First off I’d like to thank all of you for attending this very important discussion. Our goal today is to define the scope and approach of defining. The question has been raised that we should perhaps phase…

We need bunnies! With fur!

I like bunnies too. But first, we don’t like the ditch. We put our money and bonus checks in the ditch. Our customers don’t understand they need to go in the ditch. Even when we push them in they don’t like it, and sometime they climb out.

Let’s get some horses, and feed the money to the horses. Then we could let the customers ride the horses.

No, ponies. Customers like ponies better than horses.

Aren’t ponies just small horses?

And a bunny.

The horses could ride in the ditch, and shit out the money.

You mean pony.

Let’s have a bonfire, and burn the money. The ponies could bring the customers into the ditch, and eat the money, or burn it. And there needs to be refreshments. And we could burn those too. But maybe the customers shouldn’t ride the ponies, that could be too risky, and the customers might not like the smell.

Give the customers a shovel, and let them dig their own ditch.

No, bunnies.

No, let the customers feed their cash to the pony, and then use the shovel to pick up the shit, and put it in the fire.

And then we push them in the ditch, but we take away the ladder so they can’t climb out. They’ll like that, and it will be much easier to understand.

And we’ll throw the shit in the fan.

That’s TBD.

I think we need to iron out the details on the horses. Should the donkeys be used to pull the ditch around, and make the customers think they are horses?

I have to go to another meeting, much less important than this, but I’m glad that we all agree.

We can sell tickets, which the customer can feed to the donkeys. Then burn the money.

That’s what we are already doing today.

Yeah, I like that. Let’s do it. Do we need IS involvement?

Only if we have donkeys.

What about bunnies?

No, we already have bunnies, that’s what isn’t working.

But I like bunnies, and you all suck. We’re keeping the bunnies. Who wants lunch?

I already ate, how about you? I had a tuna sandwich. It was great. I got a great deal on it, and they only burnt half the money. The other half they put in the ditch, and get this, they used a shredder for the last half! It was fantastic. Is that my blackberry? Oh man, I gotta go.

Me too. Thanks everyone, I think we got the info we needed to start acting. See you tomorrow, same time. Don’t forget we’re also meeting later, whoops, I mean now. Ok. Who brought the pictures of the bunnies? Good, we can get started.

Ok kids, here’s the plan:

• Go to bed earlier than 4am. Wake up at a respectable time, say 6:30am. Maybe go to work or something.
• Get a bag.
• Pick out your five favorite toys, put them in the bag.
• Pick out your five favorite books, put them in the bag.
• Pick out five days worth of clothing and toiletries, put them in the bag.
• Put the bags in the car.
• Put your pets in the car.
• Put yourself in the car.
• Drive elsewhere.

And with everything left behind:

• Ebay
• Craigslist
• Freecycle
• Recycle
• Dump

When this is complete, I’ll gladly unplug for two months.

As if LinkedIn didn’t suck away enough of my life this summer, now Facebook is closing in to eat up my winter. So, now I’m up to date with the rest of the world, just in time for the next world to come out. I’m always a version behind. Maybe I’ll pull a Microsoft and jump to Web 8.0. Meh.

About two week’s ago my wife had her long awaited tonsillectomy. That’s where they take a mostly healthy person, knock them out, and take all kinds of rusty saws and tools and stuff and cut you up real bad. I had to take care of her, the kids, the cats, my job, including a site release, a dead hamster, a new not dead hamster, a flood, a power outage, church, and a snowstorm. But, I guess that was really the easy part compared to my wife having to have the surgery.

Now I just have to survive this week, get to NY for happy holidays, get back so we can torture my daughter with the same surgery, and take some time off.

Looking forward to having some time to get the trainer out and biking. Maybe I’ll even re-mount my ice tires and go outside. Also going to blog more, now that I’m plugged into the machine.

In five days of biking with my home made studded tires, I’ve given myself three flats. The first time was on my third day, on my way to work, about 3/4 mile from my office. I started walking, but was picked up in just a few steps by of all people, our department VP. I fixed that flat in the office, and ordered some Slime tire liners from Nashbar. After the day of work I rode home with no issues.

The next time I rode in, I got another flat. This was a real slow leak, so I managed to get all the way to the office. I hadn’t gotten the tire liners yet, so I decided not to repair, and got a ride home with my good buddy Carl. I took a break from riding while waiting for the parts to arrive. After I got the liners, I had to do some “custom fabrication” by duct taping two liners side by side to get full coverage, and installed them in each tire (so needed 4 tire liners total – my total parts cost has gone from $26 to $46 for two tires).

