The Tired Guy Bike

The one thing you have to have in California, especially on campus, is a bike rack and some kind of saddle bags.  Frankenbike lacked screw holes in the rear frame which required a special kind of rack which we were able to order from a place in Des Moines, IA.

Last September when I was here I had a trip to Des Moines scheduled for October so figured I’d just pick up the rack when I was there.  Short story, that didn’t happen.  Since Frankenbike sat in the garage all winter (I had no lock for it so it was start at home and end at home, boring)  Since I knew I was bringing Frankenbike back to his “Creator” for a visit I had Justan order the rack so it would be here when I got here.  We added the rack to the back, after our first ride to Berkley Dogs and Yogurt shop on Friday.  I now also have a U lock which came from the “Lock Larder”.  Monday we will head to the bike shop with a coupon to pick up two saddlebags which fold out to carry one grocery bag each.

Oh, My Aching Neck

I mentioned the other day my head being cocked back at such an angle to look around that it is totally uncomfortable to ride looking anywhere beyond 2 feet in front.  Which meant I could see the front tire and get a 10th of a second notice of any bumps or holes in the road.  Looking at the tired guy on the bike it was decided to add another piece to Frankenbike.  We couldn’t get this from a “series” bike shop as they would laugh us out the door, so we had to find something better than Walmart (which wouldn’t carry what we needed) we needed a place that wouldn’t simply shame us out the door if we asked for (a handle bar extender).

We had an “Every man” or woman or person, you get the idea, shop next to a Dick’s Sporting Goods (another place that wouldn’t have what we needed.)  After inquiring from the staff about the part we got a hasty, “Nope, we don’t have one”  To which Justan simply waited till the “Helpful” sales person had left and then he found it.  $30 for a six inch extension;  pricey, but when you need six more inches :)

Moon Park to Huntington Beach

This afternoon we headed for Moon Park to take it for a spin. I borrowed a bag for the ride.  Took along my camera wrapped in my long sleeve shirt for protection and cradled it in the bag.

There was a pretty stiff head wind the whole way to the beach.  When I was able to pass the lady walking the two dogs it felt like progress.  Passing the guy with the cane proved to be troublesome but I did pull even with him once.

When we got to the beach, (there was need of minor adjustments along the way, seat height and moved it back) I walked Frankenbike down to the beach itself and took the picture above with him all decked out.

The handlebar extender worked great and for some reason I’m almost convinced I might be able to ride this thing after all.  The trip home was much, much faster with the wind at our backs.  It took 1/4 the time to get back to the park as it did to get to the beach.  I’m sure it was the wind at our backs and not the thought of beer waiting at home.  Yes, it was the wind.

Once home it was into the kitchen to whip up some stuffed peppers and throw down a few beers while watching another three episodes of Firefly.

Frankenbike is resting and I’m about to do the same.  Tomorrow holds new adventures for us both.

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I mentioned on Friday a stop at the Yogurt shop. This too is a tradition. There are these coupons, and our family loves coupons. These coupons give you the first three ounces of yogurt plus toppings for free after that it is 35 cents an ounce. An ounce of yogurt plus toppings (It’s the toppings that will get you every time) isn’t much.

We have a running bet on who can get the closest to 3 oz. I usually win :-) I win because I don’t get toppings, that’s more a survival instinct for a diabetic than a strategy to win. But this time, I wasn’t even close. Double Dutch Chocolate and Creme Brule mixed and I went over 98 cents. Justan was next (Suzi was at “Revisit” day) Even with toppings he came in at 54 cents and a grin on his face at finally beating the old guy at “closest to 3 ounces”. I’m sure the three of us will end up there sometime today.

The Jar of Coins

I’ve been throwing change in a jar off and on for the past 10 years. Not so much as a savings plans as a reminder from my mom who had to keep sowing holes in my pockets made from carrying around too much change. While some people hoard food in their rooms, I like the jingle of coin in my pocket. As far as fetishes go that’s not a bad one.

So when the weight even gets to me I throw a pocket full of change in the jar. For the fun of it, I threw the jar in a bin of stuff I was bringing with me to Irvine because that’s the kind of thing you do on vacation, right? You go threw all the coins in the jar. Well, I didn’t go through the jar Justan did hoping to find more than the occasional wheatie. Alas, all he found was one Canadian quarter and a Polish coin that some how had been thrown in the jar.

I didn’t want to haul that jar of coin back to Tucson and I didn’t want to spend time putting them in wrappers and taking them to the bank. I knew there were coin machines, but I didn’t want to pay 6% to the machine for sorting.

