If you are checking this site, this is the last post you will probably see. As of now, I've switched everything over to WordPress. All of the old posts and comments are over there too, and WordPress allows me the ability to do a couple of things that I couldn't with Blogger. So long Blogger...we've had a good run...
Visit the new site at screamandwail.wordpress.com
15 January 2011
08 January 2011
2011 Reading List
Going to try to log each book that I finish this year. I'm making it a personal goal to actually finish books this year.
Date Finished Book Name
1/8/11 I'm A Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
1/9/11 Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin - Stephen Jay Gould.
Date Finished Book Name
1/8/11 I'm A Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
1/9/11 Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin - Stephen Jay Gould.
05 January 2011
Favorite Music of 2010
It's that time of year again, faithful readers (both of you). January brings with it my annual recap of the music that moved me the most for the past twelve months. I used to do a Top Ten list, then a Top Ten-ish list, but I tend to find that my tastes vary so much week-to-week that there would be fourteen or fifteen albums that could fit into a "Top Ten" based on my given mood. So I've decided this year to just rank the albums that I really find to be solid albums (some great, some good). Everything below the top five changed spots at least once or twice, but I really think this list accurately represents where I am right now. But enough for the intro...
...okay, maybe not. A couple other notes:
-Hookiest song of the year: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat The Devil's Tattoo. This was one of the first albums that I picked up this year, and the title track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYkhNWIdra0) blew my doors off from first listen. I'm pretty sure that it has been stuck in my head since March. BRMC at their best.
-Most disappointing albums of the year:
Neil Young – Le Noise. Just Neil and a guitar and Daniel Lanois. My disdain for Lanois producing "skills" grows year-by-year.
Kings of Leon – Come Around Sundown. Great first single. Mediocre My Morning Jacket the rest of the way.
Finger Eleven – Life Turns Electric. F11, whom I used to love dearly, releases their second turd in a row, though at least it has 4/5 songs that are marginally listenable and the lyrics aren't quite lame enough to sound like cast-offs from Amy Lee of Evanescence's 10th grade songbook (like their last album)
Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns. I get them trying new things, they just don't do all of them very well. Another album with 4/5 listenable songs.
Now, on to the good stuff.
1. Viva Death - Curse The Darkness. I've tried not to be abnormally biased, given that this album is 100% the brainchild of Scott Shiflett with a big assist from Chad Blinman, but I genuinely do think that this is the best album of the year from start to finish. My longer review can be found here (http://screamandwail.blogspot.com/2010/07/viva-death-curse-darkness.html). Curse The Darkness covers the most sonic ground on the album, and nails each style it goes for, whether that be “zombie surf rock,” “post-punk,” trippy space rock or tribal, drum heavy sounds.
2. Bad Religion – Dissent of Man. My favorite punk album of the year, though admittedly that list isn’t nearly as long as it used to be. Most music that gets passed off as punk nowadays has been passed through such a watered-down Blink-182/Good Charlotte filter that it is not recognizable as being from the same genre that the old staples used to reside in. Thankfully Bad Religion is still raising the flag for the old school, now thirty years deep into their career. The Dissent of Man is their fourth very solid album in a row, making the Brooks Wackerman era a perfect 4 for 4. While not quite a home run, it is certainly a stand-up triple. Where the album errs is in its length…15 songs isn’t exactly an epic from a punk standpoint, but if the Gregs had decided to pare a couple songs off the tracklist (namely “I Won’t Say Anything”), it may have been #1A at the very least.
3. Josh Ritter – So Runs The World Away. It is probably safe to say that Ritter has shaken off the “next Springsteen-meets-Dylan” tag and arrived as his own artist. While I don’t think it is quite as solid as “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter,” SRTWA highlights Ritter’s continuing evolution as an artist. While the music isn’t as much of a departure from his last couple albums, the lyrics show Ritter testing boundaries by taking listeners on a voyage that includes stops in the Southern Pacific, the Mississippi delta at the turn of last century (the John Hurt-inspired “Folk Bloodbath”), a North Pole expedition (the Poe-inspired “Another New World”) and the Egyptian exhibit at a natural history museum (“The Curse”). Perhaps a bit too ambitious, but with his first full-length novel due out in 2011, it makes sense that Ritter would be pushing his limits to the brink. Great stuff.
4. Tony Sly - 12 Song Program. Previously reviewed when it first came out (http://screamandwail.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-of-2010volume-two.html), but it has held up over the year. No frills, just a great punk songwriter and an acoustic guitar (and the occasional drum loop).
5. Gaslight Anthem - American Slang – I loved this album when it first came out, but after four or five listens, it wasn’t quite grabbing me the same way. I put it down for a while, and just listened to each of the songs in the normal “shuffle” rotation of my MP3 player (not an iPod!!) and it gradually started to grow back into favor. I’ve got the utmost respect for Brian Fallon as a singer/songwriter, even if he is a Yankees/Jets fan. He really has the market cornered on early Springsteen, suburban American youth storytelling, but mixes it with the urgency of a three-chord punker.
The Other Stuff, that remains quite good.
6. The Black Keys – Brothers. Another album that could have been considerably higher on the list if it weren’t so damn long. Clocks in at 15 tracks, much like BR’s “Dissent of Man,” but this is no punk rock album. Solid delta blues straight out of a post-punk Detroit garage, when this album excels, it REALLY excels (listen to: Next Girl, Tighten Up, The Go Getter, etc). But the last three songs slowly meander to nowhere, making the listener wish they were left on the cutting room floor or, at best, were B-sides (do they still make singles anymore)
7. The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever. Probably the “rockiest” THS album, in that it features no piano/keyboards for the first time (prompted by the departure of the mustachioed Franz Nicolay). The result is an album that still contains THS’s trademark hooky guitars, sing-a-long chorus’ and epicly wordy lyrics from Craig Finn, but in some ways, the comparatively stripped down sound almost sounds bigger and fuller than their previous efforts.
8. Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants – self-titled. I’m gonna say that this album is the most “outside my comfort zone” of any album on the list. I really took a flier on it because A)it is the brainchild of Chris Shiflett and B) well, there really is no B. For those that are outside the loop, Shiflett is the lead guitar player for the Foo Fighters and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and previously held the same role in No Use For A Name. As brother to Scott Shiflett, he also played baritone guitar on the first two Viva Death albums, and has fronted a couple other punk-inspired side project albums under the names Jackson and Jackson United. Dead Peasants is certainly no Jackson United (whose most recent album remains in heavy rotation in my playlist). Instead, the self-titled album is nine songs of countrified rock music, complete with all the pedal steels and twangy guitar riffs that you might expect on a Merle Haggard LP. I’ll admit that this was an acquired taste, but Shiflett’s songwriting makes it much more palatable, and in fact has made this one of my favorite albums of the year. Thanks to the Shifletts for broadening my horizons yet again!
9. Alkaline Trio – This Addiction. Alkaline Trio put out an album this year that sounds very much like…Alkaline Trio. They have a Springsteen-like formula for writing depressingly morbid (morbidly depressing??) 2:30 punk songs with just enough pop sensibility to make for a good, fun listen.
10. The Greenhornes – FourStars. Only learned of this album late in the year so I’ve only been able to listen to it a handful of times, but it is really a great listen. The first album in eight years for the Cincinnati-based trio finds them firing on all cylinders. Sounds are straight out of Liverpool via North London (yes, those are Beatles and Kinks references) in 1965. Timeless pop-rock music. Great listen.
11. The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards. I’m a little late to the Dead Weather party, but I’ve had a growing man-crush on Jack White for some time now, so late this year I figured it was time to become more familiar with his non-White Stripes catalog. The Dead Weather sounds like a combination of The White Stripes (natch) and the Black Keys – Delta blues run through the a gritty, dirty, Detroit-garagey filter. Not for the faint-of-heart.
12. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor. Gritty indie rock from New Jersey with lyrics that invoke Springsteen (moreso than Gaslight Anthem, which is tough to do!) and Ritter (many, many references to old literature and Civil War history), with a perhaps the most raw, passionate, earnest vocals of the year (shades of Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes). Definitely deserves to be on the myriad year-end “Top Ten” lists that it shows up on.
13. Joey Cape – Doesn’t Play Well With Others. What can I say…when you are a sucker for a genre (that being the punk rock frontman playing solo acoustic material), you are a sucker for it. Been a fan of Joey’s work for years now. His album is a little different than others in the same category, as it has a very indie/DIY feel to it, and features an appearance by his (seven-year-old?) daughter, Violet. Also, all of the artwork was done by his daughter. And, the album was released over the course of the year…one song per month, culminating in the twelfth and final song (I Always Knew This Was Going To End Badly) being released in early December.
