bike

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Rockin’, rockin’ and rollin’. Down to the train I’m strollin’.

Well, it’s Monday again.  Yippee.  I’m writing this post on my “smartphone”* today because I didn’t feel like taking my miniature laptop computer with me when I left the office on Friday.  Perhaps that was shortsighted of me, but hopefully at least this way I will avoid writing too much today.

Of course, as usual, I have no particular subject or topic to address with this blog post.  I just started writing and, well, we’ll all find out what comes forth, won’t we?  It may be a lame-ass way to run a blog, but whataya gonna do?

I did walk to the train this morning, five miles (the same distance as before, of course‒it would be weird if the distance changed from day to day).  It was, perhaps, slightly easier than the last time, which is good.  It would be troubling if it were getting harder every time, though blisters can sometimes make that happen.

I rode my new bike around on Saturday and on Sunday, but I didn’t have the heart to try to ride it this morning.  For one thing, riding it is still just exhausting relative to walking or to riding my other bike.  Also, I cannot help but fear getting a flat tire while on the way to the train (or on the way back), and that possibility makes me too nervous to want to use it.

If I get a flat on the weekend, then I merely need to walk the bike back to the house‒or to a bicycle repair shop, if there’s one nearby, which there pretty much isn’t.  But if I get a flat on the way to the train, then I have to deal with a bike with a flat and with getting to work.

Perhaps I’m just a wimp for not wanting to deal with such things, but I have only so many “spoons” to go around, and they get used up by so many little things throughout every single work day (and other days as well) that I don’t feel that I have any reserves.  For many years now, I’ve felt that I’m in imminent danger of complete collapse; I still feel that way.

One of these times, I’ll be correct in that estimate, but that’s a bit of a cop-out.  It’s like someone stating that the world will end tomorrow, then when it doesn’t (if it doesn’t) they just roll it over to the next day.  Sooner or later, they will be right.  It may take over a trillion tries‒let’s imagine they’re immortal as well as absurdly bloody-minded‒but they will eventually be correct.

Anyway, though, for me it’s not the fact of getting flat tires that’s the exhausting part (though it is exhausting when it happens).  It is, rather, the tension of worrying about it every single time I ride.  You might say that I simply shouldn’t let myself worry about it, should not let that imagined possibility interfere with the “now”.  To which I might reply that you shouldn’t fear cancer and/or heart disease and/or Alzheimer’s, etc., because sooner or later something is going to get you, and your fear is just causing you stress in the here and now.

Or perhaps it would be better, or more analogous, to tell you that you shouldn’t fear running across a busy road, because either a car will hit you or it won’t, and you won’t change that by worrying.  Except, of course, you can change that by worrying, if you act on your worry and therefore don’t recklessly run into the street.

I know, I’m being fairly silly.  I’m not trying very hard to be rigorous right now, so some of my logic may be strained.  But I hope I’m not being fundamentally or thoroughly irrational.  I don’t think I am, but just as it’s not up to you whether or not you’re appropriately considered an asshole, it’s not necessarily reliable for me to judge my own rationality.  I do judge myself, and I am fairly harsh about it, but if I were to start losing my mind, I would be an unreliable witness to what was happening.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, if that’s even possible.

Oh, and by the way, though I have not set up a Patreon or anything, if any of you would like to request that I write a post about some specific subject or topic, by all means, please let me know in the comments.  I don’t promise to fulfill any and/or all such requests, but I do promise to read and consider them.

In the meanwhile, please have a good day.

*I don’t mean to denigrate the phone by putting that term in scare quotes.  It’s a fine piece of technology, and for the most part, it does what it’s meant to do.  I just think the expression “smartphone” is a poor term.  It’s mainly a marketing gimmick, like “organic” and “gluten free” and “non-GMO”:  designed to lure in the insecure and get them to buy particular products to try to counter their…I don’t know, their existential angst or summat.

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Into and out of training

Well, yesterday after work I finally rode my new bike to the train and then from the train back to the house.  I don’t know if it’s because it’s a single gear bike or because of the smaller tires or both, or if some other factors might be involved, but it was a lot of work to ride compared to my other bike.  It’s just five miles from the train station to the house where I live, but I had to get off and walk the bike for a while twice.

