Dead Legs

Busy morning, so far.

Thank God for conscientious kids. By the time I'd dragged my sorry hide out of bed, I had 15 minutes to get ready to take the boys to the bus stop. John and Will were already up and ready for school, though. This would qualify as A Very Good Thing.

I dropped them off, then did a very sloooooow 4.2 miles on my usual route. It hurt. Wish I could put more of the whine into that last sentence, but you get the picture. I scooted down to the gym to ride the bike (pool is closed until Friday so the steps can be repainted -- they're worried about liability from slips) for an incredibly uninspired 13.2 miles. Read Rory Stewart's book again, The Places In Between, about his walk across Afghanistan after the US invasion. I wish I could say I had a little better feeling about the place after reading it again, but, eh. It sounds like a thoroughly unpleasant place, populated by thoroughly unpleasant people.

I'm guessing they don't think much of us, either.

Off to town in another hour to steal the Asian restaurant's wifi. Great download speeds, and I don't have to blow my fair access policy. Not as convenient as Celeste's place, but way faster. Lots of calls to make and things to do this week.

More later.

***

It's later.

Worked like a Roman orchard slave today. Spent a couple of hours downloading and eating at the Asian restaurant. They do kung pao well. They don't do mocha so well. Eh. Live and learn.

Came back home and plugged away on a couple of projects, almost finishing one and probably wrapping up another. Felt rather decent to clear some stuff off my desk.

Chickens were rather annoying today. I missed putting one of the Arucanas -- fast little buggers -- back into the brooder at noon. Found her peeping on top of the brooder around 3p. Opened the brooder to let her back with her little peep friends. Am I rewarded? I think not. Wound up with 18 chicks in various stages of flight and paranoia to track down.

Going to be chilly here tomorrow, expecting a bit of frost.

Outrages, we got outrages:

*** The Florida primary has been moved up to Jan. 29. Yeah. That's gonna help democracy out. Besides the fact that it's Florida -- a state I once fled screaming -- it's continuing the trend of locking up the nomination four years before the election. You wait. It'll happen.

*** The Floyd Landis thing just gets sadder and sadder.

*** Whatever happened to the whole "laptops in the classroom" idea? The NYT had a good story on more districts dropping the deal because it wasn't helping. I'm thinking, put a rule on the server that blocks MySpace and AIM, and you'll see some progress.

I'm off to make some One-Pot Pasta. Can't decide whether to run tomorrow or bike long. One or the other.