Well, I didn’t quite finish off one hundred miles this weekend for the 2022 Cap2Cap.

As I mentioned, I’ve been struggling with a respiratory thing with cruddy lungs, sore throat, and fatigue. It’s not COVID (I checked), but it, and the weather, had been keeping me down most of the week.

I did, however, get up early on Saturday and haul my bike and my ass and my camelbak pack out to the trailhead in the cold-ish, misty weather, figuring I’d give it my best shot. About 25 miles in, I realized my body wasn’t going to do it, but since I signed up for the century, I was going to try to at least blow past the half-century, so I turned around at thirty miles.

So, I did sixty miles in a little under five hours (my pace was off because health, and because wet pavement), then changed into a dry shirt and drove to the park where my lunch was waiting. I ate and came home, took a shower, and downed a bunch of ibuprofen to make the aches go away.

So I didn’t get the century this year – might’ve bitten off more than I can chew given the circumstances.

That said, I’m an almost 48 year old man who can ride sixty miles on a bike on a rainy morning with a chest cold. There are tons of people who can’t do that.

Hell of a week this was. Couple of twelve hour work days, sprained wrist, and cold-like symptoms the last several days, which have played hell with my anxiety, as I’ve been having dreams the early part of this week that I’d caught the ‘rona at RavenCon and that would sideline my plans to participate in the Cap2Cap this weekend. So far, though, no temperature to speak of; just congestion and fatigue.

Oh, and that big political story that dropped Monday night; I’m not surprised by it, really – but it’s not good news at all. I have thoughts, and I might share them here later if I can get through all this other crap.

As it stands, I’m taking it really easy and trying to sleep this bug off and do my best to be well enough tomorrow morning to put the century behind me. I’m going to do my best, in any case – if I’m going to collapse doing 100 miles, this weekend is the time to do it, with the regular support stations and increased presence on the VCT. I’ll re-evaluate every 20 miles or so, and if it gets really bad, I’ll turn around.

I think I can do the century, however – I won’t be the fastest, but I’ll get it done and prove that I’m an old man in more than decent shape.

Also taking a long weekend, with Monday off; in part to recover, and in part because we’re going to to catch Doctor Strange 2 at the drive-in on Sunday night.

Oh, Ravencon was cool, if a bit exhausting. We saw friends, enjoyed some music, bought a couple of books, and I booked another gig (ConGregate down in NC in July), but we ended up bailing early on Saturday, and giving Sunday a miss because we were peopled out.

Here are some tunes – much of the front end of the list falling in around the bpm mentioned in the title, making it appropriate for both what I’m doing tomorrow and and the list. Oh, and it closes out with an excellent tune from one of my favorite bands…can’t beat that:

1. “My Sister” – Julianna Hatfield Three
2. “Oh Daddy” – Adrian Belew
3. “Crazy” – Pylon
4. “Mockingbirds” – Grant Lee Buffalo
5. “My City Was Gone” – Pretenders
6. “Bullet” – The Reverend Horton Heat
7. “Evangeline” – Matthew Sweet
8. “Ecstacy (Apple of My Eye)” – Strawberry Switchblade
9. “Queen of the Surface Streets”- DeVotchKa
10. “Waiting Room” – Fugazi
11. “Strange” – Wire
12. “TOP SECRET MAN” – Plastics
13. “Mental Hopscotch” – Missing Persons
14. “Alex Chilton” – The Replacements

Been another week.

Although I started strong with a fifty-miler on Sunday and a few smaller rides later on, I spent a lot of the week struggling through allergies and aches associated with some sort of bug the kid brought home from school. I’m largely past it, I think, but it wasn’t ideal; I was productive with work (I’m shepherding half-a-dozen requirements packages to approval this month, while still trying to run a test cycle and tie a bow in organizing the program management center’s workload along TBM lines…I have too many jobs), but had little left for the evenings, leading to things like a Thursday afternoon unplanned 90 minute nap.

Not much of a story, really. I watched a couple of things on TV and paid some bills, but apart from that, not much to report.

Thankfully, so far I’m feeling better this morning, and am looking at a light workday, so we can spend some time with friends at Ravencon 15 this weekend, which is conveniently back in town after a few years in Williamsburg, and hopefully will be once again able to find its identity.

