« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »
May 31, 2005
Nationalité & citizenship
Christopher explained the difference between nationalité and citoyenneté this morning over coffee. (Coffee is a faux ami of café, by the way.) Based on an official answer, he seems to have overdone it, but perhaps I simply misunderstood.
The question came up because Nathalie's friends had asked me Sunday whether I'd acquired French nationality. Christopher says that while in France I benefit from the same obligations and protections as other French citizens, namely I'm subject to rule by the same laws. But I'm not a citizen. Nor am I a national. If I were in trouble in some other country, I'd have to rely on help from the USA, not France.
After being a guest here for 12 1/2 years, why not ask for nationality? I'm not sure how to answer that question. Woody Allen joked about it saying he wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have him as a member. For a while, I figured I'd wait at least until I feel I belong. Like Kafka.
There are lots of little things I do not understand. If I went back to live in the US, though, I might have the same problem.
Maybe I should ask the administration if I can acquire French citizenship, which might be done without relinquishing US citizenship. Don't think about it, just do it. See belonging as an instrument, rather than an inherent quality. In fact if I were truly coherent, I'd have to give up my US citizenship, since I don't belong there any more than I do here.
Posted by Mark at 08:53 PM | Comments (3)
Sluggish
Despite feeling exhausted last night, I slept only until 5:30. My head hurts a little, but mostly I have no energy. Hope this works.
Posted by Mark at 09:34 AM
May 30, 2005
Headache, part XV
It was raining steadily in Chambery. The chiropractor had a portable air conditioner with an exhaust pipe snaked out the window of his office. The waiting room window had been wide open.
He asked me why I'd come back, so I told him my headaches had not gone away. He explained that it might be something not in my spine, but in my skull. He asked me when the headaches start during my runs. They don't start right away, but after a few minutes. I also told him how sometimes running harder makes the headache recede.
He concluded I have -- cannot remember the medical term for it, something like surtension arterielle cranienne -- a problem related to circulation, in that the blood has an easier time going into my head than leaving. As a result the pressure builds and gives me a headache. The reason it would recede at higher heart rates he didn't explain technically, but told me more valves open when the system's working harder, so the pressure could be released by going to the limit. In my experience it's also possible that the pounding and lactic acid you get when pushing hard make everything uncomfortable, so you notice the headache less.
He checked my spine and found it okay. Then he applied various squeezes to my head. That felt quite strange. I tend to imagine the adult skull as completely rigid, but it was evident from what the chiropractor was doing that the skull is slightly elastic.
Now that it's over I feel unusually tired. He said I would very likely be tired this evening and perhaps tomorrow as well. My hope is that the circulation problem is primarily mechanical.
Posted by Mark at 07:51 PM
Birthday season, part V
It's the last one in our household for 2005. Today is Nathalie's birthday.
I've taken the day off to chauffeur the children to and from school, make lunch, etc. Diane's still managing to get on Nathalie's nerves. Diane's at that age where you could work full time just cleaning up after her as she roves through the house and yard.
Posted by Mark at 11:02 AM
EU constitution, part IV
It seems the French voters disagreed yesterday with the proposed EU constitution. 70% of those eligible turned out, and nearly 55% of them voted no.
Nathalie, and then Dad, wondered what this means for France in Europe. That's a good question. Maybe the French political class will agree with Jacques Delors, who suggested a second referendum in the event of a "no" result.
Posted by Mark at 10:58 AM
May 29, 2005
Thunder and rain
It has started to rain already. Metcheck.com and Yahoo Weather weren't expecting rain here until tomorrow afternoon. Only a few drops. It's already over, less than 10 minutes after it started. But maybe it'll take the temperature down a couple of degrees. We hope.
Posted by Mark at 09:16 PM
39:45/156
When it gets warm, Nathalie complains about leg pain. She says it's bad circulation. I'm trying to avoid bad circulation by keeping my blood flowing and my heart in reasonable condition. It was too hot to sit around, so I got on the bike and rode to La Rochette.
The valley between Pontcharra and La Rochette is generally cooler than the Isère valley. I was hoping there'd be a breeze. Then when I got to the roundabout at the edge of Pontcharra, I decided to push it through the gradual climb up to La Rochette. Won't be able to ride much tomorrow if we have storms in the afternoon. And the chiropractor is probably going to tell me, "No efforts for 48 hours," after he treats me.
My initial aim was to hold the pace above 20 mph (32.1 kph) uphill until the roundabout at the lake by La Rochette. Failed miserably. Each time I'd get and hold the speed above the mark, I could tell it wasn't going to last. The incline is not that even, either. In spots doing 20 mph isn't that hard. In others 29 kph (18 mph) can be tough to maintain. But I worked at it. Was sweating a lot by the time I reached the roundabout on the other end.
Upon starting downhill at the intersection where you can go straight to Pontcharra or left to Allevard, I decided I wanted to hold it over 40 kph (24.9 mph) all the way back to the edge of Pontcharra. That I managed, only once or twice slipping below 42 kph (26.1 mph). I found the right cadence was around 108, but shifted only when increasing above 110 or below 105. At that number of rpms, you keep the heart pumping even if you're down on the drops, getting enough blood and oxygen to your legs to keep them relatively fresh. Plus you don't have to push hard against big gears.
Posted by Mark at 08:55 PM
Long lunch
Nathalie invited Agathe, Stephane, and their two boys for lunch today, so they rode over from Lyon. We had a simple meal, but didn't get away from the table until 4 pm. By that time Stephane was falling asleep in one of the living room chairs, and Diane was trying to keep him awake.
