Don't Get It Wet!

Aren't bikes like gremlins? If you get them wet, bad things happen? At least I didn't feed mine after midnight.... Thanks to a surprise visit by Karl, I had a great excuse to play a bit of hookey today and go for a ride. Despite the forecast, the day was bright and sunny with only a few puffy clouds, well into the afternoon.

But it's that "well into the afternoon" bit that caught us. I met him around 3:20 at Francesca's house, and we set off for Log Boom. It was a bit windy on the ride, but since it was a tailwind, that wasn't so apparent, until we turned around. And it was right when we turned around when the black clouds began to loom.

So Karl and I valiantly fought a bit of a headwind and stinging cold rain to head back home. We were lucky to avoid any significant rainfall most of the way back. But once he turned off around 25th Ave NE, and I headed for the sticks, the rain started to really come down. I was pretty drenched by the time I made it back to the house. And I had talked Karl out of wearing his booties, only because I didn't have mine. My toes are still cold....

Fearless has tasted its first bit of rain.

Uncivilized

I'm a long time fan of computer games; I got my start on an old Vic-20, typing in hundreds of lines of BASIC just to get some colored boxes to move across the screen. Naturally, I also had a penchant for coin-op games, back when there was an arcade on every corner, and we shopped for the place that gave the most tokens for $1.

Fast forward to today, and I'll admit that I have a few game titles to play on my PC, a slow, turn-based game for the Powerbook when I'm traveling, and a few games for my PS2. My game preferences don't run the same way as Karl's, though.

One of the game franchises that has been a long-running fixture in my life is Civilization. The basic idea is that you're the omnipotent ruler of a civilization starting back in 4000BC, and your goal is to either dominate the planet (its geography is not Earth's), spawn a globalizing culture, reach Alpha Centauri, or die trying. It's a game I keep going back to, because it's never the same thing twice. It's got a lot of replayability, and I like applying different strategies to each new game, as well.

So it's no surprise that I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of the latest installment, Civilization IV. And I'm having no luck. First trip to the game store: "Oh, it's not here yet." "But isn't it released today?" "It's releaseed today, yes, but it won't get here until tomorrow." OK, fine. Next day: "Civ four, please!" "Did you reserve a copy?" "No." "Then I'm sorry, we're sold out." Sold out has been the story of my life for the past two days. Forget H2's, I'm the worst consumer of gas right now, praying that the next store will still have a copy.

No civilization for me!

Flaky Hardware

Crap. The server machine that is my web server, file server, router, mail gateway, etc, etc, is dying. I suppose it's time, since some of its pieces are nearly six years old, but I'd really rather not have to replace it right now... what with the need for furniture, etc. Do I want to be able to sit in a chair, or surf the web? And how would I ever keep the grumpiness flowing if I don't have my server box?

As an aside, the links to my photo pages may be out of commission from time to time until this hardware issue is resolved.

Wasted Time

I once heard someone describe a movie by saying that they would gnaw their arm off to get that two hours of their life back. I feel that way about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Watched it last night. Thank goodness it was only on Netflix, so I didn't shuck out too many shekels to see it (provided, that is, that I can get through enough movies to reach a reasonable monthly count).

I know nothing of the graphic novel on which the movie was based; it might actually be good, while the movie was not. Predictable, formulaic, even the eye candy was silly in an 'over the top' kind of way.

I don't know if I'd gnaw off my arm, but I could have been doing better things with my time. Like assembling my new furniture! Yay, I have a desk, and something to sit on other than a bar stool. At last, my house is taking on a bit of shape. I hope I can wrangle some more seating by the time I have my housewarming, though, or else everyone's going to have to play musical chairs!

Insufficient funds

No, I'm not broke. I just didn't have enough deposited into the food bank today to make it all the way through my ride. Fortunately, I only bonked mildly, and that was only 2mi from home, so it could have been a lot worse. But wait, low blood sugar, no energy? Doesn't that make me cranky? Yes, which is why I waited until I ate to post.

