Y’know…four day weeks, longer than five, etc…

It’s cliché for a reason, though. As I started this Friday morning, I already had 29 hours on the books (out of a four day week total of 32), most of it in active conversation, either on the phone, via collaboration apps, or, horror of horrors, in an actual office building conference room with other actual people!

After a few aborted attempts over the last couple of months, I had some actual in-office billable hours (not that my salary works like that) for the first time in a long time yesterday.

It was…odd.

It was also rather useful, working through the IT program management center’s pile of work and sorting and classifying and assigning and arguing and debating and such…not that we got done digging through the pile, but we made progress, and it was, I think, easiser to find a rhythm while in the same room with folks.

That said, it was long, a little awkward for all of us, and even though we were wearing masks (the whole metro area’s still in “high risk” status), watching the black particulate crap blowing out of the HVAC vents in the satellite office we were using that’s in the midst of being stripped for parts as the organization lets the lease run out wasn’t particularly inspiring.

But hey, the boss bought us lunch, and it was a pleasant diversion to be able to see most of someone’s face again after working with them through a headset for the last two years, and laugh a bit at the once-a-century weirdness of the whole situation.

Not that we’re planning on doing it again any time soon…black particulate and all.

Otherwise, this past week was largely “meh.” I worked a lot, of course, got a couple of bike rides in early in the week and dodged raindrops and hailstones the latter part. I hunted a bunch of local hardware stores for a 21/64″ drill bit (harder than you’d expect), paid some bills, corresponded with some con staff regarding upcoming gigs, and mostly didn’t get enough sleep.

It’s dance recital weekend, so I’ll be busy supporting that, even if this year’s venue doesn’t require the use of my P.A. with me behind the board. Between that and grocery shopping, I’m hoping to get the Trek closer to road-worthy, and ideally, maybe relax a bit? Who knows.

Anyway – here’s a bunch of tunes for the week – some actual late 60s, and some stuff that sounds like it. Not at all sure what the seed for this one was, but it kind of fits the damp, foggy, overcast morning out my window:

1. “Mind Eraser” – Nicole Atkins
2. “The Thing Is” – Foxygen
3. “Whisper” – Ty Segall
4. “Can’t Stop The Rain” – Neil Francis
5. “Birthday Boys” – Oysterhead
6. “Time Will Come (1967)” – Tol-Puddle Martyrs
7. “Considering a Move to Memphis” – The Colorblind James Experience
8. “Diddy Wah Diddy” – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
9. “Fever Dog” – Still Water
10. “Run Run Run” – Kurt Vile
11. “Golden Years” – Car Seat Headrest
12. “Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed” – Silver Jews
13. “The Man” – Patto
14. “I, Moron” – The Lovely Eggs w Iggy Pop
15. “Shoutout” – The Walker Brothers

So this weekend I took on a summer project…

The lure of suggested ads from social media platform classifieds was too much of a siren song to bear, and I clicked a listing for a “needs some work” road bike that didn’t look too bad. After work on Friday, I took a drive to the other side of the city, and this followed me home:

What you see above is an almost completely original 2010 Trek Alpha 1.2 that’s spent the last half-decade taking up space in a shed after serving as a commuter for a couple of years. Twelve years ago, it was a $1000 bike. I got it for at least an order of magnitude less.

As I said, it needs a little work. While it appears to have been taken care of for the most part, it came with twelve year-old flat rubber, a few dings, and the stock saddle replaced with a big box comfort special. Otherwise, everything is original issue, for better or worse.

It’s within spitting distance of road-worthy – the old tubes held enough air for me to do a quick neighborhood shakedown to make sure the drivetrain, shifters, and brakes were functional. Once I replace a few consumables, clean and re-lube some things that need lubrication, and make a few modern updates, it should be a nicely functional road bike that I’m hoping will let me advance a bit and get me past the 65 mile wall I’m butting up against with the Giant hybrid.

This was kind of always the plan; at the beginning of the pandemic, lots of folks bought new bicycles to keep them busy in a solo context, and a good percentage of those were likely to hit the used market within a couple of years as the hobby didn’t take. This one’s a bit older than that, but it’s in remarkably good shape and probably cost me a bit less anyway.

So, once I get this thing up and running, I’ll be due for new tires on the Giant anyway, so that’ll get gravel tread again and the Trek will cover the pavement side. I’ve already got a new saddle and pedals on it, and have fresh tubes and tires in the wings; though It’ll need a slight modification to convert the stock Presta-configured wheels to accept Shrader valves (but I’ve got that plan in the works). And I’m going to put a fresh wrap on the handlebars, but that’s a minor thing.

