DClog

Trying To Take It Easy

Health & Fitness: The wounds are healing and it's not so hard to sleep at night again. The human body can be a miraculous thing, I wish everything else I have would heal when it gets messed up.

I took a easy spin around the 25-mile "Mt Moriah-Doc Hughes" loop. The weather is so fine and I'm anxious to resume my outdoor fitness activities.

Lately I've been doing a little yoga along with a video tape I found on one of our shelves, some basic aerobic routines and occasionally taking the dog out for a walk/run -- I know it's not much, but I have to take it easy for a while longer.

Web Design: Spent several hours working on the Aerus Composites site. They need to get some more content to me, but I have a basic look and feel plus a cool little navigation bar already programmed. Here's the working directory but it will probably be ready to go live in about a week.

I have started programming with quite a bit more CSS instead of mostly HTML. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) makes a lot of things easier, but IE's non-compliant nature makes using it tricky too.

Upcoming website projects include Wood & Fullerton Goodyear site updates, and one I am really looking forward to; Nan's Bits, a cookie company owned and operated by two young women.

Music Biz: Mack & Dan duo continue to please the diners at Violettes on Tu-W-Th evenings. Feb is booked-up with a variety of concerts, banquets, and events with various bands. Late Feb I will be in the recording studio with Moxie making a demo tape with the new line-up.

I had to spend some time yesterday adjusting the neck and truss-rods on my D'Angelico New Yorker and Fender Stratocaster (my 2 main guitars) because, after all, they are mostly wood and some metal and when subjected to the temperature and weather changes, the instruments react adversely. They sound and feel OK now.

Road Rash - Not For Weak Stomachs

Thanks to my lovely and caring "nursing staff" I have here at home, my crash injuries are healing nicely. Below is a photo taken this morning, about 48 hours after the crash. It's really not all that bad, but you better not look if you are grossed-out easily. What you can't see is an aching left shoulder that will probably be sore for another couple weeks.

Took A Tumble In A Turn

My local cycling club, GTC did the 50 mile route known as the "Harbins Winter Ride", we had a good group of about 18 or 20 riders. It's been a fine sunny, but windy, day to ride here in Georgia and everyone seemed to have a good time. However, I did hit the pavement pretty hard after coming through a high-speed off-camber turn, one I've done a hundred times, but as I looked back over my shoulder at the riders behind me, my front wheel hit something and down I went. Left knee, hip, and especially elbow are pretty seriously damaged with deep road rash, but I'll survive. I'm trying to stop the bleeding and contain the oozing so I can get dressed and go perform this evening. Ruth has run back up to the drug store to get some gauze, tape, and bandages hopefully that will get me through the night.

Race Photos & Web Work

Cranked out a bunch of pages for the Aerus Composites website today, then took a break and scanned some photos from this past 2003 racing season. Take a look at the gnarly old men who went to Louisville, KY to compete in the National Championships... 2003 Racing Photos

Just a Bit Chilly

Doug and I rode with the Bethlehem group this afternoon. They are a gang of retirees that ride every MWF year round and they are all nice folks. The roads are quiet, the terrain is basically flat, and the scenery is pleasant. The sun didn't peek out until we were nearly finished so it felt pretty chilly, I suppose it was just below 40 degrees. Total time was a little over two hours of easy pedaling except for a couple minutes while I chased down Cathy C. & Tracy S. (fellow GTC members and amateur racers). It actually felt good to briefly hit the high heart rate again.

One Hundred Thirty Two Beats Per Minute

I set out on this 35+ mile ride with the intent of staying as close to 132 BPM on heart rate monitor as I possibly could. Except for the warm-up and cool-down part of the ride I was mostly successful maintaining my target HR. It's not as easy at it may seem, when you have to consider the terrain and traffic. Anyway, it's a nice sunny and cool day and I'm happy to be able to go out and enjoy it briefly.

The Wind Blows Hard

Health and Fitness: Sunday, I Rode with Matt and Doug and we did almost the same route as Tuesday. It was cloudy, windy and in the upper 50's, but by the time we were finished the temp was dropping fast.

There are several good group rides going tomorrow morning since it is a national holiday, but I have another appointment with the chiropractor and need the adjustment and therapy.

Latest Book: I finished reading "Every Second Counts" by Lance Armstrong. There are some good stories in there, however it is very revealing about the true nature of the man, and not so impressive.

Good Signs

Health and Fitness: I have ridden and exercised three days in a row now and continue to feel a little bit better each day, this is looking very promising! It's a shame that we just don't seem to appreciate good health until it's gone. I've also read something like "Happiness is just good health and a poor memory" -- I can relate to that.

All rides are easy/moderate paced staying in my Heart Rate Zones 1 & 2 almost exclusively. I plan to continue at this level for at least another 6 to 8 weeks and rebuild my base level of fitness.

