There were a good number of branches and a couple trees newly fallen on the very wet trail today at Rocky Point. I rode a lot on the drier family trail. I would have waited to ride there until the upcoming warm weekend but it will be closed then.
David Letterman is so good, even when you know what he's going to say. Tonight he was talking about the Matrix movie. He stares at the camera and says, "It'll make you laugh. It'll make you cry. " Then he pauses and I know he's going to say, "It'll make you think." So then he says it and it's funny.
The mystery that is comedy.
President Bush at his press conference said, "And a reminder: When you mentioned Saddam Hussein, I just wanted to remind you that the Saddam Hussein military action took place after innumerable United Nations Security Council resolutions were passed -- not one, two or three, but a lot."
As you know, Security Council resolutions are individually numbered. How excellent is it to use "innumerable" to describe things that are numbered!
According the the U.S. State Department, "Saddam Hussein has repeatedly violated seventeen United Nations Security Council Resolutions...."
Seventeen. At least Bush didn't use "infinite" to characterize the number of resolutions.
I got some delicious vanilla soy granola from Trader Joe's during another errand day.
Warm and sweaty racquetball was today due to people not showing up tomorrow. My game was a little off.
The Rocky Point trail is closed November 1 through March 31 due to hunting. These rainy days mean the trail will be wet this week. Time to make new plans.
Here's a photo of poles from yesterday at Rocky Point.
As you may know, both The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded are highly entertaining. I watched The Matrix a couple years ago and had forgotten almost all of it.
Rocky Point was partly sunny, chilly, breezy and leafy today. All of which made for a fun ride.
Coming up....The Matrix Reloaded.
To celebrate my parents' anniversary I had a pizza. Mario's wins for best pizza place in Setauket or Port Jefferson that I've tried. It's the garlic!
The box says "Say NO to Drugs" and "come back soon."
Dick Morris leaves out things. He criticizes President Clinton for not penalizing foreign companies under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. He does not mention if President Bush is following the same policy (which seems to be the case from what I've read).
I am biased but this Grey AM CD is good.
No CMJ plans. Maybe the weekend will be good for biking....
When you do laundry, don't get an item stuck in the door so that it is anchored during the spin cycles. I witnessed this but did not stay for the ending. The door will not open until the washer is finished.
I finished the Michael Moore book a couple days back and am now on Off with Their Heads by Dick Morris. This is a counterweight to Moore and Al Franken.
Franken made the case the Bill Clinton handed President Bush a plan to deal with terrorism and that Bush didn't get around to implementing any of it until after 9/11 (at which time he adopted almost all of the steps recommended by Clinton). Morris, who used to work for Clinton, makes the case that Clinton failed to take effective steps against terror.
Moore says the war on terrorism will not succeed because it's a war against a noun, just like the war on drugs. Morris says, "if America is truly united, we can slay any dragon."
Maybe you can sell more books if you make one-sided arguments.
Such things going into my head....
I went to Rocky Point but did not ride! It was too wet for me. I walked part of the trail and picked up litter using my new Wells Lamont gloves (made in China).
Here's a mushroom.
The courts closed early so abbreviated racquetball was short and cool and sweaty.
I applied for a corporate job....spread my wings, baby.
Almost finished with the Michael Moore book....six people are waiting on the three library copies.
Around here people say "waiting on line" instead of "waiting in line." People are awesome.
Today was something of an errand day. I went to seven stores. My search for American made work gloves was unsuccessful....Target, Home Depot, JCPenney, Sears, even tried Wal-Mart.
I woke up thinking the day would bring warm and sweaty racquetball but a couple people couldn't play so I went riding at Rocky Point.
It was a good day to ride, especially since it's raining here now. I rode all four of the optional hills for extra fun. I used my CamelBak hydration pack for the first time in years....still haven't figured out the best way to hang the nozzle.
I've ordered the Grey AM's Breathe on Your Own Time 6-song CD like I said I wanted a mere four months ago.
My mousing accuracy has been on the decline.
So far (chapter one) this new Michael Moore book asks a lot of questions of varying quality.