14. Legion of Doom vs. Triune. From my prior blog review: To quote Legion of Doom's own website, "strange, dark and densely layered, this is not a typical hip-hop record." That couldn't be more accurate. There is a lot going on musically (it ain't a Lil Wayne album, let's put it that way). Triune (who I was only partially aware of) hits a lyrical home run (more Common/NOE than Weezy or Jeezy). Sadly, it is only available via digital download (I'm still an old school, "like to open the album and flip through the liner notes and absorb the artwork" kinda guy and I hope that never changes).
15. Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea. Complex, beautiful, at times haunting instrumental album from the master. Classic ambient Eno for the new crowd. Love this album.
16. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat The Devil’s Tattoo. I want this album to be much higher, I really do. I’m a big fan of the Been/Hayes duo, and I like the depth that new drummer Leah Shapiro brings to the mix. This album is dynamite at the start; the title track which serves as the album opener is hands-down the hookiest song of the year. The first four songs are all solid and find BRMC at their classic gritty-garage blues best. But then the album seems to stall for a long time. An early review that I recall reading (perhaps from the WFNX site) commented that it “plods along without really going anywhere,” and that is entirely accurate. There area about 8 or 10 songs in a row (aside from the stellar “Aya”) that fit virtually the same formula, and the over-fuzzed guitars (and especially vocals) tend to become a little grating after a while.
17. Pete Yorn – Pete Yorn. Solid release from Pete Yorn. If you like slightly-above-mid-tempo alternative-inspired rock, Pete Yorn is for you. He’s a great songwriter, and his voice has progressed over the years, but aside from that, this is a basic Pete Yorn album. I guess if it ain’t broke…
Honorable Mention:
Flogging Molly – Live. I don’t include live albums in my top albums lists, but this one was almost an exception. Such a great band, and this album really captures the passion and the urgency of their live shows.
Jamie Cullum – The Pursuit
Murder By Death – Good Morning, Magpie
Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void
Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 – Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival
Eels – End Times
Eels – Tomorrow Morning
...okay, maybe not. A couple other notes:
-Hookiest song of the year: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat The Devil's Tattoo. This was one of the first albums that I picked up this year, and the title track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYkhNWIdra0) blew my doors off from first listen. I'm pretty sure that it has been stuck in my head since March. BRMC at their best.
-Most disappointing albums of the year:
Neil Young – Le Noise. Just Neil and a guitar and Daniel Lanois. My disdain for Lanois producing "skills" grows year-by-year.
Kings of Leon – Come Around Sundown. Great first single. Mediocre My Morning Jacket the rest of the way.
Finger Eleven – Life Turns Electric. F11, whom I used to love dearly, releases their second turd in a row, though at least it has 4/5 songs that are marginally listenable and the lyrics aren't quite lame enough to sound like cast-offs from Amy Lee of Evanescence's 10th grade songbook (like their last album)
Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns. I get them trying new things, they just don't do all of them very well. Another album with 4/5 listenable songs.
Now, on to the good stuff.
1. Viva Death - Curse The Darkness. I've tried not to be abnormally biased, given that this album is 100% the brainchild of Scott Shiflett with a big assist from Chad Blinman, but I genuinely do think that this is the best album of the year from start to finish. My longer review can be found here (http://screamandwail.blogspot.com/2010/07/viva-death-curse-darkness.html). Curse The Darkness covers the most sonic ground on the album, and nails each style it goes for, whether that be “zombie surf rock,” “post-punk,” trippy space rock or tribal, drum heavy sounds.
2. Bad Religion – Dissent of Man. My favorite punk album of the year, though admittedly that list isn’t nearly as long as it used to be. Most music that gets passed off as punk nowadays has been passed through such a watered-down Blink-182/Good Charlotte filter that it is not recognizable as being from the same genre that the old staples used to reside in. Thankfully Bad Religion is still raising the flag for the old school, now thirty years deep into their career. The Dissent of Man is their fourth very solid album in a row, making the Brooks Wackerman era a perfect 4 for 4. While not quite a home run, it is certainly a stand-up triple. Where the album errs is in its length…15 songs isn’t exactly an epic from a punk standpoint, but if the Gregs had decided to pare a couple songs off the tracklist (namely “I Won’t Say Anything”), it may have been #1A at the very least.
3. Josh Ritter – So Runs The World Away. It is probably safe to say that Ritter has shaken off the “next Springsteen-meets-Dylan” tag and arrived as his own artist. While I don’t think it is quite as solid as “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter,” SRTWA highlights Ritter’s continuing evolution as an artist. While the music isn’t as much of a departure from his last couple albums, the lyrics show Ritter testing boundaries by taking listeners on a voyage that includes stops in the Southern Pacific, the Mississippi delta at the turn of last century (the John Hurt-inspired “Folk Bloodbath”), a North Pole expedition (the Poe-inspired “Another New World”) and the Egyptian exhibit at a natural history museum (“The Curse”). Perhaps a bit too ambitious, but with his first full-length novel due out in 2011, it makes sense that Ritter would be pushing his limits to the brink. Great stuff.
4. Tony Sly - 12 Song Program. Previously reviewed when it first came out (http://screamandwail.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-of-2010volume-two.html), but it has held up over the year. No frills, just a great punk songwriter and an acoustic guitar (and the occasional drum loop).
5. Gaslight Anthem - American Slang – I loved this album when it first came out, but after four or five listens, it wasn’t quite grabbing me the same way. I put it down for a while, and just listened to each of the songs in the normal “shuffle” rotation of my MP3 player (not an iPod!!) and it gradually started to grow back into favor. I’ve got the utmost respect for Brian Fallon as a singer/songwriter, even if he is a Yankees/Jets fan. He really has the market cornered on early Springsteen, suburban American youth storytelling, but mixes it with the urgency of a three-chord punker.
The Other Stuff, that remains quite good.
6. The Black Keys – Brothers. Another album that could have been considerably higher on the list if it weren’t so damn long. Clocks in at 15 tracks, much like BR’s “Dissent of Man,” but this is no punk rock album. Solid delta blues straight out of a post-punk Detroit garage, when this album excels, it REALLY excels (listen to: Next Girl, Tighten Up, The Go Getter, etc). But the last three songs slowly meander to nowhere, making the listener wish they were left on the cutting room floor or, at best, were B-sides (do they still make singles anymore)
7. The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever. Probably the “rockiest” THS album, in that it features no piano/keyboards for the first time (prompted by the departure of the mustachioed Franz Nicolay). The result is an album that still contains THS’s trademark hooky guitars, sing-a-long chorus’ and epicly wordy lyrics from Craig Finn, but in some ways, the comparatively stripped down sound almost sounds bigger and fuller than their previous efforts.
8. Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants – self-titled. I’m gonna say that this album is the most “outside my comfort zone” of any album on the list. I really took a flier on it because A)it is the brainchild of Chris Shiflett and B) well, there really is no B. For those that are outside the loop, Shiflett is the lead guitar player for the Foo Fighters and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and previously held the same role in No Use For A Name. As brother to Scott Shiflett, he also played baritone guitar on the first two Viva Death albums, and has fronted a couple other punk-inspired side project albums under the names Jackson and Jackson United. Dead Peasants is certainly no Jackson United (whose most recent album remains in heavy rotation in my playlist). Instead, the self-titled album is nine songs of countrified rock music, complete with all the pedal steels and twangy guitar riffs that you might expect on a Merle Haggard LP. I’ll admit that this was an acquired taste, but Shiflett’s songwriting makes it much more palatable, and in fact has made this one of my favorite albums of the year. Thanks to the Shifletts for broadening my horizons yet again!
9. Alkaline Trio – This Addiction. Alkaline Trio put out an album this year that sounds very much like…Alkaline Trio. They have a Springsteen-like formula for writing depressingly morbid (morbidly depressing??) 2:30 punk songs with just enough pop sensibility to make for a good, fun listen.
10. The Greenhornes – FourStars. Only learned of this album late in the year so I’ve only been able to listen to it a handful of times, but it is really a great listen. The first album in eight years for the Cincinnati-based trio finds them firing on all cylinders. Sounds are straight out of Liverpool via North London (yes, those are Beatles and Kinks references) in 1965. Timeless pop-rock music. Great listen.