We ended up driving to "downtown" Barraux and having a walk around there, since Nathalie figured there'd be more shade in town than around Fort Barraux. There wasn't too much shade, but the boys found the fountains and soaked each other. All three are thin and didn't seem to mind the heat until we'd been walking for over half an hour. Then Benjamin got something in his left eye that caused an allergic reaction. His eye swelled almost shut. We washed it out with eyedrops, and he said it was okay, but it looked like somebody'd boxed him.
Emma wasn't too exhausted to eat tonight, but Tim and Diane only wanted to watch television. Diane seems to have fallen alseep with the light on and the windows and door open. That's a far cry from what she's been doing since Michel and Colette's visit, which is getting up and bugging us until 10 pm.
Posted by Mark at 08:47 PM
37:02/159
Ran over to Chapareillan and back around 10 am. My back was bothering me at the outset and my head hurt a bit while running. Picking up the pace sometimes helps, so I ran the middle hard, making this a tempo run. That lessened the aches somewhat.
The heat was already starting to build. Eventually during the afternoon we had a max. temperature around 33 C (91 F) in the shade. That's high for late May. It was also quite humid. I've lost weight since 2003, however, so 33 doesn't seem as hot as it used to.
Posted by Mark at 08:42 PM
Mother's Day flowers
A few shots from around the garden.
In the last couple of weeks we seem to have moved out of spring and into summer, even if officially three weeks remain before the solstice.
Posted by Mark at 08:26 AM
Cheese & smoke
At this point it is not clear whether to ascribe this morning's stuffyheadedness to cheese on pizza or to smoke. I'm convinced however that the feeling of having had my intestines filled with expansive foam comes from the cheese. Felt too bloated to run this morning, which I might otherwise have done despite the aches in my back.
Yesterday we spent late afternoon with Nathalie and Eric down in La Gache. Nathalie used to babysit Emma a couple of times a week at her house. Eric's had a pool put in since then. The children were dying to go in. It's an aboveground pool of roughly uniform depth, so would be too deep for Diane and probably Emma. Tim has swimming lessons and even a certificate to prove he learned. He went in and paddled around. At that point Diane and Emma were so adamant we had to hold them over the edges and dip them in the water. Diane screamed when we eventually had to leave.
Eric's a smoker. I realized yesterday how long it's been since I've been exposed to more than a whiff of tobacco smoke. Maybe I've inherited Dad's allergy to tobacco smoke, because even before leaving their house I had a scratchy throat. But it was nice to see them. They seem to be doing okay.
We left at almost 7 pm, so Nathalie phoned in an order for take out pizzas. I've been avoiding milk products since the chiropractor and then Matt said all they'll do is make it harder for my body to recover from training, and they may cause me allergies as the liver and body systems typically occupied with allergens have to finish digesting the lactate and the components of cow's milk the intestines cannot handle. Last night I was hungry and wanted to know if eating cheese would really make a difference, or if the guys I heard it from had been taken in by New Age nutritional nonsense.
On the one hand, I only have one good data point so far. On the other hand, it firmly backs up their shared theory. No more large doses of dairy products the night before a morning run.
Posted by Mark at 08:04 AM
Happy Mother's Day
Today is Mother's Day in France. The children had made gifts for Nathalie. Tim had a poem to recite. Emma had a song.
They couldn't wait until Nathalie got out of bed, so we brought her coffee. Nathalie didn't want me to take pictures until she's had a chance to brush her hair.
Posted by Mark at 07:57 AM
May 28, 2005
THX 1138
Speaking of science fiction by George Lucas, I got THX 1138 from the CE videotheque at work yesterday. Friday night television is bad enough that Nathalie didn't mind my watching it.
It sent her off to read after about 15 minutes. THX 1138 is a sort of art film inspired by a mix of George Orwell, early 1960s America, and California as a life style. Unlike Frank Zappa's music however it seemed awfully sparse. Perhaps I simply didn't understand enough of it to get all the subtleties. Perhaps I should watch it in English.
Then I saw part of the bonus, which was George Lucas and Walter Murch (coauthor and sound guy) talking about how they didn't expect me to understand it. The film is copyright 1970. I guess since then Hollywood has become less experimental. How many films do they make nowadays where the unknown screenplay writers tell you up front they don't want you to be able to figure out what's going on?
You can probably get away with it, but you have to have done something comprehensible or at least commercially successful already.
Posted by Mark at 02:38 PM
Star Wars
Since the latest Star Wars episode appeared in cinemas, it's become a big deal to Tim. Must be a hot topic at school. He's disappointed not to have gotten a light saber for his birthday.
Now he's watching a recording of the original film. I didn't recall how cheesy the special effects were. And the guy dubbing Darth Vador's voice in French just doesn't cut it at all.
I'm less interested than Tim at this point, but whatever the story says, it's clear the real fall of the Empire was due to criminal incompetence of all instructors at the Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship.
Posted by Mark at 02:30 PM
1:35:54/158
Rode the bike this morning to avoid getting a headache. Added some sprints and longer repeats because the last hard workout was Wednesday.
My stats on the bike for this week counting three round trips to work:
- 4:01:24 total time*
- 999.0 (620.9 mi) km on the odometer
- 66.2 kph (41.1 mph) max.
- 27.3 kph (17.0 mph) avg.*
- 109.9 km (68.3 mi) this week
*Includes walking the bike with the computer attached, especially around train stations and in trains.
I have an appointment with the chiropractor Monday afternoon. My hope is that he'll have a better understanding of what's wrong and be able to give me some stretches or exercises to fix the problem long term.
Posted by Mark at 02:15 PM
May 27, 2005
Coming out
The whole Netscape DS going open source story finally got slashdotted.
There are lots of comments. Some people have a clue. Others don't yet in true Slashdot reader fashion go ahead and comment anyway.
Neat to see that folks are using SLAMD to compare directory performance for their applications.
