Last Ride of 2015

I had my last ride of the year on Wednesday. I did try to invite a few others to join me but got no takers so ended up doing the ride solo. Even though it has been very warm this December it hasn't been that great to ride as when it was warm it was overcast and rainy and the few sunny days we had it was cold. Wednesday was one of those overcast days when the roads were dry enough to ride but still wet in spots. I ended up with just under 40 miles. It wasn't a great ride but I wanted to get out when I can since we are now in winter and you have to get out when you can.

Since this is the last ride of the year I looked back on my year of riding which can be summed up in one word HIGHPOINTS.

I had a theme this year to get to the high point in every county of NJ that was on a rideable road. Except for Union Essex and Hudson. which are on roads too busy to get to, we got to every other highpoint in the state. I'm still not sure this whole highpoint theme was a good idea but we did have some interesting adventures along with a couple of rides that sucked. I have included a set of links to the high point rides below in case anybody is interest in reading about our adventures. It is amazing to me that after over 20 years of riding in NJ that I am still discovering new roads and new routes.

I did some riding in Virginia and Tennessee this year and they have some good roads there too but I still think NJ has a lot of variety and good scenery to offer any type of rider.  I don't have any theme or ideas for 2016 but I'm sure I will come up with something stupid to do.

Happy New Year. See you all on the bike in 2016

Middlesex high point
Mercer County high point
Monmouth  County high point
Ocean/Burlington high points.
Salem and Cumberland high points
Somerset high point
Hunterdon high point
Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester high points 
Sussex,Warren high points
Morris, Passaic,Bergen high points
Cape May high point

Muddy Monday

Decided to do a solo ride today since it looks like it will be raining for the next couple of days. Because of the cold I decided for a short trail ride to make sure my mountain bike is ready for the winter season. (Besides a slight seat height and rear break adjustment it worked just fine).

I started from Carnegie Lake and went up just past Rocky Hill and back. It was just over 40 degrees when I started and really didn't warm up much. It was sunny for the first time in about a week. The cloudy and rainy weather we have been having meant there were a lot of puddles to go around on the trail. Of course some times the only way over was through so I splashed some mud on me and the bike as I had to ride through some puddles that covered the whole path. 

My sun glasses were the cleanest part of me and from the waist down I was 50% mud. Despite the messy ride I do like this part of the trail as it has enough scenery to enjoy and it a little different every time.

I stopped by the dam to take the picture of the mill. This is the same shot I take almost every time I ride this trail. It looks much nicer when there is ice and snow.

I also got a picture of the lock by Kingston that had an interesting sun glint in it.

It looks like we might have one more mild day on Thursday so if the forecast holds I will probably try to organize a ride from Mercer or Etra.

Ye Olde Cranbury Ride

Our families really don't exchange presents since non of us needs more stuff. Christmas, for us, is more about getting together as a family. We do exchange some little trinkets like ornaments or candy. My sister also tries to find the most horrendous cheap Christmas decoration to give to us. A few years ago she gave us a rapping snowman which dances and raps Christmas songs and is offensive on many levels. We have tried to find something to one up her but there is nothing worst than the rapping snowman. This year a plastic deer that plays Christmas songs with flashing lights was the worst thing she could find.

With Christmas over it is now time to get back to riding. Today I lead a pick up ride out of Cranbury. When I first started riding with the club I would go out of Cranbury every week because if was a close and easy ride to do and I really liked the people that rode out of there. For the past 10 years I only go to Cranbury occasionally as I tried to add more variety to my riding.

 Today I didn't have any thing in the book but the HoneyDo ride listed the C++ leader as volunteer so I sent out a email to let few people know that I would be there and hoped a few would show.

When I got there at 9am Chris and Joe were waiting for me and then Peter and another person decided to join us. We did a 45 mile loop to Millstone and back with a stop at Roy's Deli. I have not been out in a couple weeks since I had a cold last week. Because of excess of Christmas food and the lingering cold I felt a little out of shape. Still it felt good to get out.

I am off for the next week so I hope to get a couple of rides in between the forecast rain. 

Peace on Earth

This past week I was up at corporate headquarters in New York for set of technical meetings to try and bring three groups together to come up with our product strategy for 2016. There were about 25 of us there from all over the world representing at least 10 different countries. My main concern was that it would be hard come to consensus on our strategy as each group would want to promote their ideas over the other groups.

