Cycled a Century

I finally cycled my first century (100 miles) today. I've wanted to do this since I started riding for fun, around 1995, but I never did it. This year I got a nifty new Trek 1500, and I've been riding farther and faster. Earlier this year, I did 70 miles on a Prairie Cycle Club ride, and I figured a century was in reach.

I didn't plan to ride this far when I got up this morning. I set me alarm for 7AM, planning to join the PCC ride leaving from Meadowbrook Park at 8AM. After hitting the snooze bar a few times, I didn't get out of the house until 8AM, and I had a 15 minute ride to get over to the park. I figured I'd head over there and hope to catch them anyway.

Everyone was gone when I got there, but I figured they probably headed east on Windsor, so I went that way. After a while I caught up with the slower ride, and they said they were going to Ogden. I guessed that maybe the other groups were also going there, so I continued in that direction. When the group paused to regroup, I continued on.

I ended up not seeing anyone else from the club. But by the time I got to Ogden, I was thinking this was a nice day, maybe I should do a long ride. The temperature was in the 70s and the wind was pretty light, pretty much perfect conditions. I had both my water bottles, but I didn't have much food, only two granola bars. So I stopped at the gas station in Ogden and bought some cookies and a donut. Ogden is about 20 miles from my house, so I had about 30 miles to go before turning around. I figured I'd head roughly toward Hoopeston, which was something like 30 miles as the crow flies, but I realized that since I'd be following the roads, the actual mileage to Hoopeston would be greater.

I headed north for about 10 miles, then stopped for a snack break. it looked like Penfield was about another 10 miles, and I figured there might be a convenience store, so I continued north.

By the time I got to Penfield, I was at 40 miles. The GPS was telling me that Hoopeston was a few miles farther than that, but if I continued north, Rankin was about 10 miles away. I continued that way.

Rankin was on Route 9, about halfway between Paxton and Hoopeston. I was hoping there would be a gas station there where I could get lunch. I refilled my water bottles at the park, found a Casey's by the highway, and enjoyed I delicious slice of pizza and a bottle of Mt. Dew. I figure when I'm riding, I can get the good, sugared stuff. I talked to a guy on a motorcycle for a while. He said he bet I paid more for my bike than he did for his motorcycle, then he guessed that my bike cost $125. I told him it was a bit more than that. He basically got the motorcycle almost free from a junk yard, and repaired it with other junkyard parts. He was very proud of the deal he had gotten. At that point, I was 12 miles from Hoopeston, but I had already gone 48 miles, and I didn't want to go that much further. So I road a couple of miles towards Hoopeston, then turned around and headed back.

I pretty much headed back the way I came. About 6 miles south of Rankin, I saw a deer on the edge of a field filled with pine trees. I finished my cookies along the way. When I got back to Ogden I bought a raspberry iced tea. I stopped at Scot and Rachel's on the way home and bummed a can of lemonade. I had gone about 93 miles then, and I had 4.5 miles to get home. On the way home I took a few detours, and once I got to my subdivision, I zig-zagged back and forth around the streets until I got to 100 miles.

An hour after getting home, I feel pretty good. Other than being a bit tired, my neck is a little stiff, and my left knee is a little sore. I expect both to be fine in a few hours.

Final stats:

• Left: 8:00 AM
  
• Got home: 4:06 PM
  
• Elapsed time: 8:06
  
• Distance: 100.4 miles
  
• Moving time: 6:29
  
• Average speed (moving): 15.4 mph
  
• Average speed (total): 12.4 mph
  
• Max speed: 22.5 mph

A shortwave blog

Over in the cobalt pet blog, weatherall has noticed my Eton posting. It looks like an interesting shortwave listener blog; I think I'll check it out some more.

Eton followup

I just called Eton. The man on the phone said that he was going to let his supervisor know that this was outside the recall range, but there wouldn't be any problem setting up the repair.

They'll be sending me a box to ship the radio to R.L. Drake, and Drake will repair it and send it back within 2 weeks. Except for not having the radio for that time, it all seems reasonably convenient. I'm going to enclose a note to have them check the frequency calibration, since it seems to be about 70Hz off, so maybe I'll get a hand-calibrated radio out of this too.

Eton E1XM defective

I've enjoyed listening to shortwave radio broadcasts for about 15 years. Most of that time I've had a Sony 7600G, which is a nice radio, but the power button is starting to fail, so I thought I'd get a new radio.

So this week I bought a new Eton E1XM shortwave radio. Unfortunately, it is defective. There is a recall for some units, as described here.

