But with my first marathon only 5 months away I think it’s time to start working out regularly again. I’ve been building up the callouses on my feet for the barefoot running thing and ride hard on the bike for an hour or so every few days so it’s not like I’ve been playing couch potato, but I’m going to have to stop the 2 am bedtime.

The parenting schedule for time with my son means early morning and alternate weekends are when I’ll get my training in. Can you say 5 am? We’ll see how long this lasts!

I still haven’t been able to trim the video of the barn collapsing yet.  I can play it back but it’s 45 minutes long and none of the video tools I have for editing recognize the file type.  It’s from an older hard-drive based video camera and although tools like VLC will play it, I haven’t been able to convert it to extract just the 15 seconds that are interesting.

But here are some photos.  I was hoping to extract the ladder that got crushed because I need to get up on the roof of the house to replace some shingles.  What do you think, should I ever try to go up on that ladder again?  Yeah, me neither.  I took a couple photos where it cracked the concrete and then looked around and noticed that it seems to be that the ladder is the only thing holding the entire barn roof up on that end.  Hmm, maybe I should vacate now.

Since water on earth (where I live) weighs about 8.3 lbs per gallon, that means I used almost a third of a gallon of water in about one hour.  Wow.  Since my bike water bottles are about 20 ounces each and a gallon has 128 fluid ounces in it, that means that to stay even with my sweat rate I need to drink a full two bottles of water every hour.  That explains why I go through so much.  It doesn’t explain why I seem to need so much more than the other riders around me.  I’ll do a 60 mile ride and go through all 6 of my water bottles *at least* once and sometimes more, and I’m not needing to urinate it out.  In fact, many times I end up feeling dehydrated after that.  But people that I will ride with will only consume one or two bottles of water for that same distance.

I don’t understand why I go through so much more.  Perhaps it’s because of my weight, because I respond to heat differently, because I am working harder than them for the same speed (heavier body and bike).  I’ll have to do this test again when I’ve lost 20-30 pounds or so and see if the sweat rate is any different.

On my commute home I was allowing my mind to wander and was thinking about the events of the day.  I have so many fires that I’m usually fighting, or at least so many things that I need to deal with that I rarely have time for in-depth thought.  So that happens when I can’t be doing anything else – falling asleep, fixing meals, commuting and the like.

With my recent almost-done-divorce I’ve been directing my non-work and non-dad attention at social events.  I’ve been able to get to a few of these lately and have quite a few more planned.  (I suspect all my co-workers are happy about this; happy that I’ll turn my social brain on after work and stop bothering them about things I’ve been thinking about.)

One of the things I’ve been trying to focus on is paying attention to other people.  There are a couple in particular that I’ve been observing and a handful more that I’ve started to.  I had a tendency to evaluate myself continually and I compare what I see other’s do with how I handle myself.  And I think that with being in such small groups that I’ve isolated myself into situations where everything is predictable enough that I’m not finding massively new attributes to adopt.  Even when I’m not in small groups, I’m in groups of like-minded people and so I’m not exposed to a wide variety or diversity of thought and action.

Well, lately I have been and I’m finding a few areas that I can make dramatic improvements upon.

So I was thinking about this on the way home and it hits me like a ton of bricks – science fiction!  OK, I’ll have to tie that together for you…

I love science fiction.  I love the short stories, the novels, the collections, all of it.  I love sci-fi that’s based in the past, the future, the present.  I love sci-fi that’s heavy on advanced technology and sci-fi that’s light on technology but heavy on thought and mind-exploration.

As a kid I analyzed this and determined that the reason I loved sci-fi so much was that, as with other books, I was able to transport myself to a different world, live in the minds of different characters and that these other characters were wildly different.  It wasn’t a collection of common humans but of extraordinary beings, great technological thinkers, inventors, etc.  I felt that during a story I was actually part of it, living in the world that was laid out for the other characters there.  And after every book I considered myself to be more.  More of whatever.  More adventurous, more cautious, more empathetic to certain situations, more inventive, more persistent, etc.  I was expanding who I was by living in the minds and settings of the characters in the world of the book.

I had that thought as a young teenager and it’s never left me.  So as I’m out meeting several new people (let’s see, at least 60 people among 4 different groups, each of whom I was introduced to or heard the “who I am and why I’m here” without distraction) I”m getting this massive influx of new experience.

For example, at one of the Toastmaster meetings there were 5 different talks and every single one of them contained detailed information about the speaker.  That’s a lot of new incorporating of their experiences into my system for comparison and contrast.  There were fewer talks at the next meeting but just as many introductions and discussions.  A meetup group I attended on Monday had 30-40 people in a circle with introductions and “tell us a little about yourself” and then more than an hour of let-me-explore-who-you-are get-to-know-each-other games where a small group of 8 people I was sitting with were doing nothing except sharing details, albeit about short episodes, about their lives.  And we were supposed to be able to provide details about each person at the end of the game so that increased focused attention.  I *really* got to know a few people there.  And then there was the after-event discussion for an hour between a subset of the larger group outside of my table group.  And it goes on.

