Hiking the Sherwood Trail

Today we went to Harriman Park to hike the Sherwood Trail. We were going to go up to Pine Meadow Lake, checking out Geocache GCHQF0 and GC2226 along the way. However, as is always the case in Harriman, the map was so poor that we got lost a couple times. Thankfully, the book was descriptive enough that we were able to recover.

The first surprise was that the bridge over the Mahwah River was washed out. We looked around for a while and found a log to cross over the river:

Next we ran into a junction. I thought we were crossing over a jeep road associated with a gas pipeline, and that this was the continuation of the trail:

We didn't really want to hike through waist high brush, so we walked back down to the river. We met a fellow who told us that we need to turn left at the "T" and that is the trail (so what's to the right? Nothing on the map!). So, we went back up and kept going:

Oops, got lost again! We ended up going up the wrong way on the high tension service road. Too bad the map doesn't show the offset as the trail crosses the service road (Grrr!):

Baila woke up on the way down. She was looking around at the scenery, having a great time:

Even though we didn't get where we were going, it was a great first family-of-four hike. Here's a map showing our route, along with the two Geocaches and the lake:

Here's a close-up of our route. The spur on the left was our misadventure to the high tension tower:

Bird pic o' the week

With the new FZ1:

I knew it!

When I saw the Segway, I thought "Come on, how hard can it be?" After all, the guy who taught my Saturday Academy Robotics class when I was in High School, Neldon Wagner, had built a two legged walking robot. It seemed to me that the Segway is just a two motor platform with a gyro (like the one in the R/C helicopter I had in college) to let it know when it's falling over.

It's so nice to see that someone has demonstrated that that's the case.

Miracle in the Catskills

This bus carrying 49 Monsey Bais Yaakov girls home from a camp in the Catskills crashed on Sunday.

As the bus crossed the water main, it toppled over on its right side into the water below, causing the occupants to suffer serious to minor injuries. No one was killed. According to Sullivan County Fire Coordinator Dick Martinkovic, the crash could have been much worse. “When the bus rode over the top of the water main, it prevented it from plunging head-on at full speed into the creek, which would have caused a far worse crash with possible fatalities,” he said.

Wow, what a happy coincidence!

Last Sunday

Mechel and Yehuda and I went for a bike ride again:

...We went up to Pamona road, East to Route 45, South to Eugene Levy Park (where we played for 15 minutes), then home. 8.37 miles, 11.35MPH average.

Random pictures

Taken last week:

Sunday stuff

This past Sunday I went for a ride with Yehuda again. This time we took Mechel along in the Burley, so we covered our 6.85 miles at a rather slow 11.45MPH. We rode up to Willow Tree Park, and around the lake. Mechel liked that part. Maneuvering an 11 foot long trailer towing a 4 foot long trailer around the bike path was no easy feat.

Late in the day, we went to Kakiat County Park. I played with the new camera a bit. Here are some shots, including some long exposure pictures to give the water that blurry effect:

More FZ1 pictures

Mechel and I were out playing, so I took some more pictures with the FZ1:

The new camera!

My Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 arrived today. While only 2 megapixel, its 12x optical zoom with image stabilization gives it quite a reach! It was being closed out at $225, so I bought one to hold me over until the kind of camera I really want gets a bit cheaper.

Here's a picture of a goose, taken about 100 - 150 feet away:

Here's the center of the frame without resizing:

Not close enough? Maybe I'll put one of these expansion lenses on my "wishlist":

Excessive? Nah.

Update: Here's a review.

Parenting is tough!

Parents everywhere are facing tough questions regarding their teenage children. For example, this from an upper-middle-class couple in Minneapolis, MN:

"My 11 year old daughter is prostituting herself for mall money (guess we shouldn't have bought her the child-size underwear that says "eye candy" when she was 8 years old). Now that she's pregnant, why can't she get a "morning after" abortion pill without my consent?"

And this question from a couple living in a village in the West Bank:

"My 18 year old daughter was coerced by her fiance towards intimacy. Now that she's pregnant, should we strangle her with a cord like her sister, or douse her with gasoline and set her on fire?"

Scary, scary stuff.

Sunday outing

...We went to Rockland Lake. After going biking there, I decided it would be great to take the whole family.

The highlight of the trip was Mechel getting to feed the Swans. One got a little too close (and Mechel was putting the bread down on the dock, not throwing it like I told him to) and got Mechel's thumb along with the bread. Mechel was more scared than hurt, I think; it didn't break the skin.

Later in the day, I took my neighbor Yehuda on a ride on Rolling Thunder. We covered 9 miles at an average speed of 13.14 MPH.

It looks like I have an up-and-comming backup stoker if Yehuda isn't available someday:

This week's ride to work

I rode in on Tuesday. It was 55ish in the morning, and 65ish in the afternoon.

AM Avg: 17.83MPH
PM Avg: 14.03MPH
Overall: 15.70MPH

This is week #18:

Catch the (micro)wave

Got the two microwaves mounted on a temporary shelf until we get the cabinets:

The shelf isn't bent - it's the barrel distortion of the camera. Too bad PhotoImpact doesn't have a filter to correct it.

The microwaves are great - they provide truly variable cooking intensity (not the pulsed 100% intensity that cheap microwaves use to approximate a lower setting). Trish put some corn in and pushed "vegetables". "Fresh? Frozen? Canned?" asked the microwave. We told it canned and pushed start. The microwave has temperature and humidity sensors, so it runs until the food is hot 'n' steamin'!

Eventually it will look like this.