Sunday, January 28, 2007
What a weekend
Something is trying to tell me that I should not own any material goods. At least not anything worth anything.
The weekend went like this:
I spent most of it indoors and/or on my own getting some valuable Corey-time. Which sort of work except for intense mental distractions. But that is another subject. Friday night I explored the cause for my stereo's one speaker output. I feared speaker but I should have feared more. Seems it is most likely the stereo receiver. Not good.
Then the iPod. Oh man. That poor things seems to really be on its last legs. Again, not good.
But it goes on! I spent much of Saturday afternoon/evening giving Seymour (my bike, the Schwinn) a much needed cleaning. The little guy sparkles now (who knew I could be so detail oriented for so long in getting the ratty chain uncaked?) except for one problem: he only has one wheel. I put on a new rear tire (and tube), a new seat and a rear luggage rack. He's gleaming! And my old seat? A good decade old? The mount was pressed into the seat itself. A bit old, to be sure. Then problems arose. While the rear tire was mounted without issue, the front tire is giving me no end to consternation. I've popped 4 tubes now, tho I'm almost a pro at changing the damn things. I got a patching kit today and patched them all. Two attempts to have a workable tire resulted in blown patches and major frustration. I'm done for the night. I won't be riding to work, as badly as I want to try out the new tires and clean chain. It's gonna have to wait. "An evening with John Denver" and some wine are making it all better.
On a positive note, I built up a scratching post/tower for Marvin and tomorrow I'll put on his shelf/viewing platform. He loves the platform when it's on the coffee table so he'll have to adore it when it's up on high, right? He'd damn well better!
Work tomorrow. Crap. I need to plan a long vacation, an international excursion fraught with excitement and all that jazz. It's been too long! A year ago I was on my way back from Central America. Can you believe it?
If I haven't mentioned it, as of last Monday I am IN my 30s. Seems more affecting that actually hitting 30 last year. Odd.
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The weekend went like this:
I spent most of it indoors and/or on my own getting some valuable Corey-time. Which sort of work except for intense mental distractions. But that is another subject. Friday night I explored the cause for my stereo's one speaker output. I feared speaker but I should have feared more. Seems it is most likely the stereo receiver. Not good.
Then the iPod. Oh man. That poor things seems to really be on its last legs. Again, not good.
But it goes on! I spent much of Saturday afternoon/evening giving Seymour (my bike, the Schwinn) a much needed cleaning. The little guy sparkles now (who knew I could be so detail oriented for so long in getting the ratty chain uncaked?) except for one problem: he only has one wheel. I put on a new rear tire (and tube), a new seat and a rear luggage rack. He's gleaming! And my old seat? A good decade old? The mount was pressed into the seat itself. A bit old, to be sure. Then problems arose. While the rear tire was mounted without issue, the front tire is giving me no end to consternation. I've popped 4 tubes now, tho I'm almost a pro at changing the damn things. I got a patching kit today and patched them all. Two attempts to have a workable tire resulted in blown patches and major frustration. I'm done for the night. I won't be riding to work, as badly as I want to try out the new tires and clean chain. It's gonna have to wait. "An evening with John Denver" and some wine are making it all better.
On a positive note, I built up a scratching post/tower for Marvin and tomorrow I'll put on his shelf/viewing platform. He loves the platform when it's on the coffee table so he'll have to adore it when it's up on high, right? He'd damn well better!
Work tomorrow. Crap. I need to plan a long vacation, an international excursion fraught with excitement and all that jazz. It's been too long! A year ago I was on my way back from Central America. Can you believe it?
If I haven't mentioned it, as of last Monday I am IN my 30s. Seems more affecting that actually hitting 30 last year. Odd.
Labels: bike, John Denver, old, tire change
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Engineers without Borders
Our social gathering was fairly successful. The tally for the night was 30 people or so, and all seemed to have a good time. My time there was longer than I'd anticipated; after 10 minutes I had said nary a word and was preparing to find a way to wriggle out. But then some energy kicked in, some great conversations started up (politics, travel) and I was hooked. Before I knew it 8:00pm had arrived and I bolted.
Today I went to a great lunch presentation at the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development. First of all, awesome building ("EcoTrust" building). Secondly, a great presentation all about how to get people to commute by ways other than singly occupancy vehicles and how we as sustainability professionals (I'm still a hack) can help increase non-drivership. And they gave us some good food.
Post-work I met up with my friend Steph (love!) for drinks and great catch-up conversation. Then we headed over to City Hall for BikeCraft, a bike themed craftish fair, with most offerings made with recycled material, many of those recycled bike parts. Good times. I love that City Hall opens up for the biker types, and kudos to Commissioner Sam for not only opening up his office, but hanging out and chatting with the crowd. Good times.
