Interesting Reading

I've almost finished a book entitled "American Fascists" by Chris Hedges. This book will open your eyes to the ongoing attempts at creating a theocracy in this country. And, as noted on the back cover, it "reminds us of the danger to liberal societies when they tolerate the intolerant".

No matter where you stand, this book may enlighten you at least a little. Pulitzer prize winning author Hedges considers where we might be if fundamentalist Christians get their way. To me, the key issue here is not so much the Bible as it is the totalitarian system (that the fundamentalists are trying to create) that will force citizens to "believe" (and, by the way, fork over huge amounts of cash) or be marginalized, even summarily killed as the return of Christ (and the "rapture") is anxiously anticipated. No, not the stuff of moderate Christians and not related virtually at all to truly personal religious belief ... this is state driven religion as envisioned by Falwell and Pat Roberts and many more of their ilk as they reach higher and higher into all aspects of the political hierarchy (Judicial, Legislative, Executive) of the United States.

You don't believe this is possible in our country, right? Neither did I ... well then, you might just want to read this book ... see what you think after that.

Riding today was great with a temperature in the mid-70's and a time of 48 flat. Sweet! Although I'm at 919 miles today, it's unlikely that I'll reach 1000 next week as it will be a short week since I'm going to Florida to visit Larry's mom and stepdad. That should be a fun time. They also invited my girlfriend ... so I guess I'd need one of those to take along before that could ever happen, eh? As they say in North Dakota sometimes ... "oh well". Keep smilin'

905 Miles, 48:36 Ride

Fun ride today as I broke 900 miles for the year and also broke 49 minutes for my standard ride of 14.2 miles ... the time was 48:36. My previous best this year was over 51 minutes, so I'm not sure where that comes from except that the wind was very mild. Of course now I'm feeling like it's time for lunch (which, turns out, it really is!) and tonight's going to be a fun night for dancing so I'm looking forward to a smoothly fun end of this week.

Later ...

Amazon Kindle ... Still Cool

I've had my Kindle electronic reader for about 2 weeks now and I noticed in the news today that Amazon dropped the price by $40. So I gave them a call and they immediately and with no hassle at all issued a credit to me for the $40 price change. That's just good customer service. I've already downloaded and read 3 books on the Kindle and it continues to impress me. Again, if you're a big reader and you often buy books or want to take many more with you than you might have room for when traveling ... take a look at the Kindle. It might be just what you're looking for.

In other news (hold on, I know you're on the edge of your seat at this point!), I've reached 891 miles on the bicycle and will hit 900 on my next workout. That's a good feeling. I'm also thinking I should replace the chain now and then leave the bicycle at the shop to get tuned up while I'm in Florida playing golf. That way I won't even miss it being gone.

Went up to Cedar Falls and sang some karaoke at Joker's on Sunday night (May 25). Turns out that the karaoke hosting company posts pictures of the singers on their website. The base website is at www.ultimateentertainment.cc and you'll have to click on their pictures tab, etc., to get to it but I'm in the first picture. That was a fun evening.

Keep smilin' ...

Dodging Raindrops

Cool outside (again) today as it was about 48 when I left for my ride at noon. There's rain all around and it was on the horizon at the start but near the end I just made like a mosquito and rode between the raindrops, which weren't too numerous. Always feels good to get that ride in.

Caught a little bit of Kathy Griffin on Bravo this morning ... that gal is very funny. So much so that I ordered a couple of her DVD's.

Looks like time to get some reading in and I need to pick up a few things at WalMart ... so better get a move on.

Later ...

Memorial Day ... Status

Good day out for riding. It's about 70 and it's still morning, plus it's *not* raining (yet) ... go figure! Turned 852 miles for the year on the bicycle today with about 55 hours of total riding time. It was a nice ride up to Center Point ... although the bugs are starting to be more numerous (quite a few hit me in the face and I'm pretty sure I swallowed one ... but at least I can say that he got the worst of that deal!).

I was up in the Cedar Falls area last night right after the big storm (several tornadoes) went through and it looks like it too. There were videos this morning of the Parkersburg area, which was hit hard by a mile-wide tornado (probably F4). So far it looks like 6 people died there and several more in nearby towns. It looks like a huge bomb went off and flattened most of the town ... pretty sad.

