S.A.D.

I have S.A.D. Not seasonal affective disorder; but seasonal ass distribution, meaning the snow's keeping me from riding and hence my behind is getting distributed over an area not seen (or touched) from my saddle previously. No riding outside today. Weather too crappy; not only that but we're also running low on firewood (is there a pattern here?). Kinda broke 'til payday to buy a cord of wood so I did the Rocky IV thing. Remember that lame movie? Rocky has the retribution, (because Ivan killed Apollo) showdown, cold war metaphor match in Russia (of course us Yanks win). While in Russia, for his training regimen, he's cutting down trees and chopping them up in the middle of the Russian Winter. Remember that nonsense? That's what I felt like. I was Rocky and Ivan was Winter.
Here's the path I laid down as I gathered the trunks from our backyard. It's as cold as it looks.


Walking in coupl'a feet deep snow and hauling out wood on my shoulders where the original owners felled trees to make a defensible space. My mental distraction came from my iPod.

I have an old school second generation 65 Gigs worth of shuffled music wafting through my mellon. Every time I hear Wagner's Ring Trilogy (Tolkien uses similar theme in his trilogy too-great read incidentally) of operatic music suffused with that Wagnerian symphony it gets me all chicken skinned. The version I have was recorded back in the seventies during the Mecca of Wagnerianism-the Bayreuth festival. Awesome. Not quite high-def sound but close enough for my hard of hearing self to appreciate. I actually have filled it with 50G's worth of music/podcasts/pictures but no video. Too primitive for that technology. What a great little invention.

Before:

From there-our driveway-I crossed sectioned and quartered the goods, and stacked 'em in and next to our house. Hopefully it'll make it 'til Thursday where we'll get-purchase-another cord of wood. It was a great workout. I'm telling you 70lb trunks on your shoulders walking in snow's quite the resistance. It also reminded me of that movie with Mathew Modine, VisionQuest. In that movie about wrestling Mathew meets his competition lugging around a pretty hefty chunk of tree trunk on his shoulders (like an English torture yoke) going up and down some nondescript stadium (steps).
After:

Do that a couple three times...Took a break and ripped John Coltrane's LP coltrane plays the blues onto my iTunes library. That was an Atlantic redo. Great LP. Thank goodness Coltrane was rather prodigious with his cataloged music. After putting it on my iPod, I went back out to get some girthy trunks. They were heavy (coupled with my weak self) and I called it quits after I hauled them out. Don't know how many kilocalories I've combusted but I think it warrants drinking some Maredsous. After round two of out-hauling, I took my eldest daughter to spend the night at her bud's house. Her bud's Dad--Andrew, gave me a bottle of his IPA homebrew. I took her so my sweet Melissa wouldn't have to get out of her PJs. In fact my middle daughter didn't get out of her PJs today either. It's been that kind of day. Really gray, snowing-on-and-off-all-day kind of day. Almost has the same languidness of a drizzly, cold, overcast, winter Sunday where the remedy is listening to sixties era jazz--bop mind you, not that goofy, west coast jazz--from LPs, nosing and tasting single malt scotch and a seegahr. Truth be told, Scotch's too heavy and haven't acquired the nose nor the taste--yet!--and cigars are stanky but rollers and a Maredsous 8° Brune? Ohhh SHNAP! I need to get on the rollers quick, the call of the Maredsous is quickly moving up my priorities list in my reptilian brainstem. Got the fire kickin' now though!

non-sequitor section: Last week some students of mine saw me walking into this used CD store that's also known for its accoutrements/hardware of anything cannabis. As they're walking out they jokingly ask if I'm getting myself a bong or something. I tell 'em I'm strictly a CD kind-of-guy but when I see them in class they kind of goof on (their version of) my dubious purchase. High School kids. They're funny.

I didn't get to the Maredsous. Andrew's IPA, which was hoppy goodness, oozing of alcohol, pretty much put me in a state o'groovitude. In fact, I'm going to read the library books i checked out for the Moose and put on Miles Davis' The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions (okay so it's not bop but it was recorded in the sixties-just barely).

Sunday's pretty much the same except I finished reading Philip Pullman's last of his trilogy (how many times can i say Trilogy in this entry?) The Amber Spyglass. Highly recommend it to y'all (the trilogy that is, there it is again!). Gets me inspired to read Milton's Paradise Lost (or not). Right before din-din my old brah Eric called and we caught up, talked bikes, and general living from a y-chromosome perspective. A wave of reminiscence flowed through me after we hung up.

Monday, you suck.