This episode of Day in The Life falls under the category of “I sh*t you not!”.  A couple of weeks ago Angie asked Simply and I to go with her out to Clearspring on an investigation with her for safety purposes.

Familiar Pirate Character

The guy in question had the same name as a familiar pirate character and fast-food restaurant.  He had literally thrown his girlfriend and 5 year-old daughter out of the moving truck in the middle of nowhere.

Apparently, when he was booked into jail, the jail staff let it be known loudly what his action had been and he was subsequently treated roughly while in custody by the inmates.

When we arrived at the residence, we found that the guy had a stub arm instead of a peg-leg.  He was also sporting one of the worst mullets I’ve ever seen.  It was a combination of bad 70’s hair parted down the middle and feathered back and the mullet hanging down the back.

Angie was polite when explaining the necessity of DCS having to look into the allegations.  The guy started in with a bad attitude, stating “I got a real problem with this whole thing!”  He puffed his chest and swung his peg-arm wildly.  When his peg-arm reached the apex of its arc, I happened to notice a large jar on the top of the refrigerator.  In it was a large bull penis preserved in formaldehyde.  Penis envy?

Pirate Humor

Of course, he started in with how he was an innocent pawn in this incident ( miscarriage of justice) and how he was mistreated at the hands of the inmates.  He indicated with his one hand and the end of his stub something the size of a cantaloupe  and said, “Now my asshole’s this big!”  Some people just get what they deserve.

This character went onto say that his girlfriend ( who he had pitched from a moving truck assumedly with his one good arm) was not so innocent.  “She may only have her bottom teeth, but she can sure inflict a hell of a bite.”

I had noticed that he had a rifle beside his front door.  It is because of his actions  and interactions with others that necessitate his having a loaded weapon at the ready.  As always, Karma is a bitch!

Anathem, by Neil Stephenson

Anathem is to literature what the Ironman is to triathlon.  Not only is the novel (published in 2008) 917 pages long, but it is a dense, complex work as well. The novel explores ideas in mathematics, physics, and philosophy.  Heady stuff.

Anathem is set on the planet Arbre. Thousands of years prior to the events in the novel, society was on the verge of collapse. Intellectuals entered concents, much like monastic communities but without the religious elements. Here, the avout—a term for intellectuals, fraa for monk and suur for nun—are given limited access to tools and technology and are watched over by officials answering to the outside world (known as the Sæcular Power). The concents are therefore slow to change, unlike the rest of Arbre, which goes through many cycles of booms and busts.

The narrator and protagonist Erasmas is a fraa at the concent of Saunt Edhar. His primary teacher, Orolo, discovers that alien beings are orbiting Arbre, which the Sæcular Power is attempting to cover up. Orolo secretly observes the aliens with an illegally obtained (according to concent law) camera, and enlists Erasmas to help collect this data. Erasmas is unaware of the content of the research until he deciphers it after Orolo is banished in the rite of “Anathem”.

Several months pass, and Erasmas falls in love with suur Ala, another avout at Saunt Edhar. Immediately after this, the Sæcular Power removes her along with several other avout, requiring their help with a secret project. Erasmas, still upset about Orolo’s banishment, throws himself into his work. The presence of the alien ship soon becomes an open secret among many of the avout. Several weeks later, a laser shines down from the ship and illuminates part of Saunt Edhar. Now that the aliens have shown themselves openly, the Sæcular Power removes many avout from Saunt Edhar, this time including Erasmas.

Erasmas and the rest of the avout are told to travel to Saunt Tredegarh, another concent several thousand miles away. Erasmas instead desires to find Orolo, who had recently travelled to the isolated concent of Orithena, on the other side of Arbre. A mysterious fraa named Jad, who is seemingly hundreds of years old, tells Erasmas to find Orolo, suggesting that he has valuable information about the aliens, which by this time have come to be known as the Geometers because of graphical proof of Pythagoras’ Theorem seen on the side of their ship.

I came about this particular novel when researching William Gibson, whom I have written about before.  Although classified as science fiction, both William Gibson and Neil Stephenson’s works are more aligned with fine literature.

One of my regular features in this blog is an item called “America Unchained” where I feature a small, independent business in the hopes that we get back to the idea of locally-owned, family businesses that focus on customer service and pride in product.

My co-workers at DCS are constantly asking where I get all my weirdo food and beverages.  That an easy one:  Sahara Mart in Bloomington.  I really love this place!!  If it’s edible and unusual, they have it.