Still, it was doable.  This morning, however, I decided to take a slower mode and I walked to the train.  It certainly takes quite a bit longer to walk five miles than to bike, but at least I’m not completely wiped out.  Also, I don’t think I have any new blisters, which is always preferable to the alternative.  I also don’t have any old blisters, just to be clear.  I do have a slight cut on my right outer heel near the Achilles tendon, but I have that nicely protected with one of those big fat Band-Aids.

I love those big fat Band-Aids.

Anyway, I have a slight further walk when I get to my destination, but it’s only about three-quarters of a mile.  Also, I will rest on the train for a while.  And it will be good to have already gotten in some relatively serious exercise at the beginning of the day.  The figurative momentum will probably not last for long, but at least I have a bit for the moment.

I tried very hard to force myself to do something yesterday, so I got out my office guitar and strummed and sang Nothing Compares 2 U , recording it with two different devices, then merged them into a single Audacity file (though I have not merged the tracks, just aligned them to play simultaneously).  I had to do a lot of background noise reduction, and that made the sound a little dead, but I can try to tweak it a bit.  If it becomes anything worth hearing, I may share it here.

I used to have a pretty decent USB condenser mic, and sound recording was better with that, but I threw it away when we were getting ready to move office a while back.  I hadn’t used it in a long time, and also, I more than half intended to die around that time, so I didn’t see the point in keeping it.  I threw away some other things then, and “gave” my black Strat to my boss, and really was not excited about keeping much of anything.  It just goes to show you, I guess‒though I’m not sure what it just goes to show.

***

I’m on the train now.  As I suspected would be the case, this car is quite chilly, but I brought a second shirt to put on over the sweaty one (and I have done so) so I don’t get too cold.  We’re currently sitting at the station while, apparently, they deal with an “unruly passenger”.

I don’t blame this on the fact that I’m on a later train than usual‒that would be ridiculous.  It’s the sort of thing that can happen at any time, given how utterly pathetic so many humans are.  Honestly, I wish that I (or someone) had the power Michael had in Stranger in a Strange Land, just to send people sideways in spacetime, or whatever he did, so we could just make such unruly passengers go away if they refused to stop being unruly and/or to exit the train.  Maybe that might seem a bit extreme, but it was, according to the book, a painless cessation of existence.

***

Okay, well…now we just got started moving and suddenly the train stopped and the lights and everything all went out.  I wonder if the unruly passenger had some supernatural powers that he (I consider a male to be more likely to be unruly in such cases) used to get his vengeance.  I know, that’s not what happened.  But at least it would be more interesting that this merely being a case of incompetent maintenance of equipment.

***

And the train is dead, and the following train is now stuck on the tracks approaching the station, so I’m getting an Uber to work.  It was that or go back to the house, but honestly, I’m no more comfortable there than at the office.  I might as well be productive.  At least I’m not stuck, like the people on the following train.

If I were inclined toward magical thinking, I might imagine that “the universe is sending me a message not to walk to the train in the morning” but that is, of course, stupid.  The only message the universe is sending (and it’s by no means sending that message to me specifically) is that sometimes things break down, largely because of the second law of thermodynamics, and they don’t do so with regards to anyone’s convenience.  

To be fair, though, my Uber driver was a very lovely and pleasant lady, and though traffic was pretty bad, when we were getting off the freeway, I saw a rainbow.  So there are pleasant surprises as well.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.  I know this has probably been terribly boring, even though there is misfortune involved.  I guess that’s necessary but not sufficient to make for a gripping tale.

I hope you all (or y’all if you prefer) are having a more convenient day so far than I am, and that you continue to do so.

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“Pull me out of the air crash…”

Well, it’s been a short while since I posted here.  I intended‒vaguely‒to write a post on Friday and then Monday (which was yesterday), but I had a surprise situation happen that I haven’t really discussed with anyone yet, though I might have mentioned it on Threads.

It seems at least some of my underlying distress was evident to some people at work‒I certainly know that I’ve been feeling like I’m coming apart at the seams, and at times in between the seams.  So, on Thursday morning, my boss somewhat quietly came to me and “suggested” that I take a bit of time off.  He suggested 5 days, but if I had come back tomorrow, there would be too much backed up work, so I got it down to 4 days (plus Thursday afternoon).

He said he could tell that I was really getting stressed out and irritable, and that I needed a break; I hadn’t taken any non-sick time off since my mother died.  In and of itself, this was truly kind of him, and that’s completely in character.  On the other hand, he doesn’t understand me all that well.  It’s hard to blame him; I’m a weirdo, after all.

