As I had indicated in Friday’s post, I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine that afternoon. The mass vaccination site I’d been scheduled for (a local university athletic center) was much less crowded this time around, in part because we’re doing pretty well in this state in terms of vaccinations overall, two, because many Americans are idiots.

As I also indicated, after seeing what other folks have gone through, I didn’t make any plans, which, as I expected, was prudent. While I didn’t get it as bad as some, I spent 36 hours or so with a low-grade (<100°) fever, some general lethargy, and a ton of muscle aches all over, which, here on Monday morning, still haven't quite passed, but are certainly tolerable.

I think it helped that immediately after the shot, I visited a nearby NPS site I hadn’t been to in a while and hiked a couple of miles, because I knew that once things really kicked in, I wasn’t going to get much exercise for the weekend. If it didn’t help the vaccine side effects, it certainly made me feel better.

Saturday I honestly spent most of the day in bed reading or (occasionally) napping, managing fever and aches with Tylenol and drinking fluids. I wasn’t particularly hungry at all this weekend, though what I did eat stayed down, which was nice after what some others have gone through. Sunday I got up and did a bit more; I did some laundry, cleaned my fish tank, recorded a couple of bass tracks for the upcoming Humdingers project, and made a quick grocery run, though by early afternoon, life was taking it out of me, so I spent some quality time in front of the television burning through the first few installments of the Fast and Furious franchise (a not-at-all-guilty pleasure of mine) before deciding it was time for bed.

As I start my week today, I’m feeling mostly human again, though I’m not going to push things too far physically for another day or so; the bike will still be there (besides, the weather looks much nicer tomorrow anyway) when I come out the other side.

As for the rest of the week, it looks remarkably normal, if a little heavy on the work schedule, but that’s because I’m still doing the work for two different positions at the moment, though, pleasantly, my efforts are being recognized, and will hopefully pay dividends at evaluation time. Otherwise, I still owe my bandmates tracks for two more tunes by the end of the month, and there’s prep to be done both for my upcoming half-century ride, and to get the house ready to have another body in it (hopefully only temporarily) in a week or two.

The wheels, they keep turning…

So, I came to the realization mid-way through yesterday that I’ve been working way too damned hard the last two weeks. It’s true, I’ve been hugely productive at work, I’ve ridden a ton of miles on the bike, and I’ve even gotten a start on the Humdingers tracks I owe my bandmates down south.

That said, I am exhausted, drained, and all kinds of other words you might find here, and I am just kind of done.

So, I guess it’s probably for the best that I’ve got my second dose of Pfizer this afternoon.

Given the anecdotal evidence and what I’ve seen first-hand in others, it’s probably going to hit me pretty hard, so I’ve made absolutely no plans this weekend; I fully expect to be crashed on the couch or in the bedroom with a book or remote, Tylenol every six hours, and a beverage nearby.

Nothing at all wrong with taking advantage of the biologically-enforced downtime, and I plan on doing just that.

And honestly, that’s about it. Here are some tunes. Lots of 80s alternative interspersed with some neat other stuff (#13? amazing), an all-time favorite there at the end:

1. “Adolescent Sex” – Japan
2. “Satch Boogie” – Joe Satriani
3. “Panic Attack” – Dream Theater
4. “Randy’s Hot Tonight” – Electric Six
5. “Post Toastie” – T. Bolin
6. “The Killing Moon” – Echo & The Bunnymen
7. “Metal Fatigue” – Allan Holdsworth
8. “Ziggy Stardust” – Bauhaus
9. “21st Century Schizoid Man” – We Hunt Buffalo
10. “Tattooed Love Boys” – Pretenders
11. “People Who Died” – The Jim Carroll Band
12. “A Life of Illusion” – Joe Walsh
13. “Pipeline” – Steveie Ray Vaughan, Dick Dale
14. “Constantinople” – The Residents
15. “Bastards of Young” – The Replacements

The weather this weekend was rather beautiful, so I spent a good bit of time on two wheels, and even hit a couple of personal milestones. It’s one area where I can feel like I’m not failing at life; cycling is giving me a consistent string of “wins” that I’m sorely in need of.

Even if I am taking more of those little brown pills lately.

