The Law of Weekend Warrior Succession

The law of faunal succession in Biology says that first there are colonial organisms that cling to the rocks and begin to break them down into soil (think: Fungus). The soil becomes home to things like Grass, the grasslands become home to sun-loving plants like Shrubs, the shrubland evolves into a forest as tall plants grow above the shrubs. Over time a series of trees grow and develop from pines to hardwoods depending on the location until a Mature and stable stage is reached. At which point the location is so idyllic that a developer will likely clear cut it and put in a condo complex. But I digress.

I think that something similar (save for the clear cuttting (I hope)) happens in the life of the weekend warrior.
We start our lives with post-collegiate jobs and a little dough in the pocket and we still full of energy take on active and exciting pursuits, we rock climb, sea-kayak, whitewater raft, backpack the White Mountains in winter, Road trip to faraway places and camp in squalid conditions and live to tell about it.

Then over time with weekday burdens growing we look to pursuits that can be done closer to home perhaps even during the week. We take up cycling and running. Sure they're hard, look at the tour de france, but we can do it without getting too banged up or dirty. To up the ante and to be sure to be able to keep our membership in the Weekend Warrior Club of America we run Marathons. Look we're still tough, we're still hip, we run alot.

After piling on a few marathons and a few other things the weekend scene changes again. The miles put behind the lawnmower outnumber those out on the pavement. The new battleground for the weekend warrior becomes, the softball diamond. Yes, I think that Rec League softball is the pinnacle of a mature weekend warrior life cycle. It can only be headed for clearcutting after that.

Well, gotta go, we're playing the fire department and I need to find my glove.

Crash Convergence?

So,
My harddrive crashed and burned the other day. Bad. Like really bad. The clicking sound of death. No luck with any tricks at home. No OS would even be recognized. Nothin'.
So off to the shop it went and several hundred buckaroos with it.
So they recovered some data and replaced the drive and reinstalled the OS. Then they say, oh by the way we can't see the other internal drive on the machine, it's corrupted (not dead just corrupt). So blammo, there goes that data (whatever it might have been).

But that's not the end of crashing convergence, no not yet. At work the machines my wife works with, the email servers of a large northeast utility company, crashed unexpectedly and repeatedly, an activity which continues into this week.

I'm thinking sunspots or perhaps aliens.

Left foot, Right foot, Left foot, Right foot

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to go out and try and get those precious miles in. Take tonight for example. A great chance for a few miles with a solid possibility of getting rained on. But as the minutes rolled by and the miles ticked past the rain didn't come instead what I got was an evil dose of muggy air. It sucked. It did finally rain with about 400m left in the 10mile run. Weather bastards.

I can't complain though, it was a double workout day for me and the morning session in the pool went better than it has in ages. I am feeling modestly confident that Greenfield will go well this year. Not podium well but better than other years. I need some saddle time though.

The yard, the house, the school work, those have dominated my thoughts and time this year, the runnning has had to come second. It's funny but my slowest marathon this past May has left me with the most consistent pacing all summer long. My 5k times haven't been stellar but the mile splits have been very close to even every time.
Perhaps a case of not-quite-slow-but-certainly-steady.

I'm Back!

Not that anyone really cares. But I'm going to try and revive the blog and see how it goes. What have I been doing all this time?
Well I tried my hand at teaching Community College (Good class, bad pay)
I travelled to the UK, California, Oregon, Vermont, Montreal, Boston, and Puffer's Pond.
Ran 2 marathons (one slow, one not so slow)
I began my career as a High School Science Teacher, jumping in to replace a teacher who couldn't manage the classes she had. (her loss, my gain).
I learned Biology, and taught it.
I am now planning to return for year two, learning to teach Environmental Science in addition to my new bio course, and the old favorite earth science.
Year two promises to be at least as much an adventure as year one.