This is mostly for those who aren’t local; a couple pictures of the snowstorm we had recently, which I forgot to post earlier.

Also, I’ll be out of town this weekend and part of next week. I’ll try to queue up some posts so I don’t skip any, but don’t kill me if I miss a day

So, remember how I bought a bike the other day? I haven’t even been able to take it for a test ride yet.

On Friday night, when I actually bought the thing, I neglected to buy an air pump for the tires. So, after spending all that time fiddling with the shifter adjustments, I couldn’t even take it for a real ride to see if I got it right. No big deal, though, I figured I’d just get one the next day.

So, on Saturday night, I went to Wal-Mart and bought what I thought was the best pump they had. I brought it home, and immediately had a very difficult time getting the nozzle seated properly on the valve. It took about ten minutes to even get it on there in a way that allowed air to go into the tire. So, I started pumping up the front tire, and it seemed to take a very long time. Oh well, it must just be a smaller-capacity pump than I thought. I inflated the tire to about 60psi (max on these tires is 70, and I’m heavy), and when I gave it the last pump, the innertube exploded. Quite loudly. I have a hard time believing that it could do that at a relatively low pressure like that, and my pump was a royal pain anyway, so I decided to take it back and get another one.

I returned to Wal-Mart to exchange my pump, and brought the valve stem from the dead innertube with me to make sure that my next one would be a proper fit. While in the bicycle section, I noticed that they have a much bigger selection of innertubes than I thought, so I figured I’d go ahead and get one. I didn’t know the exact size, because I hadn’t planned on getting one at Wal-Mart, but they seemed to be pretty universal, so I grabbed a 26×1.75-2.15″ (biggest they had, since they’re big tires) as well as a nice mini-pump that included a frame mount.

Upon returning home, I started to replace the tube on my front wheel, only to find that the old one was 26×2.3″. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about bikes, or innertubes, but I really didn’t want to find out the hard way that .15″ makes a difference. So, I didn’t even bother unboxing it. I turned my attention to my rear wheel, and noticed that the valve stem had gone sideways somehow. Despite my best efforts to re-align it, it wouldn’t budge, so I took the tire off of the wheel, rotated the tube, and re-seated the tire. Yay. I started inflating it, everything was going peachy, except that, as the tire became more firm, the gauge on the pump continued to read 0. Great. I inflated the tire to a point where it didn’t collapse when I sat on it (no clue what that point is), and decided not to bother returning the pump. I want to get a real compressor here at the house at some point anyway, and if it acts properly inflated, what do I care about the number?

So, I went to Wal-Mart for the third time that night, returned the innertube, and called it a night. I want to hit a bike shop soon anyway, I’ll just get it then.

I was going to do it today, I even got up bright and early for a change, only to find that over the few hours of sleep I got, the rear tire had completely deflated. Apparently, I punctured the tube in the process of trying to fix it. And now I have to deal with the god-awful process of removing and re-installing the rear wheel in addition to replacing two innertubes. That kinda killed my motivation to actually do anything with it, so I went back to bed and slept through the day. Screw it.

Oh, and the pump I got, with its handy-dandy frame mount? It requires built-in water bottle holder mounts, it’s not the clamp-on style, and my bike doesn’t have those mounts (yay for weird frames). So I can’t even mount the thing.

I know it’s been way too cold to ride anywhere lately, but I wanted to at least take the thing around the block a couple times, ya know? I didn’t buy it to decorate my living room, and since I haven’t actually ridden a bicycle in over nine years, I wanted to get a feel for it again before it gets warm and I get the urge to go on a long ride.

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So, I received my paycheck in full the other day, and cabin fever is really killing me. I need to get out and do something, and it’s too cold for hiking. I’ve been considering taking up bike riding again, for the first time since I got my driver’s license, so while I was doing my shopping at Wal-Mart last night, I bought a bicycle.

Yes, it’s a Wal-Mart bike. No, it doesn’t suck, I rather like it, despite the fact that it took me three hours to get the shifters adjusted to my satisfaction

It’s a 26″ Mongoose aluminum mountain bike, full suspension front & rear, 21-speed, with front disc brakes. Overkill for street riding, but I’ve always thought full-suspension bikes were neat, and I’d like to have the option of trail riding.

I need to hit a bike shop sometime too, I need a good helmet and a speedometer/odometer. And, once I get a new job, I’m replacing those god-awful twist shifters. Always hated those stupid things.

So, yeah. Hopefully I’ll keep up with this

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Also, after getting tired of jolting myself with static on cold, dry nights like this, and jolting my laptop a couple times, I now have old computer power supplies scattered throughout my office, in places where I’m likely to jolt sensitive electronics if I don’t discharge onto something safe first. They add clutter, but they also give me a safe discharge point without making my hand tingle like when I touch light switches. One of these days, when I own a house, I’m going to have a grounding pole with non-intrusive grounding points throughout the house

Despite my efforts to the contrary, I had a really crappy day today.

