OUT OF THE BLUE

Archive for the ‘Daily Life’ Category

OK- since I’ve been doing more outdoors-type stuff, some of which involves being out in the boondocks (to clarify– of Wisconsin), I’ve been wanting a GPS unit more and more. Now, I have a Blackberry Pearl 8130 (US Cellular) that actually has GPS functionality built in– but it only kinda works, and then only sometimes.

For the first few months I had the 8130, GPS and BBMaps worked fine. It was able to find satellites most of the time within a minute and stay locked on, even in the car. Then, it worked less and less often– I was able to get a lock for most of the way from Madison to Chicago on the bus in June, but couldn’t get a lock standing outside my apartment. The rest of July and August, it never got a lock. Ever. I switched to Google Maps for Mobile, which worked better; that at least gets me a fix within 1800 or so meters, which is close enough to identify a freeway interchange.

Last weekend I was out hiking in Token Creek County Park, where it would have been really nice to have a GPS powered map on my phone (since I, um, didn’t bring a compass or paper map– oops). Again, couldn’t get a lock. So I gave up and did some googling, and found some answers here and here– seems I’m not the only one dealing with the Pearl’s GPS not working.

Long story short– as indicated in the forum threads linked above, you really want to download GPSed.

It doesn’t fix the connectivity problem completely. There are still some times where I can’t get a fix in the same spot I got 10 satellites less than two hours ago. I have to use GPSed’s “Reset GPS” function fairly often to get a lock (which does work, again, fairly often). Once GPSed has locked on, though, BBMaps and Google Maps also lock on, which makes the whole package a lot more useful. I was able to use Google Maps satellite view to verify where I was vs. where the Blackberry thought I was– standing in a parking space at work, Google Maps had my position dot right in the middle of that parking space.

So, okay, the Blackberry’s probably not as reliable as a standalone GPS unit. But GPS units don’t do email. (Although I haven’t tried it, the 8130 does have Bluetooth, so one could feasibly use an external GPS unit. I need more pockets.)

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Okay, so I’m a Madison transplant– but I’m a little closer to being a native. Not only have I made it around Lake Monona by bike (once, the easy way, but it still counts), I’ve started biking to work a couple of days a week.

It took a while to get started, even in bike friendly Madison. Getting in the car is easy– it’s still a pain to get up and go to work, but the trip there doesn’t require any effort. You get in the car, start it up, and off you go. Riding a bike involves leaving earlier, checking the weather, bringing clothes to change into when you get there, and making sure you take (enough) water along.

The route I take to work involves two different, and each fairly short, dedicated bike paths plus bike lanes and two legs of just plain old streets. There are a few hills, but nothing I can’t deal with. It’s an easy ride. The streets I do ride on aren’t busy in the morning on the way to work, and are still easy to navigate in the afternoon. They’re city streets, but not “main artery” streets. Without the two bike paths, and a short chunk of asphalt (thank you, PDQ @ Stoughton Rd. & Anderson St.!) that connects one street to another, my bike commute wouldn’t happen. If anyone wonders if those short bike paths and connector sidewalks are worth the money property owners and the city of Madison spend on them, the answer is yes. So are the bike lanes.

And since I’m handing out thank you’s, thanks to those nice folks who give me extra room on the street even when I have a bike lane to ride in. It’s appreciated.

(Now, if I could convince The Man at work that a place to shower at work would be a good thing, I’d be willing to call my employer bike friendly, too.)

Links:

• City of Madison, WI Traffic Engineering Bike Maps
• Where to get a Dane County (paper) bike map
• Reindahl Park info (one of the paths I use
• Wisconsin DOT Bicycle Projects

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Yikes, I haven’t posted anything meaningful since April. Time to catch you up with what’s been going on here since then, not in any particular order.

I survived another semester at MATC, ringing up Trigonometry and Spanish I. I’m sure I slept at some point between January and May, but between classes and work I’d be hard pressed to tell you exactly when it happened. Next up: Spanish II and Calculus I in fall.

I volunteered at the WHA-TV Auction again this year as a bid sorter and bid runner– and found myself (willingly) drafted into being a board captain on the last day of the auction. If you were watching during the hours before Showcase on 1 June, you might have seen me writing bids on the C board.

