Floating in the Lake

Hey y'all, Old Coot here coming at you live and direct, correct, in full effect, break yo neck! Today is one of those days. "What kind of day is that, Old Coot? What kind do you mean?" You know, a Saturday.

What's nice is that I found that excuse not to go to work yesterday. Instead I went out kayaking at 6:00 in the morning, then headed to Albany to help JO with the summer's hottest project: a picnic table. More on that later.

It was Thursday night when I had the bright idea to play hookey on Friday and go for an early morning paddle. I had planned on going to Albany anyway, but this just solidified my resolve to not work. Originally, I wanted to be out there before the sun came up to watch from the lake as it rose. I figured that would be a real inspirational way to start the day. Fortunately, I also figured that was way the hell to early to get up and out this time of year. That mess comes up about 5:15.

So the plan was to pick load up my boat, head over to pick up LS (AKA MB) from the Crazy Running Group (RCG) and hit the lake by about 6:15. I ran a little late, there were complications with loading the second kayak onto the car, and so on. We got to the lake around 6:45 or so. Still mad early, that lake was quiet and still. The following pictures show you how calm it was out there. If you click on some of them you'll see that there's a layer of fog over the lake due to the chill morning and warm water.

Getting Geared up for the Trip

Fog in the Boat Launch Cove

Paddler in the Mist

Pretty neat, huh? When I'm out a-paddling there's nothing I'd rather be doing.

Next subject: JO's picnic table

I headed out to Watervliet or wherever the hell he lives around 11:00. The plan was to leave a lot earlier since it's a little over an hour from my house ("as the grandma drives"). Nevertheless, I had a coffee that needed drinking and the garden needed a watering. I had some lunch and hit the high road.

When I got there, we were waiting for his cousin and his truck. Unfortunately, the cousin was working until 2:30. We had some time to kill, so I bought a chisel. Next stop, 84 Lumber. I'm gonna trash that place right here, right now. The people were dumb as hell, not informative, slow-witted, and funny looking. And smug to boot. It took forever and they couldn't help with any of our questions. It probably took about an hour and a half to buy 15 boards and some hardware after all was said and done.

When we left 84 Lumber, we followed the salesman's directions to a hardware store where we should be able to find the last few bolts we needed. There was no such store.

After that, we went to Home Depot and found exactly what we needed. That kind of mess doesn't happen around these parts, but out in Latham or wherever we were they have all kinds of perks. Time to start.

Once we layed out the directions and started figuring out the exact process, two things became devastatingly obvious. The first was that this thing was going to take us forever to finish. It was after 4:00 by the time we had the lumber, there was no way we were putting this beauty together today. Instead, we concentrated our efforts on cutting the pieces that the plan called for. The second was that the plan was rife with errors. Pieces called out with the wrong parts, misspelled words, ambiguous descriptions, and so on. This was a professional, purchased plan. Being engineers, we were able to figure out the intent of the plan and cut the parts using our modified plan.

It took until almost 10:00 before we had cut everything we could. Many parts will have to be cut on the tablesaw, so I packed those up and brought them home. I can whip those out one of these nights instead of sitting at my laptop blogging. We had some dinner at a diner in some other region of the Albany area, then I headed home, tired as hell. The drive was treacherous due to my sleepy state, but I managed to defeat Death again and arrive home safe and sound.

That's it! It's too damn nice out for me to sit in here typing. I'll holler at you later.

Over and out,
Old Coot

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Permission to Speak Freely? Permission Granted.

Happy Thursday, Cooterinos. The beauty of a three day week is that it's already Thursday. After one day of work, I feel like I need a weekend. Work has been really quiet this week as well, and I've been contemplating taking Friday off. I'm sure I won't, but I try to keep my schedule flexible these days. Maybe something good will come up and I'll be forced to take the day off. A kayaking trip, a bike ride, the sun will be shining, I'll have some coffee that needs drinking. Who knows, anything might come up.

I started reading a book entitled "Naked" by David Sedaris. If you haven't heard of this guy, you need to put down your computer and run to the nearest media store to buy either one of his books or one of his readings of one of his books. The readings are great because he has a good voice for it. Not good in the James Earl Jones kind of way, but more like good in the little whiney gay guy kind of way. And yes, I think he's small in stature and yes, he's gay. His stories are so outlandish and well thought out, you can't help but to pee yourself or crash your car when listening to his narratives. If you'd like, I can provide you with a bootleg copy of his story, but you'll have to promise to buy a book or something to ease my conscience.

