I plan to cut myself later for the hair rock title reference.

I got on the bike today – first time this year. I didn’t ride much last year to my shame. The stress of my job, moving a couple times and general despair kept me away. As a result, I’ve become a lazy, out of shape bastard. But, “Oh,” you say. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, ” you say.

I’d like to take such warm advice and wishes from you, but its largely true. I rode 5.5 miles today, and it took some work. Though, as usual, it feels more a problem of getting my lungs caught up with my muscles. I went from our apartment to a Franklin Park, and around it. Franklin park is the largest in the Boston area. Its kind of shabby, and I really don’t think the fucking golf course should count towards the acreage. Its also pretty shabby and beat up. Any paths are in sore, sore shape. I went from street, to path and such trying to find my way around it. Not a bad ride in all, but the first time on a new route can be tougher. I did appreciate being able to legitimately stop when I was figuring it out.

Despite the burning lungs, it was a lot of fun, and there was almost no one on my route. I always forget how much I like it until I do it. And, better to do a simple fitness test as such, and know where I am rather than talk about my glory days as I get deeper into the non-fitness downward spiral. A chum and I talked about doing a century this year, but I am not hopeful. We’ll see once I get in shape, but there are also some logistical concerns. I lost a chunk of time off with the move, and have a couple obligation vacations this year.

The general goal right now is to see if I can get myself riding to and from work. Quite a different challenge than DC, as it appears to be a bit less than double the distance. If I can do it, it’ll mean 18-20 miles a day. That’d be damn sweet, and I’d be looking damn good by the end of the summer. And probably feeling good, which I typically do after just about any post-ride shower.

As a side note, I can hardly wait to get the the freaking doctor who rescheduled my appointment later so I can get to another doctor so I can get allergy shots. I have cause to worry, though I can’t show you, as it seems I’ve disabled the image-adding-gui in my blog. So, I’ll tell you. Pollen counts are rated on a scale of 0-12, with 9.7+ being the OMG range. Depending on the pollen, I can start having issues at half that. Often, if its in that OMG range for a few days, medications will only take the edge off. So Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed 9.9 | 9.3 | 10.9 | 11.6

Our plan was to pack on the 8th, drive up on the 9th, and unpack on the 10th. We got a 17 foot U-haul with a car trailer – making us very semi-ish. Friday night, we pretty much slept on the floor. It wasn’t so bad – the internet was one of the last things to be disconnected!

Much to our happiness, a number of people were set to help us load about 10 in the morning on Saturday. We got up, got straight, and got the truck, by 9ish. Egress was blocked in the living by boxes, so I started a pre-move and started hauling boxes out the curb.

For most of the pre-move, things went ace. I had boxes all along the walk, and even a few in the yard. Turns out, I am definitely not as fit or strong as I once was… I lifted one large box I should have put down. A few boxes later, the spasm and pain hit, just as folks were showing up.

Apart from the pre-move, I was 99% useless. I could hardly move, and frankly it was quite embarrassing. Our helping chums were awesome about it, and made sure I didn’t try to help. I think I was walking with a side angle of about 20 degrees and generally breathing through clenched teeth.

Dana kept them loading not that they needed the inspiration. Like the move to Takoma Park, I’ve never had so much help! Dana and I are still quite grateful about it. 3 hours or so, they had the truck completely loaded and locked down. Plants, temporary bedding and computer crap went into the car.

Sunday, the 9th

My back was definitely a problem, painkillers aside. I have had numerous back issues throughout my life, typically from my own stupidity. This one was a doozy. Getting up from the mattress on the floor took a great deal of time. I was trying to pretend its not that bad, and Dana was considering if we need to postpone to get to a doctors.

We (or rather Dana) finally got the last bit loaded, and we picked up the car trailer and got it loaded and set out. You will have to ask Dana about the trip up. I spent most of my time sleeping, thanks to the pain killers. I think I also tried because the truck made me nervous. See – I have been doing public transportation and biking enough that car travel sometimes tweaks me.

Even though we had a good and easy pace, I think we got started a bit later than we intended, and the trip crawled on. The new place is on a dead end street, where just a truck alone would be challenging to turn around – nigh impossible for us mortals with the car in tow. We’d hoped to get to a U-haul to drop off the car, but they close much earlier on Sunday’s.

By the time we were getting to Framingham (west o’ town), it was evident going to the apartment was a bad idea. We opted to spring for a hotel room, and found a place just off the highway, that had parking set up to make it super easy for Dana to park the pseudo-semi. (Hooray, iPhone!)

Monday, the 10th

When we got up, Dana took full advantage of the Dunkin’ Donuts next door, for us. Anyone else notice their once great coffee now tastes like ass? Ewww.

We got the trailer dropped off, and headed to the new apartment. One of the landlord’s workers was kind enough to let us in. We were also lucky in scoring great truck parking. I went down with the car, as Dana waited, to minimize acrobatics in driving. By the time I got back to tell her we were out of luck for the moment, and we got to the apartment, it opened up. Yay!

Dana’s family were the helpers on this end. They came down from Vermont and New Hampshire and got us in. The place is a bit smaller than we thought from our whirl-wind check out and grab. It’d later become apparent the difference was mostly because we no longer had a dining room. Great space though, with the move in, we were setting ourselves up for a mammoth, 3-d 8-puzzle.

But, things were moved in, pizza was eaten, people were seen off, and Dana’s parents would be there soon to help us for a day or 2 installing things, and doing some of the shifting around.