11. The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards. I’m a little late to the Dead Weather party, but I’ve had a growing man-crush on Jack White for some time now, so late this year I figured it was time to become more familiar with his non-White Stripes catalog. The Dead Weather sounds like a combination of The White Stripes (natch) and the Black Keys – Delta blues run through the a gritty, dirty, Detroit-garagey filter. Not for the faint-of-heart.
12. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor. Gritty indie rock from New Jersey with lyrics that invoke Springsteen (moreso than Gaslight Anthem, which is tough to do!) and Ritter (many, many references to old literature and Civil War history), with a perhaps the most raw, passionate, earnest vocals of the year (shades of Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes). Definitely deserves to be on the myriad year-end “Top Ten” lists that it shows up on.
13. Joey Cape – Doesn’t Play Well With Others. What can I say…when you are a sucker for a genre (that being the punk rock frontman playing solo acoustic material), you are a sucker for it. Been a fan of Joey’s work for years now. His album is a little different than others in the same category, as it has a very indie/DIY feel to it, and features an appearance by his (seven-year-old?) daughter, Violet. Also, all of the artwork was done by his daughter. And, the album was released over the course of the year…one song per month, culminating in the twelfth and final song (I Always Knew This Was Going To End Badly) being released in early December.
14. Legion of Doom vs. Triune. From my prior blog review: To quote Legion of Doom's own website, "strange, dark and densely layered, this is not a typical hip-hop record." That couldn't be more accurate. There is a lot going on musically (it ain't a Lil Wayne album, let's put it that way). Triune (who I was only partially aware of) hits a lyrical home run (more Common/NOE than Weezy or Jeezy). Sadly, it is only available via digital download (I'm still an old school, "like to open the album and flip through the liner notes and absorb the artwork" kinda guy and I hope that never changes).
15. Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea. Complex, beautiful, at times haunting instrumental album from the master. Classic ambient Eno for the new crowd. Love this album.
16. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat The Devil’s Tattoo. I want this album to be much higher, I really do. I’m a big fan of the Been/Hayes duo, and I like the depth that new drummer Leah Shapiro brings to the mix. This album is dynamite at the start; the title track which serves as the album opener is hands-down the hookiest song of the year. The first four songs are all solid and find BRMC at their classic gritty-garage blues best. But then the album seems to stall for a long time. An early review that I recall reading (perhaps from the WFNX site) commented that it “plods along without really going anywhere,” and that is entirely accurate. There area about 8 or 10 songs in a row (aside from the stellar “Aya”) that fit virtually the same formula, and the over-fuzzed guitars (and especially vocals) tend to become a little grating after a while.
17. Pete Yorn – Pete Yorn. Solid release from Pete Yorn. If you like slightly-above-mid-tempo alternative-inspired rock, Pete Yorn is for you. He’s a great songwriter, and his voice has progressed over the years, but aside from that, this is a basic Pete Yorn album. I guess if it ain’t broke…
Honorable Mention:
Flogging Molly – Live. I don’t include live albums in my top albums lists, but this one was almost an exception. Such a great band, and this album really captures the passion and the urgency of their live shows.
Jamie Cullum – The Pursuit
Murder By Death – Good Morning, Magpie
Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void
Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 – Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival
Eels – End Times
Eels – Tomorrow Morning
01 January 2011
Random Musings on 2010
2010 was a year that, on paper at least, could very easily have sucked, at least on a personal level. It certainly started out okay...accomplished a few little things, like finally paying off our car. Just when it seemed like we were going to start getting ahead a little bit, the wheels started coming off a tad. Literally. Had to have some work done to the Chevy, as the bearings and tie rods that help hold the front wheels on were beyond repair. Then the timing belt blew on the Chrysler...while heading down the highway on a trip back from Connecticut, with the wife and the wee one in the car. On a Sunday. Fun times (thanks for coming to rescue us, Dad). Thankfully the engine didn't need to be rebuilt, but damn near everything around it did. Cha-ching.
After getting that fixed, I continued to not have warm fuzzies about the Chevy, so it was time to trade it in. Liberty Mazda in Wakefield would give us over a grand sight unseen, so we jumped at the chance and bought a Mazda. Granted it was a 2003 with few bells and whistles, but it had low miles and was fairly cheap. And it meant another car payment (yuck), but not a bad one.
Late summer brought with it news that tuition at the wee one's daycare was going to increase. We'd been through this before and were about to leave at one point, but the old Center Director worked hard to keep us there, so we had stayed. New Center Director, while personable enough, was less receptive, so when we told her we were probably leaving, she asked only "when is your last day?". Needless to say, we left for a new place.
Fast forward to late fall, and more car trouble. Chrysler again, but this time it was the transmission. Never, ever good. It should be pointed out that the wife and the wee one were in the car, and that we were on our way back from Connecticut on a Sunday...again. Sound familiar? This time, the car wasn't worth fixing...any amount spent to repair the transmission would be more than we'd get for it if we traded it. So, it was determined that we'd sell the car to our mechanic and buy a new one. This time? A Toyota. Yes it is another new car payment (that makes two this year), but the car should last a while, as it A)has low miles and B) wasn't involved in any of the recall shenanigans.
Bring on New Year's Eve...and some idiot drilling the front driver's side of the new car while backing out of a driveway across the street, and then taking off from the scene without leaving a note or anything. Thankfully, the mailman saw the whole thing happen and got the idiot's plate number. More on that later, I'm sure...
In spite of those issues (especially the car troubles), I'd have to say that 2010 was really a pretty good year, all things considered. The decision to move the wee one from KinderCare to The Goddard School has been a great one; she is really thriving in the new environment, and the entire center seems to be a more nurturing environment. We've also (very luckily) been able to keep in touch with some of the families that we got to know quite well from our time at KinderCare, and they've been great us and to Morgan.
Some other pretty cool things that happened:
-I decided to get in shape. No New Year's resolution required, just sort of a few 'enough is enough' moments. As of this writing, I'm down somewhere in the neighborhood of 52 pounds since June 1st through diet and exercise only. The diet stuff came first: exercise started a month-or-so later. According to the program that I use to map my rides/runs, I've logged 524 miles either cycling or running since July 9th. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things compared to some people out there, but it is 524 miles more than I've done in the last several years combined. Goal this year is to hit 1,000 miles total, which shouldn't be too much of a stretch, given that I have six extra months to play with, and I'm starting from a point where I'm in better shape.
-Saw Pearl Jam again. That's always a highlight of any year!
-Saw a reunited Face to Face again, and got to hang with Scott more than ever (between the Warped Tour and a Gimme's show). He's a great dude that I am lucky to consider a friend. Also, got to share the experience with Morgan...first punk rock show! And she was definitely a highlight of the show (or so the band said).
-This brings to a close the 13th year that I've been with the love of my life. Pretty remarkable in this day and age, I think. Still feels like we are 18 sometimes...don't let the gray hair (on me, not her) fool you! Though actually, I feel younger than 18 sometimes...and I'm certainly in better shape now than I was at 18!
Again, there were more than a few reasons that 2010 could have sucked (I didn't even include the whole fiscal crisis in Massachusetts and the goings-on in the Trial Court/Probation system that have cast an uneasy pall over everything at work), but those things really seem trivial in hindsight. I've grown a lot personally, and those areas where I feel I've improved myself had led to a more positive way of looking at the world around me and allowed me to gain inspiration from the people around me. All of that has made me a better husband, a better father, a better person...and you can't ask for much more than that.
Bring on 2011.
After getting that fixed, I continued to not have warm fuzzies about the Chevy, so it was time to trade it in. Liberty Mazda in Wakefield would give us over a grand sight unseen, so we jumped at the chance and bought a Mazda. Granted it was a 2003 with few bells and whistles, but it had low miles and was fairly cheap. And it meant another car payment (yuck), but not a bad one.
Late summer brought with it news that tuition at the wee one's daycare was going to increase. We'd been through this before and were about to leave at one point, but the old Center Director worked hard to keep us there, so we had stayed. New Center Director, while personable enough, was less receptive, so when we told her we were probably leaving, she asked only "when is your last day?". Needless to say, we left for a new place.
Fast forward to late fall, and more car trouble. Chrysler again, but this time it was the transmission. Never, ever good. It should be pointed out that the wife and the wee one were in the car, and that we were on our way back from Connecticut on a Sunday...again. Sound familiar? This time, the car wasn't worth fixing...any amount spent to repair the transmission would be more than we'd get for it if we traded it. So, it was determined that we'd sell the car to our mechanic and buy a new one. This time? A Toyota. Yes it is another new car payment (that makes two this year), but the car should last a while, as it A)has low miles and B) wasn't involved in any of the recall shenanigans.