After a stretch of not particularly great weather this week, I got out for my first ride of the weekend on Friday afternoon after wrapping up work. The plan was to ease back into things; fifteen miles or so on my favored portion of the VCT. I didn’t quite get that far due to one more instance of the universe indicating to me that the whitetail deer population of Virginia is out to get me*. As I’m cruising along between fallow cornfields and greenery in one of the sections that’s not directly parallel to Route 5, a deer jumps out of the bushes less than ten feet in front of me, forcing a quick reaction on the (thankfully just adjusted) brakes so as not to hit the reckless cervid, leading to some interesting spinal geometry on my part to keep from taking a spill. I did not fall, nor did I hit the deer, but was nursing a pretty sore back afterward. At that point, I slowly pedaled back to the trailhead, putting about 11 total miles behind me.

I rested up a bit with some proper analgesics, and felt better to the point that after running some errands Saturday morning, I felt good enough to give it another go in the afternoon, putting 21 miles down on a different section of the trail that I haven’t ridden much, or at all, this year, figuring I’d want to get some recce time on it before covering the whole distance in a couple of weeks. In spite of the rolling hills (and a couple of big ones), I made a good pace (almost 15mph), and felt remarkably not sore afterward.

Full of myself, I hit the trail again Sunday morning aiming to increase the distance traveled; from Four Mile Creek trailhead out to Charles City Courthouse, where I turned around on my forty-miler last weekend coming from the other direction, so I could claim to have covered the whole distance of the trail this year before the big one, and so I did. Another 42 miles (and a few hundred yards) in the can, again at nearly 15mph, a beautiful couple of hours in the sun, and no near collisions with deer.

So yes, a couple of milestones: Covering the whole trail in sections this year, my first encounter with large wildlife on the trail, just edging out last weekend for my longest single ride by a quarter mile or so, and, upon looking at my dashboard on the drive home from the trailhead, realizing that I’d put more miles on my bicycle this weekend than I did on my car.

I indeed felt good about my progress this weekend, even if it did involve a few more morning painkillers than I’d necessarily prefer, but it’s better the alternatives.

__________________________________

* –Over the last few years, this weekend was far from the first time I’ve had a close encounter with a whitetail; apart from a few other instances of “near misses” as described above, I’ve had a small deer bounce off my hip while riding on a dirt trail, and had a deer hip-check my car on the highway, even after I slowed and nearly stopped to avoid the thing, leading to a small but interesting battle scar on the driver’s-side rear door.

So, in most endeavors this week, I struggled to make anyone particularly happy; stuff just didn’t seem to work out. I plugged through work, settled some issues, but saw a bunch of others arise. I had one really nice bike ride on Tuesday, though weather and pollen kind of spoiled the rest of the week, leaving me a little frustrated. I took my lovely spouse out for some food-truck-at-the-brewery dinner last night and the truck screwed up her order putting pepperoni on her “plain” pizza-esque panini. My youngest child and I did have our usual “Masked Singer” watch this week, though honestly, she spent more time watching shouty guys play Minecraft on the internet. I’m kind of feeling a bit of a failure in most respects.

One thing, though, did work in my favor.

I had the above pictured item delivered Wednesday afternoon and made my lovely spouse’s day; so I guess it’s not a total loss.

That, dear reader, is the Honda Fit EX that Carvana dropped off Wednesday afternoon. My love has grown a bit tired of the Mazda van she’s been driving for the last seven years or so, wanting something small, cute, and an “actual color” instead. And, with a third driver in the house, having a third vehicle made sense, so we’ve been shopping around the last few months.

It’s used, but barely broken in apart from a few small “parking in Northern Virginia” battle scars on the bumper that the seller has offered to have fixed free of charge (I just need to go get the estimate this weekend), and by all accounts so far (I’m having my local mechanic give it a look over today), it’s good to go. The “buy a used car off the internet” thing has been remarkably painless, again, so far (it’s still sporting temporary plates, but those’ll get settled after the “seven day trial period” that accounts for the whole not seeing it in person beforehand in this sales model), which is refreshing.

And, at least in this area, I’ve made my partner happy. I’ll take that.

Weekend’s looking relatively uneventful. The weather seems cooperative, so I’m going to try to get a little riding in, though otherwise, nothing planned, as we’re entering the window for second vaccine shots, and with my lovely spouse first through that gate this morning, we’re not going to push the limits; probably some takeout and movies on the streaming services, which is fine with me.

So tunes. The usual Spotify-generated playlist, including the usual littany of old and new, with a few favorites (that last one still rocks), and coming in at number five is a band I’ve been hearing on wnrn for a while now, and, thanks to the selfsame radio station, I have been comped tickets for the show they’re performing in town in the fall (assuming things are at least better by then) through the weekly member contest drawing.