Sahara Mart's new Third Street location in Bloomington

One of the downsides of living in a small town is the inability to procure anything other than standard fare.  Since my in-laws live in Bloomington, we either travel there frequently or they come to our house.  This makes our shopping at Sahara Mart easier and convenient.

I really enjoy Koji-cha which is a pan-roasted green tea from Japan. (Koji-cha has a nice malty quality from the roasting and an aquatic finish not unlike licking between the tenticles of a squid.)  Sahara Mart has it. Not only that but hundreds of teas. If you’re in the market for an unusual beer, look no further! Sahara Mart has the world’s largest selection.

World's Largest Beer Selection

I enjoy all the bulk products that provide value and the quantity that you need.  When I found out I had diabetes I quit eating white flour and found a plethora of unusual flours and grains at Sahara Mart. I enjoy teff, which is a grain flour from Ethiopia.  Or quinoa, which is native to South America.  For a change of pace, I tried Taj Mahal a lightly-roasted coffee from India with a complex, earthy quality.

They have an amazing selection of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits. Huge selection of supplements,  green cleaning products, ethnic foods, rare ingredients.

There are now two locations in Bloomington:  on 106 East 2nd Street downtown, and 2611 East Third Street near College Mall.

Chris Sadowski carries his destroyed bike the last 7miles of the bike route in his socks.

After this past week, I have a lot more respect for Chris Sadowski.  Mind you, he was my hero before.

If you recall, Chris was at mile 105 on the bike route in Hawaii in 2006 when the official Ironman motorcyle rammed Chris from behind destroying his rear wheel and cracking the frame of his bike. Chris also received multiple cuts and scrapes.

Undaunted, Chris picked up his bike, hoisted it over his shoulders, and walked the remaining 7 miles of the bike route in his sock feet.  He managed to finish the event.  In Chris’s own words

“I was so tired after I finished the race that I didn’t have the energy to sit up and drink a beer (that means I was deathly tired). Plus, the road rash on my rear prevented me from sitting. I am recovering with no broken bones and a lot of scrapes. I can, of course, drink beer now. It’s helping.

I’m hoping that I get full compensation for my bike and a return trip out there so that I can do the race again (without incident) next year. However, this next time I will be attaching two spare wheels and a spare frame to my bike in case I’m as unlucky again.”

Chris did get his new frame and a return trip to Hawaii.

I had my own Chris Sadowski incident this past week, but without the NBC crew following. I decided that I would try a new bike route on my Wednesday long day.  Forge some new ground.  I headed north into Bartholomew County after winding through western Jackson County.  I was at mile 37 on the ride  heading down a steep hill when I heard the familiar sound of a tire blowing.

I managed to wreck safety on the side of the road with only some shoulder scrapes. I did have a spare tube and changed it quickly.  The problem came with the inflation.  The presta valve was faulty and when I tried to inflate with the CO2 pump….nothing.  I only had one CO2 cartridge.  I did have my cell phone, but I had no earthly idea where I was.

I picked up the bike and started walking.  All I knew was that it was a hilly, forested area of Bartholomew County.  After an hour I came to a gated estate with a call button.  I pressed the button and asked where I was.  A lady informed me of the address, but offered no assistance such as offering a chaffeur to take me home.  I called home to have Susie come and get me.  I got the voicemail and gave detailed instructions of my whereabouts.  I called Susie’s cell phone and was instructed that her voicemail box was full. I called home again to say I’d be walking and to look for me.

I started walking.  Surely someone carrying a bike over their shoulder would elicit some sympathy and a good Samaritan would offer a ride. It was a long walk home.  After 16 miles of walking a beat-up pick-up stopped and asked if I needed a ride.  My feet were blistered from the walk in bike cleats.  My shoulders were sore  from carrying the bike. Even though I was less than a mile from home I gladly threw my bike in the back of the truck and climbed in.

Total workout time that day: 6 hours 42 minutes. New respect for Chris and a fully-stocked bike bag.

Thanks a lot!!

In the last two weeks I’ve have several people come up to me and tell me they enjoy this blog.  I really appreciate that.

My original intent in starting this blog was to record my Ironman training and get on paper some of the amusing stories from my employment and elsewhere.   Anything beyond that was icing on the cake.

I had one rule from the beginning. 1.) For bad or worse, the material is original and my own.  There are plenty of bloggers out there who scan the Internet for material and re-post. This is my own life with all the warts.

