A Big Bucket

I'm going to try and keep this post open and adding to it all day long. The general idea is to try and capture most of the best stuff that passes by my digital stoop, sometimes I'll comment, sometimes I'll just arch a brow and move on. I'd love an easy means of grabbing and adding here but I think this is going to be fairly labor intensive and I'm likely to forget all about it by noon anyway.

Changed my profile background image this morning to this....

And not because I have any special affinity for New York City, I really don't though I've spent enough time there. I just dig on the perspective, the details and the coloring.

Dropped a few comments on posts that I'll not add here as out of context comments aren't really helpful at all.

I deeply enjoyed the sad irony of this The Daily Show bit with a racist profiling jackwad radio wanker.

Heard about the 28 year sentence getting upheld for one Mark Ciaverella Jr. a Pennsylvania judge convicted of literally selling people into privately owned prison, adults and children as young as ten. I'm not an overly vengeful man but I think this guy should die for the lives he's ruined for his own greed. As my co-worker says, there are crimes worse than murder and I think stealing other people's years for your greed is worse. Murder just leaves a dead person and an empty hole in the lives of their family. Putting an innocent person in jail for a long period of time ruins their life and steals their years. Blog post on it is here.

Just came back from my morning pedal at work. My 7th work ride this week which means I've basically found an extra 30 miles of riding! Best part is I set a new PR for my 4 mile blast by shaving 3 seconds off my previous best, now down to 14:22 for 4 miles on a single speed cruiser! Hoping to convert the single speed into a 6 or 7 speed this weekend so I'll be even faster next week.

Which lead me to look at and sign up for Fitocracy (you can go find their site if you want, I'm not giving them clicks). A social website for people working out, or some such. Only thing is, upon signing up, I found out I've instantly got "friends" and "groups" that the site decided I needed in order to be fulfilled. Amazingly enough, all the "friends" they forced on me just happened to be the fucking assholes who started the site. That's right. Sign up and you're instantly their "friend". Shocking that they have more than 100,000 "friends" isn't it? And the groups they shoved me into? Let's see, Running - FAIL, Over 40 - Wow, figured that out all by your fucking selves with my birthdate?, Welcome to Fitocracy - oh boy, a bunch of fucking idiots asking stupid questions!, Couch to 5K - again, running? fucking FAIL!

After a little bit of figuring out how to remove the jackasses from my fake friend list and then another bit of time getting out of the stupid ass groups they decided I needed to be in. I pretty much hate the site, the concept, the people and even the name (Fitocracy = douchocracy). I'm not sure why I haven't deleted my account and moved on yet. Maybe I just like to slowly peel bandaids off....Yeah, deleted the account. Can't and won't put up with sites that behave like assholes like that.

What else? I'm sure there's plenty more I could add as I started this a few days ago now and nothing has slowed down since. It never does. Learning that has been an important life lesson for me. Knowing that the merry go round will always be there, always spinning, regardless of whether you are there or not, regardless of whether you are watching or not. This can be comforting or upsetting depending.

Whoa, Fell Off the Wagon Something Fierce There

Yes, he meant to do that. And he landed it too!

You know its been a long time since you've blogged when you get an email from your mom asking why there haven't been any new posts in a while. And then I swing through here to see that we're going on three weeks since the last peevy post about stuff I'm over.

What's been going on? Work. Lots of work. Combine that with two boys play tee ball, working at least one and usually two nights a week and then also trying to get in workouts and that equals something gets squeezed out.

For now that has been this blog which is okay. It doesn't mean I don't enjoy blogging any less and don't find value in doing these posts. I certainly do but the more immediate nature of Twitter is distracting me from posting. As well as all of the other hats that I have to wear in a given day.

Let's do a quick scorecard to catch up, shall we?

What a Weekend!

180 degrees of Turning Wheels for Kids Awesomeness!

