In December I started my new job at Infinite Energy, Inc. as a DevOps Engineer. What attracted me to this job the most was the Culture of the company and the high levels of awareness of the managers that I met.

On my first day I received a laptop and my team suggested that I install Linux.



It is nice to be using Linux again full-time.

We are using GitOps practices with Flux and Kubernetes.

Nothing else much to report yet. I had some time to fiddle with my shell environment. zsh seems to be the popular shell these days so I played with it a little bit but instead decided to stick with Bash. I found a project similar to oh-my-zsh called oh-my-bash which I am using to customize my shell prompt.

Albany, Georgia is home to the Pretoria Fields Brewery. The Pretoria Fields Collective partners with farmers and suppliers all over the state of Georgia, keeping it local and making a great product.

Over the past few years I have developed a taste for Sours and Goses, and Pretoria Fields did not disappoint.



They have large indoor and outdoor seating areas and the building is in a nice historic brick building by the river.





Dog Friendly and delicious beers. Everything we tried was delicious.

If you are passing near Albany, GA, it is worth the visit.

Pretoria Fields makes some of their beers available for take-home in bottles or cans.

I photographed this street sign in the town of Talladega, Alabama.

After Christmas I spent some time in Alabama with my two best buddies, Cathy and Kip. We did hiking on Pinhoti Trail in Talladega National Forest and in Cheaha State Park, the highest point in Alabama.





We also did some gravel cycling.

The Lloyd Clarke Sports Race Series is a grand prix of three races:

Turkey Trot 10k 1018
Newnans Lake 15k 2019
Trail of Payne 10k 2019

This is one of the few years where I was actually able to run all three races. This post will be a combo post for the series. Trail of Payne 2019 was the final race and I am pleased with where I am on my comeback to fitness after a pretty tough year.


For the Turkey Trot I decided to wear a turkey costume and have a good time. I finished in 43:41 (avg. 7:02 per mile).



For the Newnans Lake 15k I have no pictures! But I finished in 1:04:15 (avg. 6:54 per mile).

Trail of Payne 10k was enjoyable on a nice cool morning. Finish time was 40:59 (avg. 6:45 per mile) which was good enough to win the overall Master division.


Photo by Cathy Bester


Photo by Cathy Bester

One of the neater trophies I have received:



Race series finishers received a nice pint glass:

2019 was another enjoyable GATE River Run 15k experience.

I rode the Florida Track Club bus to Jacksonville on the morning of the race. This required an early wakeup, but it was nice not having to worry about parking. The bus takes us inside the event grounds, very close to the registration area and post-race festivities. It is nice to just hop on the bus after drinking some free beers. :)

Finish time was 1:03:17 (avg 6:49 min/mi). I earned a Top-10% finisher hat.