Tinkering

So, I'm taking a few days off. Work has been busy and we've had a lot going on around the house. I have managed to get out on my bike a bit, but nothing very interesting has happened.

I'm toying with the idea of doing a podcast a couple times a week. Thanks to Fritz for pointing me to a host. For those of you who visit here, you can get a preview of things to come by going to my new website.

There is a lot I'm not happy with at the moment. The template is cheesy. I am too thrifty and honest to use someone else's music (hence the rather quick and dirty use of my bike's bell and youngest son's xylophone...). I need to figure out my console. Etc., etc., etc.

Any way. Stay tuned for more.

Ten Miles of Bliss

Temperature at departure = 78° F (26° C)

This has been a difficult week. Work has been busier than usual and we had the folk at Olshan come back to do a warranty repair on our foundation (which is incredibly stressful in many, many ways). When I finally got a chance to take my lunch hour today, I had to get out and ride.

I present to you: Warren's Ten Mile Therapy Ride

Your Warren T is NOT about to expire

Temperature at departure 53°F (12°C)

Today promises to be a busy day at work and this weekend is going to be non-stop work on the house getting ready for the foundation guys on Monday. I debated jumping in early. Then, I glanced over at the kitchen table and saw the cover for this month's Scouting magazine.



All Work And No Play... True, I really needed to play for a bit this morning. So I took a ride, staying off the bike paths because they are likely to be a mess after yesterday's heavy rains. All the drivers were polite. I saw some other cyclists and we all waved at each other. There weren't any major infractions of traffic laws. We all played nice. Missing was all the stuff that would make for an interesting post.

Anyway, I probably shouldn't post this since blogger recently blocked my access - thinking that I was a spam blog. I was only blocked for a day ... but some key words here might push it over the limit.

I like to play along with the robo-calls about the factory warranty on my car expiring. Whenever I get them I press 1 and just see how long the person that answers can put up with me. Now, I see that I could make this a fairly lucrative home-base business. That's right, you too can make fabulous money "working" from home just waiting for these calls to come in.

Here is a wonderful post that details on how one person tracked down the actual company that makes the calls.

The key part here is...

“Some states permit you to file law suits in state court against persons or entities violating the do-not-call rules. You may be awarded $500 in damages or actual monetary loss, whichever is greater. The amount may be tripled if you are able to show that the caller violated the rules willfully and knowingly. Filing a complaint with the FCC does not prevent you from also bringing a suit in state court”

Hmmm. I wonder if they'd just write us a check for $300 and call it good?

Non-Commute Morning Rides

Temperature at departure = 58° F (14° C)

Although I'm a work at home guy again, I am still getting out and riding. I find excuses to ride my bike on errands during my lunch hour, or I simply hop on and take a ten mile ride on the trail before I have to sign in for work. I'm getting over the fact that those rides aren't officially bicycle commutes. So what? There, I've grown.

This morning's ride was rife with detours. There is so much mud under some of the bridges that it would be unwise to ride through it. Take the 103rd street bridge just west of Metcalf for example:


I decided to take an alternate route. We're looking at Flash Flood Warnings later in the day, so this isn't going to clear up soon.


And, yes, I've stopped complaining about there not being any color in the landscape during my morning rides.

Finally, I'm a fan of The System and just saw this one from a few days ago. He's channeling me again...

Still trying to catch my breath

I'm still trying to adjust to working from home and the additional work load that has been given to those of us who remain in support. Be that as it may, I just noticed that YouTube has movies, much like Hulu. I've been trying to find Quicksilver at the library for ages and now I can just relax and watch it on my computer.

For Quicksilver and more, go to http://www.youtube.com/movies

Disclaimer: I still work for Google for the time being, but am not connected with the YouTube folk at all.

Stop III

Temperature at departure = 51° F (11° C)

Why not? Writers and filmmakers do trilogies, why not me? I present to you Stop III. Same intersection as the other two...



Unfortunately, it is true. This morning I set out on my last official commute by bicycle. Tomorrow we have to have everything out of the office and moved home. It's been a few years since I've worked for home and I used to like it. What I haven't been able to get used to is the idea that I'll no longer be a bike commuter. I'll ride on errands and for fun in the morning before work -- but that won't really count as a commute.

Anyway, in the spirit of last day of elementary school pictures, here are a couple shots of a cloudy ride in this morning.





I'm toying with the idea of doing something a little different here that will still be bike related. Give me a week or two to get that organized...

Conservation

Temperature at departure = 29° F (-2° C)

Cold and windy this morning and, to be honest, I was tempted to just drive today. Wind gusts up to 40 mph forecast for today ... but I only have two weeks left to be an official bike commuter. I rode my bicycle and was glad I did.

A quick note of thanks for all the people who volunteered and helped clean up the trash that has been accumulating along the creek since last summer. Most of the trash has been plastic grocery bags and plastic water bottles. I'm just sayin'. This is a shot from a couple weeks ago:



Sure, there is still more that can be done to clean the creek up, but thanks to a few people who were willing to give up part of their Saturday a lot of that trash plastic is now bagged and ready to head off to the land fill -- along with three kid's bikes from the short section of creek around the park on 103rd, just west of Metcalf.


The swimming pool has been stuck under the 103rd street bridge since the big storm we got on March 8th. Glad to see it's going away.

I don't want to get all environmentally on you, but if you have seven minutes and twenty seconds, this is worth a view; it has changed my answer to the question "paper or plastic..."

April Fools

Temperature at departure = 31° F (-1° C)



Created using the Bus Slogan Generator.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Times Change

Temperature at departure = 35° F (2° C)

Season change as well. Two weekends ago Peter and I rode 25 miles on the Indian Creek, Mahaffie Creek and Gary Haller Trails to Shawnee Mission Park and then 25 miles home again ... in shorts and tee shirts.



