Too nice outside for this

It was 50 degrees today, but because the sun is still setting before I can leave work, this is the photo from my ride today.

Fun times... yeah, fun times.

dead letter office

I listened to my vinyl (record) copy of Dead Letter Office the other day. I hadn't put a record on in quite a while, and it was a good experience. Taking the album out of the plastic bag, taking the record out of the dust jacket, dusting off the record, dropping the needle into the groove and hearing the opening strains of "Crazy" coming out of the speakers. And the cover -- its huge compared to the tiny CD cover. I guess a CD cover is better than what you get with a MP3, which is nothing.

There's something special about playing a record versus playing a CD. Besides all of the extra steps to actually play the record, you aren't skipping ahead to your favorite tracks, and for me at least, I listen closer because I know that everytime I play the record it gets a tiny bit more worn, a tiny bit closer to being all used up.

I don't have much music on vinyl, just a handful of albums and a small box of singles/45s. But I'm going to get them out more often now. The only downside is that it's harder to put on a record than a CD while holding a baby...

The Longest Hour

I rode the longest hour today - 60 minutes on the mag trainer in the basement. Averaged 144 BPM on the heart rate monitor, with a max of 160. Not too bad for the first day of riding the trainer this winter. I Guess I am paying for not really doing anything on the bike since November. It was pretty cold in the basement, probably inthe 50's (but then again the high was -2 outside today).

Going to start working on core strength too, exercising on the ball to help increase my endurance.

Time to build some more playlists for the iPod. Tomorrow is another day with the trainer!