So I have this massive influx of new and incredibly diverse experience flooding at me from so many people.

It’s like eating fresh, nutritious and energy-filling food when starving.  I can’t get enough of it.

I’ve read hundreds of sci-fi books and short stories and I’ve adopted attitudes and thought patterns for different experiences from them.  But now I want to soak up the life stories of real people, those who are like me and those who are very different.

So far I’m finding that it’s making me “more”.

The topic I was given was “The Bible or the iPad”.  I had to think fast.

The idea for discussion came easily enough, I actually had it by the time I walked up to the podium.  And I’m not afraid of standing in front of groups and don’t recall any shaking.  I did notice that I spent an inordinate amount of time looking down instead of making eye contact but I’m usually pretty good at that so I think it’s because I was still formulating my thoughts or that I didn’t want to show my lack of confidence in my talk.

Here’s what I came up with.  I won’t fumble here as much as I did in front of the group; here you just get what I was thinking.  And I’ve added more here that I didn’t think about quickly enough when on my feet.

Growing up I was always taught that morality comes from religion.  I was taught that without religion people would be naturally evil.  “Religion is necessary to keep people from hurting each other”, I was told.  “Atheists are evil people, believing in nothing”, followed when the idea was pursued.

But then I fell away from religion.  Well, that’s how it’s viewed when you start there and leave.  To me, though, I escaped from the mental bonds, the traps of anti-thinking within religion.  I grew up mormon and was told very clearly (you can find this quote from the church leaders easily enough) that “when the prophet has spoken, the thinking is over”.  I was taught specifically NOT to think.

So when I finally allowed myself to think for myself I thought critically of everything I’d been indoctrinated with.  This included the teachings that atheists are so evil.  What I found surprised me.  It was the people who believe in religion that start and prolong the wars, who bilk trusting people out of their savings, who fill our prisons.  It’s religious people (not all, of course) who teach their children that they are better than everyone else and that anyone not believing like they do are evil.

And then I took some religion courses and got detailed history.  Wow.  That will change a lot; things aren’t like I was taught in Sunday school.

I’m also a crappy liar.  That factors in here.

So as I’m thinking about the topic of “Bible vs. iPad” I know I’m not going to be able to say anything nice about it.  Geez, for all I know, all but 2 of my audience members are deep religionists.  Not good.  And the iPad is a great device but I’m not so thrilled with it that I own one, so I’m not sure where to go with that.

But here’s something I’ve been thinking about and read a little on that did have some relation to both of those: that morals are not provided to society by religion, but that religion copies the morals of society.  Societal change is what drives accepted moral and ethical behavior, not religious writings or teachings.

And so by the time I got up to the podium that’s what I was going to try to express.  Except that as soon as I started forming words I realized that I was only in the “here’s some information most people won’t like” category and that I didn’t have anything positive or meaningful or predictive.  So I pushed a little bit further.  And here’s where the new thoughts came in.

If society dictates morals and fundamental religious teaching requires isolation from information and directives to deter thinking, then widespread availability and use of communication devices such as iPads, iPhones and other rich mobile devices means that isolated data fails.

If everyone was able to see everything and was willing to compare, contrast and consider what they see, then I believe there would be a fundamental shift in the moral landscape of the entire world.  I believe that an age of new enlightenment would begin.

Perhaps it already has.

—-

OK, I think I know why I blew it so badly at the Toastmasters talk.  It’s because I *still* haven’t clearly formulated this! 

I don’t have my workbooks yet but perhaps I’ll find that impromptu speaking has less to do with the mechanics of delivery and more to do with how fast one can form the structure of one’s thoughts.  I think I’m pretty good at presentation when I know what I want to say.  Perhaps mental essay formulation at speed is what I really need to work on.

Well, I do keep looking for things that are hard – found another one!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the two co-workers I went with did quite well on their talks.

Still no power, Alex accidentally found his Christmas presents (at least the big one), shingles are missing from the roof and my barn collapsed crushing most of the stuff inside.

Oh, and there were some things at work I really needed to be there for.

Ah well, still a pretty good day!

Oh, I got video of the barn collapsing. I had been out braving the wind and surveying yard and neighborhood damage and noticed a pretty nasty lean. I knew it was going to come down so I set a video camera which could be powered by the laptop to watch it. Sure enough, a perfect shot of it getting hit by a falling tree and finally succumbing to gravity.

But I’ll have to post it later, I still don’t have power or network.

I was up pretty early, around 5:30.  The breakfast at the motel left a lot to be desired but I have enough drink mix, snack foods and fruit (bananas, oranges) that I don’t need to stop anywhere this morning.

My plan was to get to Crescent City and then see how far it is to the next place.  At one of the campgrounds earlier in the tour another cyclist had mentioned about bikes being stolen recently in Crescent City so I had that rattling around in my mind.  I decided early on that I simply wouldn’t stay at a campground there – most likely I’d move on to whatever city was after it.