Today I rode in. A nice toasty 14 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. The roads were mediocre, I don’t think the plow truck drivers actually know how to use the plow. Actually, comparing the roads to the roads I remember in my Buffalo, NY youth, the plow truck drivers in New England really don’t have a clue. The ride in was awesome, had an awesome day. Then, on my way home, in the dark (but a warmer 27 degrees), I got a flat. Carl and Brent were just leaving so I was able to catch them by cell phone, and super-buddy Brent picked me up.

I told myself after all the effort I went through in constructing the tires, putting in the liners, and all the flat repairs, that if I got one more flat I’d be done for the season. I bought a trainer, and figure at the worst I could actually use it with my road bike (which is sad being stored in the freezing shed). After I put the kids to bed I went down to the basement and took a look. The stud heads had not punctured the tire liner, but rather a piece of grit ingrained in the duct tape perfectly positioned over a stud caused the hole. So, I removed the taped grit, inspected the rest of the wheel and liner, added a secondary liner (an extra sliced tube), and re-assembled. Now if I get another flat, again again, this time for real (maybe), I’ll stop for the season, maybe.

Actually, I think my plan will be to bike in the morning but get rides home – at least until I prove that the tires are more flat resistant. The next step would also be to actually buy a studded tire, at least for the rear (where I keep getting the flats) – either that or virtual-commute with my trainer in the basement, laptop and VPN.

Thanks go to Sarah for the “no cycling” picture.

Here are some links I found while looking for an appropriate image for this post:

• Lords of the Logistic
• Bike Hugger

And more links about studded tires:

• Peter White Cycles: Studded Tires
• Bike Tires Direct: Studded Tires (cheapo Innova for $35 each, or better Schwalbe for $50)
• Stud your own bike tires by Byron Kuster at Silent Sports
• Kent’s Bike Blog: Studded Bicycle Tires (lots of good comments)

“I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?” -Douglas Adams

After my wife had four cases of strep throat and my daughter at least two in the last four months, our medical staff put all of us on a ten day dosage of antibiotics. We finished that just before this past weekend, which brought us these lovely items:

• Friday: Erica gets another infection, gets a prescription for one type of anti-biotic, but is waiting for test results and may get a different prescription.

  We stay up until 2am doing our taxes.

• Saturday: I catch a stomach bug, and when I’m not in bed being hand fed rice and bananas, I’m nearly passing out on the floor trying to get back and forth to the bathroom. Erica takes care of the kids and me all day, I can’t remember anything.
• Sunday: My tummy was feeling better, and we managed to get everyone out the door for church together – feeling good about taking one car to church instead of two, although I’d feel better if we were biking. The weather isn’t so good, cold and rainy.

  Sunday evening we went for a dinner party at a church friend’s house. We had fun playing music, chatting and eating. My friend is also a co-worker, and they remind us how our employer messed up on some stock-option reporting and we were supposed to do something weird with our taxes – so panic sets in because we already e-filed them the night before.

• Monday: Wind and rain can’t cancel the Boston Marathon or the Sox game, but it can turn our backyard into a lake and our basement into an indoor pool.

  This is the most water I’ve seen so far. We had to bring in our spare sump-pump to help out our two permanent pumps in order to keep the water down below our boiler. We rented a 4hp gas pump to drain our backyard. I also picked up another spare pump, and with four pumps in the basement and the gas pump outside, we were able to drain the basement with little damage. Once the backyard was drained the water stopped coming in so hard. I also drained my neighbor’s lake, as that was draining into my yard – and I wanted to get my money’s worth out of the rental pump. Spent the rest of the day with the shop vac and fans cleaning up.

  A big thanks go out to our friends who took our kids all day! My daughter drew the illustration above – it is very true to life.

  Erica also gets a call, her infection test result came in. She gets a different prescription, which she manages to loose in our house. We spend 30 minutes searching for it, and find it in the basement of all places – we spent so much time down there it seems that everything ended up there with us.

  At the end of all this we checked our taxes, and we were not affected by any issues, so good to go.

I received several email updates from Al Gore – last Wednesday he went before congress to demand immediate action to solve the climate crisis. Before then he had a website where you could “sign” a petition, I and 519 thousand others got our names on the list in time for his presentation.