Things started out just peachy; I saw how pretty the sky was, and I was up earlier than usual, so I decided to go off-roading and take autumn pictures of the forest. I’ve been itching to do that for a few weeks now, and I recently got a polarizing filter for my camera that I wanted to play with. I borrowed mom’s Blazer (my Rover is out of commission, currently), grabbed my gear, and headed for the mountains, taking lots of pictures.

Now, my mom’s Blazer isn’t as capable off-road as my Rover, but it does pretty well for a vehicle that was largely purchased by soccer moms. However, the trail I chose (selected for the greatest number of beautiful photo-ops) was rougher than I remembered, and it was a nerve-wracking experience to go down it without pulverizing the truck’s suspension. I thought I was ok at one point, but I encountered a rock that I just couldn’t get over. So, I had to go back down the trail, which involved driving over obstacles on a steep slope in reverse for over a mile before I could find an area wide enough to turn around in (these are mountain trails, where the road is narrow, and bordered by a cliff on one side, a sheer slope on the other). By the time I got back to the smoother area of the trail, I was a ball of nerves.

About that time, I realized that all the pictures I’d taken would probably be useless. See, my camera, despite being expensive and high-end, has ridiculous sensor noise. In order to take anything close to SLR-quality photos, I have to keep the ISO set to the lowest possible setting, 80. Above that (even 100), the pictures are unusable for anything bigger than 1024×768 images on my website. Now, this normally isn’t a problem, except that the Obama rally was last night, and I photographed it. An ISO of 80 is pretty darn difficult to work with in anything other than bright daylight or still-life, so I set it to 200, the maximum possible setting that doesn’t make the pictures look like they came from a 1st-gen camera-phone (400 looks grainier than Polaroid film, and 800 looks like analog TV with bad reception). Since those pictures weren’t great anyway, and they were just going on my website, it wasn’t a problem there, but I forgot to change it back to 80 when I started this journey. So, the first 150 pictures I took were probably going to be crap. It’s ok, though, the sun was still out, and I had to go back the way I came, so I’d just take a new set.

Then, the low fuel light came on. Great. I’m on a road that’s not even on the map, 20+ miles from the nearest gas station (almost 30 to the nearest station that takes credit cards, and I had no cash), and I now have to drive for 10 miles in first gear with the idiot-light on. I got out of there as fast as I could, and I just barely made it to the credit-card-accepting gas station. But, between the unexpectedly small gas tank, and the heavy clouds that rolled in on the way down the mountain, I only got a few retakes, and they weren’t very good.

I thought about going back up, there’s another spot I could go to that doesn’t require 4WD. But, at that point, I was down to my last hour of daylight, and with the events of the day, I just wanted to go home. It was freezing cold anyway, which made it hard to be out of the car for very long, and that kinda kills the point of going out there in the first place. I go to the mountains to commune with nature, to be alone in the forest, just me and the trees for miles in every direction. When I have to bundle up to keep from freezing, and/or get in the car every 5-10 minutes, it’s just not the same experience.

So, I came home, and checked a forum I admin, to find a bunch of members whining over a policy decision I made this morning. Normally not a big deal, but I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with that bullshit, so I took care of it much more aggressively than I normally would. It feels good to do that every once in awhile, as much as I hate to admit it.

Then, I checked my email, to find that my laptop can’t be shipped any sooner than November 19th because the display bezel is backordered. I spent $4500 on a laptop, and they can’t ship it for a month because of the $20 piece of aluminum. That pissed me right the fuck off, so I tried to call the helpful lady I talked to before, figured I’d see if the extension she gave me works. It went to her voicemail. It seems that the hours in her email signature are the hours for the call center, not the hours she’s actually there. I tried to transfer to a manager, no luck; their system is broken, and the extension that the voice prompts claim will send me to a supervisor is a circular redirect. So, I called again, and jumped into the queue this time. I spoke to someone who seemed fairly helpful at first, until she found out that I already had a case ID in the system. Because of that, the only person I could speak to was my agent, or her supervisor, neither of whom were available. I responded via email, hoping that it would be received by someone.

And, on top of all this, I’m way behind on hours at work because I’ve spent too much time finishing up leftover work from when I was unemployed for so long. And because I utterly fail at time management, but I’m getting better at that. I’ve just been trying to do too much.

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Pictures from the Obama rally, New York, and today’s adventure (what few usable ones there are) will be coming soon. For now, I just needed to vent, because this day fucking sucked.

In the area I live in, the weather this time of year is best described as “oppressive”. Temperatures in the 90s (fahrenheit), humidity 90% or higher, and lots of direct sunlight, a combination that makes it impossible to do anything outside and enjoy it (for me, anyway). So, when we get a day with temperatures in the 70s and unusually low humidity, I try to take the opportunity to get out and enjoy the nearby wilderness I love so dearly. And today was just such a day, and a complete surprise to me.

