Some Weeks of Busy

So, long time no post. Last week we were in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, hiking from AMC hut to AMC hut. From the main road (I forget which road it was) we took the Valley Way trail to Madison Springs Hut. Pretty easy hike, but my hiking companion/brother-in-law kept getting sick. He began his kicking the smoking habit a couple days before, so I'm sure the withdrawals were hitting him. His father caught up (he was hiking with my wife) and he stayed with him while Karen and I finished up the hike. Slower than I like... much slower, but we made it together, which would be the last hiking bit we did together during the trip. Trust me, it works out much better that way.
Anyway, The next morning we (myself and two other guys that go on the trip as well, Colin and Lloyd) left in the rain and wind and fog to hike mostly ridge to Mount Washington. Whew, it was amazing. The wind was great. We were warned to not hike the peaks, but I wanted to. We didn't. I think we summited one though. We did go to Mt. Washington. There was about 20' of visibility. Who cared. We were completely soaked and just looking forward to a hot treat to eat. I had a turkey rice soup. It was pretty good. As I was hanging out near my wet bag, my mom showed up behind me. I knew there was a chance of her showing up, but didn't expect it, since the weather sucked so bad. She and dad took the Cog Railway up... couldn't get a refund or reschedule. The Cog is a scam man... super expensive. In any event, it was great seeing them up there so randomly. They live in Vermont also, so popping over to Mt. Washington isn't just a joy ride. There wasn't much time to visit, as they only had 20 minutes before the train left. Mom got a shot us dad and I (look right). (They drove up the next day, with nice weather)
After spending some time at the summit, the boys and I headed the 1.5 miles back down, to Lakes of the Clouds hut. Even though we spent a good deal of time at the summit, we were still the first of the Madison crew to get there.
The next morning we took off for Mizpah Springs Hut. We went over every peak along the way. It was nice weather pretty much the whole way. However, my solar USB charger didn't appear to build any charge in my MP3 player [more on that another time perhaps?]. We even took a few good long breaks, leap frogging a couple groups twice.
Getting to the hut as soon as we did gave me ample time to get some great reading in on Last Child in the Woods, a book I'm reading for a grad course I'm finishing up over the semester. I actually finished it that night and was able to start in on the second book I brought with me that's been sitting waiting for a read (and another on my summer reading list), The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, posthumously or course. [I'm still reading it, slowly. It's a quick read, but I'm a slow reader. It's a dark tale so far.]
Ahhh... we're not done yet. The next morning was the trooper of the mornings. The boys and I slacked getting out... actually Colin slacked, it appeared, and I was waiting for Karen to pack up for some reason. She's always among the last to make up her bed in the morning... not last in the group... last of all, hehehe. We got going down the Crawford Path toward Crawford Notch, where the boys would take off early for home and a tennis match. Within an hour of being at the cars, the rest showed up. Karen and company planned on driving around to the Zealand parking lot instead of finishing up the hike, which was another 5 miles or so, I think. I had no intention of driving around. Blasphemy!! So I hiked it alone to Zealand Falls Hut. I actually took the side path to Mt. Tom Spur, which added another mile to the hike. I do not know how I did it, but I had a quick hike of it, still whipping even those who drove over, except for a couple of them who were dropped off first.
The next morning I was happy to get going and get to the car... I drove to a store to get drinks to be ready for the rest when they finished. They were all filing in at the end of the trail when I got back to the lot - good timing. We went for lunch. Oh, and if you don't know the area... nothing is close to anything. We had to drive around to pick up cars that were strategically posted in multiple places and then join up for Pizza. All of this took nearly two more hours.

After a day or two of recovery at home, I finally got back to working on the bike repaint project, which I started the prep for over a week before we left for hiking. The repairs just took forever, and frankly, as of today, they are still being worked on. Most parts are painted, cleared and cut/polished. Niiiiiice. (Pix later). But dammit, I chose to re-repair the tank dents and the bondo mix was torturing me. Not curing fast enough. And the lower scoop/cowl has a huge crack I fixed before, but accidentally sanded right through and the fiberglass repair kit's epoxy mix sucks. I'd mix it and it takes days to cure instead of the hour or so it should take. So, tomorrow I might try to finish the last two parts, but it'll have to all go just right. Thankfully the paint gun and compressor are working out well enough. A little loud, but my downstairs neighbor hasn't been around when I'm working on it.