Bring on New Year's Eve...and some idiot drilling the front driver's side of the new car while backing out of a driveway across the street, and then taking off from the scene without leaving a note or anything. Thankfully, the mailman saw the whole thing happen and got the idiot's plate number. More on that later, I'm sure...
In spite of those issues (especially the car troubles), I'd have to say that 2010 was really a pretty good year, all things considered. The decision to move the wee one from KinderCare to The Goddard School has been a great one; she is really thriving in the new environment, and the entire center seems to be a more nurturing environment. We've also (very luckily) been able to keep in touch with some of the families that we got to know quite well from our time at KinderCare, and they've been great us and to Morgan.
Some other pretty cool things that happened:
-I decided to get in shape. No New Year's resolution required, just sort of a few 'enough is enough' moments. As of this writing, I'm down somewhere in the neighborhood of 52 pounds since June 1st through diet and exercise only. The diet stuff came first: exercise started a month-or-so later. According to the program that I use to map my rides/runs, I've logged 524 miles either cycling or running since July 9th. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things compared to some people out there, but it is 524 miles more than I've done in the last several years combined. Goal this year is to hit 1,000 miles total, which shouldn't be too much of a stretch, given that I have six extra months to play with, and I'm starting from a point where I'm in better shape.
-Saw Pearl Jam again. That's always a highlight of any year!
-Saw a reunited Face to Face again, and got to hang with Scott more than ever (between the Warped Tour and a Gimme's show). He's a great dude that I am lucky to consider a friend. Also, got to share the experience with Morgan...first punk rock show! And she was definitely a highlight of the show (or so the band said).
-This brings to a close the 13th year that I've been with the love of my life. Pretty remarkable in this day and age, I think. Still feels like we are 18 sometimes...don't let the gray hair (on me, not her) fool you! Though actually, I feel younger than 18 sometimes...and I'm certainly in better shape now than I was at 18!
Again, there were more than a few reasons that 2010 could have sucked (I didn't even include the whole fiscal crisis in Massachusetts and the goings-on in the Trial Court/Probation system that have cast an uneasy pall over everything at work), but those things really seem trivial in hindsight. I've grown a lot personally, and those areas where I feel I've improved myself had led to a more positive way of looking at the world around me and allowed me to gain inspiration from the people around me. All of that has made me a better husband, a better father, a better person...and you can't ask for much more than that.
Bring on 2011.
15 December 2010
I'm still here
I haven't gone away, just focusing on other things for a while. But the gears in my brain are still turning. Working on a few year-end type posts...compiling and ranking my favorite albums of 2010...working on a number of ideas to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pearl Jam's debut album next year...
Oh, and I'm down to 180 pounds. 53 pounds and counting. More on that too...
Oh, and I'm down to 180 pounds. 53 pounds and counting. More on that too...
15 September 2010
Folks on Spokes 40 miler... and more...
Part II in an ongoing series of increasingly long-winded posts.
Sunday, September 12, marked the day of my first organized cycling tour: the Folks on Spokes 40 mile ride through Milford, West Haven and Orange, Connecticut, to benefit a community mental health and substance abuse counseling agency. In some ways, it was sort of a big deal, as it was my first real athletic event since my basketball playing days ended in high school (slow-pitch softball in more recent years doesn't count). Also because I've been going to 5K, 10K, 13-mile, 20-mile and 26.2-mile races for years to cheer on my father, my brother, my sister-in-law, my mother, my grandmother (yes...really!). As I said, running seems to run in the family. But this was my first thing; the first time people were coming to watch me do something like this. I found this to be a particularly bizarre experience in some ways: I truly wasn't making as big a "deal" of it as most people; I was just going out for a bike ride. Don't interpret that as me being ungrateful in any way; I have more gratitude toward the people that support me than I have ways to express that gratitude. It is just very humbling, that's all.
Anyway, the FOS ride was a target on my calendar particularly because it A)goes right through my in-laws neighborhood and B)benefits a cause that is obviously pretty important to me. It also served as a fun way to get my side of the family together with my wife's side of the family, something that doesn't happen often enough.
The morning of the ride itself was threatening rain...serious rain. Temperatures were probably in the low 60s when I arrived at the park to check-in, and there was nary a blue spot in the sky. The (rough guess) 40 of us that were riding the 40-mile tour gathered in the Start corral for last-minute instructions (which included: "Try to ride in pairs or small packs; it makes the ride more fun and more safe") and for our send-off. This was a cool experience, because it would offer my first chance to actually ride with somebody else and should prove to be a different type of barometer as to the progress I'm making. I like to think that I ride pretty well and can keep up a good pace, but have absolutely nothing to compare to, so I was excited about the idea of keeping pace with "real cyclists" on their $1000 (or $2000...or $3000...) machines.
8:30 finally rolled around and it was time to head out. I was stationed probably 3/4 of the way behind the pack as we left the corral, but was feeling pretty good. Turned the first corner through a side street and toward the main street (and just out of sight of my family who had come down to the start) when things came grinding to a halt, both literally and figuratively. Yes, at about the .06 mile mark, I downshifted and slipped my chain off the smallest gear. Aforementioned chain proceeded to wedge itself nice and tight between the smallest gear and the actual frame of the bike. Awesome. Within seconds, the rest of the crew doing the 40-mile ride was around the corner and out of sight, and I was alone in the woods. I had to get off the bike, take out my tools, loosen the rear wheel, dislodge the chain, re-engage the chain, relube part of it, re-pack my tools, gather myself and get back on the bike. Thankfully, this had happened once before, so I knew what I was doing. But it still took me a good 5-6 minutes from start to finish. So much for riding with a group. Now I was completely on my own (which at least is what I was used to). Off to a terrible, near-soul-crushing start.
I finally made my way onto the main drag and, just as I suspected, I was the only cyclist in site. Not a huge deal, I was just going to have to keep my eyes peeled for signs to keep from getting lost. The beginning of the ride was essentially through some ocean-front neighborhoods. Not all that scenic, but a nice tour of all of the plentiful, available real estate in the area. Around 1/2 mile in, I caught up with a small group of riders; not a difficult task given that they were pulled over attending to someone's flat tire. Bummer. My spirit started to improve at about the 2 mile mark, as I saw a decent sized pack of riders coming out of a neighborhood that I knew was sort of a giant loop. I was still obviously 5/6 minutes behind them, but at least they were in the same neighborhood. Around mile 3.5, I came up behind two guys that I figured I could ride with for a while, but a look down at my computer revealed that they were only keeping a pace of about 11mph. Respectable, but if I had any hope of making my goal of averaging 15mph for the 40 mile ride, I couldn't hang with them for long. So I didn't. Back to riding by myself again.
Miles five through twelve felt incredibly long. Very beautiful, as it was seven miles of nothing but beach and waves on the right as we headed east. Sadly, it was not very enjoyable, as there was a rather gnarly headwind coming from due East, which made it difficult to maintain a cruising speed of anything over 13.5 mph. It felt like a seven-mile long hill. Not as fun as it sounds. Spirits were lifted again around 7.5 miles, as my wife, daughter, father, mother and sister-in-law were at the side of the road to cheer me on. Such a surreal feeling...it really does energize you for a little while.
Mile twelve saw my spirits improving greatly, as miles 12 through 16.5 were headed back West along the route we had just taken, meaning the gnarly headwind was now a gnarly tailwind. Where it had been tough to keep up 13mph, now it was very little work to keep up 18-19mph. I was also starting to see other real cyclists again, and due to the out-and-back nature of certain parts of the ride, I saw that my pace was not unlike theirs. The family was still waiting for me, as what had been the 7.5 mile mark on the way out was now the 16.5 mile mark on the way back. I think they could tell I was in better spirits at this part of the ride. While there were points early on that I briefly contemplated throwing in the proverbial towel (especially after the chain and wind issues), those thoughts were long gone.
Just after leaving passing the family at the 16.5 mile mark, our course took a 90-degree right hand turn off the coast and headed inland toward the hilly part of the ride. There are three main hills: a long climb from mile 18 to mile 20, a shorter yet steeper climb from mile 21 to mile 22.5 and the steepest climb from mile 25 to mile 26.5 (the latter marker was also a very well-positioned water stop). The first hill is where I really started to encounter other riders, much as I expected. Climbing can be tough when you are on your own, but I was able to catch up to a few other "lone wolf" style riders on each hill and we could thus use each other as motivation to keep climbing. I actually felt great on the first two hills...they were good, solid climbs, but nothing that I wasn't used to from riding in Wakefield, so they were certainly manageable...and in fact they were not as bad as I was gearing myself mentally for.
