Coins on the Tracks
Today the kids and I biked to some railroad tracks and put coins on the tracks. Even though I’ve lived most of my life near railroad tracks, and played around them often as a kid, I never bothered to try this. Back then I was more into putting logs and giant pieces of metal on the tracks, hoping to derail the trains. We hung around the tracks for about 30 minutes, hoping for a train to stop by, but no luck. We left our coins there and ended up going back home.
Tonight I went jogging and noticed a train passing as I was out, so I stopped by the tracks and picked up the coins. I only got about half of them since I was searching for them by cell phone light and they were hard to spot. But here they are:
I love how the edges still exist perfectly on some of them, but other are cracked and sharp. I honestly didn’t know they would really flatten this well. Or I thought the vibrations would knock them off the track before the train actually hit them. The kids want to go retrieve the rest of them tomorrow. I told them they should try and spend them at 7-Eleven.
A couple days ago, I was reading this entry from Renae’s blog and she mentioned that she always walked with her Garmin GPS to track her distance and speed. I can’t believe I never thought of that! My phone, which I always take with me to play music on, has built-in GPS on it. I use it all the time in the car with Google Maps to keep me from getting lost. So I searched crackberry.com for some software that would track time/speed/distance and found GPSed which is perfect. And best of all it’s a free program. It’s making me love my Blackberry even more.
The program works like a social networking site where you can automatically upload your jogs/hikes/whatever to your profile. It lays out your route on top of Google Maps and displays your average speed, distance and all that. It rules. I could post links to my routes, but they begin and end at my front door and I don’t want any PLA weirdos doing evil things to me. Thanks for the inspiration, Renae! Here’s what the program looks like on my phone…
Looking at my route from tonight makes me realize I underestimated my distance from the other day. I went for about 8 miles, not 6. It’ll be nice to know my exact distance now. Also, I kicked ass with the running tonight. I ran for the first 1.5 miles without slowing for a break. My average speed was around 5.3 MPH. And I ran nonstop for almost another full mile on the way home. I’m getting better at this.
Someone asked what’s with all the fitness stuff lately. I’ve been doing this for almost 2 years now and I’ve lost close to 35 lbs. I plan to lose another 30 or so lbs, which brings me to a healthy weight according to some fitness website. I had a gym membership for about a year, which I kept mostly in private posts. Again, because I didn’t want PLA weirdos trying to figure out which gym I was at. Now that I’m running on my own I guess it doesn’t matter so much.
I also cut down drastically on my horrible eating habits. I still have horrible eating habits and don’t have plans to change that too much, but at least I’m doing a lot less of it. Like, I rarely eat a dozen donuts for breakfast anymore. Or a whole box of those powdered ones. Or 2 orders of Crazy Bread from Little Caesars for supper. Or an entire box of EL Fudge for lunch. A few years back I found out that once you get old that stuff actually makes you fat.
And I’ve given up Pepsi. For as long as I can remember I’ve had at least a Pepsi per day, usually several. Stopping by Quiktrip for a 44oz cup of it was a daily thing for me in Illinois. I always tried to not buy Pepsi in bulk or in 2 liter bottles, because I knew that would make it too easy for me to access. But even then, I still went to the store at least a couple times a day to buy some. But now I’ve quit. At the very most, I only have maybe a 20oz bottle every 2 or 3 months. And strangely enough, the annoying insomnia that I’ve suffered from my entire life has nearly vanished. It’s crazy how well I sleep these days. Speaking of that, I need to quit writing and go to sleep.
Holy Crud, you’ve linked two of my entries now. I feel so honored! What a great surprise that you underestimated by so much! It always seems, to me like I tend to overestimate, and then I’m disappointed when I find out what I really did. It’ll probably be a big blow when I finally get to start running again, and I find out how slow I actually go. (I didn’t get the Garmin until after I had to give up running.) Oh, and BTW 0.6 mph? You SUCK!!! -ha ha. Were you tracking yourself sitting at the computer?
No, I’m not actually quite THAT retarded, in case anyone was wondering.
Yeah, I was sitting in the house when I snapped that picture. The speed jumps around when I’m inside, I think because the satellites have a hard time locking on with all these walls and roofs in the way.
Pepsi sucks. Coke FTW. I don’t know what FTW means, but I’m pretty sure it’s something like, “Fuck the whales!” which is swell.
I’ve thought for a couple decades now, (literally), that “Maim the Whales!” would make for a great t-shirt.
i wish i could down load all the cool stuf onto my crack berry. i got it from work and they have given us very strict instruction not to down load any and i mean any soft ware. the coins rocked. ive put some down befor but never found them later. i may have to try it again some time.
oh, this is bruce. i for got to change the name befor i started and am now to lazy to go back.
Here’s the mom in me talking: You should leave when you do the coins on the railroad trick. One of my friend’s had an older brother who got cut (like a huge circle on his chest) from a coin coming off a railroad track. Even hiding a good distance away does not help, since they can ricochet really really far.
Good job on the weight loss! I’ve lost 15 lbs this year from changing some bad eating habits and adding a once a week swim to my exercise routine. I’m pretty sure I have more to lose than 30 more lbs though!
no way timp, that has to be an old wives tale. a coin would not shoot out. a rock chip when it got crushed maybe, but not a coin. some one told you that to keep you away from the tracks.
It is true I never saw the big circle. You think someone would show that off if they actually got it? Still, it scared me silly as a 6 year old.
Bruce, stop using my name to comment.
Wait… you cut a major source of caffeine out of your diet and suddenly you can sleep? No freakin way!
What does happen when you put a giant log on a train track?
Sage – it split the log into 3 pieces. I didn’t get to see it happen, but it was in 3 pieces the next day.
sory renae, i was just too lazy to change the name. trains are ficken huge. they hit cars and don’t derail. i love the old video of the two trains they got going and ran head on into each other.
Nice, I haven’t done that in a while.
You’re kids are looking more and more grown every time.
Brad,
I had a dream that you blew up my house. You were at least nice enough to let me and my family get out first though.
you should check out mapmyrun.com it has everything for the runner who wants to map a run…including elevation….loads of fun….
Renae, it was only for the kids sake. I was still hoping that YOU would blow up. Then I can have Bruce all to myself.