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cycling

I played the waiting game

My doctor’s appointment almost made me late for physical therapy. That’s what you get for scheduling those three hours a part.

The receptionist at the doctor’s office kindly explained that they only had two doctors working. This, after you’ve been there 82 minutes, suggests a scheduling error and not a problem on the patient’s part.

That this has happened twice here, well, that suggests I’ll try not to come back.

Curiously, as soon as you say “I don’t want to be that guy” while proceeding to be that guy, they manage to find a room to put you in. And then, of course, the extra waiting begins.

Eventually the doctor shows up. Nice guy. He’s intent. He listens. He’s happy for your successes. He’s a shoulder expert. He does things to my shoulder, is proud of our progress and then, without thinking, claps me three times, right on the trapezius. Thanks, doc.

So I barely made it to physical therapy in time, where today they gave me a series of weights and we swapped up a few stretches. Everyone is pleased with the progress, me most of all. The doctor rightly noted that what we’ve done so far is basically with a month of new therapy work. In three or four more months, he said, I’ll be good as new.

And the equally good news is that I didn’t have to schedule another doctor’s appointment in the near future.

Picked up my bike from the bike shop this evening, where it has been held since last Friday. It needed a new front derailleur. They were so excited to give it back to me that they called twice yesterday.

When I picked it up tonight I was happy to have it back, too. I set out for a quick twilight ride … and the chain is rubbing the new derailleur cage. So I guess I’ll take it back to the bike shop, because one visit begets three.

But I rode the time trial route, and then climbed up two of the ‘biggest’ hills we have. They are tiny, really, but they are in a sequence. The second one is the largest. Today it was the easiest.

I turned left instead of right. Right was home, but the thing was already clicking and there was a little descent to take and then weaving through some easy road construction, past the museum, through a park and then back up the other side of that earlier big hill. There’s a side road there that takes you down into the neighborhood, and for a minute or two it makes you feel like a real rider. There’s a curve, a right turn that falls immediately into a curve and then a switchback to the left. Then there are houses, kids on bikes and adults unloading their cars with groceries and old men walking dogs. It keeps swooping down until it has to go back up and that’s the point where the darkness started to seep in under the tree canopy.

I met a cyclist going the other way. I only do that when I’m soft pedaling. So I had to stand up out of the saddle and finish the last bit of the neighborhood route home.

Can’t believe I have to take my bike back again.

We had dinner tonight, pizza, with our friends Adam and Jessica. Mellow Mushroom put us in the very back of the restaurant. We had pretzels, of course, and pizza, of course. And we had a fine time with friends.

They’re getting married next weekend. We were there when they got engaged. I get to be in the wedding.

Tonight I told him that I’d contemplated backing out as I paid to rent the tuxedo.

He joyfully threatened me with physical harm.

Things to read which I found interesting today …

This will only get worse. And more incorrect. Doing drone journalism in Texas? You could be fined $10,000 or more:

As of the first of this month, taking aerial photographs of someone’s land in the state of Texas, without the landowner’s permission, is punishable by up to $2,000 and 180 days in jail, each time such a photo is distributed. Journalists are not exempt from this law.

[…]

The law also applies to photos taken in public places, at an altitude greater than eight feet above ground level (AGL)

That’s a good site about drones, by the way. (I want one.)

I remember the first time this happened to me. Rep. Todd Rokita To CNN’s Carol Costello: ‘You’re Beautiful But You Have To Be Honest’ OK, maybe it wasn’t that. But a senator told me I asked too many questions. The nerve of a reporter to do such a thing. When an interview subject says things like this, the odds are good that you’re taking them somewhere they don’t want to go. Keep at them, I say.

A followup from yesterday: 2 of 4 found shot to death in car in Winston County faced child molestation, pornography charges in Tennessee, sheriff says

Mice and fungi and skin scrapings are on the line: How the Shutdown Is Devastating Biomedical Scientists and Killing Their Research. This is actually an interesting perspective and a necessary story. There are many of them. None of them come with easy answers. You wonder how many times we can cut research budgets and stay on the forefront of science.

