Fri, 26 Aug 2005

Tonight's run was a good one.
Not much of a turnout, probably because of last night's hurricane. But it was cooler temperatures, so I was running a lot better. The track looks just like last Friday. Perhaps I don't need to post the same track each week.

posted at: 20:33 | permalink |

Thu, 25 Aug 2005

Hurricane Katrina came by for a visit
tonight. The H4 schedule is every other Wednesday and hurricanes within 100 miles, so we were on. LD and P did a nice trail. At one point we were heading east on the new, not-yet-open Southern Blvd expansion. So we were running into a strong headwind, uphill (on the overpass) and into a stinging, pelting rain. Then the feeder band passed and the wind and rain stopped. But there were more feeder bands after that. Here's a satellite view of the run (from the GPS) and some photos of people. The people shots are really blurry, maybe because the camera phone was fogged from the AC.

posted at: 23:55 | permalink |

Wed, 24 Aug 2005

There was a naming run tonight.
Jerry got to spend some quality time on the ice. He and P-rick did a nice run, through the cemetery where Charles Whitman is buried (you know, the guy who shot 46 people from the top of the UT tower). Katie was there. A certain dumbass cut himself going over a fence. And there was beer at the end. Linda took most of these pictures with her camera phone. Good work for no flash in the dark.

posted at: 23:06 | permalink |

Mon, 22 Aug 2005

Rob came by to do his brakes tonight,
because they need to be done. I guess if you drive with the windows up, and the radio and the AC cranked all the way up, you can't hear the pads grinding. Here's a short text and photo essay on how to change the front pads on a 2005 F150.

posted at: 22:49 | permalink |

Sun, 21 Aug 2005

Linda and I went running in Palm Beach this morning.
Actually, I was running, and Linda was on her bike. It was really hot. Really, really hot. I guess we should have started earlier than 8:30 am. Maybe 5:00 am. I'm still having fun with the GPS/HRM, watching my heartrate go up and down, and the miles tick off. Here's today's track. We started just north of the middle bridge, and went up to the cut through the reef, and back.

posted at: 15:15 | permalink |

Another little welding project
for Bart. Putting mounting tabs onto a decorative grate. I didn't take any pictures until I gave it back to Bart. And I think the camera phone lens was fogged up from being in the air conditioned truck. So you can't really see the welds too well. But trust me, they look good.

posted at: 12:06 | permalink |

We saw Ken on Friday night
at Dave's Last Resort. Or as he is more commonly known, Porkchop. He looks good. And so does his wife. She's about four months pregnant. I don't think we'll see Porkchop back at ultimate any time soon. But he did seem interested in the Friday run. And the beer afterward.

posted at: 12:00 | permalink |

Sat, 20 Aug 2005

I changed the tie rod ends on the Cherokee today,
but it didn't help. I still get a clunk when I turn the wheel all the way over at slow speeds. It's a clunk like something is loading up, and then finally shifting, like a loose shock absorber mount. But the shock absorbers aren't loose. The logical choice is the balljoints, so I got new balljoints off eBay. But when I tried the test where you jack up the front end of the car, and then use a long pry bar to lift up the tires, there was no play in the balljoints at all. Anyway, I figured tie rod ends were relatively cheap ($160 for four, but one of the four is actually a whole rod) and easy to replace, so I did it. The steering is a little smoother. But I'll probably change the balljoints next.

I took these photos just to make sure I got the tie rod ends put back on right. You might notice the tape marked "left" and "right" in a couple pictures. When I unscrewed the old tie rod ends I counted how many turns it took, and wrote that on the tape. When I screwed in the new rod ends I used the same number of turns, as a crude way of maintaining the alignment.

posted at: 23:55 | permalink |

Good hash by CA and NGB.
Way to step up when it looked like it was going to be cancelled. We started up at Abacoa, on top of the parking garage near the baseball stadium. Here's the view from TopoFusion. Oh, and there's a cool shot of the sunset from the roof of the parking garage. If you look closely on the right side you might be able to convince yourself that you can see Princess changing behind the car.

