James D. McCurdy

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks.  Vicky and I drove to St. Petersburg, FL on Friday the 23rd for St. Anthony’s Triathlon — what would have been my first triathlon of the year.  But I got food poisoning from one of the many things I ate while on said trip.  I started vomiting at 22:00.  Every single time I thought to myself:  ”this will be over by morning; I’ll still be able to race…”  But at 04:00, while heaving the half bottle of Gatorade (you guys should sponsor me) I had managed to down over a nauseous fifteen minute period, it began to dawn on me:  ”I may not be able to race on a completely empty, cramped stomach…”

Nevertheless, Vicky drove me to the race site.  I put on my man face (and tights) and made my way to transition.  I was going to race no matter what.  But within 100 yards of the car, it quickly became apparent that I was through.  As the waves lapped against the beach, and the wind blew salty sea breezes through my hair, I was leaned, and at one point prostrate, beneath a palm tree heaving with all my might.

Fortunately I got my bike out of transition before race start.  Then, while I lay in the back of the car vomiting in plastic grocery sacks, Vicky drove us the nine hours back to Auburn.  Plug for Vicky:  don’t know what I would have done without her on this trip. I was completely incapacitated.

By 16:00 I was dehydrated and unable to keep anything down.  At the suggestion of my medical advisor (Aunt Kay), I went to the ER for an IV (a story by its self).  They had me in a room within an hour, which must be a record.  I got seen prior to about three patients complaining of chest pains, at least two children requiring stitches, and one boy with a fish hook stuck in his foot.

Also bizarre:  Talladega (NASCAR) was blaring from three flat screen TV’s in the waiting rooms.  Everyone was going wild, even the kid with the fish hook in his foot was yelling for “Jr.”

Summed up, that was the worst race day experience I’ve ever had…  Worse than flatting two years in a row at Chattanooga (cursed)…  Worse than being knocked unconscious and scraped up road-racing… and even worse than the Rebel Man Triathlon in Ole Miss, which was bad for many reasons…

On a positive note:  I’m still alive and kickin’… driving up to Knoxville for REV 3 triathlon this weekend.  It’s the first in a series of three (Olympic, Half IM, and Full IM).  I’m registered for the Half and have considered the Full.  Only time will tell.  Training is pretty good — if anything I’m under-trained.  But overall I’m healthy.

Additionally, I finished the Spring semester with two finals today.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo,

Jay

Spring has arrived in Auburn! I saw my legs today for the first time in over two months. No more leg- or arm- warmers, no more tights; it’s on.

I’ve spent the last four weeks trying to get some research started – wrong time of year to do that. And I’ve trained harder and longer this winter than in winter’s past.

I guess my life’s a mix and match between grad-school and training. My boss says “everyone’s got dragons to slay,” but none of us grad students quite know what that means. I think it means something about taking care of business so that we can have extracurricular activities.

So I’m slayin’ some dragons. This week we’re applying spring preemergence trials. Preemergence herbicides prevent germinated seedlings from becoming full sized plants – usually weeds in lawns. One can quite literally smell dinitroanaline herbicides all around town. It’s a wonder there’s not an activist student union against herbicide application on campus. There are huge movements throughout the nation (and globe) against such intense management practices. A couple of interesting reads (and websites) are Turf Wars, the Daily Green, Less Lawn, and LawnReform.org

Slayin' Some Dragons

It’s complicated, but my project lies along the same line.  It revolves around the idea that not all weeds are bad, particularly leguminous weeds such as the clovers (Trifolium spp). When it comes to purposefully including legumes in lawns, there’s a lot of good ideas floating around but very little data, especially in warm-season turf…

So we’re looking to change that by quantifying carbon and nitrogen sequestration within these systems and comparing them with mono-stands of turf.

At least that’s the plan.

For now, I’m “in clover,” which basically means good pasture.

Jay

Ah, the joys of training in Hong Kong.  It has rained, almost without stopping, since Thursday.  

