Two Wheel Saturday

The TV channel that shows the car and bike racing out here used to show their bike racing on Tuesdays, which were known as Two Wheel Tuesdays.

However, today was Saturday. It's not rained for a while, so I was able to get the mountain bike into the hills. I did my best to have a bit of a lie in and catch up on some sleep, but I was still up a little after 8am. I rode what is becoming my regular off road ride, a 16 mile (2 hour) ride up and down various fire roads and single track trails around Fort Ord.

After that I got home, I cleaned the lounge windows (from the outside - it requires a long pole as they're above the garage as viewed from the outside - ideal to do when I'm already dirty from cycling) - and I did my neighbor Anna's windows too (she's in the same deal as I am window placement wise).

Then I grabbed lunch (Korean BBQ after I found the Seafood Tacqueria is closed for a few days), came home and headed out on the motorcycle.

Traffic on the way down was a little busy (it's Spring Break, so folks are taking early vacations) until I got over half way down. The rest of the way down and nearly all the way back up was pretty empty and I had a great time.

I did stop at the Condor spot and the following occurred while I was there:

• No condors (boo)
• A couple of biologists turned up, they had tracked some birds to the south, and one of the two had seen some earlier in the day, but as usual, it's enlightening to talk to them
• Whilst looking around for birds, a fancy car approaches - followed by another. In the end seven or eight Porsche Panameras drive past, all with Michigan license plates (which when seen in California typically means they belong to the manufacturer), followed by a support vehicle with spare tires! - I smell a press launch of Porsche's new car.

So, the last bit was four wheels, not two - oh well! More four wheel action in a short while as the Australian F1 race starts at 11pm on a Saturday local time!

I really need to (a) catch up on my sleep from the previous week a bit more and (b) clean the house, but if tomorrow's weather is as nice as today's, I suspect I'll be outside again.

Final two wheel reference, late this week (Wednesday I think), my story on my latest bike went live on Soup - check it out here.

A Busy Week

After spending the previous weekend down in LA for the motorcycle racing and not getting home until after midnight on Sunday night, I was hoping for a quiet work week. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

We had a big website release going live on Monday night. My goal was to check the site out early Tuesday morning. So, at 6:30am I was checking the release out. Everything looked good, I was thinking I'd get to go ride the bike before the normal work day kicked in, then around 7:15am things started going wrong.

Without getting technical, I then spent the rest of the day (as did a lot of my co-workers) trying to figure out what was going wrong, how we could correct it and stuff like that. I was still in my PJ's at 10:50am when there was a lull in proceedings and I was able to grab a shower.

This turned out to be the first of three 12+ hour days I put in this week. Although the full reasons were never figured out (it's a very complex set of systems we have running that all interact with each other), we were able to revert to the previous system and eventually deploy a fully working new system on Thursday evening. Thankfully, all this kerfuffle wasn't my fault!

I did manage to squeeze a run in first thing Thursday morning - and when I was on the municipal wharf, there was one of the largest groups of sea lions I think I've ever seen floating around. I snapped the following photo.


The interesting thing in the taking of this photo was the noise. The sea lions tend to be rather nasal with their breathing, and there were enough of them in this group that there was a constant hissing going on as they all took turns to breathe.

So, the end of the week is here, and I've not managed to catch up on my sleep from the previous weekend - this weekend is my big chance.

Fontana Weekend

I just spent the last weekend down in Fontana, CA at the AMA Pro Racing event at the racetrack there.

There's been a big change in the way the American series is being run this year, and so far, it seems like a change in the wrong direction.

I still had a great time taking photos of bikes going around a racetrack, and links to those images will follow at the end of this post, but the most amazing part for me was a visit to a shop.

Not just any shop, but a Bass Pro Shop - I realize most reading this will not know what such a thing is, but it is a shop centered on the typical American "sports" of hunting and fishing. It is also the biggest shop I think I've ever been in, ever!

Below is a copy of my Yelp! review of the store, enjoy:

"In a word, Wow!

I'm fairly sure this is the biggest store I've ever been in. The printed "adventure guide" that you pick up as you enter indicates that is 190,000 square feet in size (their biggest store is apparently 300,000 sq ft).

That's 190,000 sq ft of parallel universe you've just ventured in to. Everywhere you turn, the cold glassy eyes of a stuffed animal are staring back at you. Animals of all sizes (even bear cubs!) litter the store, helping achieve the "breathtaking lodge decor". In fact the adventure guide suggests bringing your camera to capture these "real mount animal dioramas".

