cycling.finial.com

Today’s boston.com front page:

Jolly joker!

Nice article in VeloNews about the Longsjo. It starts Thursday July 2 in Fitchburg.

Massachusetts’ Fitchburg Longsjo Classic is celebrating its 50th anniversary – VeloNews.

A fantastic article at The Register about copy fraud

Copyfraud: Poisoning the Public Domain

The author is a little fixated on Google (understandably so) but there are other equally egregious offenders out there. Disney comes immediately to mind.

Check out The Atlantic’s “Idea of the day” for my birthday today:

Create Bike Only Roads by Max Fisher

Citing a need to alleviate motor traffic, reduce air pollution, and increase general health, cities are carving out more bike lanes. But bike lanes simply don’t work. Maybe something about America’s competitive cowboy culture means drivers just can’t bring themselves to share the road, frequently parking in bike lanes, turning across bike lanes without warning, and colliding with bikes.

…

I guess GPS’s and I aren’t meant to get along.

I had the GPS on teh bike for the P-town ride, but for some reason, it didn’t “track”. So I have no record of the times, &c, other than the cyclometer. I guess it’s time to get rid of them.

So, I have two Garmin GPSs for a very good price if anyone wants them.

25th Anniversary Outriders ride

It was great.

Made it to Provincetown at about 5:00 after leaving Boston at 6:15. Not bad for 130 miles considering my (non)condition and lack of preparation. Took a 15-20 minute break at the 3d rest stop which helped immensely. The only thing hassling me is my lower back which is protesting being bent over for 11 hours. Beautiful weather! Watching the forecast all week, I was convinced we’d be riding in a downpour. But the only dodgy weather was some very heavy fog in the Dorchester marshes. Heavy enough to start dripping from your helmet after a while. Once on the Cape the sun even came out! And I got a wee bit burned, having not put on any sunscreen, expecting to ride with a jacket through the rain as I did.

The ride was really well attended. There were 257 registered which is almost 100 more than last year. My guess is that it was a combination of being the 25th (although there were 115  first time riders) and the economy. People are vacationing closer to home.

The organizer, Dan, deserved a huge thank you. Few rides are as well organized and run so smoothly. So well organized and smooth that Dan actually rides the ride. When was the last time you saw that? It’s a testament to his ability. Well done. The sad thing is that he’s done it 10 years and this was his last. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.

Ran into many people I’d met from the ride in previous years. Nina (who usually volunteers) was riding. I’ve known her since Wang days.  Also ran into Maria from the NEC at the brunch on Sunday. I had dinner at the Lobster Pot with her and a friend of hers, Cheryl, from NYC (steamers and lobster roll! MMmmm MMmmm).  Joe and Rene were at the guest house again, as were Neil and Dean.

The guest house was about half full. The owners were there, I hadn’t met them before.  They’re from New Jersey near Phila. I talked with the manager a bit and he said that business was down all over town. Many places are relaxing or eliminating their minimum stay requirements and people are booking way later than before.

The storm out in the ocean really threw a wrench into things. The town seemed nearly empty and it was cold. I underpacked. First time that’s happened. Bought an extra shirt at the Army-Navy.  Had a so-so meal at the Mayflower, and a nice cod in parchment at Bubalas. Otherwise, spent most of the time watching it rain.

Dist: 129.07
Time: 9:12:16
Avg: 14.02
Max: 35.63

Other stats:
Riders registered: 257
Oldest rider: 77
1st time riders: 115
Furthest traveled: CA,FL,MN
Canadians: 31
Men/women: 50%/50%
Earliest finisher: 1:30pm

Already wrote about the trip back. Pretty uneventful. The rain held off just long enough to let me ride home from the dock in Southie. But as soon as I got home it poured and rained for the rest of the night.

Now I have to go back to work. :<

A++++ would ride again.

Went to the A-House on Sunday night. I hadn’t realized until I got there just how long it’s been since I’ve been to a dance club. Ages, apparently. Loud, Lights, and Smoke. That, plus it was 80’s night made it feel like a time warp. (No, not that one.)

