Silverbell 2, Heather 0

This weekend's long group ride was West Silverbell, an 84 mile trek out to Silverbell Mine and back. It's actually about as flat a ride as you can get in Tucson, but it kicked my ass. I knew I was in trouble when we were still 30 miles away from home and I was tired.

Ordinarily, I would just strategically avoid Silverbell for the rest of my natural life and not worry about it. Unfortunately, El Tour de Tucson finishes with a ride up Silverbell. On paper, it's not that bad. Just a slight uphill grade. Maybe 1-2%. But it goes on for 10 miles. And there's ALWAYS a headwind and it's always the end of a ride. The whole road just makes me want to curl up on the side of the road and go to sleep.

Mondays are hard

So it's Monday again. Mondays are easily the toughest day of the week for me. I go to bed too late Sunday night because I don't want the weekend to be over. Then I wake up Monday morning and have to drag myself into work approximately on time. Monday morning is the time that people forget their passwords or have their computers accidentally unplugged by cleaning staff over the weekend or need someone to fix the giant mess they've made trying to upgrade something over the weekend. I usually have one of those to fix on Monday morning, and email to catch up on. And then I have to decide what to do. It's the problem with having a job that is self directed - which project do I work on? And what on earth was I working on Friday when I left?

I hunt around for sticky notes, both real and virtual, and find a few things to do. Not surprisingly, they're all stuff I've been putting off because it is unpleasant. I choose the least unpleasant to do, which means that the really unpleasant stuff will still be waiting for me next Monday. It seems that by the end of each week, I know how to do my job and what I am working on. Then I go home for the weekend and when I come back Monday, my brain has abandoned me completely. I really need to start working on projects from start to finish so that I don't have to keep so many projects in my brain-RAM all the time.

let's go ride bikes

A few months ago (three months, to the day, to be exact) I got a road bike. It is, in a word, awesome. Considering I upgraded from the cheapest Target mountain bike, the difference is remarkable. I used to go for 15 mile rides and get off the bike with my legs all wobbly and feel like I was going to die. Now I can ride 30 miles with ease, and 50 miles without dying.
Riding bikes has changed my entire veiw of the world. In spring (February here in Tucson) I noticed the wildflowers blooming long before James because I ride past them every day. I notice people's landscaping, and which houses in my neighborhood are occupied by university students, and when the public schools aren't in session, all because I'm traveling by at 15 mph instead of 35. It is wonderful to be able to slow down and not only see what is around you, but also smell and hear and even feel. I feel more connected to the natural world living in the middle of the city riding my bike than I ever did driving near my parents house.
The side benefit of riding my bike and loving it is that bike riding is technically exercise. It's way too fun to actually be exercise, but it is. So I've actually been exercising, and getting more fit. It's a nice side benefit.

Blogging....false start

As James will tell you, I'm not very good at keeping houseplants alive. They just don't let you know that they are dying. Instead they just sit there in the window, shriveling and dying from too much heat and not enough water. My cat won't shut up if I haven't fed her, and therefore, I haven't starved her to death yet.

It seems blogging falls into the houseplant category, rather than the cat category. The idea of coming up with something to post that isn't just "I continue to exist" on a day-to-day basis is a little overwhelming for me. But, I'm going to try again. Really...

So, the entry will just state the obvious. I continue to exist. If anything more interesting happens, I'll let you know.

Bad Blogger, Bad

I'm bad at blogging. I mean someone somehow found the blog and left a COMMENT and I didn't even notice. It's not that I don't have time to blog, it's just that I pride myself on how boring my life is, and it just doesn't seem to be worth writing about.

My weeks have been passing really quickly lately. I don't know why. I haven't been busy, haven't been doing anything exciting, just going to work, coming home, making and eating dinner, and watching TV, with the occasional trip to the library thrown in for variety. I totally think it is due to my favorite TV shows debuting for the season in January. Now I have a show every night of the week. Wednesdays are the biggest highlight, when I watch Alias and tape the West Wing because they are on at the same time.

I love TV. I think TV gets a bad rap. I mean, yes, 98% of it is crap, and a full 25% of it is devoted to trying to sell you something, but in between that is some really great escapist entertainment. I love Alias and The West Wing for the same reason - they let me immerse myself in a (fake) world I will never really be a part of. Who doesn't want to walk the halls of the White House, influencing the policy decisions of our country? Who doesn't want to wear skin-tight leather and kick bad guys' asses in hand to hand combat? It doesn't matter that the real CIA spends more time overthrowing democratically elected governments than recovering strange 15th century artifacts. At the end of the episode, I want to be a spy.

