Here's one of those 100 question memes that i saw on desist's journal, so i posted it too.

( cutsy cutsy )

I could never really believe the Stones when they sang 'Satisfaction'. Indeed, as a teen, I long thought that if Mick Jagger could't get any, what possible chance did I have?

When Mark Mothersbaugh sings it, though, I find the song to be much more earnest.




In looking for this, i also found a version by Aretha Franklin and another in a live set from Bjork and PJ Harvey. Kinda cool

so yesterday and today, i had two consecutive days off with nothing scheduled to do. Well, there was a dr. appointment, but that go moved to tomorrow. Anyway, the weather forecast looked good, so I thought I would try to do something I've wanted to for some time: ride my bike to Montauk.

Tuesday night I plotted my route, packed two days worth of food, and attached my tent to my bike again, as i did for my ride up to Hyde Park over memorial day weekend. My plan was to ride to Hither Hills State Park, just outside Montauk, pitch my tent, dump off my stuff, ride up to the lighthouse (which is about 100 ft from the furthest eastern point of the state of new york), turn around, ride back to the tent, sleep, get up and ride home this morning. Well, it didn't quite work out that way.

The riding to Montauk part went just fine. I left at 6:17am. The roads are mostly smooth and flat, for the most part Hwy 27 or it's cousin 27A have nice wide shoulders ideal for cyclists. I took a couple food breaks, my first real break was when I got to babylon around 9. In researching my route, there was an article I found that suggested riding the LIRR to babylon and starting the ride from the train station there, instead of elbowing through queens and suburban long island traffic. There may be something to that, but at the same time, I can say i rode from brooklyn to montauk now. So there :p

Anyway, I'm cruising along and around 6:00, make it to hither hills. I go to the ranger station and say that I'd like to pitch my tent for the night, only to be informed that the last permit had been given out about 20 minutes previous to my arrival. I wasn't so happy about that. I had just ridden 12 hours and did not intend to turn around and ride back. I really didn't want to spring for a motel for the night (not in the trip budget), so I raced forward to the Montauk train station to see if I could find a reasonable solution. I remember from my other trip to montauk that the trains leaving there headed back west were few and far between. Sure enough, the previous train left at 2:51 and the next one was at 10:38. Urg.

In my frustration, I called Emily. When I reached her, she was actually at my place, feeding and playing with Logan. She asked if i wanted her to pick up a zip car and come get me. After weighing the options, I told her yes, come pick me up.

I then rode on to the lighthouse, took a bunch of pictures, chilled out on the beach a while, then, as the sun was setting, rode back into town, took refuge in a pub, and bunkered down for the cavalry to arrive. Three and a half hours after i called her, Emily walked into the pub. It took me half a day to get from one end of the island to the other, and she did it in 3.5. Then again, i think i burned a few more calories in my transit. So, i bought her dinner, loaded the bike into the car, and we were off. Now, if i had known that i wasn't going to be camping, I wouldn't have brought my tent. The weight+drag probably cost me 5-10% efficiency, and when you're talking distances that far, that really adds up. I kinda wonder if i hadn't had the tent on the bike, if i would have made it to the campground in time. Oh well.

Anyway, Here is my route Map my ride says I went 132.84 miles. I do believe that. That's 27 miles further than my previous one day ride, though that ride was up and down many many hills going up the hudson, this was much flatter and easier. I guess my next destination/goal is vermont, then canada. If I had five days, I could make it to montreal and back. Hmm...

Yesterday was a rare event. Since Emily and I started going out in late february, we have had exactly three days off in common. Yesterday was one of them, so we sought to make the most of it. I had a bike from Sara for Emily to use, and we rode down to coney island. Emily had not been on a bike in 2-3 years. But, just like riding a bike, it comes back to you pretty quickly. So kudos to a 10 mile first ride back, now get a bike of your own.

Anyway

We went down there for a number of reasons. First, she had never been before. Reason enough. Also there was the AVP Beach Volleyball tournament, in which a friend of a friend of emily's was playing. We watched a mens' match on the main court, then the friend of a friend's match was up on another court. For posterity, her name is Jenny Davis and she was playing with Annette Jordan against the Lindquist sisters, who had the most annoying fans on the beach. Davis/Jordan lost the first round fairly soundly. The second round was more even, then the rain came. There was about three minutes of pretty hard rain that play continued through. It drizzled a couple minutes afterward then stopped. The Lindquist sisters seem to have lost their momentum. They wern't finding the holes in the defense as easily. It was clear for a short time, then the deluge began. For about 8-10 minutes it was monsoon season in south brooklyn. Three more points were played (all going to Davis/Jordan) before the ref called a break and they all ran for cover. Once play resumed, The Lindquists' mental game was gone. They lost game two pretty quickly, then completely folded in game three.

