Maywood 2006

I look forward to the Maywood Earth Ride all year and yesterday it was on another beautiful September day like every other year I've done it. It was much windier that usual, and usually it is windy. Flags were straight out on their poles so riding South into the wind was challenging.

The first year I did this ride (2004) I did the 25 mile route and it felt like I finished before I was even started. Last year I did the 50 mile route and it was more challenging than I anticipated. As it turned out the route wasn't just more of the same but instead it included a stretch of road that goes up and down and over some steep hills like a roller coaster. The loop back was on different roads but the hills were similar. Because I had no idea it would be like that, my pacing was all messed up and so I was pretty well tapped out by the 35 mile mark. It didn't help either that I had skipped the first rest area and the chance to eat something there or that I had, had the flu earlier in that week.

This year I chose the 25 mile route when I registered. I later thought that maybe I would finish the 25 miles and then start from the beginning again and take the shortest route, the 12 mile route. Then Friday night before the ride I decided it would be better to take the 50 mile route and cut if off and back over to the 25 mile route which would give me at least something more than 25 but yet still be less than 50 which I didn't think I wanted to do. I even had it all planned out where I was going to cut over. Yesterday around the time I got to the first rest stop I had pretty much decided to scrap that idea and just do the entire 50 mile route. It was a challenge I just couldn't pass up.

This years ride went entirely different from last years. The route was pretty much the same but since I was familiar with it I paced myself better and finished strong. I was worn down by the end but I never felt completely tapped out the whole time. I felt like a million bucks at the end. I think next year I'll either take it at a quicker pace or do the 65 mile route. That's 364 days away and counting.

George Bush is not a monster

George Bush in not a monster after all. I did a short amount of research and found the original photo used for the one in my last post. I Googled the words, "Bush" and "corn" together (like this) and I found out I was right.

What's this?

I found this on some radical left-wing website. I don't remember what I was looking for when I found it but whatever it was, it was completely unrelated to this thing. It looks like he should be eating corn and someone pasted a photo of a cat in there instead.

Dick Cheney

All this is pretty old. We haven't heard much about Dick Cheney in the news since he shot that guy in a hunting accident.


I watched this VP debate. John Edwards was a weasel and Dick Cheney rocked. At least that's how I saw it.

Tuxedo Cat

I discovered today that they have a name for the coloring of cats like my cat Socks. They call them "tuxedo" cats. It makes a lot of sense now that I know this and I can hardly believe I've never heard of this before today. I think his tuxedo fits him quite nicely. His white coloring doesn't spill over any edges which would diminish the tuxedo effect.

In this other photo you can see Socks near my Spri Xercise ball. I've thought about training him to walk on top of it like the monkeys at the circus do. I think if any animal would be good at walking around on top of a rolling ball it would be a cat. Cats are supposed to have great balancing abilities. They're brains are probably about walnut sized or something but relative to other mammals a lot more of their brain mass is cerebellum so their balance and motor skills are real good. I think if I can pull this off it'll be great entertainment for any guests I have over. Although even if I manage to get him comfortable doing this, he's pretty shy when people come over so it'll really be a miracle if I can get him to do it then.

Some random, mostly irrelevant things

Right now I'm eating a can of Del Monte French Style Fresh Cut green beans. I don't have enough vegetables in my diet most of the time. Steaming them is the best way to make them I think. I put them in a cereal bowl and eat them with a fork.

Someone pulled out in front of me on the way home from work today. I used my horn. I somehow managed to make an exceptionally cool sounding stuttering beep with it. This minivan already had some sizeable dents in the side so the dude who drives it has evidently already been in an accident with it. There was no accident today but if there had been one, I'm in good hands with Allstate. President Palmer would forgive me because Allstate has accident forgiveness.

I've switched now to eating Planters Peanuts. I don't think peanuts are a vegetable but I'm not positive. I'm not sure what they are except that they are good. I get the kind that come in a glass jar and don't have the shells on them anymore. I don't like to have to work through a shell first to get at my peanuts.

