October 2004 Archives

I ran a little late, and got to John's soccer game at the beginning of the second quarter. It turned out to be a fun game to watch. John's team was up by two goals, then got tied, then went ahead again, then got tied again, and finally pulled it out with a last-second goal. John played up on the right, and has a good left foot.

Next was Jake's game. He plays on a square field, layed out on a lawn-bowling court by the Senior Center. It sounds weird, but I really like it - the wide field keeps the ball in play more, with a lot fewer throw-ins.

Jake had a good time, and got a few good kicks in. I got to chat with Cary and Karen, which is always nice.

I had a use-or-lose vacation day, and felt like hiking. Carole and I decided to head up to Rubio Canyon. Six years ago, a small water company did some blasting (they deny it, but no one seems to really believe them) that covered waterfalls in Rubio Canyon with huge boulders. While the battle dragged on to get them to fix their mess, a big rainstorm last week somehow managed to dislodge everything, freeing the waterfalls. Only the last one is accessible without climbing gear. A hike on a new trail was just the ticket I was looking for.

The trail up the canyon is pretty much a mess. The trail begins between two houses in a steep residential area of Altadena, and the first 200 yards are standard fare. Then the fun begins. The trail clings desperately to the side of the canyon, narrowing to 8-9" in many places. There's a couple rocky ravines that are more than challenging to cross.

After a mile or so, the tail peters out and you hike on the extended stream bed in the bottom of the canyon, which is strewn with rocks from the wash-out upstream. We kept plodding along, hoping to find the waterfall, going just a little further. Carole took a break, and I did a recon around the next bend, and found the waterfall. I persuaded Carole to come up and join in the fun, and she made it easily, if not a little tired. The falls are about 20' tall, a huge granite block.

We rested for a half-hour or so, and I cut the inside base of my right index finger looking for a way up to the pool at the bottom of the falls. After trying a few different approaches, I chose the better part of valor, and just looked from afar.

The hike back was long, but uneventful. We met a few others along the way, all hoping to see the flowing waterfall.

The end of Cornwell's Grail trilogy.

Jeremy turns 21. Dinner with the Casey's. Holly and Ricardo.

Jeremy turned 21 today - a momentous occasion. Uncle Joe's for breakfast, per his request. Carole and Jason delivered lunch.

Sarah and I came up with a plan for a mini-surprise dinner. The rest of the family, plus my Dad, my sister Carole, and my nephew Sheehan, met at Olive Garden at 7:00. Sarah and Jeremy arrived a few minutes later, with Jeremy thinking it was only the two of them. He seemed geniunely surprised, and happy.

We had a fun dinner. Ricardo was our main server, with help from Holly. The manager stopped by the greet us, and we had some funny banter with him about the just-discontinued 'never-ending-pasta-bowl'. Jeremy got some nice gifts, and everyone had a great time.

Justin spent the weekend in Palo Alto with his CS buds, but was due back around 7:00am on Sunday morning. Carole was schedule to arrive at Ontario Airport around 8:40, and Justin told me he wanted to pick her up, so I planned on it, but kept flexible.

Justin rode back from Palo Alto in Razor's MB SUV, along with Damage. Razor had work committments, and by the time they got back to town he could only drop Justin off at Damage's house in Venice. He was wiped from the sleep-deprivation inherent in a weekend CS binge, but the best I could tell him was that I would pick him up after I picked up Carole.

I got to Ontario while Carole was waiting for her luggage. Normally I'd go in and help carry things, but I didn't want to pay for parking. She managed to get her big rolling bag out to the curb for me to load into the back of the Escape.

By the time we got all the way back to Venice, Justin was still wiped. It took a couple of trips to get all his computer gear into the car (along with Carole's bags).

Everyone was hungry, but Justin was in no mood (or condition) to sit down for breakfast. I drove up Pico looking for something, finally hitting a McDonald's a few blocks east of Westwood Blvd. I knew my karma had run out when the drive-thru guy asked me to park - it would be 4 minutes for Justin's breakfast burritos. As a consolation, they gave me two Baked Apple Pies, and told me 4 to 5 minutes; the added minute let me know I was in for a long wait.

