Hi. If you are reading this you have way too much time on your hands. But I'm grateful nevertheless and will make it a mission not to bore you with monotonous nothings.
Welcome to my folding adventures -- where I will give birth to a new fold every day. Actually, the thesis for this blog is to empty my head after my rides to and from work with whatever tangible thoughts I may have had. Sometimes I will recall the details from the previous night or the morning that is fading away, conversations had, friendships lost, plans for the future and other experiences from some walks of life. I also apparently need to do this in order to obtain certain professional and personal goals. I do have the tendency to get very drill instructor-ish in my own mind, and I have very high standards of my physical self, daily. I am at peace with this mentality though I know it is not for everyone.
First I will describe the ride and vehicle.
I ride a black/gray Dahon "boardwalk" style folding bike - 20" wheels, no gears, 1 brake - from Penn Station, 4 blocks west to the West Side Highway, where I ride down the paved bike lanes. I cross over (east) 3 blocks from the end of the World Financial Center and park at my company's office at Broadway. That ride is approximately 4 miles and the ride back to Penn, which is 1 block west onto Trinity, stay north until Church and then 6th Ave., then a left on 31st into Penn, is 3 miles. It's 7 miles round-trip every day (barring horrible weather or post-daily grind plans). Since my employer moved down here nearly 2 years ago I've made this round-trip 260 times (today is #260). I began riding, essentially, to save money and avoid the subways and stick it to the MTA. I've done the math and I've saved thousands of dollars doing this and I'll eventually post those equations (you cannot argue with the numbers).
The by-product of all the riding was the weight loss and leanness -- I've slimmed from approximately 170-175 down to mid 150s. My workout regimen is tough too but it's necessary now and vital to my own survival. (see earlier warning of my Rollins-ish mentality) Each round trip day is approximately 350 calories burned. Multiply that times 10 and it becomes one pound (3500 cal) burned per every 10 roundtrips.
I won't name my company nor what I do there, that information may be alluded to during my blogs but I will not outright mention them, nor anyone I work with by their full name(s). However, that I cannot watch "The Office" nor "Office Space" since the scenery is so eerily remnisicent of an environment I currently abhor that it would send me into a frenzy, as to sit through one episode would convince me that I'm owed a half-hour of overtime.
So today -- I am still without an IPOD, which I had thought of as my lifeforce whilst riding. It has crapped out on me and now just makes this crackling sound when it does play so I will have to have it refurbished. Normally a healthy dose of Airbourne (the band, not the flu-fighter) Sammy Hagar, Kiss and AC/DC get me through my 20-25 minute ride but now I'm choiceless in having to absorb the sound of the city. Upon exiting Penn this morning, I saw it was raining but, it wasn't pouring and I had the bike so the hell with it I am going. By the time I made it to the highway it'd fizzled off and was actually somewhat refreshing.
I've been reading Georges Perec's "A Void" (the 1994 translation) and at times I want to dig up his grave and beat him back in to it because the book is so wordy. I love it but I hate it. I think about the story (I'm 200 pgs in and have about 80 pgs remaining) and how all the characters are dying one by one in an absurd heightened comic-murder-mystery but he seems to know that he's a pain in the ass to read (he makes mention of it several times), so once he apologizes within the text, all is forgiven and I re-enjoy it. He didn't have a huge volume of published works and but it's extremely revered and I do admit to liking what I've read thus far and it is intimidating as I know that I'll never be that good. Then again at times it seems he just went through a dictionary and found all the words that contain no "E" and tossed them in there (or perhaps Gilbert Adair did it, if so then he's a brilliant asshole, too).
I see the same few people every day riding on the opposite side of the highway and I wonder where they are going. I have to figure they are going to work, but one never knows. I do feel a kinship with them and it's like I know they are fighting the good fight. Of course, they could be total jerks -- one guy does look like a shaved Jack Osbourne, after all.
As I approaced 2 World Financial Center I ran in to an old camp friend, Evan, who I saw for the first time on my bike right before I got married. He was a cool guy and I hope we can reconnect. I certainly wouldn't want to fight him as he's still built like a tank.
Made it down here in 20 minutes exactly. My back, as usual, is soaked thanks to the backpack and humidity. I will make it a point to run today during lunch as part of the training for the triathlon in 5+ weeks.
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