with my usual sea-kayak partners otherwise occupied yesterday, i headed out on my first solo expedition. on an empty lake with no wind, i made my way over seattle’s industrial waterfront.

it goes without saying that i am no fan of commercial fishery, but there’s something that i find so compelling about seemingly smallish boats that can head out into the ocean and make it back with tales to tell. surfing is teaching me that the ocean has the potential to be a cruel mistress, and i have nothing but respect for its power.

but i wasn’t out on the ocean yesterday, i was on a lake. i assumed that spending a few hours paddling alone would feel the same as spending a few hours running alone but it turned out to be different. maybe not good different. maybe a little boring. that could be the difference between sport and recreation for me: sport is good to do alone, recreation requires others.

apropos of nothing i typed about, here’s the underside of the aurora bridge:

people jump off of this, i wish they wouldn’t.

a little more than halfway through this morning’s ~6m sloggy sprint through the rain, i came upon this old fat bearded guy walking with a cane. that isn’t the funny part. in fact, that isn’t funny at all. the funny part is that the old fat bearded guy was wearing a sky-blue dirndl (like the st pauli girl, without the beer and with the tits). and the funnier part is that he saw me staring at him and screamed, “DON’T YOU DARE FUCKING LAUGH AT ME!”, which is when i lost my shit and laughed in his face.

i kinda felt like a jock asshole bully, but fuck it. dude was wearing a dirndl in the rain and screaming at me for doing nothing. what the shit was i supposed to do?

with the womenfolk off to see some “progressive hiphop” tonight, jason barnwell esq and i felt that we somehow had to balance our small universe, be a yin to their yang, if you will. originally i had suggested beowulf, but then realized that we should go big: head out to eastern washington for indian food and 200 9mm rounds at the indoor range. as my lawyer put it on our way over the lake: gandhi would be proud.

we rented a 9mm pistol. on either side of us, dudes were busting off fully automatic weapons. shit is both loud and disquieting. i was thinking it and then jason said it: there are dudes in close-quarter combat dealing with that all around them as we speak. terrifying.

tuesday is ladies’ night at the range. apparently you have to get there early because it fills up quickly. this won’t be a problem for us because i’m pretty sure that mia has zero interest in joining the second amendment sisters.

i woke up a little early this morning so that i could run ~8 hilly miles before work. it was still dark when i left the house but the sun was just about to rise.

running up madison, i got hold of an amazing sunrise. one of those sunrises that makes you feel smug because you’re up and running while the rest of the world is still sleeping.

and that sunrise was the last recognizable picture that my camera took. the rest of them look like this.

i got to work 10 minutes late for my 9am meeting. there were no free bathroom stalls to use for changing, so i ducked into my boss’s unoccupied office to swap clothes. his office doors are filled with obfuscating glass, not unlike a shower door. i figured no one could see me. later on that morning, someone mentioned that i figured wrong.

getting back to my desk after the meeting, i noticed that a bird had shat on my bag. i guess the luck there is that it missed my head.

going home tonight, i went to choose some musical accompaniment for my bike ride and instead got the sad ipod icon, with a helpful message telling me to contact tech support.

i got on my bike and had a quiet ride up the hill. when i reached the ridge, it started raining. i was happy to be only a few minutes from home. that’s when i heard: pfffff, pfffff, pfffff, pfffff. yes, i had flatted.

pushing aside beggars, i found an awning under which i could change my tube. then i realized that there was a 1″ gash all the way through the tire. changing the tube would have meant flatting again, which i didn’t want to risk on a wet descent. so i called mia, asking her to pick me up. she said she’d be there in a few minutes. then she called back to remind me that i was in possession of the only car key and that i had left my bus pass in its stead. good job, patrikios. i very carefully hoofed it home.

tonight i started the winter ritual of running home from work, since it’s too dark when i get home to embark on a run. i ran up a street that i don’t normally take and it was kind of sketchy. i mean, for seattle. this thing probably wouldn’t register in regular cities but dudes were jumping out attempting to startle me. others wouldn’t move, daring me to play chicken with them. at no point did i feel like i was in danger, i just didn’t understand their motives. it was both really confusing and really lame.

once i crested the hill and ran along the ridge toward home — past the house with the two barking pit bulls, past the house with the gaggle of yipping terriers — some kid who must have heard me coming because he turned around, got low, clenched his fists, and put on his hardest look. he looked like he was some kinda martial artist and he didn’t look like he was kidding.

i know it’s wrong for a hippie like me (who is going to start running home with his daily fruit scraps so that he can compost them instead of putting them in the garbage at work) to say but now i get why people drive to work. i don’t think it’s laziness and lack of caring about the planet. i think they just don’t want the hassle.

as of 5 nov 2007 at 10pm, our amazon ranking is ahead of jane austen’s letters in the books › literature & fiction › letters & correspondence category and behind letters to penthouse xv: outrageous, erotic, orgasmic!

i mean, looking at the numbers, it would seem that if jane austen’s letters was titled jane austen’s letters: outrageous, erotic, orgasmic!, it might be doing better. or even, jane austen’s letters: hopes, fears, secrets, resolutions. jane austen was always shit at snappy subtitles. i think that’s what always held her back.