Back to the gym

I guess for most people this wouldn't be particularly newsworthy. Or maybe it would. Being a card-carrying computer and math nerd, I've always felt profoundly out of place in any sort of physical activity setting, even as a kid. I suffered through every second of gym class, hated all kinds of sports, and never could figure out how any of those weird torture devices in the exercise room were supposed to work. Every kid's sports movie you've ever seen has the one awkard kid who carries a calculator everywhere, wears thick-framed glasses, gets straight A's in every subject but gym, and he can't even hold on to a ball, much less throw it straight. That was me, except I never wore glasses. Nor did I have any interest in sports or exercise, I was perfectly willing to let other segments of the population take care of that activity.

And that was my stand on the whole exercise issue until 2004 when Norah convinced me that we really needed to join a gym. We got a personal training package along with our new member startups so we could figure out what exactly we were doing. For a while, I was doing pretty well with it. I learned what parts of the body the various torture devices were designed to be used on. I learned about heart rate and warm up and cool down. I learned that I had these things called "muscles" and a few suggestions about stretching them. Believe it or not, I actually do have some muscles... somewhere. They certainly hurt after I've subjected myself to the torture devices for a while.

After I had used up my allotment of personal training sessions, I didn't want to pay for an extension, so I decided I knew enough to try it on my own without injuring myself (much). I actually kept up with it fairly well for a while. Then, as usually happens with these things, I sort of stopped going. The excuses were too easy to find, and I still think going to the gym is one of the least pleasant experiences there is, short of going to the dentist. But, darn it, the gym is good for me.

I always had good intentions of going over. It's been a recurring event on my calendar every week for the last eight months. But I was always too busy, didn't have time, was late for work, didn't have the energy, had too much knee pain, and so on.

This morning I finally got fed up with the excuses. I've realized that our base camp in Colorado is at about 7500 feet above sea level, and a lot of the 4x4 trails I've been looking at are up around 14,000 feet. Unless I want to pass out, I had better get my heart and lungs working at something over two percent of their capacity. I know it's only seven weeks until we leave, and I probably won't be able to get that much accomplished in that time. The thought does motivate me to get myself over there, so I'm sticking with it. So, despite the fact that I was still too busy, didn't have time, was late for work, didn't have the energy, and still had some amount of knee pain, I just drove myself over and did some exercise. And I didn't get in to work until almost 11:00. Fortunately for me I have a pretty cushy desk job where it doesn't matter too much if I drag in at that time and stay until 7:30 to make up for it. Mostly what the boss cares about is how many hours I work in a week, not so much about what time of day I work them. Good thing.

What I actually accomplished today in terms of strength training or cardiovascular fitness probably adds up to "not much". I think today was more about breaking through the psychological barriers I've put in my own way. Since I haven't been in a long time, I didn't want to overdo it and strain something. I did, however, manage to actually see the inside of the gym, I got myself on an exercise bike, picked up a couple of heavy objects and set them back down again, got my muscles stretched out a bit, and knocked some of the rust off of my joints.

So why am I bothering to talk so much about this? Public accountability. I am now serving notice to the entire Intahrnehtwebbahn that I intend to get my butt off the couch and over to the gym at least twice per week. Maybe even three times. I'll post here whenever I manage to do so. Knowing there's a record of my efforts will help me keep myself in gear.

I hope.

w.bloggar

Well, I was looking for an offline blog post editor. I think I might have found one. The first few I looked at were fairly expensive, but w.bloggar is free as in beer, which is good enough for my purposes. I'm writing this post with it as a test to see how well it works.

The idea is to use this on our laptops as we're heading across the country so we can compose posts as we go, then upload them all at night once we can get connected to the net. It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

Busy for a while

Well, it looks like we're going to be quite busy for the next couple of months, even more so than normal. The DML decided to have a National Meet this summer, and we volunteered to be on the organizing committee. Two months to go until we leave. (eek!)

