Training Log Archive: PG

42F, NW 10, sunny and quite pleasant, though lots of water on the road with the melting.

Headed north. Didn't get far, like maybe a quarter-mile, before the road was blocked, cars backed up. Rode up past the cars to see what was what. They was in the process of trying to winch a plow truck up onto a wrecker. A friendly cop said three vehicles involved. Watched for a couple of minutes, then asked if it was OK if I went off the road into the snow to get past, and he said fine. So I did that, saw vehicle #2, a SUV with its front bashed in pretty severely. No sign of #3.

Headed on my way. No hurry. Enjoying myself. I guess it helps when you start in a good mood. And that lasted all the way around. :-)

Had a visit today from a claims adjuster, who'd been hired by my insurance company to investigate matters relating to the dump truck crash a year and a half ago and, much more recently, to us getting sued. I was curious how this would go.

Assuming that the primary goal of an insurance company is to collect lots of premiums and deny all claims, then even better than passing off some of a claim to another party is just outright denying the claim in the first place. So there was some anxiety.

The guy was friendly enough. He wanted to talk first about what had happened, and then check out the scene of the accident. And here is where I pulled the ace out of my sleeve, namely, Attackpoint. No, Kenny, if you happen to be reading this, I'm not getting AP involved in a lawsuit. I just mentioned that I keep a diary because my memory isn't very good, and would he like to hear what I wrote that day.

Well, he sure would. So I read it to him. He seemed to think that was real fine.

And then I asked if he would like to see some photos I took.

Well, he sure would. And he really liked the one that showed that the branch, the supposed sign of my negligence because my trees weren't properly trimmed, said branch had some of the greenest leaves on it you could imagine. He really liked that. No way anyone could have expected that to fall, no way that should have been trimmed off.

So then he turned on his tape recorder to get a statement from me, most of which was me reading the AP entry. And then we took a walk down to the road for a bit. And then he headed off, saying as he left, you would make a real good witness. :-)

Though, of course, the insurance company can still deny coverage. Because that is what they do.

C • Denying coverage 5

Mid-40s, mostly sunny, NW 15 or so. A little slop fell overnight. Warmer today and lots of melting, and so lots of puddles. Also getting some industrial strength potholes along with a large collection of just normal ones. So have to pay attention. Fortunately the bike handles really nicely on the rougher stuff.

No zip in the legs, or the brain. Took it easy for the most part. Though when the legs are tired and the quads are a little sore, there's really no such thing as taking it easy.

Upper 20s, S 5-8, overcast, snow coming (radar shows it's already here, but nothing is reaching the ground).

Plus wandering for a couple hours in the Montague Plains (more info here or here or even here, depending on your interests).

Winter continues. Snowed a little yesterday and the roads didn't seem very ride-friendly, so I passed. Today they were fine, so no excuse not to go out. Upper 20s, sunny, wind was N 10-12 when I started, WNW when I finished, so the help I was looking forward to on the way back mostly didn't show up.

Or maybe I was just being lazy.

Or maybe it's just that when you get really old, the rate of decline gets faster and faster, and so every day I lose more and more. And I suppose now that the days are getting longer, the daily decay is even faster.

Ha, happy thoughts. That's OK, takes my mind off the fact that we got sued today, because of this.

C • Sued! 5

Low 30s, light breeze from the south, sunny. Seems like for quite a while I had not much energy in the legs or between the ears, but after a while things got at least somewhat better.

Swung by UMass to see if there were any philosophers hard at work -- actually, to see if there were any philosophers out training when they should have been hard at work -- but no observations to report. Though I'm not sure how you tell if a philosopher is hard at work if you do happen to see one. Do they stare off into space particularly vigorously. Do they work up an existential sweat? Is there a special line of Garmins that they wear that records just how hard they are philosophizing?

That last one would be rather useful, wouldn't have to keep updating the CV....

C • philosophers at work 1

36F, NW 10-15, sunny. Very nice out, especially the first few miles where I was heading towards Amherst and had a nice tailwind. The rest, less so, but still, a sunny day is a sunny day, so no complaints.

Thinking a bit more about yesterday, just as there are those days where I am feeling uncoordinated, or stupid, yesterday was a day when I was just feeling cold. I remember coming in after a morning walk, my feet a little cold, and a couple of hours later my feet were still cold.

I thought about that getting dressed for today's outing. Put an extra shirt on, also a buff around my neck. So, of course, after 10 minutes I was too warm. But that's an easy fix, unzip the jacket partway. And on the way back into the wind, zipped back up and I was glad to have a little more on.

And one more --