For some strange reason I've encountered the number 666 several times recently. At work I quoted a customer a part we sell and we had exactly 666 in stock. I happened to glance down at my odometer as I left work one day and I had 36,666 miles on my truck. There's been 1 or 2 other times something with that number came up besides these 2 instances but I can't remember exactly what they were. I think one of them was a file size on my computer or something or maybe something on my receipt from the grocery store. I'm not particularly freaked out by this or anything but it does seem unusual.

I own a black cat and he crosses my path every day. I'm not superstitious about that. He's mostly black anyway. My cat likes to be combed. I can't figure out what kind of music he likes. I have about 50 samples of bird sounds on my computer and that's usually something he finds very interesting.

I'm eating carrots now. They are the baby-cut kind. These are much more convenient than buying regular long carrots and stripping the outsides off of them before I can eat them. Carrots like these are probably 90% of my vegetable intake. I think I'm going to eat some cantaloupe next.

It's getting dark outside now much earlier than I'm happy with. Tonight I came home and crammed down a turkey sandwich as soon as I walked in the door just so I could get out early enough on my bike before it got dark. As it was I just barely got an hour of riding in. It was pretty dark near the end too. Now I'm eating all this food because my dinner was only that sandwich. I didn't want to eat very big before I went out riding. I managed to get 15.5 miles into 57 minutes.

I'm going to be getting a new computer at work soon. It's about time. My computer I have now is from 2000 I think. At least I upgraded myself with Windows XP some time ago which is more than anyone else at work has. Sadly most of the clients on our network are running on Window 98. I don't think I would go to work if I only had Windows 98 there. It works sufficiently for the needs of most of our users but not for me. One the bright side I don't have to run about the office executing updates on those computers anymore. I'm going to get a flat panel monitor and so I can rearrange my desk and where I put my phone. This might be almost as great as getting a raise.

My Rubic's cube I still leave unfinished but I am getting other things done. I still have more things to do though that I never seem to get to. I do have some more miles on my bike and I have finally hit a golf ball this year. My golf clubs sat still in my garage until late in August. Earlier in the spring I never would have imagined that happening the way it did. One thing I haven't yet gotten at yet is filling up my aquarium which I bought a long while ago now along with some of the filtration equipment and sea salt etc. I think where I left off was contemplating the rock and gravel colors and picking out some fish that would get along with each other. I took that photo below so long ago now it still shows my old dining room table and chairs in it and my 7 foot ficus I bought at Stein's isn't in the corner there yet.

I was wrong

It doesn't happen very often but this time I was wrong about my cyclocomputer. It turns out that it will display more than 999.9 miles before it goes back to zero. I have a strong suspicion the battery in it will die before I reach 9999.9 miles. It's more likely I'll be using a different computer altogether on a different bike. I might have to get this new bike before fall this year or otherwise wait until closer to next spring. I'm not sure I could handle it to buy a new bike in the winter but then not be able to ride it until all the way to spring. It would be like getting golf clubs for Christmas. I can see myself walking past my shiny new bike each day as it sits in my garage. All the while I'm freezing my butt off wishing for spring to come so I can actually ride it around. I've seen people out riding around in some real cold weather but I personally like it to be at least 60 degrees.

2006 miles

This is my cyclocomputer. The odometer is about to go back to zero so I took a photo of it before that happens.


I made a chart with my cumulative mileage for last year and this year. This year looks pretty pathetic compared with last year. I'm sure I'll never match last years total mileage. I'm not even going to try. The bottom of the chart is the number of days starting with 1 on June 1. It ends with 138 which was October 16th and the last day I rode my bike in 2005. Today is the 80th day since the first of June so obviously the chart ends there for 2006. Next year I'm definitely planning to beat 2005. I'm going to shoot for 850-900 miles. I think I'm going to get a new bike before that too so I'm not sure it will be a completely fair comparison. I'm going to get something a bit lighter.

Vortex

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've started keeping a backup of everything on my computer on another hard drive which I keep at work. That way if my house burns down or blows away in a tornado I haven't lost all of my photos and music and all that. It occurred to me that there is yet another reason I should be doing this. I saw a vortex suck in and entire house in a movie one time. I assume then it must be possible but I'm pretty sure this won't happen. I think my condo is built over old farmland and not an old Indian burial ground like in the movie.

Caterpillars....lots of them.

