Showing posts with label miles per gallon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miles per gallon. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

so why do I need a job...

I had one of those compilation CDs when I was in early High School (like NOW but it was kinda indy stuff so it was cool...) WAIT I just found it on my CD rack at home. It's called "Check It Out Now" and was an EMI promo CD. Circa 2000. There was a song by an artist called 'Bare Jr' called "why do i need a job" that talked about how his girlfriend was a stripper and that the hours he "worked" hangin at home were great and he was never late so why did he need a job? Not that I condone that lifestyle or anything but I thought it was an awesome song at the time.

On a lighter note, I was at a meeting in the Nashua Public Library for The Nashua Green Bikes Project which will be like a Bike Recycle VT (for those of you who have been to Burlington and/or are familiar with it. Very exciting opportunity to improve our community. Of course I showed up late. After the presentation was done I introduced myself and the facilitator for the Project asked me what I raced in College. I was like road, then XC and said I hoped to do the EFTA NECS series if I could stay in Nashua and get a job. A guy sitting next to me was from EMS and he turned to me and said "Do you need a job?" I'm like UH, YES so after the meeting adjourned he asked me if I was interested in working Pt time for EMS Nashua, potentially to full time taking over Shipping/Receiving. I was so into it. Went to the store the next Monday and sat down with him, the guy is great and had an interview with him and an assistant manager on Wednesday of last week. I'm hoping I get it!

Also, the Environmental Assistant (Fisheries) position I applied for with VT Fish & Wildlife for March-Sep (ish) called me back and I'm having an interview with one of the state's Fisheries Biologists on Tuesday the 9th! So pumped! We shall see what happens with these two opportunities.

No training whatsoever for me last week. I noticed an ingrown hair that became infected with inflammation that grew to the diameter of a golf ball by the 20th of February. Went to my doctor on the 21st and I was on 500mg Cephalexin 2x daily for 7 days! What passed was a very trying week as it upset my stomach and I lost my ability to eat so much at one time but my body still was cranking full tilt. So I had a lot of inbetween snacks. BUT I had a weight room circuit Monday March 1st with only 1 set of each exercise instead of 2 and rode for an hour and 10 minutes today working on getting "the spin of meat" (see "Bike" magazine from this summer) going. My knee hurt by the end but I'm gonna do my exercises every night this week if I didn't lift that day and every day after that. Let's hope that works. This recurring right knee pain of "unknown etiology" (a.k.a. no diagnosis besides just "pain) lead to me being denied health insurance in May of 2009. DENIED!!! This is why I feel we DESPERATELY need an overhaul of health care in the US as a very healthy, nonsmoking male of 23 years is denied health insurance because the carrier felt I would be making money off them and they wouldn't be making money off me if they offered me coverage.

My mom keeps saying all senators and representatives should be made to apply for 'standard' health insurance like all of us proletariat (my word choice, not hers) pay through the nose for monthly and THEN we'll see how freakin speedy this reform comes.

And there is a new romance in my life. My friend Jess Harris from High School and I are officially dating. I'm very excited about this, just wanted to keep you all in the know.

Now it's 21:14. That's 9:14 P.M. for all you lameos still on 12-hr time. I got up at 03:30 to drive my dad to Manchester Airport so he could fly to Salt Lake City for his company's yearly trade show. J.R. 's Professional Chauffeur Service. I should probably stretch and do my exercises, shower and hit the sack. Thanks for keeping with me for another long update, will hopefully have some photos from my PIMP new camera once I get around to taking up the last 1% of space left on my hard drive with the new pics.

PS: I broke the 17 mpg barrier in my V6 highlander this week~! (shout out to Vanessa Burke with the extra symbol) I gassed up before picking my dad up at the Exit 6 welcome center on the F.E. Turnpike last Wednesday and was so pumped. 17.1 mpg or something like that. I'm gonna try to keep it up. My new car (which I am paying off monthly once I get a job, thanks Mom & Dad) is so nice, but I'm still getting used to an engine that has as much jump in it for so little accelerator pressure from my foot.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

No snow, cupping, 16.99 mpg

So I'm struggling trying to get used to updating this more than once weekly. This post is going to be rather stream of consciousness.

