The Dog House

solar powered parking lot.

2011-08-07T08:27:00.026-04:00

A solar powered parking lot?

Sure, why not?

My favorite place to pick on for many years, has been the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. It's such an easy target, I suppose I should quit doing it. Anyway, here we have a shiny (literally) brand new 'Park and Ride' commuter parking lot. Out along Old Route 7 between Hamilton, Va. and Paeonian Springs, Va. (Paeonian, not Pierian, if there is a Pierian Spring anywhere near DC, no one has ever found it). A year ago, this was a fallow pasture. Does anyone want to get into a discussion about the relative value of locally produced pastured cattle or dairy versus yet still another parking lot? Seriously? Okay then, that's for another time. If there is to be a yet still another parking lot, then at least one could do some things right, (or rather, less wrong) and some things wrong. In this case, they -given the available options- did a lot of things right. I'm gonna focus on those. I won't be able to help myself though, I'm gonna pick on it, because I really don't like parking lots.

The Parking Lot.

There is no one here, just me, and yet the lights are still on. They are LED lights, but I don't get why they are on if no one is around. LEDs come up pretty fast, I'd think they could run them at half or quarter load with motion or IR sensors or something to bring them up when needed. But hey, at least they did this instead of that horrible mercury oxide lighting that has killed the night for so much of the US.

Update: I rolled by this place in the wee hours this AM, and the lights were off. So I guess they are timed. So, not as grim as I thought. Cool.

One of the lighting modules. (pic is kinda fuzzy, so no large image is available).

I was there in the deep of night, but the images didn't really show much, so I waited until early pre-dawn to take these so you could get a sense of what it's like.

This is a park and ride parking lot. This is in a declining rural area. Very little of the land that was once being farmed is still being farmed. The development pressure is still on in the greater Washington DC area. Those of you who live in the rest of the US might think that economy has stalled and is contracting. But you'd never know it in the area around Washington DC. That all by itself tells you a lot of what you need to know if you still think politics can fix things. Anyway, in order to help mitigate some of the effects of ever upwards spiraling growth, this region is doing some things to encourage more mass transit/public transportation to try to alleviate the ever worsening traffic congestion in this completely car commuter dependent region.

Wait'n On The Bus.

This seems like a good idea, get folks to drive here, park, and hop on the bus, taking all those cars (SUV's and Pickup's actually) out of competition for queuing up at red lights. However, every SUV driver you turn into a rider, creates a gap, which is always filled. It's the nature of traffic. You can read all about this very well studied phenomena elsewhere The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion, but that doesn't mean that offering alternatives is a waste of time, it's not. it's incredibly important. If folks want to opt-out, they must have alternatives.

I think there's an aspect here, this is a pretty cool place. Of course, it's new, it's clean, it's not broken yet, and seems like a good space. I expect it's pretty peaceful in the AM, and these shelters appear perfectly adequate. And, they don't use much energy.

Handicap Parking Done Right!

Look at that! The handicap parking area is right where it should be. Right next to the target service. Not across a traffic lane, like in nearly all parking lots built in the last 30 years. And! (this is a big and) No Ramp. Look, there is no curb, so you don't need a ramp. I personally despise curbs, they are a cheap and nasty way handle things. and they exist where there is no need. Here, no curb is needed, so no curb is built. Good design.

But what's that down at the end?

A ChargePoint Electric Vehicle Charging Station.

Actually, this facility has a few of these:

Pretty neat, eh?

Let's see, what else?

Well,

You could be forgiven for thinking this was a generator housing or some other box belonging to the utility or something. But no, It's a bicycle box. A nice weatherproof shelter for storing a bicycle.

And this is the bike rack. Now, I know it looks like something to keep cars from running into that transformer/generator/utility box, but no, it's a bike rack. and that's not a utility box.

Now, this whole parking lot can be approached from the east, or from the west, on a narrow, no shoulder country road. how are the bicycles and pedestrians supposed to get here in the first place. The main bicycling corridor, the WO&D rail trail is on the OTHER side of the divided 4 lane that is the boundary to the back of this property. There is no way to get here from there, without a few miles of sprinting down a sketchy road.

So, there are 24 of these assemblies, each with 2 what I'm guesstimating as being 240 watt PV panels, a pair of Enphase grid tie power inverters, and 1 or 2 of those street lights.

So, that's 11.5KW of solar power. The latitude of the site according to my GPS is 37 plus. Let's call it 40 for quick and dirty numbers. According to my hand held inclinometer, the panels are pitched at 50 degrees. So, that's lat +10 or so. According to the NREL redbook numbers, this system should output about 13.5MWH (thousand kilowatt hours)per year, not too shabby! however, *if* the array was tilted at 40 degrees (tilt=lat, pretty common) that would go up to 14.4MWH, pretty significant.
Strange.

Okay, so this is all actually pretty cool, in a geeky sort of way. The kind of thing I should just love, right?

Well, sadly, I'm sorry to report, no.

What's wrong with it? Well, it's A Parking Lot. Yet Still Another Parking Lot. I don't like parking lots.

It's another asphalt slab. It'll be sanded/salted in the winter, it creates another heat island, it's impervious to water, so the water will run off, (is running off) creating the need for yet still another mosquito pit:

Of course, the landscaping isn't complete, so some erosion is to be expected. But I imagine this will be another exercise in futility. They'll get a handle on it, then a big (no one expected) weather event will cut a channel, then it will be remediated, then a channel, and so on.

So, anyway, in summary;

The folks in northern Va/Loudoun County have invested in an interesting experiment. I'm hoping that this is studied and mimicked and lessons are learned. So, good on'em for going this route. I just really hope next time someone decides; "Oh! I've got an idea, let's build a parking lot to overcome the need for more car infrastructure" that someone will point out that accommodating more cars just accommodates more cars. I think converting farm land into asphalt is a great big step in the wrong direction, and will ultimately have to be reversed.

The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and ugly traffic. ~James Marston Fitch, New York Times, 1 May 1960

You Big Dummy!

2011-02-14T09:08:00.009-05:00

haven't blogged anything in a while, and this is about the only change.

My new pickup truck.

Comments:
Doesn't "Go thru the Sno" like Pugsley, fell off it twice in the first 20 minutes
in the saddle.

makes going to the laundry a hoot!

Another fun toy from Blackwater Bikes, in Davis WV.

Mother Earth News Sustainable Living Fair

2010-09-27T10:16:00.030-04:00

Comments
Cliches
Commentary
Controversy

We attended the much anticipated Mother Earth News Sustainability Fair over the weekend. And my, what a long strange trip it was

Chatter
Chit-chat
Chit-chat
Chit-chat

Conversation
Contradiction
Criticism

The good folks at Mother Earth News apparently had no earthly idea what a hot product they had in their hands.

We had the good fortune of my procrastination. Since I dawdled about setting up reserved rooms at the Seven Springs Ski and Conference Resort, we had to call around and find a room elsewhere. We lucked into the Rockwood Trailhouse BnB, about 20 mins away in nearby Rockwood, Pa.
We passed this way before, on our little jaunt down the Great Allegheny Passage last fall. What a great spot. One of the best places we've ever had the pleasure of staying.

But that's beside the point.

So, we rolled in late friday eve, having dined at the local diner, and found our rooms and fell off to a good restful sleep after driving back roads all day. We slept to the gentle sounds of freight and coal trains blaring their signals all night long. Personally, road traffic bothers me a lot, and train noises, not at all.

Anyway, so up to a fine breakfast, served proper boarding house style, all 10 guests around the table piled high with tasty breakfasty goodies, and then off to Seven Springs for the first day.

It's only talk
Cheap talk
--Elephant Talk, King Crimson

We arrived at the resort, commenting on the huge turnout, as we were early, and the parking lots were looking pretty full. We had no trouble finding a spot some distance from the entrance. Then we toddled on down to the entrance booth, as we already had our tickets, we didn't have to deal with the horrors of will call or purchase. The Mothereartinista at the gate hurriedly took our proferred tickets while another Mothereartinista attached our wrist bands. Apparently we were not to be trusted to do it ourselves, Minor irritation #1. Nice and friendly though. Next up, the event programs.

We tried to eddy out of the mass of moving people to review the program, and to learn the map. We inadvertently backed into a Motherearthinista stronghold and were shown out nicely and immediately. Minor irritation #2.

Up and down the stairs, out to the exterior exhibits (shown above) we tried to match the maps to the facility and just couldn't do it. I've been interested in cartography my whole life, and well, this wasn't how you run a railroad. Minor irritation #3.

Anyway, we finally figured out where the session rooms were, and with 20 minutes or so before the sessions actually began, we managed to head off to our respective sessions of choice.
My pick? A session on solar energy, For-Get-It!
I couldn't even get near the doors, it was so packed. 20 mins before it was supposed to start, there were folks stuffed into the doors, the floor space already completely taken, and of course, all the seats. So, I bailed quickly, and found something else. Which was fun. Minor irritation #4, becoming sorta major.

My consolation prize session of "Peak Oil Prep and Making the Shift to Sustainability" was pretty good. It was rushed at 45 minutes, though the presenter Matthew Stein was hawking his book, and therefor at a book signing, I was able to engage in some information chit chat and discussion. Yes, I bought his book. The conference book store was just crazy busy. It was nuts. Minor irritation #5. (Caveat, the good Mr Stein insisted that he wasn't there to sell his book, but that was cool if you wanted to buy one).

By lunch we both decided that the good folks at Mother Earth News might not have anticipated the demand for their offered knowledge products correctly.

We both simply gave up on the sessions, attending a few keynotes and some hands-on stuff, but mostly spent the rest of the day interacting with some of the vendors.

Just like the pages of the magazine that we have all perused all these many decades, the vendors were the right mix of solid competent purveyors of proven ingeniously designed problem-solving devices, whacky mad-scientist inventors, and out and out hucksters selling a free lunch for a stiff price. The earnest, the cults, the practical, and the fun were all very well represented.

We encountered numerous fellow PASA members, as one might have expected. We were joined by another couple of very good friends of very many years, who were just experiencing this sort of craziness for the first time,
and were quite disappointed that most of the workshops and sessions were just simply unavailable due to the massive over-selling of the event.

We spent the rest of the day visiting with various friends we encountered and talking to vendors and among ourselves. We unfortunately missed the beginning of the keynote by Perry Jones, director of Heifer Project International "Food System Revolution: Efforts to Promote a More Locally Controlled and Sustainable Food System" which was brilliant. I cannot say enough about Heifer Project International, they are wonderful folks doing superb work, so I won't try.

First day closing keynote was by Amanda Little on "The Story of America’s Love
Affair With Energy" captioned as "Little will describe how American ingenuity got us into this mess, and how American ingenuity will get us out of it." Setting aside my personal take on the matter, I though it was an intriquing thesis, and it was the closing keynote, so I thought it was worth a go. I'm sorry to say that Ms Little's speaking presentation was, err, well I genuinely dislike saying things like this, but it just wasn't any good. On the upside, I figured that maybe her writing is much better, so I did buy her book, "Power Trip" and haven't finished it yet, but I can report it's been pretty fun so far. She has done her homework. So ended the first day. Keynotes were hit and miss, honestly. But, well, it's Mother Earth News, right? So, it's par.
We dined with our friends who were staying at the resort as guests, wished another friend of ours who hadn't been able to nail down any rooming options and was sleeping in her car, (after going to Cumberland to see Donna and the Buffalo) good night, and then after all, headed back to Rockwood for another night slumbering to the dulcet tones of slamming freight cars and train whistles.
Up the next morning, packed and loaded the car, another wonderful proper breakfast with 4 other couples of sausage, pancakes, scrambled eggs, OJ, coffee, tea, peaches, and so on until you'd pop if you weren't careful, a quick chat with our innkeepers and we were off to Seven Springs for Day Two.

Driving in, expecting more of the same, my were we disappointed, much much more of the same. We arrived at the same time as yesterday, but the parking lot was already filled to spilling over, and we were diverted to some of the satellite parking, which was filling fast. We kinda rushed into the morning keynote given by Richard Schrader on "How We Can Win after Climate Change Defeat" which was mildly interesting to us, and we did learn a few things, but the sessions were again completely out of control. She went off to have further conversations with the good folks at Green Heron Tools. I sought out our visiting friends and we sat about and chatted for a while. Turns out they had enjoyed a nice sit down in one of the many nooks and crannies and had a chat with one of the conference directors. Yes, it was as we expected, they really were blindsided with the attendance. They (Mother Earth News) had never done anything like this at this scale before and were quite literally overwhelmed. Well, lesson learned.

The morning passed quickly, and it was to our dismay that we just couldn't wait on the closing keynote which we all wanted to attend, just too many miles to cover, so we kinda wrapped up and made our goodbyes after a siege like assault on the tee-shirt/bumper-sticker booth, which was pretty exhausting.

In summary, we did in fact have a great time, and are in fact grateful to Mother Earth News for pulling this together. Yeah, it was messed up in a lot of ways, and it was frantic and crazy. But hey, it's Mother Earth News, really, what exactly did you expect? I certainly got my money's worth even without being able to attend the sessions for which I had hoped (and planned). But that's okay, we were kinda, and I admit sheepishly, among our own kind for a couple of days, and man, was that worth the price of admission right there. So, thanks, and better luck on the next one.

The Tenents of Basic Foundational Forestry

2010-09-03T15:19:00.002-04:00

Basic Premises of Forestry In North America in the 20th Century

By Bill Doer.

1) The Doctrine of Timber Primacy:

Timber is the chief product of the forest. All else that comes from the forest is by product. Of secondary interest; Water, Forage, Wildlife, and the rest, including recreation. Indeed, people are a nuisance in the forest.

Wood is and always will be a necessity for it has no true substitutes. Its consumption is assured. Its consumers may be taken for granted.

In fact, there is going to be a shortage of timber.
The central problem in forest management is the biological and engineering problem of growing more timber.

2) The Doctrine of Sustained Yield.

To fulfill societies obligations to it's descendants, and to stabilize communities, each generation should sustain it's resources at a high level and hand them along undiminished.