In other news, I rode my bike to Live on the Lake last night. For those of you who aren't local, or who have your head in the sand, it's a free concert series at Onota Lake. The lake itself is about a 10-minute ride from my house, but due my advaced state of addiction to physical activity, I took the long cut. It was about an hour and change ride from my house up and down hills, around a few bends, past the mall, beside some lakes; it was generally a nice peaceful ride. What wasn't peaceful was the traffic.

I'll never win the battle, as I'm sure it's been an ongoing problem since the advent of the automobile but drivers are generally jerks. Let me preface my rant with the following statement: bicycles have a right to be on the road. Bicycles are considered part of traffic, and conscientious riders obey traffic laws, stop at lights, signal when turning (75% of Berkshire county drivers can't even manage to push that little lever up or down before turning) and so on. When there isn't a breakdown lane - or there is one but it's filled to the brim with the detritus of, you guessed it, ignorant drivers - I prefer to use the rightmost lane. People offer all sorts of colorful suggestions when they find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to pass me, often without changing lanes and with a heavy foot. "Get a car!" or "You're fat" are common suggestions. Other less family-friendly suggestions often come from people whose car is worth less than a little girls pink Huffy (and not nearly as roadworthy), who ride in their smog-spewing Chevette with remnants of last night's McRib sandwich caught in their pitstained wifebeaters.

Yesterday, I noticed that while I was occupying a majority of the right lane, several drivers felt there was no need to move into the left lane to pass. They would simply squeeze by while flooring it, having no consideration for my safety whatsoever. It gave me some satisfaction to cruise by them at the next light, but clipping me with their mirror would certainly hurt me more than it would them.

Anyway, that's it for my rant on drivers inhumanity toward cyclists.

Live on the Lake was a pretty good time. I forgot to arrange to have a chair brought for me, but ECOW was kind enough to offer hers up to me. Talk about your reverse chivalry. I think P.I.M.P. was playing, but I can't say I paid enough attention to know whether it was or wasn't them. The eye candy was better than I remember, so that gave me something to do while I wasn't watching the band.

HECOW and I were both on the lookout for the fake engaged chick who has been sighted at many L.O.L. shows, "clubs" and bars, but never with a man. I'm pretty sure she's one of those chicks who walk around wearing engagement rings to justify not finding a decent guy. She enjoyed the company of JD and I years ago at La Cocina, but then slipped in some story involving her fiancee effectively putting an end to the conversation. "I come here all the time, maybe I'll see you again", she added as we walked away. Perhaps, but she's exhausted all of her free drinks.

Boy, I'm pessimistic today. I guess having to be at work more than one consecutive day is wearing me down. I had better take tomorrow off.

Over and Out,
Old Coot

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Independence Day Update

Happy 4th of July Coot Fans! It's about 2:30 and I am ready for a nap. This morning was the Pittsfield Independence Run, a 5k held directly before the parade. As we waited for the race to start, everyone was dripping with sweat. It was in the 80s by 8:30 and mad muggy. I've noticed lately that if I run in the humid weather, I not only have a hard time but I also get terrible side cramps. Such was the case today.

We piled into the starting area, somewhat in order of ability. There wasn't much in the way of pre-race fanfare, just the cops directing everyone to the starting "line", then the starting pistol. And off we went.

Then everyone ran into the person in front of him or her. Everyone tries to start at the same time and when they realize that you can't really run in a cattle pack, they stop. Then the domino effect results in quite the comical pileup. Unfortunately, one guy did take a spill and seemed to be scraped up pretty bad. He came in 3rd place, so I don't feel too badly for him.

At what I assume is a mile into the race, a guy was yelling out everyone's time. It could have been handy if it meant anything to me. I knew what I was looking to do in terms of pace, but after one mile you aren't "settled into your pace", so you can't really adjust yet. The people on the sides were pretty neat, cheering and hollering for people they knew. I didn't know any of them. Actually, I knew a few but not well enough that I would yell out to them, and one I could have done without ever seeing. Don't bother trying to guess who this person is, it's not who you're thinking.

ANYWAY, I busted tail to the finish line a tad too early. I misguessed the distance to the finish line since you have to turn a few corners before you get there. At the end I felt like hell; between the thick air and the empty stomach I thought I was going to boot. I wasn't the only one who felt that way, I found, as we commiserated in the post-race sprinklers they had set up. One guy actually did boot right at the finish.