The store has one long massive wall full of guns, and then a separate, rather large "fine gun room" that was about the size of a regular store, and don't think for a minute that this store is aimed at guys - there are pink guns (and cross bows) for that special outdoorswoman in your life.

There are waterfalls, aquariums (which looked to be stocked with the type of fish that you'd typically eat), a massive boat showroom, camouflage clothing coming out of the wazoo, and a fudge shop.

It's like a great big amusement park - if you've never been, you owe it to yourself to go."

Needless to say, the press room at the track was soon being told about the fantastic entertainment opportunities that lay 5 miles down the road.

Here are the links to 6 pages of images - beware, they're pretty boring!
1 2 3 4 5 6

Unpredictable Weather and Unpredictable Surfaces

When I was checking the weather forecast earlier in the week, it looked like the weekend was going to be great. I hatched a plan in my mind to go mountain biking on Saturday and motorcycling on Sunday.

However, on Friday night, the forecast had changed - dry on Saturday (though chilly) and wet Sunday morning. As motorcycling is currently usurping all other activities (I wonder if the novelty will eventually wear off?), I changed plans and went out on the Ducati on Saturday.

It was chilly and overcast, but dry - and I had a lot of fun as usual, though the normal condor location was bereft of the large birds.

Sunday morning dawned damp - the forecast had been correct, but it soon started to dry so I decided to go cycling. I decided not to go mountain biking as I wasn't sure how wet it had been overnight (and therefore whether or not the trails would be too muddy), so I rode on the road out to Fanshell Beach on 17 mile drive.

On the way back I noticed that the back end of my bicycle felt a little mushy. I soon realized I had a puncture - my first on this bike. I carry spare tubes, tire levers and a small pump, so I can replace a tube and get going without much hassle.

I pulled over at Asilomar (see photos below) and found a small piece of glass going through the rear tire into the tube. I soon changed the tube and pumped the new one up to an acceptable pressure (the small hand pump can't really get a good high pressure) and then carried on home.

Once home, showered and lunched, I ended up helping my neighbor Anna prune, weed and generally tidy the part of the front yard we share. The weather turned into the first really nice day of year - it was t-shirt and shorts weather. Later Anna returned the favor (though maybe it wasn't an initial favor as I own 50% of that piece of front yard, no matter how much I usually neglect it) by taking photos of me riding the Ducati out at Asilomar (again, twice in one day) - I need some "action" (I use the term very loosely when my riding abilities are involved) for an upcoming Soup article.

Shortest Weekend Of The Year

This weekend was the shortest weekend of the year in the US, thanks to daylight savings kicking in earlier these days.

I spent the weekend in Tahoe as part of the Shutterfly web development ski trip - a trip that only came into existence since I left Shutterfly, but one I've been on every year it has occurred.

This year, the original organizer, Nancy, couldn't make it as she was busy organizing a move, but we managed to carry on in her honor. Five of us made the trip and we had a great time.

We drove up to Tahoe (in two cars) on Friday night and stayed in Nancy's in-law's house in Tahoe City. First thing Saturday morning we drive out to Northstar to go skiing and snowboarding for the day.

The weather was fanstastic and due to the recent storm after storm, the snow was fantastic too - the only downside to the day were the crowds, we had to get in line to get on the lifts.

It was good to hang out with a bunch of old friends - we had a great time on the slopes (in the photo above you can see Amy, on the left, and Allison, on the right) and in the evening we all went out for a great meal then had a good old laugh back at the house.

On Sunday, daylight savings kicked in, so we lost an hour. That combined with a full day on the slopes and a full evening catching up and having a good laugh the day before meant that we took it easy.

We had a bit of a lie in, tidied up the house and headed out for lunch before we finished packing and headed home.

It was a great weekend with great company - the only downside was the lift lines at the slopes.

Some Notes

I haven't really done anything that deserved its own blog post recently, but a few interesting things have happened here and there, so here they are:

• the other day, there was a storm blowing through causing a cross wind at the airport. As I'm on the approach to the airport, it was fun looking out of the window every time a plane went over as they were all approaching the airport sideways
• on the drive to work today, with dry roads and sunny weather, I suddenly spotted a white Toyota Celica bouncing through the grass in the central median of the freeway (it was going the other way and there was a concrete barrier between it and the lanes going in my direction). I spotted in the rear view mirror that it got back on to its lanes, then spun out, doing at least a 540.
• got to go indoor karting last week with some guys from work - wrenched my shoulder somehow during the event - it's still sore now - oh well, I guess I'm just getting old - though out of the six of us, I set the fastest time!
• didn't spot any condors when I last rode down the coast - I managed to get a ride in in between all the rain

That's it!