Driven Outside

random crap from my inner three-year-old

Archive for category Updates

The salmon are running

Sep 3

Posted by matttalley in Updates, Work | No Comments

This announcement was made over the intercom at work: “Please do not leave your work area to go fishing.  You may fish only after your work day is complete.  Thank you.” I work in an aerospace engineering/production facility in the Seattle suburbs.  Fishing and fiber optics do not normally go hand in hand…  I actually thought it was a joke until I went outside for a break during production shift change.  There were fishing poles and waders everywhere.  Our building is tucked  into a tight bend of the Green River and is surrounded by water on 2.5 sides.  The pacific salmon are now swimming upstream to spawn and the river is thick with them – I mean there is a river of fish in the actual river.  They are huge – most between 3-4 feet

I was awestruck.  It was like a scene from one of the old Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom shows from the Alaskan wilderness where host Marlin Perkins would describe what a bear was thinking as the bruin stood on a water covered ledge in a snow-melt river swiping 4 foot salmon out of the water.

I believe that this afternoon I will be going to Big5 and to get my fishing license so that I can attempt to BBQ some fresh Salmon this weekend – I saw attempt due to the fish repelling pheromones that I seem to produce.  Just in case I do either get lucky or am able to steal a fish from a true angler I am thinking of using my father-in-laws ceder plank salmon recipe.  YUM!  Again, I am amazed almost everyday with the place we have chosen to live: The people, the culture, and the natural world that surrounds us.

Full disclosure:  I took NONE of the pictures above.  I swiped them from the interwebs

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Account Ledger Book

Sep 1

Posted by matttalley in Updates | No Comments

I am by no stretch of anyone’s imagination a Luddite.  I love me some gadgets and gizmos.  New tools that make life easier or faster or better make me feel all fuzzy with want and excitement.  My miter-box-saw in the garage has a laser cutting guide, I waited for iPhone OS4 like a kid waiting for Santa, and I am currently in the throes of in internal struggle trying to decide what e-book reader is the best for my needs vs. which one is the shiniest…  By those standards one might perceive that I always turn to technology for everyday solutions…  Not so.  We are in the middle of divesting our budget and payment tracking from a super-over complicated spreadsheet (yes, I made it that way) and switching to an old fashioned 12-column ledger book.  We are taking a step back in time so that we can see every day where all the money goes.  It won’t be hidden in 1s and 0s inside a notebook computer or on a USB stick – it will be a tangible and easily consulted record when we want to see if there are funds for a new e-book, wheels for Matt’s road bike, the latest fiction must-have at B&N, or cash for Laurel’s shoe lust.  A ledger keeps all of the information RIGHT THERE and there is no clicking between screens or scrolling down, etc…

Manual record keeping has been around since man started making beer, selling crops and I am sure that a ledger was involved in the early days of the world’s oldest profession…   The new way isn’t always the better  way – GASP! (full disclosure: we will be taking hi-res pictures of the pages every month and including those images on our external hard drive for back-up purposes)

I found a 150 page, acid free paper version on Amazon that we are currently looking forward to filling with notes of bills paid, confirmation numbers, etc, etc…  It should last a good long while.  Many years from now our grand children with either lovingly peruse the yellowed pages after the last of us passes from this earth, wondering aloud how things could have been so cheap in 2010 and how cute it was that we had a “Book Budget.”  Well, either that or they will throw it away in their attempt to deal with the clutter and possessions from the years of our lives in the couple of days they have allotted to “deal” with our things.  I hope it is the former.

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Wedding Stress

Aug 20

Posted by matttalley in Kinfolk, Parties, Updates | No Comments

Why in the Hell would anyone choose to get married?! Not the commitment/loving one person forever part, the actual wedding part. The logistics of the thing are as complicated as planning an invasion of a small island country. Stressful is not the word for what this “little party for our family and friends” has become. Budget – long gone.   Nerves – frayed.

My lovely wife and I have been married for almost four years and are just now getting around to having the reception. We booked the event hall just after New Years and have spent the last 7 months planning, deciding, rethinking, deciding again, spending, organizing, finding a caterer, picking a menu, herding cats, applying for permits, cake tasting, choosing the proper glasses, wedding dress alterations, finding flowers, writing checks, wine tasting, finding a new caterer, buying kegs of beer, tracking down a violinist, making invitations, finding 7 matching ties in one place, forking over the credit card, DJ – band – or iPod?, finding rooms for out of town guests, writing vows, buying gifts, soothing ruffled feathers, renting suits, keeping feuding family in their respective corners, dealing with lost bridesmaid dresses, etc, etc, etc… It never fvcking ends.