YUM!

In conclusion, I finished in 22:33 with a pace of 7:16. Not bad for my first 5k! My goal was to finish under an 8-minute mile and I'd say I did that handsomely. My running chums were very supportive of my time, as I have improved immensely in the last few months.

I didn't win any trophies or anything like that but I wasn't expecting to. Those go to people who finish in more like 16-17:00. I think with a little practice I might be able to get there someday, but the Cootster ain't a competitor. I run for fun and for sanity. If I pressure myself with race times and crap like that I'll lose focus of my original goal - to not go crazy.

In a related story, there's a midnight race this weekend that has tickled my fancy. It's another 5k up between Williamstown, MA and Bennington, VT. It starts at 12:00AM on what I guess is technically Sunday; HOW FUN! I'm going to try and scare up some folks to join me so I don't have to run it alone. I'll have to work on staying up late if I'm going to make it until midnight, let alone be able to run a race at that hour. Then, there's another one in a few weeks that has also tickled my fancy. I'm looking into that one, but odds are I'm going to do that one too. Damn, these things are addictive.

In an unrelated story, the building inspector gave me the final thumb's up on the porch. The saga has ended. I have to go tomorrow to pick up a copy of the officially signed permit for your viewing pleasure. I also want to clarify with the inspector that I don't have to go to court, since tomorrow is my court date. He told me if I finished on time I wouldn't have to go, but I don't have that in writing and I'd hate for a misunderstanding to lead to my arrest. Ha ha.

But for real.

Well, readers, I think it might be time for the Coot Doggy Dogg to take an Independence Day nap. I've been running myself ragged as of late and I feel that I deserve a hot porch nap. I'll holler at y'all later.

Over and Out,
Old Coot

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The Finishing Touches Went On

Welcome Coot Fans. I am uber tired and my last post wasn't nearly as short as it should have been. This one will be.

After I last wrote, I tried to nap but alas my body is in go-go-go mode. I did manage to lay in my recliner for a while, then in bed but if I did sleep it was lightly and not for very long.

I had a few things left to finish on ye olde porche and I think they were heavy on my mind. With the inspector coming tomorrow I wanted to be DONE tonight just in case I had to redo anything or hit any kind of snag.

One of my tasks was to install a handrail. I didn't want it to look ghetto, so I tried and I tried and I tried to figure out the compound miter to get it right. As it turns out, I don't think it's possible. I cut the bastard at a 45-degree angle and attached it. But before that, I cut it too short.

DAMN!

I had attached one of the hangers so that it would stay put while I measured the other end. I had to take it down a few times to keep trimming a little bit at a time and apparently the last time I fit it, I put in on wrong and my measurement was off by about an inch. Hopefully he doesn't notice that. It looks fine, actually better than it would if it were "to code", so I'm happy with it in that sense but I won't be able to rest easy until he signs my piece of paper.

The very last thing I did was cut off the ends of the shims so that they weren't sticking out for all to see. For those of you who haven't cut a shim before, it's fairly simple. You score it with your knife (box cutter, Stanley knife, utility knife, whatever you like to call it) and snap it off. For some reason these didn't want to snap, so I was cutting the hell out of them when my hand slipped and smashed my finger against the corner of a board. Yup, got a nice bruised nail now. It seems to be going down though, so I don't expect it to look too bad by the morning.

After that, I picked up all of my scraps, tools, trash and so on and put it all where it goes - on the floor in the garage. My task for next week will be to put the garage back together, that is unless I decide to put the skirt around the porch. In which case I might as well leave all of the tools out where I can get at them.

Okay Cooterinos, it's time for me to shower up and hit the sack. I think some Tylenol PM might be in order to make sure I get enough rest.

Over and Out,
Old Coot

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Apparently a Triathlon Tires You Out

Hey everyone! As promised, I uploaded some pictures to my flickr account so I can slowly start using them in my recollections of my goings-ons. This particular post is going to be short, as I am nap prone today.

Let me back up my tiredness story to Thursday night when I joined up with the crew for the Thursday Night Run. I was so tired that day, but went anyway partly because my horoscope said I should, and partly because the scenery can be nice at times. The run was good and it felt really good to get out and burn off some of my porch aggression. About halfway through the run, one of the guys invited me to join him and his wife kayaking in the morning. You've heard about this, so I won't bore you.

