Red Lining

A couple of weeks ago, I made a post detailing my personal dilemma over using Oakley sunglasses with a Rudy Project helmet for racing & training. In concluding the post, which took me some two hours to compose in the wee hours of a Sunday morning, I'd decided to continue using the Oakley shades and pass the RP lid off to commuting duties, where it wouldn't really matter what it was seen with; my commuting rig itself is a hodge-podge of parts. I thought I could put the (non)issue behind me and get back to the more important issues of the day.

Through a series of rather fortunate events, a dialogue with RP was opened, and I found myself the ultra-pleased recipient of a pair of SportMask sunglasses, one of RP's flagships for their current lineup. According to my contact at RP, this particular style will be available later in the year, but is, at present, possessed only by Chris McCormack, 2007 winner of Kona, and yours truly. Pretty effin' cool, I think.

(as a side note, I noticed that the custom design I created for my Radars last summer was the same that Sam McGlone wore for her debut at Kona -- once again, pretty effin' cool.)

While I've yet to run or ride with the shades (midterms are next week, and I was way behind schedule), I've tried them on and tried the lens swapping feature. Here's my assessment thus far:

• Unbelievably light weight (0.88 oz., according to the spec sheet)
• Slick adjustment via the nose piece (akin to the Tayo models [best sunglasses ever])
• Easy lens exchange, although I did notice some minor chipping on the overcoat of the Racing Red lens. This could have been a defect in the original manufacturing of the lens, though; I noticed no additional chipping with the two or three subsequent removals & reinsertions of the frame pieces from & to the lens itself.
• The red "Rudy Project" badges on the sides of the ear stems could get snagged, removing them from the ear stems. Should that (unlikely situation) ever occur, the badges appear to be easily replaceable.
• Hard carrying case is vastly improved over the cumbersome hard plastic case of glasses of yore, though its general design for dual-lens glasses eliminates the possibility of storing additional lenses for the SportMask, something hope to get resolved before this March's Texas Independence Relay

My plan is to sport them on the commute to work tomorrow, as well as at the Houston Half this Sunday (what do you think: should I bandit?) . I hope to eventually shift my entire sunglass array back over to RP (the hinges on the Oakley SquareWires are driving me batty), as well as replace my aging Atmos with something from Rudy (the RP helmet N--- got me for Christmas [the one that started all this ruckus] will be used for TT training, as well as for mountain biking)...maybe one of the older models, as the next gen stuff isn't available for another month or two; you can probably guess how impatient I am.

And thus ends my posting for tonight. It's getting late, and I still need to update my school Web site with next week's midterm info. I'll check back in after the weekend to say how N--- did, let you, my avid, sometimes rabid(?), readers know if I decided to bandit and how the SportMask did on its first few outings. As always, thanks for reading.

Yo-ga! Yo-ga!

I was feeling like absolute poop tonight. I really needed to get a swim in, and even made enough progress on the PAPE2 midterm to allow myself to go to the gym, but time got the better of me; lunch for the rest of the week still needed to be prepared, which included a trip to the grocer.

After talking with N--- (tomorrow's her birthday!), I changed into a pair of shorts and popped in a DVD I bought a few years ago, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes. I'd not done much of anything resembling yoga for several months, so I navigated my way through the DVD to the five-minute "mini" workouts, thinking I could handle that. Within seconds, I realized just how tight my body had become, but I persevered, stretching to the best of my (in)ability.

Who knew five minutes could make such a huge difference in one's physical & psychological well-being? When finished with the set, I felt completely rejuvenated, including nearly no pain in my right leg (it has since returned with some emphasis, but is much less noticeable than it was three hours ago.

And that's my two-bit post for tonight. I felt the strong urge to write something, but I didn't know where to begin. Yea, yoga.

I'm hoping to get a bit more sleep tonight, so my next posting should be a tad more coherent. Thanks for reading.

To Infinity, and Beyond

Today is the third day of the year 2008. It is the first day this week I have had Internet access at home.

When school let out for the holidays, I thought about signing on with this local ISP that provides a wireless solution for connectivity. Pretty ingenious, but pretty expensive, too -- at least for the startup. This ISP (which shall remain nameless, just in case they've any spiders out there, scouring the Web for people badmouthing them, regardless of how deserved such badmouthing may be) let me know they would be shutting down for the weekend and the ensuing holidays, but they would reopen on Wednesday, December 26th. I could then get signed up for wireless Internet service and be online in no time. No problem, and off I went to have a very merry Christmas.

Come Boxing Day, I called AT&T to cancel my service with them, disconnecting gramma's old telephone number in the process. I then trotted across the street to be greeted by a sign indicating they (the wireless ISP [shall I call them WISP?]) would be closed through the 26th, reopening on the 27th. No problem, thought I, as my AT&T service was to be active until the 27th. Goodness, was I ever mistaken.

On the morning of the 27th, my service was off-line, as promised. I made for the WISP when they opened at the early hour of 10:00, and had my contract & credit card ready for service, with the exception of one question on the contract: They wanted my mummy's maiden name. The WISP agreed to an alternate security question (after erroneously informing me that mother's maiden name was required by the DHS), so I signed on the dotted line and was promptly told it would be Monday (12/31) before my service could be connected: A technician needed to go on-site to plug in the access numbers into their proprietary piece of wireless hardware. When the lady behind the counter was queried for the reasoning, she had no real answer to speak of, stating there was not an ISP out there that would provide IP addresses for its servers. I retorted that every ISP I've ever dealt with did, she suggested I go sign up with them. I snatched my credit card and contract, told her I would, and left.

Five minutes later, I'm on the phone with AT&T, letting them know that I had made a grave mistake and wished to come home. They were more than forgiving, but could not return the old phone number to me; something to do with order processing time. Fine, no problem...new starting point for me in the house, or something. By 2:00 that afternoon, telephone and DSL service were back online. Life was again good. At least, until Monday.

Monday morning, I get up to go ride with J--- and a few other guys from Spectrum to Castroville (75-mile recovery-type ride out near Castroville). Trouble was, the Internet service was down, so I couldn't check weather temperature in SA-town, wind chill, and so on. What ever; I'd check it when I got home. And I did. Nobody at AT&T had an answer for me. The order that was put in the preceding Thursday (12/27) for service, could be open as late as eight o'clock that evening, and I should call back if need-be. I did, and continued to do so through this afternoon. For what ever reason, the physical line in the house went south on me and needed to be serviced. After two visits from a tech and three phone calls to the phone company, my service appears to be back up & running at 100%. I'm almost there, myself.

Today was my first bit of real, physical exercise for the new year. Yeah, I took the Felt out for an 18-mile jaunt yesterday, but that wasn't all too tough, despite the strong cross winds and frigid wind chill. Today, I ran the Parkway, feeling the effects of too much food and not enough exercise over the holidays. I had got to get back in the habit of eating healthily and making use of the gym when the weather outside is not cooperating with what I want to do. Guess that's a good enough resolution to tack on to the one of taking better care of myself. Cool.

Also, there has been some interesting developments in the eyewear & helmet department(s), but I'll report on that some time down the road. For now, I need to write my portion of the junior's midterm and tend to some house chores before bed time. I plan on hitting the gym tomorrow morning before HSM practice at 8:30. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment. Happy New Year, and thanks for reading.