complich8’s journal

So, another work trip recently came and went. This one was out to Denver, Colorado. Another node install, for which we were in and out of the facility in a grand total of right around 3 hours. Neat facility, but it was a cage colo, so I shouldn’t really elaborate on it beyond saying that between 36 inch raised floors, probably 14-16 foot ceilings and ample power and cooling, I was quite satisfied with the facility and wish I had one of my own.

The flight out sucked about as much as expected. We flew United out of Dulles. Outbound, it was a 757, complete with miserable 17 inch seats with no damned legroom at all. Very uncomfortable until the person sitting next to me found a seat where she could talk with her husband, so I got to spread out a bit which made life a bit happier for all parties involved.

The flight back was on a 777, which was exciting. That’s a damned nice plane, let me tell you now. Seats are wide enough for me, belts are big enough to accommodate someone a fair bit bigger than me (versus the 757 and older jets that I just about max out). Headroom to spare, adequate legroom even in economy. It was a good experience. The 777’s takeoff is gentle, and the landing is really smooth…. you could barely tell we touched down, no big jerk or impact sound like smaller jets get. And the cruising speed…. with our ~50mph tailwind for better than half the trip, we were cruising in the 600mph ground speed range at 39000 feet. It was pretty awesome. It’s also neat that it’s just as ridiculously huge as it is. If you get the choice between other Boeing jets that currently exist or a triple-7, my recommendation is the 777, hands down.

Wednesday dinner was nothing special, went out to the Applebees near the Denver Airport Marriott. Hotel had reasonably good free wireless, friendly service, nice decor, but a sort of lower-middle-tier concierge lounge offering. Didn’t get a chance to check out the exercise facilities though. Interestingly, that hotel is sort of out in the middle of nowhere, in a little campus that’s basically 5 or 6 hotels, maybe two other commercial buildings, and a couple restaurants. I guess there’s other residential stuff nearby, but it definitely felt a bit desolate.

Thursday, after the install, we went to downtown Denver and hung out there for a while, ate at a restaurant called Racine’s. Pro tip: if you order the “Mile High Nachos” there, make sure that you’re splitting them with at least one other person (probably more), and that the only other thing you order is beverages. They are literally like a foot and a half tall, just a mountain of nachos and toppings. Rest of their food was pretty decent — we all had southwestern-type fare, but it was hard to appreciate after filling up pretty much entirely on the nachos.

Denver and Aurora (Co) are interesting. Downtown Denver is basically as built-up as cities get. Even fairly late, it seemed like there was a good amount of life on the streets, like people were out and about and there were things to do… like it was a walkable/drivable/bikeable city with lots of mixed-use sorts of areas that just totally vitalize a city. I liked it, thought it was a neat setup… and it’s apparently REALLY bike-friendly. Like, there’s cyclists freaking EVERYWHERE. It pretty much felt like the diametric opposite of Phoenix, which was a ghost town after 6 pm even in very comfortable weather.

The other interesting counterpoint to Denver’s presence of night life is Aurora, and the associated Denver suburbs. They’re basically the textbook definition of suburban sprawl, the very antithesis of urban life. It definitely didn’t feel close, or walkable, at all. Definitely very …. separated, and much more sparse.

The other interesting thing about them is that those cities are sort of right on the edge of the rockies. They’re not quite mountain cities, inasmuch as they’re relatively flat, but out east of them there’s nothing _but_ flat, and out west of them there’s well-defined mountains all over the place. Sorta neat, I guess… it makes it hard to lose your bearings. Confused where you’re facing? Find the mountains!

We didn’t really go out and do much outside of driving around, so I don’t really have much more to say about it. The airport’s main terminal is a neat design, and there’s some other pretty cool architecture and scenery around, which are worth looking at. And solar panels in surprising quantity. But yeah, the trip was pretty ordinary. I’d definitely go back and try to find stuff to do if I had a week or two out there though.

On the flight out, I read about half of Terry Pratchett’s “Carpe Jugulum”. It was pretty good… finished the rest up Saturday or Sunday night (don’t remember which). It’s fairly standard Discworld fare, but if you’re into that, it’s pretty good. Also picked up “Outliers” on the way out, but haven’t had a chance to crack it open yet.

At some point I’ll post some pics from the trip, but … for now, nothing, ’cause of the lazy. HaHA!