The sustained yield of timber is an aspect of man's most fundamental need: To sustain life itself.

3) The Doctrine of the Long Run.

Nature moves and changes slowly. She takes a long time to accomplish such purpose as the growing of timber. Society must adapt itself to this fact. Be patient. Curb selfish short-sighted interests. Such as those of private enterprise, and notably small enterprise.

Look to the past. The future will be like the past. Indeed, should be like the past.

4) The Doctrine of Absolute Standards.

The forest is a living thing with own ends and its means for attaining them under natural law.

The successful manager, regardless of his location or ownership, finds his goals and guides in the forest itself, by looking there and by listening to what the forest tells him.
People are not to be trusted in such matters.

Thus the manager plants those kinds of trees best suited to the site, carries the stock of growing timber that nature has shown she is capable of carrying. He aims to produce wood of high quality and maximum quantity. And this again is the aim of the forest.
Needless to say, idle land is a cost to society.

From Doer's 1979 textbook on Forest Management.

Cars I have owned.

2010-07-20T14:46:00.009-04:00

Just a list of cars I have owned in my life.

Please know, It's rare that any of these were less than 10 years
old when I bought them, and very rare that I paid $1000 or more.

I have a hard time remembering all of them, so I thought I'd put together
a list. It's a sickness that I inherited from my father, and he blamed his
father, so fair's fair.

1964 VW Bug
1963 Porsche 356c coupe
1966 VW Karmann Ghia roadster
1964 VW Bug
1968 Fiat 124 Abarth spyder
1969 Chevy Van (panel van)
1961 GMC 4000 flatbed
1966 Fiat Dino Spyder
1966 Fiat 128 Coupe
1975 VW Rabbit coupe (2-door)
1963 Mercedes 190D (110)
1964 MGB
1963 Triumph TR3
1965 Triumph Spitfire Mk.2
1972 Plymouth Duster 2-dr (three on the tree)
1967 Pontiac of some kind, can't recall
1970 Volvo 164
197-something Volvo 145
1978 Volvo 245
1963 Austin America (Morris 1100)
1962 Austin Mini
1973 Austin Marina
1966 Porsche 912
1964 VW bus
1977 VW Rabbit diesel
1977 VW Rabbit Caddy pickup
1975 VW Scirocco (my favorite car ever)
1976-or-so Audi Fox Wagon (audi 80)
1972 VW Bus
1972 Ford Taunus (not a typo)
1976 Matra-Simca Bagheera
1970 Alfa Romeo Giulia (rust bucket)
1971 Mercedes Benz 260CE (really liked this car)
1977 VW Scirocco
1984 Audi 5000s Wagon
1968 Ford F100 pickup
1989 VW Golf GTI 16v (only new car I ever bought)
1984 VW GTI
1983 VW Jetta
1985 Suzuki SJ413/Samurai (Probably the best car I ever owned)
1990 Isuzu Trooper
1984 VW GTI
1984 VW GTI (yes, I know, I know)
1983 Ford Econoline 150
1964 Toyota FJ45 Landcruiser Flatbed
1999 Subaru Legacy Outback
1973 Saab Sonett-III
1985 Ford F150 4x4
1985 Ford F250 diesel flatbed
1986 Ford F250 diesel 4x4
2004 Toyota Prius

Get out your tin hat, and put it on. (shiny side out!)

2010-07-05T12:50:00.009-04:00

Well,

This is just fun I think.

Being a big fan of pretty much anything solar powered, I spotted this fellow on the side of the road and had to come back and examine it more closely.

(click on pics for bigger pics)

Pretty cool.
No, I won't go into where, No reason. But first things first, what the heck is it?

Well, the gizmo up on top of the tower:

Looks like a camera to me. Looks like a very nice camera at that.

This thingee is sitting on the corner of a couple of low traffic roads. A prototype maybe.
Traffic surveys? Traffic Surveillance maybe? Who knows?

So, , , Nice trailer, fresh and shiny new. Four 110 watt solar panels. 2 battery boxes, each holding good sized batteries. 1 tool chest, all secured properly secured with padlocks. And 1 -what appears to be an- electronics cabinet (the large-ish black diamond plate box) secured with an electronic cypher lock.

But I suppose what I found most striking was the lack of a license plate. Not only that, but the lack of a place to even mount a license plate. Close examination of the entire assembly showed no serial numbers, no manifest plate (except of course, the trailer manufacturers serial number plate). There was no name, no contact information to be found anywhere. Which I found pretty disappointing. I wanted to know more about it. I did wave at the camera. "We're friendly!".

I'm of the look but don't touch school of the creeping curious type. It would be a big mistake I expect to tamper with such a device, or even worse, attempt to steal it. I expect it knows how to call home, further;

That looks a whole lot like one of them Millenium GPS Autotracker gizmos, and so I expect not only does this thing know how to call home, it also knows how to tell Mom where it is, where it's been and all that.

Folks talk a lot about 'the machines becoming self-aware. Well, it's been my position that self-awareness is relative. Machines -these days- exhibit all kinds of various levels of self-awareness.

Solar powered autonomous remote sensing stuff fascinates me. One of my more favorite pipe dream time wasters. I think this gizmo is an excellent example.

Pretty cool.

I should have had my tinhat on when i took these pics though. No doubt it has RF mind-control capacity as well.

Thoughts?

Looking Back, Looking Forward revisited

2010-06-06T13:02:00.051-04:00

Quick note: I've fiddled with the formatting of the template, because I just wasn't happy with how my pics were laying out. So, older stuff is going to look kinda awkward. But hopefully, this will work out better in the future.

A few, a very few, may recall my blog entry Looking Forward, Looking Back, from a while back. I've had some time to mull this over for a while. Further, on IRC a couple of weeks back, there was a quick conversation concerning Wind Power with some quick off-the-cuff comments in the pro/con vein, and I was asked, "How can anyone be against wind power?". Well, it's complicated.

I want to try to examine this question, and at least scratch at the surface of some of implications of this technology, and shine some light on what that entails, as well as to condense some of my own ill formed thoughts on the matter.

As always, with most of my blogs, the images are clickable for a better view

So, on a personal note, I'm still looking forward, and I'm still looking back. The backdrop has changed a bit, More miles on the one, while the other has been upgraded/downgraded to yet another multi-hand car with over 100K on it. (my new minimum standard for used cars, it must be well past it's life as a proper suburban understands it), and it gets >2x the mileage of the dear old Subaru, but and is about 1/2 the 'car'. I have a lot more miles on the trike, but not nearly as many as I had hoped by the time.

Looking Forward

Looking Back

But the paradigms do not hold. Here, right now, in this time, today, the realities of the BP oil spill in the Gulf are all too real for a few, On the mind of a few more, and many more are at least aware, and I know quite well, that in the minds of a great many, it's no big deal.

If you look really closely, you can see a, single, car.

So, what has this to do with wind power?

Well, a lot actually.
It's a mistake, generally, to think things are, they way one thinks they are. Folks seem to think, that energy in general, electrical energy in particular, is cheap, abundant, and easy to acquire. There is little empirical and practically no theoretical evidence to support this common (in this country) thought. Same is true of oil. Because of this thought, or widely held belief, folks waste it. Just plain waste it. To wit:

Folks use a great deal of electrical power. Whether they mean to, or not, they do. If you believe the DOE, for the year 2009, 3,953,111 thousand megawatt hours. In simple terms, a 100 watt light bulb burning for 10 hours uses a kilowatt hour. One thousand kilowatt hours ia a megawatt hour. So, that's three million, nine hundred and fifty three thousand, one hundred and eleven - thousand megawatt hours.

Anyway, there's some noise around those numbers, generation vs use and all that. Oddly enough, when you start digging, you find out that some of the energy generated, is used, and not tracked. Large power plants, for instance, don't have power meters. They make the power, they also use a lot of power, and the power they use, isn't tracked in these numbers. Coal extraction uses a lot of power, and a lot of that power, isn't tracked in these numbers, and the real numbers surrounding nuclear power aren't all that easy to track down. It's remarkably difficult to actually determine what it costs to generate nuclear power. I've read numbers that -in big round numbers- put it in the $0.50/kwh range, , to generate. The nationwide average 'consumer price' is $0.15/kwh. Coal is a little easier, the price of coal by the ton is tracked on the futures market, and a pound of coal, in big round numbers can generate a kilowatt hour of electrical energy. yeah, that's right. One pound of coal, one kilowatt hour. See why it's so popular? Handy stuff coal.
Why 'we the people' are so determined to turn this: (looking back)

Into This: (Looking Forward)

So, No one (who is not on the board of large energy companies who are getting staggeringly wealthy practicing mountaintop removal) wants this for their world. Mountaintop removal is really outside the scope of this post, but it's quite a problem.

Surely there must be alternatives. Wind turbines such as these, can actually generate 2megawatts per hour when the 'wind is blowing'. Now, that's 2000kwh, or the same energy as a ton of coal.
So, these three, while the wind blows, could be generating the equivalent energy of three TONS of coal per hour. Wow. That's a win, eh? There are hundreds of these turbines in this windfarm, that's directly adjacent the Mount Storm Power Station.

Well, sadly, it's not quite that simple. Among the issues involved in this are:

None of this power is used locally. This windfarm supplies 'the mid atlantic grid'. Well, what that means isn't exactly clear. For our purposes here, I won't call it outright disingenuous. For one thing, it's not yet actually connected to the 'mid-atlantic grid' as such. A shiny brand spanking new leg of the 'Smart Grid' is being built in it's honor.

Birds and bats, yes, it's a real issue, it's not not a real issue. Migratory song birds are one thing, migratory raptors are another thing. Bats, still a different thing. But the big thing, The forests and ridges of WV are home to the greatest biodiversity outside of amazon basin, and according to some, even broader. Folks who opposed this project were called NIMBYs. But who are the real NIMBYs? West Virginia isn't using this power, the turbines weren't manufactured here. The folks who installed them aren't from here, and aside from a few landowners, who benefits? Well, folks who live far far far away. Sure, for a while, the local restaurants and room rentals were doing pretty well. The additional loads to the roadways was born by the WV taxpayer, the destruction of habitat will be born by all the life of the region. The invasive plants that are taking over the forests floors all along the ridge, and along the right of ways benefit, but the natives don't. Who is the NIMBY indeed.

Well, let's look:

PATH and TrAIL.

Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line. a 500KV power line coming out of western PA, and headed right through this beautiful area, past the mount storm power generation, and headed down into Northern Virginia. Ah yes, Northern Virginia. The PSC pretty much sided with the supporters of these projects "so the nation's aging electrical grid can continue to provide cheap and reliable power to big Eastern cities and their growing suburbs."

let me restate:
"so the nation's aging electrical grid can continue to provide cheap and reliable power to big Eastern cities and their growing suburbs."

So, who's the NIMBY now?

So,

More and more and more and more of this:

Again, if you look really closely, you can see a car.

And PATH? Potomac Allegheny Transmission Highline? Hoo-boy! talk about a wasp nest of controversy. This 768KV transmission line has been sold to the public under every banner imaginable. Just like the Mount Storm example above, Seems that PATH is the fancy new smart grid stuff. Wind power has been big rational behind the push for this power line. For these new non-base load generation station, we need a much more interactive grid. PATH is the answer. Oddly, PATH goes right past a whole lot of coal generation resources. Lots and lots and lots of coal, for pretty much the same reason. To get more power, out of WV and Ohio over the mountains, and into the growing monster maw of the I-95 corridor. Google about, look at the maps, there you have it.

A lot of energy in generated in WV, 70% of it leaves the state. As much as our nation needs energy, to light the Wall Mart parking lots at 3am, to run traffic lights all night long on 8 lanes of highway in the middle Tysons Corner Va, in the middle of the night, when that's a day-job-only office cubicle horror of concrete and asphalt, then WV must be the wealthiest state in the region. Heck, it has all the power!

Errr, no. Not exactly.

PATH and TrAIL are turning this: (Looking back)

A boreal forest at modest elevation near the Canaan Valley in WV, home to a biodiversity that isn't even understood, much less fully explored. Those of you who have driven through northern Michigan would be right at home here.

Into this: (Looking Forward)

Soil subsidence, contiguous forest broken up, there will be runoff, there will be erosion, and there are now breaks in the canopy where there were none before. And for the record, unlike when this area was logged off over a hundred years ago, this opening will never be allowed to close. It will be maintained with broadcast herbicides, which will accumulate, as they always do. And yes, this is the top of YOUR watershed.

"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water."
-Ben Franklin
--quoted from Poor Richards, but I think it was cribbed.

With each passing day, we have less and less contiguous forest. If you think this doesn't matter, then you are quite mistaken. (hint, it's the water, SxxxxD!) Pretty much everything I can link viz benefits of contiguous forest is behind one paywall or another.

Okay, okay, but what does this have to do with Wind Power?

Well, all of these many-multi Billion dollar projects was pushed through because it would exploit wind power. But whats actually being exploited in coal burning power. Wind power at this scale just doesn't play out.

One thing to keep in mind, The US, especially the 'beltway effected' US, (our Capitol Region) isn't europe. That picture above, of all the SUVs and Pickups in a parking lot. That's in the northern va suburbs (the area to be served by TrAIL) home to some of vast legions of Government Contractors (locally known as beltway bandits). The sense of entitlement here is foreign to many, but drive in the am commuter traffic, and it's palatable.
These folks don't do small. They don't turn out the lights, they turn them on and leave them on. I love sitting at a traffic light controlled well lit intersection at a red light at 4:30 am with no traffic in sight.

Base load, it's all about base load. Lots of power, needed all the time. Heck, as a system administrator, I consider it a victory if I can convince someone to turn off their workstation when they go on vacation. This website claims to debunk the 'myth' of base load. Well, it doesn't. Even with the new smarty-griddy stuff, variable loads are a pain in the neck to moderate. What a base load is to a coal plant, according to folks I've known who worked in them, is all the power they can make. Again, I can't find a paper that shows where anyone is shutting down their coal generation because the abundant wind energy is carrying the load.

