Bike computers & rides; cats & books
Feb. 18th, 2012 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aI somehow managed to reset my bike computer today. It was at 4,097 miles before I did. That's the majority of the miles on my current bike; they date back to Thanksgiving, 2008 when I bought the computer. So, something like 1,250 or 1,300 miles a year on average. I always knew I was going to have to reset the thing to get in a new battery at some point. I think now I'll try to time that for when I hit 5,000 total miles.
I may actually have to reset the thing again because it doesn't have my wheel size right and so probably isn't showing miles quite right. If so I'll have to add the 11 miles or so I biked today on to get a grand total.
(Finding the instruction book and figuring out how to do so is a task left for the user; tomorrow.)
There was no gaming today due to DunDraCon, so I took a couple of hours biking around a bit: from home out to Broadway Terrace, from there to the Emeryville Marina, from there to the Berkeley Marina, then back up into Downtown and finally home. It was a beautiful day for it, too. Though I had a jacket on when I left the house, for most of the ride I was fine with an overshirt.
While up at Broadway, I had lunch at Wendy's, something I haven't done in many, many years. It's really an attractive restaurant, though I was somewhat disappointed that all their chicken sandwiches were fried. But, the ambience, that beat any Berkeley fast food (and most other Oakland fast food) by 5x. Good french fries too.
I got down to Emeryville by a couple of different roads, the most notable of which was 55th. A lot of Oakland's bike routes are small, cramped roads that were chosen because they have little traffic, but really aren't ideal. (I think they go back to ideas about what bike routes should be from the '70s or something.) 55th instead is a very wide road (for two lanes) with very wide bike lanes too. Somewhat busy, but not hugely. Overall, a great street to ride.
The ride along the Bay was attractive, as always. When I got back to Berkeley, though, I started cataloging bike stuff that's still in process. For example, the eastern approach the pedestrian bridge is still under construction, which has been the case for 1 or 2 years. It looks marginally more done than before. I also noticed the open space southwest of the Ohlone Greenway, which is supposed to form a new branch leading to University (and one hopes places further south) is now all fenced off, as if construction might be going on there. Hopefully that means the asshole NIMBYs of the area failed to kill the new bike & pedestrian route.
I suppose I should report on cats too:
Cobweb is doing great. She acts 10 years younger. She's constantly begging for dry food and eating. Lots of talking and following people around too. I can't remember the last time I saw her so active and so healthy about food. I've been particularly enjoying watching her and Lucy interact when I put down dry food. Lucy sits right next to the dish while Cobweb eats, waiting patiently until it's her turn.
(As I write, Cobweb has just wandered in my office to sit on my new/old Noah's Ark runner, which means she's begging for more dry food to be put down. Good cat.)
Munchkin is turning around. She's a bit more active and not whining nearly as much. She is eating, but not a lot at once. It does seem to be improving bit by bit, however. I have every hope that in a few more days she'll be doing much better too, and that we'll thus not have cat tension while we're on vacation.
Vacation grows near, and I've put together most of my fiction items to bring.
For comics, I've been trying to amass a pile of great stuff that's highly anticipated and also sufficiently standalone that I won't feel like I want to read the rest of a series. Currently my collection of eight books is: The Thanos Imperative; Age of X; X-Men: Legacy: Aftermath (which integrates with Age of X); Batman: Knight and Squire; The Unwritten #5: On to Genesis; Avengers Academy: Permanent Record; Ultimate Doomsday; and Fables #16: Super Team. I've got some other comics showing up in a couple of days, and it's possible I might change a few of my books out for some of those.
For books I have: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson, and Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont. Of those I'm actually not anticipating Return of the Crimson Guard, as Esslemont's first Malazan book was violently mediocre. However, it's actually my emergency fund book -- in case I finish everything else I'll have a book I do want to read and which is long enough to keep me occupied.
Kimberly & I watched a rare movie today, Inception. Totally great movie. Christopher Nolan impresses yet again.
I may actually have to reset the thing again because it doesn't have my wheel size right and so probably isn't showing miles quite right. If so I'll have to add the 11 miles or so I biked today on to get a grand total.
(Finding the instruction book and figuring out how to do so is a task left for the user; tomorrow.)
There was no gaming today due to DunDraCon, so I took a couple of hours biking around a bit: from home out to Broadway Terrace, from there to the Emeryville Marina, from there to the Berkeley Marina, then back up into Downtown and finally home. It was a beautiful day for it, too. Though I had a jacket on when I left the house, for most of the ride I was fine with an overshirt.
While up at Broadway, I had lunch at Wendy's, something I haven't done in many, many years. It's really an attractive restaurant, though I was somewhat disappointed that all their chicken sandwiches were fried. But, the ambience, that beat any Berkeley fast food (and most other Oakland fast food) by 5x. Good french fries too.
I got down to Emeryville by a couple of different roads, the most notable of which was 55th. A lot of Oakland's bike routes are small, cramped roads that were chosen because they have little traffic, but really aren't ideal. (I think they go back to ideas about what bike routes should be from the '70s or something.) 55th instead is a very wide road (for two lanes) with very wide bike lanes too. Somewhat busy, but not hugely. Overall, a great street to ride.
The ride along the Bay was attractive, as always. When I got back to Berkeley, though, I started cataloging bike stuff that's still in process. For example, the eastern approach the pedestrian bridge is still under construction, which has been the case for 1 or 2 years. It looks marginally more done than before. I also noticed the open space southwest of the Ohlone Greenway, which is supposed to form a new branch leading to University (and one hopes places further south) is now all fenced off, as if construction might be going on there. Hopefully that means the asshole NIMBYs of the area failed to kill the new bike & pedestrian route.
I suppose I should report on cats too:
Cobweb is doing great. She acts 10 years younger. She's constantly begging for dry food and eating. Lots of talking and following people around too. I can't remember the last time I saw her so active and so healthy about food. I've been particularly enjoying watching her and Lucy interact when I put down dry food. Lucy sits right next to the dish while Cobweb eats, waiting patiently until it's her turn.
(As I write, Cobweb has just wandered in my office to sit on my new/old Noah's Ark runner, which means she's begging for more dry food to be put down. Good cat.)
Munchkin is turning around. She's a bit more active and not whining nearly as much. She is eating, but not a lot at once. It does seem to be improving bit by bit, however. I have every hope that in a few more days she'll be doing much better too, and that we'll thus not have cat tension while we're on vacation.
Vacation grows near, and I've put together most of my fiction items to bring.
For comics, I've been trying to amass a pile of great stuff that's highly anticipated and also sufficiently standalone that I won't feel like I want to read the rest of a series. Currently my collection of eight books is: The Thanos Imperative; Age of X; X-Men: Legacy: Aftermath (which integrates with Age of X); Batman: Knight and Squire; The Unwritten #5: On to Genesis; Avengers Academy: Permanent Record; Ultimate Doomsday; and Fables #16: Super Team. I've got some other comics showing up in a couple of days, and it's possible I might change a few of my books out for some of those.
For books I have: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson, and Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont. Of those I'm actually not anticipating Return of the Crimson Guard, as Esslemont's first Malazan book was violently mediocre. However, it's actually my emergency fund book -- in case I finish everything else I'll have a book I do want to read and which is long enough to keep me occupied.
Kimberly & I watched a rare movie today, Inception. Totally great movie. Christopher Nolan impresses yet again.