The third hill proved the best test, not necessarily because of its incline (though it was certainly steep), but mainly because it was a narrow, windy, not incredibly well-paved old farm road, meaning it contained a lot of pot holes and oncoming traffic. The fam was waiting for me at the 26.5 mile water stop, the only one that I actually stopped at, albeit only for about 2 minutes and just to say "hi." I started feeling guilty that they were traveling all that distance just to see me pedal by for a few seconds. Plus, a hug from Morgan is always good for refilling the tank!
Just after leaving this rest area was , I caught up with a guy that I would spend the next 12 or so miles riding with. He was embarking on his first ride since completing a Century ride on Long Island a few weeks prior, and was contemplating training for his first Double Century ride next spring. For those non-cyclists out there, a Century is a 100-mile ride; a Double Century is, of course, a 200-mile ride. Gulp. Something to shoot for, I guess. Anyway, nice enough guy, and it was cool to actually have company on a ride for a change. Around mile 37, my butt started to get sore. Not intolerable, but definitely bordering on uncomfortable. I stood up for a minute coming down the last hill (mile 38) which provided a much-needed break, but also allowed my riding partner to get so far ahead of me that he was out of site after about a half-mile. So much for a riding partner.
The remainder of the ride was rather uneventful. It should be pointed out that the Folks on Spokes 40 mile ride is actually closer to 41.75 miles, according to both the MapMyRide program that I use and to my Cat Eye bike computer. Not entirely sure who made that decision and why they made it, exactly. Also, the end of the ride was very unceremonious. It loops you back through the parking lot that we started in, but there is no formal "end;" merely just a bunch of people on bicycles milling about. Rather odd. All told, it took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours and 42 minutes to complete the 41.75 miles (I had a stopwatch and my bike computer running, but they stayed running while I was fixing my chain at the beginning, so I don't count that). And I felt great. I probably had another 10 miles left in me anyway, which is a very cool feeling. My brother and sister-in-law were gathered with the rest of my traveling cheering section at the end...a welcome surprise!
As for what comes next...well, I'm not really sure. Since I had multiple goals (being under 200 and completing the 40 mile ride) that I reached in the same week, I have to find some new way to keep pushing myself. Obviously it is still a goal to maintain a more healthy weight (and I've still got some to lose), and I'd like to keep riding regularly, but I'm getting concerned that I'll find it too easy to fall into old patterns again, especially with the winter coming, which brings with it the colder weather that renders outdoor grilling and outdoor cycling next to impossible. Maybe yoga. Maybe I'll try running again, now that I've built up decent leg strength. I've started doing some exercises to work on my core muscles again. But I'm still not really sure what is next.
Oh, I also thought it would be interesting to post some of the comments I've been hearing about the fact that I have dropped weight. It has only been noticeable to me in the way that my clothes fit (dropping from a 38" waist to a 34" waist is pretty noticeable), but otherwise I feel that I'm the same shape. But other people have certainly noticed: I've heard comments that range from "you look great" to "it's really working" to "keep up the good work" to "are you healthy?" to "seriously, do you have something terminal?" to "losing weight and cutting your hair short gives the distinct impression to those that don't know you that you have either cancer or AIDS." I'm not exaggerating any one of those.
Sunday, September 12, marked the day of my first organized cycling tour: the Folks on Spokes 40 mile ride through Milford, West Haven and Orange, Connecticut, to benefit a community mental health and substance abuse counseling agency. In some ways, it was sort of a big deal, as it was my first real athletic event since my basketball playing days ended in high school (slow-pitch softball in more recent years doesn't count). Also because I've been going to 5K, 10K, 13-mile, 20-mile and 26.2-mile races for years to cheer on my father, my brother, my sister-in-law, my mother, my grandmother (yes...really!). As I said, running seems to run in the family. But this was my first thing; the first time people were coming to watch me do something like this. I found this to be a particularly bizarre experience in some ways: I truly wasn't making as big a "deal" of it as most people; I was just going out for a bike ride. Don't interpret that as me being ungrateful in any way; I have more gratitude toward the people that support me than I have ways to express that gratitude. It is just very humbling, that's all.
Anyway, the FOS ride was a target on my calendar particularly because it A)goes right through my in-laws neighborhood and B)benefits a cause that is obviously pretty important to me. It also served as a fun way to get my side of the family together with my wife's side of the family, something that doesn't happen often enough.
The morning of the ride itself was threatening rain...serious rain. Temperatures were probably in the low 60s when I arrived at the park to check-in, and there was nary a blue spot in the sky. The (rough guess) 40 of us that were riding the 40-mile tour gathered in the Start corral for last-minute instructions (which included: "Try to ride in pairs or small packs; it makes the ride more fun and more safe") and for our send-off. This was a cool experience, because it would offer my first chance to actually ride with somebody else and should prove to be a different type of barometer as to the progress I'm making. I like to think that I ride pretty well and can keep up a good pace, but have absolutely nothing to compare to, so I was excited about the idea of keeping pace with "real cyclists" on their $1000 (or $2000...or $3000...) machines.
8:30 finally rolled around and it was time to head out. I was stationed probably 3/4 of the way behind the pack as we left the corral, but was feeling pretty good. Turned the first corner through a side street and toward the main street (and just out of sight of my family who had come down to the start) when things came grinding to a halt, both literally and figuratively. Yes, at about the .06 mile mark, I downshifted and slipped my chain off the smallest gear. Aforementioned chain proceeded to wedge itself nice and tight between the smallest gear and the actual frame of the bike. Awesome. Within seconds, the rest of the crew doing the 40-mile ride was around the corner and out of sight, and I was alone in the woods. I had to get off the bike, take out my tools, loosen the rear wheel, dislodge the chain, re-engage the chain, relube part of it, re-pack my tools, gather myself and get back on the bike. Thankfully, this had happened once before, so I knew what I was doing. But it still took me a good 5-6 minutes from start to finish. So much for riding with a group. Now I was completely on my own (which at least is what I was used to). Off to a terrible, near-soul-crushing start.
I finally made my way onto the main drag and, just as I suspected, I was the only cyclist in site. Not a huge deal, I was just going to have to keep my eyes peeled for signs to keep from getting lost. The beginning of the ride was essentially through some ocean-front neighborhoods. Not all that scenic, but a nice tour of all of the plentiful, available real estate in the area. Around 1/2 mile in, I caught up with a small group of riders; not a difficult task given that they were pulled over attending to someone's flat tire. Bummer. My spirit started to improve at about the 2 mile mark, as I saw a decent sized pack of riders coming out of a neighborhood that I knew was sort of a giant loop. I was still obviously 5/6 minutes behind them, but at least they were in the same neighborhood. Around mile 3.5, I came up behind two guys that I figured I could ride with for a while, but a look down at my computer revealed that they were only keeping a pace of about 11mph. Respectable, but if I had any hope of making my goal of averaging 15mph for the 40 mile ride, I couldn't hang with them for long. So I didn't. Back to riding by myself again.
Miles five through twelve felt incredibly long. Very beautiful, as it was seven miles of nothing but beach and waves on the right as we headed east. Sadly, it was not very enjoyable, as there was a rather gnarly headwind coming from due East, which made it difficult to maintain a cruising speed of anything over 13.5 mph. It felt like a seven-mile long hill. Not as fun as it sounds. Spirits were lifted again around 7.5 miles, as my wife, daughter, father, mother and sister-in-law were at the side of the road to cheer me on. Such a surreal feeling...it really does energize you for a little while.
Mile twelve saw my spirits improving greatly, as miles 12 through 16.5 were headed back West along the route we had just taken, meaning the gnarly headwind was now a gnarly tailwind. Where it had been tough to keep up 13mph, now it was very little work to keep up 18-19mph. I was also starting to see other real cyclists again, and due to the out-and-back nature of certain parts of the ride, I saw that my pace was not unlike theirs. The family was still waiting for me, as what had been the 7.5 mile mark on the way out was now the 16.5 mile mark on the way back. I think they could tell I was in better spirits at this part of the ride. While there were points early on that I briefly contemplated throwing in the proverbial towel (especially after the chain and wind issues), those thoughts were long gone.