However, what this large, industrial scale wind generation has done, has increased the capacity on paper. More capacity, more customers, more growth. More endless tract mansions, more big box store strip malls, more fast food, more and better lit highways. More insanity. And there is where it ties back into opening bit about oil.

Billions and billions have been spent already, and many more billions are in planning for more and bigger transmission highlines. More and bigger windfarms, and (this part you may or may not be hearing about) more natural gas fired power plants. Ah, now the Marcellus Shale enters the fray. When the TrAIL makes it down into northern va, There is already a proposal for a new natural gas power plant to be built very near the TrAIL. Hrmmm.

One of the funny bits about these large industrial wind turbines, is while they most certainly can make a whopping amount of power, they aren't all that reliable, even when the wind is blowing, and further, that power has to be transmitted over long distances. Most folks don't want these big noisy monsters in their backyards, so they make sure they are built far far away. On once-quiet and remote ridgetops. NIMBY indeed. Anyway, try reading some papers on transmission line loss, transmission line balancing and such. Line losses are quite real. The resources consumed in even a relatively short haul highline like TrAIL are immense. That's setting aside the environmental impacts of it's construction and maintenance, which of course, is setting aside the environmental impacts of it being there at all. Huge amounts of power are generated, and never realized in real work done by that power. Wasted. Now, for an industrial wind turbine, oddly, unlike those 'backyard' wind turbines with which some of us are familiar, these machines are not passive devices, they use power, a lot of power, to function. The blades need to be pitch adjusted according to the wind velocity, the whole turbine head needs to be kept 'on the wind' and I was actually stunned to learn, that in times of no wind, if the time is long enough, the generator itself needs to be powered, to spin the turbine like a fan, to keep the blades and driveline from taking a set. (this is my jaw hitting the table). Just like large ships in port will idle their drive line, slowly turning the screws when not underway. That stuff is heavy, and it's balance and trueness is critical.

So, how much power do the turbines use? Well, strangely, those numbers aren't published anywhere. Not publicly anyway. Seems that the real unvarnished numbers from these new wind farms aren't that easy to get.

So, do they make any power at all? I don't know! I can't find the numbers!

I know folks sold the project. I know folks bought the project, I know there were a lot of subsidies involved, and huge tax breaks, just simply huge. I know at lot of folks from all over driving every gigantic vehicle were all over the place while this farm was being built, using a lot of diesel. So, yeah, folks made money. Who pays? Well, initially the rate payers, and ultimately the tax payers. I know this, the executive boards of the energy companies do pretty well. I hope folks reading this blog are familiar enough with Enron-style accounting and powerpoints and excel spreadsheets to know that 'shenanigans' can be quite profitable. On the PATH and TrAIL, some of the investors might surprise you. Dig around and check it out.
(No, I'm not linking *my* blog to some of that stuff).

In short, I think the whole concept, (with which I was once in love) is a gigantic scam. I think the environment suffers, I think the american people are being fleeced.

Look, right now, they are revamping Tyson's Corner. A good friend of mine once hunted those open fields for pheasant, by himself, with a dog and a 16g side-by-side, when he was like 11 years old. I cannot imagine what he feels when he sees that concrete horror. Anyway, Finally they are adding a Metro line out there. On NPR, I heard the numbers, I don't know if I remember them correctly, but I know I'm close. Full time live-there residents are in the 15K neighborhood. There are 10x that many commuters that drive in and out of there every single day. That is INSANE. Sure, I'd like to see that region transition to something that made more sense. Was walkable, bikable. But as long as SUV-land is accepted/encouraged, that ain't happening. This Dulles extension is going to cost billions and billions. And it won't change a thing. What it will do, is use up a lot more of that tasty WV power.

Okay, you want to use a whole bunch of power? Generate it yourself. Get the railroads working properly again, and I'm sure the coal operators will sell you all the coal you want, burn it in your own backyard. Want wind power? Put it up in your own backyard. Nukes? If it ain't safe enough to put in DC, it ain't safe enough to put anywhere. NIMBY? Who's the NIMBY?

Once all the rooftops are covered with solar panels, Once all the metro tracks are shaded by the miles and miles of PV solar arrays, Once the able bodied are transporting themselves without the direct aide of fossil fuels, opening all kinds of wonderful options for those with the handicap cards, then come and say it's necessary to tear apart one of the most valuable ecological regions to meet our 'needs'. But I suspect, by that time, should it ever come, we'll know better. Much better.

Think of the jobs. Think of the health care benefits.

The cost of builidng and maintaining these gigantic infrastructures is killing everything. Running up our deficits, ruining our health, and our ways of life. I mean, the folks who could build this, could build anything! Just look at it!

So, what works? This works: (Really looking forward!)

This is my friend, Matt Sherald of PIMBY Energy LLC of Thomas WV. That's a 10kw monster Bergey Excel-S turbine. Bergey, ARE, others make stuff like this and much smaller.

Another local fellow, working out of his (admitted well outfitted) shop/garage is making his own turbine. I've seen the power house and brake/housing stuff up close and personal. Really kicking myself for not taking pictures. http://www.briery.com/

Look, what's our deficit today? according to the BBC, it's way up there in the stratosphere above $1.4 Trillion, some number to which I cannot even relate. But I do know, that as a citizen, my share (if the census projections are close) is near $43K.

Yes, we need real leadership, but we also need to only accept real leadership, in large part, by taking a leadership role ourselves. I get a bit frustrated (heh) with folks over all this regulation talk. I don't want any more regulation, I want less, much less regulation. Something the loud folks who talk less regulation seem to miss is that there is no clear delineation between the regulators and the regulated. The first regulatory agency in the federal government, the Interstate Commerce Commission was set up by the railroads. There is no clear delineation between the federal government and the energy business for certain. Heck, there is no clear delineation between the federal government and big business at all.

Small scale power democratizes the energy market. The more folks take responsibility for their own requirements, the smaller those requirements will get, believe you me.

I don't want coal powered stuff, but it's not going to go away. I know that. And industrial wind power is a step in the wrong direction in my well considered opinion. In fact, all power infrastructure projects, as they currently exist share the same drawbacks. Think post-substation neighborhood grid. neighborhoods of solar roofs on grid tie/net metered systems downstream of the local substation don't bother the grid, and the social benefits are huge. Adapt the zoning laws to reflect the energy realities of today. Not some mistaken and shortsighted mythological 50s.

Yeah, I think MRI machines are good and useful, and all kinds of stuff like that. Street lights lighting the miles and miles of empty strip malls? Less so.

Big problems can be solved with small solutions.

"Oh, solar is too expensive, the kwh/$$ is all wrong". It's all a question of scale. The power in your wrist watch costs something akin to four thousand dollars per kilowatt hour. But people still have battery powered wrist watches. You think solar arrays are expensive on the roof? What do you think a nuke plant will cost? Ever notice that no one is willing to talk about one of those things outside the context of government backed loans?

I heard some talking head from Bank America on CSPAN this am, he was making noise that current PV solar was in the neighborhood of 15% efficient (at converting the solar radiation striking the surface area of the panel to electrical power) and if we could get that up to 30 percent we'd really have something. What? There are folks out there right now, who paid insane prices for solar PV 30+ years ago, who have been laughing at the rest of us, for OVER 30 YEARS. Sure, it would be great to get to 30%. But the stuff we have today, that we had 10, 20, 30+ years ago works,
still works. The first solar cells ever made back in the 1950s still work, and still don't pollute. I'm all for pushing the technology forward, but not if it's at the cost of deployment. How many times have I heard or read folks explaining that they are going to wait because they read some press release from some company that has no actual product, that the price was getting ready to drop? Well, I've heard it a lot. The best way to push this technology forward it to deploy it. The time is now.

One thing this fellow did touch on that wasn't quite so insane was that BoA (I know, not everyone's favorite too-big-to-fail right now) worked with GM (I know, ibid) on keeping their energy use flat while they expanded certain operations through increasing efficiency and energy auditing, and managed to find a bottom line savings of four billion dollars in energy costs. Yeah, four billion. That's what he said, I dunno. But I do know that ALL of the studies done, since Carter starting talking this game all those many decades ago, show that dollar for dollar, energy efficiency trumps energy use every single time. And that's where the future is.

Ready or not, here it comes.

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
-T.A. Edision
-- in conversation with Henry Ford and Firestone, from 'Uncommon Friends'. (a good read btw.)

Chicken Coupe

2010-05-09T13:35:00.026-04:00

And so it began;

(pics are all click-able to bigger pics)

She was pretty serious it seems in her intention to actually get chickens running about in the yard. The idea had been kicked about for a number of years, but the deepening involvement in PASA and with some of our more favorite local farms and farmers proved to tip the scales, and it seems the kitchen garden/edible landscape wouldn't be complete without some form of livestock. So, chickens.
Initially inspired by this pic off the Surlyblog a couple of years back, the concept for this coop had been brewing for a while. I was like, "Hey, that looks like an oversized gardencart!". So, the slow search for a domestically manufactured garden cart began. Yes, you see these things sitting in the corner of various backyards all over the country, usually in places where folks drive old volvos, have Appalachian Trail stickers on their 'stuff', a ski wax thermometer hung on a shed, and lots of stuff growing all over the places. These carts are often decades old, have years-old compost still sitting in them, and yet, they still seem to be functional. So, off to a few garden centers, finding lots of 'knock-offs' from various pacific rim points of origin. Some searching about on the internet, despite the oft-told story of 'Oh, you can't get those anymore', and Carts Vermont came up. Calling around to various garden centers, 'No, we have this cart instead' blah blah blah, I ponied up and ordered the large garden cart with the 'heavy duty' wheels from Carts Vermont, and it arrived a while back, just in time for her birthday.

A couple of weeks prior to Easter, the chicken need became too much, so it was off to drive about and pick up Peeps. You can read about that big fun over here . Time goes by, and these critters pretty quickly outgrow their kiddy pool of wood shavings and chicken wire, and even they get tired of stinking up the house. So, it was time to actually make good on my promise to build the new chicken house. So, I hauled out the shiny new garden cart, and started adding wood. The initial concept was pretty simple. Was to hold four chickens, and with that criteria in mind, she got six peeps figuring four would make it to laying age. Things have changed a bit since the days when everyone got their peeps through the mail I guess, as -aside from some real drama with the Blue Hamburg involving application of chicken proctology- these chickens are all doing really well in their teenage weeks, and so the house will likely be the home of six rather than four. Anyway moving along, it needed nesting boxes, two doors, (a chicken coop can only have two doors, if it has four, it's a chicken sedan) for easy cleaning, needs to be tightly secure-able against critters that might like chickens and eggs as tasty nighttime snacks, and be a happy home for chickens. So, add more wood: She -rightly I think- came up with the idea of using those big kitty litter boxes that had served us so well in other applications for nesting boxes that could be easily removed and cleaned regularly. Chicken hygiene -as it turns out- is crucial to happy healthy birds. The old days of feeding and watering them on the ground, and letting them roll about in their filth is long gone. Gee, whoda thunkit? Add more wood: The wood was all sourced from a local sawmill that doesn't have a webpage, elsewhile I'd link it right up. A family operation, they've been supplying us with all kinds of goodies at prices that $BIG_BOX shoppers can only dream about. In this case, we're using 4-quarter to 5-quarter by ten, or nine and a half or eleven or so hemlock, rough sawn fresh off the blade face and air dried on edge. You can keep that kiln dried stuff of which the production first-and-only folks are so fond. I got no use for it. Gimme 'real' lumber any day. (okay, as a small mill operator myself, I might be biased, fair enough). "Gasp! Hemlock? The silent sentinels of the secret and sacred mountain creeks? How can you?" Well, most of this is 'salvage' harvested, with NO THANKS at all to the hemlock woolly adelgid It's not without thought that I use this wood from these trees that I deeply love. It's a reminder, , , and a sacrement.

Anyway, add more wood:

It began to make some sense. Some folks have made mention of wanting to see the plans. Plans? We ain't got no plans, , Anyway, this is about the point where tearing it apart and starting over began eating at me. Fred Brooks talks about good design and tearing it apart and starting over being part of the design process, but the chickens need a house, and they need it now, not when I think this project should be ready. Add more wood: I know I could do better if I started over. Maybe I'll build another one and sell it, this time documenting it so others can build'em. But I have a feeling that only an idiot would spend this amount of time and money and effort on a backyard chicken house. Touche`

Add more wood:
And so on.
The windows were a lot of fun. These were salvaged from the house when the new thermal windows were installed last year. These were in the bathroom and the folks who had installed them had a lot of fun with 'stained glass' applique. They had been kicking around in the big shed waiting for a place and time, that being now and here. It's starting to make sense now. Chickens need a roost, and the roost is easily removable for cleaning. Trap door for chickens to come and go, and it is latched up at night to keep the critters out. Add more wood. I didn't want to, but it was off to $BIG_BOX hardware/building supply depot for that sheet of plywood. Initially I'd hoped to just fir out the roof for the steel, but the plywood layer just made sense from a weight/rigidity standpoint, so on it went. That plywood was too large to move in my prius work truck, but we managed anyway, just bent it and shoved/pulled it in, nearly sawing off some fingers on my right hand in the process. Some colorful language on that one. Nearly done adding wood at this point. Time to bring the chickens in to see what they think. (Do chickens think? I think they do.) Chicken pondering.

