It was about 50 degrees this morning when I was riding my bike into work. I was wearing a wind breaker, but my ankles (I roll up my pants to avoid the grease tattoo) and hands were exposed and quite frosty. That's to be expected, since they're always the coldest. What I wasn't used to was my upper lip being so cold. There's nothing like a freshly shorn lip to really catch the breeze. Mustache, where are you?
Over and Out,
Old Coot
Showing posts with label Mustache. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mustache. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
So...Cold
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Goodbye to a Friend
Our friendship lasted only a few weeks but in that time I had really grown attached to my new friend. We spent all of our free time together, poking fun at each other, laughing, eating meals and enjoying the leftovers. Alas, the world was not ready for a relationship like ours and we have been forced to go our separate ways...Who is this Friend?
This friend about whom I am writing is my Speed 'Stache. The ridicule at work turned from friendly laughter to outright vicious jabs. Jokes that could have been taken as just that, jokes, were followed with "but seriously, it has to go" leaving me to think that maybe people not only didn't like it, but were offended (or threatened) by it. Then there was the half hour "you'll never find a woman..." monologue this afternoon where I could only defend myself with "yeah, but no other facial hair configuration seems to be working either".
So friends, I have decided to bid the 'stache adieu and go back to the little boy clean shaven look. That is, until I go a few days without shaving and start back in on the Power 'Tee.
For those of you saddened by the loss, I'll leave you with this. The Speed 'Stache did not live up to his name. In fact, today was the nicest day of the year (or one of the nicest) and my track workout was pretty sorry. I dug deep looking for the power to push through the workout but the 'stache had his mind elsewhere and the pace slowed to a miserable glorified jog. Maybe he was already getting ready to leave, or maybe he was just not cut out for such a finely tuned athlete. Whatever the case, we won't be working or playing together anymore.Not Leaving without a Photo Shoot
I set up my camera on my desk and fired off a few dozen shots, looking for one that would capture the 'stache's true essence. I found out that he was also a curious, caring, in-your-face kind of mustache that has simply been misunderstood.
Inquisitive Mustache
'Stache Tweak
In Yo Face! Mustache
And that's the end of that chapter (wiping hands).
Little Boy is Blue
The 'Stache Met His Maker
Over and Out,
Old Coot
Get the Whole Story Here...
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Tuesday Night - Pow Pow
Cooterinos, I'm hollering at you one more 'gain and let me tell you, things are looking up for The Coot. Grab a glass of milk and some cookies, plunk down in your favorite easy chair and let me spin you a yarn.The Painting Project
It's been a long, nasty battle against the funkiness that was my spare bedroom. I've been looking at it in it's Kilz Primer White anti-splendor for so long that I didn't realize how bad it really was. What's funny is that this was the first room I touched a paintbrush to before I even closed on the house. Almost 6 years later I'm finally taking that God awful flat white(ish) room and making it into something I might enjoy looking at. And enjoy it I will.
As of tonight, I have the ceiling and walls painted, the trim scraped (it had some FUNK on it), nails from the old shoe molding pulled, holes - from where I nailed the window trim back up after replacing the windows - filled, and all of the trim primed with good oil based primer. Sherwin Williams makes some nice paint, but the shit doesn't come cheap.
Last night I got into a groove and got the trim all prepped, then started in on priming it. On the last bit I had, just one window from completion, I found I was getting sloppy. I stuck the brush in a plastic bag, covered the pail and called it a night. When I looked at the clock I realized I had been working on that room for damn near 4.5 hours. No wonder. Midnight is well past my weekday bedtime.
Tonight I finished up that last window (God bless you oil paint for not getting funky like latex), put all of the outlet covers and switch plates back on, cleaned up the primer/brush/pail and called it quits. I thought about getting into the last step - painting the trim with real paint - but decided by the time I was all cleaned up then set up for that it would be late again. It'll have to wait a few more days.The Speed 'Stache
Tonight was Track Night, and I put the Speed 'Stache to work. I'm starting to think I can't blame donating blood anymore, but maybe the blame lies in staying up late last night and breathing paint fumes all evening. Wherever the fault should lie, I still wasn't able to run quite at the level I'd like.
This week was 4x1 Mile, meaning 4 intervals lasting 1 mile each with recovery in between. I tend to do 1/4 mile recovery because that's one lap on the track. Don't forget the warm up and cool down. Tonight ended up somewhere in the vicinity of 7.5 miles, about par for speed night.
As usual the first lap was my fastest, and as I settled into an appropriate pace I found myself fairly consistent. That was nice, but I was consistently slow.
