Not too much to write, except that I am pissed about a new K Mart commercial.

On a rainy friday night in February 1996, me and my friend Lan took the train and a bus from Davis to Sactown to buy Fugazi tickets at the Beat, an bizarrely overpriced independent record store in midtown Sac. After we bought enough tickets for about a dozen friends and figured out that Hamburger Mary's is primarily a gay establishment, Lan wanted to show me a loft space behind a book store in midtown.

We climbed the steps to the Hindenburg, a punk music record store collective and zine library. I never felt punk enough in this kind of damp, dark punker kinda place, but the kids there were really friendly. The vibe was much more relaxed than Epicenter Zone in the Mission and I had a good time.

After talking with a couple of young anarchist hitchikers, I left there with a record that I had heard good things about, "J.D. Salinger" by the Wynona Riders. The cover art references the burgundy and mustard colored cover of the _Catcher in the Rye_, the institutional version most of us read in high school. Inside the sleeve, the two 12" records, a 7", and ample liner notes of teen outsider angst not only held the spirit of the novel but also turned the record into one of my favorite poppy punk records. It's a good balance of original writing and some well placed and funny cover songs.

The best cover song is a version of the early 80s Kim Wilde hit "Kids in America" and it really illustrated what a great little punk song that it. It's up there with J-Church's version of Radiohead's "Creep".

Anyway, there's a new K Mart Back to School commercial feature the Riders' version.

I am plagued by Back To School commercials. Time to turn off the TV.

Oh, and it's still hotter than hell in Sacramento. Bleck.

Wednesday eve and we've been back in Sac since Sunday. It's hard coming back here after all the travel and down time. I feel so at ease out on the road like that. It's a strange sense of being relaxed. Portland was totally wonderful and we may just end up trying to move there in the next couple of years. Who knows. We say that every time we go there. We got to stay in basement of my cousin's house for 5 nights and I had a fantastic time with the family. Their house is in a pretty cool neighborhood, just at the edge of Laurelhurst Park and we enjoyed the neighborhood. Add to that the incredible trails of Forest Park and the relative (to the bay area at least) ability to get around and Portland just really has it all. Oh, and houses are cheap, too. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, after that we spent a bit of time riding the MTBs in Bend. I ended up doing a mostly solo ride from Swampy Lakes to Lava Lake along the Cascade Highway. Riding the singlespeed is really methodical and simple and almost meditative. I caught myself daydreaming about getting another bike, maybe a rock lobster like Sean's. There I was in the middle of the forest, totally oblivious to fairly technical trail debating the details of my new bike. Merckx Orange or Sea Foam Green? Aluminum or steel? Who knows, I just know that the riding was a little less meditative a couple days later in Ashland when Terrence and I gained 1200' elevation in 2 miles on a exposed hillside in 95' weather. Oh, and we didn't take any water or food. I rode E's FSR on that ride because she didn't feel like going. Her bike is nice but a little complicated and the fork sucks. It feels totally sloppy at times and completely locked out and stiff other times. It's just a bad combo. It's gotta go.

E's leaving for American Samoa again tomorrow. She'll be gone for 10 days or so. Tonight after our workouts we went Cafe Bernardo, one of our favorite Sactown eateries, and now she's finishing up her packing. I am already looking forward to her return.

Cross country season starts on 8/20 and I think I am pretty ready. Today's workout was a 3-mile tempo run at 5:40 mile pace and it was really pretty controlled and easy, though I wore my new xc shoes and they were stiff and uncomfortable. Still my max HR was just 188 and I felt pretty good immediately after. Actually, everything was okay except for a blister on my right foot and my locked up calves. I have to take those shoes on a long trail run and show them who's boss.

I need a drink (H20) so I'm signing off. If anyone has an extra small (13-14") mtb frame to unload, let me know. I gotta friend who wants to put together a bike for his g-friend.