The ride was on my new bike, which I have dubbed Fearless (bite me, Rand). I rode out to I-90 and around Mercer. Got a bit lost, but nothing major. For a good portion of the ride, I was leapfrogging a couple who were also out enjoying the day. When they were in front, I kept hearing this weird metallic-sounding noise coming from the woman's bike. Only when I passed them up a hill did I realize that it was her heart monitor beeping madly!

I don't know if I'm going to keep the new saddle; I think I'll switch back to my Specialized Alias... if I can fix it. The carport impact actually pulled the back part of the saddle off the rail (the rail slides into a socket), and I haven't a clue of how to get it back together. Grrr. This is going to lead to a real insufficient funds scenario!

Down Low, Too Slow!

I took delivery of my new bike today. I went down to the shop with my shoes, helmet and gloves (and dressed the part), ready to take a quick test ride to check the seat position and fit. Sadly, that whole process took too long with the failing light to get a ride in on the new rig, but that'll come soon--like tomorrow.

Wrong Bike!

No, this is nothing like the Wrong Trousers; I got my mountain bike back from the bike shop today. After the death of "Ghost" (how can a ghost die?), I decided to refit my mountain bike for a rain bike. The first step, of course, was making sure that it's in good working order. After the recent broken chain incident, I figured it was good to give the bike a checkup. I also bought some slick-er tires for it, so I don't end up burning so much energy with knobbies.

But when I went to drop off my bike at the shop, my new bike had already arrived! Yay! So when my phone rang today to tell me that my bike was ready, I was disappointed to hear that it wasn't my new roadie. Especially since today was so beautiful outside. However, just to spread the love, I rode the MTB for nearly an hour; I can't tell you how good it feels to ride again.

Even though the ride wasn't on the bike that I really wanted to be riding, I'm still a bit less grumpy than earlier today.

Stup1d C0d3

Why is it when I'm on site with a customer that I run into stupid code problems? I guess it has something to do with the interaction of lab-grown code and the real world, but I always end up looking like an idiot. Anyway, as I'm the lead on this particular code base, it's within my power to fix it, but I spent the whole day staring at the same few lines of code until my eyes went cross. And I don't think that's something my optometrist can help me with.

Delivery Windows

No, I'm not talking about those mail-order, double-hung, double-pane energy savers... I'm talking about the period of time in which your tech/delivery/parcel is expected to arrive. Lately, I've had good luck with these--my new bed arrived 5 minutes before the two hour window was set to begin.

But this morning, my DSL tech arrived 1.5h into the 4h window. I should give him credit; that's still before the midline, but killing time from 8-9:30AM isn't so easy, if you have to be awake for the guy when he arrives.

Apparently my house is a wiring wasteland. First attempt at "most conveniently located phone tap" results in a dead box. Fiddling around at the spliced junction in the basement yielded nothing, either. Ok, try the downstairs box, oh wait, that's just a few bare wires. Wait, there's another phone tap upstairs! Omg, this works! But I can't get the full upload speed promised by the salesman. So much for the upsell.

But after about half an hour of fiddling, I finally have net again. Sweet, sweet, net. Tastier than the first caffeine of the morning after a restless night.

Inaugural grumpiness

Inaugural grumpiness:

Upon moving my bicycle to my new place, it got a cruel sort of housewarming. It met the roof of my carport. Hard. So the bike (maybe calling it "Ghost" was a bad idea?) is dead. Long live the bike.

No one in my neighborhood has wireless, making the wait for my network install all the more painful. In order to pop in and check email, I head down to wireless cafes. I don't like regular coffee drinks, so I have to get something like a mocha (yay, calories). Or at the places that have baked goods, I just get something to eat. Yeah, again, problematic. And because of the bike issue, I'm going to get fat. Just for checking my email.

No net and no bike make Sandy something something.