photo by d. scott gregory

While I was in a IM conversation earlier tonight, I got an email:

Me: shit, I got an email from a comment on my stupid blog "whatever happened to finding a new apartment, a new job and something that remotely resembles a social life? Yeah, I know - you socialize with the bikers and perhaps will make some friends (you know -- those people you see OFF THE BIKE and OUT OF WORK) that way. You're obsessing with this to avoid social interaction and getting a job you like better... imho of course "
Friend: ouch
Friend: who said that
Me: no clue, yet that person didn't have the balls to say who it was
Me: lol
Friend: wasnt i
Me: Anonymous

Me: i'll find out when I check the logs, IPs never lie
Me: and let them know (if I know who they are)
Me: lol

Regardless, I found this comment (Thursday, March 03, 2005) worthy of responding to - because on the surface, it's partially true, both critical - in a harmless constructive way, yet patronizing (due to the lack of information on my behalf). Just a FYI - notwithstanding Defensiveness, I write this blog for me, just a daily recourse of self-documentation, not unlike the "routine" per se of a focused training ride. I don't really care who reads this blog, I do get fascinated and sometimes entertained by the demographic trends of the people who read it - as by knowlege or by happenstance. I don't solicit input, any input I recieve is welcome ("imho of course"). Feel free to check out the webtrends of this blog, I have nothing to hide (link is always on the left, "Visitor info, last 20 visitors").

So to truely respond to the comment, I will have to preface it by saying that what I write here is only a selective account of what I do daily. I do not disclose where I work, what exactly I do, I do not disclose certain (obvious) personal information. I judiciously select what I want to account for the sake of blogging - which is why this blog is so damn boring. I work, bike, cook, run errands - and sometime(s) ponder my social interactions. I do have an active social life, albeit, not huge - which is mixed with my heavy active extreme marathon cycling lifestyle. I do socialize with people at my workplace...but only at work. I refuse to go into detail about my current living scenario - that information is privy to only my closest friends, similar to who or anyone I may be seeing. That being said, to answer you "I have been actively looking at apartments for the past few weeks, the job search is still on ( - although my current job is improving 240% - as a result of me being overtly proactive). To claim that I have a propensity to avoid social interaction is just plain silly. That being said, I'll GET OFF MY BIKE while I'm NOT AT WORK and present you my "selective account of what I did today":


I got up this morning, early for a Saturday - had a day full of tasks ahead. I gulped down some coffee and hit the road. First stop, Reston - to look at 2 sets of apartments. Was a semi-bust, one set was out of my league (who can afford to spend over $2,000 a month for a 1.5 bedroom apartment), not I. The other place was too ghetto. WIll continue this search tomorrow in Herndon and Vienna. I still have not settled on which area I want to live. All Northern VA is about the same...traffic, suburbs, city, villages - life near the beltway and metro. My requirement is that it is near the bike trail, but needs to be flexible to commute to DC or out to the Dulles Cooridor.

photo by d. scott gregory

Frustrated, I scampered (odd word choice) off to meet with my NVVC (Northern Virginia Velo Club) buddies to embark on a 52 mile training ride from Vienna to Hamilton and back. Was a nice 3 hour trip of pacelining, chit chat of the upcoming season of races and century rides - one of the folks that was there is also in training for the Mountains of Misery. It was a beautiful day, on the chilly side - sun shining, my nose got a little sun - rest was covered.

Ran a few more domestic errands then came home and whipped up a really gastronomically pleasing meal:

Scallops in an Herbed Fennel Shitake Mushroom Sauce with Safron Rice, and some Sesame Green Beans with Pancetta, Garlic & Scallions (recipe coming soon)

Finished up dinner and then watched Troy (with Brad Pitt), what a longass film. Was stupidly entertaining. Not much more to say about it other than it made my butt sore from sitting for so long.

