January 24, 2005
A perfect weekend... almost!
What a beautiful weekend it was... painfully beautiful! We had sunshine from glorious sunrise to gorgeous sunset. Temperatures were in the mid-60s and there was just enough breeze to jingle the wind chimes. I would have felt sorry for the poor folks in the valley that were in the cold, clammy grips of that nasty seasonal fog, but it was much too nice up here to think about it. I had other things to worry about, like making sure I didn't get sunburned... 8^)
The only thing I didn't do, which would have put the icing on cake, is go for a long motorcycle ride. Instead, I spent most of Saturday doing outdoor cleanup kind of stuff, and most of Sunday doing taxes... you might think I'm starting early, but actually I'm rather late; I was finishing my 2003 taxes since I never did get them done last year.
Sherri and young Sean enjoyed themselves as well; Sean went to a school friend's party on Saturday. It wasn't quite clear what the party was for until Sherri dropped him off (Sean said it wasn't a birthday party), and it turned out that his parents were throwing a party to celebrate his good grades. What a neat idea!
After dropping off Sean, Sherri descended into the icy depths of the valley to do some shopping for the art class she's taking. She said it was a depressing trip, going from sunny clear skies to dank greyness. However, that's where the good shopping is.
As she picked Sean up on the way back, she started talking to the mom of one of the other boys invited to the party and found out not only that they lived quite close to us, but also that her husband was looking for a 240Z project car. By happy coincidence, I have a 240Z project car that I wouldn't mind getting rid of.
Sunday, Sherri spent the day trying to fashion noses out of various materials (her assignment from her art class) with varying degrees of success. One was to be made of wire, which absolutely did not want to cooperate with Sherri and yielded some frightening expletives from her. Another was to be made of aluminum foil, which was also difficult to work with though she tried her best to form it around her nose... at times she looked like someone trying to shield brain waves from aliens with a foil hat, only she had a strip of foil running vertically from the top of her head to below her chin. The final nose was made of clay, and that was more her element. She formed it and then baked it; now it looks like something that is meant to be used as the original for a plastic surgeon's mold... very, very good.
The husband of the mom that Sherri met came by with the family to check out the 240Z and he seemed quite interested. He may come by with an expert next weekend to take a closer look. Their son Jonathan stayed to play with young Sean; they spent the rest of the day bicycling, hiking, playing with Sierra, playing with the Xbox, and doing various other things that boys enevitably do (like get dirty and muddy!). I'm really glad to see that Sean is making new friends and enjoying the outdoors up here. He's quite the trooper.
I sure could have used a couple more days off like this past Saturday and Sunday. Sadly, I see that the forecast is rain for the next three days. Oh well, I suppose it's best that I'm working those days...
Posted by Michael at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | Family
I couldn't agree more
I happened upon this article by Peter Schrag, columnist for the Sacramento Bee. I have to admit, I too am surprised by what seems to be our "national stupidity."
You can read this article in its entirety on the web at: Goodbye to 2004, another year of living stupidly.
Here is an excerpt:
Peter Schrag: Goodbye to 2004, another year of living stupidlyOne of the blessings of having been around a long time is
that in any dark moment of our national life you can usually
think of another moment that, if you put your mind to it,
seemed almost as dark or maybe darker: McCarthyism, Watergate,
the disaster of Vietnam.But never in the memory of the living generation have the errors, falsifications and unreason of policy come in such rapid and overwhelming succession that each buries its predecessor before it's even partially absorbed, much less understood.
Posted by Michael at 09:50 PM | Comments (0) | Politics
New category for my Europe Trip 2005
Well, I admit that no plans are firm yet. This year is the year; that is my hope. I was due for my 8 week sabbatical last year. I have until the end of next year (2006) to take it. And I am hoping it will be this year.
It has been a dream of mine, for some time now, to travel to Europe with my motorcycle in order to visit family and tour the countryside. While there, I would share experiences and pictures via this blog, provided that works out. In order to keep track of the planning prior to, and the experience during, I've created a new category on my blog called EuroTrip2005. If things work out, it'll have a lot of entries; if they don't, well... I don't want to go there yet...
Posted by Michael at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | EuroTrip2005 | Motorcycles | Travel
January 23, 2005
A great man passes...
I really enjoyed Johnny Carson and was sad to see that he had passed away this morning... the story here: Longtime host of ‘Tonight Show’ dies at 79. I see that he was an avid tennis player too!
