And watch this:

For listening to a book. 

I can't quite imagine what it would be like to listen to this book at 1.0 speed. I was at 1.5x this morning on the bike ride in, this book is a good distraction for what the fuck is going on, and it is due tomorrow and while I have a physical copy and have been doing a hybrid read, lately when I've tried to read, i'm tired and the book is good but not gripping and action packed enough to keep me awake. Sadly it also isn't enough to put me to sleep right away, just land me in that purgatory of too sleepy to do much but not sleepy enough to fall right asleep.

So there I was, fuck it, lets go to 1.75x.

Been spending words in a draft, not a blog post draft or an email draft. But digital draft. Words that I'm capturing because I'm uncertain if they should be shared, edited, or just deleted after some time.

Strange few days, heck week? Since Friday at least.

 Always a challenge. 

I suppose you can think about equilibrium as moderation. GeWilli doesn't do that last thing very well. 

Hasn't really found the the other thing.

 Wondering, really, if all my social issues can be fit into a clinical diagnosis.

Sure seems like it lately.

 So now I learn that shit ain't something someone made up about shitty CX canti brakes?

Damn

Getting all emotional at the ending there...

 Like all Danny's productions, this is just fantastically entertaining. Can't help but smile.

even with everything going on, in order to face what makes us uncomfortable. 

we need a few moments like this:

and if the algorithm doesn't push you here...  you should watch it:

 GeWilli has not been so good at staying ahead of the exhaustion curve. He seems to keep moving until he can't, collapses, recovers only enough to get back up and start moving again, just not fast enough not to be clobbered in a short timeframe.

Like woops, now.

 and also no wonder people false negative on these Abbott tests, they are crazy complicated and fussy compared to the iHealth tests i'm used to using.

click over on www. zineee. com just because, okay cut paste and remove the spaces - keep the link track backs clean, and thinking about engagement, if i don't put one of these things

 And well damn if there isn't some gems in there.

Guess I had it on autobackup starting at somepoint in '14...  kind of wish I'd started it sooner but that's probably when the phone filled up the first time. Maybe. Didn't have a smart phone till '13. Late adapter.

There was a conversation, more or less one sided, I thanked someone for their words on twitter in a DM, they replied three phrases that literally became something I kept going back to. Again and again over the next year.

It sucked, and yeah there was a huge victory fist pump when i found it. Bunch of other amazing images. I'd backed flickr up once before, a couple years ago, I had logged back in and my account must have gone from dormant to oh hey you have too many pictures, pay us or we'll delete them all. so I deleted them. And holy crap that was not easy to do.

I erased a few key words and who sent it but it probably won't take a genius with twitter to dig through and find the original thread. Hell I found it. 

Another good one is from Canton:

This dude. We both lost our fathers roughly around the same time, we wound up doing most of a full lap at Crosstobeerfest, riding side by side, talking about it, was pretty amazing, unwittingly we had a long string of people just riding behind us, patiently, while we shared some pretty emotional stuff.

Brad's one of those good people out there. Like really genuinely good and amazing people. If you see him, give him a donut.

heddwch
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 Having escaped getting covid for this long, 2.5 years if you track it back to the earliest spread and transmission of Sars-Cov2. man it would have been so much better if they called it Sars2. So much scarier sounding than covid or the vid or the 'rona.

And finally after that time our house has one positive. Docs refuse to prescribe paxlovid, no co-morbidities. How about we give it to everyone who can benefit. Gotta be enough doses now, no? Ration care, sure why not. Honestly timing isn't' bad, assuming the rest of the house makes it clear w/o tripping a rapid positive. There's a lot going on and the bonus change in plans means less hectic house cleaning today.

Headwind has been nuts and of course it shifted just a little more out of the east than north and instead of a nice tailwind home last night it was pretty much full cross wind. 

And just as I said something about the knee feeling better, well wouldn't you know, riding the singlespeed commuter, well lets say, didn't feel great. A little better today, and no, no smackdown for me. Just still tired, and really can't quite get to that mental state of wanting to go hard on the road bike. it is strange, but then I haven't been able to get out  on the MTB either, and want to but man time. Where is the fucking time? Honestly a part of me was kind of looking forward to a positive test for myself yesterday. 5 days of doing nothing, not leaving the house...  sounds pretty amazing.

Also pretty sad that it takes getting infected with a virus that has the potential to shrink your brain, damage your heart and countless other unknown health issues sounds good. 

Maybe just need to take those 5 days off while I'm healthy instead? Maybe after I finish this week, and get everything done next week that I won't get done this week and then maybe, then? except for all the other stuff on the calendar.

Tweaked the side bar again, no point sending you to dead links, updated a few, added two bike shops for obvious reasons, not that anyone clicks on there. I should probably put some Topeak linkage up. Remember if you need something I've got a code for you that will take 20% of the price off any in stock item purchased direct from Topeak.  
20% discount code WILLIAMS-22 at https://www.topeak.com/us/en

There making it stand out. No i don't get any cash or bonus or extra stuff if you order with it, but they have been sending me fun cool awesome shit to use and abuse and talk about so thing about it as a thank you to everyone who has to put up with me talking about it. Now hopefully they'll be releasing a 350PSI digital shock pump soon. I think I need just a little over 299PSI in the shock on the Top fuel.

okay- gotta go shuffle TBs of data around. Have an 8TB NAS that is totally full. Good thing data is cheap now. 

