Ready to Roll

OK, only 3 more days will spring break. Man, I've been counting down the days for a little while, but not all that seriously. This week comes and for crying out loud, as expected, the kids are (some) worse than normal... some MUCH worse. Yeah, I know, that's what happens the week before spring break, but honestly, TRUST ME, if you saw how some of the kids were behaving today, you'd give me a shoulder massage. Well, not ACTUAL violence, but I felt like some was potentially gonna happen. One kid will be staying home tomorrow for (one) telling another student "why don't you kill yourself". That's screwed up.

The good, however, was that I got the pole vaulters in the air a little bit yesterday. They are sorely missing access to a proper pit, and therefore missing the opportunity to ACTUALLY vault. This is a screwed up situation. I'm waiting to hear back on some used mats and access to the UVM pit over spring break. First meet of the year tomorrow and supposedly the coach at the home school will let us use the pit to practice after the PV event is done. That would be cool... assuming my vaulters remember to bring some poles. Heh!

I got the bike ready a week and a half ago for the spring release and today I finally took it out. Re-riveted the right can first. Believe it or not, the bike started first try with only about a second of turnover... amazing!! I'd take it to work starting tomorrow, but I made an appointment to get a chip in the Civic's windshield fixed, then Thursday I need to pick Karen up fro work... so grrr... looks like Friday will be the first chance to take the bike to work. It better be a fucking nice day out... hehe, but I'm also guessing there will be more heating over the next two days so the ambient temperature might be up in the morning, which would be nice. It's still chilly in the morning.

So, I'm ready to roll - roll on into spring break, roll on over the crossbar, roll onto the streets and roll away from 12 stress inducing sperm byproducts for a week.

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.

Solar USB charger... whatever

So I know I'm a newb with working with electronics, but still. I want a solar powered USB charger to bring on the hiking trip, but I refuse to pay the ridiculous prices for commercial ones. Last year I saw this: Build a solar iPod charger and only last week ordered the listed parts to build it, including getting a soldering iron, my first.

As you can see, it's not a hard project, relatively straight forward.
However, it doesn't work. I must have done something wrong, but frankly, I have no one I can ask for advice. The author didn't list any contact methods.

So, I've sent out a panicky email to the friend who suggested it and hopefully he'll have some clues for me. Since the hike is 5 nights long, I'm pretty much screwed in having some tunes to listen to while I read at night - which I need to drown out the snoring of other hikers in the huts.

Busy day

We were supposed to go hiking this morning with a friend, but he called at about 8:30 to double check, based on weather reports. They said it was a 40% chance for thunderstorms where we were planning to go, and at that moment, it was raining here... I hate to START hiking in the rain. We decided not to go.

I was sorta hoping to have a valid reason to not go anyway because I was happy to have a day where nothing was scheduled and I could get my wife to go out with me on the bikes for a ride. We did. It was relatively slow and relaxing, but it was a decent workout compared to hanging around the apartment. ;) On the way back we stopped off at the repair place and she left her bike to get a new gear shifter installed and a tune up. Hopefully she'll get it back soon. I'd like for her to join me in my workouts. She's no runner, but if she rides while I run, it'll be good. I'll also have someone to be my starter at the track for my timed runs.

We got home and had some quick lunch type food and I decided to play some more Wii sports. It still cracks me up that I can work up a sweat playing that game, but I love it.

I also finally registered in a straightedge forum I've been sorta checking out for well over a year. Actually, I had it in an open tab i my browser, and more specifically the main page... not the forum, but I had it there to make sure I didn't forget about it. My del.icio.us list tends to just be as convoluted as my regular bookmarks... thus the primary reason I rely so heavily upon session restore in FireFox. I also waited to join until I read a few posts about the brand of sXe supported there. Some sXe forums are adamant that in order to be sXe you must be in the hardcore scene, either listening to hardcore or buying it or going to shows... all due respect, but that comes off as just a marketing ploy to me. I tried to like hardcore. I found a group that I do like called Isis, but then I found out they are really "Sludge" more than hardcore... whatever the hell
that is. Anyway, they have a remix album that is totally ass kickin dark ambient meets hardcore meats I don't know what. And since they aren't edge, hehehe, then it's doubly pointless to point out as an effort to appreciate hXc. So, I tried... I don't like hardcore, I don't like punk... I just don't.

I also called Bob at Napa about the paint situation... grrr, Tuesday morning he said he should have an answer. I guess I'm slacking anyway, I still need to sand down some parts, especially the panels I let the paint solvent sit on too long and they got a little eaten up. GRR. I might have to bondo the indentations and such - quite annoying. I suppose I should to it tomorrow, but I need to get started on the computer room redesign.

Crap, and I didn't get in any violin practice time. YAR!!!

Isn't summer vacation grand?

Vacation Chris

Vacation Chris is the name my wife uses to describe me during times when I have no work commitments that are weighing my mind AND less distractions than normal. Often that persona is the sole purpose for getting out of town - meaning getting me away from my computer or other [feelings of] obligations for work or work related things.. I guess if I was a cell phone nutjob like most, that would also include shutting the phone off, but since I rarely talk on the phone, it's not an issue.

Here I am in Killington, VT, only a few hours away from finishing up the BEST [Building Effective Strategies for Teaching] institute. Yep. That's right. I'm on summer vacation and here I am at the end of 4 days of shop talk and education. Sheesh, really? It's actually been a good thing. I learned a few thing, but more so was reminded of the plethora of thing that have crossed my mind through the last year - my first year as a teacher - as well as hving some new ideas for how to run my class and for how we as a team need to make some changes at school.

But back to Vacation Chris. I need to figure out a way to do this at home... while here, I ran every day. My plan for summer is to lose some weight. 20 pounds would be the goal, but I'll take what I can get, as long as it's real loss and not that up and doy shit that happens all the time. I also read and played Lord of the Rings Online... most of what I had hoped to accomplish outside the organized events here. I half think not being at home helped, but that might be because the wife might have scheduled cleaning activities for me more often than I want (hehe, hi honey), which like a child I tend to fight, then revolt, then end up not doing anything productive. That sucks. Yeah, something I need to work on. Shhhh, you didn't hear that from me.

The week before this conference - or I should say the 3 week days and weekend after school ended, it just didn't feel like summer. I kept feeling the impending doom of this conference coming. More work! More school! More obligation. I decided a couple years ago that obligation is one of the things I despise the most. Commitment good. Obligation bad. Of course, the wife gets annoyed by it, but she's also supportive. This week she's also doing a conference, but she gets to go home after. The irony is that the weather here is less oppressive than there, so she's miserable. But I have called her each night - she likes that - and we IM'd a little bit as well. I will be happy to go home though. Just around a 1:45 minute drive I'm guessing.

Well, I'm home now... seems the hotel's connection dropped so I get fed up trying to locate a proper signal. I don't know how long the ride home was, I forgot to check my watxch when I walked in the door... but I'm home and it's time for the summer of Chris Part II.

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...