#23 - A real workout #2 - June 24, 2012

I woke up this morning a little after sunrise, having slept better than I had in 3 days.  And I was also sore in both my arms, and some areas of my legs.  And I had to move furniture from the 4th floor to a moving truck.  My theme for the day: dig in and get it done.  I don't have to do much more than move a mouse most days, and this weekend was to be 1 huge exception.  Embrace it.  And win the day.  Thanks, Chip Kelley.

We were both up by 8, took showers, took several trips down stairs to get a jump on it.  Tim cooked a "what I have left" egg scramble which was quite tasty, and his phone rang.  It was the mover guy.  He thought the move was supposed to start at 10.  We were planning on 11.  So we got after it, and by 10:45, the guy had showed up and we had started loading.  Tim had planned the day quite well. 

By the time we had finished loading the truck, we were both sweaty and beat.  We all scrunched into the cab of the moving truck and drove to the storage unit.  The storage unit turned out to have its own set of problems.  We were able to fit all of his stuff in it, but the elevator door had a 5-second closing timer, making it extremely difficult to load. 

We finished loading the unit at 12:15.  Then Tim realized he had forgotten his lock at the apartment.  And the office at the place was out of locks.  So he went to get a lock.  At 12:45, we left the place and went to get lunch.  We settled on Janelle's, a Caribbean place.  I got ox tail because I could.  Tim got the curried goat.  And then we were off to pick up the Toyota Tacoma Zip Car.  We went back to Tim's, loaded the rest of his stuff, cleared out all the garbage, and drove to Aki's.  We took the desk back up 3 flights of stairs to her office room, and got back in the truck to return it.

That brown stuff on the left?  Genuine ox tail.  Tasty.
Everything was tasty, actually.

I have rarely been so tired and relaxed. 

We returned the truck, I put on my backpack, and Tim guided his bicycle to Prospect Park.  We sat there in the shade and talked for a few hours.  In a different forum, I need to write about our talks.  Tim is a deep-thinking and caring individual.  He's not perfect, but he really does want to do the right thing, even if it's not the easy thing. 

The park is amazing.  Large open spaces, lots of people having fun, lots of trees.  Evidently, the designers had made Central Park first, and they thought they did a better job on Prospect Park.  There are dirt trails through the trees, old ponds, private places where you won't see another person.  In the middle of Brooklyn.  The park is so large that the entire Borough would have to be there at once for it to be crowded.  Unbelievable. 

At 5, it was time for me to start heading home.  Tim had persuaded me to borrow his bicycle while he was in Oregon (which was easy), and so I adjusted the seat and headed out of the park.  Tim thought I was crazy to ride through downtown and midtown Manhattan because the drivers are crazy.  But that's what makes them so nice.  The ride directions were easy once I got onto Bergen St.  At Court St, there were signs to the Brooklyn Bridge. 

The Manhattan skyline is probably something I'll never get used to.  The middle of the frame there has the mostly-finished World Trade Center tower.  I got other shots that had the Empire State Building, and of course the Statue of Liberty was easy to see.  The bridge is really very scenic. 

Once off the bridge, the streets flow together - Market st, Center Ave, Lafayette Ave, 4th Ave.  Keeping up with the cars is easy because they have to stop all the time and they can rarely go more than the 15mph that I was going.  Passing cars is easy because they are stopped all the time, so I split lanes.  Everyone expects taxis to stop in the middle of the street, they expect people to be parking, and they expect me to go around those cars.  Never had a close call.  Much safer, I think, than riding the country roads in Washington County that I used to ride. 

4th Ave leads right to Grand Central at 42nd Street, and I was there.  10 minutes in Brooklyn, 25 minutes in Manhattan, 5.3 miles.  10mph including stop lights and checking for directions.  Good time.

I grabbed a couple pretzels and a Sunkist for dinner, cooled down on the marble inside the station for a few minutes, and got on my train.  Lots of space for the bike, and I was able to relax on the way home. 

The ride was simple, short, and exhilirating.  I've always loved riding in cities - Osaka, Kobe, Portland, and now New York.  I love riding with the cars, how aware of everything you have to be, trying to flow with the traffic.  It requires complete attention, and I love the zen of doing it.  At the end, I was a little tired, but my legs would have been fine for another 10 miles.  Some hydration and some calories were all I needed to feel good again.

I got back to the hotel, said hi to the kids, took a shower, and headed in to work.  I needed to talk to some people, and night shift was the time to do it.  I got home after midnight.  What a day.