Sometimes, the hand-painted hood branding fits the general aesthetic.
Father’s Day MTB session
Got out with some Dad-bros for an early, early, MTB session at Pocahontas. That’s me on the right. With the beard.
It was steamy and my memory may be faulty, but to my recollections we went Blueberry-> Gateway-> Bell Lap-> Bell Return-> Corkscrew-> Sunsetter-> Bell Return-> Blueberry Return.
It is always better to go ride.
After we went home and caught a shower, we met again and watched some Euro 2020 at Final Gravity.
Mare of Easttown
****I’m going to talk spoilers, so scroll past if you want to save it****
I don’t particularly enjoy feeling bad while I’m watching tv so the whole “bad things happening to people in a tough situations” setup of ep01 had me ready to jump ship. Fortunately the second episode dipped into some recognizable tv Drama beats, so I was in. Bad things still happened, but it seemed less real.
Really great show. We remembered Angourie Rice (Siobhan in Mare) from The Nice Guys, which is overlong but underrated, IMO. She’s terrific.
The baby-in-danger scenes were the most harrowing for us (specifically the pillow in the recovery room and the bathtub scenes). That stuff skeeves me out. No bueno.
Also, the bits where we came in at the end of conversations were like you’d find in a novel: the dad making the kid promise to keep the secret, the older brother making the other brother say he did it, etc.
I thought the last twist(s) got a little Scooby Doo/Agatha Christie, but not so that it ruined the experience.
Kate Winslet was so, so good. This is one of my favorite things about prestige TV. Good writing in the hands of capital-A Actors is really something awesome.
I recommend it.
2021 Ford Maverick
This new Ford Maverick seems designed specifically for me (as opposed to the old Ford Maverick, which had a great name badge). A 21-Century compact pickup, which is as big as full-sized pickups were when I was coming up. This is exactly what I’m looking for in a truck. I don’t need to pull a boat or haul a ton of bricks. I just want to be able to go to the dump a couple of times a year and to take my bikes to the trailhead.
I hope it is a hit so they’re still around in a few years when I’m in the market again.
Or even better, maybe this will kick off a compact pickup renaissance, and I’ll have a bunch to choose from in 2024. That would be the dream.
~240lb stone to 52″
Coming into the last couple of sessions before the contest. I’m tired and sore. I’m also a good bit stronger than I was when I started. The stone above is ~40lbs. heavier than this one from a month ago and it felt a lot easier.
Feeling beaten down and sore leading up to the contest is par for the course in my strongman training experience. I’ve stayed injury-free, which is always Goal 1. There is some more heavy training this weekend and then a relatively chill week to rest up.
Sturdy Lad
One of the more recent signals of my slow decent into my dotage has been my enthusiastic stocking of bird feeders.
I say “bird feeders” but I’m mostly feeding this chubbinsky. He can still do most of the normal squirrel jumping and climbing, but he won’t be for long if he keeps this up.
14 Years a-Twittering
That’s an awfully long time.
I still enjoy twitter. I’ve had to prune who I follow and mute the occasional trending topic, but I’ve got it to a place where I like visiting a couple of times a day.
Strongman Training is Going Well
I have not trained a ton of stone loads so I don’t trust the movement to go heavy-heavy. I think this is ~200 lbs. The contest event is a 60-second limit to load up to 3 stones, heaviest stone wins. I’m hoping to lift this one first and the see what the ceiling is. I only have a minute so it won’t take too long.
I’ve done a little more farmer’s carry training and I am stoked I got this one done. 250 lbs. in each hand for 40 feet is a huge PR for me. The contest weight is 235-per-hand for 60 feet so I feel really good about that.
I had some trouble with my feet on the heavy carries a few weeks ago. I switched up my footwear and started taping my feet to keep them tight. It’s gone a lot better since then, so that’s my contest-day plan. I might keep it up when I go back to Olympic lifts next month.
Happy Birthday to a Legend!
Happy born day to the timeless, Bartolo Colón! pic.twitter.com/TgmxnGJBd3
— New York Mets (@Mets) May 24, 2021
SaMcast Episode 159: The Warble Cap
Kevin Holcombe joins the show this week to plug his companion podcast The SLAMCast and share some picks:
(26:20) Recursion by Blake Crouch
(30:04) Remember Sports – “Like A Stone”
(35:25) Hardspace: Shipbreaker
(42:07) Mare of Easttown
(46:50) Waltr Pro
(52:33) That Damn Michael Che
Drinks!
Adam – Short Throw – Shady When I Strut
Mike – Strawberry Daiquiri
Kevin – Partly Cloudy, IPA, Solace Brewing Co
Followup and Footnotes
Music Break: Action Bronson – Baby Blue
Mitchells vs The Machines
Tenet
The Adventure Zone
Greenhollow Duology
Warzone
Masterclass
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Dude Where’s My Car
Survivor Season 1
Bartolo Colon
Book of Wyrms – Occult New Age
DJ Short Throw – Stimulate Your Mind
Love Death + Robots vol 2