After an illegal turn back into the parking lot, I noticed the large decaf I had ordered arrived as a small, with four Equals instead of sugar packets. I went in to fix that, and to hurry them along. When they handed a guy an order of 7 breakfast burritos, I kinda lost it, which did speed things up a little. I got two more Apple Pies for my trouble.

As it turned out, Justin said the burritos weren't worth waiting for. As he took a bite out of an Apple Pie, he said it was "A Hot Pocket filled with Apple Sauce."

Carol is away in Austin on a business trip, and is missing Sheehan's first "formal" dance. My duty as an uncle is to lend moral support and any necessary advice to the young man.

I arrived at the appointed time, to find Sheehan in his underwear. His date had called asking for more time, which fit in with his state of preparation. We solved a shoe problem, and I gave him four band-aids in case of blisters. We made sure he had his tickets, corsage, keys, and wallet, and a couple of photos were taken for Mom (see below). I advised him to not wear his coat in the car, to preserve it's neatly pressed look as long as possible.

Afterwards I heard things went nicely. I'm glad I could help - if even a little.

I called Rebecca at 9:15am to give her the obvious news that I missed my 6:30am appointment. She had lots of morning openings, and I told her I'd be there at 11:00. I actually got there about 11:20. The poke in my right ring finger hurt like a son-of-a-gun, but the rest of it went very nicely.

I watched 50 First Dates, which turned out much better than I dared to hope - cute and unpretentious. At 99 minutes, it was the first movie I've ever finished while donating.

A Tampa Tribune Editorial

We find ourselves in a position unimaginable four years ago when we strongly endorsed for president a fiscal conservative and ``moderate man of mainstream convictions'' who promised to wield military muscle only as a last resort and to resist the lure of ``nation building.''
We find ourselves deeply conflicted today about the presidential race, skeptical of the promises and positions of Sen. John Kerry and disappointed by the performance of President George W. Bush.

I went to the ALMS race in Laguna Seca on October 16, 2004 with my in-laws the Bowsers.

Here's some extras:

• Race Action, a 12mb QT movie;
• Screamers, a small WAVE file with the sounds of the race

The Weather Channel and the local paper both predicted continuing rain throughout the day. I decided to not join Cary, Chad and John for the Sunday races, to try to beat (most of) the rain. They left for the track round 9:30am.

I woke up with a bad headache, and kept waiting for the Neurontin to take hold, but it never did. While I waited, I hung out with the remaining Bowsers, which was fun. At 11:15am I knew I needed an Imitrex, so I packed up and headed south on the 101 looking for food to wash it down with. The best I found was a Taco Bell in Soledad, whose music was on too loud to make for pleasant reading. My earplugs kept the din down to a reasonable level. I'd had only sporadic rain since leaving Salinas.

I ate an overpriced, underwhelming breakfast at the diner next to the In-N-Out, and surveyed the weather situation. I was under-equipped for a late, cold night at the track, but didn't want to drop $75+ on a new jacket I'd hardly ever find an occasion to wear. I needed a JCPenney's for some warmer gear at a reasonable price.

I skipped my plan trip to the outlet store in Gilroy for socks, and headed straight to Hollister. SR-25 starts up just south of town, a fantatic 42-mile empty piece of heaven - triple-digit straights, long winding curves, and tight switchbacks. Very nice.

The worst problem this morning was the long slog back on the 101. I kept going past the motel to the mall north of town, and bought a long-sleeve henley and a long-sleeve crew sweatshirt, both in dark grey. On the way out, I stumbled on a Mervyn's, and bought three 3-packs of briefs. It seems to give me inordinate comfort to own lots of new underwear and socks, but I am what I am.

I met up with the Bowser's at the Motel. Their room shared those silly passage doors with mine, which Jake thought was really cool. The maids were finishing up in their room, so they dropped their bags in my room and we headed next door to the In-N-Out, for my third visit in four days. You can overload on this stuff - trust me.

My brother-in-law Cary and I had planned a trip to the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca for a long time - at least 3-4 months. Cary had gone to the race with his brother Chad a couple of times, and it looked like the perfect excuse to ride the FJR up the central coast - one of my favorite areas. By the time the final arrangements were made (after some drama from Sam's band teacher), the whole Bowser family made the trip, including Chad and his wife Amy.

