We went biking in Joaquin Miller! It was great fun.

The bus is in the shop getting 4 new tires and repairs on some non-engine related items.

Along the bike path, returning from the garage.

You remember all the people you see who in some way aren’t doing what you’re doing? How do they stay sane and live?

I was one of those people who signed up for crew in college right away. I hadn’t played organized sports since the sixth grade due to the time spent on music precluding such commitments.

Years later, I can see now that crew was a lot of time spent with my alarm clock, commute, and ultimately leaving at a pre-agreed up time not set by me. Doesn’t that sound like a J-O-B? Plus isn’t a stratified community a special sauce for relationships? Anyone relate?

Anyway, rowing was a gargantuan part of my life for 6 years. Looking back, I was on the crew team because 1. of the instant community (especially if good enough) and 2. when working that hard I didn’t dwell on the stuff I didn’t want to be dwelling upon in the first place. Towards the end, alas!, when I was spending time out by myself in a single, it turned out that rowing (and swimming too OMG) in of itself can feel good!

I figured as long as I was rowing (more likely until I was 21) or recovering from a rowing injury (post 21, mostly Philly), I didn’t have to consider much beyond not getting kicked out of school or paying for room and board. I really liked and took wonderful comfort in such simplicity, much to the chagrin of my grandmother. She got pretty excited when I took some steps towards becoming a physical therapist. Happily for me I stopped before I amassed real debt. Still, this whole incident was a solid sign somewhere inside I felt the call to move on to something different than crew.

Around that time, basically the end of my never started PT career I mean, my solidly all done rowing roommate got a job doing computer work. Frankly, no comment on what I’d be up to if M J had never stopped watching Thursday night’s X Files and My So Called Life reruns over Chips Ahoys, Bavarian Pretzels and cheese with me. All in all, it took some more time and episodes while working in the greeting cards warehouse – my job at the time for the previous 6 years – for me to get into the IT thing.

(Quick aside on the “home theater” config from back then: I had found a TV somewhere which I’d hooked up to a pair of coveted Paradigm 5se speakers I still have, bought from my former trumpet teacher Robbie working at the terrific and now closed Honkers stereo store formerly on Shattuck in Berkeley and used M J’s car battery charger to power the amp left behind when my truck was ransacked one night on Girard to power a sub.)

The facts are the greeting cards place had a PC with dBase IV (still around and now on version 12!) and that is what I started with. No kidding, I read the help manual, dissected what code was there and went with it. My first program randomly picked cards from selected sections up to the inputted dollar amount. Plus, though my education was aborted, I still had access to the university’s computer lab and studied there too. Like my own Control Data Institute from Saturday cartoons.

Fast forward to now and I’m transitioning again, this time from being a database administrator. I question and wonder whether the guesses and assumptions are going to hold. I take solace in the numbers and study the signs. And it has been over 11 months. So far so good!! Until proven otherwise!!!!!!