Suzi mentioned that if you took the total as a credit you got the full amount and two places you could get credit for were Amazon and Starbucks. Two of my favorite places. So yesterday afternoon (when we were getting beer and pizza for the movie) I carted the jar of coin and began feeding it in the machine. This time I didn’t wager a guess, but since Justan had been the one going through the coins the day before I asked him for an estimate. $60 sounded about right and that made my choice easier. I didn’t want to put $60 on my Starbucks account; so Amazon got the nod.

It took about three minutes to gradually feed the coins into the machine. It was like watching a slot machine in reverse. Your total keep going up on the screen as the machine sorts the incoming coins. We were just over half empty when we passed $60. When we hit $100 there were still coins in the jar. Final total was $141.70. I was tempted to trow another 30 cents in from my pocket but decided against it; I didn’t want to be caught short on change in my pocket.

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Day two was a very interesting day here on the UCI campus. It started out with a drive through the campus to take Suzi to her lab. She wes involved in a “Revisit” day for potential med students. Ordinarily she would ride her bike to the lab, but today needed a special touch so off we went to the lab.

There are two things about the campus that I really love.

The landscaping is wonderful

Everywhere you look there are flowers, flowering plants and shrubs.  Roses are everywhere and there is no lack of color in any way around campus.  The whole places feels like a botanical garden without all the little placards.

The Architecture is amazing

There are common themes that run through out the campus.  Lots of glass, sweeping curves are arches appear every where. I would say the guy that came up with the new arch design for Mcdonalds must have been familiar with the campus here at Irvine.

Because it was “Revisit” day the inflatable anteater was brought out and blown up as a marker for where there was food and as a photo op location for those attending the days events.

The big guy was in need of a bath and a quick repair with duct tape on his tail needed a more permanent (and color matching) fix.  But being a dirty inflatable anteater didn’t quell any ones desire to have their photo snapped with his long snout in the background.

The Bike and my Butt

When I was here in September I bought a bike that Justan had built from parts, Frankenbike is what I call it.  (It is a term of endearment).  I’ve always said “No bike seat will ever fit my butt”.  And I was right, they don’t but my butt is learning to get along with this one.

I took it home in September, rode it around the block twice and parked it for the winter and spring and if I hadn’t brought it along with me for the summer as well.  After a few adjustments and air added to the tires we were off to Berkley Dogs for lunch and a quick visit to the Yogurt shop.  Getting there is pretty much all down hill so it gives me time to acclimate once again to seeing the world with me head cocked back at an angle it would only take after an auto accident.

The Movie

It is tradition to watch a movie every night.  Wreck It Ralph was the first night and Hotel Transylvania was the fare last night with pizza and beer for the Friday night food fest.

All in all it was a great day.

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According to my helpful Foursquare check-in updater it has been since September 2012 since I was in Irvine.  Well it didn’t put it that way actually.  It said it had been since September 2o12 since I was at McDonalds in El Centro, and The Golden Nugget Casino, and Dana Point Mcdonalds etc.  You get the idea, so it has been since September I was here and that is tooo long.

We have a Winner

The trip takes about 8 hrs. including a couple of short stops to win money at the Golden Nugget (Yes, I win) Not the kind of win where you put $40 in and Win $10  (net loss of $30)  No the kind of win where you put $30 in and walk out with $42.  Hey, twelve bucks is twelve bucks.

The biggest thing that has changed since I was here last September was the addition of over 100 wind turbines in Ocotillo, CA.  These new turbines have a very slick new design.

As I write this, we have just finished watching Wreck it Ralph.  Now it is past my bedtime.  So Day One draws to a close.

Tomorrow holds new adventures and photos.

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I quite enjoy a good no sugar added vanilla bean with 4 sugars. But I digress.

I love scrambled eggs with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and topped with cheese once out of the skillet. Red pepper slices on the side and toast. This is the one meal where I like toast. I don’t need jelly, or butter, or anything, just toast, dry, plain, BUT NOT BURNT.

Cooking Toast Way Back Machine

I woke up in Mejirodai, Japan to the smell of burnt toast.  Toast burnt so black you had to scrap down three layers to get to brown.  Morning after morning, no alarm clock, just the thick air of burnt toast to bring you out of a sound sleep.

The reason I was told, “The slots in the toaster are too small and the bread sticks.”  Hum, I wondered if there was a solution to this, especially since the bread was sliced by hand not pre-sliced.  The knife wasn’t sharp enough to make thin slices, the skill level of the slicer wasn’t good enough to make thin slices, whatever the cause, it appeared the slices were not going to get any thinner so the only resolution I could think of was to find a toaster with wider slots.