Not, of course, that I don’t have plenty of other responsibilities to deal with, but, but…shiny new project!

Same verse, same as the last thousand…long days, long nights, etc…

Specifically, though, I got home in the early hours of the morning after spending the evening in Norfolk watching some chosen family graduate in the ODU arena on Thursday. It was worth it for seeing and supporting friends, though, when a man’s gotta put at least a few hours in working on Friday morning…um, yeah.

At least I’m staring down a long weekend after a week of long days, thanks to the republic’s newest federal holiday commemorating a pretty great piece of American history, so I’m hoping to catch a little bit of a break in the action.

We’ll see.

In any case…tunes. These made up my road trip mix for yesterday’s drive:

1. “Astronomy Domine” – Voivod
2. “Under My Thumb” – Pentagram
3. “Me and You” – Egg Hunt
4. “Moonage Daydream” – Zen Guerilla
5. “P.U.N.K. Girl” – Heavenly
6. “Blue Lamp” – Stevie Nicks
7. “Books About UFOs” – Hüsker Dü
8. “Love Kills” – Joe Strummer
9. “High and Lonesome” – Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
10. “Nausea” – Violet/Dave Grohl
11. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – Amythyst Klah
12. “The Very Best Years” – The Grays
13. “Ride on My Bike” – Rosalie Cunningham
14. “Girl K Is For The People” – Girl K
15. “Milwaukee” – The Both

Most of my week’s been way too deeply invested in developing a couple of sales pitch decks for the C-suite pushing a new organizational scheme for requirements in the program management center…Well, I say “new”, when I really mean “a”, because currently, there really isn’t any rhyme or reason to things.

My boss and our small team (thankfully it is a team now, rather than just the two of us) are, perhaps quixotically, trying to bring some order and sense to an organization pretty much defined by inertia. We’ll see – this may be the next decade of my career and what’ll see me to retirement…who knows.

They keep paying me, so I keep plugging away. I’m just sick of thinking in slides, bulleted lists, and drop-shadow boxes highlighting important points carefully constructed to *not* resemble anything cribbed from an MBA textbook.

Between that and trying to wrap up the insurance settlement and getting the new kids’ car street legal (thankfully done now, and not too expensively), I haven’t had much room for anything else, apart from daily bike rides dialed in to try and get my endurance back after my suspected brush with a viral variant, and watching the delightful premiere episode of Ms. Marvel on Wednesday evening.

No idea what’s on the agenda for this weekend; there are a host of cool things happening in the city tomorrow, but honestly? I’m not sure I want to deal with crowds.

In any case, it’s Friday morning, so here are some tunes – some pleasant hard rock/hair metal throwbacks, along with something from the VH legacy project at #6, which honestly has a pretty good pop sensibility to it:

1. “The Real Me” – W.A.S.P.
2. “Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots” – Black Sabbath
3. “I’m On Fire” – Dwight Twilley Band
4. “Cleveland Rocks” – Ian Hunter
5. “Edison’s Medicine” – Tesla
6. “Mr. Ed” – Mammoth WVH
7. “Free Four” – Pink Floyd
8. “Elenore” – Flo & Eddie
9. “Deeper and Deeper” – The Fixx
10. “High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night” – Def Leppard
11. “Midnight Moses” – The Senational Alex Harvey Band
12. “Opite²” – TOOL
13. “Girl U Want” – Soundgarden

If one were given to wallow in cliche, absence, they say, makes the heart grow fonder. Honestly, though, based on the stats, mostly don’t think anybody much cares.

Apart from a couple of playlist posts the last couple of weeks, I’ve been largely absent from this space. And if I’m absent, pretty much everybody’s absent; I’m aware I keep this thing going primarily as an enhancement for my own memory; visitors from out in the rest of the world, and people who might want to buy my music are really just bonuses.

In that spirit, here’s quick run-down of the things that I’ve been dealing instead of brain-dumping here the last couple of weeks:

Thing The First: I’m pretty sure I actually did have COVID there in the beginning of May; I never tested positive, and apart from feeling a little run down with what I thought were allergies, I was never really totally out of the game. What makes me think this is the fact that I seem to have lost a step when it comes to endurance, particularly on the bike. I may indeed have ridden sixty miles while in the throws of the ‘rona, but since then, hitting my usual stock twenty-miles-after-work ride has been really difficult, particularly in terms of breathing; more so than if I’d just taken off for a week or so. It’s frustrating. To build back, I’m scaling back my goals a bit; starting from scratch and rebuilding. Spending the next week or so ensuring I can do 10-12 miles at a shot without killing myself, and building back up from there. We’ll see how it goes.