My wife might say otherwise but this was a pretty great weekend for me almost all the way around. From getting up early and driving to San Jose to take part in Turning Wheels for Kids to getting a good workout in on the way home to enjoying some pretty great fights at UFC 124 and then having most of Sunday to be with my kids which included getting our Christmas tree, this was a good weekend! I even got some chores taken care of which always helps.

Big Weekend Fun for All!

Long weekends are the very epitome of Dad Life and Labor Day weekend is the finale for the summer bbq season for most of the country. Of course, not in Northern California where I live, its bbq season all year long here (with the occasional cooking in a downpour for fun).

And the best part about long weekends, aside from staying up too late and sleeping in the next morning, is packing in lots of activities and filling each day with things to do. The speedy summary:
Friday - Watsonville Fly-In Airshow Monster Trucks
Saturday - More Airshow fun, photography and
Sunday - Beach day with friends from out of town
Monday - Bike riding with the boys at the Polo Grounds and a great sushi dinner with friends.

On Friday I was looking forward to a low key evening after a pretty tiring week. I had not been planning on monster trucks in any way, shape or form. But my wife came home with a set of free passes to the Watsonville Fly-In Airshow for that night which featured some monster truck on the runway action. We got to check out a whole bunch of planes before the monster trucks starting blasting around.

Cycling outside the bike lane

When is it OK for bicyclists to leave the bike lane?

The following rule of the road for cyclists comes from California Vehicle Code section 21208 (a).

According to the code, whenever a bike lane is present, cyclists traveling slower than the normal speed of traffic should remain in the bike lane except when:

* Overtaking and passing another bicycle, vehicle, or pedestrian within the lane or about to enter the lane if the overtaking and passing cannot be done safely within the lane.
* Preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
* It?s necessary to leave the bicycle lane to avoid debris or other hazardous conditions.
* Approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.

The law also provides that no cyclist shall leave a bicycle lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety.

Read the full law online at www.dmv.ca.gov.

Busy Sunday

I have, like a large percentage of American males, just finished watching the Super Bowl and extend congrats to the Steelers for pulling it out after nearly letting Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald take it away. It was an odd game marked by some pretty questionable penalties.

But I enjoyed it anyway and am glad that the Steelers did win but I'd be happier if they'd covered the damned spread but oh well.

Also, Kurt Warner's wife looks about a thousand times better with hair than without.

But I also did a bunch of other stuff today too and it was fun and noteworthy.

After doing some preventive maintenance on my bike rack (I added some ring clamps so that the fork side couldn't slide off again) and switching my handlebars out for the more comfy pair, I took Grady out for a bike ride in the slough that ended up being in the parking lot at West Marine instead. We had a blast chasing each other all over the big lot, me on my cruiser and him on his Hot Wheels BMX. I don't know how far we went but he definitely put a couple of miles under his wheels. More than anything though, we had alot of fun cruising around together.

After we came back home, I loaded up again with Sully and the Trail-a-Bike to get him some saddle time in the fantastically warm and beautiful day. He really surprised me by being game to go and go and go even though he was having some trouble reaching the pedals. It was touch and go at first but we stopped several times so he could blast the horn some and that made him smile and really start to enjoy himself.

We ended up going down the trail to the bridge and back to the parking lot and then all the way to Main and back. He was game for more. But he didn't want to try the solo bike on his own and took out his scooter to buzz around the parking lot for a while with me chasing him and him laughing loud and long.

If I can infect my boys with my love of bicycling then I will be a happy pappy indeed.

Oh yeah, I also dismantled, cleaned, lubed and reassembled the PS2 from my wife's shop to restore it to near perfect working order again, that was cool! Thanks to MetaCafe for the excellent help video to guide me through.

Turning a New (Old) Leaf

The partial cold I've been battling all week has subsided enough for me to resume my mostly normal activities. One of those things I've been blowing off for far too long are my workouts. For months I could blame it on my Bowflex residing out in the garage where it was just too far and too darned cold to workout. But a couple of weeks ago we reorganized the office to make space in there again so I could eliminate two of my biggest and lamest excuses.