Interestingly, I’m attending as a civilian this year; no guest pass, no official gigs on the schedule. Just a regular attendee with a paid-for pass, taking things in. I just want to enjoy my friends’ musical performances, catch a panel or two, and see some folks I haven’t seen in a while. Also, Ravencon’s got it right with it’s COVID policy, so we really wanted to support that.

That, and maybe some grocery shopping, is about all I’ll be doing. After that, the coming week’s going to be doing my best to prep for the hundred-mile Cap2Cap ride next Saturday, which I hope is fun, but could also be a vain attempt to convince myself I’m not old…

Tunes: all over the place. Seriously:

1. “L.A.” – Elliot Smith
2. “The Empty Boat” – Caetano Veloso
3. “High On A Rocky Ledge” – Moondog
4. “Didn’t You Hear” – Mort Garson
5. “La Isla Bonita” – Large Plants
6. “Vancouver” – Jeff Buckley
7. “The Train” – Frank Sinatra
8. “Take It Off The Top” – Dixie Dregs
9. “Dancing Days” – Stone Temple Pilots
10. “Spirit Halloween Theme Song” – Nick Lutsko
11. “Lady Macbeth In Chains” – Sufjan Stevens
12. “Turn Over The World” – Perry Farrell, Starcrawler, Taylor Hawkins, Etty Lau Farrell
13. “Xanadu” – The GOASTT

It’s been pretty dull the last couple of weeks, if I’m being totally honest. It’s work, bike, eat, sleep, repeat…over and over. I really need some novelty.

However, lacking anything novel, on Thursday afternoon, after spending way too many hours on meetings with briefings heavy on references to the U.S. Code and various federal policy, I racked the bike and took a nice ride in the warm, but slightly overcast weather, as I’m likely to do; gotta stay healthy, and keep the stamina up for that century ride in two weeks…

Anyway, somewhere in the middle of a brisk twenty-one miles, my mind wandered, which is kind of what I’m going for; just disappearing into the ride…

…but sometimes, strange things get dredged up from the subconscious, like the first song on the playlist below, which was a staple of middle school dances in central Pennsylvania in the 80s….

Anyway, it sent me down a Spotify rabbit hole, and the following mix got spit out at me with minimal searching. Most of the big ones are here; if Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” or Aerosmith’s “Angel” were included, this would hit pretty much everything. That one at #5 made us feel like we were getting away with something, and #13, I’m pretty sure what was playing during my first awkward slow dance with a real girl in sixth grade.

And yeah, we got rickroll’d – deal with it:

1. “Da Butt” – EU
2. “Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go” – Soft Cell
3. “Everything Counts” – Depechhe Mode
4. “Time After Time” – Cyndi Lauper
5. “The Roof Is On Fire” – Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three
6. “Just Like Heaven” – The Cure
7. “Take My Breath Away” – Berlin
8. “Private Eyes” – Daryl Hall & John Oates
9. “Careless Whisper” – George Michael
10. “Modern Love” – David Bowie
11. “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” – Cutting Crew
12. “Never Gonna Give You Up” – Rick Astley
13. “Always” – Atlantic Starr
14. “Dancin’ With Myself” – Generation X
15. “Don’t You Want Me” – The Human League
16. “Jump” – Van Halen
17. “Twist of Fate” – Olivia Newton-John

Y’know, I really can’t remember a week where I was so exhausted both physically and mentally. Once again, work had me earning my raise with some long days and excessive mental processing, and given the gorgeous weather we’ve had around these parts this week, I rode off the mental by putting over 70 miles (so far) under my bicycle tires after logging out for the day.

And to be honest, I didn’t have much time for anything else apart from taking a few minutes to pay the bills, feed myself, and read myself to sleep.

I did make sure some of that reading was digging through the final Hunt-A-Killer box to try and come up with a theory on whodunnit, and I think I did, but I expect when my lovely spouse and I start comparing notes this evening, she’ll have done most of the heavy lifting.

