Cold.

Since the return of my bicycle from the shop on Monday I have been determined to get outside and enjoy one of my favorite activities this week. I have been up at 0530 ET each morning with the intent of burning many calories and enjoying the open road.

This morning it was 32ºF.

Not to be deterred, I ended up wearing five layers of clothes for the ride, including my snowmobiling gloves and a wool hat under my bike helmet. To be truthful, the ride wasn’t too bad though it was still chilly. I probably should have wrapped a scarf around my face to keep my cheeks from getting cold but when all was said and done I logged just shy of 10 miles over some pretty good sized hills in 53 minutes.

One of my goals this year is to not stick to the east-west routes all the time and to enjoy the challenge of the hills more often. Yesterday I road down the long hill on our road where I can usually hit almost 40 MPH on the bike, however, I only hit 30 MPH and I didn’t feel the need to ride faster. Riding down that hill is usually reserved for later in the season but apparently my exercising efforts over the winter paid off because I was able to get up the hill with relative ease.

It’s amazing how much better I feel during the workday when I do some sort of exercise in the morning. I feel energized and motivated. Tomorrow’s weather forecast shows that’ll be much warmer than it was this morning.

It’ll be good to ride without five layers of clothes on. I’ll settle for three.

Eco.

I like to think of myself as a caring individual of this planet. I am trying to leave as little destruction of the environment as possible during my stay here and for the most part I think I’m doing an ok job. Of course, I drive a Jeep Wrangler, which is not exactly the most eco-friendly vehicle one can choose, but like I said, I do an “ok” job.

I noticed shortly after purchasing my Jeep that there was an indicator on the dashboard that showed when I was driving in an ecologically friendly fashion. A little “Eco On” light would blink on and off when my driving habits were where they should be and it didn’t take long for me to figure out where the “sweet spot” was to get that light to be on as much as possible, for example, the light never came on over 72 MPH and it would not come back on until you slowed down to 65 MPH. When commuting back and forth to the office, I would drive at 70 MPH on the Thruway and watch others whizz by me, knowing that I was doing my part to make a smaller impact on the environment. I didn’t feel smug.

The past weekend we had to get down to the Philly area pretty quick, so I kind of shunned the Eco indicator on the dashboard and, thankfully, was able to turn the indicator off so I wasn’t constantly reminded of my temporary driving habits. I felt some guilt but I did my best with it.

Imagine my surprise when the fuel-use indicator showed that I gained a greater MPG rating than when I was trying to drive with the Eco On indicator illuminated. Instead of averaging around 18.5 MPG, I was able to hit a little over 20 MPG and that was be driving faster than usual.

Thinking that there must have been some helpful hills and the like, I decided to experiment again yesterday during my normal commute to the office and sure enough, when ignoring the Eco indicator on the dashboard, I was able to achieve a higher MPG rating.

What’s up with that?

I don’t think I’m missing anything here in determining that a higher MPG means a touch less of an impact to the environment, so why the discrepancy? No clue. Earl says that the Eco light is a gimmick. I’m starting to wonder that myself.

There’s too many gimmicks in the world.

Realizations.

So the blog has been silent for a few days and it is with good reason. Earl and I made the trek to Earl’s hometown to attend the memorial service of our brother-in-law. It was good to see the family as it has been way too long since we last saw them, however, we really need to get down there on happier occasions. It really pained me to see my in-laws grieving; I don’t do well with seeing others feel pain.

I wasn’t particularly close to my brother-in-law; we always had pleasant conversations but we didn’t have a lot in common. I could tell that he loved his family very much and that he seemed happy in the little niche of the world he had carved out for himself. As long as a person is happy that’s all that matters.

During the service, some thoughts that had been written by his wife were shared with the congregation. The words and the feelings that they conveyed were very moving as there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. That, and the military presentation, were the hardest things emotionally. However, there was one passage shared during the reading/eulogy that really, really affected me.

“No matter how upset or angry he was, he never yelled at me”. These were the words of my sister-in-law. I never knew that. I admire that. And I learned something from that.

My father always said my mother had a tendency to “bark back” due to the fact that she has red hair. I think I might have inherited that trait a little bit; I am often asked to stop hollering when I get passionate about something. There’s a chance that I might have a bit of a temper and to tell you the truth, that’s not something that I’m really proud of. I don’t know that I have ever accomplished anything by yelling a lot, but to be fair, years ago I worked in an environment where yelling was the only way you could get your point across. It’s still not something I’m proud of and it’s something that I really need to get a handle on. Yelling and cussing are two things that I find to be unnecessary and they’re two things that I need to stop doing.

So while the tears formed in my eyes during the memorial service on Friday night, I have to thank my brother-in-law for teaching me a little something through his actions as conveyed by his family. If I stop in mid-sentence during a passionate conversation, know that I’m taking a few deep breaths and trying to keep everything in check.

I guess we’re never too old to learn.