Posted by Michael at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | Movies
January 19, 2005
Intel reorganizes... again
Intel has reorganized itself yet again; see Intel overhauls business product lines.... Some are taking a "wait and see" attitude before agreeing that this is a good move; see Intel's Next Contortionist Act. Personally, I'm envious; I've never been organized enough to "reorganize".
One thing I noticed that may cause a problem. Intel is big into TLAs (three letter acronyms) so all the business group names distill into easy to handle triplets. For example, prior to this latest reorganization, the Desktop Products Group was known simply as DPG, and the Mobile Products Group was MPG. In the new structure, I noticed that there is a Digital Home Group and a Digital Health Group. So if one employee is telling another that he (or she) is working in the DHG group, the other employee will have to ask for clarification; "Is that the Healthy group or the Homey one?" 8^)
Posted by Michael at 09:09 PM | Comments (0) | World
Over 85% of nations surveyed have grave fears about Bush
The following article indicates that I'm not the only one concerned with the direction our United States of America is going over the next four years: World fears new Bush era - Guardian Unlimited.
The fact that public opinion is turning against Americans in general is not very heartening either.
Posted by Michael at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | Politics
January 17, 2005
If there are any problems
This is my first foray into such an activity known as "blogging"; though the term is familiar to me, the actual participation in the activity is not. Because of this, and because I am just getting familiar with the software itself, I am likely to take less than ideal paths, both in the way I lay out the content and in the way I administer the software. For instance, I realize that I have provided no way to contact me in case there are problems with either my content or my software. I can correct that temporarily by providing a contact email here until I can figure out how to add a contact page through the software. For now, if you have any issues with the site, please email me at admin 'at' thedonlonfamily 'dot' com (I write it out this way in order to keep spammers from automatically harvesting the email address...).
Posted by Michael at 05:34 PM | Comments (0) | Hobbies
January 14, 2005
Relief efforts
It pains me to hear of, and see images of, the devastation caused by the tsunamis, particularly since I have friends through work in Malaysia. Fortunately, everyone I know is OK. We've provided a donation for the relief efforts through the American Red Cross and we encourage everyone else to help in any way they can. If you work for a company that matches donations, be sure to take advantage of it. Intel has raised nearly $3 million in relief donations.
Intel active in providing tsunami relief - Hillsboro Argus
Intel steps up for tsunami relief - The Business Journal of Portland
Posted by Michael at 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | World
January 13, 2005
Funny web site: Spamusement
Take a look at this web site; those of you that receive spam (who doesn't?!?) will get a laugh out of these "Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!." I had a pretty good laugh at some of them!
Posted by Michael at 07:27 PM | Comments (0) | Family
Clearing the fog
The past few days, we've had pouring down rain one day and we've had icy slick roads another, and I've ridden through both on my motorcycle without any trouble. Yesterday, however, I rode in the worst type of weather I can think of. You might ask, "What type of weather can possibly be worse for riding on a motorcycle than pouring rain or icy slick roads??" Well, I have to preface that with a quick admission that I don't find riding in the rain all that bad (provided I'm wearing the right gear, which I do), and I didn't find riding on the icy roads all that bad either (provided I'm fully aware of the situation, which I was). Yeah, I know, I've got a few marbles loose. But hey, if it was a beautiful sunny spring day, I wouldn't say, "Dang, I sure wish it was pouring down rain instead of being so purty and sunny." Gotta give me credit for that. But if I have to get from some-here to some-there and it happens to be raining, I'll just gear up and make the best of it; no biggie. My 'bike just seems perfectly suited to rainy weather, with the fairing keeping my legs quite dry, and the wind screen, raised just a bit, doing a fine job of blowing the rain droplets off my visor. So what in the heck do I consider the worst type of weather to ride in, for goodness sake??
FOG! Yes, that's right, riding a motorcycle in thick, wet, clammy fog is just downright miserable! Especially if it's during the day. Those of you that drive cars probably wonder about this; "Yes, fog is a drag," you might think, "but it's not all that bad, is it?" Well, on a motorcycle, yes it is.
First of all, of course, there is the reduced visibility because of the fog hanging around. Then, if it's during the day time, everything's just bright enough that my eyes hurt without sun glasses. If I decide to put them on, well, that's another level of reduced visibility. On top of that, the mist that makes up the fog sticks tenaciously to my visor... the droplets aren't large enough to join together and roll off the visor, so they simply creat a fine layer that is very effective at obscuring my vision. If it's day time it's much worse since the light gets scattered all over. Finally, the temperature associated with fog is typically frrr... frrrr... frrrrr... it's really cold, so not only are my fingers, toes and nose froze, the inside of my visor also tends to fog up. So as I'm riding, I'm constantly having to wipe the outside to clear the mist, and having to open the visor to clear the fog. It makes for a miserable and annoying ride, and I hate it; I really, really hate it [waaah!].