Afterward's Emily and I went to Peggy O'Neill's, the bar attached to the outside of keyspan park. the service place was understaffed, and the service suffered. We never did get the second round of beer we ordered.

The Cyclones game was good. They gave up a first inning run to the Valley Cats, and were down the whole game. Trailing 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, they put together a walk and four consecutive hits. The game winner was a double off the deep centerfield wall that would have cleared the bases if the game didn't end as soon as the first run scored. The Cyclones are now 12-2 and still undefeated at home.

Anyway, it was a really nice day, we both had a good time. Now, I'm going to a rooftop party that won't include fireworks because they're only happening on the hudson this year, not the east river. Stupid politics.

So today was Logan's dreaded annual checkup. You may recall from last year, that the vet wanted him to lose about a pound, going down to 14.5 or so. Well, he was weighed at 14.3. Yay! Go go gadget kittydiet! Besides his improved weight, the vet says everything looks great, that he seems like a happy, healthy kitty and to keep doing what I'm doing. I feel like an actually responsible pet owner, not just some guy with a cat.

And, as a treat for being so well behaved at the vet, I'm making tuna for lunch and Logan gets to have all the juice.

Here's what the AP had to say about the Cyclones' Bobblehead promotion last night:

Presidential Bobble

And here's a thing in the NY Times this morning about beer and food, with a mention of the place I just started at. Ii hope this turns into more customers

Beer!

Last night I went to my first Coney Island game of the season with Emily. The give away last night was a Baracklyn Cyclones Obama Bobblehead. It is fantastic. Everyone needs a presidential bobblehead. He's wearing a Cyclones jersey with #44 on it. Anyway, seats were great, as usual, basically if you extend the third base foul line into the stands, that's where i was sitting. In yanquis stadium, those seats are in the $1250 area. Love, love, love my $15 box seats.

The Cylcones beat the Hudson Valley Renegades 7-3, though two of the renegades runs came in the top of the 9th with 2 out. Their starting pitcher was having problems with the strike zone, walking 5 in two inning, throwing two wild pitches and a passed ball that could have gone either way. The cyclones capitalized and, well, that's why they are in first.

So, all around, it was a win.

i rode in the tour de brooklyn today. but between that and working 30 hours since friday night, I'm kinda mentally exhausted and can't believe how much difficulty even these two sentences have given me.

For those interested, a link to my flickr photos of the funeral

That is a lot of cops on my corner.

When i woke up this morning (not at my place), I turned on the new york 1 and saw that today was the funeral for slain NYPD Officer Omar Edwards. For those who don't know the story, Officer Edwards was leaving the stationhouse after his shift in plain clothes to find someone breaking into his car. He drew his weapon and started to give chase, when three other officers encountered the scene. What happened next is under federal investigation, but in the end six shots were fired, two of them hitting Officer Edwards, perhaps in the back.

Anyway, the crew reporting was standing on location, one which I recognized immediately as the church two blocks from my apartment. I took the train home to discover Throop Ave packed with uniformed officers. I found a spot (almost directly across from mayor bloomberg) and watched the procession make its way to the church, before I squeezed my way towards my apartment. I actually had to go more than a block and a half past my place so I could cross to the right side of the street.

I went out onto my fire escape and took a couple pictures.



Rest in Peace, Officer Edwards. You are as much of a loss to the community as you are to the NYPD.

I took a little bike ride Sunday and Monday. Here's the route I took. I camped the night at Margaret Norrie State Park. Round trip it was 207 miles.

There were a couple of hills in rockland county. I had found a route that someone posted that went straight through west point. Apparently the author of this route had military clearance. I do not. So I had to go around the base, which meant up hill. Very uphill. But then, I suppose, I had some nice downhills too. But on the way back, I kinda didn't like the downhill bits because I knew that I'd round a curve at the bottom and then start to ascend again.

Anyway, it was fun and now I know that, even laden on a mountain bike, I can do 100+ miles in a day.

I'm leaving in the morning for a two day ride to the catskills and back. I'm planning to head out at sunrise. as that is slightly over 5 hours away, I should get to bed.

yeah, just not feeling it

there's a scene from a dream last night that I clearly remember and entirely agree with. In the dream I was in the Mets offices at the park, purchasing season tickets. As they handed me the thick stack of tickets, a bunch of mets employees were congratulating me on my purchase. Then, as I was turning to leave, one of them asked 'so are there any games you know you don't need? I can go ahead and post them on stubhub for you.' I don't remember verbatim what my response was in the dream, but that it was basically the same as I would have said in waking life. In short, the answer was an emphatic no, followed by the evils of ticket reselling sites.