Posted by Mark at 01:15 PM
20:05/138
Jogged over to the gym. Came back after only a couple of laps. Bad headache that's still with me. Took a pill, but that's either not taken effect yet or it's worse that usual. Felt like the problem was even affecting my sight.
My back was still threatening to seize up this morning. In contrast to early problems, the latest headaches come with pain in my upper back and burn in the neck right away before reaching up to the head.
Guess this is curtains for the Chambery marathon. This is supposed to be the second week of training.
Posted by Mark at 01:10 PM
May 26, 2005
Taking the train, part V
There's a lot to do at work right now. It seems like I'm falling behind.
This morning it felt that way on the bicycle as well. But on the stretch around the edge of the university I was holding it at around 40 kph (25 mph), which is quick for me. Arrived at work sweating quite a bit.
Got too busy today, and had to go to lunch with colleagues, so I decided to take a rest from running.
Left work at the end of the day with 22 minutes to make the train, but made it 5-6 minutes ahead of time. I'm going to have to recalculate my marathon training schedule if I keep riding like this to work, headaches or no headaches.
Posted by Mark at 09:40 PM
May 25, 2005
26:19/162
6.5 km (4 mi) run. Headache, which has since disappeared. Lower back felt like it was going to seize up while I leaned over the water cooler.
Posted by Mark at 10:55 AM
Taking the train, part IV
Going into the middle of a third week of taking the train, I find myself riding as if it were a workout rather than a ride to work. Today's an easy day for running training with a gentle 5 km recovery run planned.
But on the bike I keep getting this urge to do what I can to hold the pace over 32.1 kph (20 mph) in all the straightaways. Hal Higdon warns that improved riding speeds will be at the expense of running speed. Taking the bike computer off so I cannot know with much precision how fast I'm going would be admitting that I cannot learn to be patient, and I'm too stubborn for that.
Posted by Mark at 07:40 AM
May 24, 2005
EU constitution, part III
This weekend the French have a referendum on the proposed EU constitution. Although of course I don't have a vote to cast, I decided to start reading the thing since the state sent Nathalie a paper copy.
It's not exactly an exciting read, but I found an interesting section in there before falling asleep. Article 46, which is entitled in the English version, "The principle of participatory democracy." For a moment I thought they were going to propose direct legislative capabilities, as does the National Initiative for Democracy in the US.
Not so, however. Basically Article 46 says the EU has to keep people informed, let the discuss, and listen to what they say if at least a million of them are in agreement. They can "invite the Commission to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Constitution."
Posted by Mark at 10:25 PM
Off road biking, part II
In the biking vein, Joanne and I were having a cup of coffee, talking about riding around. She decided to get one of those contraptions to raise her handlebars up. Said it made riding much more comfortable. She's thinking about getting a more comfortable seat as well.
Nathalie would've liked a more comfortable seat the day we spent on Porquerolles. Gary walked up to the coffee machine and agreed with Joanne that she should get a nicely padded, wide seat. He feels life is too short to have painful bicycle seats. Janetta suggested the recumbant bike posture is the right overall solution, but agreed it wouldn't be right for off road biking. I told them that Dana eventually decided in favor of a recumbant and was pleased with his choice.
My road bike came with a slim, uncomfortable looking saddle that actually turned out to be better than any I can remember. Perhaps I have a pointy pelvis. Yet part of the saddle comfort's due to the handlebars being lower than the seat. Also if you're working hard and enjoying yourself, you tend to notice small discomforts less. If it's a choice between endorphins and boredom, I'll take endorphins.
Posted by Mark at 10:02 PM
Off road biking
When we went to Porquerolles, I had great fun riding around on a mountain bike, regressing back to a time of popping wheelies and jumping ramps built of scrap wood.
On a road bike you can have the fun of smooth high speeds, intense exercise, distance workouts. The difference with off road biking at least as we did it the other day is that with a road bike, I'm still riding to get somewhere. With a mountain bike I was riding mainly for entertainment.
Nathalie saw me looking at mountain bikes on the web and forbade me to get one for her birthday. She said she'd rather have a printer. I'll have to get her something silly instead. She's becoming too much of an adult for her own good.
Posted by Mark at 09:48 PM
31:01/165
30-minute tempo run. Out in 17, back in 14. Speeding up pushed the headache into the background, but I still need to get more treatment.
Posted by Mark at 05:52 PM
May 23, 2005
38:06/146
Ran over to the gym, exercised for a few minutes. I couldn't get myself to do anything that involved moving the legs while in push-up position with my arms on the floor. Bad headache pain. Guess I need to see the doctor(s) again to say what we tried isn't working.
Posted by Mark at 01:16 PM
May 22, 2005
Vegetables
Got into a sort of argument with Nathalie over vegetables. Like nearly everyone with children, and lots of people without children, we don't eat enough vegetables. Nathalie took it as a personal affront, because she does most of the cooking. She sees cooking purely as a chore, and eating mainly as a chore. You can see by the way she throws the settings on the table that she wishes she didn't have to do it. I'm probably mainly worried about not losing enough weight, although my running's going so badly right now that it doesn't matter.
It's not entirely clear why we're this tense. Some of what's making it worse: vacation, visiting, driving around the Cote d'Azur, Nathalie looking for a job, the approaching end of white collar jobs like mine in "expensive" locations (i.e. the western world) meaning I have to figure out how to reconvert myself without losing income, Nathalie's headaches from a stiff neck, my headaches also from spinal misalignment, the children, fatigue, a bad mattress, the looming routine, etc.
Vacation always leaves me tense. If you don't come back from time off with hopes so dashed you're suicidal, you must like Böll's story about the fisherman relaxing on the beach. You may find it means something, something about the second law of thermodynamics.
Colette organized a visit to Beaufort for this afternoon. Timothee and Emma were excited about that. Children have very low expectations. Even so, they spend a lot of time disappointed.
