Happy rainy Friday, folks! I’m wrapping up my work week a little early to make the trek to the other end of the state for the Roanoke Harry Potter Festival gig tomorrow, which should be fun, even if the whole business has been wet, rainy fustercluck so far in terms of scheduling, atmospheric conditions, and organization, though we’re going to do our best to entertain the folks who come out, and we’re committed to enjoying ourselves, as we always do when we get together to make music and goof off for our adoring public.

Otherwise, I think I’ve learned an important lesson: the first rule of weight loss club is to not talk about weight loss club. After trending down nicely all week, my weigh-in this morning was slightly more than half-a-pound higher than yesterday. I know that in the scheme of things it’s signal noise (it’s either a slightly higher sodium intake yesterday and I’m retaining water, or I’m increasing muscle mass with all the biking I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks), but one of the detriments of this daily weigh-in program is seeing these sorts of things and assigning too much value to them emotionally and feeling like a failure for a couple of minutes.

I think the nagging scale understood that, though. It’s message to me this morning wasn’t that I was up xx lbs today, but “Your weight is stable. Make one small change to see your weight go down tomorrow.” I think that’s its way of softening the blow.

I’m kind of over it already. I rode over 30 miles on my bike this week (ten of those miles in the rain yesterday, picking up a couple of ticks for my trouble), and maybe more importantly, I tried on the vest I mentioned yesterday, and I was able to button it again(!), so I’m calling it a win.

Here’s some tunes. Enjoy:

1. “Never Be The Same” – Surf Rock is Dead
2. “Alone” – Heart
3. “Montana (Whipping Floss) – Live in Helsinki Finland, 1974 – Frank Zappa
4. “Shine” – Mondo Cozmo
5. “Animal” – Miike Snow
6. “Enter the Glade” – Falconer
7. “Obsession (U.S. 12”) – Animotion
8. “Alive” – Pearl Jam
9. “Daylight” – Matt & Kim
10. “Gone for Good” – The Shins
11. “Dashboard” – Modest Mouse

Oh, and in Stranger Things news (to carry on the “eleven” theme) season 2 is supposed to edge more toward the horror genre than last season. I just hope it keeps the same great atmosphere from last season, which played more to fear and dread than jump scares, and one of the things that really made it special.