• Category Archives day by day

  • This is the category closest to just being a plain diary. Places I go, things I do, people I see, what’s happening in my life.

  • A Quiet Friday, And A Quiet Week

    Posted on by Don

    Anne and I both got our booster shots yesterday, so today we’re just hanging out in case we start feeling sick. So far it’s just a sore arm — two sore arms in Anne’s case, since she also got her flu shot…

    Last night was a visit with Shari W at Lost Tavern. Nothing much to say about that really, it was just a pleasant evening.

    Wednesday afternoon we went over to the Museum of Industrial History with Judy J, starting with a pre-game lunch at La Lupita, and Tuesday was a cello day: practice in the morning and then duets with Donna H in the afternoon.

    I don’t even remember what happened Monday.


    day by day

  • Good Day For Cellos

    Posted on by Don

    It’s raining out right now (though the weather is supposed to get nice later), and I am suffering from either allergies or a cold, so today is a good day to stay indoors and play the cello. Its also a good day for it because I haven’t played or practiced once this week…

    The past three days were spectacular, and that’s good because I was working as a Road Scholar guide again. This trip worked out much better than the last one, probably because:

    • there was a more manageable number of participants (12 vs 23), and they were all really nice,
    • the weather was perfect for cycling,
    • the bike transportation infrastructure had been improved,
    • I was not in charge, so I didn’t have to feel as responsible — though I certainly did my share of what needed doing, and last but not least…
    • there were no e-bikes! One guy used the Shawnee loaner e-bike when his own (regular) bike had trouble, but that was it.

    I wasn’t there for the first ride because of Monday’s funeral, so I probably missed the day everyone had to work the bugs out of the system, but things seemed to run very smoothly — the crew, and the participants, were all playing on a higher level than on other rides.

    The weather is improving moment-by-moment as I write this, but I’m sticking with my original plan. The quartet is playing Sunday, duets are Tuesday, and I have my lesson on Wednesday so there is definitely a groove I need to get back into.


    day by day

  • Halloween Scene About Town

    Posted on by Don

    The Halloween weekend started Friday afternoon with an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile sighting:

    Oscar Meyer Weinermobile

    Not the best shot I ever took, but there it was in front of me on Freemansburg Avenue so I had to capture the moment.

    Saturday was the CAT Halloween Bike Ride. Anne and I raided the last dregs of a Halloween costume pop-up store and scored some fairly disturbing masks, then we rode around town with the usual crew. There were not many people out and about, but we did see some themed backyard parties, here and there in the neighborhoods we passed through. We also saw a few houses where people really outdid themselves with the decorations.

    • Anne and Me
    • My Halloween Mask
    • Halloween Decorations
    • Crazy House
    • Crazy House
    • Crazy House
    • Crazy House
    • Crazy House

    Sunday we participated in Bethlehem’s 100th Annual Halloween Parade, where I got a few shots at the start:

    • Skeleton Dance Crew
    • Police Escort
    • Parade of the Century
    • Grand Marshal

    Our quartet met that afternoon, followed immediately by Trick or Treat. It was a weekend!


    day by day 📎and tagged

  • Golem Unchained

    Posted on by Don

    I’ve been using my handy, text-based “to-do” list for a while now, but my use of it was inconsistent, waxing and waning as it occurred (or didn’t occur) to me to use it, and I also didn’t like keeping a text editor open all the time whenever I did use it. So, the other day I added a “desklet” to my desktop, one that displays (the first lines of) a text file. I set it to display my to-do list, which I now can see any time, and open for editing with a click.

    Which is all well and good, but now I find that my to-do list is staring me in the face all the time, and I’ve been using it more, and more, and more… I guess I’m more productive now, as I write down all the things I need to do, then do them and mark them completed, but it seems that the tool I added to make my life easier is starting to get the upper hand, running my life instead of the other way around.

    I have to say that things get done, though.


    day by day tech talk

  • Background Obsession

    Posted on by Don

    There have not been too many morning weigh-ins posted here lately, but that does not mean my obsession has abated. Far from it — I actually started keeping a log of my daily weights as a spreadsheet, and set up an R script to analyze and graph the results. Behold my weight loss since late June:

    The blue dots are my weight measurements, the black dotted line represents a “linear best fit,” and the red curve represents a smoothed, “LOESS best fit.” My target weight is 167 pounds, which is the weight I need for a BMI of 25, the highest “normal” BMI — I get to 167# and I am no longer overweight.

