Today's ride to work

AM Climate: Cool and Crisp
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:01
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.29 MPH
Max Speed: 40.5 MPH

I hit a bump and my lunch box came off the bike, went into the rear wheel, and broke a spoke. It's always something.....

PM Climate: Cool
Distance:14.93 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 0:57:11
Total Time: 1:05:00
Avg Speed: 15.67 MPH
Max Speed: 35.8 MPH

Sunday Stuff

This past week, in advance of Hurricane Isabel, I installed downspouts on the garage's existing gutters:

Today, I covered the sump pump pit with plastic sheeting. That way, the dehumidifiers don't work so hard to dry out the basement only to have the water in the sump pit evaporate and increase the humidity.

I also fixed my recumbent's rear shifter cable - hopefully biking will resume this week.

In the afternoon we went to Van Saun Park (link, link) in Paramus, NJ. Mechel fell asleep on the way there, and refused to wake up, and it was late in the day anyway, so we decided to let him sleep. Trish and I briefly checked out the train, the zoo, the carousel, and the pony rides. We'll have to come back when Mechel is awake!

1/2 sec, f10

1/4 sec, f10

1/8 sec, f10

Wake up Mechel, you're missing all the fun!

...When we got home, he was still sleeping. You snooze, you lose!

Here She Comes!

Here comes Hurricane Isabel - looks like it will pass about 160 miles West of our house (indicated by the red dot on the map) early Friday morning:

Am I supposed to cover my windows with plywood? It will have been over land for about 300 miles before it passes by, so it should have calmed down somewhat, but then again "calmed down somewhat" from 155 MPH winds might still be pretty nasty.

Weekly ride to work

I attempted the weekly ride on Wednesday (9/10). 3 miles into the ride, my rear shifter cable broke, reducing my 21 speed recumbent to a 3 speed. I rode and pushed my way home and Trish drove me to work. We think that in the confusion the garage door got left open after I stowed my bike, so we were gone from the house for an hour with the garage unlocked. You wouldn't think that would have been a problem, but....

We've been robbed!

When we came home from buying our van last night (Wed. 9/10/03), our low voltage path lights were not working. Tonight they were also not working, so I went to check the lights in the garage - I assumed the breaker for the outsie power had tripped. When the lights in the garage came on, I thought I had perhaps unplugged the transformer for the lights. I noticed there was nothing plugged in, and if fact the cord that comes in through the garage wall was missing, so I walked around the side of the house and discovered that the transformer had been torn off the garage's exterior wall, and the wires leading to the sidewalk lights had been cut. Grrrr. Trish will call Ruud to find out how much the thing costs, and then she'll call the Police. We suspect it was stolen while Trish was taking me to work on Wednesday - when she came back, the garage door was open. Perhaps it had been left unlocked when I put my bike away that morning? In any case, we were only gone an hour. Oh well.

Our new people-mover

Our new 2003 Honda Odyssey LX:

...We bought it yesterday in Queens. We used the Motley Fool car buying method with great success!

More insect pictures

When we got back from the hike, there were all sorts of insects on one of the plants in our garden:

Hiking in Monsey Glen Park

We went hiking today in Monsey Glen Park. The whole hike was not more than a mile. Mechel hiked about 75% of it himself - his first hike!

I climbed up to the old Consolidated Rail railroad track - its still there, but not in use. I'm tempted to build a rail bike....

Last Sunday....

Last Sunday (Aug. 31st) Mechel and I pulled out the dishwasher to fix the X10. It turned out that the dishwasher supply line connector was leaking a bit, so we tried tightening it up:

To Bee or not to Bee

I took this picture on August 7th:

Here it is after a little PhotoImpact magic:

Today's ride to work

AM Climate: Cloudy and very humid (blech!)
Distance: 14.91 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 50:14
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 17.81 MPH
Max Speed: 43.5 MPH

Excuses for poor performance: Brake rubbing on rear wheel (grrr..), Bad weather, wet roads, bad luck with traffic lights.

PM Climate: Cloudy, hotter and still humid
Distance: 14.88 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 56:53
Total Time: 1:03:22
Avg Speed: 15.70 MPH
Max Speed: 37.4 MPH

Folly. Utter Folly.

Today, I received this E-mail regarding my online account application at Washington Mutual:

Date: 9/3/03
From: response@wamu.com
Subject: Re: DDATypeAccount
September 3, 2003

Dear Ben:

We're sorry we are unable to open a new account online for you
at this time. Our decision is based on information we received from
Experian, a consumer-reporting agency. There are discrepancies with the
date of birth provided on the application.

So here's my question: If I mistyped my birthdate (among the many pages of information I was required to enter) why not call to confirm the information? I guess if you mis-enter one piece of information, you have to start all over again. That's just plain silly.