Pizza Casserole.

Here is a recipe I made for the first time this evening. Earl and Jamie really liked the end result, as did I. The recipe is from my friend Susan at work. She’s a really good cook.

Pizza Casserole
1 (16 ounce) package uncooked rotini pasta
1 lb ground Italian sausage
1 (24 ounce) jar pasta sauce
1 (16 ounce) container cottage cheese
1 (2 1/4 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained (optional)
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 (3 ounce) packages sliced pepperoni

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13 casserole dish.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage until evenly brown, drain grease. Mix in the cooked pasta and pasta sauce. Pour into prepared casserole dish.

In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, olives, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese.

Spoon the cheese mixture over the sausage and pasta mixture. Top with pepperoni slices.

Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.

Pizza Casserole.

Rain.

“April showers bring May flowers.” It’s a popular saying in these parts, what with the ample rain we get every year during the month of April. As I look outside over our patio, I see the rain coming down in droves and indications that the temperature is hovering just about 40F.

Sigh.

I will say that I’m thankful that it’s not colder and that we are not getting snow at the moment. Worried isn’t the right word, but there is a thought lingering around in my head that tomorrow morning we’ll wake up to snow on the ground.

Sigh.

I keep looking at the weather app on my iPhone and seeing that by this time next week it should be in the 60s. I am really, really looking forward to that.

Event.

the-event-532x280

I mentioned a while back that I really enjoyed the NBC series “The Event”. True to NBC traditional behavior, the network canceled the series before we ever really found out what the event actually was, but that’s what network executives do nowadays.

One of the big themes of the series was that there was some big event that was going to happen. This contributed to the undercurrent of suspense that was always present. What was going to be life altering? What was going to change things? How were things going to change? What was The Event?

I’m feeling that way in life right now. I don’t know that there is an event on my horizon as much as I want an event to be on my horizon. Perhaps this is yet another chapter in some sort of mid-life crisis. I’m basically a happy guy and I love my life, but I feel like there’s something that I should be doing or something that should be happening that hasn’t been done or happened yet. I worry that I might be missing out on something. Whilst many parts of my life wade into the deep water, I feel like there’s way too much going on in the shallow. Do we need to move? Am I challenged enough? Are my current challenges too predictable? Am I in the wrong museum, looking at the wrong big picture, yet again?

I don’t think that last question is the case. I like what I do, I like with whom I do it and I don’t feel a need to change there. That goes for all facets of my life. All of my relationships are rock-solid and I wouldn’t change a thing there. Maybe it’s the landscape. Maybe it’s the last vestiges of cabin fever, though we’ve been traveling enough that one would think that wouldn’t be an issue. Perhaps it’s a fear of a rut.

For lack of a better term, I feel like I’m not deep enough into the waters of life. I feel like I’m wearing a pair of floaties.

Maybe I need to jump out of an airplane or something.

Service.

So after a busy day yesterday, Earl and I were frankly too lazy to do anything about making supper last night. So we decided to go out. Not wanting to spend a lot of money and not in the mood for anything extravagant, but still wanting a relatively healthy menu to choose from, we went to a diner that isn’t too far away. We go to this diner often, but I don’t think we had ever been there on a Monday night. We figured it wouldn’t be too busy.

It wasn’t busy at all and before we knew it, we were seated in a large booth and looking over the menu. It was kind of weird being in the place on a Monday night because it was a completely different staff; it was kind of like watching a Broadway show with all understudies or something (nothing against understudies, by the way). The energy of the diner was more subdued than usual. We figured it was the Monday vibe.

Looking around I noticed a table of older woman sitting directly behind Earl and Jamie. They looked familiar to me but I couldn’t place where I knew them from. Had I encountered them at the grocery store? At a bank, perhaps? This gave me something to ponder for a while.

The server came over and didn’t really seem interested in pleasantries. She just kind of asked what we wanted to drink and shuffled off. When she came back, Jamie asked if he could have a plain, grilled-cheese sandwich to go along with a bowl of the tomato soup he had just ordered. She kind of clucked and said, “of course we can make a plain, grilled-cheese sandwich.” Her reply felt incomplete, like it was missing the words “you idiot” at the end, but perhaps she was into word conservation. Earl asked for a hamburger. She looked at him incredulously as he continued with his order.

“Uh, how would you like the hamburger cooked?”, again, with “you idiot” silently implied. Her cluck was accompanied by an eye roll.

At this moment I decided to keep my mouth shut and tweeted my frustration instead with a vague tweet:

tweet

tweet

I placed my order, filling in all the gaps that I already knew about because I always order the same thing and the pleasant server just confirms. There was no way anyone was going to cluck or roll on my watch.