As I have continued to blog I added a second rule. 2.) Stay clear of partisan politics!!! I, personally, am an unrepentant Liberal. But, I also feel that there is far too much divisiveness in America and we would be better served by working together as Americans first.

I am always open to suggestions.  My email is me@danthomas.me  Continue to drop in and enjoy the blog.

–Your Faithful Blogger

I realize that this is the second William Gibson novel in less than a month that I have reviewed.  I am just a huge fan of his work.  What is ironic is that I am NOT a fan of science fiction.  What differentiates William Gibson’s work from many other science fiction writers is that his focus is on the human characters and their dialogue and not on the Gee-Whiz fascination with technology.  Also, the plots  of his novels are realistic and plausible.

Count Zero, by William Gibson

Count Zero is the second in the Matrix Trilogy ( Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive). What is hard to imagine is that this novel was written is 1986.  William Gibson has done an amazing job at detecting cultural, societal, and technological trends and extrapolating them out many years into the future.

Governments have collapsed and giant multinational corporations compete with each other to run the show.    The novel is divided into three different threads with seperate characters that eventually intertwine.

Thread One: In the southwestern USA, Turner, a corporate mercenary soldier, has been hired out to help Mitchell, a brilliant researcher, make an illegal career move from Maas’ corporate fortress built into a mesa in the Arizona desert to another corporation. The attempt is a disaster, and Turner ends up escaping with the scientist’s young daughter, Angie Mitchell instead. Her father had apparently altered her nervous system to allow her to access the Cyberspace Matrix directly, without a “deck” (a computer), but she is not conscious of this. She also carries the plans, implanted in her brain by her father, of the secrets of construction of the extremely valuable “biosoft” that has made Maas so influential and powerful. This “biosoft” is what multibillionaire Josef Virek (see thread three) desires above all else, so that he can make an evolutionary jump to something resembling omniscience and immortality.

Thread Two: A young New Jersey-suburbs amateur computer hacker, Bobby Newmark, self-named “Count Zero,” is given a piece of black market software by some criminal associates “to test”. When he plugs himself into the matrix and runs the program, it almost kills him. The only thing that saves his life is a sudden image of a girl made of light who interferes and unhooks him from the software just before he flatlines. This event leads to his working with his associates’ backers to investigate similar strange recent occurrences on the Net. It is eventually revealed that Bobby’s mysterious savior is Angie (see Thread One); the two only meet physically at the very end of the book.

Thread Three: Marly Krushkova, a small gallery owner in Paris until she was tricked into trying to sell a hoax, and newly infamous as a result, is recruited by ultra-rich, reclusive (cf. Howard Hughes) industrialist and art patron Josef Virek to find the unknown creator of a series of futuristic Joseph Cornell style boxes. Unbeknownst to her, the reason behind Virek’s interest in these boxes is related to indications of biosoft construction the design of one, which he suspects may be contained in the others.

Piankeshaws: Wooden canoe that my dad made in 1971

Not a whole lot to report as far as training the last few days. I am in no way distressed about this though.  I had a great time and got a lot of activity in anyway.

We loaded up the Wagoneer and headed over to Starve Hollow Lake for a camping trip.  We brought the canoe that my dad had made many years ago.  We were able to get  quite a bit of canoeing, hiking, and mountain bike riding in. Nice to be active and not worry about tracking mileage or time. Just having fun.

We are Old Skool campers.  Tent, sleeping bags, campfire.  It was very relaxing to get away from it all and only be 20 minutes from home. I was able to finish most of a book and not take a cell phone call the whole trip.

Picnic out on Mystery Terror Island

Heading out to Mystery Terror Island in the canoe.

6-10-09 16.9 mile ride in the morning.

6-11-09 5.5 mile run over lunch.

6-12-09 45 mile ride/ 6 mile run.

6-13-09 camping.

6-14-09 camping

6-15-09 5.5 mile run in the morning. Would like to swim at 11:00 am.

How you change the world.

Last week I talked about Ironman stories.  My own began on February 7, 2002.

I was loading some video of the kids off the camcorder onto VHS tape.  My wife and I were recent parents of twins and I had put on some excess weight.  As I was watching the tape I saw this enormous butt on the screen and was completely shocked to realize that it was my own. I was a barge. People were mistaking me for Uranus.

I vowed that day to make some changes. I re-started running. I had done a number of marathons years earlier and realized that I missed that outlet for my stress and the energy that it created.   Within several months I had dropped the excess weight and my running was faster than ever.

