Category: Geek

March Madness

or “Stop me before I fix again”.

The good news is that the new training program started off gangbusters – 2200 meters in the pool. The first 1700 were great, and I banged out the last 500 without too much whining. It did help that there were chicks swimming this afternoon, so god forbid that the slowly slimming white guy (I’m avoiding the whole “middle aged” which is the surest sign that I’m there) show any signs of weaknenss. No, instead I slowed way down and did the distance swimmer thing of nice big arm circles on the strokes.

Felt really good for not having swum in a couple of weeks. The first three sets of 10 laps were probably the finest 1500 meters I’ve ever swum – every one was big circles with the arms, full extensions through my fingers and toes, and a hard kick off the wall upside down at the end of each 25. The last set of 500, though – can they add Knox Blox mix to the water and change the viscosity? Swear on my sainted mother’s grave (she’s not dead, but bear with), the water just felt thicker.

The other good news is that my beloved iBook is on its way home. I like my Linux machine (Dell Inspiron 3700 PIII 500 MHZ, running Fedora Core 3), but I cannot get the WiFi working on either my D-Link DWL 650+ or Dell 1350 wireless PCMCIA cards, so I’m tethered.

Tonight – did some more work on the T. Rex cutout for the beanbag toss at the Boy’s birthday. Looks good. The big event, though, was the bike clean-a-thon. I degreased the crap out of everythingn that wasn’t welded on to both my Cannnondale and my old Trek. Good stuff. Took the cranks off the Cannondale for the first time since I got it, and remembered the old materials lesson about metals in long-term contact with Aluminium. Oh well – a coat of grease and it’ll be fine for another 4 years.

The Trek is a different story. I’d bought paint at the model shop to patch a couple of scratches. Then I caught Fixedgear referencing a site on home-made headset presses (which work fine, BTW, and don’t cost $100+). Dan Goldenberg (The other site) has got a bit on painting frames. Now that I’ve got the bike apart, the scratching is a little bit more widespread than I though, and I’m seriously thinking about doing it. Be a lot easier to do it now than when it’s back together…

Unless, of course, someone wants to send me a ‘cross frame… (30″ inseam, usually run about a 52-53 cm frame)

It’s baaack…

The iPod, that is. Turns out there was nothing to lick. Things learned in the repair:

1. The LCD is pretty well self contained.
2. The Battery is taped to the front shell, which will make replacing it a bear.
3. The printed circuit board (PCB) is darn flimsy, unlike one of the boards you Windows types must add to make your computers useable.
4. A guitar pick makes a fine tool for opening the case.
5. To loosten the ribbon cable connecting the screen to the PCB, you lift up on the black tab at the back, the pull gently on the cable to remove. Likewise for the ribbon cable connecting the click-wheel ™ to the PCB.
6. Apple must use child labor in Thailand to put these puppies together. Criminey. Seriously – the innards are tiny.
7. The one tool that you need but might not have is a frickin’ miniscule Torx head driver. I think it’s like a T-6 or something. Ridiculous.

In any case, the iPod is functional again. It didn’t look like it’d been damaged beyond the screen. Will post inside pictures later. Many thanks to Jon and his brother for the cautionary words.

Miscellany:
– Tim Horton’s – There was a family donut chain up here, Bess Eaton, that went bankrupt about the same time Wendy’s bought the rights to Tim’s here in the States (not sure if they own it up in the land of the ice and snow from where the midnight howls and the north wind blows, and blows, and blows). Wendy’s saw an opportunity and snatched up a bunch of property and pretty well trained workforce for a song. And I finally found a donut shop I like. (One way I know I’ll never really be a Yankee is that I think Dunkin Donuts coffee is about the nastiest swill I’ve ever tasted. And I’ve drank cajun chicory coffee, Navy coffee, etc). Tim’s coffee is the bomb. And their donuts and baked goods are great. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think the secret is that they don’t use quite so much sugar in their recipes. They don’t skimp by a long shot, but it’s not oppressively sweet.

2. Tim Horton’s Chocolate Cake Donuts are surpassed only by their chocolate old-fashioned glazed donuts.

3. I’m all up on dislikin’ wind again after yesterday’s attempt at reconciliation.

Work went long again today, so I missed running outside, but even worse I missed bedtime by about 10 minutes. For the baby, that’s the same as missing it by hours, but the boy was still singing softly to himself. Grrr. It’s drill weekend, too, so I miss out on cooking Saturday and Sunday breakfast. We do get to have pizza night, though.

4 miles on the treadmill, 9 minute average pace. The first three miles stank, but something clicked for the last mile, and my legs finally realized I wasn’t giving up after this illness. I’m looking forward to 6 miles tomorrow. Unless it’s only 5 on the schedule.