This was late 1971 in Japan.  There was a combination grocery/electronic appliances store.  My hopes of finding a wide slot toaster were not high; but I did.  There it was labelled as a toaster for bagels.  No, I didn’t know they ate bagels in Japan in 1971 either.   But . . .

With no language ability whatsoever I picked it up, took it to checkout and held out a bunch of money for the clerk to pick from.  Graciously smiling, I left the store with the new toaster and the hope of waking the next morning to NOT the smell of burnt toast.

Harold, (the master of burnt toast) smiled and I think was confused by the gift.  After all the old toaster still worked, why do we need a new one.  Simply put I told him I was hoping now he didn’t have to scrap his toast each morning instead being able to make “scrap free toast”.

I anticipated the next morning, I shouldn’t have.  Once again the smell of burnt toast filled the entire house.  I went down stairs to find Harold smiling and scraping the toast.  He really liked the fact he could make the slices thicker.  He’d never liked the narrow slots in the old toaster and the new one allowed him to make his slices of bread even thicker than before.

He smiled as he merrily scrapped the new thick slices of Thermonuclear toast.

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So what’s up Verizon?

Anyone else noticing the disappearing Verizon 4G network around Tucson?

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Honestly, that never made any sense to me.  You have to know how to spell the word to look it up.  So now that I’m not in school answering to a teacher I can say:

“HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO LOOK IT UP IF I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL IT?”

Google is my dictionary

Now I would say Look it up on Google, because that is what I do.

Here are examples of two words I tired to spell and spent hours in the dictionary “TRYING” to find  out how to spell them and gave up.

Newmonia

dislexia

Now if a teacher said “Look it up on Google” that would make perfect sense.

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Skeet, those are birds in the  bushes that you hunt with a brown paper bag, Right?

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So how did this happen. It was a progression that took place in a couple days in May. Yes, it is still May. I flew to Denver to present at a workshop and attend a two day conference held by a tight knit group of Real Estate professionals who are tech savvy in many ways. Out of about 30 people in the room I was the only old guy without an iPad.

Did that bother me? Not in the least. I’ve never felt I needed one of those gadgets to do the type of web development I’ve focused on the past couple of years. The evening of the first day the group gathered in the lobby at the Hilton before dinner. I think there were 9 people there and 10 iPads. All hooked to a central wifi puck that one of them carried in her purse. KK you know who you are.

The next day, I was saying “all I have to do is get three days past the gathering and I’ll be fine, no need to even think about an iPad.” Then, the next session was like show and tell. They went around the room giving a list of their favorite apps and why they liked them. The projector at the front of the room was displaying the apps as quickly as they mentioned them thanks to a moderator who certainly knew his way around the app store. Les that would be you.

Well, by the time they got to the back of the room and some 50 + apps were shared that changed the way these people conducted business and their lives I was having a hard time figuring out how I was going to get to day 3.

When I mentioned this the first time, there was a bit of a chuckle, “What?” “Not to many meetings ago three people in the group went out at lunch to a nearby Apple Store and bought iPads on the spot.” That was interesting.

I got home late Saturday night. The next day we were at the Apple store, purchasing TWO iPad 3s

That was two weeks ago now. Since then I’ve added a keyboard/case to mine. Barbara’s is with her in DC for the NAR Midyear conference. Her case and keyboard arrived today.

Do I like the iPad? I do. I’ve found it quite useful. Like right now, I’m typing this post using it. Do I find it frustrating, absolutely. Like writing this post, if I want to add an image I can’t do it unless it is alreay on the site. I have to go to the wordpress app to add the photo, but the preview doesn’t work from that app. Therefore, to write a simple post with a photo I have to open the WordPress app and the Safari browser. This is not convenient or a good use of time.

So I’ll keep the iPad for edits and leave the writing to the blogs to something that has apps that can handle it.

Not so much dark side as a step back to the dark ages.

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Luck was on my site (That’s what I’m calling the 3 way stop) which I knew would bring him to a dead stop right in front of me.

I got a fun picture to share with the girls when they came out of the shop.  I didn’t think much of it till I ran across that photo a week or so ago.  I came up to UC Irvine from Tucson three days ago and brought my Dad along to visit.  When we went through Laguna Beach I mentioned seeing the Google car down that side street.

Today I decided to check google maps to see if I could find myself standing on the street.

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