Thing the Second: Work, one could say, is kicking my ass. I’ve been very busy shepherding way too many projects – actual spend plan projects as well as ambitious “reorganize the agency as we know it” efforts that, if successful, will be amazing, but I know better than to get too optimistic about, because people. It’s been eating a lot of my time, and has been exhausting. AND…I’ve actually got to show up in person in the office tomorrow to glad-hand contractors for a bit…joy.

Thing the Third: A kid totaled the van the other weekend, so I’ve been neck deep in car insurance wrangling for the last couple of weeks, which has eaten up most of the rest of my active brain cycles. It’s been a constant game of exchanging paperwork, checking statuses, and shopping for a replacement. After a bunch of false starts (including one vehicle we were interested in getting into a wreck on the way to meet up with us to ideally exchange money for wheels), we ended up with a cheap but decent Toyota/Scion that should, with care, last at least another 100k miles. That, of course, adds registration, more insurance, and mechanical inspections to get this thing legal for the road. The light, as they say, is starting to show at the end of the tunnel, $diety willing.

Both young drivers have had their first wrecks now with no injuries, so that’s at least out of the way.

Apart from that? Well, there hasn’t been time for much of anything else, especially since we’re in the midst of dance recital season, on both teaching and studenting fronts. Add to that all the usual life crap, and all I want to do is collapse.

Here’s to hoping it gets better.

The excessive life has slowed down somewhat, but I’ve still got way too many balls in the air, so to speak, and seriously don’t have the energy or free brain cycles to go on about it here. Once things settle a bit more? We’ll likely be back to our regularly scheduled web-hosted bitching.

Suffice it to say, I’ve had too many meetings, too many expenses, too much correspondence, and not enough relief these last couple of weeks.

Anyway, some tunes spotify thought I’d like:

1. “Dickie Betts” – Dean Ween Group
2. “For Mia” – Owen Beverly
3. “Computer Games” – George Clinton
4. “The Rover” – Led Zeppelin
5. “Better Things” – The Kinks
6. “Holy Man – Taylor Hawkins version” – Dennis Wilson
7. “Cinnamon Girl” – Type O Negative
8. “Kaisarion” – Ghost
9. “Heavy Metal – Take A Ride” – Don Felder
10. “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)” – Cracker
11. “Ride a White Swan” – T. Rex
12. “Chewbacca” – Supernova Chile
13. “Fire” – Arthur Brown

Still too much life; memos, insurance, horrific news (and our unfortunate numbness to it as a nation), insomnia, graduations and transitions, bizarre requests, and a whole bunch of rain.

I’m exhausted. I fell asleep before 7pm last night watching the new Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers movies on the couch.

Yeah.

Here’s a list of songs:

1. “Dedicated” – The Amps
2. “Money” – The Flying Lizards
3. “Roadrunner” – The Modern Lovers
4. “Girl U Want” – DEVO
5. “Tarot” – Ataraxia
6. “Witchcraft” – Book of Love
7. “The Death of Pop” – The Rub
8. “Hanging on the Telephone” – The Nerves
9. “Behind the Mask” – Greg Phillinganes
10. “I’d Like to See The Bad Guys Win” – Margo Guryan
11. “Spreading the Disease” – Queensrÿche
12. “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time” – Marshall Crenshaw & The Handsome, Ruthless and Stupid Band
13. “Blue Red and Grey” – The Who
14. “Johnny, Are You Queer?” – Josie Cotton
15. “Moldavite” – Reggie Pearl

Too much life this week, friends. I’ve got nothin’.

Here’s some music:

1. “Madonna of the Wasps” – Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
2. “Try Me On…I’m Very You” – Deee-Lite
3. “Head Over Heels (Dave Bascombe 7″ N.Mix)” – Tears for Fears
4. “The New World” – X
5. “The Hook” – Stephen Malkmus
6. “Turtles Have Short Legs” – CAN
7. “Lips Like Sugar” – Echo & The Bunnymen
8. “Peanuts Grow Underground” – Pixx
9. “Chick Habit” – Izzy Bardot
10. “Sleep” – This Heat
11. “Apple” – Cibo Matto
12. “DemiRep” – Bikini Kill
13. “She’s My Baby” – Mazzy Star
14. “The Book Lovers” – Broadcast
15. “Leda” – Makthaverskan
16. “Harborcoat” – R.E.M.

