Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 354 miles
Average speed: 10.6 mph
Weight lost: 42 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed this week: 10 (1 day)
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs
Recent listening: Authorized Greatest Hits by Cheap Trick, Greatest Hits by Bob Seger, Stardust by Willie Nelson, Europe ’72 by Grateful Dead, Coverville, KBOO Bike Show
Recent viewing: Wolfen, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Colts at Patriots, Heroes, CSI: Miami
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Paid bills, cleaned filing cabinet, bought Tina’s birthday present, voted
Imperative To Do: Follow-up with Thomas’ principal, recycle cardboard, finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, install new permanent Tivo hard drive, fix laundry room door
Cool Link: Faith Hill is a bad loser: Even if she was joking, it’s disrespectful to the winner.

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 343 miles
Average speed: 11.4 mph
Weight lost: 42 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed this week: 31
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs
Recent listening: Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground by Bright Eyes, Digital Ash In A Digital Urn by Bright Eyes, Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, Coverville
Recent viewing: Suns at Lakers, Bulls at Heat, The Punisher, Sportscenter, My Name Is Earl, Millennium (movie), The Office, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Bought new front and rear bike lights, called Thomas’ principal again, installed new temporary Tivo hard drive
Imperative To Do: Follow-up with Thomas’ principal, vote, recycle cardboard, finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, install new permanent Tivo hard drive, fix laundry room door
Cool Link: Devil Cat

Vital Statistics

Happy Halloween!

Bike odometer: 312 miles
Average speed: 10.5 mph
Weight lost: 40 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8.5
Riding temperature: 49º
Hours billed this week: 14.5 (at the end of today)
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Daylight Again by Crosby, Stills and Nash, Glimmer by Kim Richey, It’s The Jump Off, Wingspan by Paul McCartney
Recent viewing: Without A Trace, Cold Case, Sportscenter, Heroes, Countdown, South Park
Recent playing: n/a
Recently accomplished: n/a
Imperative To Do: Follow-up with Thomas’ principal, recycle cardboard, finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, swap Tivo hard drive, fix laundry room door
Cool Link: The Daily Puppy: Today featuring Halloween costumes

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 301 miles
Average speed: 12.3 mph
Weight lost: 40 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Hours billed this week: 49.5
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Greendale by Neil Young, Half Nelson by Willie Nelson, Box Set by Buffalo Springfield
Recent viewing: The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, House of 1000 Corpses, Sportscenter, Storytellers: Dixie Chicks
Recent playing: Zuma, Klax
Recently accomplished: Re-installed iLife ’06, returned cans and bottles, cleaned gutters and downspouts, cleaned off deck and sidewalks, chopped out some more blackberry vines
Imperative To Do: Follow-up with Thomas’ principal, recycle cardboard, finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage
Cool Link: Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years

Vital Statistics

I sold my truck on Thursday night. Tina has a friend, Robert, who has a nephew who wanted to fix it up and resell it. When he showed the conversation went like this:

He: How much are you asking?
Me: Fifty bucks.
He: Will you take forty?
Me: (rolling eyes and laughing) Yes.

I hadn’t been in the truck for quite some time so I was surprised how familiar it smelled when I sat in it the last time to start it (with a jump from the van). I suppose I’ll miss it but our last few years together were rocky. It’s probably better we go our separate ways.

According to MPG, an auto tracking program I’ve used for most of the time I had the truck, my total vehicle cost (including gas) was around $7500. I purchased it in the fall of 1995, when Tina was pregnant with Thomas. I drove it about 80,000 miles in the twelve years since. It ran better on “Plus”. It leaked a little oil and the transmission would get cranky when it was low on fluid. I bought a case of each just for the truck. The cab was always messy but it was perfectly functional and had everything I needed for truck use: tie-downs, rope, chains. It had a pretty cool cassette deck with an iPod jack that Tina got me one year at Costco. I pulled it out before selling it, but I don’t know what I’ll do with it. I had to slide the seat all the way back when I drove. The seat back wouldn’t fold forward when the seat was all the way back though. The truck came with a locking gas cap. Someone broke the key once and I had to replace it. Eventually, I replaced it again with a non-locking cap because it was such a pain in the ass to explain to the station attendants here how it worked. Nobody stole my gas after that. I’ve driven that truck to four different jobs over the years and hauled many loads of yard debris and junk. I guess I will miss it.

Bike odometer: 111 miles
Current reading: The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Spillane by John Zorn, Grace by Jeff Buckley, One Hot Minute by Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Decemberists
Recent viewing: 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, Late Night with David Letterman
Recent playing: Zuma, poker
Recently accomplished: Sold truck, recycling, grocery shopping, sprayed the driveway weeds
Imperative To Do: Install network in Graham’s room, labels for my sister’s CDs, fix Newton server, kill and pull weeds
Cool Video: Colbert and Stewart at the Emmy Awards (“Good evening, godless Sodomites”)

 

Vital Statistics

Tina, Graham and I went car shopping today. We decided that we really needed at least one reliable car, so rather than replace the truck with another used truck, we’re going to get a new family car. Today we looked and and drove a Kia Sorento, a Scion xB and a Chevy HHR. The Sorento was nice and Kia has a great warranty, but they couldn’t come down to our price range. The HHR might be nice, but after driving the xB, there was really no question which car we would get. We’re going to finalize our financing options and might have a new Scion next week!

Thomas didn’t go with us today because he’s been at Cub Scout Camp all week. Tina has missed him greatly and we’re going to pick him up there tomorrow. I suspect that he’s hardly noticed we’re not there.

I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago about spending the night at the hospital as part of a sleep study. The study confirmed that I have positional sleep apnia which means that I have an abnormal number of apnia episodes when I sleep on my back. I also exhibit apnia symptoms while I am in R.E.M. sleep. During the sleep study, if I would have shown apnia by 2:00 AM, they would have awoken me in order to fit me with a CPAP device. I did not meet the criteria and did not exhibit severe enough apnia until after I went into R.E.M.’s sometime after 2:00 AM. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when I awoke at 5:30 and realized that they had not awoken me. Later, the technician explained my situation and assured me that I would probably still be fitted for a CPAP on another night. Thus, I am scheduled for another study next week and I’m pretty sure it will be to do that very thing. I’ll write more later when I know more.

Bike odometer: 59 miles
Current reading: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks, KBOO Bike Show, Humpy’s Soul Show
Recent viewing: Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Nature, Monk, Countdown, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Car shopping, recycling, garbage, paid bills, expense report, upgraded my DSL
Imperative To Do: Setup Airport Express, install network in Graham’s room, labels for my sister’s CDs
Cool link: Moving by bike