So I guess it’s kinda spring now? We’re supposed to top 80° here in the RVA today, after two days of solid (but warm) rain. I’ll take it. Lions, lambs, all that crap, right?

The week itself has been about standard, at least standard for weeks where I have to run the gauntlet of senior leader briefings to get projects funded and approved, wrestling with backroom deals, last-minute changes of opinion from legal and (especially) finance, and all kinds of other bullshit that even our “experts” on this process can’t wrap their minds around.

How do I deal? Biking, craft beer, and antidepressants (though not all at the same time).

That’s largely the plan for the weekend as well; ideally more of the primary, and less of the secondary and tertiary. Having logged a few long days of document review earlier this week, my goal is to bail a bit early and get out and enjoy the weather for twenty miles or so before the Cap clogs up. It helps to pour the work frustration into endurance cardio, and I’m planning on doing the Cap2Cap Half-Century ride in May, and need to maintain some sort of conditioning.

All the biking this month hasn’t necessarily shed any weight, but I expect that’s coming. I could stand to drop about 40 pounds of quarantine/stress weight (*if* I want to get back down to my lowest point, which was arguably too low), but muscle gain is going to help that long-term, even if I stall/gain a bit up front.

Who’d have thought I’d become a fitness guy in my early middle-age? I hope I’m not completely insufferable.

On that note? tunes. A somewhat usual mix of 80s and 90s alternative, a bit of metal, and some weird shit, but it’s a nice soundtrack while I take advantage of a quiet Friday morning to clean up a bunch of work documentation:

1. “Blackest Eyes” – Porcupine Tree
2. “The Sails of Charon” – Scorpions
3. “Beer Good” – The Electric Peanut Butter Company
4. “Domino Effect” – Ozma
5. “Cold Company” – Minus the Bear
6. “Just Like Heaven” – Dinosaur Jr.
7. “I Ain’t Hiding” – The Black Crowes
8. “Frownland” – Captain Beefheart
9. “Daddy” – Devin Townsend, Che Aimes Dorval
10. “Cliffs of Dover” – Eric Johnson
11. “Ghosts” – nelward
12. “Mother Mary” – Foxboro Hottubs
13. “All of This” – Shaimus
14. “Supernaut” – Black Sabbath
15. “Pretend We’re Dead” – L7