I am at the point where I want to run screaming from our cute little house – abandoning my green yard, letting my tomatoes wither and set up a tent in the mountains where I can live like a hermit until all this is over! After all the wine and beer are gone, after everything has been cleaned, and after all the guests have all flown back to their respective cities and towns, I am going to stay home every weekend for a year, read my Sunday paper, work in the shop and on my yard/garden. I am not going to plan one single fvcking event, outing, or trip. I am going to church on Sundays, yoga on Saturdays, visit a few galleries, and go see a film or three. I am not going to take on any more projects and I am going to spend my off hours reading, writing, making love, cycling, running, climbing, and building cabinets.

When my kids and grandkids decide to get married, I am going to do my dead level best to bribe them into eloping and will give them a lump sum of cash that would have been spent on their wedding/reception as a down payment for a home.

post written on and uploaded from my iPhone

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Cleaning and organizing the shop

Aug 12

Posted by matttalley in Carpentry, Gear, Updates | No Comments

My garage is actually condemned and we knew it was a tear-down when we bought our house.  Half of the bottom sills are rotten, there was no power,  and it used to move a little when hit by a strong gust of wind.  I have planned some projects in the house that require some saw and painting space, so we decided to leave the garage up until we completed the wanted updates to the house and then replace it with a somewhat larger, yet period-appropriate, garage/shop combo with a studio apartment above.

Right after we moved in, I scrubbed the place, applied some leverage to the walls to square them up as possible, reinforced the roof trusses, glued and screwed 3/8 plywood sheathing to two of the interior walls, installed florescent lighting, installed 9 bike hooks in the rafters, added garden tool holders and box storage shelves, built a narrow stout plywood work bench, and partially wired 5 outlets.  I did most of it with lumber, wire, and lights that I already owned, so my total outlay was less than $200 and the structure is now solid as possible given the years of neglect and will usable for the next couple of years.  I was going to do a little more – rebuild the barn doors and finish the wiring, but a surprise shoulder injury and subsequent surgery put that off indefinably.  I now have more projects than time and can’t fit it all in.

The little bit of work making the garage usable has really been a blessing:  In the six months that we have owned La Maison Du Talley, I have built our compost bins, the three huge garden boxes, two window flower boxes, a mason bee house, refinished a massive hutch, built a rolling utility cabinet, stripped and repainted furniture, built stuff for the kids, stored and serviced my fleet of bicycles, rewired a couple of lamps, etc… all without filling our house or basement with noise, sawdust, or fumes, which keeps The Mrs. happy!

For the last couple of months my kids have been here and cleanup and organization after this or that project was minimal.  Crap started piling up.  I got some new lumber and supplies dropped in my lap and they were just sort of tossed in.  There were semi-emergency house and bike repairs that left tools splayed about, my larger table saw (every proper joiner/cabinet maker needs two…) is in pieces as I am rebuilding the fence and adding a router table to the side leaf.  I had to crawl around and under bikes, push saw horses out of the way, step over a wheel barrow, and move the drill press to get a set of micro pliers to repair a necklace for my happy wife.  It was starting to look like Godzilla ate a strip mall containing a furniture, garden and bike shop then pooped in my garage.

After dropping my daughter off at the Airport the past Sunday morning at 5:00am, I went home, snuggled with the wife and the puppy for a couple hours, spent the rest of the morning in my bathrobe reading part of a book, consuming a large amount of coffee, and had a leisurely lunch.  I then spent the entire afternoon cleaning and reorganizing the garage so that it would again be usable and so I wouldn’t brain myself every time I opened the door.  I was super-productive:

Completely cleared and cleaned my bench top
Hung all the bikes on their assigned hook
Worked on stripping “new” Schwinn frame
Unpacked two boxes of refinishing and painting supplies
Sweep up a summers worth of saw dust
Emptied trash and recycling bins
Got the Tug-a-bike trailer ready to sale on Craigslist
Completely reorganized my tool chest (All the bike tools now have their own drawer!)
Put some labels on the nail and screw bin
Organized bench tools
Worked on a secret project for Laurel
Hung up First Aid Kit
Reinforced a wooden table
Made up a complete took kit for the house (no more in and out for little repairs)
Moved drill press to better location
Worked on finishing table saw fence

In addition to my sometimes compulsive need for organization, there will be a number of Engineers and builders staying at or visiting my home in the next month and it would kill me if my work space looked like that when they showed up.  When I shut off the lights at 10:00 PM, it was a whole new space and ready for inspection and for me to jump into a new project that I have planned for  September.

a few pictures of the building and the organization spaces/racks from earlier this summer.