Anyway, he suggested all sorts of absurd things, like getting a hotel room on the beach, drinking cocktails, getting laid, and so on.  Imagine that:  me getting laid on short notice!  I wouldn’t have the comfort level with strangers even to pay to have sex with someone, let alone to pick up or be picked up.  When he made those suggestions, I started to giggle hysterically‒it was a sound that worried and sort of even frightened me‒and I had to suppress it pretty quickly, because if I didn’t, I knew I was going to start to cry.  In any case, I left the office at noon and went back to the house.

As for the beach…

Well, I did do some biking, trying to get used to riding so I could do more, and after riding around the local area a total of about 9 miles on Friday, I decided on Saturday to ride out to the beach and (of course) back, about six miles each way.  It was quite a ride for only my second day back on the bike, but I managed it.  Then I walked down to the beach and saw that at least every human in the western hemisphere was there, so there was no way I was going to remain for long.

I didn’t bring beach gear anyway, having no intention of swimming.  The waves on the Atlantic coast make swimming at the beach there irritating.  The beaches on the Gulf of Mexico are much more pleasant.  Also, I’m about as fond of sand as is Anakin Skywalker.

So, I stopped at a 7-11 for some Gatorade, drank it, and rode back.  Then, on Sunday I biked to the train station and back, which is only about 10 total miles, but it was harder than the day before, probably because I hadn’t fully recovered.

Yesterday, on the other hand, I took a very long, 12-mile walk.  I wore spandex braces on my ankles and my left knee, and these seem to have helped a lot.  I do have a minor blister and a half on my left foot, but otherwise there were no real ill effects.

I probably look as though I partied in some fashion, because I am pretty sunburned.  That’s okay; for some reason, sunburn doesn’t really hurt me much.

So, anyway, I at least got some exercise.  I bought junk/comfort food for a few meals (deliberately) but even my old comfort foods are becoming unappetizing.  That would be okay with me.  In fact, yesterday I ate only a total of around 1000 calories, despite my long walk, because I just wasn’t hungry.  I didn’t even finish all that I “cooked” myself for dinner yesterday.

Being off from work has been at least somewhat fruitful for me, in this at least:  that I have worked on improving my physical condition and have tested my endurance a bit.  Otherwise really, what mostly happened was a harsh, undiluted confrontation with just how empty my life is.

Work is in some ways the most positive part of my current existence; I have to be productive to be worthy of staying alive, and I can interact with my coworkers in ways that are couched in work-related situations.  It is far from fully positive; the noise alone is terribly frustrating.  But then again, I’m pretty much a net negative wherever I am, so it’s hard for me to be judgmental.

When I am at the house, I am fully immersed in how alone I am*.  And things like being at the beach just cement that even more for me.  I do not feel like the same species as everyone else out there.  I don’t know what I am or should be‒I’ve had great past success in all the ways I thought were success, but that all just blew up in my face in the end.

Honestly, I was more than half hoping for a heart attack or some other health crisis or life-threatening occurrence while I was biking and walking over this surprise long weekend.  Perhaps it would have been good to be hit by a car.  One thing I did note was that there are a lot of tall buildings with balconies down along the beach.  That’s something at least a bit interesting.  The bridge over the intercoastal, unfortunately, is rather low there, so it’s not much use.

In all honesty, speaking as a physician about myself, I think what I needed was not a “vacation”.  What on Earth would such as I do on a solitary vacation other than be solitary?  Instead, I would probably recommend that I be hospitalized, if that were available, or at least get some intensive kind of treatment.  But of course, I don’t have insurance, and whatever my boss might think about my finances, I don’t have the wherewithal to pay for much of any medical or psychiatric care.  I also don’t have the mental wherewithal to seek out any such help.

I am finally getting an autism assessment this Friday, and I’m slightly anxious about it.  I fear that it’s going to be utterly negative, and that I’m not autistic, I’m just a defect.

I do find that, even when I try to lurk around autism based sites and feeds and so on, I feel that I still do not fit in with any of them.  Maybe if I get assessed and it’s positive, I will feel differently.  I don’t know.

In any case, I am back to work today, and if I survive until tomorrow, I will punish you all with another stupid blog post.  In the meantime, I hope you have a good day.

*I did have a very nice phone call with my sister on Sunday night.  That’s always enjoyable.