Just after leaving passing the family at the 16.5 mile mark, our course took a 90-degree right hand turn off the coast and headed inland toward the hilly part of the ride. There are three main hills: a long climb from mile 18 to mile 20, a shorter yet steeper climb from mile 21 to mile 22.5 and the steepest climb from mile 25 to mile 26.5 (the latter marker was also a very well-positioned water stop). The first hill is where I really started to encounter other riders, much as I expected. Climbing can be tough when you are on your own, but I was able to catch up to a few other "lone wolf" style riders on each hill and we could thus use each other as motivation to keep climbing. I actually felt great on the first two hills...they were good, solid climbs, but nothing that I wasn't used to from riding in Wakefield, so they were certainly manageable...and in fact they were not as bad as I was gearing myself mentally for.
The third hill proved the best test, not necessarily because of its incline (though it was certainly steep), but mainly because it was a narrow, windy, not incredibly well-paved old farm road, meaning it contained a lot of pot holes and oncoming traffic. The fam was waiting for me at the 26.5 mile water stop, the only one that I actually stopped at, albeit only for about 2 minutes and just to say "hi." I started feeling guilty that they were traveling all that distance just to see me pedal by for a few seconds. Plus, a hug from Morgan is always good for refilling the tank!
Just after leaving this rest area was , I caught up with a guy that I would spend the next 12 or so miles riding with. He was embarking on his first ride since completing a Century ride on Long Island a few weeks prior, and was contemplating training for his first Double Century ride next spring. For those non-cyclists out there, a Century is a 100-mile ride; a Double Century is, of course, a 200-mile ride. Gulp. Something to shoot for, I guess. Anyway, nice enough guy, and it was cool to actually have company on a ride for a change. Around mile 37, my butt started to get sore. Not intolerable, but definitely bordering on uncomfortable. I stood up for a minute coming down the last hill (mile 38) which provided a much-needed break, but also allowed my riding partner to get so far ahead of me that he was out of site after about a half-mile. So much for a riding partner.
The remainder of the ride was rather uneventful. It should be pointed out that the Folks on Spokes 40 mile ride is actually closer to 41.75 miles, according to both the MapMyRide program that I use and to my Cat Eye bike computer. Not entirely sure who made that decision and why they made it, exactly. Also, the end of the ride was very unceremonious. It loops you back through the parking lot that we started in, but there is no formal "end;" merely just a bunch of people on bicycles milling about. Rather odd. All told, it took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours and 42 minutes to complete the 41.75 miles (I had a stopwatch and my bike computer running, but they stayed running while I was fixing my chain at the beginning, so I don't count that). And I felt great. I probably had another 10 miles left in me anyway, which is a very cool feeling. My brother and sister-in-law were gathered with the rest of my traveling cheering section at the end...a welcome surprise!
As for what comes next...well, I'm not really sure. Since I had multiple goals (being under 200 and completing the 40 mile ride) that I reached in the same week, I have to find some new way to keep pushing myself. Obviously it is still a goal to maintain a more healthy weight (and I've still got some to lose), and I'd like to keep riding regularly, but I'm getting concerned that I'll find it too easy to fall into old patterns again, especially with the winter coming, which brings with it the colder weather that renders outdoor grilling and outdoor cycling next to impossible. Maybe yoga. Maybe I'll try running again, now that I've built up decent leg strength. I've started doing some exercises to work on my core muscles again. But I'm still not really sure what is next.
Oh, I also thought it would be interesting to post some of the comments I've been hearing about the fact that I have dropped weight. It has only been noticeable to me in the way that my clothes fit (dropping from a 38" waist to a 34" waist is pretty noticeable), but otherwise I feel that I'm the same shape. But other people have certainly noticed: I've heard comments that range from "you look great" to "it's really working" to "keep up the good work" to "are you healthy?" to "seriously, do you have something terminal?" to "losing weight and cutting your hair short gives the distinct impression to those that don't know you that you have either cancer or AIDS." I'm not exaggerating any one of those.
11 September 2010
Get Off Your Butt!! ...or How I Decided To Leave The Couch And Learn to Love Exercise
This post could also be titled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," although I didn't actually take a formal 'vacation' this summer. But I digress...
I suppose I should start by rewinding the clock a few months to April of this year. Around that time, it was starting to dawn on me that I was really out of shape. The results of what should have been an otherwise gorgeous photo-op with the family around Easter time were almost all of the proof I needed. My cheeks and neck were doing battle for custody of my jawline...and my jaw was losing!
But I wasn't, in hindsight, really ready to do anything about it; just basically an overall sense of unhappiness with what I was becoming (or had become). Toward the end of May, I stepped on a scale at my in-laws house and was mortified by what I saw... "234.1" was staring back at me. Yuck. Something had to change, but I wasn't sure what. The Memorial Day long weekend came and brought with it some beautiful weather. The warmth and sunshine brought more opportunities to play outside with the little one, and I found myself getting abnormally out-of-breath when playing games like "Ring Around the Rosie" ... with a two-year-old. Not a good situation, and I certainly did not feel good about myself. Had the folks and my brother and his wife over for typical Memorial Day cookout food (meat and beer, essentially), and an end-of-day look at pictures solidified my decision... it's time to get off the couch.
As fate would have it, the next day (June 1st) brought with it a text message from old friend Brad Golub. Brad and I have been friends since the first week of freshman year at Northeastern, and were roommates during the 2000-2001 school year. Brad and I were also, well, not all that healthy. Beer? Check. Pizza? Check. Mexican food and KFC (at the same time)? Check. Typical "single-guy" college stuff. I had spent the summer of 2000 working as a trash man and picking orders in a warehouse, so I was in decent shape. I weighed about 186 when I moved in to that apartment in Dorchester. When we moved out a calendar year later, I was up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 220. Not Brad's fault, it was my own...but we were certainly two peas in a pod.
Anyway, so the text message from Brad revealed that he had taken up running, and was doing his first 5k race. I was floored. Brad was quite a decent baseball player (or so he says) in his younger years, but if there is one thing that Brad was not, it was a runner. An ongoing text conversation throughout the day that Brad had decided, too, that enough was enough. He had been running and changing his eating habits, and was down somewhere around 50 pounds since the start of the calendar year. His secret? Burning more calories than he consumed. You'd think he cracked the Da Vinci code. But he said it really was that simple. He'd taken up jogging and was "eating like an organic farmer...lots of protein and vegetables, cutting way back on the carbs." I had been on a specialty beer kick at the time, and asked him about his current drinking habits. He said that he really hadn't been drinking, because "If I'm going to take in 150 to 250 calories at a time, I'd rather not be drinking it."
For some reason, it all made perfect sense. I decided that day that it was my turn, too. I set a completely unrealistic goal of getting to under 200 pounds by my birthday/Labor Day. In essence, three full months to drop somewhere around 34 pounds. Doable? Who knew...never really tried before. The completely unscientific plan that I came up with was simple...consume less calories than you expend. I decided that the diet was the first thing to change, mostly because it was going to be the toughest part. You see...I like to eat. I like food. I like food that tastes good. I also like food that is pretty easy to cook on a weeknight after work. That generally entails a lot of simple carbohydrates; pasta, mashed potatoes, breads, any combination thereof (there is nothing like good garlic bread with pasta...except maybe good garlic bread with Pierogi, which are essentially potato-filled pasta). Those days were going to have to stop, and fast. It was time to start limiting calories.
The good news is that the weather was getting warmer, which meant that I could do a lot of cooking on the grill. I haven't yet bothered trying to make pasta, potatoes or bread on the grill, so this may work. Also, summer brings a lot of fresh vegetables and the second annual Wakefield Farmer's Market. The new diet, almost overnight, started to consist of some very easy things to cook on the grill. Lots of lean protein (chicken, pork loin, etc), lots and lots of vegetables (peppers of all colors, onions, summer squash, zucchini, asparagus, eggplant all cook up nicely on the grill). No more sandwiches (at least not with bulkie rolls). No more bagels or toast for breakfast...unsalted rice cakes and natural peanut butter are a suitable alternative. No more junk snacks (Cheez-Its, Combos, Wheat Thins and Triscuits have all been popular in my belly). More fruit. More organic. More quinoa, more hummus. More Israeli couscous with broccoli and zucchini (amazingly good). No more junk cereal. It helps that I like Fiber One and Special K with Strawberries.