So clearly, my dream self works much in the same way as the more corporeal me. I also appreciate how it was mets season tickets, not the yankees.

hi kids. sorry i've been neglecting you. If you want to call DCFS and report my negligence, I suppose I have no recourse.

So, some stuff.

1. I almost got into a fight on my way to work this morning. Here's what happened: I was sitting at the light at 61st and Lexington, 6 blocks away from work. The light for the traffic on Lex turned red. The two seconds passed between when their light turned red and ours turned green. In this time, the car next to me, myself, and another cyclist all start to lurch forward. Then, without any warning, a ups van in the far left lane of lex (a four lane avenue at that point) bolts out, cutting off all three of us, not to mention crossing three other lanes of traffic going his direction. Sure, they were stopped, but still...
Anyway, you know how ups vans don't have a passenger side door? so I pull along beside him and in my best brooklyn parlance, tell the guy that he was mistaken for having made that maneuver. He said that he needed to make that turn. I reply that he could have planned that a little better to be both in the left lane and not disobeying traffic laws and common courtesy. He started swearing at me then pulls over to the curb on the far side of the street, then the car next to me at the light inserted itself between us. Being on my way to work, I just rode on. I wanted to stop and bitch the bitch out some more. If this had resulted in fisticuffs, I have my 12# bike chain at the bottom of my backpack and one swing of my bag would have introduced his face to the business end of my disapproval. But, instead of caving in some stranger's skull, I remained within the bounds of civil discourse and rode on to work.

2. The League of American Bicyclists released their list of bike friendly states.
the list
For those too lazy to click, Wisconsin is #2, Illinois is #12, North Carolina is #20, New York is #41, and Alabama is bringing up the rear at #50. (if puerto rico was a state, alabama would be #51)

I am not surprised by any of these

3. nah, number three will wait a little longer.

ok, later

the best way to address the volume of cat hair in my apartment would be just to move.

Today, Torii Hunter came in to work. Yeah! Go Angels.

As you probably know I'm part of the subcommittee working on getting a bike lane on Delancey St, coming off of the Manhattan side of the Williamsburgh Bridge. Not only is it the east river bridge with the most bike traffic, but the intersections along delancey are among the most dangerous in the city of pedestrians and cyclists. Last year, 53 pedestrians were injured at Delancey and Essex alone, including one fatality. We're looking for the DOT to introduce better traffic calming measures along these blocks, safer crossings for pedestrians, and, well, a bike lane.

The DOT is with us, but says they need to hear more of a voice from the community asking for this. So we are trying to raise that voice. One of the first things were are going to do is start bi-monthly bike buses along Delancey. The idea is that cyclists meet up at at Delancey & Chrystie St and, every 15 minutes, we ride en masse to the bridge, taking the lane hopefully soon will be ours. The first ride is Monday, May 4th, going from 6-8pm. We are hoping that a good percentage of the hundreds of cyclists that use this route will join us. I will be conducting the bus. So any of you with interest in riding a bike around the lower east side, come out and do a couple routes with me. This monday there will also be an after party at the delancey with 2 for 1 drinks. Yeehaw!

so yeah, jump on your bike and come ride with us.

I just got my thick stack of Brooklyn Cyclones tickets. I'm really excited about how many there are.

So i unexpectedly have the day off today. This week's schedule didn't go up till yesterday and I have three days off this week, in exchange for working two doubles. Fun!

But anyway, my friend Sara got a new bike yesterday, a light, fast road bike. So she and I took it to prospect park for it's first laps today. Now on her old bike, when we get to the hill coming back up to flatbush ave, she tells me to just wait for her at the top. This time, I had to work to keep up with her. It makes me wonder what I would do on a light, fast bike.

We did two laps, then she had to go. I wanted to ride more, so i did another half lap before exiting south on Ocean to Coney Island. Once I got to Coney Island, I stood in a line way to long to get a beer at nathan's. Then, since I was right there, I went to get some Brooklyn Cyclones tickets. Well, I ended up getting a partial season plan. So I have tickets to 9 home games now. Investment in entertainment, oh yes I think so. I have three home games against staten island and Obama Bobblehead night and five other games too. This is going to be awesome!

So now I'm waiting a little bit before going back to the park to play catch. Horray for unexpected days off!