Damn, I miss live music.

1. “Squarepusher Theme”- Shobaleader one
2. “My Girlfriend’s Dead” – The Vandals
3. “What If?” – The Murlocs
4. “Living In Hell” – Cobra Man
5. “When My Time Comes” – Dawes
6. “Bazaar” – The Tea Party
7. “Bambi” – Prince
8. “Peace Frog” – The Doors
9. “Space Truckin'” – Deep Purple
10. “Devil Come Round” – Men Without Hats
11. “I Ran (So Far Away)” – A Flock of Seagulls
12. “Don’t Change” – INXS
13. “Flowers By The Door” – T.S.O.L.
14. “Banditos” – The Refreshments

The weather this weekend ended up being absolutely beautiful in spite of less-than-ideal forecasts late last week. And, since my locked-in appointment for Saturday afternoon ended up getting bumped a few days, I went ahead with my cycling plans.

Saturday morning I rose early and drove out to mile marker 0 of the Capital Trail at the Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg, mounted the bike, and started riding west shortly after 9am. My plan was to do 40 miles, but as I rode right past marker 20 and didn’t notice until I hit the Charles City government complex, I ended up doing 42, knocking out my personal best distance record for the second time in a week. I did the whole thing in just under three hours, just in time to stow the equipment in the car then walk 100 yards over to Billsburg Brewery shortly after their opening for a celebratory pint.

Sunday, which was supposed to be full of rain as well, ended up being beautiful, and I knocked out almost 18 miles on this end of the trail, which didn’t present any trouble apart from all the pollen I breathed in.

So, I’m feeling pretty good about my chances of not keeling over when I attempt the Cap2Cap 52 miler in a couple of weeks. I’m just going to keep up some sort of momentum as best I can, and get another couple of long ones (35-40ish) in ahead of the planned event on May 7. There’s a 14 mile section of the trail I haven’t ridden yet this year, so I think I’ll work on covering that ground as well as part of those longer rides.

Otherwise this weekend, we did a few errands, took care of some chores, and watched a couple of movies, and my reactions to such sort of surprised me. Saturday afternoon after my long ride, my lovely spouse and I settled and watched Thunder Force on Netflix, a not-terribly-well-reviewed superhero comedy with Melissa McCarthy that just premiered direct to the service, but damn if we didn’t enjoy the absurdity of it all, which has a pretty nice through line about the friendship of women and the potential inherent in those of us of a certain age who don’t fit particular molds, and Jason Bateman owned his supporting role, as he’s wont to do. It’s quite good for a laugh. Sunday while grabbing a few things off the grocery list, on a lark I picked up a copy of Wonder Woman 1984, and it was…all over the place, mostly because there’s a lot problematic aspects with regard to character motivation; you’d think in a movie with “Wonder Woman” in the title, she’d be front-and-center, and represent the usual heroic, optimistic characteristics we expect from the character (along with some of the complicated sexual politics Moulton Marston worked out on the pages of the early books), but in this film, she’s just one of many flawed characters in the piece, and in many cases, just as much the villain as any of the other characters. Sure, there’s a third-act hero turn, but it feels unearned. It trumpets an optimistic message in that last act, but the whole thing is really rather cynical and dark in spite of the colorful 80s palate, which shouldn’t surprise, given that this is part of the dark-and-gritty DC comics universe shepherded by Zack Snyder.

Now that I’ve gotten my almost-certainly-flawed feminist film critique out of my system, I can look forward to the week ahead. As it stands right now (but probably won’t persist), my work week looks sort of quiet, as does the personal week, apart from ensuring that the kids fall back into line after wrapping spring break, and keeping tabs on some other developments. Otherwise, I’m going to try to keep the cycling momentum up as best I can (weather is iffy again as it looks right now), and just press on through it.

It’s all we can do, really.

While work was as frustrating as requirements review board submission deadline week usually is, it was an otherwise decent week. The certification test I’m running in the other piece of my job that I haven’t been able to let go of yet after the reorg in February is going swimmingly, and more importantly, the weather’s been gorgeous and I’ve managed to get out and have some quality time outside on the bike; almost 100 miles since Sunday, including an amazing 35 mile ride on the Capital Trail on Wednesday afternoon.