Also, that sleep in the paragraph before last was occasionally rough going – I’m seriously dragging ass this morning after tossing and turning all night. Not expecting much for the weekend, and there’s very little on the schedule, so that’s working out.

As for tunes this week, a little more upbeat than last time, and trending a bit more into the late 70s and early 80s. Not a bad mix, with #2 including Joan Jett’s sultry/throaty vocals, and some always excellent funk Telecaster grooves at #13:

1. “25 O’Clock (2001 Mix) – The Dukes of the Stratosphear
2. “Crimson and Clover” – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
3. “Blasphemous Rumors” – Depeche Mode
4. “Following Laika” – AFTERxCLASS
5. “Apocalypse Now (& Later) – Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers
6. “Keep On Knocking” – Death
7. “That’s Just The Way I Feel” – Purple Mountains
8. “The Hell Of It” – Paul Williams
9. “Be Better At Listening” – Pomplamoose
10. “Country Motion Sickness” – Mae Valerio
11. “Gold Dust Woman” – Fleetwood Mac
12. “Breathless on DVD” – Antarctigo Vespucci
13. “Bambi” – Prince

…but the obstacles, however minor, keep doing the things that obstacles do, and getting in the way of anything resembling accomplishment.

I have a job; one that I’m good at, pays well, and that, under most circumstances, I don’t mind doing at all (and sometimes even enjoy), except all this administrative stuff, two hour meetings that could’ve been two sentence emails, operating system “upgrades” that simply break every workflow one has to do the job in between those meetings, outside entities trying to “network” by attempting to pick my brain on pointless issues to feed their latest trendy business school buzzword certification, plus all these other people needing help getting their stuff done because word’s gotten around that I make this shit look easy.

It’s just making it very hard to care right now, especially since I’ve gotten into one of those two or three day lulls where there aren’t any looming deadlines, but somehow I still end up putting in a ten hour day at the virtual office and have nothing at all to show for it.

Yes, that big-ass raise I got in January is nice, but I don’t love all the attendant bullshit that comes with earning it.

Oh well; first-world problems and all that.

All that which, as a socially-conscious person, makes me feel guilty for being frustrated with my life, because I put up with some inconvenient bullshit to earn a solid living when there are so many people in this damned country and on this damned planet that don’t know where their next meal comes from.

Can’t win for winning, I guess.

Long week where I didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d wanted to, due to many factors, including spring break absences at work, thunderstorm and tornado warnings, and some biological events you really don’t want the details of, but kept me within spitting distance of a restroom most of the week.

Ew.

Got a couple of nice bike rides in before the weather and, um…other things kicked in, and even through that, I got a couple of decent walks through a local park with closely-spaced facilities.

Otherwise, I waited around for people to sign things, had my mild, bland lunch of a nice baked potato eaten by…someone who remains anonymous, and the silver lining of getting a lot of reading done.

Oh yeah, there was Justice Jackson getting confirmed yesterday, which is cool. Historic on all kinds of levels (black woman, public defender background, etc), plus it’s nice to see more GenX representation on the court.  There just aren’t that many of us.

Tunes this week?  Lots of kinda twee acoustic pop from waifish female vocals dropping an occasional F-bomb, which…fine.  The band there at #6 is definitely worth your time if you’re into post-Riot-Grrl garage pop (which is a niche genre I just made up), a style also represented a bit by #12, and likely pioneered by the band coming in at #13:

1. “Gothic Surf-a-Rama” – Vampire Beach Babes
2. “Crop Circles” – Odie Leigh
3. “My Chinchilla” – Cub
4. “Play It Right” – Mountain Man
5. “How Long” – Palehound
6. “Monday” – The Regrettes
7. “Garter Snake” – Macie Stewart
8. “Used To” – Wilma Laverne Miner
9. “Helpless Blues – Solstice Version” – Fleet Foxes
10. “Plastic Jesus” – Tia Blake
11. “Lift” – Skullcrusher
12. “Combat Baby” – Metric
13. “Forsythia” – Veruca Salt

Apart from all the bullshit (insert link to absolutely any news website right now), some cool stuff happened on the US political front this week.  President Obama visited the White House for the first time since he left office back in ’17, in support of a fix to the “family glitch”, a calculation bug in healthcare marketplaces that has kept a few million families from buying subsidized coverage. Of course, I’d love to see universal single-payer coverage, but this is definitely progress – more people getting health care is an unambiguous good.

