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Mar. 2nd, 2006
this and that but not that other thing
Mar. 2nd, 2006 01:12 pm
Puget Sound, Nearing Sunset
Wednesday's miles: 2.8
Miles out of Hobbiton: 616.4
Miles out of Rivendell: 156.5
Miles to Lothlórien: 309.8
I feel stalled out. I hate that. I can't talk to the grad school until April, so there's not much to do there. I don't have a lot of murksouth work to do right now, tho' I've been working on putting the landscaping there back together. I could work on retaining wall ideas here for the little hill, but I feel like I have more important things to be doing, even if I have no idea what they might be.
Oh well. I think I'm going to bike to the hardware store and grocery to pick up a few things we need. It does seem to be awfully nice. But I'm afraid of being rained on when biking.
I also took a few more pictures. I don't know if they came out yet. The cherries are starting to bloom, which means mmmmmmm cherry blossom smell. Yay!
oh. my. god.
Mar. 2nd, 2006 01:51 pmThe back of the new American ten dollar bill is hideous. I mean god damn, even by American money standards - some of the worst-designed money in the Western world - it's awful. It doesn't even look real, and not in that sense of "this doesn't look like money," but more in the sense of, "this looks like a bad video insert done by somebody who doesn't understand chroma key very well."
I cannot imagine who could have signed off on this thing. The only explanation I can imagine is that somewhere there are $10 bill changers that key off the old engraving on the back. I hope that's what happened. But that doesn't excuse the rest of it.
Because... damn. The more you look at it, the worse it gets. It's just wretched.
All it needs is a "$5 rebate!" sticker and a Microsoft logo to make it complete.
I cannot imagine who could have signed off on this thing. The only explanation I can imagine is that somewhere there are $10 bill changers that key off the old engraving on the back. I hope that's what happened. But that doesn't excuse the rest of it.
Because... damn. The more you look at it, the worse it gets. It's just wretched.
All it needs is a "$5 rebate!" sticker and a Microsoft logo to make it complete.
bricks and lamps
Mar. 2nd, 2006 11:53 pmI bought an $8 oil lamp of a very old-school type at McLendon's today. (That's why the high miles; the weather was really nice, so I biked to Woodinville.) I'm pleased to report that it works really well - much better than groups of candles. Maybe it's not enough to read by, but at it's least as bright as the set of candles AND the little battery light we had on the kitchen table during the last blackout. I even put up the wall mount for it, since that's as good a place as any to store the thing. It's kind of kitschy, since our house is not 19th century in any other way, but I've decided that the fact that it's an actual useful and used item - basically, the practicality - makes it acceptable.
Thursday's miles: 13.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 629.5
Miles out of Rivendell: 169.6
Miles to Lothlórien: 296.7
All of that biking on the trail was 3,5 gear or better, I think, even on the trail hills. Up steep road hills, of course, all bets are off. I was pretty slow, though. But I did bike the whole way - no walking parts - except for the very tiny, very sharp switchback I can't manage uphill yet at any speed. It's just too steep and I start to fall off the bike. Not good!
One of the things I did on the way over to Woodinville is find the little surviving section of the Red Brick Road, which was the first improved road connection between Bothell, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, and Seattle. I've now ridden the entire remaining length and back, all 0.2 miles each way of it. Yay! It's in a tiny park that appears mostly dedicated to parking and the road itself, plus a little bench and sitting area. I'm glad it's preserved, but I wish they didn't let cars drive on it at all - it's not in bad shape, I suppose, given everything, but any driving on it at all has to be bad, and it's how you get in and out of the little car park.
Of course, I suppose there's something to be said for preserving original purpose.
It's even narrower than I expected, even though it's preserved at original width. Two lanes, yes, but it's like two Model T lanes. I think it'd be about a lane and a half in modern terms, or, if you're in an old enough area of Seattle, it'd be a one-lane-with-parking width street, like 18th or 19th Avenue NE in University Park. Only, you know, brick. Not cobbles, either. Brick. Like housing brick, almost.
But it was kind of neat to be biking on it. "Look! It's the first road that was ever here! It's even the original surface! And I'm bikin' on it!" Pretty cool. ^_^
Thursday's miles: 13.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 629.5
Miles out of Rivendell: 169.6
Miles to Lothlórien: 296.7
All of that biking on the trail was 3,5 gear or better, I think, even on the trail hills. Up steep road hills, of course, all bets are off. I was pretty slow, though. But I did bike the whole way - no walking parts - except for the very tiny, very sharp switchback I can't manage uphill yet at any speed. It's just too steep and I start to fall off the bike. Not good!
One of the things I did on the way over to Woodinville is find the little surviving section of the Red Brick Road, which was the first improved road connection between Bothell, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, and Seattle. I've now ridden the entire remaining length and back, all 0.2 miles each way of it. Yay! It's in a tiny park that appears mostly dedicated to parking and the road itself, plus a little bench and sitting area. I'm glad it's preserved, but I wish they didn't let cars drive on it at all - it's not in bad shape, I suppose, given everything, but any driving on it at all has to be bad, and it's how you get in and out of the little car park.
Of course, I suppose there's something to be said for preserving original purpose.
It's even narrower than I expected, even though it's preserved at original width. Two lanes, yes, but it's like two Model T lanes. I think it'd be about a lane and a half in modern terms, or, if you're in an old enough area of Seattle, it'd be a one-lane-with-parking width street, like 18th or 19th Avenue NE in University Park. Only, you know, brick. Not cobbles, either. Brick. Like housing brick, almost.
But it was kind of neat to be biking on it. "Look! It's the first road that was ever here! It's even the original surface! And I'm bikin' on it!" Pretty cool. ^_^