Looking ahead to the weekend, I was planning to try that 40 miler I was aiming for last weekend, and I still might if the weather cooperates, though the forecast includes a bunch of on-and-off rain starting tonight, so who knows. I’ve also got a locked-in commitment on Saturday afternoon that I don’t want to get stuck on a trail somewhere and miss. That said, we’ll see. I think I’m in pretty decent shape for the Cap2Cap half-century next month, but I want to keep the momentum up, and getting used to the longer rides helps, and makes me feel, at least periodically, like I’m not the out-of-shape middle-aged fat kid I can’t help but see myself as, aches and pains aside.

Otherwise, it’s just been…life during pandemic time. Same as always. Work, eat, ride, sleep, interspersed with bits of refreshing conversation and epic bitch sessions.

And Rex Manning Day.

Anwyay, tunes. Starting out kinda nu-metal, then the flutes come in for a bit, and transitions from classic rock right into guitar nerds and hairspray, which, y’know, cool:

1. “Promenade” – Street Sweeper Social Club
2. “Here’s Your Future” – The Thermals
3. “I Never Glid Before” – Gong
4. “Goodbye Gemini” – Blood Ceremony
5. “E-Pro” – Beck
6. “Faster” – Manic Street Preachers
7. “I Don’t Wanna Be Me” – Type O Negative
8. “Kiss Me Deadly” – Generation X
9. “Achilles Last Stand – Led Zepplin
10. “Heaven’s On Fire” – KISS
11. “Bad” – Polyphia
12. “Burning Bridges” – Slaughter
13. “Breakin’ the Law” – Judas Priest
14. “Surfing with the Alien” – Joe Satriani

Today’s weather report tells me it’s going to be sunny and in the 80s by noon today. I have entirely too much annual leave just sitting there because there’s been almost no reason to go anywhere, and no place to go, for most of a year. I’ve been working pretty hard this week, and am at the point where I am dependent on others to get their crap together so I can continue to make progress with my work projects.

The solution to this equation? I’ve unilaterally decided that I’m going to knock off a couple of hours early this afternoon and enjoy the weather, because damn it, I deserve a break, I’ve been watching everyone else around me taking their spring break this week, and I want a little piece of that action.

A nice long afternoon ride on the Capital Trail, followed by a cold, socially-distant beverage at one of my city’s many excellent watering holes sounds like just the ticket for a short well-earned respite from the grind.

If y’all need me after noon today, it can wait until tomorrow morning.

As I mentioned, I got my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday afternoon. I was hoping for few side effects, as I had ambitious cycling plans for the weekend.

Those didn’t happen.

I can’t say this will be everyone’s experience, but for me, the exhaustion and “wiped out” feeling hit hard right around three hours after the needle left the arm. I crashed hard Friday evening. I was mostly better on Saturday, though it was like I was running on about 80% of full capacity.

Other than that, though, nothing serious. Get yours as soon as you’re able, okay?

I’ve got my second shot booked for the 23rd, right on time. I hear that one knocks you down harder, at least anecdotally, so I’m not making any serious plans that weekend. That’s two weeks out from the 50 mile Cap2Cap ride, so I ought to be okay, and I’ll have a few more long ones in in the interim.

Apart from that, I got a ton of laundry done this weekend, took care of the shopping, and made a kickin’ lasagna.

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t promo my buddy Mikey Mason’s new record, Retrossance (out for pre-order now, available for purchase May 1), since he was nice enough to have me sit in on bass on one of the tunes, and give me “inspiration credit” for another. As with all his stuff, it’s quality, and I am continually bewildered that I get to call such amazingly talented people friends.

Another Friday, another long week. A week full of sinus pressure, problematic bureaucracy, and senior executive briefings, framed by crappy weather that kept me off the bike most of the week.

However, it’s Friday, and at this point, it’s looking like it’ll be a quiet one. I’ve moved my projects along to the point where I’m once again waiting around for others to provide me information. The software testing effort I’m still running (even though it’s not my job anymore, technically) is stalled because of infrastructure issues, and the only official thing on my agenda is an anti-extremism discussion session, which has been mandated from the top because, well, we know why.

I’m sure it’s going to be just as exciting as it sounds.

The other news is that after I wrap work for the day, it’s my turn to venture out to get my first dose of the vaccine, and I’m not, um, throwing it away. I expect it’ll be a placid and uneventful experience, but it’s one I’m definitely welcoming; I’m happy to be doing my part toward achieving herd immunity.