Falling and Flying

Health & Fitness: It is an amazing 60 degrees warm, sunny and light winds - what a great day for a winter ride. Doug, Shari and I went for a 36 miler out on some good rolling hills. Doug and I did a couple practice sprints at the county lines, but other than that the tempo was a steady easy/moderate pace. Toward the end of the ride we all contested the sprint at the top of Sunny Hill road. Doug had set the tempo all the way up the hill, then about 200 meters out Shari jumped to the front, Doug and I responded, as we were winding it up Doug's foot came unclipped and he went careening off the road into the grass. It looked like he was going to stay up at first but he was not really slowing and never completely regained his balance. The front wheel hit a soft spot and over the bars he went landing on his left shoulder mainly. He was shaken but able to get up and continue riding home. He's going to be sore and maybe bruised, I just hope he doesn't let it ruin his confidence. This has happened to me before and happens to even the top pros -- it's usually the result of worn cleats or pedals.

On a lighter note; last night Bev took Samantha and I for a walk up and down Waldrop road. It was fun to walk in the dark (with flashlights), and I think I slept better because of it.

View from my Window: As I sit here typing this, I am watching two large hawks sailing around over the tree tops. They are some impressive looking creatures.

Say It Loud

I'm a Dad, and I'm proud! My little baby is going away to college soon and last night she made arrangements for her housing in Athens during her freshman year -- using her own credit card and everything!

Feline Friendship: There is a young white and calico cat that lives across the street and she has befriended me. Sometimes sitting on my front porch waiting for me to come outside. She doesn't purr, like to be held or even to sit in my lap, but enjoys being petted and talked to.

Website Design: I've been spending some time re-designing the website at dancoy.com, the guitarist, and hope to have it up and running in the next couple of days.

Health and Fitness: Finally escaping to the outdoors and my bicycle yesterday, I had a pleasant ride with Matt and Doug. We practiced some Force and Spinning drills out on the "5-hills Loop". I managed to keep the "governor" on and maintain an easy/moderate pace for the most part. When I got back home I discovered that the cold air was not only making my sinuses run, but that blood had been running down my face as well. I guess no one noticed it, but it was a disturbing discovery when I got home.

Got My Head On Straight

Health & Fitness: I went to yet another doctor today, a chiropractor. She X-rayed my spine, took time to analyze and describe the anomalies to me and then adjusted my back and neck. My neck was pretty seriously out, but she also pointed out old injuries, arthritic developments and things that are not exactly "fixable" but can be lived with. The doctor is a strong, young and attractive woman, but more importantly she has a true desire to heal and has a lot of knowledge and experience to back it up. Overall I have felt better since the visit in spite of a few muscles complaining about the skeletal rearrangement.

This may be the day my declining condition has changed course and hopefully start returning to the level of good health I usually enjoy. I have been blessed to have so many people projecting good thoughts and prayers in my direction and I am extremely thankful.

Mountain Men

Matt and Nathan called me, stoked about their new camping gear, and they wanted to go test it on the trail. So the following e-mail message went out yesterday morning:

DATES: January 02-03, 2004
DEPART: Friday 1:30 PM (from Dan's house)
RETURN: Saturday 2:00 PM
HIKERS: Dan, Matt, & Nathan
TRANSPORTATION: Dan's car to Unicoi Gap on HWY-17/75 north of Helen.
TRAIL ROUTE: Appalachian Trail west from Unicoi Gap over Blue Mountain. Probably hike about 3 miles and camp somewhere between Henson Gap (39º 49.111' N, 83º 46,639' W) and Red Clay Gap (34º 49.322' N, 83º 47,227' W).
FORECAST: Helen, GA - Mostly Cloudy low 48º High 69º

It is a tough climb out of Unicoi Gap up to the top of Blue mountain and it took us almost an hour with fully loaded backpacks. several miles back along the AT we passed a simple but relatively modern shelter for campers, there are shelters about every 20-25 miles along the AT but I've never stayed at one. On this trip we were looking for a clearing in the woods that I knew about, it had been the site of an old shelter that had been removed probably 20 or 30 years ago.

After a couple hours of hiking we found the spot we were looking for and setup camp for the night. Nathan had a new camp saw and dry wood was plentiful, so we had a really warm campfire to enjoy. Matt had a new camp stove we cooked the dinners on.

Shortly after we turned in for the night a tremendous fog rolled in. It was probably raining everywhere below us, but we spent the night sleeping in the clouds, literally.

Jan 2-3, 2003 AT photo gallery

Stepping into the New Year

Hiking: Ok, this was not really "hiking" the way I know it, more like a 40-minute walk in the woods. Bev and I strolled around on some of the well manicured trails in the Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve. It has been an unusually warm day with only a few wisps of clouds floating by the conspicuous moon in the calm, blue sky. This was my first time on these walking trails, however for years I have ridden my mountain bikes at the nearby Chicopee MTB trails, Chicopee Ag Ctr trails, and Gainesville College (Drowning Creek) trails.

Although there were not a lot of people hiking these trails behind the Elachee Nature Science Center, it still seems a bit too tame to excite me. The exercise was probably appropriate for my current condition, but I can hardly wait to get back to the AT and other trail systems in the mountains.