The Washington State Legislature convened their session today. I moved down to my Olympia condo and office over the weekend, and will be down here until the end of April. Walking into the office this morning I saw the countdown clock at the end of the hall flashing away -- as you can see I have 104 days left. I also woke up with a headache to end all headaches -- I'm not sure if it was stress or sleeping on a crappy Ikea mattress or what, but the pain was bad enough that I was sick to my stomach for much of the day and went to the urgent care, where they thought it might be a migraine. A buddy who has a great chiropractor here in Olympia got me into him tonite and he was able to adjust my neck to fix what he thought was a pinched nerve, and the headache has gone away for the most part.
So now I have 104 more days of political pablum, self-congratulatory BS, and lots and lots of pretending to get things done when nothing really does get done. Wow, do I sound cynical? I guess in my old age I am -- this is my 20th session. I can't believe I'm one of the old-timers down here -- hell last year the Seattle Times called me "venerable Olympia lobbyist Gary Gardner..." The one drawback is the lack of time to ride -- but then again it is winter and the riding is rather limited. I did buy a bike to keep down here, though I've not had a chance to bring it down yet. It will come in handy later in the session when it warms up and I have a few evenings to ride - especially after we go to Daylight Savings time early this year.
I was able to get in a short ride over the weekend -- down to the dealership to take the Rocker in for service and pick up the Black Bob. It was cold, but the heated gear was nice, and I'd rather remember that then how I felt all day today.I started this Journal to record my thoughts from riding and what it means to me. I guess I won't be doing much of that for a few months -- and I'm so busy that my friends think I've fallen into a black hole underneath the Capitol. Rest assured I haven't. I'm just working -- the price I pay for having much of the year off is four months of 90 hour work weeks.
stressed