Hmm, maybe it was the people who just had to walk 5 abreast on the track, almost forcing us off into the grass, or the gobs of other people who insisted on taking the inside lanes even though they're out there for fitness, not time. You can't get a good feel for consistency when you're constantly changing lanes. Yeah, that's my excuse. I wished there was an appropriate way to ask the people not to use the inside lanes if they're walking and talking, but it's a public track so I bit my tongue.
One of the good things I noticed tonight was that my severe long run the other day did not seem to have any ill effects on tonight. I was a bit sore at the beginning, but that faded away within a lap or two. In fact, once I got into the third interval I was in the zone.
Lastly, I usually end the final lap before my cooldown with an all out 100m kick to the finish line. Tonight I decided to take it a step further and start my kick at the 200m line. When I crossed the finish line I was huffing, puffing, and on the hairy edge of booting. If a mosquito had farted on me I would have lost my lunch, but I eventually got over it and the the post-run euphoria hit. I think 200m will be my new thing.
That's it, it's bed time. Sorry Ab, still no 'stache picture. Maybe when I finish painting the spare bedroom and take pictures of that I'll getcha something. Suffice it to say that it's killer.
Over and Out,
Old Coot
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Speed 'Stache Results
Last night included a track workout at our friendly neighborhood highschool. There were tons of people there enjoying the first warm day of the season (it stayed in the 60s until somewhere in the middle of the night), including some mildly decent lookers who were probably jail bait.Just Get to it Man!
You didn't come here to hear about the jail bait and old ladies in big ass sweaters wearing cheap knockoffs of French perfumes at the track. Ladies whose perfume was so strong that the 30MPH wind couldn't usher it away fast enough. In fact, I think I hacked up a chunk of perfume this morning.
Well, as I mentioned yesterday it was the maiden voyage (is there a masculine form of maiden?) for the Speed 'Stache in a real speed situation. I was doing 800m intervals (twice around) with one lap (400m) recovery in between. My plan had me doing 8 sets, which when you add a mile warmup and cooldown ends up being about 32 laps or ~8 miles. The speed 'stache would take care of the 800m intervals and I would have to do the recovery, warmup and cooldown laps. It seemed like a marriage made in heaven.
Well, I don't know if I was still feeling the effects of my blood letting last week or if I was dehydrated from only drinking coffee all day, or if my belly was unhappy with the peanut butter sandwich I ate right before running, or if maybe the Double-Ess just needed to blow out the pipes, as they say, but I was dogging it.
My first 400m was right on the money, but the second was way slower. The idea is to be consistent so the next set I took a little off the first lap in the hopes I would run the same pace the second. Nope, slow again. Finally I decided if I was going to be able to run the full workout I'd have to slow it down even more, which was way slower than I wanted to go. It worked though, and until I started getting full body cramps in the second-to-last set I was pretty consistent.
The steady 30MPH wind made it slow on one side, and there were some booties that were very distracting every few laps, but I managed to do 7 of the 8 prescribed sets. All in all, I can't say I was disappointed with my performance though. It was the first real track workout of the season and also the first day above 43 degrees since last fall. I actually felt like heat was a factor; how absurd is that?
Oh, but my kick (or the Speed 'Stache's kick) for the last 100m of the last interval clocked in around a 4 minute mile pace (for 100m, not a whole mile). WHAT! That shit is fast. This dude was sitting on the bleachers with his son and I'm sure all he heard was hoo, hoo, hee, hee, hee, hoo, hoo, hee, hee, hee as a handsomely mustachioed train flew by him, snapping his neck.
PlacaTAN!
Over and Out,
Old Coot
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The First 48 Hours
I realize I sort of bombarded y'alls with postings on Sunday, so I'm going to take that as an opportunity to get myself motivated to blog some more. Mostly I want to update you on the Speed 'Stache.Some Positive Feedback
As expected, there were a lot of chuckles, snickers and guffaws at my expense yesterday. Our young, non-male secretary seemed to be having the most fun with it and laughed right in my face at every opportunity. She's clearly attracted by it and is using laughter as a cover; being a married woman and all.
Another buddy of mine who goes by the pseudonym Easy-E found the picture of Cochese you see right here and doctored it up with my name (which is not shown for personal security reasons). I have made it my avatar for our work website as well as several other online profiles. Oh, my speed 'stache is bad ass.
Then, to seal the deal I walked out of a meeting this morning and one of the guys on the team looks over and says "That. Is. AWEsome. You're gonna keep it, right? That's not for April Fool's Day?" Oh, it's a keeper.
Tonight I have a track workout where I'll get to put this 'stache's speed to the test.
Over and Out,
Old Coot
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