An Exchange

Her husband and son are big cyclists.So, I get back to the hotel from work this afternoon.  I'm wet.  It had decided at about 1:30 to do the 30 second deluge again a few times every hour.  I had ridden in this morning knowing this was a possibility but again, that's what rain gear and my fender are for.

I come in the hotel lobby, and the woman there says, "Got caught in the rain?"

I smiled and said, "I rode back in the rain.  If I'd been caught in the rain, I wouldn't have had my rain gear."

She nodded and smiled back.  Her husband and son are big cyclists.  It's cool to have someone who knows cyclists so well.

Leaky Thoughts

Today I had to stand in the rain for most of the day as I observed some digging and collected confirmation samples.

And it was while I was out in the rain... rain that was intermittent, where we would get 30 seconds to a minute of heavy rain and then nothing to a light mist for an hour... that I learned that my rain jacket was not rain proof.

I first noticed that my armpits seemed colder than they should.  Then I noticed a similar feeling at my elbows.  When I was able to take a break and get inside, I found I was wet from the shoulders down.

Fortunately, I had a spare work shirt and a second rain jacket (Columbia, so I know it's good), and finished the day in two jackets.

Now, I have to go shopping again...

Grand Cycle

So, I guess there are things that happen and you just see them again and again.

People will make mistakes and do whatever they can to cover those mistakes up.  Sometimes it's new people, and sometimes it's the same person who made a mistake a couple years ago.

Stories change slowly over the day, and gradually those stories sound nothing like the stories of the morning.

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On a related note, apparently I am the calmest and nicest guy around.  Coworkers and subcontractors gauge when things are going bad by when something has managed to damage my calm.

I had a stressful time a couple months back, and a new friend helped me find a way to manage the stress.  He said my calm versus stress level is usually no more than a 2 or 3.  But that day he saw I was up to 11 or 12.  Out of 10.

Then last week I had a bit of an issue.  When I told Jennifer later, about how I had slipped into "my very professional voice," she said, "You mean your dad's office voice?"  I had to acknowledge that.  It's the voice that he used when he was at work, and that I only heard when I got the privilege of calling him at the office, or when I was in trouble.

I have apparently taken that voice as my own for discipline.

I was speaking to a sub, and trying to get across the chain of events their actions had set in motion.  And I was using that voice.  A different sub walked by and later said that I seemed pretty upset.  When asked how upset, he said, "Like about 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 out of ten."

I like to be the guy who everyone gets along with.  [I've always said that I want my tombstone to say "He Made People Smile".  Of course, now I don't want a tombstone, so put a hologram projector in the tree that gets planted for my body to feed.]  But please don't make me use my dad's work voice on you.

Rain Shower Thought

So today was a drive day to get back down to San Luis Obispo for the week.

And it rained at various strengths my entire drive.  It was like I was following Rob McKenna's lorry.

But then as I neared my destination I had a thought:

It is possible that one of the molecules of water that I started in Emeryville with remained on the car for the entire drive only to fall off the car when I parked it?

Timing is Everything

So, this morning when I left the hotel it was wet.  Like, the rain stopped right before I left wet.  But t wasn't raining at that time, so I rode my bike.

Aside from the ride to the deYoung Museum, this was the first bike ride since the Thursday before Christmas.  And it was wonderful.

Sure, I was going to work, but it was getting back into a routine that felt good. If I'm going to be forced to be away from home for extended periods of time, then routine helps the time pass better.

And once again I was reminded that I have got to bring my fender with me.  My ass wasn't wet, but the muddy water spray up the back of my vest needs help.  Fortunately, it got on the vest and not my shirt.

And then not thirty minutes after leaving, and fifteen minutes after getting to work, it started to rain again.  And it rained at various strengths for another hour before stopping for good.

That is timing.