Some things shouldn’t be made to wait.

cycling / I do not know what is happening. / running / swimming — Comments Off
30
Sep 13

The month’s workouts

This is what I did on the bike and on my feet and in the pool. It was a poor month, when you take it altogether.

There isn’t nearly enough riding (red) to be found. I just started swimming (light blue). This shows an accurate representation for my enthusiasm for running (dark blue). All units are miles.

cycling / errands / Friday / I do not know what is happening. / links / photo / running / things to read — 2 Comments
27
Sep 13

I don’t say anything bad at all about the DMV

The guy at the local bike shop — I should say My Guy, since he’s always the one that draws the short straw and has to deal with me — says it isn’t an alignment problem that keeps me from shifting rings on the front of my bike. This explains why I could see no obvious problem. My front derailleur, tells me is frozen.

“Do you sweat a lot?”

Do you mean, do I ride in the heat of the day a lot? Yes.

Turns out all the sweat goes right there into the derailleur cage, where the hinge can rust out over time. Which is why, right now, I can only ride in the big ring. (Which is usually where I ride, anyway.)

Maybe I should stop riding in the rain so much, too then.

“No,” he said. “Just the sweat. The salt.”

Rust. Tastes like victory.

And the cost of a new derailleur. And not being able to ride until next week.

Because Amazon can ship you something from across the country in a day, but in a bike shop it will be Tuesday before your part comes in. No matter, I’ll miss one day of riding and, hopefully, it will be ready by next weekend.

On the upside, we did stand over a Trek time trial bike. And I picked up a carbon fiber Trek with state of the art electronic groupo just to feel what 15 pounds felt like. It felt like about $10,000. How anyone could ride something that expensive without fear in their eyes is beyond me.

And I coveted a Colnago. It was a beautiful machine. (It looked like this.) So beautiful, and significantly less than the Trek. We had a moment, me imagining slinging it left and right as I stood out of the saddle, the Colnago knowing I could never handle the ride. So beautiful.

Good thing my Felt was downstairs. It doesn’t need to get jealous. Can’t afford a new bike. It “only” cost two or three grand.

Also, upstairs was this poster:

That was for Bo Jackson’s Bo Bikes Bama tornado relief ride last year, and a shorter tour this year. He’s raised more than $600,000 in those six days in the saddle. Still sad I couldn’t talk any of my media friends into letting me cover it for them.

But Bo rides a Trek, and Trek loves Bo. And he signed his left thigh. In the reflection off the glass frame you can see part of another Trek in the background.

The Yankee rides a Trek, hence she knows Bo.

Also, the DMV this afternoon.

We have a satellite office, and the people there are nice and courteous and they know their business. Still, this late in the month, it took an hour to weave through the line. I was going to ask “How did we do this before smartphones?”

Then I remembered: I used to take a book.

But everyone was pleasant and in a good humor. Many folks took a friend. As good a time as any to catch up. A lot of people ran into people they knew. Medium-small towns have those advantages.

I’d rather go to our DMV than our post office — where I have also waited an hour in line.

Also, when you park in a parking space that is for employees only the DMV staff will run the tag and call you up to the desk to move your car. And you get your space back in line. Two people had this problem while I was there.

I might have been one of them.

We went for a run late this evening on the nearby bike and running trail. It is three miles, round trip. I got out a little ahead of The Yankee and, as it got dark I stopped and waited for her so I wouldn’t be shuffling along by myself in the twilight.

This was a mistake because it turned into an all out sprint at the end. I was not prepared for the last 200 yards. But I did break the tape. And by tape I mean spiderweb.

That wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it would be.

I’m concerned I’ll soon come to enjoy running.

I do not know what is happening.

Things to read which I thought were interesting while standing in line at the DMV today …

Three bears and one tough hiker

Special Space Camp graduation: 200 vision-impaired students from 25 states, 6 countries

The Economist rethinks ‘lean forward, lean back’ model

Got a great weekend planned?

cycling / journalism / links / things to read / Thursday / Tumblr / Twitter — Comments Off
26
Sep 13

A fast Thursday post

Wrote a long email today, in keeping with my email style. I went through it to edit and did manage to eliminate 42 words. I also used the word “countervailing,” which I felt like was a good reason to go for a bike ride.

