Car free challenge

Last year I had good intentions. I actually did it, went car-free for the month of June. However, I of course broke both arms on Memorial day - so it was pretty easy to avoid driving. I'm going to go for it again this year. The rules are a little different, it's more luck of the draw than writing an essay, but it's a good cause and can't hurt can it? The contest is from July 1 to August 1, the only trouble is that I'm heading to Tennessee for a week with the Boy Scouts the third week of July. I have to drive and I'm not sure how much biking I can do if I drag it down with me. I guess I'll take the Mesa and see what happens.
Before I end this blog I do want to mention that I didn't spend last June and July sitting around. I participated as much as I could in the challenge. Right away I started walking to meet my wife for lunch in town. I'd walk to the store, I'd walk to the kids soccer practices. I was very concious about when I'd accept a ride and when I'd hoof it. I even made the group walk to church.
Why don't you do it too? Go sign up and do as much as you can. People talk about sticking it to the oil companies - do it this summer by using pedal power. Buy a rack and bags for your bike and use it to go to the store!
* Oh, one last thing, I still haven't paid more than $3.89 for a gallon of gas. I haven't driven enough miles yet!

Movies!

I took the brood to the movies both of the last couple weekends. We have a great theater down the road called the "M89 Cinema". The tickets are reasonable and the consessions are too. Each time I was able to get the group (5 people) tickets, eats and drinks for under $25.

First flick was Ironman. I'm not a big fan of superhero flicks, but I enjoyed this one. It didn't take itself too seriously and was fun. I understand however that it's more of a man movie. The boys enjoyed it and I didn't see anything in there that I wouldn't want the kids to see.

Second flick was Prince Caspian. In short I thought it was short on story and long on big fight scenes. Evil guy takes over castle, good guy should be king and the kids (and Narnians) help him get back. Not much more than that and I got bored. The kids thought it was alright, but my youngest did get scared a couple times. He mentioned later that it was pretty loud in parts.

Why ride?

I've been having interesting thoughts (interesting for me) about my reasons for riding.

• I'm riding to prepare myself for my Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation ride in October. I could raise the money and go 5 miles and everyone would be happy, but I have a personal goal of completing all 105 miles this year.
  
• I'm riding to show that you don't have to drive your car everywhere.
• I commute once a week to show that just about anyone can commute. I think there's a better way out there than using gas to get around.


• My competitive nature pushes me to work to the top of the heap in my group of friends who are riding. I want to have the highest mileage on BikeJournal!

However, with all that it doesn't feel like enough fun. I don't know if I need to slow down or stop taking it so seriously or what, but there's not enough fun. Group rides are great, but there's always an element of "I gotta keep up". The commutes are alright, but stress from cars reduces the fun in some spots. I remember being younger, riding the Powerlite and loving it. I remember stages of Death Valley being fun. The hill on 92nd street is fun.

Maybe this weekend I'll get out for the fun of it and enjoy a ride.

Tech; Digital Home

Okay, it's not printers, but I found an interesting article in MaximumPC this month "The Digital Domicile". MaximumPC is my favorite technology magazine - highly recommended. The article was alright and there's an online version.

There are interesting pieces to it and some boring parts. I found the video surveillance interesting and the streaming media portion of the article in the magazine. I'm intrigued by streaming, but really haven't figured out why I'd want to make it part of my life. Then again, tubed monitors and TV's still dominate my household. Maybe I'm just too cheap when it comes to the visual experience in the house.

You know what I've been digging the past few months? Being able to catch re-runs online. Did you know you can pop into http://www.abc.com/ and pick up the lastest episode of "According to Jim"? (... same applies to NBC, CBS, etc.) I wonder just how much content can be found online and if it could fill all my viewing needs. Actually it doesn't matter, the other occupants of my house would be up in arms if I disconnected the cable. However, I have been stuck someplace out of town, hooked up to a local WiFi and watched one of those According to Jim episodes to kill time.

Tech Lust: What do I want right now?

• NAS - Network Attached Storage. I want a big hard drive on the network that I can back everyone's stuff up onto, RAIDed to some extent (2 drives, Redundant data.) I need a really stable place to put family pictures, Taylor's art and a spot to share music.


• Slingbox - I don't need one, but it really seems cool. I'll probably get one as my empire grows. Basically it lets you stream your home cable to wherever you are on the 'net. Cool, but I really don't need one right now.

Tech tip for the day: Have an old hard drive you don't know what to do with? Buy an external USB hard drive case. They essentially end up acting like a gigantic thumb drive to your computer. I had a few old laptop drives I did it to. My daughter was the coolest kid in tech class the day she brought one of those in! Cases are all of $20-$30ish bucks.

Gimme Room!