As for the rest of the weekend, nothing particularly unusual. I am counting on side-effects being minimal, because I’ve got a 40 mile bike ride on the agenda Saturday. After a couple of days of awful weather, I’m looking forward to getting in the saddle again.

And…tunes. Spotify “Discover Weekly” again. Little bit prog-ier than usual, but I have been leaning in that direction with my listening. The volume of modernish covers of prog classics is interesting, however; wonder how the algorithm worked that out?

Oh yeah – Bandcamp Friday. Support some independent musicians, like, say, me, or any of these many awesome peers my friend Madison has kindly collected.

1. “Lateralus” – Tool
2. “Electric Feel” – Turbowolf
3. “Vanishing Girl” – The Dukes of Stratosphear
4. “It’s Only Another Parsec…” – Rx Bandits
5. “What A Fool Believes” – Self
6. “Waiting Room” – Fugazi
7. “Yours Truly, 2095” – Electric Light Orchestra
8. “Roundabout” – Allegaeon
9. “Hard Times” – The Jetzons
10. “Star of Rio” – The Night Flight Orchestra
11. “The Moon is Disgusting” – That 1 Guy
12. “1979” – The Contortionist
13. “Hocus Pocus” – Focus
14. “Less Talk More Rokk” – Freezepop
15. “Godzilla” – Racer X

Apart from a few issues, the weekend was quite nice. Had a beautiful bike ride on Saturday morning, enjoying 32 miles in the sun, a new record for me, and good conditioning for the Cap2Cap in May. The girls at home had a busy day Saturday as well; the dance school performing company got themselves booked for a couple of shows at a scaled-back, masked-and-distanced Busch Gardens, which, by all acounts, went well, and the pandemic preventative practices were much more thorough and effective than my similar trip to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, where I saw tons of exposed noses and uncovered faces wearing MAGA gear. Personally, I wouldn’t choose to go to an amusement park in the current environment, but the performing experience was a good one for the kid. Sadly, my quick shopping experience proved to me that my particular local community, which was never that invested in preparedness anyway, has largely given it up.

Sunday, we took a calculated risk, though it was still much safer than my grocery store run. One of our dear friends, who’s had one hell of a year, even apart from the pandemic, had a birthday, so a small group of us met up in a backyard in Williamsburg for a couple of hours and sat in spread-out chairs enjoying conversation and good food.

Everything in life is a calculated risk these days; we all have to make our own calls based based on our own comfort levels. It’s possible to do some social things safely; our Sunday afternoon was worth the low risk (especially as we practiced good distancing discipline, largely stayed outside, avoided contact, and wore masks when appropriate) to engage with people whose company we dearly missed.

All our limits are different, but there’s a difference with taking calculated risks while acting in accordance with safety guidelines and denying there’s a problem. Personally, I’m happy to engage in outside recreation on the bicycle or sparsely populated hiking trail, keeping a face covering handy for the occasional crowd, or to sit at my own small table in a local brewery where the staff and those not actively sipping are masked, chatting with another patron at their own table more than ten feet away from mine, even better if we can be outside doing so.

But you won’t find me at a movie theater or crowded live music venue right now (and damn, do I need live music, either mine or anybody else’s), or someplace where people like those grocery store patrons (or 4/5ths of my County school board) are likely to be. When I *have* to be near those folks, I mask up and keep my distance (I’ve been known to pick the much busier checkout line if the patrons ahead of me, or way too often, the person running the till, aren’t doing masking right…) That’s my line.

And as far as the effectiveness of masks (that sadly, we’re still harping on about): Did you get the flu this year? Me neither.

The good news is that vaccines are rolling out nicely, even around here where they’ve made a hash of things. My spouse and my eldest have had their first shot, and I booked mine for later this week yesterday after I got the message from VDH. People, even those who complain about Bill Gates microchips and “mah raights as a ‘murrican!” are quietly getting theirs.

We might be on the way to getting back to some semblance of normal life soonish, at least in some respects (though it’ll be another year or more until we reach effective immunity levels, and that’s assuming people won’t be any stupider than they already are).

The real question, though, is what we want the new normal to look like. I don’t want to go back to “the way it was,” personally, because there was a hell of a lot about it that didn’t work. We’ve got an opportunity here to change things for the better, to make our society work a little better and more safely; I would love to take advantage of it.

…I just wish more of those people in my local community, and those like them all across the planet, cared to do the same.