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30 Jan |
And I’m supposed to be one of the smart guys Cycling, Day to Day Life
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At least that’s how my boss refers to me.
That’s because I get paid more for what I know than what I do. Which is also very fortunate since, and I’m sure Becky and a few others at work would attest to, I don’t do that much. But I digress.
Anywaze, when I got up this morning I was intending to go for a bike ride. I hadn’t ridden since last Saturday, because of the rain and working yesterday, so it was paramount I get out today.
The bad news was, which you may have noted, had you read my Current State of Mind (right side bar), I was not a happy camper when I discovered it was only 40°F, which is right at the borderline of do I, or don’t I go for a bike ride.
Fortunately [I can say that now], I didn’t succumb to any of the numerous excuses I called upon, not to go for a ride, and left the house at 6:50 AM.
But as I was riding down my street, chasing down the group (I was running behind schedule), I started thinking to myself, this is stupid. It was freakin’ cold outside, and I was freezing! And that was even with an extra layer of clothing, my heaviest
cap, to cover my ears, plus scuba diving gloves.
And I’m supposed to be one of the smart guys?
Eventually it did warm up enough to make the ride tolerable, and I’m glad I got the ride out of the way. I’m just not so sure I was being that smart.
It might have been smarter to wait an hour for it to warm up, but then again, maybe it wouldn’t have been. I might not have gone for a ride at all, had I waited an hour.
This string of cold weather is just starting to wear on my psyche, and I just don’t know how much more I can take.
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28 Jan |
The Saddam Hussein interview Off Topic
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I don’t how many others watched the interview with the FBI agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein, on 60 minutes last night, but if you did, and you’re not as outraged and pissed off as I am right now, you must live on another planet.
What our not so illustrious president George Bush has accomplished with the US attack on Iraq, is to play right into the hand of Iran, by doing exactly what Iran had been unsuccessful in doing for the past 20+ years, and that was to eliminate the one impediment to Iran’s goal of dominating the entire middle east.
In that regard, Saddam Hussein (as loathsome as he was, and what many now use to rationalize the attack on Iraq) was actually doing our bidding. By perpetuating the lie about weapons of mass destruction, he was acting as a stabilizing force in that region, essentially looking out for our best interest.
What our attack on Iraq did, was open Pandora’s box, taking away taking away whatever stabilizing force there was in the area.
I don’t even want to imagine what the ultimate conclusion of this story will be, once we leave Iraq, when the new Shiite government of Iraq (which we helped install) aligns itself with the Shiite government of Iran, creating an alliance capable of threatening Israel, as well as our vital interests in the area, totally destabilizing the entire middle east region.
If George Bush, or anyone else out there, still believes Bush’s legacy will be likened to that of Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman or even Ronald Reagan they will be sadly mistaken.
The more likely scenario is George Bush will be compared to the likes of James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.
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26 Jan |
A better ending to a not so good week Cycling, Day to Day Life
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Although Sunday started out nice, the rest of the week did not fair as well.
On top of the seemingly relentless rain and cold, which only allowed me to get out on the road Wednesday of this week (Monday and Friday I did spinning classes), hassles at work due to unreasonable customer requirements, and a long time friend and tandem/triple riding partner passing away yesterday, I would not call this a particularly good week.
But even in the midst of a hurricane, if you so happen to be in the eye, there always seems to be that one glimmer of optimism to be found [even for the consummate contrarian/pessimist that I am]. And today was such a day.
If you’ve read my “Current Mood” plug-in on the right, you’ll note this day didn’t start out that good either, but after forcing myself out on the bike (something that often perks me up) things started to turn around.
First off, Rene and Amy (part of the old gang) were on the ride today. That doesn’t happen too often anymore, as Amy moved up north, and it’s hard to get Rene motivated, to ride 17 miles south, when she’s not around. But since Amy had a race tomorrow in LA, she made the 400 mile trip yesterday.
The ride was also relatively tame today (I guess no one wanted to push too hard since a lot of the guys were also racing tomorrow), enabling me to sit in with the first group. Something else that doesn’t happen too often anymore.
Afterwards, we headed off for coffee and tea, and talked about all the goings on, and even reminiscing about the “good ole days”.
All that would have been enough, but what really made the day was the view of the mountains as we rode home.
Although the picture from my bathroom window doesn’t do the view justice [I gotta start carrying a camera with me when I ride], it’s amazing for me when I think, while I live only 4 miles from the ocean, I can still look out my upstairs bathroom window, or walk about a mile to get an even more spectacular view, and see the snow covered mountains of Mount Baldy and Wilson.
I guess that’s just one more reason making living in southern California so great, and it did manage to cap off the end of an otherwise bad week on a good note.
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23 Jan |
No matter what anybody says General Health, Health Care, My MCL
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I still believe Kaiser Permanente has the best doctors, and offers the best health care coverage of any health care organization.
How many other emergency room doctors, do you think, would bother to call a patient at home in the evening, after receiving notification of an elevated white blood cell count, to make sure that person was feeling ok?
Well at Kaiser they do, and this wasn’t the first time.
This was at least the third time, I’ve received a call from an ER doctor checking up on me. It seems every time I have my blood checked late in the day (which occurred yesterday), after all the doctors in the office are long gone, I get a call checking up on me.
While that may seem like a little thing to some, and I wouldn’t have thought any less of Kaiser or the ER doctor, had the doctor not called, it is comforting to know someone actually cares about their job and their patients. You don’t find that too often any more in todays hectic, “it’s all about me” world.
Anywaze, I was happy to find out my lymphocyte count had dropped below 100 thou/cumm to 99 thou/cumm, after jumping to 106 thou/cumm last month. I still don’t consider that very significant, since at these levels variations in results can be extreme.
The good news is I’m still feeling fine. I do have a few issues, but nothing I am too concerned about just yet, and probably no more then most other people.