She shuffled off to do her thing and I watched her busy herself around the diner. The kitchen door would wave open far enough where I could see food assembly in progress. A few observations:

1. She doesn’t like ice scoops. She’d rather use the serving glass as a shovel. That’s a NYS Health Department no-no.
2. She doesn’t like tongs. She’d rather throw a lemon wedge in a glass of water with her hands. That’s a NYS Health Department no-no.
3. She doesn’t like tongs. She’d rather throw the a pre-made lettuce salad into the bowl with her hands and then casually wipe her nose. That’s a NYS Health Department no-no.

I wasn’t in the mood to be confrontational so I let these things go because honestly, I had observed this behavior after we had all of our food and drinks and I figured I was already going to die so I might as well have a crowd join me in the better place.

As we made our way through the meal, she stopped by once and without ever looking us in the eye, she asked if everything was ok and then shot away. No refills for you!

She stopped by the table behind Earl and Jamie before stopping by our table to give us our check. Jamie snickered as he overheard the conversation at the next table. They had decided not to tip the waitress because of her rude demeanor. And that’s when it hit me.

The ladies at the table worked at the local DMV office. They worked with the woman I had called Donut Breath!

Now, if the ladies at the DMV think the woman is rude, there is no doubt in my mind that we weren’t being overly sensitive last night. So we learned a couple of things:

1. The diner shall never be visited on a Monday night.
2. The diner probably won’t be visited in a long, long while due to the health concerns that were observed.
3. If you’re having a cantankerous time at the DMV, remember, there are places where it is worse.

I have considered calling the county health department to set up an inspection, but I don’t want bad things to happen to the diner. However, I will probably send an anonymous letter to the location to let them know what I observed.

Monday Music.

I heard this song whilst sitting in Ruby Tuesday in Durham, N.C. last night. It caught my ear, so I Shazam!-ed and discovered that the artist’s name is Lenka and the title of the track is “You Will Be Mine”.

I love smooth, dreamy vocals. She reminds me of Imogen Heap. And I really like the train-like syncopation of the percussive track.

The track is from 2011. Enjoy!

Manners.

I love kids. I think their presence is important for the continuity of the human race. I have to admit that without kids, the world would certainly be a different place. Especially in a hundred years or so.

I believe that kids should be given the opportunity to vocalize and be creative and find their path, no matter what it may be, with as much encouragement as possible from the adults around them. A kid that is free to express him or herself appropriately will hopefully grow up to be a well-adjusted, contributing member of society. And that’s what we all want, right?

Please note that in the previous paragraph I said, “express him or herself appropriately.

I try not to judge people based on stereotypes. I do it, but I really tried hard not to do it. But when I saw a scrubby looking family of four, complete with two young tots, headed to the row behind me on this flight, whilst carrying take-out pizzas, I knew it was not going to be a quiet flight. I knew there would be little in the way of napping. And I could really use a nap today.

I’m not going into the intricacies of wondering why an airport vendor would serve full-sized take-out pizzas in an airport terminal, nor am I going to question as to why they brought them onto the plane, especially when we will be landing in relatively close proximity to the lunch hour. I’ve smelled worse food on plane in the adventure with the yak sandwich Earl and I encountered on a flight years ago.

Apparently the child bouncing on the tray table on Friday’s flight was just an appetizer for my airlines experience this weekend. For this scrubby family of four with their airport Chuck E Cheese in tow have kids that are screaming at the top of their lungs, kicking the seat at an almost amusing velocity and, from what I can tell from the sound, trying to exit the airplane by banging on the window as hard as possible while making a shrieking noise not to be equaled by the whine of the aircraft engines.

It’s not that I’m a snob. Ok, perhaps I am a bit of a snob, but I believe that we should train our children to behave appropriately in public and that starts by behaving appropriately at home.

The father of the group has put on headphones and sunglasses and has tuned out what is apparently SNAFU. The mom is gazing at the scabs on her new arm tattoo. The tattoo is that of a wolf head. I don’t think her biceps quite do the tattoo justice. She’s busy, so the two children are doing the aforementioned jumping and screaming and banging on the window.

On lookers from outside might see large letters forming the words “HELP ME” on an iPad in the window of the aisle in front of them.

Frequent flyers are probably chuckling knowingly because this is apparently the way flying works today. I’ve lamented on the loss of dressing nicely and behaving civilly while on board an aircraft. Those days are long gone, apparently, and have been replaced by the McGrubby to go set.

I know, I know, I sound old and cranky and I’m really trying not to be. Earl says I sweat the small stuff. But when you can’t take a needed nap and the flight you’re on doesn’t even offer any sort of entertainment, sweating the small stuff is basically the only thing you can do.

33 minutes and counting.

GoGo.

So I’m currently en route from RDU to DTW on Delta flight 4936. The flight attendants are Michael and Chrissy. They’re very friendly. And I’m in an even more sunny mood because the GoGo wifi service is a GoGo today!

Yay for iPads and being able to easily catch up on online happenings!

When GoGo works, the speeds are very impressive. This makes the plane geeks quite happy.