This is what I rode in this morning.  And yesterday, I swear it must have rained three or four inches during my hour and a half long run.  I believe monsoon season has officially started.

Read the rest of this entry »

Swine Flu has hit Hong Kong.  Says Monsters and Critics.com, 240 guests and 100 hotel staff have been quarantined for a week.  They were initially told only 24 hours.  What’s scary is that Hong Kong, because of it’s preparedness from SARS, can do this.  They could do more than just lock up the Wan Chai Metropark Hotel, they could close down the airports to all incoming flights.  They could lock up the borders.  The place could get crazy.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m off work on Sunday mornings.  After six days of waking up before five o’clock, I usually manage to sleep-in until six thirty or seven.  I make pancakes on Sundays.  Mom used to make pancakes every Sunday morning.  She’d make half chocolate chip, half blue berry.  I’m partial to the blue berry.  Well, blue berries are expensive in Hong Kong, and the ones available at the Wellcome Market aren’t real quality.  Instead I’ve started making apple pancakes.  I heat up my skillet, throw a little oil in the pan, then soften a usually half rotten, week old apple.  While my batter is cooking on one side, I toss in a few chunks of apple.  Add a few tablespoons of peanut butter, some of my Grandmother’s strawberry jam, a cup of coffee, and Voila! 

Read the rest of this entry »

I went to Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill last night.  It’s a 35 minute train ride to Kowloon Tong, but there’s a book store near by, so I figured I’d buy some new reading material.  I’ve been reading Charles Esdaile’s Napoleon’s Wars.  I have yet to finish it – not really my cup of tea.  Anyway, while at Dan Ryan’s, I ordered a side-salad and a KilKenny beer.  I was still hungry and ordered a chicken sandwich, and another beer.  I opted for a side of broccoli rather than fries.  As you can see, I not only got fries but cole slaw, a pickle, and a full head of broccoli.  The  menu says “Warning, we serve American sized portions.”  I joked with the waitress saying that Americans would never eat that much broccoli.  She didn’t get it.  I bought two new books, Freakenomics, which I’m about half-way through, and The World Is Flat. 

I rode to one of my favorite places today – Bride’s Pool Reservoir.  It’s in one of the more remote portions of the New Territories.  It’s a five mile long road that’s frequented by fast cars and motor-bikes.  There were a lot of mini-coopers there today, and a few Ferraris.  I managed to avoid injury and accident until the last loop.  On the return, right before the last climb, the cable to my back detailer snapped.  The next eight miles were steep, but I managed to limp back to Sheung Shui on my front sprockets, unscathed.  I’ve got to start taking better care of my equipment.

I want to say that work is frustrating and then list some reasons, but it’s not frustrating.  It’s interesting and peculiar.  Things that, to me, are normal, are often made into a big deal, and things that should be a big deal are often dismissed as normal.  Examples:  The agenda of Friday’s afternoon meeting included instructions for supervisors to tell their staff not to eat the fresh bamboo shoots rising from the previously trimmed bamboo sites around the course, as this will destroy this years “crop.”  I laughed aloud.  I often do when such things are mentioned.  A few weeks ago, in a staff meeting, the biggest complaint wasn’t over work, or poor working conditions.  Rather, it was that the lunch boxes, which are subsidized by the club and cost only HK$10 for about as much as I can eat, had only one divider rather than two; therefore, sour foods were mixing with sweet foods and so on, and so on.

Something that might be a big deal but is dismissed as normal:  There are about 20 or 25 odd gardens around the course.  They’re usually no larger than ten to fifteen square meters, and they’re always out of play.  Well, I say that, but there are some really bad golfers here, so that might not be true. In the gardens are mostly cole-crops like broccoli, bok-choy, and strange cabbages that I’ve never eaten before.  On more than one of my dusk-time runs, I’ve seen course staff watering their gardens.  I suppose me running on the course at night might be a big deal back in the states, but hey, IT’S CHINA!!!