The nice thing about fixing the glitch is that it’s easily doable under executive authority (it’s really just a change in how a clause in the law is interpreted by the program), so no Congressional involvement is needed.  Boom. Done.

The thing that got me, though, was the historic nature of the photo included above – the first Black President engaging with the First Black woman Vice President – which gives me hope that we’re not all completely screwed in this current era. They’re also both ridiculously attractive humans, so the photo’s just gorgeous to behold.

Just wanted to share something positive, since that’s so damned difficult these days.

It was a week. Not much more, not much less. I honestly don’t remember much of it…between work, exercise, eating something or other, getting this tune stuck in my head thanks to the ice skating class across the way, the entertainment highlight that was Moon Knight, struggling with the dense text of the novel I’m reading, and sleeping generally like crap, it just sort of passed by.

Maybe that description is a little facetious, but I don’t care.

Today, it seems, is April Fool’s Day, which I’m mostly going to kind of ignore; so much of the world’s a big joke now anyway, and ThinkGeek doesn’t exist anymore.

A trip to a friend’s birthday party on deck for the weekend, and whatever else gets done.

As for tunes, back to Spotify weekly discovery (though it’s BandCamp Friday, so if you buy my stuff, I get an extra ten cents or so per dollar!), and it’s full of interesting covers (including Jason Isbell’s execellent cover of my favorite REM song), and a generally mellow vibe overall, which, frankly, is fine with me.

1. “Brightest Star” – Lily Hiatt
2. “Waiting for October” – Polaris
3. “Oceans in Between” – Damon & Naomi
4. “Covert Discretion” – FREEMAN
5. “Harvest Moon” – Jeff Rosenstock, Laura Stevenson
6. “Life on Mars” – Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
7. “Desperado” – The Langley Schools Music Project
8. “Driver 8” – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
9. “Hallelujah” – Delicate Steve
10. “The Queen of Hearts” – Offa Rex
11. “Box of Rain” – Grateful Dead
12. “Belly Side Up” – Bent Knee
13. “When the Sun Comes Up” – Greta Morgan
14. “The Woman Who Was Also A Mongoose” – The Dead Milkmen
15. “Cowboys Are Frequenty Secretly Fond of Each Other” – Willie Nelson

The weekend, all told, wasn’t awesome.

Saturday morning, I awoke to find our dear, elderly, crazy, mixed-up cat Charlotte had passed quietly in the early hours of the morning. She’d been slowing down for a while, having suffered a stroke a year or two back, and having a couple of episodes in the last couple of weeks, but was still always active, vocal, and highly motivated by social interaction and food (sometimes too motivated by food), until she wasn’t, and just laid down and went to sleep.

She’d been with us at least sixteen years – you kind of lose track with shelter cats, but was definitely a presence in our lives for certainly most of the kids’ lifetimes. The house is a little quieter today.

Otherwise, it was a lot of just getting things done that needed done, in spite of the melancholy. Lots of chores, some fitness stuff – hiking this weekend, as the rain and high winds in the area were a concern, and not just because riding at a 14-16mph pace into a 25mph headwind really sucks, but good hiking along the river; I’d knocked out nearly 20 miles on foot by Sunday afternoon, when it was cold, but sunny and beautiful in the early afternoon.

On Friday afternoon after work, we did get out to try the new brewery in town, and it was…fine. But “fine” in this metropolitan area doesn’t necessarily cut it. It was bustling and full of locals, however, though I think that’s much to do with the convenient central location a block down from the village green, and not being wedged into a bike shop like the spot across the street. I’ll keep an eye on them (as they’ve only been open a couple of weeks, and these things take time to ferment, as they say), but all told, I still prefer The Kilt.

Apart from that, there was some movement on gig booking, though I’m going to wait until any potential hosts announce before I do. Also, I tested negative for COVID on Friday, so there’s that.

As for today, if I get through my workday (there’s some serious bullshit on the horizon around lunchtime), I’ll feel maybe a little better about the week.