Getting Ready to Commute Again

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

I've been off regular riding for more than ten weeks, due to Summer classes I've been taking at Wright State University. Then before that, I had no workday commute, since my work was at home, looking for a new employer. Now with two As on my transcript and after a couple companies have contacted me on my submitted resumé, it seems to be time to get back into commuting shape. Who knows where I'll be working, but it may be soon. (I hope.)

Today's ride was a leisurely 14.6 mph, starting with a book delivery to the Post Office and continuing on to the gym at Forrer and Smithville. (It used to be Cardinal Fitness, but a new owner has changed the name to Every Body Fitness.) The ride included a half-hour upper body workout of fairly low intensity.

I included a short leg out the drive from the Eastwood lagoons to the park entrance on Woodman, to check out the new construction of the connector to Huffman Park. The bikeway is staked out through Eastwood to its route underneath the bridge over the Mad River, and most of the path has received initial scraping. The equipment was actively scraping in mid-afternoon, and only a quarter mile remained unscraped in the park. I spoke to one of the men as he took a break in his pickup. They plan to complete the underlayment of gravel this year, and to apply asphalt in early 2013. The bikeway should be open by Summer 2013.

I told him that he should be proud of the work being done, since it provides a much needed link between Eastwood and Huffman parks. And an indirect, but important connection to Wright State University.

The construction of Highway 35 continues, and the Iron Horse Trail is broken into loose dirt just south of its juncture with the Creekside Trail. However, even during periods of actual work, the crews allow passage when it's safe to do so. The gates at either end of the bikeway through the construction area are movable—and light enough for almost anyone—to allow easy access.

Click here for information on other bikeway closures.

Charles Love

Charles experienced a solo crash this past Tuesday that left him with abrasions and a broken clavicle. But he's still smiling, and his bike is OK.

Ride conditions

Temperature: 84°F at 14:45
Precipitation: none
Winds: Variable 3.5 mph
Clothing: Skinsuit, ankle socks, open-finger gloves
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed 48x16
Time:  1:43:04  for  25.32 mi  miles
Heart rate: 131 bpm HRave, 157 bpm HRmax
Bikeway users: no count
Playback of the ride

Decisions were made

Monday, 20 February 2012

So the axe has fallen. Eight members of the Engineering Services department were laid off, and two more have yet to know because of a vacation day or short-term disability. I wish the very best to those who make this sudden change from employment with Eastman Kodak: Kathy B, Mike D, Tom N, Ted R, Tony S, Greg S, and Linh V. Our department manager, Bruce B, has yet to know whether he himself remains at Kodak.

I met with Bruce at 10:00, and after a bit of small talk, Bruce read from a script that Kodak had prepared for him. I interrupted a couple times to clarify a point, but his script was short—and well performed, though Bruce avoided much eye contact. I covered each point I needed to with full composure. I was especially careful not to let out a whoop of joy that I would now have full 8-hour days to pursue another position.

I returned to my desk, took my nameplate off my cube wall, wrote an email to my friends outside of work, and sent out a prepared good-by to many colleagues at work. I looked for several close colleagues to say good-by in person, and closed up the last box of personal belongings that I needed to remove from the office. I was out the door by 11:15, and heading to the gym for an upper-body workout.

On my way home, I stopped at Fricker's just in case some people from Kodak were there for lunch. Only four were, and they suggested meeting at The Pub around 4:30. That doesn't seem now to be a great plan—it's time instead to follow up on search results I had found from Indeed.com.

I don't believe that Eastman Kodak is at the point of thriving. Too much dead wood weighs down the very top of the company, and that includes Antonio Perez, Phil Faraci, and others who share leadership positions and board of director positions. The highest levels of Kodak are incestuous and self-perpetuating in their delusions. Kodak hasn't the nimbleness to find a logical and inventive way out of its backwardness, and Kodak may be now overly downsizing that small component that was to be the company's white knight.

I predict that Kodak will stop making film stock for cinema, that the photo kiosks will become part of history, and that the Kodak Gallery will steadily lose what market share it has now. Kodak's frenzied litigation to uphold its intellectual property rights will dwindle after several rulings against its asserted pain, and the portfolio of 1100 patents will largely not be sold, as their aging complexion loses to the beauty of new ideas  As for the Dayton division that designs and builds inkjet, digital-data printing presses, it might have done well on its own, but now the Kodak modus has overtaken what innovation was there.