But the thing the suprised me most was that I was surprised that I was surprised as seeing people texting on the dance floor. I should have expected it. I didn’t and was surprised. Then I was surprised that I was suprised.  Because I should have expected it.

Can’t stay any longer and so must leave. Seas tomorrow are a bit down but still supposed to be 8 – 11 feet, so no ferry. They’re substituting a bus which will take at least an hour longer. They seem to know what they’re doing with bikes. At least it will be better than having it drenched in sea water.

Made it into P-town at about 5:00, very tired. The ride went well and the day turned out much better than forecast. I even got sunburned a bit. The ride, as always, is really well supported and everything went off without a hitch.

Was going to go out last night, but laid down ‘for a minute’ and woke up at 1:00.

Now the bad news. An ocean storm is brewing and is supposed
to hit some time around 11:00 tonight. Some (or maybe all?) ferries have already been canceled. It looks as if I may be staying an extra day!

The 25th annual Boston to Provincetown ride is Saturday. The e-mail from last night says there are 250 people signed up which is quite a few more than the last couple of years. Maybe people aren’t travelling as much due to the economy or something.

I’m not terribly worried about the distance (130  mi), it’s relatively flat and I’ve done it before. I haven’t had a whole lot of time in the saddle this year, though, so that end of things may not be quite up to the task.  We’ll see.

The most worrisome thing is the weather. The forecast has been all over the place. As of right this minute, it looks okay: overcast, low 70s, 50% chance of showers. I can live with that. But the chance of precipitation has been bouncing from 30% to 70% over the last day or two.  It also seems as if the weather is moving west to east, which is good, since I will also be moving from west to east. Right now it looks as if rain is forecast for P-town about an hour after I expect to be there. (That is, barring breakdown or meltdown!)

So, here’s what it’s like from here to there:

But in great news, I found my sunglasses! I’ve been looking for them for weeks. They were in a forgotten pocket of my Mary Poppins style bike bag.

Bicycle Comics – Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery | He’s Good….

A friend and I are trying some of the spendy places around town that are offering Prix Fixe menus (I suppose because of the economy). Last night we went to Flemings.

Very good. The Spring Prix Fixe ($36) was a choice of steak, chicken or salmon. He chose Steak (Steak Caribe: Jerk rubbed hangar-style steak, parsley-garlic sauce and red onion salsa), I had the chicken (Kingston Banks Roast Chicken: Half spring chicken marinated in coconut milk and island ginger, roasted tropical sweet potatoes and plantation bacon). We both had sauted mushrooms for the side, he had soup, I had salad. Desert was  Pineapple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce.

The steak was great. (I doubt anything will ever be as good at The Palm’s steak, but this was very good.) The chicken was a wee bit overdone, but the flavor was very good. The sides were the hugest pile of mushrooms I’ve ever seen. I ate every one. The mashed sweet potatoes had a little too much nutmeg which overpowered the potato. Both plates had something called “parsley-garlic sauce” which should have been omitted. It was a puddle of green salt. My friend has a thing for steak house creamed spinach, so we also got a side of that. Very rich, very good and well seasoned.

I had Real Bodega for wine.

The layout of the place is nice. The tables aren’t too close together and the decor is sound deadening, so you don’t hear the dish clatter and nearby conversations aren’t distracting. Lighting is subdued. (The Palm could take lessons here.) Service was very good: quick, polite and unobtrusive.

The bill was $150 for two including drinks and tip.

Overall, I’d give it 7½ or 8 out of 10, dinged mostly for the overdone chicken and the green salt lick.

I just figured out how to do something tricky in ColdFusion. Maybe once I get the whole package finished I can release it into the wild.