Now it's not even 11pm and I feel like it's 2am. Bummer. And I am not even packed! I was not able to get enough done at work today (because I left early) so I have to go in for a couple of hours tomorrow before heading out to Denver. Ah well. I'll get some sleep on the plane. Maybe.
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Today I went to a great lunch presentation at the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development. First of all, awesome building ("EcoTrust" building). Secondly, a great presentation all about how to get people to commute by ways other than singly occupancy vehicles and how we as sustainability professionals (I'm still a hack) can help increase non-drivership. And they gave us some good food.
Post-work I met up with my friend Steph (love!) for drinks and great catch-up conversation. Then we headed over to City Hall for BikeCraft, a bike themed craftish fair, with most offerings made with recycled material, many of those recycled bike parts. Good times. I love that City Hall opens up for the biker types, and kudos to Commissioner Sam for not only opening up his office, but hanging out and chatting with the crowd. Good times.
Now it's not even 11pm and I feel like it's 2am. Bummer. And I am not even packed! I was not able to get enough done at work today (because I left early) so I have to go in for a couple of hours tomorrow before heading out to Denver. Ah well. I'll get some sleep on the plane. Maybe.
Labels: bike, Engineers without Borders, sno-cones, sustainability
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Annoyance
Most of today has been spent working on writing up a grant proposal for my alternative transportation class. Which is all well and good except for the frustration involved. I've never written up a grant proposal, no guidance was given in class on doing such a thing (although ONE example has been provided to us). For this mythical project we are supposed to have all sorts of tangibles and other whatnot crap. It doesn't help that I waited until almost the last minute to start, it doesn't help that I am more detail oriented at this stage in life which doesn't help the mandatory feely-ness of the project (I just want to design the damn thing!), and my complete lack of motivation does also not help.
So I sit here, cursing my computer and anxiously awaiting 8pm so that I can take a break and watch the Simpsons
As tho this weren't all fun enough, my right wrist is still hurting pretty good from my bike crash on Friday.
Yup, that's right, I finally laid the ole Schwinn (Seymour) down. Or to be more exact, the old Schwinn laid me down all across the pavement. Not in the street mind you, but in the general vicinity of mounds of goose poop and in front of a strolling couple who were kind enough to look shocked and concerned until I finished glaring at the bike in consternation and remounted, saying "oops" as I passed them at which point they let loose their guffaws. Rightly kind folks. As tho the humiliation (yeah, right) wasn't enough, my last pair of jeans without holes are now holed up. Since this happened on the way back from my lunch break I was able to spend the rest of the day at work with a right leg covered in crap and my knee making overtures at bursting forth from the pants. Classy. That's me.
Back to the wrist. Both my calves felt as though they had been kicked, I had a couple of scratches but not much else. Until Saturday morning. I woke up with an ailing wrist that I'd failed to notice the night before (thank you Mr Guinness) which came in handy at practice, the first practice in at least a month at which I paddled the entire time (due to an abundance of tillers my services were not needed in the back of the boat)
The water was damn cold, in case you were wondering. At least the sun was out making for a pretty day
Stupid project. I have until Tuesday to finish her up. Let's not think until later about the Thai that I haven't looked at in almost a week (last class is tomorrow night). Wooha!
January is going to be full of so much free time for me!
(0) comments
So I sit here, cursing my computer and anxiously awaiting 8pm so that I can take a break and watch the Simpsons
As tho this weren't all fun enough, my right wrist is still hurting pretty good from my bike crash on Friday.
Yup, that's right, I finally laid the ole Schwinn (Seymour) down. Or to be more exact, the old Schwinn laid me down all across the pavement. Not in the street mind you, but in the general vicinity of mounds of goose poop and in front of a strolling couple who were kind enough to look shocked and concerned until I finished glaring at the bike in consternation and remounted, saying "oops" as I passed them at which point they let loose their guffaws. Rightly kind folks. As tho the humiliation (yeah, right) wasn't enough, my last pair of jeans without holes are now holed up. Since this happened on the way back from my lunch break I was able to spend the rest of the day at work with a right leg covered in crap and my knee making overtures at bursting forth from the pants. Classy. That's me.
Back to the wrist. Both my calves felt as though they had been kicked, I had a couple of scratches but not much else. Until Saturday morning. I woke up with an ailing wrist that I'd failed to notice the night before (thank you Mr Guinness) which came in handy at practice, the first practice in at least a month at which I paddled the entire time (due to an abundance of tillers my services were not needed in the back of the boat)
The water was damn cold, in case you were wondering. At least the sun was out making for a pretty day
Stupid project. I have until Tuesday to finish her up. Let's not think until later about the Thai that I haven't looked at in almost a week (last class is tomorrow night). Wooha!
January is going to be full of so much free time for me!