So I managed to wrap up the day on my bike, catching the last few rays of sun from the saddle. It was late enough in the day that I didn’t even wear sunglasses, because that just made it look dark. As it was I found myself way over in the lane as I worked my way along shaded roads. No need to blend in, as Richard La China taught me:

This is why I ride in the middle of the lane. pic.twitter.com/bOPPniXzjA

— Richard La China (@richardlachina) August 29, 2013

I’d just started out and noticed my front derailleur wouldn’t shift. I could feel it in the shifter, and I could see it bolted onto the frame. I was in the big gear and it was staying there.

Everything was spinning, but I only had about six gears at my disposal. So I did a short, easy ride and stayed away from any hills. That’ll be something I get to look at tomorrow.

Things to read, which I found interesting today …

Speaking of riding the bike, here’s a local story from earlier today about the local bike scene. Hint: it ain’t bad.

The Garths scrimped and saved for two years before starting their tour in 2011 in Maine. After pedaling through 41 countries, the couple has experienced some of the best, and worst, areas for cycling.

“Our favorite place, as far as scenery goes, and natural beauty…was Patagonia,” Dave Garth said “For cycling, it’s terrible.”

He added Auburn is somewhere in the middle.

“Auburn is definitely getting better,” Garth said. “At this point, having been to some places that are really modeling this well…there is definitely room for improvement.”

Alabama currently holds the second-to-last spot in a nationwide ranking of bike friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists, coming in just above last-place finisher North Dakota. But with the implementation of Auburn University’s more pedestrian and bike friendly campus, the city as a whole is working to improve its biking infrastructure.

“Auburn is currently the only bicycle friendly community in Alabama,” said Brandy Ezelle, traffic engineer and bicycle coordinator for the city of Auburn. She added the city has received a bronze ranking in bike friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists.

Thomas McCrary, thought to be Alabama’s oldest farmer, dies 4 days before 102nd birthday:

Up until a year ago, when he was 101, Thomas McCrary drove a tractor around his 200-year-old farm, ensuring operations were running smoothly.

The humble man from New Market said in December he cherished the land that was settled by his namesake and great-grandfather, the first Thomas McCrary.

“It means a great bit to me,” McCrary said of the farm, which since its founding 203 years ago had been divided among family members.

Mr. McCrary died Monday.

There’s a book about that family, and that farm, perhaps the oldest one in the state, a decade older than the state itself. It was written by an old newsman, Joe Jones. About Thomas it says “he loves all and is loved by all.” He stayed on the farm his entire life, except when he was in Burma and China during the war. Here’s his obit, which is full of old-fashioned charm.

Thomas McCrary would have remembered his grandmother, who lived until his 18th year. She remembered the Civil War. A link just two generations removed is now gone. The first plane was flown in the state in March of 1910 by Orville Wright. McCrary was born 18 months later. Think of all he saw in his life.

And that’s what you lose when you lose a centenarian.

Sounds like a longform story, really. Here are some chat tips on one could do that:

It turns out that long and short writing are not necessarily in conflict. Think for a moment about your favorite magazines. Compared to newspapers, the long stories in magazines are longer, and the shorter pieces are shorter. It’s the combination of short and long that make a publication versatile for readers.

Although I’ve met some writers who tell me “I want to write shorter,” that is the exception. Most writers I know — including me — want to go longer. The daily beat reporter wants to do a Sunday feature. The Sunday feature writer wants to do a series. A series writer wants to do a book. The book author wants to do a trilogy.

And Twitter goes to emergency mode: Twitter Alerts: Critical information when you need it most:

We know from our users how important it is to be able to receive reliable information during these times. With that in mind, last year we announced Lifeline (a feature that helps Japanese users find emergency accounts during crises), and since then, we’ve been working on a related feature for people around the world.