Day of decision

Monnday, 20 February 2012

Yesterday's exercise was a visit to the gym for a leg workout. Though I had aimed to bike to the workout, our friends Russ and Kim called a bit after noon to invite me to join them for dinner. So I cut back my plans: drive to Cardinal Fitness for a workout and use the showers there to prepare for the evening. The leg workout was a careful one, to pay close attention to my right knee that had got injured sometime between last weekend and Saturday's ride at Lagonda Trail. I went through most sets with a 10% reduction in weight and careful attention to alignment of the knees and ankles to hips. After an hour, I knew that any more exercise would be beyond what the knee should be put through.

I returned home to feed Howard and brew a large latte for my drive to Cincinnati. On the drive, I visualized my workday tomorrow, as much as possible. For one thing, I have little control over my meeting with Bruce, my direct supervisor. Bruce emailed his staff Friday that he had a conference room reserved from 7:00 to 11:30 a.m., and that he would call us in alphabetic order for a short meeting. Each of us will be told then whether we are to remain for now with Kodak and participate in the company reorganization or to be laid off. His plan leaves 15 to 20 minutes for each person, and I am near the middle of the list, with seven meetings before mine and eleven after.

Bruce had guessed that the workday would continue for 84% of us, and that the others would process out today. Bruce planned to advising that they should leave to compose themselves and return a day or two later to pack up and say goodby to colleagues. The percentage implies that Bruce will tell three of us that the layoff affects us.

If I'm laid off, I want to say, "Of course I feel bad about the news, but I appreciate that the news comes directly from you. I do have a favor to ask you for—that I can receive a good recommendation from you. Especially carefully say I hope that the last year of conflict with Vic can be put aside when you prepare the recommendation. Also be sure to ask Are there any internal jobs that you think are available I can apply for? and ask details on What does Kodak provide for the promised outplacement counseling? and in closing say I hope that you still have your job... and depending on his answer, continue If you are not remaining with the company, what is the best contact information for you? and ask discretely Can you tell me how many in the writing area are being let go? How many are being let go in the engineering services department?"

If I'm not laid off, I want to seem not too disappointed, and say, "So where do we go from here? Do you know which product lines will continue, and whether I'll be shifting from sustaining work on the VL products to development work on the Prosper line?"

I've been taking pragmatic steps for a while—packing up boxes and taking them home, archiving documents I produced over the past 20 years, cleaning out the accumulated source material and historical files—since I really expect to be laid off. The last year, or even two years, have been very stressful, and I'll be glad they are history. On my drive home after Kim's wonderful meal, I thought several times, Please, please let me be laid off. How unfortunate it would be to stay! And any later lay-off might have a poorer severance package, since Kodak's problems would have worsened.

Four Autumn Rain Days

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Over the weekend, forecasts for the week called for rain through Wednesday. Although rain held off on both Monday and Tuesday, I had decided each morning that rain was likely enough to drive to work. I even posted on Facebook, I "will be pissed if it doesn't rain later today. Declaring a rain day just because of the forecasts." It rained a spit later that day, and the streets were dry during the evening commute. Wednesday started with an ultrasounding of my abdominal aorta, and I enjoyed the misty rain that fell the entire day. Today has more of the same light rains.

Each evening I've stopped at Cardinal Fitness to start my off-season weight regimen. Tuesday I went through a six-exercise program that focused on the abdominal core. Most of the workout was on machines that allow work on specific muscles, and a finish with straight-leg deadlifts. Wednesday I went through an eight-exercise program that focused on my legs. This is my most enjoyable time in the gym, where the muscles respond most quickly to the training. However, since this was the first day of focus, all the exercises were at low weights for me. The leg workout starts with several opposing-muscle sets for abductors and adductors and for hamstrings and quadriceps, then final exercises on the calves, hamstrings, and quadriceps again. Tonight is my chest-shoulders-arms evening.

Ride conditions
No ride.

Bike-commute day 94—to gym and home

Friday, 14 October 2011

It's been a very long time since I stopped at Cardinal Fitness on my way home from work. I was able to stop there today only because I worked a partial day. That left the afternoon for the gym visit and going to the Neon to see The Future.

I had to leave Kodak at noon, since overtime is not allowed. I had worked a very long day Wednesday to finish revisions on a book that must be reviewed and completed by the end of October. After FrameMaker "blew up" three times while making the PDF, it finally succeeded after I made enough space available for builing the intermediate files. So I left that evening after 12.5 hours of work. So I cut the workday short to avoid recording more than 40 hours. CEO Antonio Perez announced several acts of belt tightening. And in August, Kodak announced that about a thousand of its patents on imaging technology were offered for sale. Perhaps revenue producers like the Versamark and Prosper brands offer another strength in the transition to a digital focus.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 56 to 60°F at 11:45
Precipitation: none
Winds: 5 to 15 mph from the southwest
Clothing: Skinsuit, longsleeve undershirt, ankle socks, open-finger gloves
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time: 1:02:06 for 15.82 miles
Heart rate: 132 bpm HRave, 149 bpm HRmax
Bikeway users: 10 cyclists, 4 pedestrians, 1 dog
Playback of the ride

Bike-commute day 61—to gym and home

Thursday, 28 July 2011.