I didn't make any real behavioral changes surrounding exercise for the first month..."baby steps," I thought. The diet was going to have to be the real lasting change to get used to. The real exercise part was going to happen in July. I did go for long walks a couple of times during June, but walking doesn't really do anything for me. After about 7-7.5 miles, I sorta get bored. Finally July 1st rolled around, and I was feeling pretty confident. People started to notice that I had been making changes. I seemed to be eating better. No beer, no pasta, no bread to speak of for a month. I seemed to be a little smaller (I don't have a scale at home, so I'm not sure how much). But the real work was about to begin. I hemmed and hawed for a while around how to actually begin the exercise portion of my "master plan." Again, walking was boring. Running, while it seems to run in the family, apparently skipped my part of the generation. The exercise-induced asthma certainly doesn't help. I don't know enough people locally to get into a softball league or a pickup basketball league. I didn't want to join a gym, because I didn't really want to add a lot of muscle. I tossed around the idea of riding a bike, but I didn't actually own one. Nevertheless, it seemed like biking might be the way to go. I certainly wasn't going to spend a lot of money though, because I have a history of getting sick of things quickly. After much perusing of Craigslist, Amazon, eBay, bike shops, WalMart and Target, I had found what I thought would be the winner. The embarrassingly named GMC Denali, as made by ultra-low-end manufacturer Kent. It rated decently enough that I didn't think it would fall apart (always good). And it certainly was cheap ($168 at WalMart, including shipping).
The Friday after July 4th came and my package had arrived. An hour or so worth of work and a little help from my wife and my chariot was assembled. Took it out for a mile spin around the block in the dark just to see if I still had legs. Turns out...I didn't! This was going to be work... But I knew I had to do it. The first week brought rides of 5.5, 7 and 10 miles. Not a bad start. Very, very warm out, for those that might recall. Also, it was mid-Tour de France. In hindsight, this is a bad time to start cycling...every time I rode, the only thing I could compare myself to was Andy Schleck or Mark Cavendish. Anyway, second week brought rides of 13, 7 and 11. I was starting to get the hang of this cycling thing, though by all means an amateur. Finished the month with rides of 8 and 19, the latter a new high. All in all, about 87 miles the first month...not a lot, but not a bad way to get my feet wet.
Around this time, it started to dawn on me that there was an annual charity ride in the part of CT that my in-laws live in...called the Folks on Spokes ride. It takes place the second weekend of September, and riders can sign up for rides of 5, 10, 20, 40, 50 and 66 (metric century). I had already proven to myself that I can do rides of up to 19, so 20 should be doable. Maybe even 40. So I now had two goals: get under 200 pounds by my 31st birthday, and do the F.O.S. ride.
First week of August brought rides of 19.3, 7.3 and 19.3 again. The 19-miler in July and the first 19.3 in August contained parts of the F.O.S. ride. Pretty rides along the coast, followed by some decent hill climbs. Maybe the 40 is doable after all. Time to up the ante a little. I took a day off in August and rode the bike into Boston to visit Natalia for lunch. 15 miles each way. Very doable, though city riding is not, how shall I put this, conducive to staying alive...so it's probably the last time I'll do that. Great hill climbs coming out of the city though. The ride back was the first time that I really felt like I was becoming more than a pure novice. Finished that week with rides of 14 and 10, but then took two full weeks off (it finally rained for the first time in months, then we went out of town for a weekend). By the time I was back on the bike, it was August 27th (a Friday), which gave me suddenly only two weeks to get ready for the 40-mile F.O.S. ride that I had now committed myself to doing. Time to get back out there! That last weekend of August saw rides of 21, 18 and 24 miles on consecutive days. New routes, not just stretching out the same neighborhoods in Wakefield and circling the Lake endlessly. These were rides that "cyclists" do...and they were tough. But I was feeling better after doing 24 miles now than when I would do just 5 or 7 miles the previous month.
Logged 162 miles for the month...almost twice what I did the previous month. And I was definitely losing weight...down to 204 pounds by the w/e of August 20-22. That's right...30 pounds in about 2.5 months. My pants started not fitting so well. My belts started not fitting so well. People started commenting on how much weight I had lost (more on that later). Maybe my plan was working?!?
On to September. The problem with September is that the days get shorter. Not a whole lot of time to ride after work, as it was dark by the time dinner was over and Morgan was bathed and in bed. I was also coming to the realization that I'm really not good at hill-climbing on the bike, and that I could get away with taking a few shorter rides as long as they contained some serious climbs. Mapped out a couple pretty good routes where I could achieve maximum climbing in minimum distance. One of the endless good parts about living in New England is that there is certainly no shortage of hills! Especially in our neighborhood. I followed a short 6-mile uphill ride on 9/3 with a longer, hillier 25 mile ride on 9/4. Pretty good weekend, and left me marginally confident about doing 40 the next weekend. Took Sunday off to do an early family birthday celebration. Wasn't sure how much I weighed, but the picture below is proof that I was starting to shed some noticeable weight.
Got in a hilly 9 miles on Monday 9/6 before attacking 35 miles before work on Thursday the 9th. I had mapped out my 35 mile course to be similar in climb to the FOS ride and by about 8 miles, I wanted to stop. This has become a recurring theme for me. I find that it takes me 8 to 10 miles of moderate riding to get into a groove. Prior to that, I kinda get bored, especially riding by myself. But I kept at it and, honestly, had a lot left in the tank when I made it back home. I had enough left in the tank that I had thoughts of changing to the 50-mile FOS ride, but I had already registered for the 40.
Anyway, that brings us to the Folks on Spokes ride itself, which I will cover in my next post. But it should be pointed out that when I stepped on the scale the day before the FOS ride, I was down to 198 pounds. I had accomplished my first goal...under 200 pounds by (roughly) my birthday. Honestly, I had sorta set the bar high for myself because I assumed I'd give up when I realized it would be unreasonable. But it became evident to me pretty quickly that my plan was actually working. Eating less, and eating better, felt natural. Getting on the bike and pedaling around the main streets and back roads of our area felt natural. I mean this to come across more as inspirational than as braggadocios, but it really hasn't been that hard. With all sincerity, if I can do this, anybody can do this. It does take a certain level of commitment, but really, it isn't that difficult if you keep it simple. Burn more calories than you consume and you'll lose weight. Magic, I know. Find something that you like and do it! If you don't like running, walk. If you don't like walking, swim. Or play tennis. Or basketball. Or start by just parking at the far end of the lot at work or at the grocery store. Or do what I did and buy a $159 bike at Wal-Mart and get out there and just pedal around the neighborhood. It will work...trust me!
I suppose I should start by rewinding the clock a few months to April of this year. Around that time, it was starting to dawn on me that I was really out of shape. The results of what should have been an otherwise gorgeous photo-op with the family around Easter time were almost all of the proof I needed. My cheeks and neck were doing battle for custody of my jawline...and my jaw was losing!
But I wasn't, in hindsight, really ready to do anything about it; just basically an overall sense of unhappiness with what I was becoming (or had become). Toward the end of May, I stepped on a scale at my in-laws house and was mortified by what I saw... "234.1" was staring back at me. Yuck. Something had to change, but I wasn't sure what. The Memorial Day long weekend came and brought with it some beautiful weather. The warmth and sunshine brought more opportunities to play outside with the little one, and I found myself getting abnormally out-of-breath when playing games like "Ring Around the Rosie" ... with a two-year-old. Not a good situation, and I certainly did not feel good about myself. Had the folks and my brother and his wife over for typical Memorial Day cookout food (meat and beer, essentially), and an end-of-day look at pictures solidified my decision... it's time to get off the couch.
As fate would have it, the next day (June 1st) brought with it a text message from old friend Brad Golub. Brad and I have been friends since the first week of freshman year at Northeastern, and were roommates during the 2000-2001 school year. Brad and I were also, well, not all that healthy. Beer? Check. Pizza? Check. Mexican food and KFC (at the same time)? Check. Typical "single-guy" college stuff. I had spent the summer of 2000 working as a trash man and picking orders in a warehouse, so I was in decent shape. I weighed about 186 when I moved in to that apartment in Dorchester. When we moved out a calendar year later, I was up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 220. Not Brad's fault, it was my own...but we were certainly two peas in a pod.
Anyway, so the text message from Brad revealed that he had taken up running, and was doing his first 5k race. I was floored. Brad was quite a decent baseball player (or so he says) in his younger years, but if there is one thing that Brad was not, it was a runner. An ongoing text conversation throughout the day that Brad had decided, too, that enough was enough. He had been running and changing his eating habits, and was down somewhere around 50 pounds since the start of the calendar year. His secret? Burning more calories than he consumed. You'd think he cracked the Da Vinci code. But he said it really was that simple. He'd taken up jogging and was "eating like an organic farmer...lots of protein and vegetables, cutting way back on the carbs." I had been on a specialty beer kick at the time, and asked him about his current drinking habits. He said that he really hadn't been drinking, because "If I'm going to take in 150 to 250 calories at a time, I'd rather not be drinking it."