More chicken thoughts and considerations:
All in all, they didn't seem too convinced. Not too sure about it all. Well, at least they got to go back home to the kiddy pool for a couple more nights while the finishing got done. There was some miscommunication between the contractor/contractee/painter/builder concerning the stain. But it grows on ya. Really. I expect it will help with the much-needed winter heat gain also. Really, it grows on ya. Sure, the naked wood looked nice, but it's not real practical. And we're told that chickens like red. So, there you are! really helped nail down the roof color though. For some reason, the pic doesn't show it very well, but it's a nice green roof, really sets off the colour. Not that it matters much, as most of the roof is covered by a relatively huge PV panel. This grossly oversized (greater than 200w) PV panel was supplied by the good folks at Pimby Energy LLC of Thomas WV. Freight damaged salvage. The tempered glass laminate is shattered, and it's virtually useless in a proper array. A big shame, but I thought it might make a useful addition to a chicken coop. At some point I'll have to figure out how to shore it up some from underneath. Add some more structure to the frame, and fill it with expanding foam or something, as the surface really will not bear a snow or wind load. For now, it's set at this extreme 'summer' angle, principally because it's easy, and that reduces the wind loading a lot. There is a pretty chunky AGM battery mounted beneath the axle underneath the cart. This helps stabilize the cart a bit, lowering the center of gravity without changing the fore-aft balance, This battery will run the fence energizer for the electric fence, and will at some future time, power ventilation and some lighting for the backyard. Also, it's my intention to add a decent inverter so we can run electrical tools in the garden/kitchen-farm. This will also serve as an APU for the house. Also, maybe pump some water around. We hu-mons love to move water around, it's what we do best. Heck, it's what we're all about. Okay, moving along, chickens in a cart, cart won't go, , , The chickens still aren't really sure about the coop, but Wow! do they love being out in their little electric fence. The fence is basically a net, and we like the color, it doesn't stand out. The chickens don't seem to be bothered by it at all, but boy! work down on your knees and brush up against it, and you'll wish you hadn't! At this time, the chickens still aren't all that keen on the coop, and they don't like to go in when it gets dark. Typical teenagers. But they sure do like being out in the yard. The electric fence isn't so much about keeping them in, as it is about keeping them safe. From predators and torturers of all kinds. Neighbors have lost backyard rabbits to bored kids, and we'd just as soon they not come for visits here. We want folks to see and appreciate the garden and the chickens and all the fun, but we also like for folks to enjoy from a distance. Especially their dogs. So, that's it for now.

Running away from Jack Frost

2009-12-07T08:42:00.009-05:00

Well, the last blog entry never really got updated. But the story was written here:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/2x6gapco.

This past weekend was Jack Frost and a great time was had by all I'm quite sure. Conditions were perfect.
Day started out with lots of snow coming down. Beautiful snow. Almost no wind, and the snow just pouring out of the sky. A quick ride around town and then over to HypnoCoffee for a tasty treat.
Can't get this at *buck$.
Note to self, riding about on Pugsley during a snowstorm. All is good until you take off downhill. When doing so, don't leave your sno goggles at home. Coming down hill from the top of town was pretty fun riding blind. Pugsley descends much faster than I ski, so. Just remember.
Anyway, sitting there, drinking my tasty treat, The very idea of going to Jack Frost started getting on my nerves. Dunno why. Didn't make it last year due to other stuff going on. For some reason, I just couldn't see going to a party. Truth be told, I don't like parties very much. So I ran away.

Running away, took me off into some beautiful places. Of course, the snow was falling so hard that the trees couldn't hold it, and I was getting hammered by big dumps of snow. Still managed to push my little camera about as far as it would go. I like this thing, but this is about as far as I can get it to go. I hate the idea of getting 'more' camera. But that might be the future. Guess I'm sorry I ran away, but I did. In point of fact, I was off trying to find Crow. Yeah, I often look for crow off in the wintry places. Other thoughts on stuff going through my mind pretty much all day. In a lot of ways, it's best I not spend a lot of time on my own, but
again, I just wasn't into a party.

Why not spare a thought this day
for those who have no flame
To warm their bones at Christmas time?
Say Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow.

--Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow
--Jethro Tull

6 days and counting.

2009-10-04T08:44:00.005-04:00

Almost ready.

Almost ready.

Put the first aid kit together yesterday. I'm so used to solo trips that I long since got into the admittedly bad habit of carrying one. Sat up last night hand sewing elastic bands to use for tucking in all the dangling straps that hang off of everything these days. That fanny pack that I'm using as a side back, to hold a camera, rain gear, gloves, whatever has bunches of straps that want to get tangled in things, drag on the ground, whatever.

What am I talking about?

Tracey and I are headed out for gentle little ride starting this coming weekend, (Columbus Day weekend). Starting at Connelsville Pa, and riding to Harpers Ferry, WV along the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail and C&O Towpath trail.

You can follow the journey at Crazyguyonabike, here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/2x6gapco

I'll probably be double-journal-ing (heh) this, as I have a propensity to ramble off into tangental and unrelated stuff that won't be appropriate on that site. So, my commentaries will probably end up here.

This should prove interesting.
I bought my clark jungle hammock over 10 years ago. It has served me and others well in that time. It was a great product. I was thinking how cool it would be if Clark would dream up a 2 person camping hammock. If anyone could do it, they could. Well, they did. So I bought one. I'm still a little light headed when I think about how much it cost. We'll have to do 100 nights in it for it to be worth it. But it sure looks nice. Much lighter construction than my original clark, but seems pretty good.

We'll see.

There and Back Again on the Pa Turnpike Bike Trail

2009-08-03T10:18:00.038-04:00

There and Back Again
Up and Down the Pennsylvania Turnpike Bike Path.

Well, one thing folks have emailed to let me know is that the images are too small.
So, if you want to see bigger images then click on them to go to the gallery.

Anyway, A while back I heard that there was a section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike up near Breezewood Pa that had been abandoned back in 1968 or so. The folks at Pike 2 Bike are attempted to turn this into a real bike trail recreation area. Currently it appears to be under the aegis of the Pa Game Commission who is being nice by allow folks to access it, though the area is officially closed. Please take note, this is not a safe area for biking, road hazards exist and lord only knows what horrors lurk in those tunnels.

We chose to begin the 8.5 mile ride at the eastern end. This would allow for more out of the way parking and a mostly uphill start to the ride, and conversely a mostly downhill finish. When we pulled in and started unloading and putting together the trikes, a local fellow came out of his driveway and drove up to see if he could be of any help. Seems the way we were parked with the back door open looked to him like we had our hood up. Nice fellow. This is a good parking spot, be nice if folks would pick up their trash.

The ride itself begins inauspiciously enough, just a jersey barricade barrier with some notifications and safety tips. When they say helmets and lights are needed, they aren't kidding. Say what you will about riding with or without helmets, in this place, if you are going through the tunnels, don't kid around. There are big chunks of debris on the tunnel roadway that all started off in the roof. We met a wise hiker who was wearing a hard hat in the tunnel. Other hikers not so wise.

Starting off

Around the eastern terminus barrier, the ride begins with a very gentle uphill climb of about 1 mile. During the climb, I could feel an occasional gust of cool moist air on this otherwise hot and dry day. Cavers know the feeling, and soon coming around a bend, the entrance to Sidling Hill Tunnel, which is just about 1.3 miles in length.

Doesn't show up well in the pic, but there is a mist rolling out of the tunnel

We were just getting into this tunnel, when we had our first flat. The road surface is in terrible shape. Ridable, sure, but really torn up. In the tunnel itself, the roadway is littered with chunks of concrete that have fallen from the ceiling, and who-knows-what in the way of broken glass and whatall that has been tossed into the tunnel by the roaming hordes of vandals, cannibals and vampires that frequent the area.

We turned around and rode back into the light to patch a tube, and then began the trek back through the tunnel. My headlight immediate failed. Yeah, it had been a while since I charged the battery. Oh well, my fault. I had a back up Petzel micro, and that was barely sufficient, but it worked. She was using a Petzel duo headlamp, and we just took our time.

Western end of the Sidling Hill tunnel

Heading west, we kept moving from the east bound lanes to the west bound lanes and back again trying for the best road surface. Yeah, in the after-times, the interstate road surfaces aren't going to hold up as long as one might think. For a while we conjectured as to which held up better, the more shaded vs the more exposed road surfaces. Studies seem to show that the shaded roadways hold up better because they have fewer freeze/thaw cycles, but we weren't really able to determine much difference.

Some fellow intrepid explorers east bound

Wildlife not quite as threatened by trike as truck traffic

A Peeper?

Mystery Spot

As you can clearly see in this picture, we are going downhill. Everything visual says 'you are going downhill'. Yet, stop peddling, and you will slow to a stop, and back slightly. I've heard of these places, and this one is about a quarter of a mile long. There is a mystery spot that is well known not too far from here. I was very surprised to find this one, as I've never heard anyone mention it before in blogs that i've read. But here it is. Go there and see for yourself. West bound lane about midway between Sideline Hill and Ray's Hill. It's bizarre, and oddly, kinda irritating.

More explorers. All in all, I think we saw about 40 out there.

Heading into Ray's Hill. Note you can see the far end

So, onward thru Ray's Hill tunnel, to get to the other side. Once to the other side, it's a downhill run into Breezewood. Honestly, Breezewood gives me the creeps. So we just turned around and started back.

East Bound and Down.

Pssssst! Psssssst! Pssssst!

Flat Number 2.
Just exiting the second tunnel, she flatted. From the thorns we pulled out of one of the non-flat tires, looked like Multiflora Rose that was beginning to grow into the roadway.

Cruz'n on back east bound. Actually had a mile or so that was pretty relaxing. Did we ever pass this way as children? I'm quite sure we did. This road was closed in '68, so there's a good chance. The 'Bump, Bump, Bump, Bump' of the old Pa Turnpike becomes pretty evident at 20+mph. But I stopped taking pictures by then. I guess we probably touched 30mph or so at one point. Fast enough that her flag blew off. Just a naked flag pole by the end.

Once more back into Sidling Hill tunnel. Again, coming up the grade one could feel hints of moist cool air well before the tunnel came into view.

And once more into the light. Good ride all in all. I liked Mud Fish's graffiti the best, by far. I'm sure Mud Fish knows what I mean. Most of the rest of the stuff was just a waste of time and paint. Some of it was good. But a lot of it was the same old tired stuff. I used to creep a lot of places like this when I was young, never saw the point of all that though. Unless I had something of note to add. Very few here did.

It was a fun ride. Properly equipped, one could easily make a full day of it. The tunnels beg for more and deeper exploration. The road sides don't yield much for 'shoulder combing', pretty picked over. But the plants and critters abound, and it's a quiet and peaceful place.

There is more to it than we did here. Bridges have been removed which isolates this into the more popular and interesting stretch. But there are other abandoned sections, and other tunnel to the east. Perhaps for another time.

Breezewood, The Horror, The Horror How many logos can you spot?

Parting Shot

Buy Fresh, Bike Local

2009-07-13T09:43:00.003-04:00

Pennsylvania Buy Fresh, Bike Local Ride
Cumberland County Pa.

Pretty fun.

Some pics here:http://cpm01.smugmug.com/gallery/8873799_DJSFj#588240965_KwV2C

If I can find a list of the good folks who sponsored this ride, provided the excellent food, and all that, I'll put link them up.

A good time was had by all (again).

A short ride up King's Gap

2009-07-06T13:38:00.011-04:00

A short ride up Kings Gap

To make a short ride story even shorter, we went for a ride up Kings Gap on Sat.
A four mile climb. Maybe someone will tell me the gradient of this ride, seemed pretty gentle but relentless to me.

The pic above is at about mile one. Was a cool and cloudy day.This is long about mile 2. I wanted to stop at the little pond, but TLC was just cranking it out, so follow along did I. Puff Puff.

So, here we are at about mile 3. Right about now is when something in my right leg started shouting at me. Adductor longus, or Gracillis, or both, or heck, all three or four or whatall is in there. But I'd noticed this during my weekly commute. Gonna be careful with this now.

Hooray! The top. My knee/leg really wanted a break. Took an hour and seven minutes to do these four miles to the top. We didn't dawdle about up top, much as we would have liked, had somewhere to be. I won't go into how long the descent took. The speed limit on the road is 15mph; so telling, umm, would be telling.

This is really a beautiful place. Shame we were pressed for time. Another time perhaps.

This weekend, the Buy Fresh Bike Local ride is on for Cumberland County, Pa. Looking forward to that one. These are good folks, doing good work.

(yes yes, click on all the images, sheesh!)

LFMB Update

2009-07-02T11:13:00.010-04:00

Lazy Fat Man's Bike Update

For those of you who recall (and who does?) back in late fall/early winter, I began -again- the quest for a way to try to -again- make my work-week commute a little less likely to kill me, and a little more likely to be agreeable. Seeing how I spend a quite measurable percentage of my waking hours driving back and forth to work, -in some of the worst sprawl traffic in this new world- I figured I needed some kinda break. The idea that I could do at least half of my commute by HPV (human powered vehicle) seemed to fit the bill.

Well, it's been a few hundred miles so far since this spring, and it's working out pretty well.
Most days it adds about 45 minutes to 'bike' (I ride a trike) the last 10 miles vs what it takes to drive. However, when the traffic is particularly abysmal and noxious, I don't know that it takes me any more time at all. Guess why I don't know. I don't know because I am not stuck in it! I have no earthly idea what is going on out there on the roads. As these pics show, this is how I spend that + or - hour that makes up the last leg of my commute.

Yes, I get lots of grief from folks at work, and yes I have to navigate a few blocks of normal traffic roads in an industrial area populated with aea piloted suvs and whatever the generic term for bmw/benz/audi/jetta/jap-equivalents but that's really okay, it's just a mad dash, and it's over. Out on the trail, most folks I encounter are also just pounding out the miles, paying attention to nothing in particular and are pleasant enough. The roadies, well, we all know about that. They are the same folks mentioned earlier except on the bicycle equivalent. And they act accordingly. Fortunately for me, I am so slow, I barely notice them.

So, yeah, so far it's working. Funny bit is, I haven't lost a single pound. Strange that.

In closing, let us consider this quote from the current issue of Adventure Cycling Association newsletter "Bike Bits":

"Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."

-- U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

Nicely put.