I lost the opportunity to bike to work this morning, since I had to change a tube at the last moment. (I rode the last couple blocks last night with an ever-softening rear tire. I had pumped it up on my arrival, hopeful that it had miraculously sealed itself. But physics is a constant: the leak had left me with a flat to repair this morning.) So my bike commute today starts with the evening ride, since I carried my bike to work in my van. As I do during the seasons with short days, I'll leave the car at work overnight, and then drive home on the last workday of the week. Which is tomorrow for this week.

At Cardinal Fitness, I had time only for bench presses, cable rows, lat (latissimus) pulldowns, and dumbbell lat raises. And I spoke with Kathy and Jesse, a couple who I had seen attending the appearance of Ira Glass, the host of NPR's This American Life. I mentioned to Kathy that David Sedaris is appearing at the Victoria in October, and she seemed happy to know that tickets are now available. Jesse complained of feeling less enthusiasm, despite changing his routine. We talked about several possible sources of the lack of energy, including suppressed blood pressure, low blood sugar, lack of rest. But we didn't speak of a strong possibility: overtraining.

Back on the commute by 6:20, and planning the evening's dinner, I decided on grilling butterfly pork chops with a citrus rub and thick slices of eggplant drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Sonst nichts, außer'm Brot und Butter—etwas einfaches. First thing when I get home will be to fire up the charcoal, and then I'll have time for a shower by the time it's ready.

Chuck wasn't home yet; I guessed that he was still jabbering with Susan Carpenter, who was in Yellow Springs for the writers' conference. He had planned lunch with her and perhaps a visit with our friend Pat White, if she was at home. I checked for messages that might indicate when he would be home: nothing on paper, on the home phone, or on my cell. So I let Howard-the-Dog out of his self-confinement in the bathroom (he usually has the run of the upstairs and landing, held back from the downstairs by a child-proof gate at the bottom of the stairs), went with him to the deck, where I pulled off my skinsuit and dumped charcoal in a mound in the grill. It'll need only a squirt of fluid and a match to be blazing for dinner. Then I walked Howard to the dog run and coaxed him to give us another brown offering and a watering of the gravel.


Still no Chuck, so I brought Howard in before he could think of attacking the tomato plants for their green fruit and sat at the piano to sight read through a few Bach preludes and fugues from Das wohltemperierte Klavier. After excursions into G minor, A major, and A minor, Chuck interrupted the reading with a quick phone call from the gym. He would be home soon. The evening could start.


Ride conditions
Temperature: 94 to 97°F at 17:15
Precipitation: none Winds: variable 5 to 10 mph from the south, west, and north
Clothing: Skinsuit, ankle socks, open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time: 00:57:36 for  15.65 miles
Heart rate: 127 bpm HRave, 146 bpm HRmax
Bikeway users: 29 cyclists, 16 pedestrians, 2 dogs
Playback of the ride.

Bike-commute day 51—to gym and home

Tuesday, 12 July 2011.

In a late afternoon phone call, Chuck and I negotiated when we would both arrive home. He was out shopping after a lunch with his former colleague Mark, and he wanted to fit in a short workout at the Y. I hoped I could actually stop at my gym for throwing the weights around, too. So we ended up with being home by 7:30.

My weight training was very abbreviated: just two sets of bench press and two sets of cable rows, and then it was already 6:45, just enough time for the ride home. If I ride fast.

So today along the Mad River, I hoped to be passed by the Young Turk again. Perhaps my wishes kept him away.

From that point on, I kept calculating when I would arrive home: maybe 7:40 for the ride from the Findlay Avenue Bridge I thought, then Hm. Maybe 7:35 for the way from here at the last checkpoint, and then If I'm aggressive on the hill at Bryn Mawr, maybe I can make it by 7:30 from the Monument Avenue Bridge. As it turned out, I arrived at about 7:33. Chuck wasn't home yet, and I had time to pull off my shoes and wet skinsuit, find components of our dinner in the freezer and start their thawing, and begin to pull together the ingredients for Tony's Friendship Bread, since this is the tenth day of creating the sourdough starter.

