BtWD

Friday was Bike to Work Day, and with only a little bit of trickery I managed to take part for the first time.

I used to ride to work almost every day, when I worked at our DC office.  The company has a small exercise space and locker rooms there, and the garage has a bike rack.  Ironically, my current home office in Alexandria is built on top of a very large gym, which is just finishing a long refurbishing.  Too bad it ain't free, or I'd bike to work there, too.

So I haven't ridden to work since I left the assignment in Southeast DC.  Sarah is working at that office now, and she mentioned that she was thinking about trying biking to work, and asked for pointers.  That was pretty much all the excuse I needed.  Since we are working on the same project, I knew I could "hot desk" for a day at that office without much trouble.

I got up a little early so I could ride to Paul & Sarah's to meet up.  The ride in went really well - I know every inch of that route along Four Mile Run and up the Mount Vernon Trail.  We went to the WABA pit stop at National's Park.  Bagels, bananas, swag.  We didn't stick around long - who knows, we may have missed our names being pulled for the raffle.  We did see some Coasties we knew, who told us there was a CG-only pit stop at HQ - apparently the Commandant is an avid cyclist.  They were quiet adorable with their new baby and their matching USCG jerseys.  Pretty sweet.

The weather held, though it was a little sticky on the ride home in the afternoon.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed riding to work - it feels like I'm getting away with something.  And I enjoyed riding with someone, since I almost always do solo rides.  I was very impressed with Sarah - she was flying right along even though she was riding a much heavier mountain bike.  I was also sorry I didn't get to see Jane  in action - it sounds like she did extremely well, especially considering 1) it was her first bike commute, and 2) she hadn't been on most of those trails before.  So kudos to both of my new fellow bike commuters, I hope they both keep riding.  And this may have convinced me to get the cheapest possible membership for the gym at work, just so I could start back up myself.

Yard of Mysteries

Odd appearances, strange comings and goings in my yard recently.

FIRST - The Metal Detective.  Last weekend, a man I did not know came to my side door (not the front), knocking as I was getting ready to go for a bike ride.  He explained he had spoken with my landlord about sweeping the lawn to look for... treasure, I suppose.  I explained that I had no problem with it, provided he didn't dig any especially large holes.  He's reappeared a few times, sweeping various sections of the yard.  He said he was hoping to find silver coins, since the property is pretty old for the area.  I don't think he's found anything.

SECOND - Beach Ball.  A cheap plastic beach ball, inflated, showed up in my fenced yard.  Not odd in of itself, but I couldn't figure how it got there.  The fence would keep most things out, and if someone threw it in, why wouldn't they come and get it back?  It probably blew in on a windy day; admittedly a minor mystery.

THIRD - Chutes & Ladders.  I'm impressed I even noticed this one, at first.  As I drove past the side yard on my way to back into the garage, I noticed an extension ladder, lying partially hidden alongside the house.  There's been a house going up down the street, and some painting crews working nearby.  But I could't figure for the life of me why anyone would just drop a ladder in my yard.  I figured the landlord had contracted for some work on the house.  Further evidence supports this theory - there are now paint chips in the yard, and the trim in those areas looks like it has been repainted.

For all the time I've been here, I've never known anyone to come into the yard.  Now in the space of a few weeks it is starting to seem like a public park.  Maybe I can get the city to mow the grass for me...

Rolling like a droog...

...with my clockwork orange.  Windsor Clockwork, in orange, to be exact.  I've ordered the parts for Matt to begin construction up in Vermont of a Continuously Variable Planetary transmission version of the bike.  I think it will be an extraordinarily cool bike once he is done - nice road frame with no fixed gears.  I may have to swap out the tires, though - it comes with a road set, and I'd like to get it with some hybrid-style tires.  I'm not sure the really knobby cyclocross tires are what I'm looking for, or that they would even fit.  I just need something a little tougher, with a little bit of tread, that can handle the C&O Canal towpath and the gravel stretches of the Capital Crescent trail.

Regardless, I'm very excited about this project.  I hope Matt will be capturing the construction progress, or at least commenting on it, on his site re-turn.blogspot.com.  The last thing to figure out now is how to get the finished bike from Vermont to Virginia.

Schooly-D

School's out, school's out

Teacher let the monkeys out

One was jailed

And one prevailed

Both asked God

"How have I failed?"

-Grad School chant (traditional)

Good stuff from Matt Groenig's book "School is Hell."

I've finished my first class towards my masters via the Virginia Tech online system.  It wasn't too rough; I think it did what I needed it to, which was reacquaint me with the habits of study and homework.  Now over the summer I'll be taking a course with material I've never taken before, Manned Submersible Design.  I'm looking forward to it - submersibles are what got me interested in this field in the first place.  You can draw a straight line from Peter Buonincontro buying me a copy of Seven Miles Down at the middle school library sale through my acceptance to the Coast Guard Academy to finishing my BS in Ocean Engineering and earning my PE in naval architecture.  And it looks like that line will continue with a masters in Ocean Engineering... in about 4 years.  At least I'm off to a good start.