My head hurts. I decided to stay here. Nathalie was mad enough about the vegetables she didn't say goodbye.
Posted by Mark at 02:24 PM
1:30:12/149
19.6 km (12.2 mi) as a 3/1 run. Was supposed to go run a half marathon in St. Marcellin this morning, but I didn't wake up early enough and the alarm was an hour late.
Neck and upper back hurt for the first two laps, then was just generally tight. Today I didn't feel like running at all. I'm apprehensive each run until it's over. At this rate I may not even try to run the Chambery marathon in September.
Posted by Mark at 02:20 PM
May 21, 2005
Awning
Helped Michel put up the awning Nathalie wanted behind the house. It's a big yellow thing, 4 x 3 m. She wants to be able to sit out on the back porch in the afternoon with the children without getting burnt up in the hot sun.
Before that I cut the grass in the back yard. Michel had cut the front yard this week. One of those cuts where you empty the bag many, many times, and breathe in lungfulls of chopped dust. Can feel the tension in my neck, but my head's okay. Might run tomorrow.
Posted by Mark at 05:20 PM
May 20, 2005
Avignon
We'd never been to Avignon together so we stopped there for lunch.
After that we came back home. The kids were glad to see us.
Posted by Mark at 10:13 PM
Cassis
Nathalie wanted to see the cliffs, but we didn't feel like taking the boat.
We saw a few shreads of beach, mostly lots of fences around beachfront property belonging to people who didn't want us looking in.
Posted by Mark at 10:02 PM
How to cook
Nath said she likes to eat fish at restaurants because it's cooked correctly. I wondered why so many cookbooks focus on recipes, rather than how to cook many foods people typically eat when they're in the mood to go so far as to read about it, rather than just make what they know how to cook.
Perhaps we haven't looked for cookbooks in the right places. Instead of buying recipe books, we should look in the section of the bookstore where they keep the textbooks for beginning cooking students.
Posted by Mark at 10:00 PM
May 19, 2005
Riding around
Today the weather's warm and clear. After breakfast I went for a ride around some of the villages. Down to Ste Anne d'Évenos, Le Beausset, Le Castellet, Le Brulat, La Cadière d'Azur, St Cyr sur mer, Bandol, Sanary sur mer, Le Brusc, up near Notre Dame du Mai, Fabrégas, Les Sablettes, La Seyne sur mer, Toulon, Les Pomets, up through the Col du Corps de Garde, down to Le Broussan, and back here to Évenos and the bed and breakfast.
Didn't take enough water, and took too many supplies. The backpack felt particularly heavy up from Toulon to the Col du Corps de Garde.
Spent about 3 1/2 hours riding with a couple of stops at the seaside. 87.7 km.
Posted by Mark at 09:55 PM
May 18, 2005
Driving through Toulon
Whoever said driving through Toulon around rush hour is bad... was right. We took a side road and still got stuck in traffic 10 km from the city center.
Posted by Mark at 09:54 PM
L'Ile de Porquerolles
We took the ferry from Giens to Porquerolles today. Porquerolles is a relatively small island. You can rent a mountain bike and see the main sites in a few hours, even taking it quite easy.
Nathalie and I managed to ride up to a pass, the Col du Langoustier. Cannot tell for sure -- I don't have the map -- but it seems that col is less than 85 m above sea level.
Posted by Mark at 09:41 PM
1:15:41/155
Jogged this morning down to Le Beausset, back up to the lookout point in Évenos, then back to the bed and breakfast.
No headache at this point. Maybe it's the lack of stress during the day.
The roundabout where I turned back in Le Beausset is at 168 m above sea level. Évenos is at 361 m according to the IGN map of this area. Ste Anne d'Évenos in the middle is at 146 m.
Posted by Mark at 09:38 PM
May 17, 2005
Thunderstorm
It's over now, but we had quite a thunderstorm roll in this afternoon.
The ground's so dry underneath the water just runs off.
Posted by Mark at 09:33 PM
Le Castellet
After breakfast Nath and I went to Le Castellet near Le Beausset, which is a touristy place, but it's not yet tourist season.
The vegetation down here is very different from home. In addition to the flowering cacti we saw lemon trees, wild figs already ripe, and so on.
Posted by Mark at 09:24 PM
Mont Caume
Thought I could ride up Mont Caume after running. Riding around here is odd, all uphill and downhill.
Got halfway up Mont Caume on a lumpy little road and reached the 2 km marker. Then I saw the summit shrouded in clouds and started feeling cold. It was 8:05 am. So I turned around.
Starting back down turned out to be downright scary with loose brakes and steep roadsides. Had the feeling I'd had years ago when climbing too far up a tree. Then I realized I could walk down with SPD shoes. So I got off the bike and enjoyed the view of Toulon and the Mediterranean.
Posted by Mark at 09:20 PM
25:08/162
3 x 400 m hills this morning. Ran past Évenos and back to warm up. Some headache pain during the warmdown.
Posted by Mark at 09:18 PM
Bandol
Last night we spent some time looking for dinner. There wasn't much open in Le Beausset. We ended up down the hill by the sea in Bandol.
Ate a Corsican sausage called a figatelli, which turned out to be tough to digest. But nobody interrupted our dinner at least.
Posted by Mark at 09:17 PM
May 16, 2005
View from Evenos
Posted by Mark at 09:14 PM
Days off
Michel and Colette have agreed to take care of the children this week. Nathalie and I are going on vacation without them.
Tim and Emma seemed okay with that. Diane doesn't seem to understand fully, yet.
Posted by Mark at 08:59 AM | Comments (1)
May 15, 2005
Finding things
Martin Hardee mentions the "Gordian knot of web site complexity" he deals with at work. IMHO, he and the folks he work with do an amazingly good job given how many people in almost every corner of our company have something to add somewhere to our external site.