And, without much fanfare, I got a pretty solid workout in last night, even surprising myself in how little overall strength I've lost over the last few months of non-workouts. I guess hefting two little boys is actually pretty decent exercise afterall. And I know I'm getting a workout when I hold one by the ankles and do standing tri-presses with them which they love and really fires up my arms.

Continuing the resurgent exercise kick and taking advantage of the fantastic late February weather we are having and combined with the fact that I'm only working at one local school today, I rolled out to work this morning on my bike. Not my mountain bike with lots of gears to break down hills, oh no, that would be too easy. No, I headed to work on my beloved cruiser, my beloved single speed cruiser which is great fun to ride but a bit of a slog uphills.

And, first thing in the morning, it was more than a slog. I felt my tired old legs complaining bitterly for a good portion of the ride. But that's fine by me, it isn't a long ride to work but it felt it on the long gradual uphills. And it took me as long to cool down as it did to get to work.

Nobody will make time for you to exercise and keep yourself healthy. You have to make the time for yourself. I'm hoping renewing my commitment to exercising and keeping myself healthy will help improve my sleeping abilities and my overall energy level while helping to whittle down on the middle-aged spread I've been fearful of. Also, it should help work off some of my frustrations and that'll make everyone happier.

At lunch I'm planning on attaching my camera to my handlebars and cruising around campus to make a short movie. But I still want a helmet cam.

A question though. Do I totally blow my carbon neutralization by riding my bike if I had some pretty horrific gas along the way?

Writer's Dam

It isn't so much that I have nothing to write about these days. I have plenty of topics and news things that are on mind and would make adequate blog posts. So I don't have writer's block, I've got writer's dam. They probably come from the same roots but I keep starting posts, stopping, coming back to them later and then just adding them to my drafts. Where they will wither away until eventual deletion during a clean up.

I guess I don't really care to share the dreary frustration of hunting for a job. You've all done it, it blows donkey chunks, let's move on.

One thing I am rather looking forward to trying out today is my newly built bike camera mount. I've had the instructions and most of the parts for many months now, I was just missing the main mounting body. And there was an old bike lamp mount on Paula's bike. I took it, drilled it out, inserted the bolts and tightened up my washers and then tested it out. It should very, very cool on some of the descents. I just hope I don't eat it and destroy the camera, or that the mount doesn't disintegrate under bouncing stress and destroy the camera. But if it does, I really hope I've got the camera rolling at the time!

My other worry is that the camera will shake too much during the ride to produce any usable video, which is why helmet mounted systems are so nice. But we'll see what happens. At the very least it would make a great system for using on the cruiser while out on West Cliff.

Increasing Our Mobility

I just got back from another successful Craigslist purchase. A guy posted an ad for an Adams Trail-a-Bike last night and I emailed him shortly after it went live. He replied this morning and I headed over to check it out.

I am aware of the recall on the Adams line but wasn't concerned about it so much since I could get it fixed easily if it needed it.

The best part now is that the entire family can go biking together. Sully in the Wee Ride, Grady on the Adams Trail-a-Bike, Paula on her mountain bike and me on mine. The fact that I got the Adams for a really good deal just makes me happier.

Now all we need is a better bike rack that lets us take the cruisers instead of the mountain bikes but that'll have to wait until I've got a job or something.

I can't wait to go out riding together as a family and I hope Grady really gets a kick out of being a more active rider. We stayed away from the carts because they are far too passive for me. I want my boys to get into biking as much as I am. Well, maybe not that much but some interest would be fine!

We are Pod

We are Pod

I took my boys out for a walk along West Cliff above the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. This was taken right about Steamer Lane and is indicative of the random and cool nature of this town.

While I prefer my bikes to be open topped two wheelers, I bet this guy could carry good speed pretty easily. And the aluminum foil roof helps deflect brain control signals from government satellites, of course.

And we saw a snake, a big, four foot alive snake just getting warmed up in the sun. Grady thought the rock out in the water covered in albatrosses was pretty neat. He also particularly enjoyed one place where the wave coming in was forced into a narrow area so it crashed and splashed upward to the walkway.

