Night 2

I was not planning on going to night 2, but thanks to a special friend I was able to go. I appreciate the thought and I will not forget your friendship.

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Set List

1. No Surrender
2. We Take Care Of Our Own
3. Wrecking Ball
4. Badlands
5. Death to My Hometown
   (With Tom Morello)
6. My City of Ruins
7. Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
8. Jack of All Trades
   (With Tom Morello)
9. Youngstown
10. Prove It All Night
11. Darkness on the Edge of Town
12. Easy Money
13. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
14. Apollo Medley
15. Racing in the Street
16. The Rising
17. Lonesome Day
18. We Are Alive
19. The Ghost of Tom Joad
    (With Tom Morello)
20. Land of Hope and Dreams
    (With Tom Morello)
21. Encore:
22. Rocky Ground
    (with Michelle Moore)
23. Bobby Jean
24. Born to Run
25. Dancing in the Dark
26. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
    (With Tom Morello)

A video from tonight's show

Bruce

As anyone who knows me I am a big fan (as in fanatic) of Bruce Springsteen.  I went to see him yesterday in concert and all I can say is "wow".  It was a fantastic concert. One of the best of his shows that I have attended.  3 hours of not worrying about anything, just listenting to the music, singing along (badly) and dancing (even worse). 

Setlist

1. Badlands
2. We Take Care Of Our Own
3. Wrecking Ball
4. The Ties That Bind
5. Death to My Hometown
6. My City of Ruins
7. The E Street Shuffle
8. Jack of All Trades
9. Something in the Night
10. Candy's Room
11. She's the One
12. Easy Money
13. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
14. The Promised Land
15. Apollo Medley
16. The Ghost of Tom Joad
17. The Rising
18. Lonesome Day
19. We Are Alive
20. Land of Hope and Dreams

Encore:

21. Rocky Ground
22. California Sun
23. Born to Run
24. Dancing in the Dark
25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Some pictures of the concert.  Apparently I was too close on some of these photos and they are blurry, but hopefully you can see Bruce.

Cologne

I have not been biking as much as last year. Part of the reason is that on a few of weekends it has rained and that is when I usually do the majority of my miles.  Still, I am up to 1,500 miles for the first 3 months of the year which still puts me on a pace to bike around 6,000 for the year.

Last weekend I went on a business trip to Cologne, Germany.  The business part of it is 2 days and the travel portion s 2 days.  Surprisingly, not much jet lag as it was such a short trip my body never adjusted to the time difference.  Oh, and a lot of coffee drinking does not hurt.

A view of the Cathedral from the front and the back. 

In crossing the bridge from one side of Cologne to the other side,  you notice that people who get married affix these locks to the fence (below the picture of the train) with their names. As you can see this stretches the full length of the bridge.

The Rhine is a river that flows from Grisons in the eastern Swiss Alps to the North Sea coast in the NetherlandsAn overview of the Rhine River



Rhine River, Cologne another view

Rhine River, Cologne



Factoids

As I usually do not drive to work, but bike I do not really pay much attention to my car odometer.  However, below is either an interesting or crazy statistic:

Odometer reading on my 11 year old car   40,900
Last 3 years biked:                                      32,678

During 2011, I was able to ride 11,743 miles which was only 451 miles less than my personnel best in 2009. 

I think I need a little more balance in my life as I believe I rode past Jim on the beach bike path two Thursday ago.  It looked like Jim and I yelled "Jim" and he did respond,  but did not stop, but that could have been too much time on the bike.

I hope that everyone had a Happy New Year.

Please be safe, happy and healthy.

Hell on Wheels

This is not me riding my bike around town.  It is the name of a new show produced by my company that will premiere in AMC tomorrow night. 

The Beard is Back

The woman who I live with to whom I am related to by marriage has went on a 3 week vacation back home. As she does not like me with a beard, this is my chance to grow one.  The last time I grew one was on the 2009 trip. I have noticed alot more grey this time around,

The weather today was very nice. It must have been in the 70's.  I usually rest on Fridays and today my legs felt really strong.  I biked 117 miles today which was the second most ever. One of my goals this year was to bike 1 century a month or 12 this year.  Today I achieved that goal. I remember during our trip in 2009, my group would always round up to 100 miles on days we were close. Karen would say you do not get many chances to bike that many miles. Towards the end of the trip I was so focused on EFI on some days I would not round up. I regretted that and that is the reason I set that goal. Every time I bike 100 I always hear Karen's voice in the back of my head.

Quarterly report

Given that my job is focused on quarterly reports, below is my report for the 3rd quarter of 2011.


I bicycled 3,485 miles in the quarter. I was aided by seasonably low temperature and extra sunlight. Year to date I have biked 27% more miles than last year.

During the quarter I took a business trip to Amsterdam. A few pictures:

 
The current quarter has started very well and I am on pace for a little over 1,000 miles this year.
 
I enjoyed reading my fellow XC09 riders blogs. I was particular happy that Bob continued his long distance riding, Hank enjoyed his new roommate, Al's  blog was as funny as ever, Champ enjoyed the history along the route and Jim biked at the back of the pack.
 
Tom D- If you are reading this I really like the nickname for me on your blog.