$3.99. $3.99? $3.99! It's here, just on the other side of the road, gas for $3.99 a gallon. With these ever increasing prices more and more people are riding their bikes. Some crazy folks like me ride on the road. If you're still driving, be aware! Stop talking on the phone and pay attention! I believe it's been 3 years ago now that I lost one of my cousins to a car / bicycle accident. How horrible for all parties. I don't want to become roadkill, nor do I want to live knowing that if I'd have just given another inch or taken the spare 10 seconds to slow down and passed correctly . . . .

If you do ride your bike on the road be as uncool as possible.

• Wear your helmet! I see people of all levels of ability not wearing helmets.
• Stick your arm out and let drivers know where you're headed!
• Be predictable with your actions on the road.
• Be colorful. Buy a flag. Slap a rack on the back and attach another flag! Cool and dead or uncool and living? I'll be uncool all day long.
• Plan your route well. Plan your times well. Do the best you can to avoid contact.

Be safe.

* Update - one of my friends from work was bumped today on the road. "Taco'd" his front wheel. I understand he's fine, but the driver only stopped briefly. My friend took the license number and called the police.

Race Memories

This afternoon I was reading a note from Coyne Racing and started thinking about some of the cool (for me) experiences I've had. In no particular order:

I wrote CART once and complained about the threat to remove Cleveland from the schedule. I receive a note back from none other than U.E. "Pat" Patrick. He's from Jackson (MI), was a team owner and wrote me a very gracious letter.

I spent a few years going to the races in Detroit. Most years I'd buy pit passes. I've met many drivers, but remember shaking the hands of Jimmy Vasser and Dan Gurney. Jimmy was in his championship year and Dan, well he's a racing legend, I was beside myself.

I once shared a plane with Ivan Stewart, legend of off-road racing. I didn't see him until we were getting bags. I didn't bug him, but nobody else seemed to know who he was.

I was in Toronto when they filmed part of that horrible horrible picture Driven. It was good to see CART get the exposure, but the editing? Palm trees in Detroit? I think someone needed to review things a little closer.

My favorite memory? When I passed the current (at the time) F1 and CART champion Nigel Mansell. No really! We left the race and he happened to pass us on the way . . . somewhere in his rental car. I had to pass him back!

Busy Weekend!

Scouts and bike riding says it all. Friday was pretty quiet despite the thunderstorms. Saturday morning my youngest and I started our trek to the district Cubscout Pinewood Derby. He finished 2nd in his group (bears) locally which qualified him for the second step. My oldest and I did it twice, but this is the fastest car we've built to date. I used some prepared parts I purchased last year for the event. They're perfectly legal, original parts from the official kits, but this company does some preparation on them. I'm not a father that does all the work on the car, my youngest designed it, cut it (with supervision), and painted it. I'll admit I set the nails and wheels. Anyway we ran the races and finished mid-pack. He was a really good sport about it and had a good time. I'm proud to see him handle himself so well.
After we got home I dropped him off to a friends birthday party, packed and ran off to the Boyscout spring campout. It started on Friday, but because of the derby I couldn't show until Saturday afternoon. When I got there I was hustled over to the first aid station to be a possible participant in a crash senerio. As we set across a field and crested a hill we saw a truck that looked like it hit a tree with a rope dangling from the tree and two older boys who were tangled in bicycles. The younger scouts were supposed to use their training to figure out what to do. I was really impressed with it all. They floundered for a few minutes but then two attended to the bicyclists, one went for help and another went to the hurt lady in the driver side of the truck. As soon as the scout attending the lady got there he leaned on the truck to get a better look. One of the older boys said "you're dead". I didn't understand that, but watched them continue to treat the bicyclists. They accessed the situation, asked where it hurt, etc. In the mean time the fourth scout "came back" from getting help. Since the other two were attending to the bicyclists he went to the lady in the truck, leaned in and one of the older scouts said "you're dead". The rope hanging from the tree was a power line. After they fixed everyone up the leader talked about looking at the situation before jumping in to help. It's no wonder you hear about these kids staying cool in difficult situations.
That was the end of the training for the day. After I showed up the temprature dropped about 20 degrees and it rained lightly the rest of the day. It was good hanging around with all the boys and I think they learned a lot about being ready that day. That night was cold and uncomfortable but managable.
Sunday we ate, packed up and left. We arrived home at about 12:15, my JDRF bike team was to ride at 2:00 and I was 45 minutes away from the starting point. I quickly prepared some pasta, showered, hung the tent and bags to dry, put the Cruiser in the back and left. I did get there just in time, but we left a little late anyhow. Hill after hill after hill. It would have been better if there weren't a dang stop sign at the bottom of each of 'em. I do better on long downhills, but killing the momentum killed my ride. We did ride thru Rockford - which was actually fun as we had some downhill, twisties getting to town. I actually got it on 2 wheels once! Then we had a big climb - which put the group far ahead of me. I just didn't have the long straights (or good pavement) to catch up.
Last night I was spent. Between the two activities I completely crashed by 10. I usually don't go to sleep right away, but think I was out two minutes in. That's enough of a brain dump for now.