If there'd been a bathroom midway, we would have gone all the way out to Natural Bridges. But alas, no, three cups of coffee must be dealt with.

Still, it was a really nice walk and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon.

Tour de Cheat

I find it an interesting contrast between the fervor surround Barry Bonds nearing the home run record and, yet another, Tour de France being completely swamped by doping.

After last year's Landis miracle and subsequent positive drug test, you'd think that the riders would try to do it clean. But nope. That'd be too much like thinking or something. Anyway, rider #2 has failed a drug test. Bye now, Christian Moreni. Was it worth it?

At least he was honest enough to admit he cheated and not pretend like he never did anything wrong. That says something.

[Update: The Leader Gets Sent Home for violating team rules and missing two drug tests. Will cycling be the first professional sport to just give up and embrace cheating?]

This is Either Brilliant or Incredibly, Incredibly Stupid, I'm Not Sure Which

The Nimbus 20-inch Ultimate Wheel purports to take unicycling to a whole new level of something or other.

You may note, there is no seat, there is no axle, there is a wheel and two pedals. Good luck riding this thing without harming yourself badly. And please stay away from traffic until you've gotten really, really good at it.

Also, I'm leaning towards Incredibly, Incredibly Stupid.

Critical Mass Plays Nice

Critical Mass pedals politely through S.F. A smooth ride: After last month's heated confrontation between a bicyclist and a driver, participants were determined to make this month's event a more pleasant experience.

There was a concerted effort to demonstrate good citizenry and exemplary behavior. Internal policing was supposed to take care of any "Massers" who might be inclined to be jerky towards pedestrians or cars.

And this is a very good thing. Nice to know that a big group of bikers can behave. I liked the quote in the article, it made the whole thing make alot more sense to me.

"Every other bike ride I go on, I feel like cars might hit me," Jeff Lyon of Oakland said. "For this one, the cars have to slow down."

And yeah, that definitely has some allure. Maybe more so for me because I live in a town where bikes are almost treated like extra points.

Good for Critical Mass, I still think its reality is more pain-in-the-ass than enlightening but I am very impressed with their ability to sit upright and discard the thuggish image they'd acquired.

Immersive Childness

So yeah, posting has been fairly sparse lately which is somewhat ironic since I supposedly have all this free time. You know, not having a job and all. And my availability has been put to use in keeping the kids occupied while we kickstart an online store.

After a few initial, um, hiccups things have been starting to gather steam.

Don't get me wrong, I have a blast playing with my two little boys. I'm not so crazy about Sully's occasional juicy wet kisses or Grady's boundary exploration behaviour. But I get to see them alot more and am spending quality time with my wife and my dog too.

The downsides are that I feel like the coin of my realm is a dirty nasty diaper, the likes of which I've seen enough to last me for a lifetime or two. And there's the whole sleep thing, or the lack of it. Not the lack of an attempt to get some good sleep. Just the lack of success. Last night I woke up once to Grady's feet being dropped onto my head, in his sleep. A few night's ago it was Sully's chest and belly as he crawled across the top of the bed. Or the streetsweeper will pause outside our fence and Nande will have a conniption of barking and manic whining.

Yesterday, Nande and I got to go for a bike ride and run on the southern flanks of the Nisene Marks park. Not the official park but pretty close. This makes it easier to allow the hounds to run without a fetter in the world. The fun thing about riding with my buddy and his big black lab is that Nande will go and run on his heel and his dog will run on my heel. They can't be persuaded to run elsewhere, even on singletrack where it becomes necessary to feint towards them to stop them for a moment to make it through narrower parts. Or risk biffing into the side of a dog.

It felt good to get out in the woods and breath some fresh air. It definitely felt good to get some burn going in my legs, they need to be worked out and my body needs to get kick started into shape.

But first things first, eh? Keeping food on the table and the roof over our heads trumps my need for six pack abs.