2009 Canaan MTB Festival.

2009-06-27T13:56:00.027-04:00

Dispatches from the Field:
2009 Canaan MTB Festival:

The weekend, up here back home in Davis, WV. They (we) are having a Mountain Bike Festival. This kinda thing has been going on up here for decades.(Well, on and off). While there are a few annual races and such, it's really nice to have a few days of clinics, and fun rides of varying difficulty for pretty much any level of rider. Sue Haywood held a women's clinic on friday, which is great. The only competition is the rider competing with themselves. Relaxed, fun and for many quite challenging. Good stuff all around. The rides today (Sat) were supposed to begin at 9:00 am, so around 10:30 or so, folks started showing up and milling around. Eventually folks signed up for the various rides, and set off for the trails. I was supposed to spend some time with Matt Sherald of PIMBY Energy LLC this morning, but Matt made the good choice to set the work stuff aside and mount up for one of the rides. Priorities, he's got'em down in the right order. I chose to head out and go down to my house in Ruth Bell, but changed my mind at the last minute because dear ole Pugsly really needed to get out and play. So I mounted up late and set off to find the folks who took the gentle and mellow ride out Camp 70 led by Gary Berti.

I rode and rode, and couldn't find'em. Since I was starting so late, I figured they were already on their way back, and might have come back via some of the nice trails further up the side of the hill, so I wandered up and connected with the Trials Road for some single track back towards town.
I can say one thing for my recent commuting via recumbent trike, it doesn't do much to help with my single-track skills. Pugsley was well behaved, civilized and very forgiving however and after a while of that I gave up at the power line and headed back into town. When I got back to town, I took off down to HypnoCoffee (more Surly folks) to see if I could scare up some lunch, but forgot to bring any cash. Oh well. Did however, take some time to hang out with the good folks at Highland Prospects, who are finally moved into their really nice new space. And gave a few free Pugsley rides.
Sorta gave up and came back over to Blackwater Bikes about the time that the group I had been looking for showed back up. Lots of smiling folks. good fun times had by all it seems.
Beautiful day. I figured I'd sit down and write this all up. So, there you are.

And a Good Time was had by all

Thank you Tucker County Trails.

And Hellbenders.

Vibram Five Fingers (sigh)

2009-06-27T11:37:00.010-04:00

Well;

Stopped into a shop in Winchester Va a little while back. A shop I had been meaning to stop into for many years. I drive by it all the time, but never when they are open. As I've said in prior blog entries, I'm not a big fan of big mercantile outfits, but I have a deep and abiding soft spot for the independent shopkeep.

Whilst perusing the purveyor's paraphernalia, I saw that really silly foot gear (shoes) that are being hyped all over the place. The Vibram Five Fingers. A shoe, that has independent toes. I laughed when I saw'em on the shelf. The good shop keep asked if I wanted to try to fit a pair. What the heck? I stopped laughing the moment I stood up in them. Holy cow! They WORK!
It's just like having the feet you had after a long barefoot summer when you were 10. I love'em!

Sure. Not exactly work shoes, even on casual friday, they might not be really appropriate for office wear. And I don't think they'll work real well for my trike ride into work (where I really need to be clipped in), but outside of these things, and deep snow, I think this is pretty much it. I have my balance back, My feet feel better, blah blah blah. The benefits of these things might be overstated in the hype press, but it all makes sense to me. Went for a short hike last week up through the sloppy forests of Blackwater Falls State Park, and, well, gosh.
The 'instructions' caution one to break them in. however, it's not them that needs to be broken in, it's one's feet that need to gently get used to actually being used in the manner in which they are meant to be used. Yer foot gets to learn how to act like a foot again. Pretty cool, and feels great.

Made in China? Yeah, pretty much all footwear is these days. Which is wrong headed I think. Made of 'appropriate technology materials?' No. don't think so. Work really well? Yeah, so far, so good.

Post Apocalypse, Post 'Growth' Post Peak Oil, A glimpse of the future

2009-06-24T07:06:00.006-04:00

I have no earthly idea what it is about stuff like this that completely fascinates me.
But here is a blog about abandoned cities from around the globe.

This one caught in my throat:

See the whole gallery and read the blog here:

http://www.dirjournal.com/info/abandoned-places-in-the-world/

And yes, Children of Men is one of my favorite movies. I wouldn't say I like it, but I think it does a brilliant job of illustrating that "We are going to end up exactly where we are heading."

The Outdoor Industry

2009-04-03T08:43:00.012-04:00

Was the subject of an email I received this week from a dear and old friend, someone I've been happy and proud to have known pretty much my whole life, (with a few decades off every now and again). It went on;

.... is an industry with which I'm hardly familiar anymore.

I went to REI to get a basic dayback... they had none... all were overly tricked out, and prices started at ~$90... seems the peoples coop has gone shi-shi upscale... and their customer base has drunk the cool aid too!

So I went to Chez Target... they had exactly what I needed, well made, in exactly the right color (U of Texas Orange) for $28... plus they seemed to have much of the same basic camping stuff we sold at Appalachian Outfitters, and still at 1970's prices.

Grandma Gatewood advised... "Make a rain cape, and an over the shoulder sling bag, and buy a sturdy pair of Keds tennis shoes. Stop at local groceries and pick up Vienna sausages... most everything else to eat you can find beside the trail... and by the way those wild onions are not called "Ramps"... they are "Rampians" ... a ramp is an inclined plane."

Now, Granma Gatewood was a sharp one alright, she knew more then than I know now, but I'll differ on the ramps, ramps is ramps. What it is.

For those of you who don't know http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Gatewood

A reply came in from one of the folks Cc'd on this email that went like this;

(note, I have edited this stuff, it's not posted verbatim. I did this to obfuscate identities. In some cases I didn't want to impact folks's standing in the industry, in other cases, I just didn't have permission to quote them.)

$28 seems a bit high, I got a perfectly comfortable and functional, daypack at an outlet store in WV for $19.00.
When I was in Burlington VT in Feb, there is nice outdoor store there with a used section in the back. Nice name brand coats in excellent condition from $10-$40.
(that's where I snagged the snowshoes that I schlepped around Wheeler Lake with in Feb)
I have been meaning to bail on my REI credit card ...

Anyway, I had to respond, as I have some rather strong opinions on matters such as this:

I got heart burn with both approaches.

The Target (pronouced 'ar-jay) Boutique approach, just means all the
stuff was made by slaves, literally, But it's 'ar-jay, so that's expected.

The REI approach:

(PS, dearest mutual friend, well respected equipment designer,
calls all that 'stuff' added to what would have been a useful piece of
gear 'doodads' and the marketing folks are very clear on all gear
must have them. Lots of doodads, because, like you pointed out,
if the gear doesn't have doodads, it will collect dust on the shelf)

From a rant posted on the bike touring (phred) list a while back
for your reading pleasure:

Hey All:

Not sure how phredish I R, but my camping gear is near
and dear to me, and is the source of endless ranting for
me. So, those who don't like rants, please just move on.

Was long about '73, I finally had saved up enough money
for my first 'real' backpack. Here in these appalachian
mountains, and I studied it all real hard, and took my
hard earned $75 and hitch hiked down to Oakton Va, (a
days trip) to purchase a Kelty Mountaineer bag and frame.

Much to my chagrin, the solid old-skool 5 bar mountaineer
frame, was no longer 5 horizontal welded bars, but rather
3 welded, and 2 bolted with bushings. 'Oh, it's much
better' the sales man said, I inquired further, 'oh,
Kelty was purchased by Airstream, and we're not sure
where they are taking the product, but it's still good.'
was the story behind the story.

Time marches on, the trend was clear. REI, that co-op
out west, used to sell the good ole peter storm oiled
wool sweater, best piece of outdoor equipment I ever owned.
Then came the rise of the zombie synthetics. Eddie Bauer
used to have good down stuff, folks actually used it.
I had an e/b down parka that served me well for many
years, the adventures I had with it, ahh, the days.

REI dropped stuff like the ubiquitous svea stove, the
wool sweaters, the leather boots, took on more and
more REI branded stuff, MSR came to rule the roost.
My own experiences with MSR being less than joyful.
The MSR thunderbird ice axe, the one with the pinned
head? the one that was notorious for breaking? the
one with the aluminum shaft, that stole the heat
from your hands if you used it? They called themselves
Mountain Safety Research. With stoves that still have
a sketchy reputation in some circles, and so on.
Now REI is filled up with that stuff, seems, after
all this time, it's also a 'brand' that's directly
associated with REI, along with PUR. Ever notice
how some 'brands' are all co-marketed together?

I guess it was about nearly 20 years ago, when I got
my annual spring sale flier from REI that advertised
cheap Teva sandals. I ran down after work, to be
in on the first day of the sale, and happily bought
my next few years worth of sandals, as I got about
2 years out of a pair, and I bought 2 pairs for
less than $30 a pair, Oh, Happy Day!
Then I actually looked at what I bought. They were 1/2
as thick as my old ones, the straps, thinner, the
velcro coverage, merely a fraction. They were cheap
knock-off like things. 'An REI Exclusive'. Seems
-and this has the trappings of hear-say- the first
of the soon coming boom of pacific rim manufactured
Teva. You see, up until then, Teva sandals were actually
made by Teva people, who lived here, in this country,
and used the products they made. Like Chaco. But
now, you see, Teva became an REI associated brand,
and was no longer a product, but a life style brand.

And so it goes. horrible smelling polypro replaced
stinking oiled wool. It worked nearly as well,
sorta, cost much less to manufacture, sold for similar,
made much more money for the retailer, and offered
an okay, predictable product. Even at our favorite
co-op, that has neatly driven all the old mom-and-pops
out of the game long long ago. (well, not all, there
are still some around, but even they feed the rei
maw, selling msr/pur/etc) margins matter. Get something
nearly as good, but at a much better price point, and
the 'consumer' will go for it. Hook, line and sinker.

And that's okay, because most folks never actually use
this stuff.

A petzl headlamp, and a princeton headlamp. Similar product,
similar price. One made in europe, by folks with a standard
of living similar to that of the folks who buy it, one
made by folks who don't. which has a better margin?

Even Chaco now makes it's stuff in the pac rim. They
were really expensive, but at least I had some confidence
that the folks who made them, knew what they were for. Now,
it's all about the brand.

I look high and low for stuff made by small shops, dedicated
to the task of putting out stuff that works. I'm not all that
interested in supporting the co-op anymore. Haven't been for
years really.

I can still get Peter Storm sweaters, if you know what I mean,
lemme know, and I'll tell you where. Yes, they are still made,
and they are still good.

Some other folks:

www.rivendellmountainworks.com
www.northwerks.com
www.featheredfriends.com
www.warmlite.com
www.junglehammock.com

plenty more.

In the end, I learn more about the gear by talking
to the folks who make it, than the folks who
sell it. If there is no talk to the folks who make
it, maybe that's an issue. It is for me anyway.

Rather buy from a shop that *doesn't* pay a nickle
to madison ave, than one that does. But that's just
me.

Now, to the initial point of day packs, I still have the day pack I bought from the original poster at his shop all those long decades ago. It was made by Eagle Creek, which at the time, wasn't really a brand, was stuff made by folks who used it. It is a classic open top with pocket flap. The straps are wool felt padded leather, sewn to flat webbing, american made fastec fasteners with good hinge pins on grommets. Made of ballistic nylon (not 'cordura) and a leather bottom and crampon/ski patches and a real ice axe loop and diamond. *NOT* doodads. Functional stuff. 2 winters ago, before a trip up to the UP, I took some time to hand stitch up some of the seams that had come loose after all the years, and treat the leather for the first time ever. And by the way, I paid $90 for it, THEN.

As to doodads, creeping feature-ism (feeping creaturism) here's another blog
http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/04/bicycle-gearing-rant.html

And as a footnote, another vendor who simply just 'does it right', in pretty much every way one can imagine. Why anyone uses anything else is a mystery to me.

www.rivrstyx.com

Well, okay, sure. There is no mass merchandising of stuff like this, so how could folks use it if they don't know about it? Fair enough.

Update:

The afore mentioned 'well respected equipment designer/builder' emailed me with a followup to the email that started all this, he had this to say:

From an industry insider's perspective your commentary is right on. Knock off and quality step downs happen all the time and are bean counter choices, guys who never get out who don't know how the difference between excellent and good can mean life or death in some circumstances... like.... try undoing knots in an ice storm with no gloves or fire, you know, small stuff that really matters sometimes.

Amen.

Big Dummy at Hypnocoffee

2009-03-17T09:34:00.005-04:00

It's pretty clear now that there is an outbreak of Surly itis up in the little mountain town of Davis, WV.

Pretty much the domain of fully sprung aluminum mountain bikes, more 29er lefties per capita than anywhere else on earth I'll bet, with a nice sprinkling of hard core roadies tossed in for good measure, a second Surly has mysteriously appeared.

Our dear purveyor of liquid stimulants might not be the usual suspect when it comes to laid back slow-riding, it's actually rather apparent in the two wheelers in his stable. He related to me the spill he took on the very nice old '84 or so Specialized Stumpjumper whilst carrying groceries and 3 gallons of milk, that left him covered in milk and generally humiliated while en-route to open the shop one AM. Obviously something even less twitchy than an old-school mtb was called for. The old relaxed Trek wasn't up to it either. Enter the wonderful Surly creation, Big Dummy. Big, slow, relaxed, gentle, civilized. Complete with a proper Brooks saddle. Most folks won't get it, but I certainly do.

Lovingly built up by cussed bike craftsman, Roger Lilly of Blackwater Bikes, I think it makes a fine 'second' Surly for Davis, hopefully, the start of a trend.

(Roger, building up Pugsley a while back)

Happy Birthday To Me

2009-01-31T13:22:00.016-05:00

What can I say? It's my birthday. Had breakfast with my dear friend, neighbor and landlord all rolled up into one. How good is that? Blessing #1. Breakfast was served by really nice and fun folks, Blessing #2. Breakfast cooked by good neighbor and proprietor of the neighboring business, Bright Morning Inn, more blessings. How much better could a birthday get?

Dunno, it was what? maybe 12, maybe 14 or so degrees(f) after breakfast. Set out, by my lone, off to Blackwater Falls state park, down the the west end, near Lindy Point. Bought my day pass, like a good citizen, and started off down the road towards Lindy Point.