Another aspect which makes fog unpleasant is that we rarely get it where I live, but it's often present (during the fog season) where I work. For example, just today, I woke up to a beautiful crisp sunny morning. I could see the Sierra Nevadas clearly. Looking toward the valley, however, all I could see was an ominous grayness. I got on the 'bike, feeling good, sun glasses on, ready to greet the day head on. About 15 minutes later, I got close enough to the fog to see it start swallowing the cars in front of me and my spirits dropped like a rock and I started to dread the rest of the day. I very nearly turned around to play hooky from work but my conscience got the better of me.
So there you have it; weather which I consider to be worse for riding motorcycles in than either pouring rain or icy roads. Once we start getting into spring time, I'm sure I'll be talking more about the best weather for riding... 8^)
Posted by Michael at 07:14 PM | Comments (0) | Motorcycles
January 12, 2005
Slippin' and slidin'
What do you get when you combine a recent rain with a very clear and very cold night? You got it... ice, lots of ice! This morning, I walked out to my motorcycle with all my gear on, heading off to work. I slipped on what looked like a wet spot but was obviously ice. I had to pause for a moment to consider the wisdom of following through with the decision to ride to work on the 'bike. "Well," I reasoned, "it's probably only icy on my driveway; the rest of the way should be fine." There are times when my reasoning is not very sound, and unfortunately, this was one of those times...
After I scraped the layer of ice off the seat, I was able to back the 'bike down the driveway without any trouble, though I could feel how slippery it was under my boots on the way. Heading down the hill to the main road seemed to be fine too, and I thought my reasoning was justified. But then as I got on the main road, I immediately saw I was wrong... way wrong. It was absolutely covered with a very fine layer of ice... almost a frost. I was extremely ginger as I pulled out on the road and made my way to the freeway, being very gentle on the throttle, shifting as smoothly as possible, and avoiding the use of the brakes if I could. Once I reached the freeway, there was nothing to worry about anymore as the morning traffic had beaten the ice into submission, though it was still waiting to pounce on anyone that foolishly drifted on to the shoulder. So despite a tense (and cold!) ride, I made it to work without any serious incident.
Unfortunately, Sherri wasn't quite so lucky. I did not have a chance to warn her about the conditions even though I left before she did. She took the Camry to work, which was overall a better decision than mine. As she rounded a corner near home, the tires lost all traction and rather than heading to work, Sherri found herself heading right toward a telephone pole. Thank goodness she missed that, but she did twang right into the support cable. Sherri's pride was hurt ("Dang it," she said, "I've driven in snow and ice in Spokane; I should know how drive in it here too!!" Or something to that effect), but otherwise she is fine. The Camry came out a little less well; the cable cut all the way through the plastic bumper (sliced it clean in half!) and crimpled the front edge of the hood. Fortunately, the infrastructure does not seem to be damaged at all, so getting it fixed ought to be relatively straightforward. I think the twanginess of the cable was to our favor.
In a way, there is a positive to this event, as we were looking at selling the Camry this coming year: both the bumper and the hood had become severely pock marked after 10+ years of driving; now we have no choice but to get a new bumper & hood which will result in a pretty nice looking car once it's all put back together again. Nothing wrong with making lemonade, right?
Posted by Michael at 08:41 PM | Comments (2) | Automobiles | Vehicles
January 11, 2005
Heart in throat experience
Just yesterday morning I was heading off to work when I had a rather frightening experience. I decided to ride the motorcycle despite the pouring down rain - I realize that's already quite frightening for some folks - anyway, I was following a Honda when suddenly a deer darted out from the right side of the road and ran head on into the right rear quarter panel of the car. The blow stunned the poor creature such that it collapsed though its momentum caused it to keep sliding across the road directly into my path. The best I could do was give a cry of "Oh sh**!" but luck was with me that day... since the roads were slick, the deer slid all the way to the center turn lane before coming to a stop and I just missed its rear legs. In the rear view mirror I saw the deer get up and shake off the daze before it continued across without further incident. It took a good half hour for my adrenaline to wear off; I kept envisioning the unfortunate outcome for both the deer and I had it stopped directly in my path rather than sliding to the center turn lane. Potentially, the rain-slick roads saved me that morning!
Posted by Michael at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | Motorcycles