DMV vs. MVD

Here in Arizona they have a Motor Vehicle Department. Back in the old world(Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire) we had the DMV (cue scary background music). You went there and if you were lucky you would emerge three hours later with a piece of paper telling you to come back next Tuesday with three forms of identification and the title to your house.

So today James and I set out to become licensed Arizona drivers. We were supposed to do this when we became "residents" but we didn't, because that would mean going to the DMV, and that is bad. But now we had to go, because our car needed to be registered.

All in all, the whole experience wasn't that bad. We had a "vehicle inspection" that consisted of the man observing that we did in fact have a car, that the car had a VIN, and that VIN had not been reported stolen. Then we went inside, filled out a short form, didn't even really have to wait, and got two drivers licenses and one car registration all at the same counter. My picture wasn't even that bad. Clearly the MVD wins over the DMV.

But this is the best part. My license doesn't expire until my sixty-fifth birthday!! They're like, yup, Maine says you know how to drive, and you seem to be able to see large shiny objects, go ahead and keep driving for another forty years. We won't even try to extort any more money out of you. That will be $25 for forty years.

On Cheese, Chalk, and a Beard

South Park Episode #105 - The South Park boys go to visit Mr. Mephesto at his genetic engineering ranch. They are looking around. They see four assed monkeys and bunnies spliced with fish.

MR. MEPHESTO: And over here is swiss cheese spliced with chalk... and a beard. The boys look at the bearded swiss cheese with chalk.

Establishing shot: Heather's kitchen. Zoom in on shopping list on fridge.

• Wood screws
• Postage Stamps
• Applesauce

My thought processes, and to some extent my life, are like Mr. Mephesto's creatures. The point of this blog is to have no cohesive theme, no cause to champion, no exhaustive reference on a subject. Just your good old chalk, cheese, and a beard.

blah blah blog

So I'm still warming up to the blogging idea. I mean, who doesn't love a blog? My friends, my parents, and my boss can all read my most intimate thoughts. My boss can even see I posted them at work. (Don't worry, I have PDF's batch processing). Anyway, I think I'm still in the self-conscious phase of blogging.

I start my first class at the University of Arizona today. I actually work there as a webmaster for the psychology department. I'm taking Calculus 2 because you only ever realize after you've left college you should have taken hard, useful classes. I haven't touched a math book in six years, so this should be interesting at the very least.

Anyway, my batch process doesn't seem to be working, so I'm off to attend to that.

This is my desk. I made it myself.

Everyone should own a hacksaw

Dad: Do you have a hacksaw?
Heather: Why would I have a hacksaw?
Dad: Everyone should own a hacksaw.

My dad is a carpenter, and quite a good one. Throughout the years he's tried to impart his construction knowledge and various tools to me. When I was four we built my first toolbox and he gave me my very first hammer. I now posess a bucket of tools a vague knowledge of how things get built.

The point of all this is I built a desk. I called dad, and he gave me about 6 different plans for building a desk with the 2'x3' piece of 5/8" plywood I bought at a yard sale. I settled on the 2x4 box method, and voila, a desk for me. The nice people at Lowe's will actually cut your wood to the right lengths with a relatively high degree of accuracy. So really, my dad told me how to make a desk, the people at Lowe's made all the pieces, and I nailed it together. I'm absurdly proud of myself for this achievement, just like last time I nailed a few boards together and called it furniture. Total cost $13.

Oh god, now I've done it

Blogging. It's the new thing. You write everything about your life as though other people might actually care, and by some fluke, some other people actually do care and read it. I've been resisting blogging for a few reasons. 1) I figured no one would care 2) I talk too much already 3) There are already too many people in the world who confuse having an inner monologue with the ability to write something interesting.

So why I am now starting a blog? Because I can. Because I don't care if no one cares, because I might as well write too much rather than talk too much, and because I happen to think my inner monologue really IS more interesting than everyone else's. What will I write about? God only knows. Who will read it? Hopefully no one.

So welcome, my imaginary crowd of adoring fans with RSS feeds to keep up to date on every detail of my life. Don't expect too much.