The Aerie
Oh, hello, it's Friday?
Well, I don't know where that week went. Criminy!
My biggest highlight for the week was finally breaking the 20:00
barrier on my 5K row: 5000 meters in 19:53.10. I accomplished it in
rather aggressive, unorthodox terms: I'd prefer to row an even pace
the whole time and come in under 20:00, and I'm sure I'll get there
sometime. But on Wednesday when I set my new personal best I did so by
sprinting the first 500 meters and then simply struggling to hold my
lead for the rest of the trip. I rowed the first 500 meters in about
1:40 (or 20 seconds under a 20:00 pace), and then tried to hold my
speed at 2:00 for 500 meters and watched the lead erode down to 8
seconds by the end. After which it took me about ten minutes to be
able to stand up.
Then I foolishly completed my workout with my weight exercises, ending
with the toe-lifts: standing with my toes on the edge of the machine
and 100lbs on my shoulders, go up on my toes and back down again,
stretching out the calves.
And for the rest of the week I've felt like a pair of angry turtles
are clamped to the backs of my knees.
The rest of the week has passed quickly due to a goodly amount of
work, so at least poverty will be held at bay a while longer. The work
continues even now: Friday night I worked on an after-hours client
project (rebuilding their network rack) until 11 p.m., and Saturday
I'll probably put in six more hours there moving files around and
finishing the cleanup.
With a weekend of hard labor ahead, I took Friday off and the family
all went to the Science Museum to see two presentations: the Vikings,
and an Omnitheater presentation on Jane Goodall. I've never been
particularly interested in Vikings, but I've always been very
interested in Goodall. Okay, I admit it, she was every nerd's fantasy
girl when I was a lad in the '70's!
Strangely, my appreciation of these shows was reversed (and, no, not
because I discovered that Goodall is 26 years my senior!) I found the
Vikings exhibit strangely moving, while Goodall's film seemed flat and
emotionless.
The Vikings struck a chord with me on several levels. First was the
fact that they once comprised a great and fearsome culture, ruling
great portions of the Known World with unchallenged might -- and now
they are but a memory and a parody of themselves. A bit too much like
America for comfort. But on a more personal level was the plight (more
properly, I suppose, the saga of their settlements in Greenland.
This, too, had modern parallels: Settled at the end of the first
millenium, Greenland seemed a welcoming, fertile new land. But after a
few centuries the climate changed, and the settlers on Greenland died
out or fled before the advancing cold of the "Little Ice Age." Again
the parallel with America, where unlike the Vikings we are culpabile
for the climate change happening around us.
The story of the Vikings left me melancholy and thoughtful about what
the future holds for our present way of life, and how pitifully we may
be judged by our posterity. The great works of the Vikings are now
rusted spears and mouldering funeral boats: what will we leave behind?
Deserts, landfills, and ruined cities?
I went to the Goodall film prepared to be both delighted and
mortified: I was looking forward to learning about her community of
chimpanzees, and dreading the news of the environmental plight in
Africa. I got a little of both, but just a little. Mention was made of
the loss of 90% of the habitation of the chimp, but only briefly and
in a most cursory way. And we were introduced to a few of the chimps,
but without any particular depth of feeling. Indeed, some
characteristic of the cinematography made the scenes of the chimps
interacting -- at least when they were on the ground -- seem flat and
staged.
Finally, Dad Day with each of my twins has been pushed back and then
back again -- today it was with the Omnitheater trip. Hopefully maybe
I'll get some time in with one of the twins on Sunday. We'll see!
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Posted by Albatross at January 17, 2003 12:00 AM