Tomorrow is more of the same apartment hunting and another 50 miler. Don't roll your eyes ms anonymous-comment@blogger.com, life is good ;)

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artwork and photo by d. scott gregory click to enlarge

I think I just set the record...or rather, the bar for how pathetic a single man can be. I just spent my Friday evening for 3 hours helping my parents set up a scanning macro on their computer so they can automate the scanning of all of their slide transparencies of 30 years - to burn onto CD/DVD to play on tv. All in all, there are about 10 carousels of slides (about 100 per carousel). All the slides need to be scanned in high resolution, then auto cropped, labled and placed in specific folders so that they can be played on a CD/DVD. I automated the process tonight - but no way in hell am I gonna spend 8 hours sitting here hitting the scanner button.

Well, I could have been cleaning/lubing my bike. Same concept.

Work was a huge mess of quasi-dogmatic assholism. ABBA (my Asshole Bipolar Boss Asshole) was predictibly up to his tricks today of delusional paranoia upon the delivery of a huge project I was responsible for. To the point that I just went along with the game. For example, (and it always happens after 5:30pm..on the day of the deadline, on a friday, nonetheless)...even though all work has been signed off and approved..he just wants to pull a power dick thang just because he can....demanding a bunch of last minute changes - petty cosmetic things that are just an excuse for him to pretend he's involved.... And to top it off, he claimed that he'd never seen any of this before... (yikes...what has he been reviewing for the past 3 weeks).

artwork and photo by d. scott gregory click to enlarge

So I called his bluff....sure..I'll stay in the office as long as I need to...(gee, it was Friday evening - I had no plans) to appease his power trip...I made the changes, in fact I insisted and triple checked my work so that it was "just right"..but the long process was that he had to have one of his sons eventually migrate the code...oh boy...that means that they had to stay late. I snickered...he got himself into this... The sons got all pissed off and told 'ol pop to go fuck himself. I pleasantly left and went on a great 38 mile bike ride.

The photos of the Postys are a recent addition - the 2004-2005 Postys. Click on to enlarge.

Looking forward to a weekend of relaxation, productivity, art, biking, cooking, poetry - tomorrow night, I'm planning on cooking some Scallops with Fennel and Shitake Mushrooms in a Bouillabaisse sauce, Saffron Rice and Sesame French green beans...yum

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Today was a semi-productive day. It seemed. Work was a messy day of professional bullshittery. I got out of there early top go on a really cold ride. Froze my nuts off. Only was able to tolerate about 25 miles. My feet were frozen despite how over dressed I was. When it's below freezing...well...that's wgat it is.

I started finalizing my calendar for my cycling events this spring thru fall...lotta stuff happening, here's the partial list (some may change, or fluxuate - I'm shooting for about 18 events, some more brutal...some just pure charity rides).

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Brrrr! It sure got cold again. I'll be glad when it begins to warm up. Woke up to a frigid 20 degrees with huge wind gusts - wind chill of in the single digits.

Work was a normal mess of well...just work. One drama after another high stress catastrophic technical drama. Was glad to get off work at 5:30 to get on my bike with 30 degree F with 25-35mph wind gusts (wind chill in the low teens).

I went on a very harrowing and shallow 25 miler - twas wickedly frigid, but the worst part was the unrelentless wind. On the 4th lap, I had to give up and head back. The a wind gust blew me about 5 feet sideways and I almost crashed into a car. I'm crazy, but not stupid.

Took me a while to warm up after driving home and after dinner. Got all toasty after dinner looking at new computers online. I want to get a flat screen this time, besides, I've gotten addicted to my 19" flat screen at work (rather spoiled).

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I think I overdid it yesterday - physical activity...the hauling of stuff at the office...then the hour long on my trainer (not very long), then an hour of shovelling heavy wet snow. I felt it this morning when I couldn't get out of bed, my back was in some serious pain. I got up, hobbled to the bathroom took 4 large advil, crawled back into bed to find a comfortable position to lay in - called into the office, said I'd be going in a little later this morn.