Although I'm guilty of adding regularly to the mass of information, most of what I create for the external web now again comes to the docs.sun.com formatting engines as SolBook SGML (actually equivalent XML). At least the folks in Martin's extended team can make it look like it should.
But how can they help you find things?
Occasionally I do navigate through websites I know, like ours. But when I don't know the three clicks to get to something, I go through a search engine. Don't you?
For example, if I want to find something in the Directory Server 5.2 doc set, isn't it faster to Google for:
"Directory Server 5.2" what I'm looking for site:docs.sun.com
than to remember where I put it? And that's even for content I wrote. You can bet I don't try to navigate often to content someone else put there.
Posted by Mark at 07:16 PM
Back tire, part II
Less than two months and the reinforced Michelin Pro Race back tire I fitted in late March already has a deep slice in the sidewall that causes the tire to lose pressure overnight.
Nathalie suggests keeping those tires for the weekend for sport rides, and buying cheaper, heavier tires for the commute. Kind of like putting snow tires on a Porsche. But it makes more sense than spending 30-odd euros every 6 weeks on a new back tire.
Posted by Mark at 05:43 PM | Comments (1)
Phishing spam
Spam comes in all the time. For the last year, lots of it has been phishing stuff such as what I got today in one of my mail accounts:
This had a link to emodule05.com, which according to whois, is registered to James Harris.
Getting spam didn't surprise me. What surprised me is that it is so quick and easy to find a name associated with the domain used for the spam scheme. I didn't realize phishing was legal. Can't you get in trouble for posting schemes to steal people's personal information?
Ah... okay, there are a few levels of indirection behind this... James Harris probably doesn't exist, any more than LeiMomi01 Design, tom.com, Wyith Ltd, etc.
Then you look these guys up and find a bunch of pages fighting spammers. Lots of bottom feeders out there.
Posted by Mark at 02:35 PM | Comments (1)
Home improvements, part II
Nathalie's finishing up the wallpaper in our room.
It's clearer in there than with the carpet on the walls. Hope she finds it closer to what she wanted.
Posted by Mark at 02:15 PM
Party, part III
Tim had his other presents today. With Dad's participation, we bought him a mini stereo. He's listening to it now. He and his sisters were dancing and singing along.
We'd rather have him listening to music in his room than playing video games on a console attached to the television.
Posted by Mark at 02:07 PM
Headache, part XIV
Tried running this morning, though I felt bad before even going out. I ran 4 minutes. Everything hurt. So I gave up. Nathalie says I should call the chiropractor tomorrow.
Posted by Mark at 02:06 PM
May 14, 2005
Restaurants on the brain
I don't know who's been pestering me more, Tim with his mania about building a cabin out in the yard or Emma with her relentless desire to get the whole family to a restaurant for dinner.
Emma's come upstairs to tell me that Mom and Grandma want to go as long as I pay. When I told her someone needs to call for a reservation, I overheard her asking her mother about it. It was obvious from the rejection she got that she'd not yet brought up the subject. So she came crying to me for finances to get her grandfather to take her out this week. No big deal, but she's been trying stuff like this every day since she knew her grandparents were coming to visit.
Posted by Mark at 06:39 PM
Headache, part XIII
Not sure what it was. It started before the birthday party today, but I'd done nothing strenuous. Finally took two ibuprofen. They only worked for a couple of hours.
My neck hurts. I found one spot where pressure causes local pain. Maybe that's it. Maybe I worked out too soon after seeing the chiropractor. Maybe it's something more sinister than a little mechanical problem.
Posted by Mark at 06:30 PM
Birthday season, part IV
We're almost at the end of birthday season at our house. Tomorrow's birthday boy:
After that Nathalie's the only one left before next year.
Posted by Mark at 06:27 PM
Party, part II
Tim only ended up having 4 friends, one who was a friend of Emma's, at his birthday party this afternoon.
With only seven children we managed to stay inside without going crazy. Michel had set up a pig as the target in the garage and even made darts out of thin wood and cardboard. They enjoyed Nathalie's game of panning for gold down there as well.
This was the first time we've actually seen them all eat their cake. Not only did we have less candy to start with and wait until almost quarter til 5 to bring out the birthday cake, but it was also a few degrees cooler than when we have birthday parties in the yard.
Posted by Mark at 06:15 PM
Some like wet weather
Emma fed this one salad all afternoon.
Posted by Mark at 06:06 PM
Haircut, part II
Both girls had already slept on their hair by the time I took these:
Posted by Mark at 06:00 PM
Rain, part VII
Tim invited a few friends over today to celebrate his birthday, which is tomorrow. Nathalie's figured out what to do with a group of excited 8&9-year-olds. A treasure hunt, panning for gold (sifting through couscous for buried M&Ms), bake your own bread, the inevitable piñata, the birthday cake nobody eats because they had too much candy already, etc.
It would be good to get them outside for most of the party, but the weather doesn't look like it will cooperate. If Metcheck.com is right, even if it does stop raining in the afternoon the ground will be soggy.
Tim would rather build a cabin in our yard. When he talks about it, I see he's thinking about a concrete shed in which he could spend the night. A shame he won't settle for a tent.
Posted by Mark at 06:20 AM
Wedding
If everything went according to plan, Matt and Debra got married in Kaua'i while we were asleep over here.
We're waiting to compare the photos with Andy and Sonja's. They're certain to look less formal than Nathalie and I getting married in Desvres.
Posted by Mark at 06:09 AM
May 13, 2005
Compression
This week I took the car two days and the train three. Tuesday I took the car so I could go to Chambéry to see the chiropractor straight from work. Wednesday I did again after the chiropractor told me to take it very easy.
The other days, I still found myself running almost late each time. Taking the train compresses my day, at least on both ends. And we have lots of work to do. I find myself jumping in and dashing off. Need to get used to the rhythm.