Bigger, more and better photos here.

This reminds me of a movie that was on TV when I was a kid. Except in the movie I'm remembering it was tarantulas and not caterpillars like this.

I just looked it up on the IMDB and I think it must be "Kingdom of the Spiders" I'm thinking of. I don't remember William Shatner being in it but he was. I wouldn't have known who he was when I was 5 but I'm sure that would have been before TJ Hooker.

I copied a DVD

I burned a DVD tonight that was a copy of one I own. I did it just to try it out. The rewritable discs I have aren't the Dual Layer kind. I didn't want to waste a regular non-rewritable DL disc if I did something wrong during the rip and burn processes so I had to search my shelf for a DVD that wasn't Dual Layer. Most of them are as it turns out. Copying a DVD is pretty simple. I can see myself doing it. I probably shouldn't but I'm pretty sure I will at some point. I copied this movie I bought for $3 or something at Best Buy one time. It barely rates a "B" horror movie but it was cheap enough and interesting looking enough for me to buy it. It's called "Pieces" and the tagline on the box says, "It's exactly what you think it is!" The cover has a picture of a chainsaw and a woman with stitches circling various points on her body…neck, arms, wrists, legs, and knees. She looks sort of "pieced" together. At only $3 doesn't that sound intriguing? Anyway it's only a single layer DVD so as an experiment I ripped it and then burned a copy of it. This copy works just like the original. Thankfully I only used a rewritable disc so I can use it again later on for something else more worthwhile.

Stayin' Cool

It's real hot here lately. Today I'm staying inside. It feels kind of dumb because it's Saturday and I should be outside because it's summertime. It's just too darn hot and humid for anything outside. Instead I'm inside playing with my new DVD burner. I realized after I installed the thing that the box says I should have a minimum of a Pentium 4, 1.4 GHz processor. I have only half of that. So far it hasn't mattered any though. I burned a couple DVDs without issue. I've used rewritables mostly because I'm not totally confident yet I know what I'm doing and also because I'm not certain some of the material is worthy of a permanently burned DVD.

I found out my DVD player won't play any DVD's I burn....or I should say at least none so far. I'm assuming my player is too old. I probably should have figured on this but I didn't. I got a top of the line Sony DVD player in 1999. I paid like $800 for it. This was back when they had greater numbers of VHS tapes at Blockbuster than DVDs for rent. I remember they'd have 2 or 3 copies of a new release on DVD and you could walk in and get one of them even if it was on a Friday or Saturday. Anyway I figured I'd be OK compatability-wise with my DVD player but so far I haven't been.

Instead of using my Sony DVD player, I figured out I can play my burned DVDs using my Playstation 2. It took a little time figuring out how to connect it to my receiver and get the digital surround sound working but only because I don't normally hook it up that way.
I watched DVD number 1 of 3 of a Led Zeppelin show from Earl's Court in London 1975. I downloaded this set of DVDs from Boot City a while back and now I was finally able to watch some of it. As I watched it I thought about how amazing it was that I had this show to watch in my own living room and about how far technology has come that people can do this. It didn't take much effort on my part.

My New Toys

I got some new toys this week. It's like my birthday but it isn't. Since I've been filling up my hard drives downloading torrents on Boot City and Dime I've needed to buy more drives. This week I got another one plus a DVD burner. I'm up to 5 drives altogether with a combined 920GB of capacity. My 20GB drive that has been in my computer from the start I keep pretty much empty except for Windows. It's getting to be an older drive and I don't trust it much (and especially since I had these issues which thankfully haven't resurfaced). A long while back when I was working at home building a website I picked up a 120GB drive that I thought would last forever. I've since filled up that with digital photos, music, and dumb videos from the internet. More recently I picked up 2 more drives. One has 160GB capacity and the other has 300GB which I use for backups of all the others since CD-R's aren't a practical option anymore. The 300GB drive I use for a backup only and I store it at my work in case my house blows away in a tornado or burns to the ground or something. If I survive at least all the photo's I've taken and all the music I've downloaded won't be gone too.Since I've filled up the 160GB drive too now I got a new drive this week. This one is 320GB which once I formatted it, ends up with about 298GB of usable space. Now I'm shifting my previous backup drive to home which should ease the pressure for a while. Plus I have my other new toy, my DVD burner, so I can archive some things that way if I want to. I got the burner less for backups and more because I've got a few DVD's I've downloaded and I want to burn them.