All was well until I sprained my foot and ankle in the Chicago Marathon.  Because I couldn’t run for twelve weeks, I started swimming at the high school pool. (As I have posted before: when a door closes, a window opens.) It was at the pool that I met Deryk Baurle, Charlie Fouts, and several other triathletes.  They encouraged me to do triathlons.  OK….the clincher was when Deryk was commenting about a run that I had done and said, “Why so slow?  Did you trip on your tampons string?” The same day I signed up for the Muncie Endurathon Half-Ironman despite never having done a triathlon or even owning a bicycle. I should also mention that Simplybrent had also encouraged me to do triathlons. When he explained that the swim takes place in a lake I replied, “Ooooh! No way am I swimming in some filthy-ass lake!“  My! How times have changed.

I owe a real debt to those who have encouraged me over the years.  Along the way I have encouraged (even prodded) others to give triathlons a try.  I remember when TT crossed the finish line at Ironman Lousiville he looked at me and said, “How can I ever re-pay you?” My reply, “Pay it forward.”

6-4-09 Rode 17.4 miles in the morning.

6-5-09 Long Day. Rode 54.2 miles, ran 6.5 miles. Felt pretty good.

6-6-09 Had a great ride with TT. It’s been ages and ages since we have been able to work out together. So excited I forgot to start my bike computer. 2 hours, 40 minutes total time.

6-7-09 Ran 12 miles in the morning.

6-08-09 Rest day

6-09-09 late baseball games. Unable to get anything in.

One of my regular features in this blog is an item called “America Unchained” where I feature a small, independent business in the hopes that we get back to the idea of locally-owned, family businesses that focus on customer service and pride in product.

Cortland Diner on Highway 258

I really enjoy a surprise. The Cortland Grocery used to be owned by some crotchety old turd who wouldn’t even let customers use the restroom.  I purposely didn’t patronize it because of the owner.

Several years ago it was purchased by a new owner and renamed “The Cortland Diner.” With the change in name came more emphasis on prepared food. This is where the surprise comes in. I was pleasantly surprised at the excellent baked goods that are prepared on site.  Great cinnamon rolls, moist flavorful carrot cake, wonderful pies!!!

The food is excellent and prepared to order, not sitting under a heat lamp for days on end. They make a very good tenderloin sandwich ( and I’m choosy about my tenderloin sandwiches).  Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Cortland Diner still carries a variety of grocery items…including live bait so that Cortlanders don’t have to make that trek into town.  Take a trip out to the Greater Cortland Area and enjoy some great food.

"Place the oxygen mask on yourself first..."

The single greatest piece of advice that I have ever received didn’t come from a great philospher, a minister, or  Nobel prize winner. It came from a stewardess.

Although I had flown before, I remember well the US Air flight from Indianapolis to Washington D.C. in April 1982.  I was flying to Washington for a job interview right out of college.

As the plane leveled off after takeoff the stewardess went through the usual safety schpiel that most people ignore.  This time something in the instructions resonated with me and stuck.

• “Should the cabin experience a loss of pressure, oxygen masks will drop down from the overhead compartment. Place the oxygen mask on yourself first, so that you are better able to assist those around you. ”

So what is so profound about this statement?  For those of us in the business of helping others in need, this makes perfect sense.    There will always be something to do. There will always be pressing needs.  There will always be one more task to complete.   The Protestant Work Ethic has taught us that you only rest once the work is complete. It would be selfish to look to your own needs first. The problem with that thinking is that the work is NEVER complete. The ducks never get in a row.  If you keep working past a certain point, you become burnt-out , resentful, and hateful and your work product is poor, your productivity is weak.

Instead, STOP!  Take a break. Completely disengage from the task at hand. Renew your energy and mental focus.  Then return to the task with renewed focus and energy.

After 16 years working in the business of assisting others, I have seen the consequences of ignoring The Oxygen Mask Advice. People turn to alcohol, over-eating, prescription drugs, anti-depressants, etc. as a solace to deal with stress.  They become bitter and cynical about the very people who they are supposed to serve.

A fantastic book that speaks to this very piece of advice is The Power of Full Engagement by Dr. Jim Loehr.   Dr. Loehr works at the Human Performance  Institute.  Dr. Loehr was studied the top performers in many different fields (sports, art, music, business, leadership) and has found that top performers “get” this advice and incorporate this into their routines.  If I had to recommend one self-help book, this would be the one I would recommend. It’s not about managing time, it’s about managing energy.

Take a break! Put the oxygen mask on and take some deep cleansing breaths.