Posted by Mark at 08:42 PM
Haircut
Since I've been taking the train and bike to work, I end up washing my hair up to three times per day. It was relatively short but unkempt, so I went to our hairdresser in Barraux, Chez Yvonne.
I told Yvonne's sister to cut it relatively short. That turned into what Nathalie describes as a military-looking cut. You can see the scalp on the sides and back. Admittedly it looks funny, making me uglier than usual. But I can probably wash it as much as I want. Don't even need a comb.
Michel and Colette are here. Michel was in charge of making dinner, since Nathalie and Colette went to Aix-les-Bains to the spa for mud baths, massages, and that sort of thing. Both girls went with me to Yvonne's. They got their hair braided, and look a lot less silly than their dad.
Posted by Mark at 08:35 PM | Comments (1)
1:14:18/153
Ran over to the gym, worked out, came back. Headache almost immediately and for the duration. Maybe I just need to lay off a while. Not sure I can run a half-marathon by the end of next week.
Posted by Mark at 04:10 PM
May 12, 2005
34:57/140
Jogged and walked around the 6 1/4 km circuit. Stopped to walk each time my head hurt, which was too often. Very discouraging.
Posted by Mark at 03:18 PM
May 11, 2005
Donation
Didier drove German and me over to the hospital in La Tronche this noon for the three of us to give blood. Last time I went was before training for the Lyon marathon. I cannot run today anyway, doctor's orders.
Didier and the nurse thought I was going to faint, but I felt no weaker than usual. Didier and German seemed fine, but the nurse had to try both of Didier's arms before getting it right.
Posted by Mark at 01:31 PM
Weird sensations
At about 4h15 this morning I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. My neck and back felt... not wrong, just odd. Another side effect of yesterday's visit to the chiropractor seems to be these periods of feeling slightly intoxicated.
My body must be relieved or tired or something. I've also had several attacks of laughter.
Posted by Mark at 01:27 PM
May 10, 2005
Headache, part XII
The chiropractor asked me how much milk I drink. He says we lack an enzyme necessary to finish digesting cows' milk in the intestine, and so the liver and potentially other systems have to finish the job. He told me that it can even prevent the body from recovering after training, meaning training becomes less effective. It can also lead to troubles processing other irritants, meaning milk products can be linked to allergies.
So he suggested I consider backing off on milk products while training. I asked him about calcium deficiency. He said not to worry much about that, because the body cannot get the calcium it needs from milk products anyway, due to the difficulties of digesting milk. I'd do better to eat more fish, shellfish, nuts, and fruit. He also suggested I aim to eat carbs that have been processed less, such as brown rice, or whole wheat noodles.
He also looked at the x-rays, and at the prescription for physical therapy. He said it probably wouldn't help me in the long term.
Then he examined my neck and back, finding tight spots. So he performed some manipulations on my spine, which made knuckle cracking noises. Then he examined my neck and back again.
The effect surprised me. I can now turn my head all the way to the left without resistance.
He told me "pas d'efforts" tomorrow. If I feel good Thursday, I can go for a short, gentle run, but nothing hard for 48 hours. I was feeling slightly intoxicated somehow after the visit.
By the time I got home, my head was hurting, however, as were my neck and shoulders. Nathalie says it's normal. Her body always reacts that way after she sees the chiropractor.
Posted by Mark at 09:09 PM
24:37/160
Ran the 6 1/4 km loop with a long acceleration in the middle along the Isère. No headache while running.
Posted by Mark at 09:01 PM
May 09, 2005
Headache, part XI
This is the first day in a week that I haven't felt the need to take painkillers in the evening, despite having spent about 2 hours exercising all told.
Posted by Mark at 08:17 PM
1:17:05/146
Ran to the gym and back today. My head didn't hurt while running, but exercises on the floor with the head held out straight, such as push ups, were all quite painful.
Posted by Mark at 01:35 PM
May 08, 2005
Home improvements
Nathalie couldn't take it anymore. The carpet on the walls of our bedroom makes it too gloomy in there, and she's convinced it's all full of dust.
This morning she's taking off the molding so we can tear off the strips of carpet. We're going to replace the light blue carpet with off white wallpaper.
Posted by Mark at 11:23 AM
2:27:45/156
Nathalie stayed with the children while I got out on the bicycle. The weather this morning was perfect for a long run, a bit windy and chilly early for a long ride. I overdressed and ran out of water too soon, but otherwise everything went fairly well. Even got to increase my max. speed since getting the bike computer: 70.1 kph (43.6 mph) downhill on the D 204. Still need to go uphill somewhere if I want to go very fast.
Okay, I'll admit it. I'm injured.
I can go out for about 2 1/2 hours on the bicycle doing almost 75 km (47 km) at 30.4 kph (18.9 mph) average -- in other words, a reasonable workout for my condition -- but start running and I get a very painful headache.
Hope the chiropracter can put me right. I'd like to go to the track this afternoon and practice timing, but dread the pain in advance.
Posted by Mark at 11:12 AM | Comments (2)
May 07, 2005
Headache, part X
The doctor taking x-rays concluded my sinuses are not the problem.
Too bad I couldn't get an acceptable scan of the x-ray showing my neck bones slightly out of joint at the base.
Posted by Mark at 04:29 PM
Sticky fingers
Small children with slimy hands are drawn to clean glass by an almost magnetic force.
Notice the difference in transparency halfway up the door.
Posted by Mark at 04:13 PM
The Call of Cthulhu
In the summer of 1926, H. P. Lovecraft wrote The Call of Cthulhu, later published in Weird Tales. I read it again this afternoon.
