On 28 June 2002 (07:23 AM),
mac said:

Northwest Oregon had a mild windstorm last night. It can’t have been too bad because there’s no mention of it in the news. Yet it was strong enough to wake both me and Kris. The wind chimes rang throughout the night. Worst of all, it was enough to blow over a section of our fence.

If I could find my digital camera, I’d post a picture of the damage here. It’s not severe — Kris is most upset about the damage to her plants, including a rhododendron that may be a complete loss — but it’s puzzling. This section of our fence was erected two or three years ago and had seemed structurally sound. It showed no signs of sagging, yet last night’s wind was enough to topple it.

It appears that four of the 4×4 fence posts simply snapped at their bases. Did they rot? We don’t know yet. Both of us remember using pressure-treated wood for the posts, and using Quickcrete to hold them in place. Are we both imagining this? Perhaps we did use Quickcrete but did not use pressure-treated wood. This seems unlikely. I suspect we’re just victims of misfortune.

In any event, I’ll be exercising my non-existent handyman genes over the next several days in an effort to repair the fence. I’m not sure how to do it, actually. This ought to be fun.

I’ve been biking the past few days. After two months off the saddle, I remounted to join Paul and Autumn on a 27-mile ride on Sunday. The ride was my longest in three years and, after an early bout with nausea, went quite well. I enjoyed it. Paul and Autumn were great company, the day was radiant, and the ride itself was energetic but not taxing.

I took Tuesday off to stay home and play the Diablo II expansion and to read Tom Sawyer. I was back on the bike yesterday, and rode it to work again today. It feels good.

One curious aspect of these past few rides is the absence of a bike computer. The battery on mine has failed, so for the first time since I started riding four years ago, I’m riding without a clock, without an odometer. Amazingly, it is a joy. It’s nice to be riding for the sake of the ride rather than to compete with myself. My initial urge to replace the bike computer immediately has waned; I’ll try to go as long as possible without buying one.

I’ve been playing Diablo II on-line, on Blizzard‘s Battle.net and enjoying myself. In the past, I’ve mainly played solo games, with a few LAN games. Playing on Battle.net is more fun, and my fears of “player killers” seem to have been greatly exaggerated. The other players seem genuinely willing to play as a team and to share the spoils of war. Mostly. I don’t know how long Kris is going to tolerate my obsession with the game. She’s been patient so far, and is earning Wife Points (though she may not care).

Well, I’m home today, feeling ill and run-down. What I want most is to sleep, but the phone keeps ringing. Twice it has been Jeremy, and twice more there was nobody (though one nobody let voice mail pick up and the background noises sound like Canby Ford, which would mean Jeremy).

Jeremy likes to use the phone instead of e-mail. His reasons for this are difficult to fathom, but I humor him. E-mail is non-intrusive to the recipient, and can be replied to in free time. Telephone calls require immediate attention. Actually, this may be the reason Jeremy prefers telephone calls.

After having my sleep interrupted five or six times, I gave up. I decided to fix myself a nice filet mignon for luch, accompanying it with some cabernet sauvignon. Rather than cook the steak on the grill, however, I tried to use my new(ish) cookware. Big mistake. Once again, I’ve managed to char the bottom of the pan. Despite this, the steak was far, far underdone (after twenty minutes — I was aiming for medium and got blue instead, maybe even rarer than blue). I had to microwave the thing.

I’ve had enough wine to get slighly intoxicated (doesn’t happen often, but is easier when I’m feeling sick). Whee!

After my steak, I made a “hot fudge Thursday”. Basically, this is a hot fudge sundae made with frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. It’s not very good. I like the fudge, though. While eating, I’m watching the animated version of The Lord of the Rings. Boy, does this stink! It’s easily one of the worst films that I’ve ever seen. Why do I subject myself to this torture? Well, I’m rereading the book right now and wanted to see Tolkien’s creations brought to life. The books are amazing, and an example of high-quality writing in the realm of fantasy/science fiction. I’d use this an example for Dane of the level of quality that I want in all the books I read (but is sorely lacking in nearly all scifi/fantasy).