I dunno about you, but I get kinda tired and rather bored skiing down a road. It's probably because I don't skate ski, and neither does my equipment. I don't kick and glide for much more than 100 feet or so either. I guess that's because I'm lazy. So, I broke off the road, and headed off through the woods 'off piste' pretty soon. My neighbor, and Mark and Claire, and maybe some other folks went off to ski from Cabin Mountain over to Whitegrass, but I wanted to be alone. What was that line? Out of "On The Loose" by Jerry and Renny Russell? Umm (I got it down off the shelf just now) Oh yeah, here it is:

Are you all by yourself?" asked the man and
and his wife as suddenly I cruched through
the spring snow past their house trailer:
"Are you all by yourself?" asked the gull.
"Are you all by yourself?" asked the stars.
If a man is all by himself on this miraculous
earth, a neighbor is no help.

heh, and I have great neighbors. more blessings.
I haven't gotten used to blogger's formatting yet. Maybe I never will.

that said; Up onto the shoulder of the mountain, then down again. Through the blueberry glades and swamp land. Following a little draw, being particularly careful to keep my skis from getting wet. What a brilliant day. I met some others out there gently breaking track through the snow that you really would not want to step into off your skis. We have a saying about the 'best skiing day ever'. But since I was by myself, it's not the best skiing day ever, but it pretty strongly resembled it. There was an aspect missing that precludes a proper BSDE event. That's okay though. Bless her, she's home trying to beat back the winter cruds before the P.A.S.A. conference next week.

So, what was I saying? Oh yeah, up there and then back down again. Didn't even fall down. Gentle tracks down along the little water course. I gotta tell ya, I really love this place, all closed in for the winter. It's a special spot. I'd try and make some point here, but it's my birthday, and I'm not going to do it. Just enjoy the day. A few hours of this snappingly sharp, bright and cold beauty is all my muddled old head can take. That, and my knees, ankles and lower back :), so back to the car, and back out to town to sit down and write this all up to share with anyone who wants to know. It was big fun. So, Happy Birthday to Me. And thanks.

P.S.
By request; An older 'happy bd to me' read:
http://www.eruditium.org/pete/shaversagain.html

"If you design the roads with people in mind,"

2008-11-20T08:28:00.005-05:00

they* might obey the laws more.

*They, being drivers.

Interesting idea, seems to have some traction.

"that's very much what we're seeing"
--Janette Sadik-Khan
Commissioner Dept of Transportation
New York City

Very interesting video, maybe there is hope?

http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/transforming-nyc-streets-with-jsk/

An open letter to the president elect

2008-11-13T06:57:00.004-05:00

Apparently the Obama transition website welcomes your input and has a
handy way for you to get a message to the transition team.

I've got no earthly idea if any of this will go anywhere other than
into that gigantic internet mail shredder in the sky, but I've never
seen it attempted before, listening to what folks had to say that
is.

So, here's the URL:

http://www.change.gov/page/s/yourvision

Here's what I wrote, guess this is an open letter to the
president:

--

As one of Reagan's cold war soldiers, I was stationed in Europe, Germany
specifically in the mid-80s. I was something of a bicycle enthusiast
well before that, having been caught up in the bike-boom of the mid-70s.
I rode a fair amount, not a lot, but a reasonable amount all things
considered. I also loved to drive, and driving around Europe in the
mid-80s was a true joy. I bought my fuel on the 'economy', so I knew
quite well what 'high' fuel prices were, a lot more so than most of my
fellow Americans.

In 1990 I think, under President George H. Bush, I settled in one night
to listen to the president describe the 20 year transportation plan. I
knew what he was going to say, but I was really looking forward to
hearing him say it. You see, I had already seen it. In Western Europe. I
was going to listen to the president describe how
we the people were going to fuel a rebirth of the rail industry, because
it's the most fuel efficient way to transport goods. I was going to hear
the president describe how we were going to fuel
incentives to stop ripping up our incredibly valuable agricultural land
in the east to plant more shopping malls and condos, while
destroying what's left of the arid west with insane and unsustainable
irrigation plans, in order to grow the food closer
to where it was needed, in a better and healthier way, thereby
cutting down on the needless and crazy storage and transportation
costs. I was going to hear the president describe how we the people
were going to fuel incentives to get people to co-locate housing
and office space so folks could walk to work, walk to the grocery,
walk to movies, walk to the entertainment, improving our health,
reducing our growing (even then) health care costs. I was going to
hear our president describe how we the people were going to embrace
bicycling, walking, and light rail to move around, and heavy high speed
rail to travel. I was going to hear the president describe how we were
going to stop just burying our natural resources under asphalt, and
where roadways and lots were actually needed, they would be constructed
with paving stone and concrete
in a Western European fashion, spend the money up front, so we didn't
have a failing system as time went on. We were going to
stop burning lights all night long, replace our massive fleets of
semi trucks that are destroying our vital interstate highway system
with lighter lorries and move much more freight on rails. Further,
I was going to hear our president say we were going to pay ourselves
back for these incentives by radically increasing road
fuel taxes once the the newer transportation infrastructures were
approaching feasibility. Driving would become fun again, the highways
safer, the people healthier, happier, the food more plentiful and
nutritional. More people would learn real trades
and skills, farm life -which built our country, and formed our
constitutional law- would again be respected. We would stop
destroying our natural places, our forests, our wild places in
order to fuel growth for growths sake, just for a quick buck
that never comes back. No longer would travel to distant
places be the horror of air travel, but the more civilized, and
social pleasures of travel by rail.

Imagine my surprise when the president, who certainly knew everything I
knew, had seen what I have seen, and was smarter
than I, (he was the president, wasn't he?) described 20 more
years of giveaways to the oil companies and highway construction
cartels. Imagine my disappointment in the complete and total
lack of vision. I was sure that The United States of America
was going to lead the way into the 21st century with a vision
of continental infrastructure that would reach far into the future,
centuries into the future. Instead, I was handed a vision of the
US that would leave us at the end of the 20th century with a broken
country.

My vision for the country? get us started in the direction that will
take to where we should have been, and would have been, had
we had to vision in our leadership at the time.

--------

yeah, yeah, I know. But give me a break, I just dashed this out
in the online form. Not like I spent all night on it. Sure,
sentence structure problems, unclear predicate references and
all that. So, you do better, okay?

Some more Looking Forward

2008-11-05T11:52:00.005-05:00

Folks are actually buying and riding these things.

This is a good idea. Sure, it doesn't work for
everyone, but it works for some.

Bakfiets. Made in Holland. I think they are pretty cool.

some folks

2008-11-04T06:44:00.007-05:00

I've had the pleasure to know for a few years now,Cherie and Greg, are on
a road trip, and keeping a really nice online journal for those of us who
are not taking a road trip across the US.

Greg Retkowski of Raging Networks, and Cherie Sogsti of
Where's Cherie, companions of many years, really
wonderful folks, are taking the time to share it with
the rest of us. Give'em a watch, it's fun stuff.

Looking Forward, Looking Back.

2008-10-27T09:54:00.009-04:00

Looking back,
To where we are now. Gasoline transport, Coal power.

Endgame.

It works, Sure. But we all know where it ends. Or rather, we certainly should.

But looking forward, it looks a bit different.

Small, people powered transport, wind power.

Sure, it too has problems, like on this drizzly, cold
day for instance. Wind power has problems too,
big ones at that. As big as coal? No, different from coal. And unlike coal, the problems with wind power are probably surmountable.

The problems with personal transport are many. Cars work, trucks work, why folks use'em. But again, they have huge problems, just huge. Smaller, more efficient transport has different problems. And unlike cars and trucks, the problems with small personal transport, and it's counterpart, mass transit, are probably surmountable.

I drove my car to the trailhead on the bike path this morning, and rode this silly contraption the last few miles into work. These last few are the worst. I arrived at work, having had a textbook proper 'cardio workout', not stressed out from the nasty, quite lethal and literally insane traffic. Even stopped off for a cup of coffee, and rode the last couple of blocks in drinking coffee. Easier to do with this than a bike. :).
For the last miles of my morning commute, I wasn't dodging cellphone jabbering suvs hellbent folks, living on the edge of completely stressed out. I was instead, keeping an eye out for rabbits who like to duck into the headlight before veering off the trail, and deer that walk out onto the path and stare, wondering what the heck this thing is. Only, at the much lower speed of the trike, it's not a problem, not at all.

Look, the folks out there in their SUVs and Lexii, BMWs et all, cellphones stuck to their heads, driving like mad, aren't happy about it. I know this, they'd rather be doing something else, I'm sure. It's this crazy life. After reading up a bit on my panic attack, (Which I am sure is what landed me in the hospital last month) I've come to learn that a measurable percentage of drivers out there, are just barely hanging on, just on the edge of panic. Lemme tell ya, it ain't fun. I do know people who will not drive off their daily course to work, to the store, and home again. They claim they can't do it. Can't handle the stress. Now I understand. Now I get it.

So, I'm trying this. So far, so good.

LFMB revisted, chapter 2.

2008-10-23T10:30:00.007-04:00

Well, since my initial hospital visit, it's been a long strange trip indeed. Complete with heart surgery of a sort, out patient. atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia is what they called it, after they went in a poked about for a bit. Fired up the good ole cardiac ablation gizmo, zapped the suspect nerve bundle, could no longer induce the arrhythmia, called it done.
Which is all well and good. However, I know this is a problem that has dogged me for nearly 20 years now, but I don't actually think it was what landed me in the ER, and then into the hospital for a couple of days. I think, it is what they call panic disorder. All I can say about all that, is that it was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced in my half a century, and I've experienced some frightening things.

So, in view of all of that, I had the surgery, then took the rest of that week off. Went back to work the following week, then took off for a 2 week
'vacation' or more to the point, a work avoidance break. More on that in a bit.

In the mean time, some fun.

The Lazy Fat Man's Bike. Almost ready for the commute. I haven't yet figured out how to take good pics of this thing. It's an awkward beast.

For those who care; It's a TerraTrike, by WizWheelz of Hastings Michigan. Hard to figure the model. But according to the good folks at WizWheelz, it's an early model Tour. As noted earlier, I did buy it used. Equipped with an Old Man Mountain rack, A rear light that I dug out of my parts bin, a Sigma KARMA headlight, Sigma computer, some kinda panniers from off the wall down at Blackwater Bikes.

The Karma is an interesting light, and this is a key point for some folks out there shopping for lights. I bought it from a Bike Shop!, and not only that, I paid Retail! Why on earth? Because I enjoyed the fact that I could put my nasty pudgy fingers all over it, and talk to the proprietor about it at length. I didn't have to spend endless hours agonizing over this light vs that light in various bike forums, and battery forums, and flash light forums, and so on. I was there, it was there, it fit my need, I bought it. In case anyone cares, that's how commerce works!

I know, I know, as a 'good internet consumer' I'm supposed to buy something off a website, at the lowest price, and whine about shipping, decide I don't like it, read somewhere that I could get something better, return it, demand all my money back, buy something else, repeat, ad
nauseum. However, this doesn't do the folks who do this stuff for a living any favors. Honestly, I prefer doing business with a purveyor of the stuff I want/need, over going for the bottom price. I'm trying to opt out of The Race to the Bottom. The RTTB stresses me out. Stress, I don't need.

Another Weak Attempt at Better Living

2008-09-12T10:42:00.020-04:00

For those of you who remember the LFMB^*, (now known as LFMB-I). Once again, it's happening.

The original LFMB was a flunk. Nice try, sure. But it flunked. For a number of reasons. My old pre-evolution Fisher CR-7 was too small for me, at my then (and now) advanced weight. Was probably too small all along, but it never bugged me in the old days. I'm hoping to re-purpose it as a touring bike for her. I have some old Suntour barcons, a Gary Bar Origin8, and I'll get a nice sprung Brooks, some 26" touring tyres, and give it a go.

*lazy fat man's bike

Motobob was the real reason for the flunk. Good idea, and pretty well realised/executed. However, it was really weird to drive. I got used to it, and it's strange ways. Learned to unplug the battery whenever it was parked, to keep someone from hurting themselves by touching the throttle. Learned a number of things about it's odd ball handling. It was controllable, it worked, but was actually kinda stressful to deal with.

So, anyway. Now; LFMB-II

My Adventures with TT - an Ongoing Saga.

I spent monday and tuesday in the hospital, not a lot of fun. Unplanned, and resulting from not being more diligent in pursuing some other related goals no doubt. Returned to work on Wednesday. Office mate (the Thunderwing guy) made an off hand comment; "hey, you see that trike ad on Craigslist?".

What ad would that be?

look back, it went up yesterday I think.

Oh, okay, you mean this one?

Umm, yeah, that's the one!

Okay, I looked and looked and looked at it. Some kinda red tadpole trike. A TerraTrike certainly. But red? What TT is red? Off to the WizWheels web site to read their history. The ad claims it was a TT 3.2. Since the 3.2 is ancient that can't be right.

Doesn't really matter. The red frame means it was probably a TerraTrike Tour, and a Tour for $1300 is a pretty decent buy regardless. The TerraTrike Tour is the rig that Dan Price, the Hobo Artist rides. His work is pretty cool. You can check him out here at his website http://www.moonlightchronicles.com/
I mean, the guy lives in a hobbit hole. For real.

Since I aspire to a Dan-like life, except more in the vein of lawn service rather than cartoon art stories, A tour should suit me fine.

Tadpole trikes are pretty neat. A few years back, I got all up in a fit over the concept of building a Velomobile. Since things like the Go-One and the AeroRider are so staggeringly expensive and must be imported, with all the headaches that entails. I thought that maybe there was a market for a domestically produced velomobile. I think there is, but achiving one is beyond me. My thought was to start with a tadpole trike, and build out from there.
At that time I spoke with the folks at WizWheelz a few times. They were encouraging, and had a 'hey, go for it!' attitude, which I really liked. But that seems to be their mantra. They took a pretty serious walk of faith when they stepped out to build their trikes. Check out their site, it's a deep site, lots of stuff there to read and look at. Pretty neat.

I went over to the pedalshop, kicked the flat tire,
poked at it,
sat on it,
it fit.
Wrote a check.

