Month: July 2023

  • Today’s Run Notes

    It’s pretty miserable out there today. Not overly hot, but very humid. I didn’t get out for my run until 9:00, and by then, it was 80°F with a dewpoint of 72°, with bright sunshine (in contrast to recent days, which have been mostly cloudy to overcast in the mornings). My first note to myself…

  • Brew Notes

    I brewed my Lost Dog Mocha Sidamo dark roast beans today using this exact recipe, just as an experiment, as it produces great results with my other bag of medium/medium-dark beans. I had brewed a variation of the same recipe with the Mocha Sidamo beans recently, and noted that it seemed a little under-extracted, so…

  • Afternoon notes

    Something is definitely up with my right foot and calf, as I’ve been getting some discomfort in the rear of the foot towards the heel while walking on my treadmill desk. My right calf also seems really tight, which is an issue I’ve dealt with a lot over the years. As I wrote yesterday, I…

  • Last Cup

    I brewed my last full cup of coffee with my Starbucks medium roast beans this morning, which is noteworthy only because this was my first foray into grinding beans myself. I’ve had the bag since last winter, and started out using a blade grinder and a drip coffee maker. Needless to say, the results were…

  • Pillar Climbing

    I drove up to Pennsylvania yesterday to find a geocache at the top of a 30′ pillar. This is the third like this I’ve found, and a popular type of “extreme” cache hide. Most of these old pillars carried railroad tracks “back in the day”, which have since been abandoned, but the pillars (built to…

  • Run Notes

    I ran this morning for the first time in 6 days. The hiatus was mostly due to my schedule (crazy holiday week/weekend with lots going on) but I was kind of looking to rest for a few days anyhow, due to a little bit of mild discomfort in my right heel the past 2 or…

  • Medley

    I realized after swimming today that I essentially swam an Olympic individual medley (although slightly out of order) for the first time. I swam 3 sets of 240 strokes each: 60 breastroke, 60 freestyle, 60 butterfly, and 60 backstroke. Backstroke is still decidedly a work in progress. I made it through 3 sets of 60…

  • Paddle Notes

    We paddled at Rocky Gorge Reservoir this morning, for the first time since 2020. We used the launch at Scott’s Cove Recreation Area, which is within the magical 20-minute drive radius of home, and paddled about 5.5 miles, looping out to the US 29 overpass and back. With the oppressively humid air and the predicted…

  • Brew Notes

    I’ve used a different recipe with these beans several times, with pretty good results, but I just wanted to try something different. I decided to try yesterday’s recipe, with a couple of tweaks: 16 grams coffee (vs 15), 85°C water (vs 90°C), and 48 clicks on the JX (vs 42, or slightly coarser). Compared to…

  • Swim Notes

    We certainly had weird weather this past spring. Early on, it was wet, and then we had drought conditions for a couple of months. Now, the pattern has changed again, and early summer has alternated between cloudy, humid, stormy days and hazy, smoky days, depending on the wind direction. As a result, the sun hasn’t…