I’ve begun ripping all of my compact discs to mp3. I have my ripping program (dbPowerAMP) running almost constantly while I’m at home. I already have about 10gb of mp3s that I’ve downloaded via Napster or Bearshare or that I’ve ripped from my personal vinyl collection. I figure I’ve got about 15 – 20gb of CD material to rip. Each CD takes about 15 minutes, so it’s going to be a month-long task. In the end, I’ll probably get yet another hard drive (drives are cheap) to allocate exclusively to music. Ultimately, I’d like to be able to set up my Linux box as an mp3 server for the house and for away-from-home. More later on the feasability of this endeavor. I’ve got nearly 75mb of hard drive space in this machine, so theoretically I don’t need another drive. I want one, though — a nice 50 or 60 gigabyte beast giving me room to grow.

I spent about ten hours on Computer Resources Northwest related work over the weekend. Cool beans. I finally will get some money to cover the cost of Andrew and Jeremy’s cell phone…

Yesterday was relaxing, which is nice. Kris and I did get up at 4:30 a.m. (which is not relaxing) in order to get her to the airport for her flight to Virginia. On the way home, I stopped and Mac and Pam’s where they graciously served me breakfast. I also made a jaunt over to Powell’s Books where I picked up: Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, the first volume of Proust’s Rememberance of Things Past (I think the first volume is called Cities on the Plains, but I’m not sure — it doesn’t matter since it’s one book in seven volumes), Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, and Contact by Carl Sagan.

I came home and played some Diablo II. Of course. I’m working on my hardcore Paladin (Linus Torvalds), but the going is slow. It’s slow because (a) I’m playing a Paladin, a character type with which I am unfamiliar (and find a little tedious) and (b) in hardcore, you just cannot take the risks that you can take in regular mode. I’m finding that I need to retreat far more often than I normally would. In normal mode, if you die you start back in town. In hardcore mode, if you die the game is over. So, I’m running away quite a bit.

I watched a little of the Mariners game, but they were getting blown out by the Toronto Blue Jays 11-3. The Mariners lost two of three to the Blue Jays, so after Seattle won its first nine series of the year, it finally dropped one. The team’s pitching has been a little shaky during the past week. I’m curious to see how things go over the next week or two. The fast (20-4) start was nice, but it’d be even better if the Mariners could play above .500 for the rest of the season.

After talking to Kris in the evening (her trip was fine), I played some more Diablo II. Before bed, I started Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. I’ve never read any of his extended work, only short bits here and there. He is a fine writer, I must say, easy with the language and able to tell a compelling story. Certainly a change from the drudgery of Asimov, which I’ve been trying to get through for book group. I’ve never read Huckleberry Finn before, but I think I just may do so after I finish Asimov’s Prelude to Foundation.

16.90 miles 1:05:49 (15.40 mph) 33.4 max 24 deg celsius

An amazing ride!

I didn’t set any kind of speed record, but that wasn’t my goal. This early in the season, in the kind of shape that I’m in, I wanted to complete a ride of moderate length comfotably (and enjoyably). I exceeded these goals in every respect.

My speed was not half-bad for my current fitness level. Better, I was never exhausted or frustrated or in pain during the entire ride. I took it easy. I’m a competitive person and too often I compete with myself. I force myself to go faster faster faster when there is really no need. When bicycling for fitness one only needs to maintain a comfortable aerobic pace. I did that today.

Later in the season, when I’ve dropped twenty pounds and developed some leg muscles, I can attempt to kill myself by setting speed records. I don’t know why I do that to myself, but there’s no stopping it. I don’t enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed my ride today, though. Maybe I should take a lesson from that.

Why did I enjoy my ride today?

The weather conditions were perfect: sunny, but not blazing, and about 75 degrees fahrenheit with variable breezes. Light traffic. The birds were out and singing. The fields were newly plowed and the lawns newly mowed. The dogs were out but too lazy to give chase; they like the sun, too. I prepped for the ride properly (eating at the right times and drinking a liter of water in the two hours before starting). My mental attitude stayed positive throughout.

This is all important early in the season. Now is when it’s difficult for me to maintain commitment, yet now is when I need commitment. If I begin to slack on my rides during the last of April and the whole of May, then no real riding will get done during the summer. However, if I establish a pattern of riding for pleasure, I’ll be ready to ride every morning.

Hell! I want to go attack the Central Point hill right now! I want to add another ten miles, taking on the biggest ugliest hill around Canby!

I’m not going to, though. I’m likely to injure myself and/or cause myself to rationalize away riding tomorrow. That’d be a shame.