Non-Consensual Water Play

So, today work was rained out.  We're at an in-between phase where we're not quite digging in Phase II, and we're still backfilling Phase I.  So yesterday was mostly importing literally tons of material to fill in the hole in the ground we made last year.

Today?  Not so much.  By 8 this morning we had 7/10ths of an inch of rain at the site.  As I write this we are somewhere around 2 1/4 inches.

So today was mostly sitting in the cold office doing paperwork at least after gathering stormwater samples.

Then I hightailed it back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.

Here's hoping that tomorrow the rain tapers off.

A Specific Direction

So over the past week, Jennifer and kept hearing a seemingly specific selection of music wherever we went.

Aretha Franklin
Booker T and the MGs
"Sweet Home Chicago"
Motown

And of course, Carrie Fisher passed away.

When we put it all together, it could mean only one thing: We had to watch "The Blues Brothers"

Now, I was never one who (knowingly at least) had a crush on Carrie Fisher.  I wasn't jealous of Han Solo/Harrison Ford.  There just wasn't ever anything there.

Watching "The Blues Brothers" again you notice things.  The bit of nudge at Star Wars when Carrie as "The Mystery Woman" has a different hairstyle in every one of her scenes.  Sure, she works at Curl Up and Dye, but still.

And then there is the thought of all of those in the movie who have passed:

Carrie Fisher
John Belushi
John Candy
Ray Charles
Cab Calloway
James Brown
Henry Gibson
Kathleen Freeman
John Lee Hooker

We watched the "Extended Cut" which I do not recommend because the lighting in some scenes is jarring and you see Elwood at work where he quits.  And you see his eyes because he is wearing clear safety glasses.  It's the conceit of the movie that you never see Elwood's eyes and Jake's only when he pleads for the Mystery Woman not to kill him.

Watch the original, and be happy.

Becoming a Safer Cyclist

For Christmas, I pre-ordered the Revolights Eclipse+ for my bike.

So, I've been watching Revolights for a few years now  I remember when they came up on Indiegogo for their original Revolights 360.  It was a fascinating project, but at the time, I just could see spending that much one on my bike.

Then they launched a second campaign for the Eclipse+.  I was hooked, and I've been waiting for the right time to get the new version.  It turns out that they are on track to be released this month.

Jennifer and I went walking one day a few months ago, and saw the crew taking pictures at night.  It turned out that Revolights is located here in Emeryville.

So, this week, we walked over and ordered a set.  And if they are as great as they look, Jennifer will be getting a set as well.

I'm very excited, and eager for them to be released.

It's a New Year

And so, it is 2017.

And what does one do on the first day of the year?  Well, of course, one goes for a bike ride.

Today we rode to BART, went into the City, and rode to Golden Gate Park and the De Young Museum.  Specifically for the Frank Stella Retrospective.

If you are a bike rider, I cannot recommend Golden Gate Park enough on a Sunday.  About half of the Park is designated as an auto free zone, and you can just ride and ride with only other cyclists, roller skaters and bladers, skateboarders, and walkers to deal with.  It is bliss.

The Frank Stella show was amazing to see with just amazing pieces of abstract artwork to see.

After the museum, we went and were able to get seats at the patio of the Beach Chalet.  It was a wonderful experience of buffet and bottomless mimosas (mimosea?).

Then we walked on the beach, and I watched the sand blow.



Then we rode back to BART with an incredible downhill on Oak back to Market, and then came home.

It was a wonderful day of wine, woman, and wind.

Why This?

Seriously, why a remake of "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters"?  Why Amazon?

Why not Lidsville?

Why not H.R. Pufnstuff?

Why half ass the return to psychedelic 'member-berries?

However, you have to agree with Bleeding Cool, Sid and Marty Krofft is such an example of why we grew up the way we did.

Stress Relief

So, back when I was in school studying to be a geologist, my Geologic Structures teacher was giving us assignments.  Mostly they were drawing lines to connect boundaries between rock layers.  Then to better differentiate between the layers, we were supposed to color them.  The best advice she gave us was to have a glass of wine and then draw our lines (connect the dots) and color inside the lines.