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Walk Like A Caveman

There are many levels of irony about living in our modern, Western civilization.  One of the most striking, to me, is the fact that we find ourselves thinking that we have to “make time” for exercise.

Our ancestors–almost all of them–were never faced with this kind of problem, any more than are the millions of other species of animals living in the world.  Exercise is not a special task or chore for most creatures, it is part of the process of staying alive and being healthy.  Really, that’s what it should be for us as well.  We know that our bodies want to be used, they thrive with that use and become stronger and healthier, in general, the more active we are.  Yet, the progress of our civilization has, curiously, led us to alienate ourselves more and more from our natural, active natures.

Many of our modern conveniences were created to spare us from the “horrors” of physical labor.  Automobiles, escalators, elevators, tractors…these things are all, of course, truly remarkable and incredibly useful, but because we have them, we’ve gotten into the habit of relying solely upon them.  After only a little bit of time doing this, we realized that our sedentary, machine-driven lifestyles were often leading us to be terribly unhealthy.  Its not so much that our lives have been shortened…modern infection control, including vaccines, antisepsis, antibiotics and health codes have led us all to survive and even become unaware of the simple ailments that killed most of our forebears.  Our lives have instead been diminished, not in quantity but in quality.  It is wonderful to be able to drive hundreds of miles to see a distant relative at a moment’s notice.  It is NOT wonderful to have to drive to the corner store because we’re too out of shape to walk there.

In recent years we’ve learned that astronauts who spend very much time in space, without the need to fight gravity, rapidly lose bone density and muscle mass, and their hearts weaken as well.  To combat this tendency they have to use very clever means to engage their bodies and to keep those organs fit.  Yet we here on the ground, deep within Earth’s gravity well and not going through free-fall, often might as well be floating in orbit, for all the work we give our bodies.

Awareness of this issue has led to a huge industry of gyms, exercise equipment, supplements and how-to books about exercise.  We strive to fit time to go to the gym into our busy, modern schedules.  There’s nothing wrong with that, of course…I’m all for the gym.  But you don’t have to have a membership at the expensive local health club, nor even any special equipment, to keep your body as healthy as you can.  All you have to do is live just a little bit more like your ancestors did.

So, if you have to go to the store, and it’s not that far away…walk there instead of driving.  Obviously this won’t work if you have to buy a great many groceries at one time…but maybe multiple trips with smaller hauls spread throughout your week would be a better idea for your health, anyway.

If your local store isn’t QUITE local enough to walk to, well, then drive there.  Then, instead of jockeying around for the very closest spot you can find, park at the far end of the parking lot, and walk to the store from there.  It may not seem like very much, but if that’s so, then it also shouldn’t be very much trouble.

When you’re going into a building and need to go somewhere other than the first floor, why not take the stairs?  Walking up stairs is terrific, low-impact aerobic exercise and it keeps your quads nice and strong!  Okay, if you live in New York City and need to get to the 50th floor, walking ALL the way might be impractical unless you’re a marathoner with a lot of time on your hands.  Yet, even so, you can take the elevator up to two or three floors shy of your destination and walk the rest of the way.  Then you can do the same thing on the way down, which will, after all, be quite a bit easier than going up.

Also, if you live in a good enough climate, at least part of the year…ride a bike to work sometimes instead of driving.  This won’t be great if you have a sixty mile commute each way (again, unless you’re a distance athlete and have a rather flexible schedule), but if your commute is more reasonable, then biking is a great alternative.  It saves you gas money (a big deal in our current economic climate), and it produces less carbon dioxide than does an internal combustion engine…though it DOES produce some, since that’s one waste product our bodies produce just as our machines do.

All these simple measures can keep your body healthier and keep you feeling stronger.  They will probably also make you a bit thinner and shapelier, which is nice.  Still, feeling and being healthy is far more important than being thin…as any famine victim would gladly tell you if they had the chance.

In closing, the key to being physically fit and active in the modern world–and to feeling more alive and vigorous and strong–doesn’t have to involve expensive gym memberships, aerobic classes, treadmills and weight machines.  All those things are great, and I have nothing but praise for those who discipline themselves to make their bodies as healthy as possible.  Yet, even for those without the money and/or the time for the more advanced techniques, sometimes just letting go of a few modern conveniences can make you a little more like your robust ancestors…without the worrisome threat of infection and dangerous predators with which they had to contend!