Awesome: I just found a well-maintained trail that goes directly from my work to within a few blocks of my house…

Not so awesome: It appears to be already occupied:

(if you still can’t tell, that’s a 150-200lb black bear…)

Co-worker: Hey buddy, can I have your last push pin there.

Me: [huddles secretly over the pin dish for a second and then dramatically turns around] Sure buddy, go ahead and take it…

Sarah: Good god, don’t ask him for the stapler.

Friday at work Jason brought up the idea of a combination biking and hiking adventure. He said it would be an “easy” 6 mile bike and 6 mile hike to some particular wonderful lake. We’d camp over one night, then hike back to our bikes (that we left chained to trees) and bike the rest of the way out to the parking lot and our cars.

While this sounded to me like something a tri-athlete would do, not doughy tech industry guys, Jason assured me it would be easy and fun. I mostly agreed to it since Jason is just about as doughy and inactive as me. I imagine the point he would start crying and curl up into a fetal ball begging for his mommy to be roughly fifteen minutes after me.

So, first step was to buy a cheap but decent mountain bike for the adventure. One that we wouldn’t be too crushed about if it walked off during the night we camped over at the lake. I was the first to strike gold with a very nice Trek 820 from a 10 minute old craigslist posting. Googling shows the overall opinion of the bike to be a nice entry-level “real” bike. Definitely better that any K-Mart or Target bike. What really sold it for me was the brand new tires, brand new pedals, and a rear luggage rack. All for only 50 bucks..

Here’s Sarah taking it for a spin today. This ones mine though. She can get her own…

I’ve spent the last three days in dry dock covered in sanding dust followed by toxic exotic paints. I’m sore, tired, and variously splotched. I guess I now really do need a vacation.

But first, a little backstory:

Edith: Meredith is Edith with Mer in front of it. Edith means rich war gift. Mer means sea. Meredith means rich sea war gift. Meredith is treasure. Meredith is a pirate’s name.

Me: Aaaarrrrrhhhhhh! Mad Meredith the Pirate Queen – silk-clad scourge of the seven seas. There’s a bodice-ripper plot for ya.

Edith: I’ll be sure to let Linda whatever her name is know. (Reference to Linda Berdoll who wrote a rather bodice-ripping sequel to Pride and Prejudice and is currently leaving snarky comments to bad customer reviews on Amazon.)

Me: Aaah… yeah. No. The problem with that one is that it was a bodice-ripper in disguise. People like to know what they’re getting into. I think Mad Meredith should be written by Fabio. (He’s got one pirate romance under his belt already.)

Edith: Umm.. ew.

Me: Yeah. So he’s not the greatest writer in the world, but he’s got pecs that could poke an eye out. (Hence Mad Meredith’s eye patch.) Is Mad Meredith Jewish too? “Ships ahoy vey?” (Hehehehe)

Edith: I think maybe you should write this one since you’ve got all the ideas.

Me: Perhaps Sarah Waters can write the pirate queen book. Might be interesting then….

Edith: That would be fantastic!!

Five minutes later and I’m thinking that there may be a rhyme coming on… perhaps a little she-sea-shanty.

Ode to Mad Meredith, Pirate Queen

Mad Meredith, the Pirate Queen,
She’ll cut your throat and eat your spleen.
She’s rougher than the worst of men,
A more feminine rogue there’s never been.

Mad Meredith, so slim and lean,
She’ll stop the fight so she can preen.
The worst of cads become her prey
For crossing her path on a bad hair day.

Mad Meredith, the Pirate Queen,
Can’t make her cook, can’t make her clean.
Her rapier wit is sharp and quick,
She’s one bad-ass butt-kicking chick.

Mad Meredith, with eyes so green,
And cleavage so deep it’s almost obscene.
That silk-clad form fools many a lord
And they find themselves at the end of her sword.

Mad Meredith, the Pirate Queen,
She’ll cut your throat and eat your spleen.
When she isn’t fixing you with her damnable glare,
She’s down below, washing her hair.

For the past four months, I’ve been working within a block of Arundel Books - a little shop that deals in collectible and used books. I’m such a huge book geek, you can just imagine my shock/joy when peering down the Madison Street hill one afternoon, I see this little corner book shop. (Unfortunately, I was running to catch a bus at the time, so I had to put off my first visit.)

A few days after this first sighting, I decided to take a look around the store during my lunch. I’ve noticed that bookstores have certain personas, often a reflection of their ownership. I was afraid that a bookstore touting collectible books might tend toward the slightly snooty side of the spectrum. I was wrong, wrong, wrong and boy am I ever glad that I was. From the moment I stepped into that shop, it felt like a release. I think I may even have let out a long sigh of relief.

The shop is small, but the bookshelves are probably 15 feet tall (perhaps closer to 20). Every shelf is packed with books and there are signs posted offering even more inventory in their warehouse. There’s nothing snooty at all about it. There’s an almost casual warmth to both the place itself and the people who work there - a book geek’s refuge.

Now my reaction may in part be because work has been extremely stressful this past month (more than usual due to several factors). And it’s definitely going to get worse before it gets any better. But it’s nice to know that I can escape to this place of kindred spirits for an hour at a time, surrounded by books and fellow book lovers.

For some reason, I’ve been in an organization and productivity mode. Something very odd for me. It might have something to do with seeing GTD popping up regularly on numerous sites I’ve been visiting over the last six months.

According to Wikipedia:

“GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.”

More importantly, by having those things recorded and a defined system to act upon them, those stressful toxin dumping mental nagging moments that happen a hundred times a day of things remembered to do or requiring your attention are dropped to zero. You are free to act in the moment. To devote your energy to the task at hand, knowing everything else has been recorded, and has been set to be acted upon.

Of course, I bucked against even looking into this for months because I can’t stand Stephen Covey and his bright-eyed psychotic Coveyites… But after listening to several GTD audiobooks, I’m hooked. The plan is logical. Best of all it works… My stress level is dropping, and I’m actually DOING more and getting, well, things done.

Cool…

My work desk…

This training stuff is rough…

The cab driver excitedly explained to me, on the way to the hotel from the airport, that it might actually rain today. It only rains about four times a year and it’s been over 100 degrees and sunny for weeks.

The picture above is my head. The result of walking about 20 feet across the street. I’ve been here two days. It’s rained two days. Perhaps it will just keep going, Texas will become a tropical paradise and they’ll name a city after me, like they did for Sam Housten. Or Yakko, Waco, and Dot.

And I thought I’d be sunning by the pool every day. Guess I’ll just have to take pleasure in the painfully exciting computer training I’m getting. The one with the huge test at the end of the week. The one that you need to study an extra 4 hours every night, after the 8 hour class every day.