This whole shenanigans inspired me to actually watch his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” I think I was already up to speed with most of it, but I thought the movie was a really good presentation. The end credits had a lot of good ideas about what you can do to start making a difference. I also felt inspired to start biking season early. I definitely suggest taking the time to see this movie.

• Carbon dioxide warms the surface of the planet by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels and clearing forests have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causing temperatures to rise.
• The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. The earth has cyclical periods of warming and cooling within a range. The last 30 years do not apply to this cycle, and all boundaries have been broken and are “off the charts.”
• The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
• The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
• “I believe the purpose of life is to glorify God, and we can’t do that if we’re heaping contempt on the creation.”
• Roger Ebert wants you to see this film.

A few days ago I was flipping channels and stopped on this program that totally caught me off guard. It was reverend Jerry Falwell on his nationally televised program from Thomas Road Baptist Church, giving his sermon, “The Myth of Global Warming.” After having just seen a very scientific presentation on the facts around global warming, I was just shocked to see someone debating it. However, I tried to be open minded, and this is what I took away from Rev. Falwell’s sermon:

• Global warming is not based on science, but is rather a political issue.
• Global Warming doesn’t exist and is not due to human contribution of CO2.
• Al Gore invented the internet and helped invent global warming, abortion and gay marriage.
• Climate change over the past 30 to 150 years is well within the bounds of natural variability – Earth’s climate has warmed and cooled cyclically throughout its history, largely natural in origin and not susceptible to significant reduction by any actions we take.
• “I am not a scientist.”
• Alarmism is promoted by the UN, liberal politicians, radical environmentalists, liberal clergymen, Hollywood, pseudo-scientists and the Weather Channel.
• Alarmism is promoted in order to create major economic damage to America, distract us from the world’s declining morals, legalize abortion and gay marriage, and is Satan’s attempt to change the Church’s focus.
• The Earth is the Lord’s, and it will not cease.
• Jesus commands you to spread Christianity so you can go to heaven.

I urge you to think what you will and make informed decisions about how you live your life. The repurcussions of how you live will directly effect the lives of your children and grandchildren. I believe Global Warming is a real issue based on real science, not on politics or religion. My suggestions: Bike more, drive less. Use energy smartly, don’t waste. Watch A Convenient Truth and visit your local Unitarian Universalist church next Sunday and help us worship the coffee pot with our liberal clergymen.

“In the wintertime we don’t see any reason why we can’t ride on it,” Hilton said, adding snowmobiles riding on six to eight inches of snowpack do not harm the trails. “Our sleds today most of them are so clean of emissions because the standards that the government has set for us.”

Snowmobiles are banned at the Assabet River Rail Trail “for safety and noise reasons,” said Michelle Ciccolo, Hudson’s director of community development.

“Neighbors expressed concerns during the construction process that they didn’t want people racing behind their houses in snowmobiles,” Ciccolo said, pointing out the rail trail has several roadway crossings, thus posing safety risks.

Saturday, February 10, 2007 – Snowmobilers must travel to ride – The MetroWest Daily News

Two snowmobilers injured a police sergeant Sunday when they tried to run him over on their way to illegally ride on the Assabet River Valley Trail, police said.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 – Snowmobilers try to run over cop – The MetroWest Daily News

[the riders] pleaded not guilty in Marlborough District Court yesterday to assault with a dangerous weapon, a snowmobile, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, operating a snow/recreation vehicle on a public way, unsafe operation of a snow/recreation vehicle and failing to stop for police.

Police also charged the men with unregistered operation of a snow/recreation vehicle and operating a snow/recreation vehicle on private property: both civil infractions.

The mall was really busy today, difficult to find a parking spot. But, a little patience and driving around the lot and you can find a space. On my way out it seemed a little more packed than when I arrived, and it looks like every possible piece of real estate was now taken up by cars – including in front of every no parking sign. This was the first car I saw taking up a spot that should be reserved for say, a frickin fire truck you moron. Oh yeah, but its an Audi, so its all right. They can tow the VW, but Audis get special permission. I learned a little something about fire trucks when I worked for campus safety back in college. When there is a fire, or even just a pot-induced pulling of the fire alarm, the fire truck will get where it is needed, whether there is a car parked there or not – and they don’t wait for the tow truck to politely move it first.