Memorial Day started with me marching with the Black Knights Color Guard in the Monona Memorial Day Parade, followed by post chaplain duties for services at several local cemeteries. I was also granted the honor of reading the opening and closing prayers at U. S. Army Cpl. Rachael Hugo’s reinterment ceremony at Roselawn Cemetery in Madison. (I’ve started, and not finished, several posts about Memorial Day 2008– the entire day, especially Cpl. Hugo’s reinterment ceremony, was an emotional experience– so much that I’m at a loss for words. I’m just sincerely honored that I was able to participate.)

I have not been in the gym as much as I’ve needed to be since final exams, mainly because I was just plain exhausted for a while after the semester was over. I did buy a new mountain bike that I’ve been riding around the neighborhood, and I’ve also been out doing things like climbing rocks and kayaking this summer. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

I just returned from 11 days in Costa Rica (map); I was there for a friend’s wedding, plus some very much needed rest and relaxation. The map link points to the house we stayed in (the elbow shaped building NNE from the satellite dish), at Tarbaca outside of San Jose. I had a great time… although today I’m still recovering from the trip, so more details and pictures to follow.

And there you have it.

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This year’s Crazylegs Classic time: 8K in 1:05:33, which was just slightly longer than my Crazylegs 2007 time of 58:54:00. There are reasons for taking the extra time: first, it was windy, which is a condition I’m not used to when running (most of my running is done on a treadmill at the YMCA). Second, I think I tried to keep up with other runners a little too much over the first mile or two. Once I started listening to the cadences and the voice in my head saying “just run your own race”, I got into more of the rhythm that I was used to running.

Listen to me, talking about my running technique. Heh.

I wish I had thought of it earlier– at last month’s VFW post meeting, an info packet had arrived asking if Post 7591 was interested in putting a team together for Crazylegs. I was the only one that raised my hand, but there may be others around from other Posts or people who don’t attend meetings. So I’ll put it out there now, 364 days before Crazylegs 2009. If you’re a Veterans of Foreign Wars member (or you’re eligible) and would like to run with me in next year’s Crazylegs, leave a comment and let me know. I’ll get in touch when registration opens for 2009.

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Okay, I promised I’d try to write more, so I’ll take a break between conjugating verbs in Spanish, and learning about inverses of circular functions in Trig.

I’m experimenting with ways to push, pull, or drag my VFW Post into the 21st century; VFW does have a presence on Myspace and Facebook, and I’ve started posting meeting notices as events on Facebook. It’s a scream in the wilderness– at nearly 40, I’m one of the younger active members of my post and probably one of the most socially networked. If you find a meeting notice posted online, come to a meeting and tell me where you saw the posting and I’ll buy you a beer/soda.

This past Saturday, the Black Knights Color Guard (of which I am a member) got together to practice marching. Yes, marching. I swore when I graduated Ground Rat school I’d never march in a parade again if I could help it, but here I am holding up a flag and trying to stay in step. I noticed two things on Saturday– one, you never forget how to march once you’ve learned. Two, it’s actually fun now. I’ll try to get some pictures from the first time I actually march for real, which will be in May.

Back to homework…

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I have done some serious rearranging of old entries, which included deleting more than a few– so if Google sent you here and you can’t find what you want, my apologies. Google probably has a cached copy of whatever you were looking for. You can also try looking under “uncategorized”, as I’ve dropped a couple of categories as well.

I’m going to try to post things that are a little more meaningful than just “whatever popped into my head that day”, we’ll see how that goes. School and work are still taking up most of my time.

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Two weeks (holy crap!) into fall semester, I suppose I should post something about being back in college.

Maybe I’ve been a college student too long, but the process of getting an application in, transcripts sent, add slips signed, overrides filled out (and signed), ID card made (“Smile!”), parking sticker attached to the right part of the car, maxing the credit card for books… this process was new a couple of colleges ago. So my blog isn’t going to turn into the story of the vet who went back to school and shared the whole story with you. While that would be an interesting and inspirational theme to work with, vets going back to school is nothing new and it’s really just the next chapter in a longer story for me. I’ve been through a lot to get here. Uphill through the snow both ways, you might say. Or not. Let’s just say I’ve worked hard to get to this point, I’m happy to be here, and quite frankly I have enough interesting homework to do that I don’t have time to sit around thinking about the past for very long.