Lovecraft adds depth to his fiction with the Elder Ones, R'lyeh, Abdul Alhazred's Necronomicon, the entire faculty of Miskatonic, the city of Arkham. In the same way as Stanislaw Lem, he easily pulls in references that hint at a whole world of the same scope as Tlön, taking over at the outskirts of the familiar. These guys were great liars.
Although The Call of Cthulhu fails to leave as lasting an impression of impending doom as At the Mountains of Madness, it's quite a classic. All of Lovecraft's stuffy New England racism bubbles to the surface, his nightmares blister over and ooze pus. All of his cold sweat shakes and starts resemble Thomas Mann, seasick and feverish, come to America, land of extremes.
Posted by Mark at 03:39 PM
Headache, part IX
Went in for x-rays of my head this morning. Dr. Rantz wants to use the x-rays to help determine whether it's sinusitis or misalignment in my neck bones.
Tuesday I'm going to see Nathalie's chiropractor, since part of the prescription is to visit a physical therapist, and Dr. Schuhwerker can do that. He may also be able to explain how the marathon threw my jaw out of alignment.
I'm considering laying off my regular running until I've seen Dr. Schuhwerker, perhaps going out on the bicycle instead in the meantime. Trouble is, the weather, which was beautiful this morning, has now turned colder and cloudier. Metcheck.com predicts no rain, but plenty of wind and 13-14 C (55-57 F), so I'll probably want to ride covered up.
Posted by Mark at 11:11 AM
3:17:05
Didn't wear my heart monitor for this, since it was the time spent either riding the bike or walking it through the train stations at Pontcharra and Gières.
The distance for the week was 85.1 km, a little over 10 1/2 km each way going to and from work, since that represents 4 days.
I need to think about riding more slowly. Even though I took Friday off in terms of running, the 21 km I rode meant my legs didn't get total rest.
Posted by Mark at 11:07 AM
May 06, 2005
Silence
For the middle of the day we shut power down in the offices and labs at work. At lot of people are out today.
The calm had me thinking about the monks in the Chartreuse who had taken vows silence. Christopher put it this way:
The monks having taken vows of silence were permitted to utter one sentence, collectively, per year. So they agreed to take turns.The first year, John's turn came around when the monks were having peas for dinner. "Mmm! Great peas," he said.
The next year, it was Greg's turn. "John, you were right about those great peas last year," he replied.
The third year, Fred had his chance to speak. "Guys, shut up about the peas for crying out loud!"
Posted by Mark at 03:21 PM
Usability
After Matt suggested perhaps Fedora might manage to handle the wireless device easily in the laptop on which I installed Solaris 10, I decided to try Fedora Core 3 in the disk space left over.
Two usability problems have kept me from using the laptop.
- Fedora installed Grub such that Solaris 10 won't boot.
- Fedora's support for the USB mouse that came with the laptop is flaky; After a minute or so the mouse pointer drifts off to the corners of the screen and I lose control over it.
Funny how those little configuration problems render the all software on the machine basically useless. Even funnier, I quit using the laptop because of them, even though I'm sure they're easy to fix.
Posted by Mark at 09:49 AM
Anniversary
It's been a year today, over 1000 entries. I saw a blurb about blogging in some junk mail Nathalie got. We must be very close now to blogging going the way of Orkut, LinkedIn, Under Construction signs, pet rocks, and hula hoops.
Posted by Mark at 09:07 AM
The Colour Out of Space
Read The Colour Out of Space as a bedtime story yesterday. It's not clear why H.P. Lovecraft chose British spelling for the title, but use of "grey" in place of "gray" makes sense.
His stories seem so quiet, as though you drift off to sleep while reading them, sinking into bad dreams. Unlike other horror his doesn't seem to rely on surprise even for suspense. You can reread the better stories over again without dispelling the shadows. After putting the story down, the cold remains. You can go out in broad daylight and see darkness underlying sunlight, the quiet tension amidst weariness, the desperation felt when depression becomes tinged with paranoia.
H. P. Lovecraft seems almost Lutheran.
Posted by Mark at 08:53 AM
May 05, 2005
Two architects
Matthieu and Tim have been excited for the last couple of days about the "cabin" they've planned and had built next to the cherry tree.
According to Tim this morning they were planning to have me connect pipes from their place to the sewer so they could put in toilets and a bathtub he and Matthieu are going to carve from solid oak. They're not going to put in a shower stall, however. Not enough space.
Matthieu expects to pour concrete walls around the twigs and vines, and Tim will put insulation under the roof. They don't expect to have a concrete roof, since that might be too heavy.
So far, they've gotten Michael to lash together a ladder of apple branches which I sawed to size. Michael roped it to the cherry tree and pull out some branches I've not yet been able to take to the dump. He arranged the branches to give the impression of an inside and an outside.
As far as Tim's concerned, they're almost done. Matthieu was up in the tree with the spy glass, peering at the house.
Posted by Mark at 04:15 PM
40:54/145
Anguish is slightly too strong to describe most of today's run. My head hurt enough that I stopped to walk twice. Less than a kilometer into this 8 km run, I was seriously contemplating turning back. Another kilometer and I couldn't seriously contemplate, period.
The only good thing about this is how it forces me to run as smoothly as possible. Even minor jarring sends stabs of pain up the back of my head and around to the temples.
The nose sprays have done nothing noticeable. Looks like I need to see the physical therapist if I want to continue running, or pulling weeds for that matter. Either that or find some way to get prescription heroin.
Posted by Mark at 04:05 PM
May 04, 2005
Taking the train, part III
The rain's only been a problem once in three days. The road however wants to knock the fillings out of my teeth in spots.
I've been trying to keep a cadence at 105 rpms, except for the last bit uphill to the house. My best time between the station in Gières and Montbonnot is about 15-16 minutes. I keep forgetting to check the odometer, but the average speed must be fairly high (for me). Couldn't keep the pace up for an hour.