Most of the ride was good, feeling fast and strong.  That’s such a good feeling.  I remember when I first decided to get back into road cycling a year or two ago.  I did a 40ish (20ish?) mile ride and was completely wiped, knees hurting and all.  Now, to do just 20 or 40 miles feels like a little walk through a park, almost hardly worth considering “work”.  What a great feeling!

The ocean scenery was incredible, easily matching and besting Cannon Beach.  It just keeps getting better and better.

In the early afternoon the wind started working against me.  That’s not always a problem but it does have a tendency to reduce the number of miles one can complete in a day.

In the afternoon I stopped at a small grocery to fuel up.  I talked with a native american who called himself “Happy” and said he was chief of the land as far as I could see both North and South.  He was giving me advice about where to go but I kinds stopped listening when he suggested sleeping under a bridge.

He offered to give me some smoked salmon if I would come over to his place. I didn’t really want to and so I didn’t.  I wanted to get in my miles.  Later, when I decided to stop in Crescent City I thought that maybe I should have spent some time with him but at the time I just didn’t want to be late on the road.  My legs screamed at me when I got back on the road.  I ignored it and pushed on.

I rode through Crescent City (love the lighthouse there) and was heading up the road leaving town.  After a couple of miles I decided that I needed a break.  I paused for a bit and took in the scenery.  I started back up again and within moments decided I needed another break.  It then dawned on me that I was really tired – both physically and mentally.  I turned around and rode back to Crescent City.  I already knew I didn’t want to camp there because of the report about stolen bikes.  It didn’t help that a group of college-age guys yelled at me from a car as they drove by.  I didn’t understand the animosity but it was clear that this wasn’t a place to camp overnight.  I found a hotel to stay at.  While I was in the process of checking in – probably because I was still for more than a few seconds – I realized just how tired I was.  I asked them for two nights.

The room wasn’t ready yet so I rode to the lighthouse for a while.  This is one of my favorite lighthouses and it was nice to just enjoy the atmosphere, feel the wind and smell the ocean.

After a bit I went back to the hotel, went to my room, took a shower and crashed.  Yep – I was really tired.

I woke up a few hours later, got some dinner that wasn’t very good, undercooked halibut (didn’t eat that) and had an obsidian stout beer.  Didn’t care much for it, I should have got the porter.

I spent the rest of the evening and the next day reading, walking on the beach, restocking my food supplies and generally just resting.

I should probably start training

Let’s review this year’s goals and see how much I’ve overbooked myself.

1) The RPM Challenge, writing and producing an album of music in the month of February.  I try to do this every year and have yet to succeed.  I think I’m on track this year better than ever, except maybe for the year I was in a band and we already had the music done and were just polishing it when our lead guitarist left.  Ouch.  But I have a slew of original music of my own this year.  Lyrics, meter and melody are shaping up well and I’m learning piano as my primary instrument for a while.

2) Utah Valley Marathon.  Twenty six point 2 miles.  That’s a lotta running for someone who gave up running several years ago.  This is scheduled for June 9th.  I have yet to figure out a training schedule and I’ve been a bit lazy since getting back from my bike tour.  In my defense, though, that *was* 1400 miles and 103,000 feet of climbing and a little break has been nice.

3) LOTOJA.  Two hundred and six miles, uphill from Logan, Utah to Jackson, Wyoming, all in a single day.  Yah, this one’s gonna be tough.  This is in September.

Oh, and then there’s a major software release at work end of January.  I have my fears that that will create conflict with the RPM project.

So, is this reasonable?  Spend the winter time working on my music (which has been my “plan” for a couple years now) and spring-fall months outdoors.  Keep myself in reasonable shape without too much training through February and then focus on the marathon until June, then focus on LOTOJA through September?  Sounds reasonable on the surface although it will certainly make for a busy year.

And all three things sound hard to me.  Good, I’ve been looking for my next challenge – maybe stacking up 3 in one year will make it more interesting

I’ve gone skiing maybe 5 or 6 times in my life.  I grew up in Tucson, Arizona.

But it’s time to get up to the slopes again.  Last year I was going to take Alex to learn how to ski but ended up working so many hours that it never happened.  This year the schedule looks pretty good so I should be able to take him.  But if I’m going to be hitting the slopes on any kind of regular basis, I’m simply going to have to learn how to gain some control.  The uncontrolled near-crash that happens from the top to the bottom will just have to end.

So I’ve been asking around at work (since that’s the entirety of my social circle right now) about the best place to go.  Then a friend/co-worker ended up with a season pass to Park City.  The prices are about as good as any I can expect and I don’t have a compelling reason to go to any other one so that makes this decision pretty simple.  Park City is where I’ll be going this year, assuming I’m able to go.

They did hold several Olympic competitions there; it’s probably good enough for me