Mine has SN 2428, which is outside the recall range, but I was a little worried because I read a few reports that units not covered by the recall were also defective. So this evening I put in 4 new batteries and ran it plugged in for about an hour. I never noticed that the batteries got warm, but then I heard some popping noise. I dumped out the batteries and set them on the counter, and they continued leaking and popping.

So tomorrow I'll be calling Eton about the recall. Hopefully I won't have a problem getting it fixed. It looks like Eton needs to recall a few more radios.

Hopefully Google will pick up this post so other people who buy an E1XM might do a search and will know to be careful the first time they use batteries with the AC plugged in.

Other than this problem, the radio is tremendous. I'm looking forward to getting one that works correctly.

Not very many updates I guess...

Maybe I should update this more often with the boring details of my life.

My parents gave me their old NordicTrack exercise machine. My dad says it bothers his knees, so he doesn't use it anymore. So I've got that set up, and I did 30 minutes on that. It seems likes its a pretty good cardio workout.

Then I went shopping with Scot and Rachel at Home Depot and Walmart. I was mainly looking for a hot water heater insulation blanket to use with my Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker but the only one I saw had vinyl backing, not foil. Maybe I'll build a windbreak out of home insulation.

I also took a nap. Naps are nice.

I want to see Syriana. That looks pretty good. I also want to rent Anchorman.

I just made some Bockwurst and fried mashed potatoes for dinner. Delicious. Bockwurst is a very mild veal sausage, something like bratwurst. Now I'm enjoying a Jack and Coke. Its quite tasty, I must say.

I started cleaning up my new (old) bedroom set. Its really nice. I'm vacuuming out the drawers, moving my stuff from my old furniture, and wiping it down with Old English lemon oil. Its quite nice. I got it for $200, plus $260 for the U-Haul and gas to get it here. I should get back to that now, as soon as I finish my drink and eat my cookie.

My Baked Beans Recipe

For everyone who enjoyed my baked beans on Saturday, here's the Secret Recipe. Its based on how my mom makes beans, and also on the recipe from the Virtual Weber Bullet site. Mmmm, beans

16 oz Bush's Baked Beans
1 Tbsp Ketchup
1 Tbsp Mustard
1 1/2 tsp Molasses
1/2 onion, chopped

Combine ingredients. Heat until warm, stirring occasionally.

Also good barbecued, in which case its good to use a disposable pan to simplify cleanup.

Bought Toy Story

As I mentioned earlier, I've been wanting to get Toy Story for a long time. Well, I went to Sam's and saw it there, and on a whim I bought it. It includes a coupon for Toy Story 2 when it comes out in December, so buying it first may have saved me a little money. Unfortunately, since I already bought The Incredibles, the coupon for that doesn't do me any good.

Both the movie and the extras are nicely done. John Lasseter claims in an intro piece that they used "more bits" on this version. I had forgotten that the movie was only 80 minutes long, so I guess there was plenty of room on the DVD. The sound is supposedly improved, and sounds fine on my 2.0 system (i.e. just plain stereo). There are also interesting interviews about the movie with a number of people, and some making-of videos.

I'm sure you can find better reviews than I could do elsewhere, so I won't go on about the content, other than to say this is one of my favorite movies. I think I may like The Incredibles more, and Toy Story 2 certainly has a more complex plot, but Toy Story creates the great characters that return in the sequel. I will get Toy Story 2 as soon as its reissued.

Credit Card Fraud

I got hit by this credit card fraud. The credit card company is crediting me, but I am still considering replacing my card. In the mean time, I plan to check my account often.

I was looking through my statement and noticed a charge from "DIGITAL AGE 888-529-98 CYPRUS, SE $24.99". I didn't recognize the name, but figured it might be the official name for some mail-order place I had used. So I did a web search on "DIGITAL AGE" and found a number of pages like this one. Wow! I called the credit card company immediately, and they said they would credit my account, so all should be well.

Check your credit card receipts closely this month.

I'm a big fan of KlearScreen

A friend asked me:

Do either of you know the best way to clean my laptop screen?

I told her:

I use the cleaner and cloths from KlearScreen.

http://klearscreen.com

The screen cleaner comes in single-use packets or bottles and separate cloths. I mostly use the bottled version. I've been using the one bottle I've bought for 5 years now. If you clean the screen weekly, it stays really nice.

You can do a search for KlearScreen and find mail-order places that sell it. The company also sells it directly, but I don't know whether its more expensive that way.