It’s been a quiet weekend consisting mostly of sleeping late and reading. I decided to stay off the bike this weekend since I’ve been struggling with a cold for the past week or so, and I thought it would be better to just rest and try and recuperate. I think the decision has worked, I’m feeling much better today. The lungs are still clearing out, but I have the sense that’s exactly what is happening now when I cough…clearing. Sorry for sharing so much!

Mostly I read from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which is a novel, but I also read a fair bit of the latest issue of The Atlantic—July/August Issue. And today is Sunday so there was an article or two in the NY Times that Marcella gets every weekend; in particular a story in the Travel section about cycle touring in France that was interesting—maybe, someday!

And now I’m watching some of the Tour du Suisse on Versus channel on TV. It’s only about three weeks away from the beginning of the Tour de France. That time frame also means time for controversy and doping allegations to emerge. There seems to be a pattern of these things being revealed in the couple of weeks immediately prior to the beginning of the race. Oh well, we shall see.

Technorati Tags: Books, Cycling, Television, weekend

How many weeks has it been since I’ve gotten in a good ride? I’m not sure, but I finally got a decent ride in again this morning, and I got to explore a little bit; connect some roads that I never tried before and basically combine pieces of different rides.

I headed out a little before 8 A.M. The weather was fairly comfortable, maybe even just slightly on the cool side, but I didn’t wear any extra gear. I knew it would warm up soon enough. Basically I headed south out of Greensboro into the surrounding County roads, and a little bit into Randolph County.

The new portion of the ride is where I branched off onto River Mill Road and then Hockett Dairy Road (yes there was actually a dairy farm). I used this to connect through, with a brief patch on Randleman Road, to Davis Mill Road which took me to Steeple Chase and then on into the Pleasant Garden Community. The riding is pretty nice over there. I think the name fits.

There was one patch of surprising traffic as I looped back home on Ritters Lake Road between Pleasant Garden Road and South Elm. I think people are using that segment to connect through to an interstate exchange nearby on Elm, but I didn’t remember there being so much traffic before at that hour of the morning on a Sunday.

Anyway, all total I managed 36.7 miles with an average speed of 16 mph. It’s not earthshaking, but at least I got the miles in my legs, and it made me happy.

Technorati Tags: bicycle, bicycling, bike, ride, route

We just got home from seeing Drag Me to Hell at the movies. This is Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre, and I thought it was a lot of fun.

Marcella and I don’t see too many horror movies, but since this was Raimi we thought we’d give it a go. It might surprise you to hear that it is rated PG-13 and not something harder. There isn’t any nudity in it, the violence is exaggerated and at some points even ridiculous, and the gore is gross-out gore, not bloody grim realistic gore. That’s not to say there aren’t a few splashes of blood thrown around for good measure. Still, it is almost a good-old-fashioned horror movie.

The premise is that a young loan officer named Christine, played by Alison Lohman, makes the unfortunate decision to turn down a loan request for an old gypsy woman, who then curses her with a curse that will result in her being dragged to hell in three days if she can’t find a way to reverse it. In the meantime the terror and frights increase in severity with each day as Christine struggles and despairs of finding a way free of the curse before being taken to hell.

The action—terror—attack sequences are shot with the usual frenzied-ness that is expected from a Sam Raimi film. There are plenty of places in the film where you know something is about to happen and you tense in anticipation, and there are the usual feints and surprises where he lets you off the hook for a moment and then turns the tables on you and makes you jump in your seat a few beats later.

He uses sound, in particular, to build and enhance the sense of dread and fright. I will say that I felt that the theater we watched it in may have cranked the sound a notch too loud. There were a couple of moments where I wasn’t just startled, but maybe annoyed by the sudden horrendous clamoring in the auditorium. Still, it gave the movie a fun thrill-ride kind of feel.

Without spoiling anything I will say that the “heroine” of the movie isn’t always above reproach. Her ambition gets her into the fix she finds herself in, and her fear and desperation lead her to take some less than noble actions that make you wonder at points whether she doesn’t deserve the curse she’s found herself stuck with. But then the film surprises you and addresses that too.

I recommend it. The film has no pretensions of being anything other than what it is, which is a straight-forward make you jump in your seat horror movie. You will laugh a little, and cheer a little, and gag a little, and you will definitely twitch a muscle or two no matter how hard you try not to. Give it a go if you are into this sort of thing.

Technorati Tags: Film, horror, movies, review

I guess I was due. I started off on my ride this morning anxious about the weather. The clouds were heavy and grey in the vicinity and I wasn’t looking forward to riding in a downpour, but I decided to start anyway and watch the signs carefully. I could always turn around early.

As it turns out the weather wasn’t the problem. About five miles in my rear tire went flat. I proceeded to remove the tire and tube and inspect the inside wall of the tire and sure enough there was a metal splinter protruding through the tire. I’m glad I remembered to stop and inspect before just slapping a new tube in there or I would have gone flat again as soon as I inflated the tube.

I’ve changed enough tubes on the side of the road that it doesn’t really bother me all that much anymore. The only issue is the conditions you have when you get the flat and where you want to work on it. Today was grey and overcast, not too hot, and not yet raining. I had to work on the bike in the wet grass which isn’t ideal, but I’ve had to do it worse places. Ideally you have a flat in a place where there’s a flat (as in not hilly), shady place nearby, but it rarely works that way.

Anyway, I got the wheel changed and decided I didn’t want to tackle the longer course I was intending without having another backup tube and air cartridge. I’m usually only prepared for a single flat during a ride. After that I have the cell phone to call someone to come pick me up. So I started back home. I did pick the route home with the nastiest hill in the area so at least I knew I would get a bit of a real workout in, and I attacked the hill with everything I had. I was gasping at the top.

Well, it’s nothing much to speak of. I’m not really sure of my mileage. I don’t think I started the computer back correctly when I resumed riding after the flat. I’m estimating in the range of 10 miles all total.

So, I guess I’ll tune into the Giro now. I think they are facing a tough and very hilly day of riding in Italy today. Could be interesting.

Technorati Tags: bicycle, Cycling, ride, weather

I discovered this site a few weeks ago and have been keeping my eye on it since then. Nice site with a good message and attractive presentation. Anyway, they’ve got a post up today with some statistics regarding bicycle safety in relation to other activities. Kinda cool.

Technorati Tags: cycling bicycling safety