so since gina broke her leg i've been on a bike once - actually i was on three bikes, as i did a little maintenance work to my "fleet" and strolled around the neighborhood. but no serious miles.

what i've learned from this experience is that lazy breeds lazy. and tired. i've told myself i'm just gonna take the time off until she's healed, and i've come to grips with that, and although i go home tired everyday (which never happened before) i'm just kinda rolling with it. the plan is/was to hit bike commuting hard once she's back to normal.

and then i started waking up to darkness at 6:30 am. and it's still dark at 7 am.

although i'm ready for the weather to switch, i'd kind of forgotten about darkness at 7am. luckily i've got a light... it just doesn't last the whole commute. so i'll get another light, i guess. anyway. man i'm boring.

I suppose if i'm keeping track of things here i should note that i spent this past tuesday/wednesday at the indianapolis city/county building serving jury duty on the case of middle aged black people vs old possibly wealthy dead woman who wasn't dead when she was sued.

mabp wanted compensation for pain and suffering due to an auto accident that opwdw has admittedly caused.

mabp 1 was the woman who was struck by opwdw's car. she had reoccuring back pain. she saw a doctor about it alot. she went to chiro. he cleared her to return to work. then she took up a job lifting 60 lb boxes. back pain returns.

mabp 2 was the husband of the woman, looking for loss of consortium money - he testified that they hadn't had sex since the accident. she testified that they had had sex 1-2 times a week after the accident. something ain't quite right here.

mabp 2 asked for $300,000 - $500,000 for the loss of consortium. his wife didn't ask for specific monies, but the total came up to around $750,000 if you figured in medical cost and stupid crap.

we, the jury, awarded mabp2 (the husband) $0.
she got $15,000, which was a roundabout number for the damages prior to her returning to work and taking a job lifting.

since we finished, i've had second thoughts on giving her that much money. it was a number i came up with in the deliberation room as a starting point - her total bills over the past three years divided by 3 (which would basically cover the time before she took a job lifting)

it was a starting point. i started to argue for less but everyone else was happy with the total. so i agreed.

the end.

by the way, jury duty is slightly interesting, but also very boring.

hmm

just got a little too upset over comments on a blog. well, not upset, just bothered enough to respond. i should know better.

also, check out this development in michigan city, in. rad houses, way too much money, of course.

here's a link to the development website with more pics.



hey this one is only $244,000.

when compared to the prices of rocio romero's (architect, prefab, perryville missouri) lv homes (which have a similar look), i think i'll take a pass.

but neat anyway.

* * * * *

and on a completely different note - an art project entitled "america the gift shop"

what is new and exciting

nothing.

putting finishing touches on the vacation savings plan. our plans as of right now included being in denver wednesday through saturday. and a visit to bike shops in boulder, and a stop in fort collins, and a visit to gina's brother. other than that? dunno. we're going to wing it. we may just spend half a week in kansas.

never ever will that happen.

i'm looking forward to post-vacation, though, because i like blowing money on stupid stuff. i've had a serious stupid stuff money blowing shortage in the past three months. it breaks my heart. really. it does.

what else.

i'm completely addicted to Ovation TV's Art Safari, which I think was originally a BBC series. Here's a YouTube of a segment on Murakami. Not the author.



The episode I viewed last evening was on Maurizio Cattelan, an artist I was not previously aware of. To be honest my art knowledge is very lacking. But I do enjoy it.

Cattelan is funny.


La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour)

that's the pope struck by a meteroite.

the show also featured a (well, sort of) mockery of the vietnam wall - "a tomb-like, marble epitaph listing all the football matches lost by the England (national football) team"

anyway, good show. i'm afraid that perhaps there aren't enough episodes to keep me happy, though. i need more television along those lines.

so.

hey i had chili for lunch

this weekend was a big ol' ball of nothing. fulham won (6th place!) but it wasn't on the tv, which was fucking annoying.

since that 75 mile ride last week? zero miles. this is a long layoff for me.

the weather is getting coldish and it won't be long until i feel like i'm super-dedicated just for riding in the weather. but i'm not riding. so.

um.

i'm ready for vacation.

Who are you voting for and why.

the accidental 75

today after solving all life's mysteries i set off on a bike ride, with the thoughts of riding over to brooklyn, in using a backwards route than i normally take. it's the little things that make the work seem exciting.

anyway, that's about 30-40 miles round, i guess. i rode to brooklyn, and then noticed some route markings painted on the road. thinking that perhaps i could add a little on, i started to follow them, down roads i wasn't quite familiar with, but eventually ending up on the route to martinsville, in, which is a nice little road along a bluff.

so i rode to martinsville, stopped at a gas station for a water refill and something to eat, then heads back the way i came.

a little while in i realized that on the way to martinsville i had completely forgotten the road markings, and noticed that they made a left i wasn't familiar with. in any case, i decided to explore that later.

back to brooklyn, almost, as i took a different road thinking that i could shortcut it home.

a couple turns, quite a few miles, and suddenly i had no idea where the hell i was. i thought i was going to run into familiar territory (that happens quite a bit) but it just wasn't happening. i called gina. "i am lost"

gina has a broken leg right now (rollerderby practice, it just happened, she's in a cast, we are fine), so i was hoping she could pull up the map and straighten me out. i didn't except to be far off.. but i was off on what ended up being a 17 mile loop. (see everything south of mile marker 55 on the map)

the other thing about being lost out in the middle of nowhere is that you have no frame of reference. "pull up a googlemap of bill smith road and sr 44" with no town reference doesn't always work. but if the road is named oddly enough - bill smith being a pretty odd name for a road, i'd guess - googlemaps will find it. and if gina wasn't home? your best option is always to backtrack, but when you think you have an idea of where you might be, and you're already sort of exhausted, backtracking is not what you want to do.

anyway, backtracking is what i did. and eventually i made it home, not exactly happy about being an idiot, but... whatever. i lived. and now i've got an idea for a new riding route, because where i was lost ties in to a few places i've been before.

HEY MARK GET ME A JOB

i know you're making more money than me. what if i was totally serious what would you say.

anyway, i'm going to go back to school, for something that makes a lot of money. i don't mind staying in computers. i just need to be absolutely sure i make at least 75 grand a year. i'm not anywhere near that now. i make 11. dollars.

so any suggestions? i'm really smart. i think. i just never really tried before.

if jim d is reading

this is of interest to me, so it might be to you...