Operation Get The Bike! Day One
March 10, 2018 § 2 Comments
To say that “When we awoke the next morning” is a little misleading about traveling to the other side of the world where the local timezone is exactly 12 hours ahead of the timezone you left. If I said I went to bed and awoke early would be a lie, because I never really fell asleep that first night. The same went for Susan, and when 6am finally rolled around, and the breakfast buffet opened up, we were eager, and hungry to get started. Our girls had a week of Vietnam in them, so they weren’t about to stir for some time.
We’re Going to Phuket This Year
March 9, 2018 § 2 Comments
Two years ago the family was given a choice. Let’s rephrase that. Two years ago, Susan and I decided that instead of spending money on Christmas and everything that goes with it, “Why not have a really low key Christmas, and spend that money on a vacation instead?”. We put that question to the girls, and their first question was “What kind of vacation?” Skepticism is good trait to have, especially with the current occupier of the White House and the proliferation of bullshit, and our daughters were expressing theirs. “How about 2 weeks in a warm climate? Doesn’t have to be this country, take your pick, however do the research, present options, and then we all agree? Agreed?”. That year we rented two different places in Barbados and spent 2 weeks. This past October we were all together in San Francisco and we were looking at options. At that time Columbia was on the table, but research wasn’t turning anything up that appealed to those doing the looking, and then the idea of Thailand, and more specifically, Phuket came up. It didn’t take long to decide “Thailand it is!”
Hiking With Hunters
January 15, 2018 § Leave a comment
I don’t have any pictures of any of the hunters that we saw/met on the AT this past weekend. When you are unarmed, and miles from witnesses, it doesn’t seem like self-preservation to raise up your iPhone and start recording the dudes with the guns.
In Search of Pliney The Elder
November 22, 2017 § Leave a comment
I can’t recall when I first heard about this beer. It may have been a review I read, or it could have been my friend Christopher Tucker who texted me a query about it. When I googled the beer and got an image label, I felt like I had seen this once before but had ignored it. I am not swearing on this, but visiting Austin a number of years back, I feel like bottles of this were in the glass front fridge that I could see, and that label did stick out in its simplicity. Why I didn’t pursue, I cannot guess. My loss.
Pardon Me, Excuse Me, Move it Over Please. Alcatraz
November 20, 2017 § Leave a comment
George Carlin’s “Class Clown” was one of my first albums. This wasn’t long after George made the jump from traditional straight-up suit wearing comedian to counter-culture long haired comedian. I played this album so many times, and many of those times with my friend Chris. There is a segment titled “Muhammad Ali” that takes a poke at the cleaned up white washed version of American History. The last portion of this concerns Native Americans and goes like this
We really gave the Indians a fast trip across the continent, you notice that? They were having a little cookout in Massachusetts- buncha boats came up, man…”Hey, ya mind moving over, guys? Bring in the stuff. Would you move it over, man. Bring in the stuff. Would you move it over, man. Bring in the stuff. Would you move it over, man. Over three mountain ranges…four mountain ranges. Got ’em onto an offshore island, Alcatraz, right? Off the continent completely! They had to take the island to get it! Then we kicked them off there.
Fritz
November 18, 2017 § Leave a comment
Day 3 – Way back in my young adulthood I got this idea to ride my bicycle across the country, which I did during the Summer of 1981. I started in San Diego, and rode North where after some weeks and some time in San Francisco, we (My roommate Frank joined me) headed North for some Highway 1 scenery. On our second day out we met a cyclist named Jim, who was riding across the country as well, however there was a difference, and that difference was that his equipment was not really the kind of cross country equipment you should be riding across, but one look at him, and you knew he was riding what he could. That was near the end of the day, and when we found a State managed biker campground we pulled in, and to our pleasure we had company. That was where I first met Fritz Knochenauer.
Fall Cycling Epic
October 8, 2017 § 4 Comments
On Monday August 14th at 9:27PM I received a text from Cliff.
The Text that Started the Ball rolling.
Dolly Sods a.k.a Dahle Sods – 2001
August 18, 2017 § Leave a comment
In September of 2000, I started a new position at a small, growing fast startup called Tellium. I left IBM after only being with them for 2 months after AT&T sold our business unit to IBM for eventual outsourcing, so AT&T could sponsor the new stadium in Denver. There is no evidence that was the case, but the sponsorship deal was 200 million, and the IBM deal was about 190. At Tellium, I was hired to work on a team to in-source the Network Management software FROM India. Tellium was working night and day, and had just entered their third round of Venture funding, and they were gearing up for the big delivery. A brand new architecture in backbone network design, a mesh architecture with home-grown hardware and software.
State College Instead of Mallorca?
May 29, 2017 § 2 Comments
It’s not the Mediterranean; There aren’t gorgeous ocean views, or even gorgeous ocean villas! However, in my mind at least, some of the best riding I have ever done was in and around State College, Pa during my tenure at Penn State.
My Friend Loh-Ping Ying
March 11, 2017 § 4 Comments
At the time, I was working for Abe Osovsky in Yee Lee’s department. I had transferred over there from my old department where I had been developing test tools, but didn’t feel much like a tester. I wanted to do development work, but by the time I actually moved into Abe’s group, the project I had interviewed for was well past available, and someone else was working it. After a couple of months of trying to invent something for me to do, I was asked about a new project in Peter Ting’s group where a small group of people were just getting started.
Big Bird's Adventures 