For some reason, it all made perfect sense. I decided that day that it was my turn, too. I set a completely unrealistic goal of getting to under 200 pounds by my birthday/Labor Day. In essence, three full months to drop somewhere around 34 pounds. Doable? Who knew...never really tried before. The completely unscientific plan that I came up with was simple...consume less calories than you expend. I decided that the diet was the first thing to change, mostly because it was going to be the toughest part. You see...I like to eat. I like food. I like food that tastes good. I also like food that is pretty easy to cook on a weeknight after work. That generally entails a lot of simple carbohydrates; pasta, mashed potatoes, breads, any combination thereof (there is nothing like good garlic bread with pasta...except maybe good garlic bread with Pierogi, which are essentially potato-filled pasta). Those days were going to have to stop, and fast. It was time to start limiting calories.
The good news is that the weather was getting warmer, which meant that I could do a lot of cooking on the grill. I haven't yet bothered trying to make pasta, potatoes or bread on the grill, so this may work. Also, summer brings a lot of fresh vegetables and the second annual Wakefield Farmer's Market. The new diet, almost overnight, started to consist of some very easy things to cook on the grill. Lots of lean protein (chicken, pork loin, etc), lots and lots of vegetables (peppers of all colors, onions, summer squash, zucchini, asparagus, eggplant all cook up nicely on the grill). No more sandwiches (at least not with bulkie rolls). No more bagels or toast for breakfast...unsalted rice cakes and natural peanut butter are a suitable alternative. No more junk snacks (Cheez-Its, Combos, Wheat Thins and Triscuits have all been popular in my belly). More fruit. More organic. More quinoa, more hummus. More Israeli couscous with broccoli and zucchini (amazingly good). No more junk cereal. It helps that I like Fiber One and Special K with Strawberries.
I didn't make any real behavioral changes surrounding exercise for the first month..."baby steps," I thought. The diet was going to have to be the real lasting change to get used to. The real exercise part was going to happen in July. I did go for long walks a couple of times during June, but walking doesn't really do anything for me. After about 7-7.5 miles, I sorta get bored. Finally July 1st rolled around, and I was feeling pretty confident. People started to notice that I had been making changes. I seemed to be eating better. No beer, no pasta, no bread to speak of for a month. I seemed to be a little smaller (I don't have a scale at home, so I'm not sure how much). But the real work was about to begin. I hemmed and hawed for a while around how to actually begin the exercise portion of my "master plan." Again, walking was boring. Running, while it seems to run in the family, apparently skipped my part of the generation. The exercise-induced asthma certainly doesn't help. I don't know enough people locally to get into a softball league or a pickup basketball league. I didn't want to join a gym, because I didn't really want to add a lot of muscle. I tossed around the idea of riding a bike, but I didn't actually own one. Nevertheless, it seemed like biking might be the way to go. I certainly wasn't going to spend a lot of money though, because I have a history of getting sick of things quickly. After much perusing of Craigslist, Amazon, eBay, bike shops, WalMart and Target, I had found what I thought would be the winner. The embarrassingly named GMC Denali, as made by ultra-low-end manufacturer Kent. It rated decently enough that I didn't think it would fall apart (always good). And it certainly was cheap ($168 at WalMart, including shipping).
The Friday after July 4th came and my package had arrived. An hour or so worth of work and a little help from my wife and my chariot was assembled. Took it out for a mile spin around the block in the dark just to see if I still had legs. Turns out...I didn't! This was going to be work... But I knew I had to do it. The first week brought rides of 5.5, 7 and 10 miles. Not a bad start. Very, very warm out, for those that might recall. Also, it was mid-Tour de France. In hindsight, this is a bad time to start cycling...every time I rode, the only thing I could compare myself to was Andy Schleck or Mark Cavendish. Anyway, second week brought rides of 13, 7 and 11. I was starting to get the hang of this cycling thing, though by all means an amateur. Finished the month with rides of 8 and 19, the latter a new high. All in all, about 87 miles the first month...not a lot, but not a bad way to get my feet wet.
Around this time, it started to dawn on me that there was an annual charity ride in the part of CT that my in-laws live in...called the Folks on Spokes ride. It takes place the second weekend of September, and riders can sign up for rides of 5, 10, 20, 40, 50 and 66 (metric century). I had already proven to myself that I can do rides of up to 19, so 20 should be doable. Maybe even 40. So I now had two goals: get under 200 pounds by my 31st birthday, and do the F.O.S. ride.
First week of August brought rides of 19.3, 7.3 and 19.3 again. The 19-miler in July and the first 19.3 in August contained parts of the F.O.S. ride. Pretty rides along the coast, followed by some decent hill climbs. Maybe the 40 is doable after all. Time to up the ante a little. I took a day off in August and rode the bike into Boston to visit Natalia for lunch. 15 miles each way. Very doable, though city riding is not, how shall I put this, conducive to staying alive...so it's probably the last time I'll do that. Great hill climbs coming out of the city though. The ride back was the first time that I really felt like I was becoming more than a pure novice. Finished that week with rides of 14 and 10, but then took two full weeks off (it finally rained for the first time in months, then we went out of town for a weekend). By the time I was back on the bike, it was August 27th (a Friday), which gave me suddenly only two weeks to get ready for the 40-mile F.O.S. ride that I had now committed myself to doing. Time to get back out there! That last weekend of August saw rides of 21, 18 and 24 miles on consecutive days. New routes, not just stretching out the same neighborhoods in Wakefield and circling the Lake endlessly. These were rides that "cyclists" do...and they were tough. But I was feeling better after doing 24 miles now than when I would do just 5 or 7 miles the previous month.
Logged 162 miles for the month...almost twice what I did the previous month. And I was definitely losing weight...down to 204 pounds by the w/e of August 20-22. That's right...30 pounds in about 2.5 months. My pants started not fitting so well. My belts started not fitting so well. People started commenting on how much weight I had lost (more on that later). Maybe my plan was working?!?
On to September. The problem with September is that the days get shorter. Not a whole lot of time to ride after work, as it was dark by the time dinner was over and Morgan was bathed and in bed. I was also coming to the realization that I'm really not good at hill-climbing on the bike, and that I could get away with taking a few shorter rides as long as they contained some serious climbs. Mapped out a couple pretty good routes where I could achieve maximum climbing in minimum distance. One of the endless good parts about living in New England is that there is certainly no shortage of hills! Especially in our neighborhood. I followed a short 6-mile uphill ride on 9/3 with a longer, hillier 25 mile ride on 9/4. Pretty good weekend, and left me marginally confident about doing 40 the next weekend. Took Sunday off to do an early family birthday celebration. Wasn't sure how much I weighed, but the picture below is proof that I was starting to shed some noticeable weight.
Got in a hilly 9 miles on Monday 9/6 before attacking 35 miles before work on Thursday the 9th. I had mapped out my 35 mile course to be similar in climb to the FOS ride and by about 8 miles, I wanted to stop. This has become a recurring theme for me. I find that it takes me 8 to 10 miles of moderate riding to get into a groove. Prior to that, I kinda get bored, especially riding by myself. But I kept at it and, honestly, had a lot left in the tank when I made it back home. I had enough left in the tank that I had thoughts of changing to the 50-mile FOS ride, but I had already registered for the 40.
Anyway, that brings us to the Folks on Spokes ride itself, which I will cover in my next post. But it should be pointed out that when I stepped on the scale the day before the FOS ride, I was down to 198 pounds. I had accomplished my first goal...under 200 pounds by (roughly) my birthday. Honestly, I had sorta set the bar high for myself because I assumed I'd give up when I realized it would be unreasonable. But it became evident to me pretty quickly that my plan was actually working. Eating less, and eating better, felt natural. Getting on the bike and pedaling around the main streets and back roads of our area felt natural. I mean this to come across more as inspirational than as braggadocios, but it really hasn't been that hard. With all sincerity, if I can do this, anybody can do this. It does take a certain level of commitment, but really, it isn't that difficult if you keep it simple. Burn more calories than you consume and you'll lose weight. Magic, I know. Find something that you like and do it! If you don't like running, walk. If you don't like walking, swim. Or play tennis. Or basketball. Or start by just parking at the far end of the lot at work or at the grocery store. Or do what I did and buy a $159 bike at Wal-Mart and get out there and just pedal around the neighborhood. It will work...trust me!
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