Was glad I did - I finally was able to straighten up and get into the shower - utter pain. I managed to get to the office before 11am. Walked into a firestorm of activity, felt guilty I wasn't there earlier. Oh well.

Work flew by and my back seemed to lose the stiffness - I thought going on a short stretch on my bike would be good, in the cold weather. I was right. Managed to do a 32 miler - granted it was cold as shit..and windy as hell - I finished in great spirits.

Came home, had dinner, paid bills, more research on cycling events. Life goes on.

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As promised, Mother Nature was just a flirtatious bitch today. We were supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow starting at 1am last night..then at 4am...then...crap..I woke up...nothing.

It didn't start snowing until about 11am. But it steadilly snowed until about 10pm, strange wet snow - looked very pretty, made for shitty driving. The sloppy wet stuff. It Will I'm sure freeze tonight and make all the roads like an ice rink tomorrow morn. All told, maybe about 3-4 inches...wimpy snowfall.




Work was a whirlwind of activity trying to finish up a project in anticipation of having to leave early because of the weather. We rushed got it done. We were excused early at about 4:00pm...so I ran a few errands to avoid rushhour, mailed package, ran to bank. Then drove home in "light" traffic...I got home at 6:30pm.

Hopped on my trainer for only an hour and had a really sweaty 25 miler (always tougher on the trainer, work up a huge ass sweat) Finished up, dinner then I went out and shoveled snow for an hour (I took a few photos, pictured, of the snow today). Exhausting day.

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Another wonderful relaxing weekend day. Yes yes yes, I know - more of the same. I'm as predictable as a skipping broken record.

I did domestic crap in the morning, the ol Jiffy Lube fun-o-rama, misc. errands (oh yea..that's right..I need shampoo - I'd better stop using body wash on my hair)

Went to Vienna and suited up for a very blustery cold ride - it was a somewhat clear day, and I wanted to make sure I got in a good stretch (after yesterday's 52 mile ride) before the huge snow storm comes tomorrow morn/all day. I did a 44 mile jaunt out towards Leesburg and back. I have to say - when I'm biking, I am calm, cool collected - just enjoying what I do, thoughts, concentration, focus, sometimes just daze - but 3 things that really piss me off. Dumbass people that are so inobservant of their surroundings in a perceptual/cultural or just stupid way just get in my way (ie., the farktards who wander aimlessly around - 2-4 year olds unsupervised by their parents - I blame the parents), #2 asshole drivers that don't know the law..or follow it regarding cyclists, or choose to think we are an annoyance (ie. i've been almost hit 3 times in the past 2 weeks because of these asshole drivers). And #3 other cyclists who pass me! Arrg!

I know, sometimes I can be passive/aggressive - and sometimes a total arrogant asshole myself - but I'm polite and I have a great sportsmanship attitude. But in cycling - it's also about ego and perception - even though it's waxed up with fake poetry and spit shined with all sorts of shit in an french or italian accent. Truth of the matter is that cyclists can be assholes.

It's very rare that I have a cyclist pass me - unless it's intentional in training with my cycling club when we paceline and exchange lead duties, following a peleton. But crap...I was out there today, alone - wizzing at about 23mph and hammered up a hill, got slower then at the peak - this asshole who had been drafting me for gosh knows how long, decides to yell "on your left" and then just haul ass heading down the hill. I followed for a long ass time before he and his $8,000 Ageis carbon fiber/full Dura-Ace bike turned off in Reston. Just got under my skin.

Welp, not looking forward to the snow we are getting tomorrow - supposed to start tonight at 4am and snow until tomorrow night, between 6-10inches of snow. This means no cycling outside tomorrow night. I wish my fricken office had a policy/contingency plan for when it snows (what is the protocal?....who do I call if it snows?). Note to self - suggest to office that they put together a formal office policy....because the lack of one makes it too convenient for them to just not give a shit and change it.

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