There's a separate blog set up for all meet related information. I intend to do a better job keeping that one updated than I've been doing with this one. This blog is mostly for myself whenever I feel like posting something, but for the meet blog I really want to keep up to date on all of the effort that's going in to preparing for this meet, and it will stand as our record of everything that's happening as we're at the meet. Well, as much as time allows, anyway. We're going to be camping in the mountains, so logging on to the net and writing blog posts might not be highest on our list of things to do.

This reminds me, I should look to see if there's any software (other than a text editor) that'll allow me to compose blog posts offline and quickly upload them next time I'm connected. That'd help out considerably.

Anyway, if you want to keep up with what I'm doing for the meet, be sure to read that blog.

Pierre says...

"Pardon me sir, but have you seen my legs?"

A new look

Before and after comparison. I didn't think I'd ever do this, but I thought I'd give it a try. I'll say one thing, it'll definitely keep the hair out of my eyes.

The squirrel is gone

Last night when I got home, I did a little "squirrel scene investigation" and determined that the squirrel had somehow gotten in to our place through the laundry room. There's open access from that room to the space above our ceiling, so that made sense.

I decided that the easiest place to trap him would be right back in the laundry room. We have a Havahart live trap, so I set it up and baited it with some pieces of bread with almond extract on them. We hadn't heard any squirrel noises, and we were a bit concerned that he might have gotten trapped someplace inside our walls.

I checked the trap first thing in the morning, and there was nothing. I checked again a couple of hours later, and there was the squirrel. Almond extract works quite well. We're pretty certain it's the same squirrel. There's always a chance that we might have attracted a second one to come in from outside, but I didn't see any signs of that. I think this one got in around the dryer vent hose. We're going to try to get our landlord, Mr. Useless, to put some kind of screen over the vent to keep animals out. If a squirrel got in, then mice can get in even easier. I'd do it myself, only it's in a concrete wall, and I don't feel like spending money on hardware that will properly mount in concrete. It's not my house, and not my responsibility to spend my money upgrading or maintaining it.

Getting this fixed is going to be much more difficult than getting rid of the squirrel was.

Squirrel Wars

I got a call from Norah at work. Apparently we have a squirrel loose in the space between our ceiling and the floor above. Last summer we had a couple of birds in the laundry room, then in the fall we had yellow jackets, now a squirrel? I like nature well enough, but this is ridiculous. Unfortunately we haven't been able to figure out how all this wildlife is getting inside, and our landlord is being his typically unhelpful self.

Getting rid of this squirrel is going to be interesting.

Slashdot | RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer

Slashdot | RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer

Good to see the recording industry is continuing their incredibly stupid war against their own customers. The sooner the record companies go out of business, the better. Their entire business model is obsolete now, they desperately need to die off. They used to be a necessary to handle the physical distribution of records, now they've become little more than a mafia trying to intimidate people in to doing business with them or else.

Need I say more?

I got a page a day desk calendar for Christmas called "The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said (TM)". Here's today's item.

On Integrity, Senatorial

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition... to the early use of military by the US against Iraq.... On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war.

January 22, 1991, letter from Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) to a constituent

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crises and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf.

January 31, 1991, letter from Senator John Kerry to the same constituent

Planning for the DML meet

Looks like this is going to be at least three days pulling the trailer.

Driving directions from Jon's

Ideally we'd meet up with people from points further east around Jon's place, then make it near Chicago to meet up with Josh and maybe Tom (depending on his plans). Or, we might be going it alone, I'm not sure if anyone else is going to want to poke along at the 60 mph that I do with the trailer. One good thing about the trailer is that we won't need motel rooms, just a place where we'll be allowed to park the trailer overnight.

Trip journal

Unfortunately, Norah and I came down sick with some kind of flu or chest cold right as we were getting back from our big trip. I had great ideas about using this blog as a daily journal of our trip as we were going, which obviously didn't happen. With everything else that was going on, I never seemed to find time to sit down and type it all up.