posted at: 23:35 | permalink |

I mapped the Friday run
with my new GPS. I'm having fun playing with it. I get a distance of 3.93 miles, instead of the advertised 4.0 miles. I'd like to be able to generate a bigger map, so you can zoom in and see the route in more detail. I can do that in the TopoFusion mapping program, but I can't (yet) make a bigger map.

posted at: 10:06 | permalink |

Thu, 18 Aug 2005

GPS + Satellite imagery = cool.
I installed the software for the Forerunner 301 GPS and plugged it into my USB port tonight. It synched right up, and I was able to see last night's trail. Then I looked around on the internet until I found a page on undocumented features of the Forerunner. There was more info on there, like how to overlay a track on a satellite photo. I downloaded the demo version of TopoFusion, and within a few minutes I had a satellite view of last night's run. I annotated it with the start and end. There is also "Demo" on it, because I haven't bought the real thing yet. But I might.
Update : I added a map that is zoomed in closer.

posted at: 22:10 | permalink |

Wed, 17 Aug 2005

Instant gratification rocks.
I got my new Garmin Forerunner 301 GPS today. I just ordered it yesterday, and it was sitting by my mailbox when I got home today. Nice work, Anchor Express. You too, DHL guy.

So the Timex Speed + Distance GPS is now listed on eBay. It works okay, but the Forerunner has a heart rate monitor. I've never used a HRM, but lately I've been wondering if I'm overtraining. On tonight's run I was over 190 bpm. That just can't be good. I'll have to read the manual and make sure I'm using it right. More later.

posted at: 23:34 | permalink |

Tonight was a tough one.
We only did 4.95 miles by my GPS, but 0.5 miles of that was in knee-deep water, and a couple more miles were thick woods, where you have to pick your way through. Plenty of water in the woods, too. And the second half was in the dark. Waah. But it was fun. It was the 13th anniversary of the founding of the Hurricane. I guess it's been that long since Andrew. SMD and AI were the hares. Here's a shot of SMD just before the start. He didn't look quite that pretty at the end.

posted at: 23:16 | permalink |

Tue, 16 Aug 2005

Good run last night
down at Quiet Waters park, on the mountain bike trails. I forgot we were supposed to bring out own beer on Mondays, but my friends took care of me anyway. I didn't think to take any pictures until we got back to the parking lot, and it was pretty dark. Here's one of Reggie. It's kind of hard to make out, so I added some annotations.

posted at: 17:47 | permalink |

Mon, 15 Aug 2005

Phone lines are now open.
I've configured Pollxn so people reading this site can add comments to an entry. I'm curious to see if anyone cares.

posted at: 07:11 | permalink |

Sun, 14 Aug 2005

Today's bike hash was good,
even with the low turnout. First, a group shot. Then, a shot where Linda got to be in the picture. Then some lounging, a brooding IB, and finally a glamour shot of GH.


posted at: 22:50 | permalink |

I found this in my pocket.
I think I got it at the bike file festival, because I remember this girl handing out flyers there. It's a detailed comparison of the merits of cars and penguins. The author definitely favors penguins. I guess we should all start riding penguins to work.

posted at: 09:40 | permalink |

Sat, 13 Aug 2005

What kind of tool is this?
I was at Allen's house, and we were digging through his garage looking for a ball joint tool, and we came across this. It looks like some kind of press. I'll post to the rec.crafts.metalworking group and see if anyone knows. If they do, I'll post the result here.

Updated: It's a valve spring compressor for small engines. That's the answer I got from the rec.crafts.metalworking newsgroup. Those guys are good. Here's the link. The group also suggested it might work as a small universal joint tool, which sounds plausible, or as a cat carrier, which doesn't.
posted at: 22:32 | permalink |

I saw Sheldon
on Friday at the bicycle film festival last night. I brought the chairs and the beer, and he brought the pizza. There were some ... interesting movies there. Afterward he showed off his new car. See how I covered up his license plate in the second photo with my fingers so none of you reading this can track him down and find him?

posted at: 22:31 | permalink |

Thu, 11 Aug 2005

John sent me this photo today.
He took it with his camera phone in Orlando. In case you don't recognize it, it's a photo of the marker that denotes the southernmost point in the United States. Which is in Key West near the east end of Duval Street. So why was the marker loaded on a trailer heading north on the turnpike?

posted at: 23:56 | permalink |