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Summer is here

Jul 8

Posted by matttalley in Updates | No Comments

It was a little long in coming and we had a cold damp spring, but summer is finally here.  My raspberries are going like gang-busters, the sun is shining, the heater is off and I have slathered my self with sun-block no less than 4 times this week.  I don’t care what anyone says – I love Seattle weather!  My yard is green, the sun is shining, and there is almost no humidify.   Why would you live in Houston or Atlanta or Detroit when you can have this‽

seattle iweather

Man, I want me for a dad!

Jun 21

Posted by matttalley in Kinfolk, Updates, projects, road trip | No Comments

By my own narcissistic reckoning, I am the coolest father a 9 year-old boy could have!  My son is coming for a few weeks this summer and I have planned a world of activities and sites that would make any of his buddies green with envy.   There will be: camping, pellet gvn shooting, a cross-country bike trip (more on that later), classic airplane tours, an Indian lodge tour, camp-fire building, rock climbing, BMX riding, tide-pooling, wood-shop projects, art, microscopes, telescopes, hiking, swimming, the Zoo, mountain climbing, beach combing, and berry picking.  I would dare any summer Camp to come up with a cooler curriculum – DOUBLE DOG DARE!

I must say that my son is no slouch in the woodsmanship department, but we are so raising the bar this year.  He could build a fire with flint and steel when he was 7, is a camping and backpacking machine, and whittles a bit.  Well, this summer he has  a shooting bench (just finished in the garage) to hone his target shooting skills,  we are making a custom whittling knife in the shop, there will be new lessons on how to build a campfire, and I am going to show him how to carve simple faces in drift wood.  We talked today and he is super-stoked about the plans.  He makes me so proud!!  He even told me “thank you” for “getting all this stuff together…”  I teared up on the phone and choked back tears like had I hit my thumb with hammer.  It made my whole week!

We may get into some kite-flying action and some fishing, but I am not too sure about that last one – I have apparently passed on the gene that precludes fish catching.  They just stop biting the minute I cast.  He has the same curse and time might be better spent exploring or doing.

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Coffee gets crap done!

Jun 6

Posted by matttalley in Garden, House, Updates, neighbors | No Comments

I was a whirlwind of activity on Saturday.  I got tons of “to-dos” accomplished, TONS!  Not sure what it was – the sun finally shining, nervous energy, the continuous day-long ingestion of coffee, or what but I wish I had that much fire every day.  Here is how it went down:

Awakened at 5:30 – neighbor flipping out: cussing, smashing, yelling…
He found girlfriend cheating on him – no shots fired and she was long gone
Back to sleep until 9:00
Laurel ground some fresh roasted beans and made coffee :-)
Took Brodie in the truck to run errands
Stopped for more breakfast (and more coffee) at C&P
Got haircut and surprise tea tree oil scalp massage
Went to estate sale
Found amazing joiner and radial arm saw for $50!!!!!
Already sold :-(
Purchased a clamp and pruning shears
—- Estate sales make me a little sad – a reminder of my own mortality
Stopped at a garage sale on the way home
Got 4 cook books and a DVD (Leon the professional) for $2.50
Picked up puppy food
Came home and mowed old guy’s yard next door
My sweet wife made a yummy lunch
Rode the Penny-Farthing 4 miles – down on California Ave and back
Came home and did some truck maintenance – air in tires and oil change
Down to hardware and garden stores for a couple things
Picked up another top-hat blueberry and spearmint
Dug up 6 ferns in the back yard – only one lives there now
Planted white azalea – they remind me of Daddy
Cut some shrubs off front fence
Planted blueberry and mint
Had pizza with friends and family for dinner
Enjoyed a wheat beer
Went for a walk around pond with everyone
Picked some raspberries
Sowed grass seed in the backyard just before sunset
Watched The Long Way Down on DVD
Enjoyed a great glass of port with Laurel
Asleep by 11:30

I was a whirlwind of activity on Saturday. I got tons of “to-dos” accomplished, TONS!