What I do want to do is go back and fill in the details after the fact. This site used to allow for changing the date of a post. I'm not sure yet if I want to do that or not. It will make more sense if things are listed on the days they actually happened, but it will also make it more difficult for anyone to find the new posts. Either way, I would like to get some of the things from our trip recorded here, mostly just for ourselves more than anything. Several times this year when we were home, I noticed that many of us in the family were trying to remember things that had happened in past years, either exactly what had happened, or when it happened, or who was there. I realized that things like this are the reason for keeping some kind of journal. We've got one here, might as well use it.

Way to go

Time named Battlestar Galactica the best television of 2005. I couldn't agree more. It's nice to see that they can appreciate a quality show even if it's set in space and has robots.
TIME.com: Best of 2005: Television -- Page 1

Trip day 3

We got up and discovered that the bitter cold weather we had been not enjoying had just gotten even colder. Neither of us felt that our stomachs were up to the challenge of another McDonald's breakfast, so we decided to head over to Perkin's for omlettes.

As we were leaving the restaurant, we could hear geese. After looking around for a minute, we noticed that there was a large field between us and the Cabela's HQ that was full of geese. I checked it out, and there was a pond there with open water. At that temperature, the only way to keep the water from freezing must have been to heat the water. The geese figured out that this was a good thing, and thousands of them were hanging out there. Good for Cabela's.

The drive across Wyoming was annoying as usual. Blowing, drifting snow, poor visibility, and a constant assault of flying gravel. Wyoming doesn't even bother using salt or sand for ice traction, they just go straight for gravel. Whenever we got passed, we got showered by flying gravel. No wonder we've had windshield breaks in the past (nothing this year, thank goodness).

We found an interesting little souvenier shop along the highway in Buford called "End of the Trail." Typical little tourist trap, with the assorted Indian hand crafts and other stuff. Only it wasn't overpriced here for some reason, so Norah decided to do a little shopping. I took a few minutes to talk to the owner while she was looking around. Somehow we started talking about the gang violence problems that Toronto has been having lately. He told me that he used to be in to drugs, alcohol, gangs, the whole bit, but he had a personal crisis and one day decided to turn his life around. He's now a minister in a local church. I'm not sure how much of his story was true and how much was exaggeration, but he was a really interesting guy to talk to nonetheless. Experiences like that make me wish I could just retire and spend my time driving around the country, seeing the sights and talking to people. It seems that if you stop and really talk to the people you meet rather than trying to get away from them as quickly as possible, you stand a pretty good chance of hearing some really interesting stories. It's too bad that the big cities train us to be afraid of each other.

There is really something to be said for rural America and Canada. The people, on average, are much more friendly, helpful and honest than people you meet in the cities. It's ironic that I would feel more afraid of having a mechanical problem at night in Toronto than I would in Wyoming or Nebraska. In Toronto getting out of your car makes you a target, but in Wyoming you're much more likely to find someone who would want to help you out. You'd still need to be careful, of course, as psychos are everywhere. But the more concentrated the population gets, the higher the psycho percentage is. Screw anyone who calls everything between Los Angeles and New York City "flyover country" or "those dumb square states". This is what makes this country truly great, not the shallow self-serving greedy city dwellers.

Anyway, we continued on our way and made it across despite the weather. It didn't get really bad until we got near Park City. We had almost zero visibility coming down Parley's Canyon, which was fun. But we made it. We grabbed a Quizno's sandwich for dinner and made it to my parent's house without any problems.

Trip day 2

Today we managed to get up and on the road on schedule. We ran down to McDonald's again for breakfast and got on the road. We made it over to Council Bluffs, IA almost exactly on schedule to meet Norah's friends Alenna and Shannon at La Mesa Mexican restaurant for lunch. We stayed there for almost two and a half hours and ate probably way too much food. But we definitely enjoyed our visit.

Unfortunately, we paid for it the rest of the afternoon, especially me. Indigestion is uncomfortable enough at home, but when you're driving across Nebraska it's just that much worse. I asked Norah to remind me never again to eat that much when we're on the road.

