Me, yesterday...

According to the candles on the very yummy chocolate cake that my wife baked for me, I was eight years old yesterday. Add thirty one and you'll get the correct age. Jaysus! Am I middle aged? I certainly don't feel it. In fact, I don't mind getting older at all. When I examine the life cycle balance sheet, things seem better now than when I was twenty one. I'm certainly fitter (not skinnier though), healthier and happier now, although twenty one was indeed a great year. Definitely happier than twenty four. That was not a banner year. It involved prolonged involuntary celibacy. And poverty.

On the subject of being fitter - my bike training has been rudely interrupted by a bum knee. The left one. Given the mileage I have been doing, a sore knee might not be unexpected, but no, I somehow managed strain or tear the cartilage (don't you love the somewhat vague diagnosis that modern medicine provides), doing yoga. For those of you who think yoga is a mild form of exercise, go try it and report back to me.

Being a complete idiot, even though my knee was a little sore, I cycled forty miles last Saturday. I presumed that the lack of any pain during the ride was a good sign. I presumed wrong, way wrong. On Sunday my knee was so swollen I had to tie it down to stop it floating away, and any move in the wrong direction resulted in sharp pain. This was how I ended on the morning of my thirty ninth year on this planet, in the doctor's office having my knee twisted hither and thither. The good news is that, despite the pain, it seems mild enough; I was worried it might be a torn meniscus. The bad news is I am going to have to stay off the bike for at least 10 days, which really screws up my training schedule. Just when I was starting to feel strong. I have no choice but to roll with it. Ice and ibuprofen are my new best buddies. As a good friend puts it whenever something goes belly up, "How bad can it be, it’s not like someone died..."

Ghaddafi and Gareth

This is my mate, Gareth, taken while we were browsing the clothes stores on Haight Street. This came out way underexposed, but I used my very, very limited Photoshop skills to redo the levels. I like the end result; it captures the neighborhood's self-conscious hip. Not that Gar is self-consciously hip!

Don't Settle For a Network That Sucks

This was take outside Ameoba records on Upper Haight Street last weekend.

Walking The Dog

I missed the dog in the stroller when I was taking this picture - it noticed it later when I was downloading the photos.

Bike To Work Week

It's Bike to Work Week this week, and specifically, today is Bike to Work Day. The 2 wheeled vehicle pictured above has been my primary transport of late. I have been biking to work two or three days a week over the last 3 weeks, not so much for the good of the environment, but as training for The Cougar Mountain Classic mountain bike race in July. It's the perfect way for me to train, riding to work and back is 28 miles, and it is a good mixture of hills, flat and downhills, (this is San Francisco after all). This is one of the many reasons for blogging interruptus. I am way too shagged after cycling to write in the evening. That, the new band I am rehearsing with, a promotion at work, (I am pleased), and taking care of some friends kids while they were on vacation, (five kids in our house at once!) does not bode well for blogging futurus. Expect more photos than normal.

Despite it being bike to work day, I drove today. Given the wind that has been howling around the bay area for the last few days, it would have been more apt to name today National Windsurf to Work Day. I did cycle in yesterday, and gave common sense a good kicking by deciding to cycle home against a ferocious headwind. The morning ride was easy, there is never much wind that early, but the wind rises in the afternoon and by four it was gale force by the bay. I was committed to my training schedule so despite the offer of a ride home from a colleague I decided to cycle. I instantly regretted that decision, after I was nearly killed when a massive gust almost blew me off the bike, and into passing traffic. Consider me chastened. The ride home was purgatory, and as a result I am bollixed tired today. I cannot wait until I can go to bed. Of course I am riding again tomorrow.

Life Through The Bottom Of A Glass

Winding her way down on Irving Street...

If you were to spend some time walking down Irving street, near where I live in the Sunset, you'd be sure to see a few older Chinese women with one of these little shopping trolleys. Very practical indeed.