This last weekend I chose not to ride.



The nice thing about these early spring snow storms is they melt off pretty quickly. I had to dodge some big piles that snow plows placed at the enterance of just about every bike path access point yesterday morning, but all the snow was gone by the time I rode home.

Anyway, getting to the point of this post; my how times have changed! I was looking into some of the bicycle games that Sir Robert Baden-Powell came up with for the Boy Scouts of his day. There is no way I could get away with suggesting our guys do these...

Cyclists' Games

...but I'm thinking that a group of adults could possibly set up a match of Brigand Hunting. The idea is to map out an area aproximately 9 square miles and let the "brigand" have a 10 minute head start. That person would have to stay within the prescribed area for two hours while the other players try to corner them.

You can see how parents might be concerned that little Johnny might get run over by a car. Perhaps I can get some other adults interested in giving this a try later this spring.

That's Entertainment

Temperature at departure = 33° F (1° C)

Man, I've got to get a few moments to download a couple pictures and tell you about the 50 mile ride that Peter and I went on this last weekend. In the mean time, the Huffington Post has a nice story up highlighting music videos that include bikes.

I'd completely forgotten about Ray Parker & Helen Terry's music video from Quicksilver.

Culture Clash

Temperature at departure = 44° F (7° C)

Having prepared and fed my brood an amazing first attempt at vegetable risotto, one of my sons asked me to drive him over to a friends house to watch basketball last night. On the way home I signaled for a right turn, pulled onto 103rd and realized that the driver behind me probably didn't see me hold out my hand...

Momentum and Gravity, not Video

Temperature at departure = 48° F (9° C)

Spring Break week, but I couldn't take it off because I'm on call. Bummer. One thing I could do, however, is take the opportunity to ride my bike the long way to work; twenty miles on the Indian Creek and Tomahawk Creek trails. A bicycle ride of an hour and twenty minutes, mostly through the woods, gives you plenty of time to let your mind wander.


I've seen this trashed radio at the corner of 103rd and Metcalf for a week now. Since I first spotted it I started thinking about how it could be a metaphore for the radio industry. Or, it could just be a broken radio. Regardless, it has sparked several chains of thought about my work and the industry as a whole. Someone should pick this thing up and fix it. Me? Great, do I mean the actual radio, or the industry? Oh, look, a puppy. (Good thing I'm slightly ADD...)

Slightly out of Breath

Temperature at departure = 43° F (6° C)

I noticed that I was coasting down hills that I normally pedal down this morning as I rode my bike to work. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. I stretched the four mile direct route out to eleven miles and was surprised to find that my average MPH was 2.5 MPH higher than normal. Why?

This was on the MP3 Player:


I must have been really hammering. Bucephalus was pleased.

Public Service Announcement

Temperature at departure = 30° F (-1° C)

Do not smoke while riding a bicycle. Have a nice weekend.

Stolen Identities

Temperature at departure = 17° F (-8° C)

Even if they didn't know my name:

People in my building, in my neighborhood and at my kid's schools knew me as the guy that rides his bike to work all year long.

People at church knew me as the guy that plays saxophone in the worship band, the guy that organizes the annual bike ride and some even knew that I was the mysterious "Mr. Voice."

Last Friday's meeting was to tell us that our office in Overland Park will be closed on April 20th and we'll be working from home. Sunday we found out that as of the first of April, our church will be "merging" with a church that, to be honest, is too far away to be practical.

Still, it could be worse; I could be at home NOT working...

Hello old Friend

Temperature at departure = 52° F (11° C)

I'd planned on taking the day off, but was told to come into the office at ten this morning for a special meeting. Sounded kind of ominous considering how things have been going recently. It was a beautiful morning and I had a couple hours to make it to the office so I took the long way. 20 miles of stress relief.

The phrase "What can brown do for you?" kept running through my mind...



It can turn green, that is what it can do.

Spring Preview

Temperature at departure = 58° F (14° C)

The forecast calls for high temperatures around 78° this afternoon. I will not be sitting in my office looking at my screen during lunch. I'll be riding along the creek...

The Waters Of March

And the riverbank sings of the waters of March
It's the promise of spring
It's the joy in your heart

And the riverbank sings of the waters of March
It's the end of despair
It's the joy in your heart

-- Antonio Carlos Jobim

It is probably way too soon to post about another bumper sticker encounter, but I have to share. While riding down the nearly empty, school zone, road this morning I felt a rush of air as the rear view mirror on the pickup truck missed me by around 8 inches. Probably trying to school me on the supremacy of motorized vehicles. As he pulled ahead I had the opportunity to read his bumper sticker:

"Are you an organ donor?"

Almost. Jerk.

Yeah, you and every one else...

I don't normally like to post work related stuff (other than the ride to and from), but one of this morning's e-mail messages to support was too wonderful to pass up.


Yeah, I don't think anything we can do is going to help...

I should know better

Temperature at departure = 52° F (11° C)

When heading out on the bike after the TV weatherman said "The rain in the metro is over for the day" -- I will regret not having a front fender.

Coasting

Temperature at departure = 42° F (6° C)

I have decided
My commute would be better
Downhill all the way


I'll admit, this looks like a very cool way to commute; but I still think riding my bike to work is more fun. I can bicycle to work in Overland Park all year round -- the water slide would freeze up in the winter. Still, it would be nice to have a route that was all down hill...


[I know, I know. This one has been making the rounds in bike blogs quite a bit lately -- but what a fun concept.]