I'm shooting for 1500 miles as a minimum of training before RAGBRAI on the 19th of July. I think it will be as many as 1750 or so but probably not 2000 unless I get really serious about more consistently doing 25-50 miles several times a week. I'll probably replace the chain in early July and also put fresh tires on ... maybe a tune up in June would be good too. Otherwise, most things are ready to go. Of course, I still have to figure out the logistics about how to get out to the start and then back from the finish ... but there's time to work that out.

Today I took a minute to remember my friend, Larry. Along with other situations in life, this quote from Dean Koontz seems to say it best for me: "Loss is the hardest thing, but it's also the teacher that's the most difficult to ignore."

Later ... and keep on smilin' ...

Kindle ... Cool ... 800 Miles ... Crazy Love

Well, I'm at 765 miles this year on the bicycle and should hit 800 easily during this week. But the big news is that I started using my Kindle electronic reader yesterday afternoon (and finished a book today). This device is sold by Amazon.com and it has it all over sliced bread (hehe). I don't like the "plastic" feel of it or the cheap feeling Kindle holder that comes with it, but Amazon really has got the logistics of getting new books into it down right. EVDO wireless is used and a computer is unnecessary to get a new book. Although the wireless will not work in Europe (which uses GSM technology for wireless) it's still all I need for the U.S. and GSM compatibility may be something that they'll update in the next release (which may be 6-12 months from now).

Problems with Kindle? Not too much ... but in the first complete book I read, there were 11 actual typographical errors. This is extremely unusual to me in a published book. Typically, with the printed books I have, it's rare to find even one such error. So I'm thinking they still need to work on the conversion process that takes a published book from print to the Kindle (proprietary) format. Additionally, there were numerous missing hyphens and spaces (many more than the number of typos, I gave up counting these). Well, it's neat to have this compact form factor as well as the simplicity and ease of getting new books to read. And, by the way, the non-backlit text is very easy on the eyes ... I have to say it's really no different than reading paper. So that's something no one needs to worry about. I'd say that Amazon needs to put in a few ergonomic refinements and lower the cost of the initial hardware investment, along with book prices ... but that will all come with time and more widespread adoption of the Kindle.

Oh, and there is no additional charge for the wireless download connection, so the user pays only the price of the book being downloaded.

And my new theme song is Crazy Love by Poco.

Later ...

50 Mile Ride, Over 700

Very good riding today as I followed my road route up towards Waterloo for 25 miles. It worked very well and I also saw some additional riding loop options such as turning south towards Vinton and then coming back through Shellsburg and Palo. I think I'll take the motorcycle out and ride such a route to check the distance and intersection turn choices. The bicycle odometer passed 700 today, reaching 708 by the time I made it back home. Burned 1756 calories and I didn't really focus too much on ensuring adequate carb availability. But I did have a few Slimfast bars, three carb gel packs and a 20 oz. Gatorade. I'd have needed much more than that for a full 100+ mile ride but it was adequate for today. Time for the ride was 3 hours and 15 minutes ... for a 15.2 mph average. Fairly easy to do when not hauling a load (like on RAGBRAI) and it could've been quite a bit better if not for a fairly consistent 10-25 mph breeze from the southeast (which affected the ride home significantly, although it did help on the way out).

Trying some new (old) songs again as I re-discover many that I've simply ignored for quite some time. One of these is "You Can Sleep While I Drive" by Melissa Etheridge. Also I'm trying some of the old Jim Croce stuff like "I Got A Name" and "Lover's Cross". Finally, a new (for me) country song "A Fire I Can't Put Out" by George Strait.

Tomorrow is the Spring Memorial Golf Tournament at Saddleback golf course in Solon. It will be good to see everyone from work again but, of course, sad in the sense that Larry will not be there. I'm tasked with running the scoring spreadsheet to figure out the winners (6 flights) as everyone comes in from the course. Although I was going to go to a surprise birthday party tomorrow night, I've decided to not go there as the start of the party is too close to the end of the golf outing and I don't want to be rushed in any way tomorrow.

Later ...