    I used the linear regression to figure when I’ll reach my target — it’s not shown here, but the black line is set to cross that green line on October 19th. The red curve is kind of showing me hitting a wall near 170# though, so we’ll see…

    Anyway, today was the group ride with Sights for Hope. Anne arranged for a bunch of tandem bicycles, and sighted captains to pilot them, to give sight-impaired people a chance to go for a bike ride. Scott S, Brian S and Ben (who came up from Philly with his sight-impaired friend William) were the captains, and one couple came with their own tandem, so there were four tandems in all. (Ann, Sara A and I rode our regular bikes in support.) We went around the loop of the Ironton Rail-Trail, about 5 miles or so, then had a lunch break before calling it a day. A very pleasant ride, and a very interesting group of people.


    day by day

  • Garbage Town

    Posted on by Don

    I did a ride and two walks yesterday. The ride really boosted my civic pride, but the walks, especially the second one, left me feeling deflated and outraged.

    The ride was in the morning, and was a collaboration between CAT and the Bethlehem Historical Society. We rode around town, visiting various historic places (the original Moravian residence halls, the Colonial Industrial Quarters, Sand Island, Burnside Plantation) while our guide Keith told us about what we saw at these places. Some of it I already knew, but plenty was new to me and all of it was interesting. All in all it was a pretty good way to spend an autumn morning.

    In the afternoon I decided to go get my flu shot, so I walked over to CVS on 8th Avenue. It’s just under a mile through our neighborhood, and a very pleasant walk, up until I had to leave the neighborhood and walk a short section of 8th Ave that’s basically a highway. What an unpleasant, noisy, and dirty mess! I almost got hit too, when I had to cross the road (at the walk sign) and someone making a left almost ran me down — his green light coincided with my walk signal, a classic WTF design, and I don’t think he saw me, or even looked, until he was practically on top of me.

    The second walk was with Anne, a longer version of our evening stroll: we went up Broad and down Main, then crossed the Fahy Bridge, walked through Southside on 3rd and returned to the Avenues via the Hill-to-Hill Bridge. There was a rotting garbage smell in all sorts of odd places, possibly from the most recent “WhateverFest” last week, and overflowing garbage cans (and public drunks) along Main Street from whatever the current circus is; we managed to see — and hear, from really far away — parties or concerts at several public and private venues. On the Hill-to-Hill Bridge we negotiated a gauntlet of broken auto glass, garbage and dog poop while dealing with the obnoxiously noisy traffic just yards away. (Meanwhile, the big bright animated billboard had an ad shining down on us, touting the Lehigh valley as a great place for happy farmers and cyclists.)

    It was all a bit much.

    Anyway, the quartet is getting together this afternoon, for the first time in maybe a year.


    day by day

  • Eat Sleep Ride

    Posted on by Don

    Some recent rides:

    Yesterday Anne and I did a ride out to the “Snoopy Barn” in Nazareth with our cycling neighbors Mat and Diet, and our other neighbor Josh. Our true goal was Sweet & Savory Bakery in Nazareth; we stopped there for donuts and coffee on the return trip and had a picnic at the nearby park. We were out from about 10:00 to about 2:30, with actual ride time of just over three hours for our 33 mile round trip.

    Saturday we went with our friend Yani B, and Dwight and Rachel with their son Josh, up to the Game Lands in Jim Thorpe. We parked at the first Game Lands parking lot, rode out the the second overlook, then on the return trip we stopped to hike down to the big flat rock area at the top of Glen Onoko Falls, where we dipped our feet in the creek’s freezing water. We spent quite a bit of time at the overlook and the falls, and we also stopped for a picnic in town so it was a long day, but our total riding time was about two hours for seven miles on the old Broad Mountain doubletrack.

    These trails are, sadly, far less fun than they used to be, ever since the Game Commission put down ballast stones, but mountain biking was an exciting new experience for our friends, especially Yani (and Rachel — Dwight is an outdoorsman with quite a bit of MTB experience, and I’m sure he’s brought Josh on some adventures), so it was fun to share the general enthusiasm.