Then at 7:50, Chuck was home, and I was ready to shower. Then dinner: a nice square of Chuck's lasagna fresca surrounded by prawns broiled with pesto.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 89 to 94°F at 17:45
Precipitation: none
Winds: calm
Clothing: Skinsuit, ankle socks, open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time:  00:59:27 for 15.85 miles
Heart rate: 128 bpm HRave, 146 bpm HRmax
Bikeway users: 32 cyclists, 8 pedestrians, 1 dog
Here is a playback of the ride.

Bike-commute day 44—to home

Tuesday, 28 June 2011.

Chuck called me at work to find out when I planned to be home. He's making lasagna, a new recipe that he wants to showcase. One where the noodles are not cooked before baking, just soaked 45 minutes in cool tap water. I told him, "I'll be leaving pretty soon, but I plan on stopping at the gym for a short shoulder workout. So I'll be home about seven." "Well, just make sure you're home by seven. I'll bake the meal so it will be ready then." Never mind that I might want to shower to clean the crotch and prevent saddle sores.

As I neared Woodbine, where I would leave the bikeway to climb through residential areas to Cardinal Fitness at Forrer and Smithville, I deliberated It's 5:45 now, and getting there would be 5:55 and a workout would last until maybe 6:15 at the earliest, so that leaves a really tight 45 minutes to get home. I'd better not chance it, and instead push hard to get home much earlier. So I went north up the bikeway from Woodbine.

Lots of cyclists today, some in pretty good shape. I did a track stand at Airway beside a cyclist I had been tailing for a half mile, who maintained a good lead but had to stop for traffic. I pulled through at a letup in the cross-traffic, and I sensed his pullout also, nearly beside me but not quite. He took my tail, sheltered in the slipstream. I cranked up again to 90 rpm and kept it there or sometimes as much as 98. He stayed with me, silently. My sinuses filled. I wanted to blow out the accumulation, but when I made a half look back he made a sound to indicate that he was close enough to catch whatever spatter I would make. So I held off.

At the rise near Miami Valley Manufacturing, I called out, "Heads up!" for any cyclists hidden by the dense trees and dropped my open left hand as I slowed for the blind double corner. He stayed with me as I powered out of the second 90-degree turn. Same hand signal for the approach to Fair Park Avenue, and same powering into the canopy across the intersection. Again a hand signal for slowing to cross Smithville, but somewhere I had lost him. Or he had turned off.

I kept looking over my shoulder in the open areas west of Eastwood Park, but never saw him again. I hope he had a fun ride.

I'm of two minds about following another rider, drafting in the slipstream. Though the lead rider feels no drag from the other rider, there's a sense of having something of value that's taken without acknowledgement, especially if the drafter is a stranger who neither takes the lead nor pulls beside to introduce himself. It is a missed opportunity to meet another strong rider, to find an equal to share a long weekend ride with.

I could have used his pull in the leg along the Mad and Miami, where the headwinds cut down my speed and increased my time for the commute. But I still made it home in plenty of time to shower, download my Garmin data, and make the orange-avocado salad for dinner.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 81 to 86°F at 17:15
Precipitation: none
Winds: calm to 10 mph from the southwest, southeast
Clothing: Skinsuit, ankle socks, open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time:  00:43:03 for 12.06 miles
Heart rate: 142 bpm HRave, 178 bpm HRmax
Bikeway users: 31 cyclists, 22 pedestrians
Here is a playback of the ride.

A day of two bike rides

This was a busy day for cycling, that I had enough time for using the bike for transportation for two purposes. I first got on the road to go to the gym for a quick upper body workout.

Distance: 20.97 mi
Time:  01:28:43
HRave: 127
HRmax: 150

During breakfast, I had cooked pasta, mixed it with fines herbs, pepper, olive oil, and a hard bleu cheese, and then refrigerated the food. During the hour after returning from the gym, I broiled a large cut of salmon in a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. While this was cooking, I cleaned and drained a mix of kales and radicchio, chopped a fennel stalk, and squeezed a fresh lemon onto this as I added it to the cold pasta. When the salmon was done and cooled a bit, I cut it into thin slices, bagged them in their cooking juices, and packed up everything in my backpack.

The north bikeway goes to Taylorsville Reserve, and the Dayton Gay Volleyball Gang have a holiday potluck picnic and volleyball day in one of the Taylorsville shelters. It is nearly adjacent to the bikeway, though you have to trek through a prairie area to get to the shelter. I arrived with about 45 minutes of biking, and assembled the pasta salad before I changed from my skinsuit.

By 4 p.m., I was changed and repacked again, ready for the ride home.

