I’d get caught on a trail in the dark. Although after typing that it seems a little silly.
Lately I’ve been visiting the Pop Punk Bored quite a bit. It’s funny to see people like Ben Weasel (Screeching Weasel, the Riverdales), a bunch of guys that run pretty big (for pop punk at least) labels like Rally Records, Red Scare Records, and Larry Livermore (who used to run Lookout! Records) all discussing music and, well, just about anything from sports to beards. It’s great to read about what some of these guys think about current bands and music as a whole. Also, it’s good for wasting time.
I swear I’m going to write something worth reading soon. It’s just that at the moment, I don’t have a lot of meaning in my life. Not that I’m complaining. Sometimes life is just boring day after boring day and sometimes the highlight of your day really is to see how well you can cook some chicken. That sounds like I’m giving up on something. What, I’m not sure. I don’t feel like I’m giving up. I don’t think I’m cut out for this daily grind sort of thing.
Also, I know I linked them in one of my previous posts, but I can’t stop listening to Dick. “Transform Your Brain” is amazing. I’ve had it on repeat for about an hour. I can’t fucking wait to play the Dick songs live. I usually can’t do that with any song (except Built to Spill’s song “Goin’ Against Your Mind”).
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