Vista and bikes

Been out of the posting realm for a while.

My trusty old laptop went tits up a couple of weeks ago. The power cable wouldn't stay in place. After some discussion with my wife, we decided that it was time to replace it rather than pay more money to keep it hobbling along for a little while longer. Note that the list of problems included:

About a third of my RAM doesn't work.
Two of the three USB ports doesn't work
Cooling fan is on constantly
CD drive died about a year ago

Note: My neighbor says the power cable problem was probably easy to fix, but wasn't sure what to do about the rest.

So. Here I am.
Apart from gobs of RAM, 4 USB ports and enough hard drive space to back up the Library of Congress, the big change has been the new 'puter runs Vista.

At some level, I should be appalled with myself for allowing Windows Vista in my life. It's been called everything from the work of the devil to a thinly veiled re-work of XP.

But it's working out pretty well for me. The lesson here is I should probably quit reading Slashdot.

Ok. On to bikes.

I'm pretty happy to say that my attempts at not driving much have been working out pretty well for me. The car has been parked since I got home from drill last Sunday night and looks to remain so for the next week.

This week was mostly the usual trips down to the store for food, beer etc. Although a couple of weeks ago, I did load up Soo's old Terry and haul it down to Recycled. A bike hauling a bike. It's funny no matter how you think about it.

Friday night I rode into Seattle to have a couple of beers with Aaron and Greg. 20 hilly miles each way. Pretty satisfying. More so because I knew there was a pretty high probability that I would be drinking and WSP is doing enforcement patrols in North King County.

Yesterday I decided to take the kids to McDonald's. The rule in our house is that McDonald's is a once-in-a-while thing. Once every other week or so at most. The original plan was to load up Bree, ride down and pick up the food, then return home. However, Chris decided he wanted to go. This provided the perfect chance for me to see how they would both handle riding on the Xtracycle at once.

Worked out pretty well. I'm not going anywhere fast with 80 pounds of kids on the back, but if I'm riding the Xtracycle, fast probably isn't my concern.

Bonus Post

Here's a site from a family that's striving toward minimizing their use of cars. I think I've met this couple once somewhere, but I can't quite remember.

It's a really good read. Lots of good tips like how to keep kids awake on rides after dark (sour candies).

I want to be like these people.

Carfreedays

Kids, grocery stores and cargo bikes

Took Bree down to Central Market on the Xtracycle today.

I wasn't sure how well she would handle the trip, being an energetic three-year-old and all. Any concerns I had were of no account. She did great.

It wasn't a fast trip. Riding a cargo bike with a kid and groceries isn't conducive to going fast. But it was a fun trip. For kids, a little bit of adventure everyday is a good thing.

Which gets me to my next point. For most trips, bicycles are a superior form of transportation. If we had just gotten in the van or the car and driven, it would've been just another trip in the car or the van. Where is the fun in that? How does it make that little bit of my life more memorable? Five years from now, will she remember a single car trip or the time we rode the xtracycle down to the store?

We definitely need to become a two-Xtracycle family.

Back to the Xtracycle

Borrowed Aaron's xtracycle for a little while. He's changed out the frame since I last rode it. Now it's a smallish step through frame. Aaron's not exactly a smallish guy but it seems to work out ok.

It's nice having a cargo bike again.
After my usual stroll through the job boards (to find a job so I can buy my own cargo bike). I decided what I really needed was a ride on the cargo bike, preferably carrying lots of shit. Soo sent me down to Costco to buy 36 rolls of TP and a couple gallons of milk. So I rode the 5 or 7 miles down to Costco and retrieved said items. Felt pretty happy riding home.

Once everyone got home, we decided to ride bikes down to the pizza place for dinner. Since I had ascertained this morning that Bree really likes riding on the deck of the xtracycle, she rode with me. Chris rode his own bike. We had fun, although we did ride on the sidewalk rather than muck around with the traffic on 527. I'm comfortable in traffic, even with a passenger, but I wasn't quite ready to introduce Chris to traffic yet.

Cycling as addiction

This thought can't be original.

I ended up going riding after my whiny post yesterday. About 35 miles in the general direction of and around Redmond. Meh was no longer the word of the day. Legs felt snappy. Life was good.

Soo took the kids riding today. She towed Bree in the trailer while Chris rode his new used bike. He got a schwinn bmx thingy with gears and brakes. Scared the shit out of him until he got used to the brakes. Today he wanted to go ride bikes.

Brainwashing. Start early.

My riding today consisted of a beer run down to central market. Praise the Carradice Super C and pass the beer. But after yesterday's ride, a little recovery was good. I spent part of today following up on job interviews and trying to find more.

Then I ogled pictures of Xtracycles. Still don't have one yet. But the Dear Wife now believes it is an important piece of gear for me to have. Now all I need is the money...

So I'm riding back with a large saddle bag full of beer and Adam Ant in the headphones and I got to thinking.

I remember back when I got my license. That was cool, but it doesn't quite match up to the feeling of that first time you grasp how cool it is to have a bike and all the freedom that comes with it. It might be that the bike generally comes before the bike becomes before the DL, so you are younger and all that.

However, I also remember how Soo acted when she first brought her Rodriguez home and commenced to riding a bike that fit her properly. A minor life altering moment, but a mind altering moment nonetheless.

Drug addicts talk about the virgin high. Maybe there is such a thing in cycling.

meh. Just fucking meh

Meh.

That's about the limit of my emotional response to anything today.
Maybe a bit better than the general black funk of late, but not I'm not exactly exuberant right now.

Once the wife gets back, maybe a bike ride will make me feel better.

Plus ca change... plus ca change

According to my posty thingy, the last time I wrote anything in here was July 2, 2007.

So. where am I now?
Sort of where I was the last time I wrote anything. Unemployed. Again.
But things are a little different now.

I'd been having some questions about whether the ways that I made my livelihood were really all that good. High stress job with lots of conflict. Very money centered. The situation sort of resolved itself by my getting fired. During the whole "sorry sean, you just aren't a good fit..." talk, I found myself being remarkably calm.

I wasn't able to do a repeat of last time and find a new gig in 17 days. I'm hoping to get an offer next week sometime. Going on six weeks now.

But, I've been put in another situation. Move back to oregon (one of my potential jobs is in Oregon) or leave the Guard. Why? My long-suffering wife wants to go back to school. Very few day care options, particularly when I have drill weekends, get mob'd, etc.

I was pondering all this tonight and I realized that a big part of my identity has or may be aken from me. Life is always right in the end so we'll see how that goes.

Let's see if Jill reads this

I was browsing Jill's blog today. She was talking about her new cat named Momo.

My son (the younger boy spawn) is a big fan of Avatar the Last Airbender on Nick. So, I know about these things. Also, I'm a damn grown-ass mangeek who still watches cartoons.

Aang (the aforementioned avatar) has a pet winged lemur named Momo, comme ca:

so that, ma petite jillita, is what you named your cat after.

AT this year. 'splosions. gobs of rounds. 900 105mm rounds in about 36 hours of shooting. sun burn. burned hummvees (note: that's eight inches wide and two increments deep, not a shitload of increments deep and a shitload of increments wide).

work. dig holes. put dirt and concrete in holes.