Awaken at 5:30 – neighbor flipping out: cussing, smashing, yelling…

He found girlfriend cheating on him…

Back to sleep until 9:00

Laurel ground some fresh roasted beans and made coffee J

Took Brodie in the truck to run errands

Stopped for more breakfast (and more coffee) at C&P

Got haircut and surprise tea tree oil scalp massage

Went to estate sale

Found amazing joiner and radial arm saw for $50!!!!!

Already sold L

Purchased a clamp and pruning shears

—- Estate sales make me a little sad – reminder of my own mortality

Stopped at a garage sale on the way home

Got 4 books and a DVD (Leon the professional) for $2.50

Picked up puppy food

Came home and mowed old guy’s yard next door

My sweet wife made a yummy lunch

Rode the Penny-Farthing 4 miles – down on California Ave and back

Came home and did some truck maintenance – air in tires and oil change

Down to hardware and garden store for a couple things

Picked up another top-hat blueberry and spearmint

Dug up 6 ferns in the back yard – only one lives there now

Planted white azalea – they remind me of Daddy

Cut some shrubs off front fence

Planted blueberry and mint

Had pizza with friends and family for dinner

Enjoyed a wheat beer

Went for a walk around pond with everyone

Picked some raspberries

Sowed grass seed in the backyard just before sunset

Watched The Long Way Down on DVD

Enjoyed a glass of port with Laurel

Asleep by 11:30

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No-Go for the Iran Climbing Trip

May 30

Posted by matttalley in Climbing, Updates | 12 Comments

I got a form letter last week from the AAC letting me know that I was not one of the 10 members chosen for the Climbing Exchange Program with the Iranian Alpine Club  (See previous post Sight-seeing and mountaineering in Iran – maybe ) I was REALLY butt-hurt about the selection process, but if it were meant to be then I would have been included.  I can only wish the best for those members going, hope they have in incredible time, touch new stone, see places and things that are new to western eyes, leave their hosts smiling, pray that they all return home safely, and are better people for having made the trip.

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Being Good and Bad in the Garden

May 17

Posted by matttalley in Garden, House, Photography, Updates, neighbors | 6 Comments

Our yard (front and back) is in bloom and we have all sorts of flowers, herbs, and veggies coming up.  The grass is thick and green and the couple of bare spots where the overgrown bushes used to be have now been reseeded and they are now sprouting tiny green slivers of Kelly green cover.  The vine maple is in full leaf and is a pleasure to both look at and to lay under in an afternoon hammock snooze

I woke up early Saturday morning and took some pictures of the rhododendrons in the front and various sprouty things in the back just to document the current state of affairs for some friends and family who have been asking.  Progress in the yard redo is slower than we had wanted – mostly due to us being overly ambitious for the first year in the new house, my own inaction, a screwed up shoulder, and our convoluted schedule.  We had planned to have the garden boxes in, but it doesn’t look like they are going to make it this season as I am just running out of time and more projects inside the house have appeared.  For now we are growing our kitchen herbs, garlic, and tomatoes in planters/containers and will expand that little by little for the next month to include peppers, three additional tomatoes, two more blueberries, and some yellow squash.  I had hoped to have the apple, lemon, and cherry trees taken care of, but as yet the Lapin cherry is the only thing that is growing roots.  The raspberries and thornless-blackberries are chugging along and I have started tying the canes to galvanized wire on the fence.  Someone is going to have cool fresh raspberries in his cereal come June J

The plan for our front yard is currently going through a bit of a shift, mostly because of the neighbors to the north of us:  It is a rent house with two 20-something guys (referred to by some of the other neighbors as Bevis and Butthead) who are in a metal band,  work(-ish) in construction, and are living what could be called an extended adolescence.  Loud band practice at 1:30 AM, wafting pot smoke, firecrackers in the middle of the night, beer bottles on the sidewalk, grass two feet high, trash all over the front stoop, trucks occasionally parked in the yard, etc…  They are nice enough guys to talk to, but we don’t want to look at that every day.   So, we have left the two 10’ tall rhodies on the north fence until either they move or accidently burn their house down in the middle of the night while lighting the bong.  The Belgium fence of heirloom apples and roses in on hold until then.  Additionally, I had wanted to rip out the two rhododendron bushes in the front and replace them with red and white azaleas – Laurel made me wait until they bloomed and she was right, they are beautiful and they get to stay.  We are going to thin them some after they are finished blooming and will plant just two white azaleas on each front corner of the house.