All this in a quick rush to finish up projects for school, starting work next week and more. A book report, a project plan, I need to lesson plan for one more class and a few more things. I'm excited to get back to school (now listed as a Special Educator in the books... and I just sent in the stupid fee for my provisional license/endorsement) but I'm not happy about my break ending.

Catching up on random stuff

Transformers - Karen (the wife) and I went to the Monday 8pm showing... a whole day earlier than I originally expected to be able to go. We liked it. I liked it as LOT. Sadly, half of my friends hated it. I'm a music snob, but not really a movie snob. I guess my expectations are more easily met. The trailers made me fear that the Transformers would be too clinical and frankly, robotic. Thankfully after more of them came into play, their personalities came out. Could have been more, but it was there, so I was happy about that. The efx were amazing. The 3d models were insanely good. I wish they gave us a bone with some slower transforming shots. For years I wondered about the literal transformability of them. Probably 5 years ago I started to try to model Astrotrain (my triple changer Decepticon) in Lightwave 3D. I gave up because I struggled with a few details and didn't have a lot of time for side projects that were only for experimentation. Anyway, it would have been a little lame compared to even the Beast Wars or Beast Machines models.Those Canadian [Mainframe] modelers know their shit.

Anyway. The only problems I had with the movie were more about the cinematography - the fast pans and fast action made it nearly impossible to really get to take in the transforming action. Seriously... when we were kids, wasn't that one of the most important points of the cartoons? "How did they do that?" I also detest gun violence... and there was just far too much rat-a-tat-tat machine gun action for me.

The picture above is the costumed I made for the annual Halloween party our friends put on. I spent a solid two days on those costumes after some initial work. They could be better, but I lacked the funding to do a few things I would have done better... not to mention ideas I thought of while making them. The picture also really sucks... I have some that are nicer, but don't show the whole top to bottom of them. Oh well.. perhaps we'll pose some day just for a better picture. :)

There... movie covered. July 4th comes with fireworks, but in Burlington they are on the 3rd. I like that. We go to them every year, and sometimes friends join us. This year, we joined up with Jonathan and his new girlfriend (yeah, I said it) Lauren, and her friend JP. I think we both think that his new girlfriend is a pretty good choice. I like her a lot. She's pretty young, compared to us, arguably a solid two generations behind us, but she's "older" than her age. I like that she speaks her mind, and actually has a mind. Much more so than the typical person of her age I've run into over the last 5-6 years. She also just fits in with the group easily... so I'm happy for him and happy for us. Of course, she goes away for grad school in a month. I guess we'll play it by ear.

I just realized I need to post some more politically oriented stuff. I'm getting soft and I wouldn't want the one or two readers I have to think I've lost my edge. ;)

Personal day

It's amazing the power school boards have over teachers.

Today I'm taking my first of two personal days from work. By the book, it's only supposed to be for purposes that cannot be normally handled during normal school hours. I believe most teachers use it as vacation days, which quite frankly is what they should be. Yep, we get summers off and a week here and there when the kids get the same vacations, but mandated vacations aren't the same as ones where you have a choice. Worse even, since we had 3 snow days, the school board decided that they'd add an extra day for students... wait for it.... wait for it...
and two extra "in-service" days for teachers at the end of the year. They sho' do want they money's worth huh? Even though there are more days built into the academic calendar than are required by Vermont requirements.

So, I'm home today trying to relax a little before the last 3 days of academics, a day field trip and a day of review, then 2 exam days, a make-up exam day (which I'm also taking off as a personal day, followed by a Monday and Tuesday in-service
... ultimately followed up by my summer vacation - though I'm doing a 4 day long conference a week after the first week of vacation, gar!!