BY REP. DOUG BEREUTER

It is a painful and disturbing process, but America and everyone involved in the decision-making and oversight process (the Executive Branch and Congress) must learn from the errors and failures related to waging a war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the aftermath of that war. The toll in American military casualties and those of civilians, physical damages caused, financial resources spent, and the damage to the support and image of the United States abroad, all demand such an assessment and accounting.

Certainly, all the facts and impacts are not yet apparent, and the violence and financial and diplomatic costs of the Iraqi aftermath continue to accumulate. However, I must give this account before I leave Congress on Aug. 31.

My sister Carol asked this question:

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the final inning and the score tied at 2-2, the batter hits a ball that bounces off the field in fair territory then goes over the fence for a ground rule double. What is the final score, and how many RBIs is the batter given?

My initial answer was a final score of 4-2, and the runner credited with 2 RBIs. We weren't certain, so I checked the official rules. 10.07(f) says only the winning runner scores, and only one RBI is given; the only exception is a home run. We both agreed that this may be correct, but it isn't right.

Here's the rule in question:

I watched In the Line of Fire, with Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo as Secret Service agents trying to stop reptilian John Malkovich's attempts to assassinate the President. Standard late-Eastwood fare - lots of action, a little less-than-credible romance, and just enough plot to keep things moving along.

I walked down to Starbucks again for an Americano and a muffin. A nice complement to the sunny but cool early fall morning.

catenary - The curve formed by a perfectly flexible, uniformly dense, and inextensible cable suspended from its endpoints. It is identical to the graph of a hyperbolic cosine.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

When does "on message" turn into "broken record?" When does "focus" become a case of tunnel vision? The answer to both questions would be "in the first presidential debate" held last week. These and other indications ought to be causing American voters to question the president's leadership.

The last day of September. I had to take a vacation day, or it would be gone forever. I like my company, but I'm just not willing to hand back a day of vacation.

The morning was cool and overcast. I took my time getting ready - a liesurely shower, reading the whole paper, and topping off the tires to 42psi. Instead of the planned 9:00am departure, I made it out at 9:50. After a quick stop for gas, I hit the freeway right around 10:00am.

Traffic on the 10 was heavy. I got off at Del Mar to get into the carpool lane, which helped a lot. The carpool lane on the 10 has a little motorcycle lane on the right side - very handy. After passing a few cars, I noticed another rider behind me, and I pulled left to let him by. He gave me a big smile and a thumbs-up on my bike - very cool.

It took too long to get through downtown, then longer to get to PCH. Mid-week traffic on PCH is better then the weekends, but it's still bad. The views are enjoyable, but not enough to make up for the traffic headaches. I stopped for breakfast at the Coco's in Camarillo, and started reading Heretic.

A quick pull on the 101 got me to the 33. It took a while to get past the towns and some RV traffic, but once I was clear it was smooth sailing. The 33 has a combination of slower curves and wide-open straights - very fun on the FJR.

About 5 miles south of Lockwood Valley Rd., the road surface gets snarky - long sections with 3-5 feet circles of crumbling asphalt. Unfortunately, I discovered this at the end of a triple-digit run, but the bike handled it with no drama. The bad pavement lasted for 10-15 miles, but didn't slow me down too much.

The last section of the 33 south of the 166 is dominated by farm traffic - farm tractors pulling huge trailers, and semi's doing their thing. A not-unpleasant diversion.

I turned east on the 166, then southeast onto Cerro Noroeste Rd. What a fantastic motorcycling road! The first 10 miles are newly repaved, with wide, sweeping curves, fast straightaways, and more curves. This is followed by 5 more miles of traffic-free motorcycle heaven. What a blast.

After many miles of biking bliss, I found some light traffic near Pine Mountain, but at that point nothing could wipe the smile off my face. Cheeseburgers at the McD's in Gorman, then I-5, with thanks for my V-1. Flow of traffic on the 210 is 80+ in all but the rightmost lane. I got home around 4:45pm, with 32 miles on the reserve trip meter.

A fantastic way to spend a use-or-lose vacation day.

I get to burn off another forced vacation day on October 15th for the ride up to Monterey for the ALMS race.

This is my 500th post.