Riding, Weights, Reading, Working

Riding

I have started bicycling again, but not a lot, during the past month. Replaced my really old Clement Xplor USH tires that failed me in fine gravel and grit last June. I’ve gone back to Continental Tour Ride tires for my Jamis, but this time 32 mm width versus the 37 mm Tour Rides I’d installed on the bike back in 2014. My original post about those tires is found here: https://christov10.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/first-ride-continental-tour-ride-tires/ The WordPress post formatting scheme in use now renders intuitive linking a thing of the distant past.

About those tires, though, they were easy to install and I am again able to ride with confidence the degraded tarmac here at Stepford. You will understand that I am cautious when making turns, especially that one at the bottom of my street where I came to grief last June. It’s been several years since really long rides were part of my fitness and fun regime, but I noticed no problematic rolling resistance or heaviness/sluggishness using the new Tour Rides.

Weights

Weightlifting’s been my primary fitness activity for two or three years, now. I have been lifting on the average five to six days a week. I’ve had interesting political and theological discussions with two or three of the people I’ve met while working out in the early a.m. This weekend, I’m taking a break from the gym. I slept in until 7:00 am yesterday morning. Today I got up, as usual, at 4:00 am, drank a cup of coffee, read the news, and decided I’d post something here instead of the chest, shoulders, and triceps workout I had planned.

My workout schedule is typically: Day 1 – Legs and core; Day 2 – Back and biceps; Day 3 – Chest, shoulders, and triceps; Repeat. Some days I will do nothing but cardio using a treadmill, elliptical walker, or lateral walker. If I go too many days without a tiring workout, I get irritable.

We sold our last Volvo, a 2006 XC70, last Fall. I’ve been driving a Honda Accord hybrid sedan since then and that car hasn’t got roof racks. I bought a set of Handi-Racks inflatable roof racks for use with our folding kayaks. Soon as I get the garage organized, I’ll assemble the RZ-96 so my son and I can get some paddling in before the hot weather.

Reading

I’ve still been reading Galaxy’s Edge novels and other military science fiction series. I enjoy reading, probably too much, and read the way most people binge-watch series on Hulu or some other streaming service. But writing about what I read, even though I think a lot about and critically interact with the content – writing about what I read is something that’s hard for me to do. Possibly that’s because I want to intelligently and seriously address insights provoked by and areas of philosophical agreement or disagreement with what I’m reading. And that’s a lot of work.

It’s easier to post clever, flippant responses to news items online or at a social media site than it is to compose a logical critique or review of even a few paragraphs regarding something I’ve just read. For instance, I’ve read Karen Traviss’ Nomad novels – The Best of Us and Mother Death – a couple of times but it took several months for me to finally post a review of the latter at Amazon although it was stuff I’d had in mind for quite a while. Those two novels, by the way, are well worth your time. Here’s an unwieldy link to an Amazon page where you can preview or purchase both titles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NHNHJR5?searchxofy=true&binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1648983662&sr=8-1

Working

Because I have some kind of mathematics disability, I’m still working with people instead of information and/or machines. For the past year, I’ve been working at a facility much closer to the house than formerly. My previous drive was a sixty mile round trip each work day. Now it’s about 19 miles round trip. Huge savings in time and fuel. That’s what enables me to get to the gym in the early morning hours before work.

Long Haul Mark I

The Long Haul Mark I Kayak I purchased earlier this month. First assembly 10/30/20.

The kayak arrived in boxes last Wednesday and I only had time at lunch to unbox the parts, stow them in their bags. My wife noticed them in the garage when she got home in the afternoon.

Longerons, keelson halves, gunwales, yellow spraydeck. Looking top-down into the packing box.

Bags, ribs, rudder assembly, Comfort Seat.

I got the kayak at a bargain price. Mark had sewn a new deck on a customer’s hull but the fellow found it unsatisfactory – had to do with the rubber bash-pads either side of the cockpit – he thought they leaked, over-applied Aqua-Seal to the seams. Looks awful. Mark, the manufacturer, hypothesized the rubber pads stiffen up and form concavities with deck fabric inboard their inner edges allowing some water to pool there and seep in through the deck seam. Since I’m not an ocean going paddler crossing several miles between mainland and island fairly often, the hullskin will probably suffice for my uses. And the keelstrips on that hull – keelstrips on top of keelstrips.

Again, regarding the bargain price – Mark assembled the frame from odd parts remaining in his workshop. So they don’t all match – I’ll post some photos when I get a chance to illustrate what I mean. A few Klepper parts mixed in. Some had been finished with Line-X versus varnished. I have a maroon seat. Yellow spray deck and a gray skirt to go with it. Klepper rudder modified slightly.

Because I have been working from home, when there’s a hole in my schedule, as long as my documentation’s caught up, I have some freedom relative to time use. Yesterday, in my spare time and during my lunch hour, I assembled the Mark I for the first time. I think I’ve got the rudder pedals further forward than is going to work well, and I’ll have to correct seat placement. Hopefully will get a couple of hours on the water today.

Lately, instead of Star Wars expanded universe novels, I’ve been reading the Galaxy’s Edge series. From the Star Wars universe I first read the work of one Karen Traviss – Republic Commandos series, a few others, a lot of thought put into the Mandalorian background, language, culture, history, planetary dispersion, etc. Good character development, not too preachy. A good friend of mine refers to her characters as “the Fett Brothers.”

A few weeks ago, I had a look at her blog and saw an entry about a novel she’d published in late 2019 entitled The Best of Us. I’ve reviewed it on Amazon. Like a Mitford novel with actual peril, guns, spies, spaceships, aliens, artificial intelligence – by “like Mitford” I mean not alarmingly fast paced with good depth of character development, a “richness” (although I don’t like using advertising copy words) to the novel’s “texture” (another one of those words) that is unusual for Science Fiction and is an element of Traviss’ work that sets it apart.

Since Ms. Traviss’ next installment has not been published yet, I’ve passed the time reading a lot of the other novels from the series. I’ve reviewed on Amazon Anspach and Cole’s “Madame Guillotine” – can’t figure out how to get the blog posting software to underline. Pretty good critique of contemporary political culture in the U.S. and Western countries, particularly. If I have any criticism of Anspach and Cole’s work, it is they tend to over-use elements of contemporary popular culture. For instance, the “Ready Player One” thing from their “Gods and Legionnaires” novel – second in the Savage Wars series. That said, whichever of them wrote the parts about Southern California in the 70s to the 80s got it right. I remember it from my own childhood and youth.

That’s the sticker corner in my boatshed. My Article 19 sticker’s going on the car.