Done.

I pick it up next week.

The saga begins again.

We'll see.

*

herrings, biofuels and all that, still

2008-07-16T13:04:00.003-04:00

Okay, one more time into the breach.

This is a subject that just keeps giving.

Here's the link

http://www.mail-archive.com/sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg73016.html

Biofuels, Food, Red Herrings Redux.

2008-07-10T09:59:00.003-04:00

Okay;

In my prior posting, I opined that all this talk about biofuel production being behind the radical increase in food prices is bs.

Seems I've been taken to task on this point of view, and been handed some further reading for consideration.

So, my opinion has shifted some. I stand by my initial concept, but there are things I didn't consider. I do tend to oversimplify. So;

Seems the IMF has their own take, and bit more research than I. And while I don't trust the IMF *at all* in these things, they have some pretty interesting things to say;

From http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2008/01/index.htm

In CHAPTER 1 GLOBAL PROSPECTS AND POLICIES; it's stated:

China has accounted for about one-quarter of
global growth; Brazil, China, India, and Russia
for almost one-half; and all the emerging and
developing economies together for about two-
thirds, compared with about one-half in the
1970s (Figure 1.10). Growth in these economies
also is more resource-intensive, given their
patterns of production and consumption (see
Chapter 5 of the September 2006 World Economic
Outlook). One consequence of these trends is
that the increasing demand for key commodities
such as oil, metals, and foodstuffs is now driven
by growth in these economies—they account for
more than 90 percent of the rise in consump-
tion of oil products and metals and 80 percent
of the rise in consumption of grains since 2002
(with biofuels representing most of the remain-
der). This has contributed to the sustained
strong increase in commodity prices observed
over the past year, despite moderating growth
in the advanced economies, and has been an
important factor behind the strong recent per-
formance of commodity-exporting countries in
Africa and Latin America, as well as oil export-
ers in the Middle East.

Well, there you are then.

Sheesh.

Again, I'll restate, though somewhat more meekly, that commodity trading is the real culprit here, but in real terms, this hardly matters. A lot of ag resources are being expended toward biofuel production, and while the feedstocks are not food per-say, the resources could be directed toward food production.

Which begs a whole 'nuther bag o-beans.

If you haven't seen King Corn yet, I recommend it most heartily.

And Now,

For the BS'er of the Month Award, I present the
Corn Refiners Association.

http://www.corn.org

be sure the read http://www.corn.org/KingCornMyths.htm

yeah guys, right.

biofuels vs food, red herring

2008-07-01T06:11:00.006-04:00

Let's try to put a few things to bed on this particular issue.

We keep hearing over and over again that:

There is a shortage of oil supply
The increase in the price of food is partly resulting from food being used for fuel

On point 1:

Back on March 5, (2008) President Bush said, and I quote:

"It should be obvious to you all that the [gasoline] demand is
outstripping supply, which causes prices to go up."

Now, according to Exxon (as of April 1 (heh) 2008) CEO Rex Tillerson publicly stated;

'The record run in oil prices is related more to speculation and a weakening dollar than supply and demand in the market.' He added, 'In
terms of fundamentals, fear of supply reliability is overblown.'"

Okay. further there is a lot of talk about OPEC being the bad guy here, as they are 'in control' of the worlds oil markets, being that they control a lot of the supply (the demand for which, is dropping by many, if not all measures, not growing).

However, OPEC got knocked off the top of that hill back in '83 when NYMEX started trading oil futures. To quote Ali al-Naimi;

"Oil markets are complex and not subject to control by anyone. Even Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC with their vast reserves have only a limited ability to keep prices in their preferred range. This is
particularly true when the primary factors driving prices are things other than the supply and demand of crude oil in international markets. This is the case today. Supplies are readily available. Any buyer or seller of crude oil will tell you this. Rather, prices are being driven by other factors including fears of instability in key oil-producing countries and regions, the movement of large investment funds into communities like oil, just in time inventory practices, refining bottlenecks and the industry's struggle to produce sufficient quantities of spec gasoline in the U.S. that meets
currently mandated environmental standards. ... OPEC is only one factor that impacts oil prices and the higher crude oil production does not guarantee that there is more gasoline available for U. S. consumers."

And he would know.

On Point 2:
Vandana Shiva, who is about as clueful as anyone on a very wide range of issues, has even bought into this talk about food being diverted for fuel.

In her essay The Food Emergency And Food Myths she states (in an otherwise spot on report)

"This story might succeed in diverting US political debate away from the role of US agribusiness in the current food crisis, both through speculation and through the hijacking of food into biofuels, and in presenting economic globalisation as having benefited Indians, but the truth is that President Bush's statement is false on many counts."

Yes, President Bush is wrong and false on many accounts. Yes, this debate is in part about diverting debate away from the role of agribusiness (multinational, not just US) but the 'hijacking of food into biofuels" is a red herring.

In recent years, the US frankenfood agribusiness has achieved enormous yields of 'feed corn'. Now, this corn, #2 yellow, is only food in an abstract sense. It isn't edible. It is used as feed stock of feeding lots. We could go on and on about what a bad idea this whole approach is, but at the end of the day, this stuff isn't directly food. It's starch, and the fact that folks use it to make ethanol isn't taking food out of anyone's mouth. It isn't food.

Debate the relative values of growing #2 yellow in the first place, that's fine. But arguing about feeding people with an industrial raw material, is almost preposterous.

--

PS
Shiva's essay is excellent. I was just singling out that particular bit as an illustration of how widespread is this point of view. I concur with her on her overall point.

Weather, be prepared

2008-05-30T11:07:00.003-04:00

Weather, et al.

If what they say is even 20% true, then what folks are referring to as strange weather, is going, or is becoming more like normal weather.
Meaning, normal is as normal does, and it does act strange.

Read an interesting story over at http://www.backwoodshome.com a while
back, called 'Lessons learned from the Ice Storm'. Pretty good
stuff.

A few years back, when I was spending my work-week nights in a
tiny cottage on the back of a small horse farm in what used
to be a rather nice region outside our Nation's Capitol (now
completely buried under tract mansions) there was (as there
often is) a 'significant rain event'. In this area, this
causes low grade flooding, and of course, everyone who is
relatively new to the area freaks out. When folks around DC
freak out, they like to smash their cars into each other. I
don't know why. When it rains really hard, rather than slowing
down, they like to hydroplane off the road into each other,
and all kinds of fun things. They also love to get on the
cellphone, and use up every available circuit, so that
cell communication becomes rather spotty. These folks are always
in a big hurry, and anything that slows them down drives
them nuts. at least, in the short run.

So, I was happily sitting on my couch in my tiny little house,
glad I don't have that commute, when I noticed the flashing
blue light out on the main road, and the zillions of brake
lights. I ignored it, but after a few minutes, it was still there.
meaning, that whatever it was, it was happening right there.
About that time, my landlord showed up at my door. Seems
someone had managed to drop off the berm of the road and
was blocking outbound traffic. Sheesh! Okay, I grabbed my
rain gear, and muck boots, went over to my trusty, rusty,
brush-painted-by-hand toyota land cruiser pickup, told
the land lord to get in, locked the hubs, lit'er up and
headed out, drove off onto the right of way around all
the hoopla, to the scene of the incident. A gal had given
up on the completely stopped traffic, tried to turn around,
misjudged the edge of the road way, and dropped her back
wheels off the embankment. sigh. The temp was about 40,
and it was raining hard, that inches per hour stuff.
nasty.

I walked up to the soaked and sad looking cop, told him
I could get her out. He said there had already been a tow
truck dispatched. I countered that we could clear this
right now, or wait for the truck, but it was his call.
He said, Sure, go ahead. So, I talked to the gal for
a few moments. Bless her, she was really shook up,
climbed under the front of her car, found a decent
place to grab the little car, hooked up a logging chain,
backed my truck up, and with the cop coaching her, we
gently, very gently pulled her back up onto the roadway.

Now, this was a few years ago. The cop in question was a country
boy, turned law enforcement office. He probably had always
been a law enforcement officer. Some folks just are. Doesn't
really matter what they do, in the end, they are, and should
be cops. He could think on his feet, judge a situation,
and deal with it. He was constrained by liability concerns.
In his world, this wouldn't be a problem, but this isn't
his world. These folks used to be everywhere. They aren't
any more. Some cops can't, or rather won't think this way.

We had a short conversation that surprised and pleased me.
he said, 'I just don't know what's wrong with people any
more. Used to be there would have been 5 of you guys
here trying to get this woman taken care of.' Well, I said,
it's just the way things are, you just wait, you just wait
until the weather gets really bad for a few days, and these
folks will remember what's important, and start lending
a hand. Now, ya'll are out here plowing and salting the
road when nothing is going on, so these folks don't know
what it used to be like. When it gets like that, they'll
wake up. Really, you'll see. 'Well, maybe your right' He
replied. 'I hope you're right.'.

We shook hands, and I took my wet ass and my landlord
back to the farm, and took a nice warm shower.

I still think about that. I still think I'm right. I am
still concerned about that cop loosing his faith in
the people. When the weather gets sketchy, I try to
keep a few things, like a chainsaw and fuel, a snatch
strap, my hardhat, chaps and the like in the car. A subaru
outback. Last winter, I was driving up to my Moms place
up on the mountain during an early winter weather event.
There was a large oak limb down in the road, and a cop
in a SUV attending. Now, there is a rather large federal
installation near by, and this was a federal cop. I pulled
up, explained to the cop that I could get this cleared,
get this road open, and do it now. He told me to return
to my vehicle for my own safety. I did. Sat there and fumed
for a bit. Got back out, opened up the back
of my wagon, put on my chaps and hard hat/face protection,
unpacked the saw, fueled it, test started it, and walked
back to the cop and this time, told him what
we were going to do. Friendly, but firmly, 'Sir, please
control the traffic, I am going to take this branch apart,
and then hitch it up, and pull it from the roadway, watch
my back.' And then went about doing exactly that. He didn't
argue. Within 10 minutes, we had the road cleared and open
again. Now, this cop was younger, and federal. He was well
trained, completely constrained by convention. I have no
doubt he could think on his feet, but probably wasn't
allowed to. I have a background in military law enforcement,
and the one thing they taught me, that I actually learned,
is that if you take charge of a situation, for the most
part, folks in general will defer to you. Regardless of
rank and standing. Give good clear, concise and sensible
instructions, and people will obey, almost without
exception.

In the first case, the cop was in charge, and proactive.
In the second case, the cop was not really in charge,
and was being fully reactive. With a liberal dose of
common sense, we can all make things better, rather
than worse. Turn potential issues into non issues.

Hence the point of this post:

Lessons Learned is a good read, I'll recap some of the
things I learned from it.

It happens. Expect 'It' to happen more often in the future,
than it has in the recent past.
In my short time, I've witnessed the concept of self-sufficiency
almost evaporate from the purview of so called 'every day life'.
Folks seem to expect the power to be on, or restored quickly.
Folks seem to expect the roads to get plowed before they
begin their commute. Folks expect the grocery store to have
food, McDonalds to be open 24 hours, the ATM to work, the
credit card machine at the checkout to work. Fuel for their
SUVs to be readily available and affordable, or at least
'gettable' with a credit card.

This is unreasonable. Expected, sure. But not rational.

Little things, like a rain event, like an ice storm, can
really mess stuff up. We in the US are tied to 'just in
time' supply chains. We are wholly tied to electronic
communication, and believe it or not, this stuff is
actually pretty brittle. It breaks, and gets repaired
pretty quickly for the most part. But at it's core, it
is really no more reliable than your Cable TV service.
Think about that for a while. Sure, being out for
a few hours is no big deal.

But, when the ice storm comes, and 'they' can't get the
power back up within a few hours, or at worst, days, some
things will happen. A real biggie, is that you can't
use your credit card if the power is out. Do you have
cash? No? where do you get cash? the ATM. Oh, guess what?
same story, no credit cards, then no ATM either. Whoops.

Your cellphone might work, it might not. if it does, can
you charge it? Sure, in your car. Do you have gas?
Can you drive? Can you get more gas? hmmmm.

Do you know your neighbors? Really? Well, it's a good
time to get to know them. If things get shaky, as they
do when the weather gets bad, despite what the zombie
movie fans think, folks actually show their best, that's
been my experience. People know they should look out for
each other, People are gregarious critters. That doesn't
make for good movies, and novels, but it's the cold
hard reality. Folks will help where they can, and seek
help where they need it. Neighbors are pretty cool, really.

If the power has been out for a while, and you have a generator,
be sure you have enough fuel to get around to your neighbors,
and run their fridges for a few hours every day. If you don't have
a generator, GET ONE.

Nasty bit is that folks will steal generators. This I've seen
more than I care to recall. Folks do this because either
they are mean and venal, or they feel isolated and scared.
if they are your neighbors, and they feel isolated and scared,
that's at least partially your fault. Think about it.

Even when the power has been out for a while, if you live
in an established area, there is a chance you might have
real phone service. But, does your 'land line' work without
power? going down to Wallmart to buy one that does work
without being tied to house power won't work. Folks beat
you to it, and they are sold out. Get a real phone. Cheap
and handy.

Can you cook? is your stove electric? do you have a camp stove?
Guess what, Walmart will be sold out of these too. as well
as sleeping bags, useful flashlights, toilet paper, batteries
and the like.

Food, those big fat piles of food at Wegmans, Wallmart, Meijers,
Martins, etc aren't going to do you much good if you can't
buy them, again, do you have cash? Are they open? do they
have power? does their credit card processing work?
Oh, and by the way, that stuff gets stocked about every
day, and the trucks arrive daily, and just because you saw
big piles of food last week, doesn't mean there will be
big piles of food there now. If things are bad, the trucks
maybe didn't arrive, and the shelves may have thinnned out,
or just flat out emptied. Folks down on the gulf coast
learned this in very bad ways.

This isn't night of the living dead, this isn't I
Am Legend, this is an ice storm, they happen. This
is a few days of severe weather, a nasty snow storm,
Or, bad weather along your normal supply lines.

