January doldrums

Soulmate and I were talking over coffee this morning before work, and right in front of me a large raptor landed in one of our oak trees:



This is about as much excitement as I've had since my last birthday party ended 10 days ago. I say my last one because I must have had 5 celebrations this year, starting with a visit to J.R.'s with my friend Andy on the 3rd and ending with Cork's on the 7th. When I was growing up, I never got too much of a birthday celebration coming as it did less than 2 weeks after Christmas. Now, though, I don't care too much about presents, and it seems like a number of my friends want to take me out for a birthday meal, thus the 5 celebrations this year. DOC'S ADVICE: skip the presents and go for the cuisine. You know you're going to go out and buy whatever you really want anyway.

I get a little S.A.D. in January, especially after my birthday on the 7th. This is the time of year for Seasonal Affective Disorder, especially in Minnesota. The snow is beautiful, but the 10 below temps are getting old. I'm tired of X/C skiing and snowshoeing; I don't snowmobile (or do much of anything else that requires petrol); it's just too cold to ride outside (my personal limit for road rides is +15 degrees). Our recent 2 or 3 week thaw was great, and I got out riding several times with my friend Jim. That makes the coldest week of the year even worse, since I've tasted of the pleasures of early spring riding.

So, I splurged and upgraded my Charter analog basic cable to digital premium service the other day. Now when I ride the Revmaster downstairs, I won't be relegated to Monk reruns and bad B movies on TCM. I channel surfed last night through the HBO et al premium channels, and found no less than 6 movies playing that I really want to see. Not to mention the on-demand features which I haven't even tried yet.

I watched a couple of episodes of NCIS season 2 last night while I did a tempo workout, and the suspense and forensic gore kept my mind off of the pain in my legs. I have been doing all long and slow training up until this week, and I think my legs have complete amnesia for last summer's efforts. At least they are pretending not to remember.

I've spent a fair amount of time on my Revmaster watching football, including several of the best games of the year, and maybe ever. The NY Giants--Pats game was the stuff of legends. Watching Tom Brady dismantle Jacksonville was like Patton pushing the Germans out of North Africa. Any game with Brett Favre in it lately is the stuff of legends, and his thrashing of Seattle was classic Favreball. I'm really psyched for Green Bay and NYG. I think I only need to watch Patton kick the Germans out once, so I don't know if I'll make it all the way through the Pats game.

My Fixie is coming along nicely. I stripped all the TT gear off of my 2002 LeMond Zurich, and have fitted it out with Nitto track bars and stem. Luke is building me some swizzy wheels with White Industries hubs and Kswiss rims. They're on the truing stand as we speak. If the bike is done this weekend, I will NOT be trying it outside. I might try it on the rollers though. Probably watching Brett Favre.