this is just to say

i know, I know: this blog is terribly boring looking!
Well, here is a picture to liven things up a tiny bit-
(specifically, a picture of my speedy new 30-year-old bike):


I drove* to North Adams on Saturday, to go to a friend's opening at Mass MoCA.

*please note, I did not drive the bicycle seen here;
rather I drove my truck, andy goldsworthy.

On the way I thought up this term to refer to a group of civil-war veterans who only want to hear speeches about pasta:

spaghettysburg addressable.

in a similar vein, what kind of plastic building blocks do you think kids play with on the cluster of islands where singing is never accompanied by instrument?

(these are ideas for a word game a couple of other friends thought up;
there isn't a name for the game yet that I know of.
I think these may not strictly qualify, in which case
this OTHER game they DO count as might be called 'threedom'.)

OK so

well, turns out (and i AM TOTALLY touching real genuine wood as i write this) that my previous back injury was pretty minor, and I am fully recovered- now I can do all my usual stuff as ever, except I am carefully leaving "being totally stupid about doing things that might hurt my back again" (such as [lifting very heavy stuff without noticing my posture] and [trying to do multi-person jobs by myself]. this second one is the bigger deal, and basically constitutes a life-change.) wish me luck!

I ended up NOT going on the group bike ride last weekend, for the silly reason of not having any 'serious cycling clothes'... instead I went on a nice solo ride out to georgiaville pond, which was the first discovered swimming hole many years ago. It turns out that the group ride I DIDN'T do was more like a regular 'tour de beer' than a serious cycling trip, so I ended up better off; except that I've been hankering to go do tour de beer ever since it became spring, so I missed out on that social aspect.

(tour de beer is a providence tradition whereby an assembled group of bikers rides around town to a series of hangout spots, and at each spot, hangs out and consumes a beer, before proceeding to the next spot & repeating the procedure. Its a super fun mellow way to catch up with one's crew if, like me, one tends to lag behind in base-touch with the friends.)

in other news, I am currently picking out which health plan I want to sign up for once I am officially hired at where I've been working for 2+ years, so THAT's awesome. Copays & Deductibles y'all... yeah it turns out its no long all about the Benjamins*.

WHO KNEW?!?

*is there already a satire "all about the benefits"?

betterer!

hey all!

my back doesn't hurt anymore, thank goodness. I've even been on a few bike rides, sort of testing the waters doubly- to see how my back feels, and preparing for a group ride on sunday.

Tomorrow I am going to Boston for the evening to see my friend play music, and several other bands as well; at a place called "P.A.'s Lounge" to which I've been before but scarcely remember. Its actually in Somerville, not Boston proper. I'll tell you how it goes!

the bad news this week: the 8-gigabyte SD card I got for $50 on the interwebs, seems to have fatally corrupted itself... will I be able to get it replaced or get my money back?!? we shall see!

This evening instead of going to the Masquerade ball at the Dirt Palace, I stayed home & put new tubes and tires on my fancy Peugot bike to get ready for the ride on Sunday.

thank you for tuning in- I hope you (whoever and whenever you might be, reading this) are well!

rob

weakened update

I hurt my back at work on Wednesday, and I have been taking things a little easy (physically) since then.

Here is what happened: I was wrestling a stupid heavy box up three stupid stone steps, with the help of a hand truck but otherwise without assistance for no reason{other than to see if I could do it} and BAM ~or rather OWW!~ I get this burning pain in one little spot of my lower back. For the next two days this pain occasionally kind of quieted down or almost-disappeared when I held still, but was still there.. that was Wednesday, today is Sunday. Since Friday I have mostly kept a heating pad [the substrate from monkey's winter palace] on the area, and taken Naproxin Sodium, an anti-inflammatory which helps, not just hiding the pain but in actually CAUSING THERE TO BE LESS PAIN because the pain is caused by the inflammation.

Today I feel better enough to try doing some yoga! (note: this is mostly a joke, funny because if I do nearly anything even slightly strenuous which involves me moving but not keeping my lower back still... hello pain! Also though, partly not a joke, as I HAVE done child's pose and it feels like it's helping! Thanks to my friend Jo for that suggestion.)

In other news, though I haven't as yet gotten the 'Lappy 486' seen below quite into shape yet, I am however nonetheless composing this entry on his younger brother, the 600X. USING LINUX EVEN! I met the cutest lil puppy on the internet the other day, and it followed me home & totally moved into my little computer! I like him a lot.

As for his big brother, today I'm going to radioshack to get 9 AA-battery holders to solder in place of the 9 cells I took out of the 770's dead battery, so I can make a functional battery, so I can finish trying to get THAT stupid thing kick-started without pouring too much money into it. (the $8 "untested" battery from ebay was of course totally dead and unusable.) I think its gonna work, I'll let you know!

just wanted to show you this picture

I am losing / control of the language (again)

yeah so it turns out "not being able to talk to people"
ISN'T like a muscle, say in one part of the body,
that gets stronger when you force yourself to use it
by immobilizing a different part.

Have my written communication skills atrophied
while I've been not using them, even as my in-person ability*
has largely failed to blossom?

MOST LIKELY!

nonetheless... back on the horse!

a likely story you may well be saying to yourself.

WE SHALL SEE.




*my personable-ality?