Chances are, if you live in what is called a built
up area, you are wholly dependent on remote resources.
Are there any farms where you live? Do the folks who
work at the hospital have to commute 60 miles because
they can't afford to live where they work? What about
the ambulance folks, the police? Chances are pretty
good, that if you have a Wegmans, then your demographic
precludes having service industry folks in your
neighborhood, and you are particularly vulnerable.
Again, got a generator?

We've seen over the last few winters, that the linemen
who fix things as they break when the ice and snow comes
tend to get spread pretty thin, pretty fast. After a few
days, they start to get in a bad way too. Think about
that for a while also. Same is true for the folks
working to keep the roads open.

I don't know where this came from, but as a child,
there was a 'junk' drawer in the kitchen, that pretty
much had everything one would need to survive a nuclear
winter. I have one, most of the folks I know have one too.
Because their Mom had one. I don't know if this is
a universally human trait or not. But I do know that
it primarily comes down the matriarchal line. Dads
have junk drawers too, but it's not in the kitchen.
And it has cool stuff, but not necessarily useful.
Except of course, the pocket knives and lighters.

There is a lot of stuff that folks used to do,
that I don't see them doing any more. Folks who
used to go home to northern Michigan for the winter
holidays, used to carry sleeping bags and food
with them. Because you never know. Do you carry
what you need, or are you counting on stuff
'just being there' for you when you need it?
Well, maybe you should.

PS;

On a side note, both the American Red Cross and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency suggest that
everyone be prepared for three days without power,
and all that entails of course. That rather comes
under the heading of 'told ya so'. With some
forethought, this shouldn't be a big deal.
Expect it, and it won't be unexpected.

The Last Winter

2008-05-29T09:29:00.001-04:00

I admit it, I'm a movie bum.

I had hoped to write up my thoughts on some dvds that I've recently
bought, subscribed to, or rented over the last few months.

amongst these are King Corn (really excellent), The 11th Hour,
A Crude Awakening, What a Way To Go, and I really intend to
do so, but one that I just watched, that was really suprising
and I thought best earned some comments, was the horror film
'The Last Winter'.

I don't do horror films, I don't have much respect for the
so-called genre at all. But it was free rental night, and i
like Ron Perlman, and the teaser I saw a while back was pretty
vague, and I really like the colder regions I've spent time
in, and this one was filmed in Iceland, so I thought I'd
give it a go.

I was stunned with the overall excellence of the story. The
horror aspect is much more terrifying and subtle than demanded
by the so-called genre. In fact, I'd say it doesn't qualify.
What gore there is, is very restrained. The horror, is the horror
of a very possible even probable reality.

The movie explores the spiritual aspects of what some folks
call Gaia theory just a bit. Doesn't go into it at all, if
you are paying attention, then you'll pick it up. If not,
it doesn't explain it. The 'creature' aspect, is called the
Wendigo, and appears as a humanoid carabou, but that doesn't
really mesh with legend very well, but the spirit most certainly
does.

The story takes place in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which
is in the process of being opened for drilling, because the
American People want to break their dependency on foreign oil.
Mention is made in the plot dialog as to how silly this really
is, how ANWR won't really contribute much to that end, and a lot
is made as to what encroaching into ANWR means in much broader
terms.

The team is the advance team doing the environmental impact study
for the ice roads needed to bring in the drilling equipment.

Of course, this isn't feasable, as the winter isn't stable, the
tundra is thawing, and the weather is becoming quite erratic.

On the one hand, we have the crew chief, who is all about getting
his equipment in. We have the environmental expert, who represents
the antithesis and all the folks in between.

It all ends in tears of course, these things usually do. But the
story of the last winter is a very real story. It's very disturbing
in the manner in which it tells the story of our times. Of the
insane drive for growth at any cost, the desperate need for it.
The voices of reason being shouted down, bad things spinning quickly,
not out of control as they were never in control, at least
not control as it is broadly thought of, but out of reason, out of understanding.

Of course, this is a horror film, so there is no happy chapter,
as in An Inconvenient Truth. Where we get told that this
probable future is avoidable if 'we keep our tire pressure
up and caulk our windows'. So, one is left with a feeling
of deep sadness, bordering on despair.

But it's a very good, very insightful movie. Very haunting.
well done.

That the screenplay was written in 2001, well before broad
exposure to the idea of climate change. (I think the first
paper I read that 'assumed' global warming was in '97 or
so, but even though it was accepted by many folks working
in the fields of environments, meteorology etc, to joe
sixpack like me, It wasn't really on radar.) speaks well
of the writer's grasp of the subject matter.

2008 U.S. Cross Country Championship- Day 1

2007-12-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

New Years Eve, Training Day.

Not much to see/say. Beautiful day for skiing. Michigan Tech has some beautiful trails and a good bit of snow. The groomers have been working hard and doing a wonderful job.

Some short video of practice.

Pugsley Bound for the Upper Peninsula

2007-12-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

Holiday bound.
Taking Pugsley out to introduce him (it really is a him) to the snow.

yeah, the pics are bad, hopefully will have better ones later.

She an Eye, are bound up to Houghton, Mi, for the 2008 US Cross Country Championships.

Gonna watch the nie ces ski for the University of Alaska Nanooks.

Gonna try to blog the event, see if I'm up to it.

Vicious Cycles Thunderwing

2007-10-10T10:23:00.000-04:00

A Vicious Thunderwing build-up.

Man, is this thing perty er whut?

This build-up:

Shimano XT deralleurs
Shimano bar end shifters
DT-swiss, Tandem hubs
Surly Large Marge rims
Surly Endomorph tires
Avid BB7 disk brakes
RaceFace downhill crankset
RaceFace downhill bottom bracket
Cane Creek road levers
Cane Creek headset
OnOne 'Midge' handlebars (make sure the lift door is shut)
Thomson Stem
Thomson Seatpost
Specialized seat (at the moment)

This build up done by the good folks @ Trails End Cycling in Purcellville Va, for buddy Jim.

Technorati Tag mountainbike

Tour De Lilly

2007-10-08T11:33:00.000-04:00

At some point, I need to sort out how to use one of them online galleries.
This is an attempt. I picked Smugmug after fiddling with a few of them.

Anyway, this is the start of the 2007 Tour de Lilly, in Davis, WV. Folks who know, know this is fat tire city. Shoulda been there, twas fun. (Even though I didn't go play).

Anyway, There's Roger Lilly, giving the 'talk' before the start of the tour
in the garden of the Bright Morning Inn .

So, I didn't go, and neither did Pugsley. For those of you who might be looking for an update on the Surly Pugsley build up. Here's a pic at least. Still no news, Although Mike over at Siriani's has ridden it, and so has Roger.

Technorati Tag Mountainbike Events Blackwater Bikes

How to go ice climbing

2007-10-03T12:11:00.000-04:00

Get some ice tools
Get some expensive winter activewear
Go to where the ice is.
Put your ice tools in the ice, and stand up
repeat as necessary.

Note: don't fall.

For more information (if needed) check out this blog on uncooped.com.

A Surly Pugsley Buildup

2007-09-24T12:11:00.001-04:00

I think the original (back) order was from March this year.
But now things are getting close.

Roger, over at Blackwater Bikes, in Davis, WV. Finally got my Surly Pugsley Frameset in.

Eric Sovern of Surly bikes kept me up to date on the status of the 16" Pugsley frame, and clued me in the minute it cleared QC, and it got ordered and it arrived last week.

Since I don' t have everything I thought I would by now, and there were a lot of unknowns about the frameset, I wasn't intending to get it finished this weekend. But we managed to get a good start on it.

So, There's Roger carefully explaining to me that my choice of Cane Creek road levers coupled with my choice of Avid BB9s was clueless. Oh well. More fun to follow.

When this thing is done, I'll write up a complete build up with comments for other folks wanting to build up a Pugsley. So, stay tuned.

the BBC (others) and DRM

2007-02-20T09:08:00.000-05:00

Let me see if I can make this point simply.

From a quick read of this article in the Linux Journal, and this pdf from the folks at the BBC,
It seems that the BBC wants to offer it's content under a DRM locked, and vendor-proprietary
format.

Dear folks;

Understand this thing, and understand it clearly;
The simple fact that so-called mainstream media is becoming
less and less relevant is directly tied to this mindset.

The more open and accessable you are, the better chance you will have at remaining
in play. More more closed you are, the less opportunity you will have in participating
in what many have come to call, the global conversation.

That's all.

FreeSWITCH

2007-02-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

's trixter, gives me grief for failing to make good on the TC&S/VOIP solution for deeply rural areas. It's not my fault. My antique acoustic modems refuse to associate. It's been a very long time since I've played with authentic serial equipment. That stuff actually required a clue to get to work correctly.

FreeSWITCH^tm is a really excellent VoIP project, and is driven by some folks with deep clues. Check it out.

pondering 20090120

2007-02-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

Before the revolution,
Man exploited man.

Now it's the other way around.

What If? (was carbon sequestering)

2007-01-12T09:48:00.000-05:00

A Given;

I'm surrounded by "greenies", and could even fairly be accused of being one myself.

Keeping that in mind, there are some folks who think that the jury is still out on atmospheric carbon being an issue. However, the dissenting voices are often a fabrication of Fox News and the like. The science on this (and related) is pretty clear. For a refresher, avail yerself of Dr. Richard Alley's podcast "Big Weather" available at http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail258.html .

Moving along;
Aside from just greenies, I'm also surrounded by foresters. Further, I own and operate a small sawmill, and have nearly as much money in chainsaws and related as I do in computer equipment. (true!)

Keeping in mind the quite interesting field of engineered laminated wood products, (microllam, others) I have queried folks who ought to know as to the relative amounts of sequestered carbon uptake in the waning years of a post-prime hardwood forest vs the uptake of a forest growing from adolescent to mature.

I can't get anyone to touch this question. Which at least implies to me, that the answer is evident.

So, what if?

What if we pushed hard into replacing a lot of the steel and concrete that will have to be replaced or built new in the coming decades with engineered laminated wood products? Note that engineered laminated wood has a lot of better aspects of 'high tech' composite materials. Wood is cellular ya know. Increasing the demand for hard-softwoods and hardwoods over the next 50 or so years to 10 to 50 times over current demand. How much atmospheric carbon would we remove from the carbon cycle over the short term and sequester for the life of the new structures? A life cycle that could easily reach into the 22nd century? Much longer than steel/concrete.

Folks are always looking for the next miracle material. I think we might very well be overlooking some really fine materials already in production.

Imagine if you will, a dense, cellular matrix based, high modulous, relatively high strength/low weight engineering material. If specified within it's engineering limits, and protected from humidity, is virtually immune to slow-scale oxidation and within its working parameters is practically immune to every frequency of vibration? In fact, it just damps it out. (elevated transport ways?). A material whose production is wholly solar powered, and uses our worst current nemisis, atmospheric carbon as its base raw material.

What if?

On sleep

2007-01-11T18:11:00.000-05:00

As mentioned earlier, I actually read Time Management for System Administrators a while back. I suppose the thing that I found the most useful in the book, (which is packed with lots of goodies by the way) was the emphasis the authors Tim Lemoncelli and Christine Hogan put on sleep. In short, they're right. Gotta get yer sleep folks.

Folks who know me, will attest that this can't be me writing this. The phrase "I hate sleep" is often attributed to me. I mean, think about it. If you live 60 years, and get yer prescribed 8 hours per day, that's 20 years, a relative lifetime, spent in the rack. However, since I now have 5/6ths of that value out of the way now, Things in general would be better off had I actually bought into this concept of having rational sleeping habits.

So, about 4 months back, I actually decided to give it a go, and rack it around 2100 hrs, as I normally get up around 0500. I set my watch to remind me at 2000 and again at 2045, and more often than not, I can now pretty much be in sleep mode by 2100 and, surprise surprise, I actually usually fall asleep. What has this gained me? Well, I haven't tossed my phone against the wall in that entire time. I've also not bothered to refill the zoloft scrip in that time. Now in fairness, I've sorta switched over to L5 HTP, but I don't take nearly as much of that I was taking. And if anything, I'm more level headed. Seems sleep and serotonin levels are related. Gee, whoda thunk it?

Sysmom is always right.

2007-01-11T16:57:00.003-05:00

Okay, spent today doing the usual sysmom stuff. Having purchased (and actually read) "Time Management For System Administrators" back before the end of the year, I actually have attempted to put the well illustrated concepts in the book into practice. After a couple of years of dithering, I actually put RT up and deployed it. I've been trying to solve the calendering dilemma for many years here at $DAY_JOB, and reading this book got me hot on it yet again.

But enough of that.

In this new year, I still find myself frustrated to tears by the whole Sysmom thing. In very many ways, I've been at this game way too long. These last 2 incomplete weeks since the new years have inspired me to sit down and write a paper titled "When good sysadmins go bad" or "What to do when your Sysmom shuts down all the machines in the NOC, and says "Okay, NOW, let's talk "". --a cautionary tale.

Well, if not the machines, then at least the backbone switch.

For those of you who are !systemadministrators, understand please that what your systemadministrator(s) want for you is what you want for yourself. They want your data to be safe, to have integrity. They want your applications to be robust and they want your entire computing environment to be up to whatever tasking required of it. Note the use of 'required'. What they want from you; is a clear and concise vision of that tasking, and for you to act and perform in a manner that is consistent with those goals. It really is that simple.

Policies don't exist to hinder, they really don't. Yeah, sure, there are policies that are completely insane. Usually dreamed up by folks who read something in an article out of an in-flight magazine, or overheard some idiotic comment by the 'computer guyz' on NRP. Or worse yet, actually read something in a Ziff Davis publication. The folks in your system administration dept, often just one folk, know your system, know what you do to screw it up, they know how to fix it, and how to keep it from breaking in the first place. Listen to them, and listen carefully. Do as they say. Are system administrators always right?

yes.

From the old Dog House BBS, 300-1200-2400 24/7

2007-01-10T16:40:00.001-05:00

Where it all kinda started.