Wild

I watched Into the Wild earlier this week.  I had never seen it before, nor had I read the book.  I'm usually pretty good about reading books before seeing movies based on them - the books are almost always better.  I think I may have to go back and read Krakauer's book - but not because I liked the movie.

It was a very interesting movie, but I found it frustrating.  Not the movie itself, but the story it tells.  As a technical exercise, the movie is very good - Sean Penn directed it and does a good job of giving the movie the visual scope it deserves, since so much of it takes place in the great wide spaces of the American West.  My trouble is one that many others have - the young man in the movie, Chris McCandless, was gifted and willful and capable and foolish.  He essentially walked away from his life and tramped for two years, ending up in the hinterlands near Denali National Park, where he eventually starved to death.  My reaction, over and over in the movie, was that almost every choice reflected staggering hubris and egotism.  From his surviving letters and journals, plus the recollections of the many people he met and befriended, McCandless was looking for a latter-day Walden experience, to live as Thoreau did.  This does not align with the spirit of Walden in some ways - Walden was basically a suburb of Boston, even when Thoreau was there, just out by Lynn, inside route 128.  He would often leave the cabin and visit town.

Though perhaps McCandless was more right than he knew; he benefited from the kindness of those he met on the road many times, and Thoreau was actually living on his friend Emerson's property.  Yet he still thought he could walk out into some of the harshest country known and survive on his own.  Even if he had the skills and wherewithal to do so, I think I may have a fundamental issue with his desire to isolate himself.  I prefer Donne to Thoreau:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee

Krakauer himself has argued in McCandless' favor, saying that he didn't take a map so he could "create" a blank place on the map to explore.  I don't find self-deception sympathetic.  Others who agree with Krakauer argue that McCandless was trying to live in harmony with nature, and acted out of respect.  Nature is one mean mother, and respect first means you never forget that she is trying to kill you (and eventually will).  I feel like his actions were fundamentally disrespectful - he acted as one trying to impose their will on nature, to live as they see fit rather than as they can.  And lastly, for someone who has been described as being so personable and friendly, his willingness to walk away from so many people strikes me as cold.  Even in the movie's depiction of him, I found him selfish.

I have to admit, all I have to go on is the movie.  I have not educated myself on the facts.  So I will definitely read the book.  My real point is that the movie, whether or not you enjoy the story, is very good, because it forces you to form an opinion, to think about what you've seen.  I enjoyed that, and look forward to learning more.

Beep Beep Ribbey Ribbey

After a brief but thorough search, I have a successor to Stella.  I picked up a 2008 Subaru Impreza hatchback this week.  While it is used, it was never sold - it was the dealer's, a "corporate fleet" vehicle.  Not sure exactly what that means, but it has under 10,000 miles and is in great shape.

It seems they've made real strides in automotive features since they built Stella in 1996.  The car is quieter, rides smoother, and the radio even tells you the name of the station you're listening to.  What an age to be alive.  All jokes aside, it is a great little car, just the right size - my kayak will fit on top once I get new adapters for the roof rack, and my groceries fit perfectly in the back.  Also, the engineer in me gets a kick out of the opposed pistons in the flat-4 or boxster style engine.  Much cooler than the more common V or inline arrangements.  Too bad it isn't a rotary...

Jane was good enough to help me when I went to test drive, and then again when I bought the car.  That proved invaluable, as I had never actually bought a car before.  While I did test-drive Stella back in '99, my folks took a look the next day and made the purchase.  They said "We bought it; if you liked it, you can pay us back, but otherwise we like it so much we're keeping it as our second car."  So I never haggled over a car price, never had to assess financing (since the Academy car loan was also taken care of for us, for the most part), never took care of title transfers and such.  I've been getting by on luck and good looks for too long, maybe.

So the new car is in the garage, and Stella was towed to the wreckers this morning.  I've moved all my maps and such into the Subaru, and set my radio stations.  Pretty soon it will actually feel like my car.

Le Car est Mort

The days have been just packed.  I enjoyed two day long meetings down at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren this week, which was awesome.  Well, the part where I heard them test-firing the guns was.  Everything else was somewhat less fantastic.  It ate up all my time, and driving back and forth ate up even more time, and my other project is stuck in the mud, and whine whine whine.

Also, Stella has passed on.  After just over ten years of faithful service, my Saab 900S is no longer viable.  Panamanian running lights, so to speak.  Her transmission is shot, and it would cost twice her blue book value to repair.  So she's headed out back like Old Yeller.

Stella was my first car, and most of the work of buying her actually fell to my parents.  So I've never bought a car myself, really.  I'm concerned I'm going to get taken.  So I'm doing all sorts of research, and trying to figure this out without taking a lot of time - I'm picking up a rental tomorrow, and I'd rather not be in the kickin' Hyundai Accent longer than I have to be.  Though I should keep an open mind - Ryan & Bethany have an Accent, and it seems to be working out for them.

I figure I need something that I can car-top my sailing kayak and load up with my groceries.  It would be nice to have something with a tow hitch, since I already have a hitch-mounted bike rack.  so I'm spending lots of time on the Carmax website.  And USAA, figuring out what kinds of loans I can get.  Super fun, mostly because I love have to deal with things where I have no clue what I'm doing.