That turned out to not be the case and by Thursday afternoon we had a clear strategy that everyone could support. Some people may think that when you get a bunch of tech geeks together they calmly discuss the pros and cons of different technologies and come to a conclusion based on logic and reasoning. The truth is technical people tend to have as many turf wars and political maneuverings as executives in corporate board rooms or politicians in committee meetings.

As part of this trip I got to spend some time outside of work with the people from these other countries I normally only talk to by phone. Its nice to get to know them on a more personal basis and get their views on the world. Of course the conversation eventually lead to the recent set of attacks in Paris and the US.

If you haven't seen John Olivers comments on the Paris attacks you should check it out on youtube. In his moment of profanity he correctly points out that these attacks are not carried out by a group of radical Muslims but by just plain "Fucking Assholes" following an outdated ideology of assholery. I support the governments efforts to track down these people and do what they can to prevent these type of attacks but am concerned by some ideas certain politicians proposed to solve this problem as they amount to nothing more than blatant racism. I explained to my colleagues that the ideas of these politicians do not really reflect the opinion of the people and are just grandstanding to energize their base. They all understood since their politicians do the same thing.  

One of the outings we had after work was to travel to Times Square where the Statue of Liberty reminded me that what makes America successful is our ability to integrate many people from different parts of the world with different beliefs so that they can participate equally in our society

One only has to spend a few hours in New York to understand how rich and strong our culture is because of our diversity.  And it makes for a lot of good food too. (Although as my Chinese colleagues point out what we call "Chinese" food is not really what they think of as Chinese food and the same can be said of any ethnic food in the US although it all tastes good )

The politicians may try to have you believe that our society is under attack and we must take dramatic action to prevent "These people" from taking our way of life from us. However if you look at demographics and actual facts you will see that the world is getting safer. More than ever the different counties of the world depend on each other economically and need to get along. We still have disagreements, of course, but more of these are solved through trade agreements and treaties as oppose to wars.

The main thing that divides us is the hate that is bread out of fear and fueled by politicians and those who want to benefit from this hate. It is important that we don't get consumed by this. As I walked with my colleagues through Rockefeller Center and saw all the people enjoying the Christmas season it is easy to believe that people from different places with different backgrounds and beliefs can get together and find solutions to common problems. My conversations with my colleagues this week have continue to confirm my belief that if we learn to understand and respect each other we can solve the problems that face us and live in peace.

Day at the Beach

While some people headed to the hills this Saturday I headed for the beach. I had to some things to do at the condo in Avon so I rode from home to Belmar and met my wife at the condo. Its a 40 mile ride with a few rolling hills and not a lot of traffic until you get about 5 mile from the beach. I wanted to be at the beach by 11 am so I started at 8:30 am while it was still below freezing. The first 5 mile was a little cold but once I got going I was warm enough. 

The beach is a barren place this time of year which means you don't have to watch out for cars and people darting out in front of you as you ride only the ocean.  It was a good quick ride and by 11 am I was there and took care of the codo before heading out for lunch.

We didn't head straight home but took a detour to Tuckerton. There was a craft show there that my wife and I went to last year. They actually has some cool and unique things last year so we headed back this year to see if we could find some Christmas gifts. Unfortunately the craft show was no where need as good this year as a lot of the vendors that we like last year were missing this year.

Although the vendors were disappointing the museum where the craft fair was help is a nice place to walk around and includes a small light house which you can climb to the top of.  I also did find a new favorite dessert. Its called a cheese cake cone and it is exactly like it sounds only better. It is a cone filled with a really good New York Cheese Cake but what really makes it spectacular is that the cone is made of some hard caramel that perfectly comments the cheese cake. Its turns out the restaurant that makes this cheese cone is based on Cranbury so I will now know where I can get a supply of this new dessert. 

Besides stopping in Tuckerton we also made a quick stop in Smithville for lunch since it was only a few miles down the road. We usually eat at the Smithville Inn but since it was such a nice day they were completely booked. We ended up eating at the the other pub in Smithville before doing some more shopping and finally heading home.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

We did some stupid rides this year and it seems like we haven't gotten rid of the stupid yet. Today I decided to do Laura's ride out of Pennington. I knew it would be in the Sourlands and knew there would be hills but with the winter approaching I know that there won't be many more days I would be able to do these types or rides. I also wanted see the gang again.