Saturday: had Men's choir rehearsal at 8am. 8 frikken am. as in 08:00 hours. I love the fact that we finish by 09:00 and have the whole rest of the day to be productive. I am slowly getting used to waking up at 06:30 to do my stretches, get a smallish breakfast in so as not to upset the stomach but not to pass out during rehearsal, then I have a sizeable second breakfast when I get home such as a bagel alley bagel (1/2 with cream cheese, 1/2 with tofutti) and a bananna and some water or juice. ***Ey yo berg: watch out, some so-good-they-might-smack-you-in-the-face bagel alley bagels might be coming your way to show up your Absolut bagel-worshipping self!

This Saturday I was going to Windblown xc to do some skiing as Saturday was supposed to be great weather (middle low 30s and sun) whereas Sunday was supposed to be same temp but cloudy. A "1" day as Al Jenks of Windblown says. I realized I was shafting my Dad out of an opportunity to see this place I've been raving about for a year but never went to until around the 9th of this month and year. So I asked him if he wanted to go and snowshoe around because we weren't going to make it for the 11A group ski lesson and I am in no way ready to be a xc ski instructor. The verdict?

It was BEAUTIFUL!!! We traipsed around (please don't hunt me down for that, Karl) for about 2 hrs and though it wasn't exactly the endurance intensity workout I wanted we got a good amount of distance under our feet, climbed a good sized hill with views southeast to the Monadnock region and beyond (couldn't quite find Boston...) saw the "beaver pond" and got a sense of how big the Windblown trail network really is (not huge but big enough). its sweet! I'm hoping to go there this Sunday despite them only predicting 7-10ks of granular to be open (they got hit by the rain too, 12-20" base went to 3-8" with wet spots) because my skis are ready! Yup, the old school Fishcer Europa Crowns will finally be ridden with legit ski boots in the bindings! That time I tried to ski up to Aiken from Redstone apts senior year when there was snow on the paths and pavement while in my snowboots didn't really work and therefore doesn't count. Got some SNS classic bindings from EMS and some Atomic SNS boots from Sierra Trading Post (which is an amazing place by the way). With my sweet secondhand swix alulite poles (compliments of Biathlon bruiser Mr. Newt Rogers) I'll be ready to rip... all 8k of it.

So about that rain... we went from some beautiful snowy landscapes around these parts in the greater Nashua, NH area to bare ground and some ice mounds where plows made piles and snowblowers piled snow. It rained all day yesterday, sometimes very hard! It was getting hard to get up or down the bottom 1/2 of driveway-completely iced over from the uesday storm we got last week-but now its just dry with some water here and there. A depressing midwinter funk on the ground and in the air and in my mind. Damn. hope that expresses how bummed I am about the snow disappearing. maybe I should just go move to Monte Sainte Anne but... oh wait, they have granular surface too, probably had a thaw themselves.

Since when did winter become such a fickle thing? We all need to do our parts to reduce climate change and maybe we'll start getting some more reliable snow soon. OR maybe I'm wrong.

Got a massage today from our family's (just because my mom goes to her a lot, dad has a few times and one sister did twice) asian masseuse today. my neck was killing me after I did some furious chopping on Sunday and I woke up monday almost unable to move my head more than 2 degrees in any direction and feeling like I might pass out if I moved it too fast. ouch. a day taking it easy (no weights :( bah) with a heating pad and a hot shower and sleeping helped and this massage did too! I felt great coming out of there.
She also did cupping. do you folks know what that is? If not, read on. Its an asian detoxification approach wherein they take glass cups (bulb-shaped) that you light something along the rim of (or run a flame over) to create suction or smaller ones of plastic or rubber(?) you can physically create suction with and place them on various sections of your back and neck. I had so much hair on my middle neck the one she really wanted to stay there fell off about 8 times and only stayed on for about 20 seconds max. they pinch when they are put on and then you get used to it and for me they were tingling by the time she took them off. it is supposed to pull the toxins out of your muscles (and elsewhere? not sure...) so you can discharge them. You get bruise-like marks visible through your skin that you can freak people out with. The guy at Jomaris who was cutting my hair asked if the round mark on my neck was a bruise or a birthmark. I said neither. They're rather itchy right now and some are sore but I've consumed almost 3 liters of water since then so I'm doing my best to get whatever they brought up, out of my body.

... and I'm spent. for now. sorry this was a long post, part of this blogging thing will quickly become an exercise in being succinct for me.

peace love and bacon grease,

TheJeffCaisse