On the train itself, if I catch one that goes from Pontcharra to Gières or vice versa without stopping, the train ride takes only 17-19 minutes. Not even enough to do much reading. Only once has there been plenty of space for all the bikes. So it's less convenient than I'd originally hoped.
Lastly I'm not yet organized enough. Always in a rush when it comes time to catch the train, and the workday seems uncomfortably abridged.
Posted by Mark at 10:19 PM
1:08:46/156
Had a headache from the beginning almost to the end. The headache's gone now.
Did this one as a fast finish run, going steady at a relatively easy pace the first 12 km, then gradually speeding up to finish at an all out sprint over the last 2 km. So my heart rate most of the time was about 150, though I finished at almost 190.
Posted by Mark at 02:02 PM
May 03, 2005
Hailstones
Karine left work at about 5:30 to pick up her husband David at work in Eybens. She said he'd called her because their other car got smashed up with 4-cm (almost 2-in) hailstones.
We had some hail at work, tiny little chips. I was glad it let up, though. Half an hour later I had to ride 20 minutes to get the train in Gières.
Metcheck.com says things should clear up tomorrow morning, but it should be chilly when I ride downhill to catch the train. Right now we're still having thunderstorms.
Posted by Mark at 09:49 PM
Nath's favorite
Maindru Photo was taking pictures of us in Lyon the day we ran. Nathalie likes this one.
There's another one of me with a stride about 6 inches long. They took it in the park at about kilometer 38.
The photos are expensive, however. I'd be willing to get one if it showed me striding first through the tape at the end. Guess I'll have to train more.
Posted by Mark at 09:38 PM
Diane's third birthday
Mick and Jeanne finally arrived with Matthieu and Alexis yesterday in the early evening after spending 9 hours in the car. The boys were glad to get out and run around.
I arrived home shortly after that. It was time to have dinner and then cake for Diane's birthday.
The dinner went well, even with 5 children at the table. But when Nathalie brought Diane's cake, the battery on the camera ran out, and I hadn't charged the spare. So I'm not sure we have photos or video. Also, when Diane saw the cake, she started screaming, got in my arms, and buried her face in my shoulder.
Getting 50% older all at once is hard to take. Maybe her brother had been telling her that when she made it to three years old, she'd have to move out of the house.
Posted by Mark at 02:36 PM | Comments (2)
33:42/137
Didier and I chatted through 6 1/4 km. I aim to take it easy this week.
Posted by Mark at 02:34 PM
Here I Stand
Janetta lent me Roland H. Bainton's Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. The excerpts near the end of his sermons make you want to read those.
Don't read the cover blurb ("unshakable faith in his God") too quickly. Luther was tormented his whole life, suffering from doubt and depression, illness and controversy serious enough he had to hide out more than once.
Not sure how I feel after reading this book. On one hand, there's admiration of this brilliant man who worked so well not only on his own relationship with God, but also to lead the way for all of us sharing some of the Lutheran culture understand our relationships with God. On the other hand, there's nagging doubt, the sense that he somehow missed the point.
Posted by Mark at 09:49 AM
Taking the train, part II
This week I'm commuting with the train and my bike. At 15.60 euros, a train ticket valid for the week costs less than the tolls (about 20.50) on the autoroute, not to mention the gasoline (about 25) and the wear and tear on the car. Unfortunately, the trip takes more than twice as long door to door.
In a way I can think of this as additional cross training, since it's roughly an extra hour of exercise 5 times per week. There's some question as to whether I should continue to do it that way, however, and have to add two more showers each day, or instead force myself to ride so slow and avoid sweating. At cross training speed I arrive drenched in perspiration at both ends.
Posted by Mark at 09:40 AM
May 02, 2005
55:52/150
It was warm in the gym today. Took it easy. My legs are not completely healed, yet. My pulse didn't get up to 90% even on the sprints, whereas before the marathon I went up to 95-96% every time.
Posted by Mark at 03:30 PM
Headache, part VIII
Dr. Rantz prescribed x-rays and nose sprays in case the headaches come from sinusitis, he also prescribed neck massage in case they come from stiffness on the left side of my spine.
Sure takes a long time to go to the doctor. I arrived at 8:00 am, spent 15 minutes with him, and left at about 10:15.
Posted by Mark at 03:26 PM
May 01, 2005
Headache, part VII
Another pounding headache this afternoon. Makes me wince each time I make an effort that increases the blood pressure in my head. I'm going to have to take an hour off work tomorrow morning to see my doctor. This has been going on for a month now. It's getting harder and harder to train or work properly.
Posted by Mark at 03:31 PM
May day
While I was running one boy tried on two successive laps to sell me some muguet.
Not only didn't I have 2 euros in my running shorts, but Nathalie already had plenty at home.
Posted by Mark at 10:38 AM
2:00:55/142
I started this morning's 24.5 km (15.2 mi) run at about 7:15 am when it was still chilly, and ran steadily at long-run pace, aiming for 8-minute miles. My pulse was fairly low, at 73% of max. heart rate on average. That speed theoretically coincides with the body's learning to burn more fat for energy while running, and with muscle adaptations that involve packing more mitochondria into the fibers used for distance running.
From the outset I felt ragged, however. My head hurt for the first 6 km or so. Thereafter I had a few jolts of headache pain, but tried to keep my footfalls gentle and steady to prevent them. At only 8 km I started having a slight ache in my left inner thigh. Those muscles never bothered me until I got near the end of the marathon, when out of nowhere they started cramping. Maybe they're not completely healed. My legs felt unusually tired and heavy. My stride was quite short.
Perhaps I should back off this coming week. According to my blog I've done almost 9 hours of aerobic exercise this week counting bike rides. After this interim period the summer training plan starts. I want to be more focused and in good shape for that.
Posted by Mark at 10:05 AM