To keep you all interested, here is my favorite picture from that trip. It's a nice shot, so click on it to get the full experience.



After that trip and the few hours I worked, I went out for a bike ride. What felt like dozens of miles turned out to be merely a dozen (actually, it was more like a baker's dozen, but who's counting). I was fairly beat after that, and headed to the 'COW's house for dinner. Funny story about the ride:

After turning a corner and heading up a hill, I felt like I was really doing well. Yes, I was going slowly, but it was a long steep hill so I wasn't getting down on myself. At one point, I hear someone ride up behind me and the guy yells out a "Hey I saw your bike as you rode by". Note that cyclist know eachother by their bikes, or so I'm told. He was riding a very similar bike to mine and was looking for someone who might be interested in buying it. But that's not what's important. What was important was the fact that while I was dressed for the ride, warmed up and feeling good, this guy not only had time to see me ride by and run me down, but he did so in jeans, a polo shirt, sandals and was barely even winded. Dag.

It turned out he is one of the people who run Berkshire Cycling so I felt a little better.

The next day I awoke bright and early to do a training run for the 4th of July race downtown. We went out to run the route and get a feel for the terrain (it's flat). That was an easy 6 mile run (we did the second 5k loop in 23 minutes at an easy pace, what!) preceded and followed by half-mile runs to and from the house where we met. 7 miles by 9 o'clock is nothing to shake a stick at. Correction: it's nothing at which to shake a stick. You happy, dad?

After our run, I went home and had my Saturday morning pancakes. I usually get all set to make them only to realize I have no milk. Yesterday was different, yet the same. I checked on the milk and found that there would be plenty. I put in some laundry and washed up a little, then had a nice tall glass of chocolate milk. Moments later, as I stood there enjoying my frosty beverage, I reached into the fridge for the milk only to realize that I had finished it when I made the chocolate milk.

DUMB ASS!

So I ran to Palmer's for a fresh gallon and I was back in business.

After pancakes, I loaded the old A-kayak onto the car and headed over to Laurel Lake in Lee, MA. It's about a 12 minute drive to the lake and it proved to be a wonderful paddle. I didn't put many pictures of this trip on flickr, but below is a shot of the mountains above the lake. The small one does this shot zero justice, so click the picture for the full view.



After paddling around the lake a couple of times for a couple of hours, I went home to have lunch. No sooner that I started a-munching on some chips that I got a phone call about a bike ride later in the afternoon. I agreed to it, knowing full well I was tired and shouldn't. The weather's finally turned nice so I can't waste any of it.

At 4:30 I showed up at the prescribed meeting place to find nobody there. Eventually the woman who had called me showed up and giggled as she described stopping at a store for a Pepsi. Buying the Pepsi wasn't funny in itself, but she stopped at a friend's liquor store only to be tempted by a wine tasting. Four "tastes" later and she was out the door for our ride. Since you don't know this woman, let it suffice to say that she's a LIGHTWEIGHT!

The next person to show hopped out and stated bluntly "I am so freaking tired". I was happy to hear this, as I had already run and paddled. Minutes later the last guy showed up and proceded to tip over in the parking lot. Ha ha, silly clipless pedals. I felt good knowing that even seasoned riders fall victim to those things every once in a while. You may recall my problems with them...

After the ride, I picked some strawberries and lettuce (an unlikely combo), headed home, had some dinner and just SAT. JC stopped over to borrow some bandwidth from me. We bullshat for a few hours and ate vanilla ice cream with fresh picked strawberries.

Mmm, MMMM bitch! Those are my strawberries, picked painstakingly by me: Old L Coot.

THERE, now you know why I was tired this morning when my alarm went off at 6:30.

I had a run scheduled for 8:00 this morning in Richmond; a 7.5 miler complete with some mega hills. About a mile into the run I started seeing spots, which turned into one big spot. I stopped, rested and continued on with a woman who is new to running and always lags behind. We finished the 5.7-mile loop (a shortened version of the original path) in something like an hour and twenty minutes. MUCH slower than usual, but at least I didn't die. And she's really quite interesting so we had a nice chat.

After the run, I kicked back some more pancakes and got to work uploading, organizing and touching up some pictures (not in that order). At this very moment I'm blogging about blogging, so I'll end it here and take my ass a nap. So long, players.

Over and Out,
Old Coot

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