By this time I was starting to get a bit concerned about the fuel mileage we were getting. Our Dakota has the 4.7L V8 engine in it, which isn't exactly an economy-minded hybrid tree hugger mobile. But it was getting in the 15.2 mpg range, which is low even for it. We usually get more like 17.4. I was a bit worried that we might have a bad injector, or clogged filter, or something. Since it seemed to be running okay, I figured all I could do was to keep going and see if I could figure something out later.

We managed to push on to Sidney, NE that night. The Motel 6 there is in the complex right next to the Cabela's headquarters. There's also a super Wal-Mart right next door. For dinner, I just walked over to Wally World and got a sandwich from the deli, which we split. That was all either of us were able to eat.

The "no smoking" ashtray

What, you think I can make something like this up? They have these in all of the Motel 6 non-smoking rooms. I actually asked about it when I called the front desk to request a wake-up call. Apparently they're provided for people who like to use an ashtray to put their keys and spare change in. It makes sense now that I know that, but I still say the non-smoking ashtray makes for a pretty weird image.

Trip day 1

We got on the road this morning about an hour late. It could have been worse. Quick stops for fuel and breakfast at McDonald's and we were on our way.

We ran in to the duty free shop at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia. The duty free shop at the Peace Bridge is nicer, but this one isn't too bad. When we crossed the border the agent asked if we were bringing any dog food. Yes, we had two weeks worth of food for the dog with us, already measured out and everything. She wanted to know where it was made. Being Iams, it was made in the US. Good thing, as we wouldn't have been allowed to bring it across the border had it been made in Canada. We couldn't figure out what the big deal was with dog food until later that day: dog food might contain beef by-products, so Canadian dog food might possibly have Canadian beef in it. The US is taking their beef ban quite seriously, it seems.

Lunch this day was leftover pizza from the night before. Good thing we hadn't ordered hamburger on our pizza. We met Josh at Buffalo Wild Wings in Tinley Park, just south of Chicago. The traffic through the area south of Chicago was its usual insane construction mess. We sat in the construction zone for an hour, and when we got to the end they had their hands out looking for a toll. Sixty cents. Norah and I felt like handing them an invoice for our wasted time. All I had was a $20 bill. He have me fourteen $1 bills back in change. Thanks a bunch.

After dinner, we had a fairly uneventful drive and arrived as per our plan at the Motel 6 in Davenport, IA. Checking in was an adventure. The clerk's computer crashed four times in a row. Turns out they're running their hotel computers on Windows 98. Once it finally decided to keep working for more than two minutes at a time, we were set, and we headed off to bed.

The big trip

Well, we're getting ready to head out on our big road trip tomorrow morning. Here are the driving directions according to Mapquest.

We're planning on meeting Josh for dinner Saturday night in Tinley Park, Illinois, and spending Saturday night in Davenport, Iowa. Sunday we're meeting Alenna for lunch in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Sunday night we'll be staying in Sidney, Nebraska. Monday we don't have any plans to meet up with anyone, so we'll just see what Wyoming has in store for us this year, and we should be at my parents place on Monday night.

The weather so far is looking like it might actually cooperate, at least as well as it ever does in December. We'll try to post updates if we have Internet access in the motels. High speed wireless access isn't exactly a feature provided by Motel 6, they keep things to a minimum to keep the prices down. But they are pet friendly, which is a lot more than I can say for the other motel chains I looked at.

Wish us luck!

I listen to Jack

Heard this morning on Jack FM:

"Christmas is like a day at the office. You do all the work, and the fat guy in the suit takes all the credit."

Don't try this at home

moparts: another reason to tow in neutral

Just goes to prove, no matter how stupid you (or I) might feel, there's probably someone out there who's done something even more stupid.

Thank goodnes I'm not a game programmer

From a comment posted on Slashdot:

I cut back to 80 hours a week, even though people were bitching at me for the laziness. (Why couldn't I take my work seriously like the people who slept in their company provided sleeping bags under their desks 6 hours a night?)

Just goes to show, no matter how grumpy I get about working overtime, there are many who are much worse off.