It was a cold day in the high 40s but sunny. At Pennington to my surprise both Mike and Larry showed up for the ride. I haddn't seen bike since he bought a sail boat in the early spring. A few others joined us before Jim and Laura rode up. Once we found Mike a helmet we were on our way. Laura wanted to do something different from her normal ride to Lambertville so she had some surprises for us.

The first surprise is that we made a left out of the school instead of going right. We never do that. I had a few more "we never do that" moments as we made our towards the Sourlands. The worst surprise for me is that we were going up Province Fucking Line Rd. I had decided to ride my Feather today because I thought Laura would take it easy on us since it is late in the season and we are no longer in peak shape. I guess this is payback for some of the hills I made her climb this year.

I really don't have a problem doing Province Line on my Feather on a nice day in the middle of the season. Except for Dutchtown Zion Province Line is probably one of the harder ways up the Sourlands. Its actually not one continuous climb but a series of hills over a few of miles so it is long grind. Today wasn't a good day for me as I struggled up the hill and almost went aerobic and had one of my annoying stomach cramps. But once I got over it I got a second wind and was fine.

The only saving grace of going up Province Line was that I got the usual shot at the bottom of the last hill. Its not as pretty as it would had been a month ago when the leaves were at peak but it is always a good view.

From the ridge we made our way to Lamberville with a couple of more "we never do that" turns to our usual stop at RoJo's. Then out of Lamberville we made the ultimate "we never do that" turn up Rt 179. There is no shoulder on this four lane road for the first mile or so but there was light traffic so it wasn't too bad. It also turned out to be one of the easier ways to climb back up to the ridge of the Sourlands.

I was feeling better after the break so the climbs didn't bother me although some of group was feeling a little tired so we got a spread out. Our way back to Pennington was different than the normal route and the ride ended up being 49 ish (longer than I was expecting) but it was good to get out for hill ride this long late in the year.

The sub theme to the high point ride theme for the year was doing stupid things and even though we are done with the high point rides I think stupid is here to stay for a while.

Winter Project

Although I did get out on Saturday for a windy ride out of Cranbury with Tru, Mary, and a few others the days are getting shorter and colder and so will my rides. Since I won't be doing any epic rides or bike trips for the next few months this gives me times to work on some other projects. This year one of my winter projects will be improving my office at home. My current job has me working from home. Some people prefer an office environment but for me in my current role as a software architect who deals with people and teams spread across the globe working form home is very natural and efficient.

Since I stare at a computer screen for most of my day it is important to have a good work set up. This includes a large monitor, ergonomic keyboard and trackpad and of course a good chair and desk. My work requires me to have a couple of different computers (i.e. a Windows PC and a Mac) as well as an IOS and Android device. To organize all these machines I built a rack to store all these devices and hide most of the ugly cables to connect them all to my keyboard and monitor. This gives me a cleaner place to work and more desk space.

The rack similar to once you would find in most computer rooms and allows me to stack all my computers including my personal Windows PC and have them connected to a single monitor and screen using a Belkin KVM switch. The rack is well ventilated and has full slide out shelves that give me full access to all the wires if I need to reconfigure anything.

My current issue with my set up is lighting. I have a desk lamp but it doesn't light up the whole desk unless I put it above the monitor or aim it at an angle across the desk. The problem with doing this is that it creates some reflections and causes some glare which interferes with me seeing the monitor. This weekend I found a solution to this problem. I went to Lowes and got some under counter lighting from Sylvania. Its a 24 inch thin strip of flexible LED lights. The Mosaic kit I got had everything I needed and more. It contained 2 24 inch strips plus a transformer and remote control. I wanted the lights below the monitor but above the keyboard so it would light up the desk but not shine in my eyes. I ended up mounting the LED strip in a 1/2 inch aluminum U channel that I had painted flat black. The result was perfect.

I attached the U channel to the bottom of my monitor with some Velcro. This worked good and gives me the light I need with out any glare. The remote that came with the LEDs even allow me to change the light level and color so I can get just the right amount of light I need with out any glare.

I have a couple more improvements I want to make to my workspace one that may involve a linear actuator so when there is not much to share on the bike front I will share my winter projects in case anybody else might find them useful.