Yes, I was a college student learning how to color.

However, the trick with the wine was great because it kept your hand from shaking and gave nice smooth curves.

I've been trying to find things to break up my routine while I'm traveling.  I've been going to San Luis Obispo now every week since the last week of July.  I drive down Sunday afternoon/evening, stay at a hotel during the week, and then drive back home on Friday afternoon.

For those who aren't familiar with the distance, it's 3.5 hours without traffic.  With traffic, it can be anywhere from 4 to 5 hours.  I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's drive home.  One of the worst commutes I ever had was a drive home from a jobsite on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Back when I was with Kleinfelder, I was working at a site in Redwood City for the San Jose office.  At one point, the project manager wanted me to drive the samples to the San Jose office.  I told him that I didn't know where the office was, and that there was no way I was driving that far south and then driving back to PLeasanton to return to company truck, and then driving home to Concord or Pacheco (I forget where home was at that time).  It was a full day's work, and with the drive segments, I didn't get home until after 8:00 that night.

We are all hopeful that tings go well enough tomorrow that we have a half day of work.

Now, on top of this looming drive, I found out on Monday that a good friend and coworker has a sick father.  When she told me, I gave her a hug.  Then she said that he has pancreatic cancer, and I gave her another bigger hug.  Like my mom, his is inoperable, but fortunately discovered early.  The tumor appears to be only the size of a golf ball, and has not spread.  It is early enough that they are still waiting for the biopsy.

So add all of that together with the general background stress of the approaching holidays, high profile work, and being geographically separated from Jennifer, and I needed a distraction.  Reading has been okay, but I'm having trouble focusing and not falling asleep while reading.

So I've been coloring.

I've printed out some outline artwork from Deviantart, and have been coloring some of those.  However, Jennifer and I found a craft store nearby when she came down for a visit, and they had an amazing color-by-numbers book called Color Quest.  It's a not just about coloring by numbers, but it's also an experiment in tessellation.

And so using the cool new app from Google called Photo Scan, I took pictures of my chosen piece of work after each color was completed.

I will say that after the first two colors, I thought it was going to be a snake.

Anyway, it was mindful relaxation, and I fell a bit better.  I might be able to get back to drafting the changed map for the roleplaying game.

Why, oh Why?

Why do we do stupid things out of curiosity?

Why do we go looking at old pictures of friends and former loved ones?

Is it personal torture?  Mental masochism?

And when you find yourself doing it, and Joe Satriani ends up playing a song called "Saying Goodbye," isn't it just too much to ignore?

Chalk it up to loneliness, and being alone during the week for just too damn long.

Someday, I'll have a November free to regurgitate all these thoughts and feelings out uninterrupted.

But for now, just consider me mentally cutting.

Stross! Stross! He's our man!

So, I just finished (literally) Charles Stross' latest additional to the Laundry Files The Nightmare Stacks.  And it is bunches of fun.

The Nightmare Stacks reminds me of a Tom Clancy novel.  I've only read two of those, but it has that feel.  A reluctant agent caught up in things, tactical maneuvers, and technical specifications.  And reading about a dragon's technical jargon just makes me smile.

The favorite characters aren't in this one aside from side mentions.  Dr. O'Brien is seen in passing, as is the BLUE HADES Representative on her way to the pool in a wheelchair.  Bob Howard is unfortunately in Japan.  So the main character is Alex Schwartz one of the Laundry's PHANG agents.

But it's not a vampire book.

I was reminded of two fictional invasions while reading this.  One was a GI Joe cartoon where they go up against a group that uses biological versions of all mechanical devices.  The other is Sliding Albion from The Authority comic books.

A recommendation before reading this are Stross' short story "Equoid".

It's been a while since I've this much fun reading.

