After weeks months of putting myself through a mental ringer of worry and personal shame about the holiday season and seeing family, they are just about over with. Only New Years remains and other than the fact that I met my wife on New Year’s Eve many, many moons ago, that holiday means nothing to me (not that the other ones do). Out with the old and in with the new? More like out with one shit year, and in with another. I’m being negative, aren’t I? Sorry, it’s a gift. And a curse. Mostly a curse.
One thing I wanted to make sure I did while briefly back in Western PA for the Christmas holiday was to revisit the Dead Man’s Hollow area along the nearby rail trail. It had come to my attention after my last visit that there is an abandoned clay pipe factory just a couple hundred yards off of the trail.
So, between a big Christmas breakfast and Christmas dinner later that day, Wifey and I headed to the nearby trailhead to walk the trail and snoop around the graffitied old ruins as I vurped up sausage and eggs.
There seemed to be one main building, some foundations here and there, and more than a few signs of what I assume were brick kilns or chimneys. There were also hundreds and hundreds of crushed clay pipes, and a ton of graffiti. It was pretty cool to see and wonder what the factory must have looked like during its heyday. I wish there would have been a bit more to check out, but it was still fun.
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The day after Christmas we headed home, and I did my best to come down from all the time in the car and eating before getting back to a cleaner diet and working out the next day.
Because of that travel and overeating, I was not expecting much from my Zwift™ session Thursday morning. Oddly enough I felt pretty good and set a new PR on the Jungle Loop.
Riding fake dirt roads. My ass looks pretty good in that kit. Better than real life, that’s for sure!!
As we approach 2019, I am optimistic that I can get a bit of weight off of my hulking bodice. I’m working out and getting my nutrition dialed in. If I can stop with the evening beers, in 2019, I think I just might have a shot of looking in the mirror and seeing someone I don’t hate. Maybe.
Later.