Colorado

Not long ago I went on vacation to Colorado for about a week and half. I got back July 8. I've been going over about 250 photos I took and assembling some PowerPoint presentations. I make them so I can remember my trip and also because it's an easy way to show my photos and everything about my experiences to my family. I probably spend a great deal more time putting these elaborate presentations together than I need to, but I find the whole creative process making them enjoyable. While I'm making them I reflect on all the places I was and all the things I did. Having more than 200 photos doesn't hurt when it comes to remembering things, but years from now I think I'll be glad I put written text mixed in with my photos into a presentation form. I'll remember more of the details of my experiences that way I think.

Final post about birds......I think.

There are 6 slots total that birds can build nests in above my patio and on the underside of the deck above. Three of the six have had inhabitants who had children and have all since moved on to live somewhere else. If numbered sequentially from left to right the fourth slot now has finches in it and at the same time the fifth slot has robins in it. The robins have 4 babies in one nest. There are 3 for sure and I'm reasonably certain I saw a fourth baby stick his head up one time from the far side of the nest. They don't look much like robins yet. If they're not robins though I can't think of a reason an adult robin would be feeding them. Unless something real spectacular happens I'm going to stop posting about all the bird nest activities and focus on my recent vacation experiences for a while or whatever other random thing comes to mind for a post.

Unidentifiable

I thought perhaps I'd written my last post relating to birds but the other morning I came across a gruesome scene on my back porch/patio. If you've read my blog before you will not be surprised to see that I've taken photos of the scene as it was when I discovered it and I've posted one of them here.I can't tell what kind of bird it was but it appears that only the lower half of it is left. I can only guess what chain of events led to this birds demise. I intend to sweep this into the grass very soon.

My unfinished Rubik's Cube

I bought this Rubik's cube a few years ago while Christmas shopping at a Toys R Us. For a long time I left it on a shelf above my computer desk in its' completed form. Every now and then I'd take it down, mix it up and then finish it up again in a matter of a few minutes, putting all the like colors on each single side of it. More recently I've been leaving it on the shelf all mixed up in its' undone state. This unfinished state is a metaphor for my life. There seems to be a number of things in my life that I have plans for but have not yet started and also things I've begun, but for various reasons have not yet completed. And so for now I leave my cube undone even though I'm capable of completing it anytime I chose to. Every now and then I look at my cube in its' unfinished state and I am reminded and I ponder these other things in my life that are incomplete and unfinished. Things that I'm also perfectly capable of pursuing and seeing through to their end.

Hairballs

Socks coughed up some hairballs today while I was away at work. This time I remembered to take photographs!

After I find these a few times I might not find them so interesting but since I've only had Socks for less than 2 months this is still pretty interesting I think. Maybe I'll try that Petromalt Ms. b suggested.

Don't mess with this kitty

I found this as someone's avatar on the forums at Boot City.

Socks the Cat

Let me formally introduce Socks. He is my cat now. I adopted him from Becky. He just turned 8 years old this month. I'm not sure, but it looks like he's got Arby's on his mind. Either that or I had Arby's for dinner and I have too much time on my hands. It's one of those two things.

You can see where he got his name. He's mostly black but with white on his feet, his frontside and some on his face. He's been (mostly) well behaved since I've had him. I don't allow him go on the kitchen counters or on the dining room table. I've caught him these places once or twice now and he knows he is not supposed be in them. Also, nothing has happened so far, but he's been known to relieve himself in areas other than his litterbox when something is upsetting him. One time I thought I found a turd on the carpet but on closer inspection it turned out only to be a hairball. It was a dark wet and cold mass of hair with puke-ish looking stuff on the carpet around it. I'd never seen a hairball before that one but I'm positive that's what it was. I wish now I'd taken a photo of it but there's always next time I guess. Maybe next time I will take a photo and put it up here.