My odo ticked over 11,000 miles on the ride on yesterday. While it’s not exactly right, it’s pretty close. I’ve tried to transfer the numbers when I get a new one or replace the battery on this one.  That’s the odo I use on my Fondriest. So, 11,000 in less than five years on that bike.  (I bought it in 2004, I think.) Or maybe I bought it in 2005. It’s a 2004 model year. Hmmm …. let me check…. My fitting was 12/16/2003, so I must have bought it some time around then.

This makes me feel a little guilty about not having gotten around to replacing the bottom bracket yet. It’s still in a box on the kitchen table. Life has a habit of getting in the way, I guess. I suppose I should check the chain, too.

The ride Sunday was nice. Good weather. I’ve not spent enough time in the saddle, which has me a bit concerned for Outriders which is coming up in less than two weeks. At 8 or 9 hours on the bike to cover the 130 miles to P-town is going to require a lot of Chamois Butt’r!

For anyone who has ever worked for himself:

via Joe.My.God

The end-of-season darts banquet was Monday. Good food.

Now the question is: return next year? The initial answer is No. But I have the summer to think about it. Can’t see my mind changing at this point, though.

Yesterday was the Tour de Cure North Shore. I did the 100k. The GPS says:

• Lin Dist: 64.1 mi
• Terr Dist: 64.1 mi
• Climb Dist: 32.7 mi
• Desc Dist: 32.4 mi
• Elev Gain: 2.6 ft
• Climb Elev: 3549.4 ft
• Desc Elev: 3546.7 ft
• Avg Grade: 2
• Min Elev: -.06 ft
• Max Elev: 132.6 ft

I forgot to take my camera.

The ride went really well. It was a beautiful day although the wind picked up towards the end. Sunny and nearly cloudless. High of about 75, but the sea breeze kept it cooler.

It was a trial getting started though. I woke up a minute before the alarm went of, mostly because at 4:30 a chorus of backup beep-beep-beeps started up. I’d reserved the zipcar for 5:30 am to 10pm (they have a maximum daily rate, so once you go over the max, there’s no penalty for keeping it much longer).

The beep-beep-beeps turned out to be some weird construction project (at 5:30 on a Sunday morning?!?!?!) that had all of Dartmouth Street (the exit of the garage) blocked off with five or six flatbed trailers delivering a crane.

I got to the car at about 5:50 and though “hmmm, someone left the driver window open”. It was open because it wouldn’t go up. Or down. In fact, trying to put it up or down made the thing crunch and bang so badly I thought the glass would break.

I found this out mostly, because when trying to get out of the parking garage, I couldn’t put the window down to swipe the parking card, so I had to open the door. And then the parking card didn’t work. Their entire system was down, so the attendant had to amble over to open the gate.

I took the car and started driving down the street and thought about the thunderstorms forecast for later in the day. I called zipcar to ask what they wanted me to do. After spending a noticeable time on hold, the eventual decision was to get me another car: a Suburu Outback rather than the Toyota Matrix.

So back to the garage, getting hassled by the cops along the way for wanting to turn into a street that’s been blocked off for the construction. (It’s the only entrance into the garage, I have no choice). So I just ignored him and drove on anyway. I got into the garage, and the parking card still didn’t work. Zipcars have to be parked in the zipcar area, otherwise no-one will be able to find them. But the attendant wouldn’t open the gate, so I had to take a ticket and go to the daily parking on the lower level (no one will ever find that car). Transferred all my crap to the new car and …. that parking card didn’t work either. The attendant had to amble over to let me out again.

I leave the garage and … one of the trucks is parked completely across the garage exit. No way out. After about 5 minutes, they moved the truck and let me out. If I’d been a minute or two later, I wouldn’t have been able to move for a very long time as they hadn’t started to lift the crane off the truck bed yet.

So I was on my way at about 6:25. I needed to be in Gloucester at 7:00 and Google tells me it’s an hour drive. But the ride wasn’t supposed to leave until 8:00, so I made it in plenty of time anyway.

I ran into a lot of people from the NEC: Jim B, Naomi, Bela, Merle, Mike, Jerry, a couple people I recognized by face but don’t know their names, and the organizers. I rode with Jim most of the day and Jim and Naomi for the second half.