If you sign up to receive an account’s Twitter Alerts, you will receive a notification directly to your phone whenever that account marks a Tweet as an alert. Notifications are delivered via SMS, and if you use Twitter for iPhone or Twitter for Android, you’ll also receive a push notification*. Alerts also appear differently on your home timeline from regular Tweets; they will be indicated with an orange bell.

You can see a list of participating organizations here.

More on the multimedia blog, Tumblr and Twitter.

collarbone / cycling / Friday / journalism / links / Samford / things to read — Comments Off
13
Sep 13

A brief one

Late in the day I got out for a little bike ride and found myself on a bad road. Six miles from home and everything in my shoulder locked up again. So, about that idea of a journal, one of the stimuli may be physical tension. I’d just spent a bit of time with my elbows locked, and my scapula pinched, after all.

In the last month or so I’ve just gotten mentally tired of the entire thing. I can’t explain it, but when it hurts it feels like it all hurts differently.

So I continue to do my exercises because I’m otherwise a healthy boy who should be able to overcome this.

All of this because of a big stick on a bike path. Funny, really. I’m almost never on a bike path. And I never run over sticks, nor do I ever intend to again. (This is also why I don’t ride a mountain bike.)

Things to read and listen to. This is what space sounds like, way, way out there. On the one hand Voyager has made it beyond the solar system. And this latest amazing achievement is another reminder that we have all but taken the people out of active space work. Robotics are interesting, but we should be out there taking steps to see and hear these things ourselves.

No doubt we’ll search each other when we do finally go. That’ll be all your fault. Ask this guy.

Well, fasten your flipping seatbelt because, according to a former DHS official, if you’ve been groped by TSA agents, you “can’t blame the TSA;” instead, he implied that you should blame privacy advocates.

[…]

“Unlike border officials, though, TSA ended up taking more time to inspect everyone, treating all travelers as potential terrorists, and subjecting many to whole-body imaging and enhanced pat-downs. We can’t blame TSA for this wrong turn, though. Privacy lobbies persuaded Congress that TSA couldn’t be trusted with data about the travelers it was screening. With no information about travelers, TSA had no choice but to treat them all alike, sending us down a long blind alley that has inconvenienced billions.”

What happens when the government tries to define journalists:

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., complained that the definition of a journalist was too broad. Pushing back, Feinstein said the intent was to set up a test to determine a bona fide journalist.

“I think journalism has a certain tradecraft. It’s a profession. I recognize that everyone can think they’re a journalist,” Feinstein said.

The government has no real place in saying who is a journalist.

These are people trying to define your freedoms. Think on that. Ed Morrissey, and then Matt Drudge, continue the thought:

“The entire approach is misguided. I think that journalism is an action, it’s not a status, it’s not a membership. And I think they’re treating it like a membership and they’re doing it in a way that is intended to be basically rent-seeking for the larger players in the field,” Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey told POLITICO. “It’s just a bad idea.”

[…]

“Gov’t declaring who qualifies for freedom of press in digital age is ridiculous! It belongs to anyone for any reason. No amendment necessary.”

Morrissey calls it a licensing law, which it may well be. Also, it is outrageous.

It will, as it always does, come down to control. And there’s plenty of control of journalists already.

Meanwhile, in a separate but related story:

The US FISA Court has ordered the government to declassify some aspects of its phone and internet surveillance program, the most recent of several disclosures in the past month. In the wake of leaks over the summer, the ACLU and many others have filed suit against the US government, looking for everything from more transparency to a way to take down a powerful surveillance program. The latter goal is still far from fruition, but the ACLU and Yahoo have both made progress in the former with a pair of recent court decisions.

The government would like to define and then restrict by shield law manipulation who can safely report on pressing issues of the day. What could go wrong?

Some nice news from Samford:

Samford University’s fall enrollment has reached an all-time high of 4,833 students, university officials announced today.

The total exceeds last year’s record-setting enrollment of 4,758 and marks the fifth consecutive year of record-setting enrollment for the university.

Explains the parking.