So there you have the “I’ve gone back to college, again” blog entry. Now, since a) I have nothing due until Tuesday, and b) I’m quickly approaching stressed, tired and hungry, I’m going to the Y, followed by foraging for groceries. If I’m still feeling ambitious after that, I’m going to play with my new TI calculator… which looks like it has enough built in functions to fly an F-16.

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As a member of the early 00’s migration to Madison, I can tell you: this small town is looking more and more like a bigger city. Traffic is one example. It’s worse now than when I moved here three years ago. Madison.com has a Wisconsin State Journal article (full text) about the Wisconsin DOT’s new Madison WI Area Congestion Map. You can also view a freeway congestion map for Milwaukee WI and a freeway congestion map for Chicago IL.

Although… do ya really need a map to tell you that I-90/94 from the Illinois-Wisconsin border west is going to be moving slow every Friday from now until school starts in fall?

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I finished the Crazylegs Classic last Saturday in 58:54, a minute or so ahead of my target time of 60:00.

For people who “are runners”, this is no big deal. For me, this is a milestone. Before this year’s Crazylegs Classic, I had never run in any kind of organized run or walk. Zip. Zilch. Nada. That was for, you know, those cross country and track and runner type people. I was busy doing cool computer stuff, sloshing down Mountain Dew and eating healthy things like Twinkies. Now, I can not only run five miles at a time, I can do it without the need for medical assistance. (In fact, I run five miles three times a week.)

Now, I’ll admit the fact that I knew there was free beer waiting for me at Camp Randall. And that Bud Light tasted pretty damn good. But that wasn’t my main motivation for running the race.

If you’re one of the three or so people who actually follow my blog, you know I’ve been working on losing weight and getting in shape. At a certain point, you have to do something to test yourself. I’ve been running for an hour at a time on a treadmill at the Y, but running outside with other people on real streets and hills is a different thing when you haven’t done it before. You ask yourself, “Self, can I say I’m in good shape now?” And so you pay your money and do things like run the Crazylegs Classic.

And when you finish under your goal time, knowing you trained hard, and ran up all the hills instead of walking, and just plain kept going and got it done… that’s when you can say “Self, you’re in a whole lot better shape than you used to be.”

And when you hear yourself saying “I bet I can run it faster next year…”, that’s when you know you’ve made a change and stuck with it, and it’s going to be permanent.

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Now that the weather is turning into something resembling spring, I’ve started taking my daytime walks outside. (A bit of background; I have two 15 minute breaks, and a 35 minute lunch at work. I usually spend that time either walking in the hallways of the office building I work in, or on the streets and bike paths around the building.) It’s a way to burn a few calories (hopefully), and get away from my desk, the office, the whole bit. My job pays the bills, but a walk across the parking lot is generally more exciting, if that tells you anything. I usually have my 2m/70cm HT with me; different days I listen to different things. Whatever.

I noticed two things today. The first, was a guy standing on the bike path, sort of meandering and looking at the marsh. He looked out of place; not moving like he was out there getting exercise, just hanging out. Scoping, I thought. Casing, maybe. I didn’t take the leg of the path that goes under the highway, across the railroad tracks, and over to the other side of the highway. I was worried he’d follow me. The spidey sense tingled, and so I went the other direction, towards the next major street over (a few blocks away). I saw the same guy a few minutes later, headed slowly towards the bus transfer point. I ended up passing him again, but this time I had my HT in my hand. He didn’t say anything, but he gave the HT, then me, a serious evil eye. I wanted to tell the security guard about the guy. I didn’t; but I thought about it. Call me paranoid. The guy looked suspicious, though. He didn’t belong there.

The second thing I noticed today, on my afternoon break, was how freaking quiet it was outside. Just… quiet. Two office buildings full of people, next to six lanes of highway, in the middle of the afternoon, and it was quiet. Something just didn’t feel right; not necessarily a feeling of doom, like the calm before the storm, but just feeling that something was out of place. Misadjusted somehow. Too quiet.

If you have any hopes for a dramatic ending to the story, where the thug looking guy in dreds, and the too good to be true quiet were omens, signs that something was about to happen… well, you’re going to be disappointed. I walked back to the office, the suspicious looking guy probably got on a bus, the day went on and the quiet continued. (The only thing that really changed was that a meeting that I was going to attend tonight was rescheduled for next week.)

Suspicious alertness.

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