I thus far accomplished getting my [rental] violin fixed. It's been making a major buzz when I play. Apparently there was some varnish in a very small place (the clef holes?) that was causing all the trouble. Phew. I tested it out when I got home and no more buzz. Yay!! Then I went outside and installed the replacement speedo cable that came in the mail yesterday on the bike. Took a little longer than I expected - the bugger is in an awkward place for reaching in. But it appears to be working. I noticed I need to replace my grips asap. I put it off for years, but I think it's getting down to goo now. Not nice.

I was going to play some Lord of the Rings Online today, but for some reason I'm just feeling like shutting down everything so I can play. I've got current work up for a web client (Quarterstaff Games) that I keep enhancing. Man, I hope they realize they are getting a killer steal of a deal for the energy and time I'm putting into this. I think it looks great and will be an awesome site. I'll link it when it's actually live.

I watched "The Hills Have Eyes 2" this morning. Creepy, but still not really scary. I have some other horror beauties awaiting, but they might have to wait until break proper or next Friday.

I also ordered the wife an anniversary gift today. She'll be surprised, but I still need to figure out the dinner or "day away" plan. 8 years kicks ass, but I just don't always get excited about anniversaries. My birthday doesn't excite me... I guess I'm just odd.

So, a day of reflection, correction, repair and despair... what a great personal day.

Oh, and yesterday my old partner in musical crime finally showed up again, married and thinner than I remember. Glad he's back in the picture. I hope his time away took at least a little of his religious illness away. Hehehe, hey Todd... I didn't see you there. Um, you know me...

No speedo

Hah, not specifically THAT kind of speedo, though I don't wear those either :). No, the speedometer cable on my bike sheared during my commute to school last Friday. Very little as surreal as riding about 70mph on the interstate and looking down to see the speedometer resting at 0mph. I reached over and tapped the case... nothin. I got to a straight away and stood up some to reach over and wiggle the cable. Nothin. Then I looked again and realized that the Odometer wasn't moving either. Doh!!

When I got to school, I pulled the cable off the from axle to investigate. After a little move this and spin that, I realized that the last 5 inches or so of the cable has sheared. I pulled it right out - that's not supposed to happen from that end. Yikes.

I called around all the Honda places and no one had a replacement that I could get before tomorrow (Thursday), so I put out the feelers on the VF500F yahoo group and someone said they had an extra. Unfortunately, it's coming from Toronto and won't likely be here until Monday, so I guess I should have just gone with the shops, but oh well, too late. Perhaps I'll be lucky and Canada Post will be early... hahahahahahahahaha... um, yeah, never. If I ever got annoyed with USPS taking a while, it's nothing compared to the snail pace of Canada Post.

Make note, this was the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend. Uh, yeah. I think you can figure out why that sucks... and if you know me already, why that makes perfect sense.

Of course, I could still ride the bike, but I feel unsafe not knowing better how fast I'm moving and I believe it might be illegal to be riding without the Odometer attached. So, better safe than sorry and I'll just hope for some rain to lessen the blow of needing to be on 4 wheels until the replacement comes.

On a similar note, another friend is planning on buying a bike soon (he does the MSF training in about week). I hope he gets a sport bike, but our other friend is hoping for him to get a cruiser. Whatever. I didn't, however, expect it to become a mean spirited discussion from him spouting stereotypes about who would want to get a sport bike. But I suppose I shouldn't expect much with respect to a reasonable discussion between a Japanese sport bike rider and a Hardly Davidson rider. I understand some of the thinking of the HD crowd, but it doesn't make it make sense. I remember whenI did my intermediate MSF training and a woman there was a HD owner (who wasn't licensed) being all friendly with me the whole day. Another guy there had his license and HD and was there for the same reason as me... to get some more guided experience. He ate lunch with me and we spent lots of the free time together chatting about stuff. She wasn't much different, jsut had her car during lunch so did he own thing. At the end of the day, he was shaking my hand saying how he hoped to see me out on the road with a big wave hello. She on the other hand as we were leaving the area and were stopped at the red light, rolled her window down so she could look over to me and shout something about my "lame rice rocket". I didn't get it then, I don't get it now... but I have a friend who I only went riding to Plattsburgh with last month kinda doing the same type of thing.

I'll get over it. Especially if the first friend ends up with a crotch rocket... muahahahaaaaaa.