They introduced a new thing for this year: the red rider program. If you are a rider with diabetes, you get a different red jersey. I was, frankly, quite surprised at the number of people with red jerseys. I’d guess close to ¼ of the riders.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Nice day, well supported ride, everything went well.

Got back home and since I had the car for several extra hours, I took a friend and went shopping for a new office chair (since the Outback is a wagon, I could get it home), and had dinner at that Prince pasta place in Saugus. Not at all what I expected. It had an almost Chuck E Cheese atmosphere. Very weird.

Felt very drained for the rest of the night but didn’t sleep well. That concerns me a bit for Outriders in June. That’s twice the distance. Hope I can make it!

But thanks to all my donors. I received $1615 this year. Thank you very much.

And you have six more weeks to sponsor me!

Today is Tour de Cure North Shore in Gloucester. For some reason, I find myself a bit nervous. I woke up one minute before the alarm went off (5 am). I’ll fix myself a bagle and hit the road.

I hope the thunderstorms hold off.

MLB Adjusts Drug Policy To Allow David Ortiz To Take Steroids

Tried installing CS4 yesterday. I failed.

Why on earth does Adobe have to make this stuff so difficult?

So okay. The optical drives on my desktop machine don’t work. Accessing the DVD drive on the server is painfully slow, so I copied the two distribution DVDs to the hard drive which is faster to access over the network and started the install.

Try 1: Fail because CS4 requires SP3. Even though the printed system requirements says “SP2 required, SP3 recommended” the software won’t install unless SP3 is in place.

I never installed SP3 because of all the horror stories, but on checking further, it seems most of those problems have been resolved in the mean time.  So I installed SP3. So far, so good on that front.

Try 2: Kick off the install. It takes hours. Hours and hours. Even accessing from the drive, it takes hours.  And, like, 2 hours into it, there’s another dialog box you have to click, or it just sits there. And again, another hour later, another one. Then, it says to mount the second DVD. Except there’s no way to get it to recognize another directory. Apparently, it’s not capable of installing from two different drives, in spite of every trick I can think of.

Press cancel.

Try 3: Try re-installing across the network using the DVD drive. Not enough disk space. Even though it will be overwriting everything it’s already installed meaning there is plenty of space, ti won’t go, and there’s no way to force it.

Try 4: Try to uninstall. Big warning box saying “be sure to ‘deactivate’ and remove your serial number if it’s been entered.” Well, I had entered it. (I had the feeling at the time that I shouldn’t have. If you don’t it installs as a 30-day trial and you can enter the number later.) So I fire up first Bridge, then Acrobat, as those were the only two apps that installed successfully. Bridge has no activation mechanism. Acrobat won’t start because it hadn’t been activated (even though it’s there to replace Acrobat 8). It says to “start another app and enter the activation there” but, of course, no other app successfully installed.

Try 5: Reinstall from the DVD but install only the smallest app (which happens to be Contribute).  Except it has to re-install the entire disc 1 first. More hours gone, but it finally installs. I fire it up, and did not capture the serial number I had entered. I suppose (crossing fingers) that it doesn’t enter the serial number until the very last step. At least I hope so or nothing will work.

Try 6: Now that at least one app has been installed, I can uninstall. I decide not to uninstall Acrobat 9 as it did successfully install and I have no faith that it would be able to go back to Acrobat 8 successfully and I would be stuck without it. It’s one of those applications that I use a lot. I’ll probably get messed up somehow.

Uninstall is successful around midnight. I started this around 4:00 in the afternoon.

And I’m right back where I started. Acrobat does seem to run, though, but I’ve probably lost one of my licenses. I bought Acrobat 8 a long time ago (when Dreamweaver et al was still Macromedia). Then I bought CS3 which came with Acrobat 8. After installing CS3, I was unable to deactivate and move Acrobat to another machine, so it’s probably gone.

A pox on you Adobe.