I have been watering and potting and weeding in the back a little when I get home in the afternoons and this is exactly the bliss that I had imagined and wanted when we put the offer in on Casa d’ Talley in June of last year.  Gathering sticks and string for our nest…

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Running From the Lowest to Highest Point in Seattle

May 14

Posted by matttalley in Running, Updates | 1 Comment

I ran 6.9 miles Wednesday night (a little more than a 10K) after I got home from work.  Sort of a cool route: the lowest point in Seattle to the highest.  I ran down to the beach, then made my way via a circuitous route up to 515ish feet above sea level.  The high point is 520 feet, but the hill has water towers on it and is surrounded by a fence, so I couldn’t do the “Rocky” dance on the summit.  The sun was out, there was a cool breeze coming off the water, and I felt pretty good, though I took it easy with 8:10 minute miles as I don’t want to develop shin splints with all the road miles I am running.  I plan to do a nice long trail run this weekend and would like to split my after-work runs into half road and half trail miles, but I find that is it just easier to lace up and run out the door than to drive to a trail-head.

I decided on a long run because I was doing a challenge on Nike+ for 50 miles in a certain time period.  I was in the lead, but took the weekend off and fell into second place.  That just won’t do so I stepped it up to retake the lead.  I went onto nikerunnig.com after dinner to load my mileage and some SOB joined the challenge who already had 126 miles in that time period – there are two weeks left to go in the challenge…   By the looks of it this guy runs 10-12 miles a day, so that would be like me showing up at fat camp on field day to take all the blue ribbons from the little salad-dodgers.

It isn’t something to really get worked up over, just more of an annoyance than anything else.  I guess this is one of those small things that I am not supposed to sweat…  I did, after all, have a nice run, it was a good route, and I finished with a decent time.

Progress in the back yard

May 12

Posted by matttalley in Garden, Green, House, Updates, projects | No Comments

We spent some serious time in the yard this past weekend. I was “asked” by my lovely wife to move the compost bins for the third time… Then, I spent an hour with a chainsaw cutting stumps off below ground level in the spot where we plan to install our raised beds.  The last stump gave the saw fits and I ended up having to attack it with a double bit axe, splitting maul, and pry bar.  Holy crap! - it was work. It has been a long time since I swung an axe at something other than ice and snow.  Following the defeat of the stumps, I mowed, raked moss from the grass, cut vines from the back fence, planted some shade-loving grass in a bare spot, removed three ferns, sweep the garage roof (don’t ask), watered the kitchen herbs and took care of the normal weeding/edging/mowing in the front.

My better half, helped me clean up the mess from the stumps, level the ground were they were removed from, move some of the cedar rounds left from cutting a tree, water the herbs, and she planted some begonias in a stone planter near the one fern that gets to keep living.

After all that, I took a nap in the hammock under our vine maple and had a dream about garden gnomes while laurel cranked up the grill.  We had a pic-i-nic on the grass just before dark.  As a note: I slept like a stone that night and woke up feeling 114 years old.

Laurel in Garden

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Santa Claus-like body fat percentage

May 5

Posted by matttalley in Climbing, Cycling, Running, Shoulder, Updates | 1 Comment

As far as my overall fitness lever:  I have never worked this hard to look this bad!  I REALLY miss being 19.  The days of drinking lots of beer, eating crap, still looking decent, and performing at an elite level are GONE.  I am officially almost old and I have outrageous cookie-handles/spare tire, my arms have shrunk, and my body fat percentage is bordering on Santa Claus level.  The months of inactivity after the most recent surgery and gorging myself on coffee (triple Grande one pump mocha with whip…), 1-liter wheat beers, donuts, more beer, cookies, and brownies did little to prepare me for the coming summer.  I have been doing yoga at home weekly, but want to find a local class/studio to visit for a weekly or bi-weekly session.  Yoga really adds to my climbing and as I have decided to focus on my core (keeps me from stressing robo-shoulder) and my agility, it compliments the abundant AB work – which is not going well since I am starting from scratch again.  All the work last summer and fall was for naught. I am slowly working back into my pre-cartwheel down the stairs groove.