My original plan was to go swimming at a lake I like, since I figured it would be nearly deserted on a Thursday morning (I don’t like swimming around people, especially when I go alone). Unfortunately, the place was as crowded as any urban oceanfront, so that idea was out. I started driving aimlessly for awhile, when I realized I was halfway to one of my favourite spots in West Virginia, Seneca Rocks. So, my plans for the day turned into impromptu hiking.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, Seneca Rocks features a very intense hiking trail leading to an observation platform. The trail rises almost 900 feet in less than two miles (I can’t find exact numbers on the length of the trail). So, for someone like me who works from home and doesn’t get out much, ascending the full length of the trail is a major accomplishment. But, I did it, and got some great photos along the way. I even got to take a picture of an elderly couple posing in front of the rocks, and I lined it up very nicely. Hope they approve!

On the way out there, I also found a beautiful scenic overlook that I never really knew existed. I need to drive out there more often.

Here are the photos I took on this trip (click the thumbnails for full albums):

I’ve been trying to get out on the trails as much as possible, it always makes me feel so awesome, but life doesn’t want to cooperate sometimes. The combination of reduced sunlight and my weird sleep schedule makes it nearly impossible to just hop in the truck on a whim, since it’d be dark by the time I reached the base of the mountain.

Additionally, my truck’s perpetual engine problems have gotten worse, I had to drive it for work a few days ago because of snow, and it was making some disturbing engine sounds after awhile, I don’t even know how to describe them. My attempts to find a Land Rover specialist that isn’t the dealer have been unsuccessful so far, and if I manage to get a decent job in the near future, I might just pick up another one and start from scratch, now that I know what to look for and what to do to it. At this point, I just hope it will get me where I need to go the next time it snows, because my car’s snow-performance is downright abysmal, even with nice new super-grippy tires all around (it’s much better in rain, though!).

Yesterday, Fox was searching Ebay for Rover parts, and found a cruise control diagnostics book. Having been through a lot of work trying to fix my cruise control in the truck, I figured this was worth the $10 the seller was asking for it. So, I ordered it. In the past, every time I buy (or receive) something for the truck, something else breaks. Based on this track record, going off-roading shortly after this purchase was probably a bad idea. But, I’ve had cabin fever from not off-roading for many many months now, I fixed a bunch of stuff on the truck, and dammit, I wanted to hit the trails! Fox wanted to come as well, so we hit the road this afternoon to check out a new area.
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Damn, what a weekend! I went to the Fall Fur-B-Q in Pittsburgh, and had a hell of a time as always.
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Yesterday afternoon, being bored out of my mind and stuff, I decided to take the Rover off-roading for the first time since I’ve gotten it, now that the transfer case lever works like it’s supposed to.
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Something actually happened today! Woohoo!

I got a lot of running done in the early afternoon, deposited two paychecks, put gas in my car, etc. I was about to go get a disposable camera for my planned trip to Skyline Drive, but then I got a better idea and called trlovejoy, my uber-talented photographer friend. Much to my suprise, he said he could come up with me, and he could bring his digital camera! So, off we went, and after grabbing a late lunch, I decided to let him drive my car (which is a rare honour, NO ONE drives my car ) up the mountain. He’s a much more careful driver than me :-P. I bought a one-year pass to Shenandoah National Park, which is actually more like a 13-month pass since it expires 9-30-2005. We headed south first, towards Loft Mountain, where I spent much of my childhood camping, and stopped at almost every overlook along the way, taking oodles of pictures. I need to take Skippy up there

We got to Loft Mountain, and I got some of the more specific shots I wanted for my Lupinia website project. On the way back, I got my keys and took over driving, and I was going rather fast (park speed limit is 35, I kept about 50). Saw a couple rangers go by, but none of them acted like they wanted to stop me. We went about 35 miles north of Loft Mountain trying to find the tunnel near Mary’s Rocks, but we ran short on time and couldn’t get up to it. We got a couple shots of Big Meadows on a whim, and headed for home. A few miles down the road, a ranger heading the opposite direction finally blue-lighted me and pulled me over. He gave me a written warning, but thankfully no ticket. I have the worst luck with cops on these private mountain roads, which is another reason why I prefer the western mountains. Those cops (if there are any) don’t give a damn how fast you’re going, as long as you’re in control of your vehicle. TRL had to be back by 8 to get to work, and I dropped him off there at 7:58.

Speaking of Lupinia, my domain is finally starting to get to DNS servers! Yay! I’ll give it ’til the middle of this week before emailing all the Fusiontech customers I’ll be hosting. The main site for the domain will hopefully be finished this week, I can’t wait to unveil it