As I’m still fighting off this respiratory thing, I spent the weekend largely down, trying to rest and medicate this thing away. The weather cooperated with me by being largely garbage all weekend, so I wasn’t particularly tempted to push myself with outdoor exercise. I watched a couple of movies, played some Pokemon, read some books, and made a decent slow cooker full of vegan chili.

Looking to the week ahead, I’m hoping the current uneventful nature continues in my personal journey. Work looks quiet, and more rainy weather is going to keep me inside on my ass at least one more day, which is, honestly, exactly what I need.

Being primary season though, I’m keeping an eye on the outlook for the mid-term elections their effects on the second half of the current administration. So far, tradition seems to be holding, that the party in power will lose a few seats – I’m hoping the conventional wisdom is wrong, but we’ll see – we’ve got a little over six months for things to play out.

As neither of my senators is up for re-election this time around, and my congressional district is pretty solidly blue (this year, it’s the same lineup as 2020, when my congressman beat the challenger 62-38, which isn’t surprising, since the challenger’s website doesn’t even include an issues/positions section), there’s not much to follow around here.

Given the 50-50 balance in the Senate, however, I’m watching some of those other races pretty closely, particularly the senate race in the state of my birth. With Patt Toomey retiring, the race for that Pennsylvania seat has been the subject of lots of national attention. On the Republican side, you’ve got TV’s Memhet “Doctor” Oz holding the lead over a host of others on name recognition and TFG’s endorsement, but flailing on substance and credentials. For the Democrats, there are three candidates, but Lt. Governor John Fetterman has a solid lead, backed by statewide experience, solid progressive positions, and an informal, unconventional style that feels pretty solidly Pennsylvanian in presentation, only without the regressive social opinions and with a couple of advanced degrees. He’s like your rough-n-tumble Berks County uncle who knocks back a few lagers and starts debating the merits of Keynesian economics.

I like him enough that I’ve tossed him a few bucks this cycle, and was saddened to hear about his medical issues this weekend ahead of the primary, but it looks like he’s going to make a full recovery, and hopefully be ready to compete in the general after tomorrow’s primary election.

So, if you’re voting in that particular election tomorrow and looking for my recommendation, I say vote for Fetterman; he’ll be a solid asset to the party and the nation, and be interesting and entertaining to watch while doing it.

Another week gone, spent, primarily, pushing five requirements packages over the line to get briefed and funded at work, clearing the decks so I can maybe have some time to work on all the evil overlord/”remake the agency” projects the bosses and I are hatching to hopefully improve things around here.

That’s where my head’s been, primarily, and with all the continued sinus crap happening in there, there’s not room for much else. Some time hiking the local trails after work, some correspondence with event organizers about upcoming gigs, and working my way through a compelling but slow-reading novel in the evenings.

The coming weekend looks relatively uneventful, apart from another memorial service for a friend who passed. The world’s losing way too many good people this year, and I wish it would just stop doing that. Likewise, the weather look awful, so I expect the bike will stay stowed. Maybe I’ll break out the recording gear and process some musical ideas, or maybe I’ll just log some quality time on the couch playing video games?

Objectively, I’ve been plenty productive this week already, so I’m not feeling a whole lot of pressure to run up the scores for once. I’m just going to go where the wind takes me, I think.

As for tunes this week, lots of cool, forty year old deep cuts and recent indie tracks that ape the sound; nicely fuzzed-up guitars and analog production what’s honestly hitting a spot I didn’t know needed hitting. Also, closing things out is my favorite cover song from one of those bands I’ve stuck with for decades and always appreciate:

1. “Wicked Woman” – Coven
2. “Love Your Money” – Daisy Chainsaw
3. “Living In Hell” – Cobra Man
4. “Feed The Tree” – Belly
5. “Whole Wide World” – Wreckless Eric
6. “I’m Glad We Broke Up” – Du Blonde
7. “Cat House” – Danielle Dax
8. “Guided By Angels” – Amyl and The Sniffers
9. “Flying Saucer Safari” – Suburban Lawns
10. “Rock Star” – Hole
11. “Stayin’ Alive” – Tropical F*ck Storm
12. “Whata A Way To Die” – The Pleasure Seekers
13. “Third Uncle” – Bauhaus
14. “3 Strange Days” – School of Fish
15. “Hazy Shade of Winter” – The Bangles