Epiphany

I had a revelation the other day:  I used to write this blog for my mom.

It didn't start out that way, but it developed into a way for me to tell my mom what I was doing, what I was reading, and such.

I kind of lost momentum when she died.  I was working, and grieving, and kind of being.

I'll get back to this I promise.  Even if it's just another way of telling her what I'm doing.

Done Been Framed

So, Thursday I got a call from Michael's that my picture framing had been completed.  Friday evening, I was home in time from San Luis Obispo to go pick them up.

Here is the "Discworld Massif " by Paul Kidby.  We covered up the original name, but added the plaque.

Here is the "Speechless" reframe.  You can see the two bits of matting (the black and gray) from the original framing.

Here is how we hung them on the wall in the stairwell.

Post-Tropes

So, I read a lot.  This is no real surprise if you know me and/or read this blog.

I am about halfway through Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. And while I'm enjoying the book, I am also getting angry while reading it.

I've read lots of... okay, we'll call them post-apocalypse books, but it's not always an apocalypse.  Sometimes it's a disaster.  Sometimes it's a crash.

My favorite is Larry Niven's Lucifer's Hammer.  A comet hits the Earth, and things go bad and badly in California.

Another that comes to mind is David Brin's The Postman.

The thing these two have in common is mercenaries who end up as cannibals.

Now, in Seveneves, things are pretty dire, and there are a small fraction of humans how find a way to survive.  What makes me angry is that Stephenson isn't satisfied with just getting the survivors to struggle to survive, he has to add Politics.  And it's capitalized for a reason.

I guess it just is how I am, but political intrigue is not needed at this point in the book.

Not that I'm stopping reading, because if I feel this strongly about it, it's surely and enjoyable book.

Getting Framed

So, for my birthday today, I was given the gift of framing.  Specifically, I took two prints in to be framed.

Back when I was in college, Mel Blanc passed away.  I have always enjoyed the Warner Brothers' cartoons, and my parents knew it.  This was during the heyday of the WB Store, and my parents bought me this print:

It made me cry the first time I saw it.  I hung it on my wall everywhere I lived, but the frame ended up delaminating, and so it got shifted to a closet.  Today, it gets an additional matting, museum glass, and a new frame.  (The lithograph "Speechless" is still available here.)

Christmas 2014, I bought this print:

Little was I to know that just a few months later, Terry Pratchett would pass away.  I was thrilled when I got this, and was slightly teary today as we were designing the matting and frame to go with it.  (There are still prints for "Discworld Massif" available at Paul Kidby's site here.)

I will post pictures in a couple weeks when we have the final products hanging up

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

Yes, it's been a while.  Blog momentum is difficult.

But anyway, you need to watch this:



It'd be great if every show could have fun recaps like this.  But then, not every show is on HBO and can thumb its nose at the censors hiding in Standards and Practices and the FCC.

Rainbows, How Do They Work?

So, a discussion Jennifer and I like to have is if everything in the Bible is to be taken as written, then light must have worked differently before the Flood.  I base this on rainbows being a new thing as a symbol of God's promise.  So in the pre-Flood world light could not be split?  But then how were there any colors?  Or if water wasn't able to split light, then how was it different?

It's a fun thing to talk about, at least for us.  It's no different than putting yourself in any other fantasy world and arguing the differences in physics.

Which brings me to XKCD's spin-off site "What If?" and more specifically pondering about rainbows in Tatooine.

Now beyond the concept of the what the system looks like, I have to ask, "When does it ever rain on Tatooine to even create a rainbow?"

But then back to my original biblical thought experiment, here's this XKCD strip:

My Bike Spoke - And Another Thing...

I think the whole time I was writing yesterday's post, I was close to achieving something.  Then like coming up with an insult to the junior high school bully, I came up with the perfect stinger yesterday afternoon.

So think back.  Read yesterday's post.  Now insert this at the end.

"You could honest say that my bike is now... true blue."