And yeah, I'll be the one still wearing a mask everywhere. given what I'm seeing? if you interact with people at all, you probably should be wearing one now too. 

heddwch
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 "The truth, as usual, is both and also neither, too complex for a tidy narrative. But we keep trying, don’t we, to tell our story? Like anyone attempting to weave tangled threads of experience, I hope to grasp something tangible from the abstraction of memory. "

Well isn't that just a fucking brilliantly perfect pile of words describing what many web loggers and diary-ers (diarrhea allusion intended) do with their spaces?

How many of you have waited for the line, the bad line, to show up on a Rapid test? Guess what, if it shows up it will show up instantly. That 15 minute wait? just to make sure. But as the fluid flows past in the nitrocellulose filter, it will react instantly.

If you start testing while it is strong, and watch it, it will fade, slowly away.

This story is in process. It is a stressful one. This pandemic shit, it is nuts, it is scary, it is insane how many people are infected right now. 

Last class happens soon. Then some grading and then i can move on to the rest of the absolutely insane.

Stay well out there my friends!

Heddwch
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 The gravel grinder not the usual Dirt Church location.

Had kind of thought the Hellraiser edition would be awesome. I also thought maybe doing smackdown tonight would be a thing.

Thinking no on both. 

I'd like to do the hellraiser but i think maybe I might do it solo, it is a tough ride and there's little refueling so it takes serious logistics. That last time I did it solo was baaaaaaad, but good but also not good.

Was thinking this morning about the Top Fuel, get the crank sorted and then was thinking about the tires, those soft SE4s are heavy and not the best but also are on there and with the cush core are a pain to change and do i really want to get another set of wheels (obvs yes but also no). 

And then there's all the other shit going on. 

Fuck - that sense of doom and dread this morning after yesterday's shit...

On the plus side I feel a little better than yesterday, just like a tuesday has felt for a while, but still not energized enough to go smackdowning.

Gotta figure this shit out somehow, def need to starting riding more and skipping a big fun ride is a dumb idea but other shit has to happen. And I'm tired. 

Also this morning I thought about starting to take the long way in. Might not be a bad idea.

Def need to start the Tower Hill morning meeting routine again too. But would be good to find someone to join on that. Someone maybe just a little faster than me (i mean that's pretty much everyone anyway) 

And then...  what bike? Got dreaming of a new Road bike but i already have a way too expensive fancy MTB, that said a new road bike would be really nice. Oh well fuck it - only benefit of this frustrating morning is I have time to sit here and monitor shit with just enough attention free that I can smash the keyboard.

heddwch
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 why i feel like such garbage on Mondays lately.

Today's no exception, it is like last week but at least last week I went out and rode 20 miles in the woods. This week? 

nothing and yet here I am zombie...

speaking of zombie:

 The weekend that is? 

worked on bikes  yesterday, today plans changed by unclear communication and failure to secure proper resources. so we went grocery shopping instead.

meant no dirt church but maybe not the worst because i'm tired. and still negative, test, mental outlook is still pretty positive and that's kind of a surprise.

finished Heretics of Dune, churning through those massive tomes in audio format works better. So tired that my eyes couldn't tell if something was an 18 or a 13 on a curved bottle in the store. Not great lighting but no matter where i put it i just couldn't quite make it out. Kind of terrifying to be honest. 

Was scrolling through IG and hit a big swatch of people on bikes, racing, photos by friends who shoot some races this weekend and i'm looking at all these people and they all look foreign to me. Somehow my identity has shifted? Dunno, was just weird. 

Crank fell off again last week, not sure what to do or how to fix or what. Have the SSMTB to use, perhaps that's something to think about riding more of. I dunno though. Need to kick start something, somehow. 

mentally just also tired. physically too. I got a good hour or two working outside, doing small things like pulling up the invasive english ivy, perhaps my new goal is to eradicate it from my yard. Noble and impossible  but something to do. in the sun and outside. 

it is strange, current feeling that is. No real Fomo from the weekend, lots of riding and racing and fun shit happening and I just went to build bikes and supposedly building a compost bin but that didn't work out well. 

I forgot that greasy joes gravel is next weekend, probably will skip it, but maybe skipping this weekend means I should give the smackdown another attempt. hang out  in the B group perhaps, form a C group, drift back into the what the hell am i doing group. Maybe it will rain again. 

Dunno really, feels like a strange crossroads at the moment. except no roads except the path I walked to get here.  can't go back though, that's the past, there are stories and memories but any fork in the road i didn't choose then is long gone, washed away by the weathering of time. 

Still mostly governed by this  new fatalistic awareness of finality. Still pretty crippling at times. The urge to purge grows, but then I have a weird mind that each object becomes a trigger for a specific memory and that object becomes a memory and if I purge the object so too the memory. But then when cerebral function ceases, well, those go as well. 

Have to work on figuring that out, that how to  survive with this mental state, has the potential to be self destructive, but at least no desire to ever go back to the ways prior to 2018... closing in on 4 years ago, 4 years ago  in a few days I started one last month long bender of epicness. Epic only in so much as to how much i was physically capable of consuming. 

Need to fall back on gratitude, more than just a crutch, but still feels more like a splint than a solution. 

I should really get on with cooking dinner. Much more food to make and I'm tired, weary. Need a vacation, like a real one maybe this time, is that even possible for me? Haven't really had one in so long I have no concept in recent memory. 

well

till next time

amor fati motherfuckers

heddwch
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