    Thursday was the make-up day for the Weekly Women’s Bike Ride, and I joined Anne and the ladies for a ride down the South Bethlehem Greenway and part of the Hellertown Trail. (Musikfest was in full swing, with Sand Island as ground zero, so riding the D&L was out of the question.) Thirteen miles total, about two hours at “conversational pace,” and then we stopped in at F&A Grog House afterward.

    Saturday a week ago I helped Anne run a Smart Cycling (i.e. LAB “road one”) course, with some classroom learning, skills training at a nearby basketball court, and a 5-mile “put our new skills to use” ride around town. I haven’t done anything like that in quite a while, and I was surprised at how much fun I had teaching.

    The Friday before was a road ride, just me and Anne, down to Milford for lunch. Forty-six miles, maybe five hours plus breakfast and lunch stops. It was a bit on the warm side (and we were out in the sunny hills at exactly the hottest part of the day), but what a beautiful day!

    Thursday was the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast at the Canal Museum, and I rode there on the Iguana. Twenty towpath miles — two 10-mile rides really, with a breakfast in the middle.

    All of these events were followed, eventually, by an afternoon nap.


    day by day the sporting life

  • Cellos: 2, Coffee: 1

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13% BF

    I grabbed the road bike yesterday and went out for a hilly ride through Freemansburg, but something was wrong with my front shifting, and when I stopped to look at the situation — just in front of the Freemansburg Hill Climb entrance, ironically — I saw that my front derailleur was pretty messed up, like it had shifted its position on the frame and the chainrings were grinding into it. Not an easy roadside fix… I turned around and managed to limp home, but once I had access to my tools and a bike stand I was able to get the derailleur back in place pretty quickly. I’m still not sure what happened, but the bike is working fine now.

    So today Anne and I went out for a morning coffee ride, out to Taylor Roasted in Northampton. On the way we passed our favorite bakery (La Luna), so we stopped in there to pre-game with a cup and a donut, then continued on — a two-cafe day! But, when we got to our destination we found Taylor Roasted closed, and not like we were there at an off hour or day either: closed closed. We were a bit put out but hey, at least we got some La Luna… We took the Nor-Bath trail home.

    At home I looked up what had happened to Taylor Roasted, and it was a doozy: there is a small park next to the shop, and one night someone took a garden hose from the park, stuck it in the shop’s equipment exhaust pipe, and turned on the water. The place was flooded out and ruined, and their roasting equipment was wrecked; they’re temporarily closed now while they do repairs. According to Facebook there has been an outpouring of community support, but man, people can be awful.

    This afternoon was cello duets with Donna H, where it seems we have upped our game lately: we’re playing a lot of new and more difficult pieces, feeling more confident about them, and playing them unexpectedly well.


    day by day

  • A Wedding

    Posted on by Don

    Yesterday was the big day for our friends Scott & Kellyn — who, as we told everyone, met at our party. They had a beautiful wedding (officiated by Donna F) and an awesome party afterward. Congratulations to the happy couple, and thanks for letting us be a part of your celebration!


    day by day

  • More Ball Bearing Woes

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 11.5% BF

    I took my road bike over to the CAT office yesterday and took apart my freehub. What a mess! There are a whole lot of very small ball bearings in there, and the bearing cage basically fell apart — sound familiar? The slop in the freehub was basically caused by missing BB’s but the entire inside was trashed anyway. Maybe it can be serviced, but I think it’ll be better to just get a new one, if I can find something compatible with that wheel. I will also be replacing the cassette, the chain and the front rings, so maybe I should just get a new wheel as well.

    One good thing: while I was at CAT, Scott was able to get my pedals off, so now I can replace them.

    Today we had to run a bunch of errands, and when we got home we were hungry and tired and crabby. So, we hopped on the mountain bikes and rode to Freemansburg, maybe four miles away on the towpath. We got takeout at a place called Cherry’s Caribbean Palace (curried goat, mac & cheese, rice and plantains) and ate at picnic tables by the restored Mule Barn. It totally changed the afternoon’s vibe. I’ve been meaning to check that place out (it’s on my amenities map), and I saw online that they just got recognition as one of the best Caribbean food places around, so this was a pretty good opportunity to do some food exploring. Two thumbs up.


    day by day tech talk