For example, a good question is asking why President Bush allowed two dozen members of the bin Laden family to leave the country without being interrogated by the FBI. That question is fact-based and there may be a verifiable answer.
A poor question is asking what President Bush's expression meant when he was informed of the attacks. That seems not constructive as there's no verifiable answer.
Michael Moore is big on personalizing issues, for better or worse.
Today I boiled some eggs. The center was not quite solid in the one egg that has been consumed. Boiling time was 8.5 minutes. Healthful.
I had a fairly long, fun ride at Rocky Point today. Trail was in good shape, weather was choice, sunset was vibrant, la la la....
Two days of relative rest upped my quickness factor in today's warm and sweaty racquetball.
I finished Al Franken's book. It dragged in a couple places at the end when he tried a bit of fiction. Overall it is worthwhile. Next up is Michael Moore's new book.
I wanted to doublecheck something I heard on the news a couple weeks ago so I used LexisNexis™ for the first time and got a copy of the transcript. If your library has this then your library is hip.
I got my truck back today with no surprises on the bill. It was too late to go for a ride so I'm hoping for a long ride on Saturday.
I made a cheesy pizza.
There are 16 holds on the Al Franken book. The library has eight copies. My copy is due tomorrow. I have only a few pages left. I will finish.
My bike transport device (truck) is still at the shop. The delay is getting the New York State inspection because the old timey shop that I go to doesn't actually do inspections.
Thinking of going to one of the CMJ shows in two weeks, perhaps Against Me!....
After cool and sweaty racquetball I left my truck for some routine (let's hope) service tomorrow. In the dark I rode my bike a couple miles to my apartment, staying mostly on otherwise deserted sidewalks. Someday I'll get lights for a trail night ride.
I've been watching episodes of Michael Moore's The Awful Truth on DVD. It's uneven but mostly infotaining, sometimes reminiscent of early David Letterman.
The first season double DVD was due back at the library today but I hadn't finished with it. (Entertainment DVDs circulate for four days and may not be renewed.) After returning it, I ran an errand and then stopped back at the library and borrowed it again. Score.
I was on the Rocky Point trail just before noon. It's been years since I had a ride and then had breakfast afterwards. The ride was fun, of course. Weather was warm when the sun was out and chilly otherwise....ahhh, October!
Speaking of quarters, I wondered what Iowa's quarter design is. That quarter will also be released in 2004. There were five finalists. Three of them feature a steer, a hog, corn and soybeans. Which would you choose? Winner below.
One of my newest practices is to rest my razor with the sharp side of the blades facing up rather than down. The hypothesis being that the blades will stay sharper due to fewer deposits accumulating on the blades. I've found nothing on Google to support this hypothesis.
The Iowa quarter design is "Foundation in Education." Congratulations to my birth state!
From the Atom and His Package web site:
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Bill O'Reilly's new book is fairly ordinary. It's a combination of news analysis and insightful advice such as, "if you are going to live a truly productive life, you have to forgive yourself."
Al Franken's new book is mostly good so far. There are a lot of sharp, funny points though sometimes he dwells on trivial things.
Racquetball was good and cool.
I went to my credit union because my online banking wasn't working. I signed up three weeks ago so didn't know if it had been set up properly. It turns out it was set up. I was incorrectly appending an extra zero to my account number....wooh!
Rancid played on Conan a couple days ago. REM played on Letterman tonight. REM clearly outrocked Rancid. It's only a one song comparison but I raised an eyebrow.
You ever look back at yourself a year ago and think, "who was that?"
Rocky Point was cool and moist today. I wore red so a bow hunter wouldn't mistake me for a deer. That tactic was successful. If I were a bow hunter, however, I wouldn't ensconce myself near the bike trail. Rocky Point closes on November 1. That's when the guns come out.
The cow/cheese/corn design won the Internet poll for Wisconsin's commemorative quarter. HOWEVER, the state commission recommended the early exploration design. HOWEVER, the governor went with the people so the cow won.
Gov. Doyle said, "I'm going with the (online) vote. I don't know why they had a vote, if they weren't going to follow it."