The Bionic Shoulder is doing SO much better.  I still need the second surgery, but it can wait – no serious rush – and I can do 15 push-ups without it hurting.  I have been real careful not to stress it as I am going to need it in as good a shape as possible if I snag a slot on the Alpine Club of Iran Climber Exchange trip that I am hoping to be selected for.  I am climbing all right, but I have been hesitant to frequent the rock gym or bounder on plastic holds.  I have found that it is REALLY easy to over train and tear something on plastic.

I have logged about 90 running miles in the last 6 weeks, Nike+ has helped with that, but I have been neglecting my two-wheeled mistresses.  I may have ridden 120 miles in the last 7 weeks…  It is my new commute and the spring rainy season.  The ride home has a shitty hill at the end of the 15mile ride and I have to fight traffic some so that puts me off, but more than that, the sun has been shy of late.  I am by no means a fair weather cyclist, it is just that rain + traffic + cold + hill = me screwing off instead of riding.  I have already paid the entrance fee for the annual Seattle to Portland ride, so I have to cowboy-up and get a bunch more training and commute mile behind me.  Speaking of rides: I am also signed up for a Duathalon in June, a couple of 10k road races and a half Marathon this summer, all in an attempt to keep myself on target for the STP ride, the possibility of climbing in Iran and to keep my cookie handles in check.

Santacyclingsantarun

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Thundercats Ho!!

Apr 5

Posted by matttalley in Updates | 2 Comments

Thundercats Lunch-Box

As I have previously mentioned, I have come to realize that I can be super nerdy.  My wife is guilty by association – sort of like the hot chick who drives the getaway car in a movie.  She has taken my lunch box to work a few times and all of the nerdy guys and wanna-be techies rave about her retro-coolness.  Since I would like to bask in the glow of my own Geek-light and want my damn lunch box back, I decided to help her with her slide rule-cred’.  I found a vintage Thundercats lunch box, her favorite ‘toon as a child, on eBay and bought it for her birthday.  Like a proper wife of mine, she took her birthday off from work (Not working on your own Birthday is the 17th Commandant) and that morning when she opened the gift, there was a sudden urge to go into the office JUST to show off her lunch box.

Yes….  I have brought her over to the Dark Side, where we have cookies and cold milk before bed, roll cool bicycles, research obscure historical fact for fun, and tote our mid-day sustenance as God intended – in a semi-rusty metal box with cool stuff embossed on the outside and painted in Turbo-Cool 1970’s colors.  My GGG little wife is graduating from moll/driver to co-conspirator.  It warms the heart!

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“I just kept run-ning and run-ning…”

Apr 5

Posted by matttalley in Running, Updates | No Comments

I have been an avid runner since I was 14 and ran cross-country and middle distance track in high school.   After running at 4:00 each morning in the Army, I ran CC for my intramural college team (Fifth Year Freshman), coming in second once after an all night bender of cheap beer, video games, a mascot head, and ladies of questionable character/morality.

I just picked up a new pair of trail shoes and inserts after noticing my old pair had started to fall apart – my big toe sticking out when the side stitching blew was a dead give away.  The purchase has me in a reflective mood.  Running is for my soul, to keep the pounds that I would add from the constant cookie consumption at bay (I can tear through a box of Somoas/Do-Si-Dos faster than a fat kid at Summer Camp…), to have time to think through things, to enjoy trails, and to make me a better climber and cyclist.  I don’t enter every 5 or 10K that comes along as I am slow and lazy.  It has to be either a really cool event or be held in an amazing place for me to get up the initiative to actually participate.  I have run one Marathon, years ago – probably the last one I will ever do:  over trained, lost too much weight, had horrible shin splints, and was sick for two weeks afterward.  I will stick to 3-5 mile runs, 2-4 times a week and maybe throw in a 10-12 miler here and there to keep it interesting.

Running is the one constant activity I do that only costs me a pair of shoes every six months or so.  I can wear the kicks when not on a trail and just bumming around the yard or if out and about.  Cycling and climbing shoes are neither fashionable nor functional while out on the town.  I can run from home, on work trips, while visiting the in-laws, etc…  There is a lot of running done when the in-laws are in town…  I always plan to run on vacations, but find that my trail shoes are the one thing that doesn’t come out of my bag until I return home.  Running helps keep me sane.