Distance : 26.65 mi
Time: 01:55:01
HRave: 124
HRmax: 153

Bike-commute day 17—gym and home

The shining, bright sky outside my cube window beckoned. Fleecy cumulus suggested a cool breeze. How much I wished work ends at 4 p.m. My co-worker Kay slipped on her jacket, said, "It's five o'clock somewhere," and headed off to her weekend

This afternoon ride was a test of how the Garmin Edge 705 treats a long period of quiet in the middle of a ride. I left the 'puter live in my bag, unable to receive GPS connections, while I worked out at the Cardinal Fitness gym.The result was OK, but it could have been better. This technique keeps all the information together in one ride, of course. The details of speed, elevation, heart rate, and cadence seem fine—without indication of the pause—when viewed with an x-axis of moving time or distance. But using the x-axis of time reveals the pause with a calm portion of a sinewave that shows a curving rise from the stopping point to resuming the ride.

This break fails to record the weight training as a contributor to the period of exercise, and, while the 705 is on but inactive with a heart monitor alarm on, the 'puter makes a frequent alert to its presence. I think for now I will create a break in the ride, and allow it to record as two separate activities.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 57 to 66°F at 15:57
Precipitation: none
Winds: 0 to 5 mph from the west
Clothing: 2-layer top, skinsuit; ankle socks. open-finger gloves.
Bike: Trek 850 hybrid
Time: 00:44:50 for 10.74 miles
Bikeway users: TBD
2nd Garmin day. Playback.

Bike fun day—Sunday to the gym

Though the sun was shining, the wind hasn't been told that it's no longer March. I benefited from the gusts up to 20 mph on my way east and south to the Cardinal Fitness at Smithville and Forrer, but I got a challenge for my ride back.The wind coming up the Mad River and Great Miami River was especially tough, and I had no gear to shift to on the Lotus fixed gear.

Since I planned to work in the garden all afternoon, I decided on stopping at the Brunch Club for a late breakfast. My indulgence included Eggs Benedict and a side of two pancakes. My gardening included transplanting a Japanese mum, pulling out several crabapple volunteers and diseased junipers, and planting a forsythia, two peonies, and three Calla lilies.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 51 to 63°F at 11:30 and 15:15
Precipitation: none
Winds: 10 to 15 mph, gusts to 20 mph from the west and south
Clothing: 2-layer top, 1-layer bottom; ankle socks. Open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus fixed-gear
Time: 1:37:00 (approx.) for 25.39 miles
Bikeway users: no data

11:50—departing from home.
12:04—passing the zig-zag down to the Mad River Bikeway.
12:12—passing the west gate to Eastwood Park.
12:25—passing the trestle remains at Linden.
12:39—arriving at Cardinal Fitness.
 49 minutes
13:31—depart from Cardinal Fitness.
13:44—trestle remains at Linden.
13:55—west gate to Eastwood Park
14:08—passing the zig-zag up from the Mad River Bikeway.
14:19—arrive at Brunch Club.
48 minutes
Last leg home not timed, approximately 10 minutes.

Bike-commute day 12—home and weight training

At 17:20 I wondered, To the gym today? Maybe so, it's early enough, and I closed down my workplace by 17:30. So today is the first timed record of the commute with a "rest period" for a light weight training.

This weight training was pretty light, since I haven't been to the gym for about 10 days. Three sets each of bench press, prone flyes, military press, dumbbell curls, cable rows.

My typical workout that's part of a commute focuses on upper body, and if I go a second day in a row, that workout focuses on the abdominal core. It's usually only during the winter that I pay much attention to weight training for the legs.

Temperature: 69 to 74°F at 17:15, 66 to 68°F at 19:45
Precipitation: none
Winds: 10 to 20 mph
Clothing: Just 1 layer (skinsuit); ankle socks.; open-finger gloves.
Time: 1:05:00 for 15.77 miles
Bikeway users: 11 cyclists, 22 pedestrians, 1 dog

18:01—depart from work.
18:18—arrive at Cardinal Fitness.
18:44—depart from Cardinal Fitness.
18:54—trestle remains at Linden.
19:06—west gate to Eastwood Park
19:17—passing the zig-zag up from the Mad River Bikeway.
19:32—arrive home.

Rain day #8

Temperature: 41°F at 08:00
Precipitation: light to moderate rain
Winds: none to 5 mph
Clothing: Work casual
Time: not available
Bikeway users: not available


It's continued raining off and on since yesterday. Roads were spottily dry this morning, and rain is again forecast to continue through the day. So today I can go to Cardinal Fitness after work and then to Practice Yoga again.

But also, the hard drive crashed overnight on my laptop. I've got to bring it to some IT service to verify that the crash is real, and to replace it if necessary. My updates may be infrequent until next week.