He likes to watch birds. He sits on the floor at my patio doors or sometimes up on topside of the back of the recliner near the patio doors. He also likes the window sill if I have the window open. I think he sleeps mostly at night or while I'm away, otherwise he mostly sits around or walks in and out of whatever room I might be in.

Since I've had him I don't use my alarm clock anymore. He gets right up in my face as soon as I begin to move around when I first start to wake...even if that's 4:30 in the morning. I don't mind it or I'd shut him out of my room at night. He leaves me alone to doze off again but sometimes he's more persistent. He licks my head which I think is rather weird behavior. Other times he'll paw at the bed right near my head like he's digging for something. One time when I had dozed off again he was bold enough to slap me in the face with his paw. It's a good thing he doesn't have any claws or that could've been bad. At least I know if my house was burning down he'd be able to wake me. Although in the morning I think it's all about the food. I think he just wants me to get up and feed him and that's really it. He eats his whole dish of food right away like a dog would. Any cat I've ever known eats throughout the day and you just fill the dish when it's empty. I think if I kept filling up his dish when it was empty he'd just keep eating it all up. Socks is 12.5 lbs.

Cat and bird

I'm not real sure what's happening with my house finches. The first pair I think is gone along with their 2 baby birds. I think that other pair in the corner nest took over the general area but it's harder to see and I haven't seen them flying in or out so much. Sunday I saw some kind of baby bird sitting near my patio. I think it was a baby robin but I'm not sure. It sat there for a long time chirping loudly every so often in sort of a helpless baby bird way.
I recently adopted Becky's cat Socks. I thought about changing his name to something else but he's already about 8 years old I guess. I have no real reason to do that. Tonight in fact I'm going to buy some cat litter for the first time. Socks likes to watch all the activity with the finches and other birds out in the yard. I think he'll enjoy it when the Sandhill Cranes come back this summer.

Finch Update

This morning I had some time to watch the activities at the nest. There's definitely a baby bird. I think just one. It rises to the edge of the nest and flaps its' wings but does not leave yet. While this young one is being attended to by its' parents there seems to be a new conflict going on between its' parents and a new pair of finches that want to move into a nest the next slot over. I've never seen this other pair until today. These 2 pairs of finches aren't getting along at all. They chase each other out and they flap around in the air like they're fighting. I watched this for about 20 minutes this morning. I'm rooting for the pair with the baby bird. They were there first and they have a young one to look after. Besides that I'm pretty sure they built most of any of the nests that are under any of the slots.

I took some photos but they're not great. You can't see the nest in the corner or the baby bird. The first shows the new pair in the slot on the left and the original female in the slot on the right (with a bit of motion blur). The corner nest is out of view to the left behind the edge of my patio doors.
This second photo has one of the males in mid-air. I'm pretty sure that's the other male on the rain gutter but I can't tell for sure, or which was which male. The original female is on the right in the same slot.

Tragedy

I came home after work today to find a dead house finch lying in the drive directly in front of my garage. I feared the worst, that for sure it was my finch from the nest over my patio. Then I decided to take some photos to document the tragedy. Was that crazy?

After I the photos I picked up the deceased and put her into a paper bag for the garbage. If it was my finch I didn't want it to turn out like this bird. I rushed into the house so I could look out my patio doors at the nest. There wasn't anyone home at first. I checked several times and after about 10 minutes I finally saw both the male and female just like I did this morning. Thankfully the dead one I found wasn't the female from my nest. Still tragic but not quite as much so.

Definitely House Finches

I took this just after I opened my vertical blinds this morning. It's the first I've seen the male in a while. He's the red one. I only managed to get one photo and then they flew away. I'm not sure yet if any baby birds hatched yet. I should open the patio door and take a listen.

Muppet Wiki

Occasionally I wonder whatever I did with all the free time in my life before the internet became what it is today. I had one of these moments of reflection recently after I spent an hour or so looking over details of Muppet characters at this site.

I haven't seen the Muppets in a while or any of the newer movies. I remember when I was younger always hating anything that had to do with Miss Piggy. These were some of my favorite muppet characters.

House Finches

I've concluded the birds building nest above my patio are house finches. I don't see the male as much as I did during the nest building phase but I'm positive that's what is living there.

These are house finches...