big john

We did a lot of Angeles Crest Highway. I should go up there but car racers discovered it during covid.

indyfabz

Seems that more and more people are coming back to work in center city. I had to wait in line for several minutes to pay for a paper at the Wawa near my building. Lots of people streaming out of the commuter rail station exit that is closest to three big office towers. The parking garage in our building now fills up many days. I know it's a god thing economically, but I sort of miss the convenience of things like not waiting in lines and navigating crowded sidewalks.

genejockey 

That was a near thing.
Wordle 396 6/6

⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

genejockey 

Yesterday's ride was weird. I felt like I was working fairly hard, and my HR confirms it, but my average speed was really slow - 15.9 mph, the very slowest I'd ever ridden this route. I was riding Mrs. Peel, on which I had just mounted the clincher wheels with Michelin Dynamic Classic tires, instead of the tubular wheels with Conti Giros. I went back and checked the last time I'd ridden this route on Mrs. Peel, and with much the same HR average and max, but with an average speed of 16.7 mph. AND that ride I describes as "Z2 recovery", whereas this one I felt like I was working hard a lot of the time.

So, I swapped the tubular wheels back on for today's ride. We'll see how it goes. I find it hard to believe the tires could make THAT much difference without being flat.

phrantic09

Ride faster, will feel harder

WhyFi

fify

phrantic09

Right!

Bah Humbug

My FIL got an IEEE award last night for being an outstanding Power Engineering Educator. I wonder if anyone thought about a slight change to the name of that one.

MoAlpha

Heat? Accumulated stress (exercise or other)? Both have significant effects on efficiency.

datlas 

Got a good ride in. The course was rather flat but one must compromise for the good of the group. By ride’s end it was 90 and humid. It was fun but a major sweatfest.

genejockey 

It was warm but not that hot here. It was about as warm as Sunday's ride, which felt a lot better. That one averaged 15.6 mph, but it was also 3x as long.

Could be accumulated exercise stress - I did over 150 miles last week, rode 5 days, versus the usual 130-140, including a longer ride on Sunday. But that was after a week where I rode only 52 miles (vaccine effects + destroyed tire on Sunday ride). My HR as I sit here is still in the mid 40s, which is pretty much normal for me.

Anyhow, I'll see how today goes.

seedsbelize2

Another wonderful ride in the books

seedsbelize2

Spot is feeling it too.

seedsbelize2

I bet that's the diff. I need to get my rear tubular wheel re-built and back on the bike. My to do list, this past year, has ballooned. Never again will I have nothing to do. And still I spend large chunks of time doing nothing.

Eric F 

I'm more of a dog guy, but this cat is pretty good. That said, our young German Shepherd has found out that cats are not to be messed with.

genejockey 

You wouldn't want a German Shepherd to lie on top of that turntable, anyway.

seedsbelize2

I have Amazon Prime here in Mexico. Over the course of the past 6 mos. to a year, Prime deliveries have strung out from two weeks to three. So, while I await my new taillight, I have tied cds to the back of my saddle--one to the saddle and one to the seat bag. A fredly move. Likely that's all I need, for the small amount of traffic I experience. In the past week or so, there have been items on AmazonUSA that aren't on AmazonMexico. But after I find them and look at them on the USA site, they suddenly appear here. They cost more; they always cost more here. But I have a gift card I'm nibbling away at. The jersey* I wanted did not make the move, after three days, so I ordered from the USA site this morning. Shipping time is the same. Once it crosses the border and goes onto the back of a mule, the delivery time stabilizes.

*One reviewer said it compares favorably with his Rapha Core jerseys. It costs $35. As always, Vamos a ver.

seedsbelize2

Spot is 14 years old. So is our old dog, Quinto. The pups are in the 6-7 year old range, and get along well with Spot. But he and Quinto have never seen eye to eye. There is always tension there.

abshipp 

Todays ride probably should have been 20% shorter. First time cramping on the bike - I nearly fell over dismounting in front of my house.

Still fun and a ride I’ve wanted to do for a while. My house to Saluda NC - ended up with 75 miles and 4.6k elevation.

Now I’m on the couch with a cat in my lap and zero desire to move.

abshipp 

Except for when I was descending and a yellow jacket latched on to my sock and started stinging me. Naturally at the second fastest but most technical part of the descent.

WhyFi

Replacement Ray-Ban lenses arrived and installed! It's like new glasses for 1/3 the price!

WhyFi

Out cats (well, singular "cat" now) knew that the amp was the warm place to snooze when the music was playing - they have a different definition of the hi-fi sweet spot.

genejockey 

Good reason to avoid those amps with exposed tubes.

WhyFi

Ha. Yeah. All of the tubes in the system are/were in pre-amps, and all within a chassis, so nothing super hot. The power amp does have a pretty significant Class-A bias, though, and it does get toasty. I would have thought that it'd be too toasty for a cat bed, but the cats disagree.

genejockey 

I have a similar 'tube preamp/solid state amp' system - which as I think about it is now 35 years old.

Cats, though - when my brother and SIL were in their "living in the woods" phase, heating their house with a wood stove using wood he harvested from their 11 acres, he was amazed how close to the stove the cats would sleep. Their fur would get hot to the touch, so much so that he joked about them spontaneously igniting.