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St. Paddy’s Day/Anniversary

Mar 18

Posted by matttalley in Updates | No Comments

I can’t be the only man to notice that instead of just one anniversary he has to remember 3-5:  the day we met, our first date, the first weekend away, engagement, wedding, ect…  All this on top of birthdays, Valentines, Christmas, Easter and all those other occasions when your wife expects acknowledgment, a card, a gift or all three.   I see a conspiracy here…

It just so happens that I can never forget the day we met as it was St Patrick’s Day, which means one less chance for me to forget something and get in trouble.  I really like not getting in trouble at home.  My day was thus:

Alarm at 7:15
Shower and dressed by 7:45
Laurel made coffee J and cereal
Told each other “Happy Anniversary”
Smooched
Took truck to work
Listened to NPR on way to work
At my desk at 8:30
Pinched for not wearing green
Revised drawings
Submitted change orders
Refilled my coffee
Pinched again
Work on 3 quotes
Went to lunch
New battery for watch
Bought 2ga green ear plugs
Ate chicken strips
Called wife on break to say ‘love you’
Back to work and meetings
Revised another drawing
Had more coffee
Lots of e-mail
Had apple snack
Pinched again – they didn’t see the green plugs
Chased the assailant down/exacted revenge
Worked late
Got home at dusk
Went for a walk with Laurel and the puppy
Ended up at the pub
Had a pint with Laurel to celebrate anniversary
Puppy got into a fight
He won
Walked home
Realized I left debit card at pub and tab open
Went back to pub…
Downloaded a couple of iPhone Apps
Came home to home to happy and slightly tipsy wife
Turned in early
Cuddling
Up at 2:30am – puppy snoring like a grown man…

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End of Year OCD

Jan 3

Posted by matttalley in Updates | No Comments

I did a decent job in 2009 balancing my inner geek with my outdoor proclivities. I did occasionally spend WAY too much time designing/drawing tools, writing html/java code, more than once found myself in an hours long vegetative state in front of the flickering idiot box at 2AM, and I spent entirely too much time surfing Wikipedia, cycling websites, WSB, and CNN, but… I did manage to occasionally pick myself up out of the techie gutter and run/bike in the sunshine, take a long and relaxed climbing trip with old friends, cycle in a 100+ mile charity ride, flirt with my cute wife, drink great beer, buy a new home, and I managed to read a bunch of really good books even considering we had cable TV for much of the year.

As you can see from the small spreadsheet below – even after allowing for the fact that I fell and tore up my shoulder again, I rode more and ran almost as much as in 2008. I traveled MUCH less for work in ’09 than I have in the previous eight years and that is a trend that I hope to continue. With all the time spent working and moving I didn’t make it to the gym like I should have, something I will rectify in 2010 since I need to get my shoulder strong and want to have a stronger core for climbing. I plan to read more and watch TV much less – my pile of books that I “have to” read in 2010 is already two feet high. Since I am ecstatic about having a job in the current economic climate, there is nothing that I can do about the number of overtime hours and they will likely increase next year as I need to pay the mortgage and save for the kid’s college funds.

2009
2008
Running
127.8 Miles
139.5 Miles
Cycling
1271.3 Miles
945.5 Miles
Days Hiked
7 Days
10 Days
Books Read
23 Books
41 Books
Days Off
32.5 Days
98 Days
Gym
4 Times
33 Times
Miles Traveled
26,533 Miles
61,341.3 Miles
Camping
3 Nights
8 Nights
Overtime Worked
204.4 Hours
0 Hours


As far as the inter turmoil of nerdy/sporty that I have going on, I did better in 2008 than I did in 2007. A breakdown of the last year’s numbers looks like this:

2008

2007

Running

139.5 Miles

15.7 Miles

Cycling

945.5 Miles

346.8 Miles

Days Hiked

10 Days

2 Days

Books Read

41 Books

37 Books

Days Off

98 Days

59 Days

Gym

33 Times

11 Times

Miles Traveled

61,341.3 Miles

68,234.2 Miles

Camping

8 Nights

10 Nights

Overtime Worked

0 Hours

300 Hours

I rode more and ran more. Went to the gym and still managed to read a ton of books. Though I did spend entirely too much time surfing Wikipedia, bike sites, and CNN. I am learning to balance my inner geek, though the process is somewhat like a 12-step program where I fall off the wagon occasionally and spend hours designing tool jigs, watching episode after episode of Dexter or Heroes, or ogling over bike frame geometry on the net. I then pick myself up out of my techie gutter and go to a “meeting” by running in the sunshine, exploring a new trail, or flirting with my cute little wife.

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