I picked up a 6 ounce piece of port salut to be like half my dinner, and it was just ridiculously good.

I don’t know how cheese connoisseurs eat cheese, or how they describe it to each other. But I know that Port Salut is delicious.

I saw a dobsonfly on the shaded side of a column at work the other day. It was huge. If you’ve never seen one, you should totally hit up wikipedia for them.

great grey slugs are also fascinating.

Just thought I’d share…

Ok, so I went basically the same ~2.5 mile neighborhood circuit I rode yesterday, with minor modifications (a right turn instead of a left at the bottom of the hill, and a straight shot up mannakee). About 75 degrees out, beautiful clear sky. I’m a little more comfortable with being on the bike and a little more comfortable with the handling and balance today, a lot less wobbling and skating across lanes and such, and I’ve got a better feel for the braking profile of the bike with me on it.

I had four stops and one walking section, which is about the same as I did yesterday. Stop at the corner of mannakee and carr, then again around the corner of nelson and crocus to catch my breath and prepare for the big hills. Third stop was at the bottom of the hill at nelson and college parkway, and the last one was when I realized halfway up that I wasn’t ready to go up the hill to my house without walking. On the second stop, more than halfway done, I drank almost the entire water bottle I brought with me. This is going to be a long road.

So here’s my current goals, in order of term:
(1) get more comfortable with up and down-shifting in-flight.
(2) find someplace that’s much more relatively flat to ride
(3) do that 2.5 mile neighborhood circuit without stops (given the hills, this is actually pretty challenging).
(4) rockville millennium trail circuit (~12 miles)
(5) 20 miles

My real goal is to achieve at least the first 4 by the end of 2009. I’ve got half a year to ramp up and do it… and realistically probably more like now until october-ish… so probably 5 months?

Nice thing is with a circuit this short, after the tiredness and thirst go away I’ve only got a little residual soreness, which doesn’t really impair me all that much the rest of the day…

Ok, so this is sort of reverse chronological order, but that’s fine…

So the first thing’s first. I just got a bike. It’s a Surly CrossCheck, 62cm frame (biggest they make). Shimano Tiagra/Deore components. Some crazy ultra-heavy-duty BMX downhill pedals. I’d been shopping for a bike for a couple months and ended up looking at that one.

Picked it up from a place called Silver Cycles down in Silver Spring, about 12 miles out by highway. Nice folks, helpful, but it’s a fairly small shop so they don’t have huge amounts of stuff in stock.

For the whole setup (bike, pedals, computer, helmet, brake interruptor levers, helmet, pump, supplies, lights, and a car carrier) I think I dropped about $1400… ’cause grabbing a $300 walmart bike would probably not work too well for someone of my stature.

Well, after about two and a half weeks to get it all there and all together, I finally went and got the bike early this afternoon. And today’s ride stats go something like this: time spent on the bike so far: about 30 minutes. Distance covered: 2.5 miles. Distance walked of that: less than 1/4 mile. Lessons learned: my neighborhood is a freaking BRUTAL place to ride a bike. I mean, I left my front door and hopped on the bike and despite spending time on the brakes I was doing like 28mph by the bottom of my street. Which, when you haven’t really been on a bike in a decade and have never gone that fast on a bike, is a little terrifying, I gotta admit. And then the sinking realization that one way or the other you’re going to have to get back up that hill … just to keep going at all. Yeah, that’s pretty rough.

Anyway, so I guess that starts the bikeblogging phase. 2.5 miles in my neighborhood, 30 minutes, coughing up a lung and damned near puking afterwards. I could barely make it back down the stairs when I got back into my house. My legs feel like they’re going to fall off. Last time I was on a scale was yesterday night, which put me at 358 (bearing in mind a peak of 365). Gonna track that stuff a bit more closely…

On to other news. The week before memorial day weekend (actually right around the same time I first went to the bike shop and started asking in earnest about that bike), work took me out to Seattle to visit a major airline headquartered there. That install went smoother than expected, and gave me some free time. Also, my good friend and former college roommate Pat lives out there, and so I got to catch up with him and meet his wife. Good times were had by all… with minor entries in the “drinking and debauchery” columns and some good food. Ate at a place called Salty’s (the Redondo beach location, which is apparently the one where you can only see the water and not the Seattle skyline), had some phenomenal cedar-planked salmon. Also ate at an organic place on Mercer Island where Pat lives that was pretty good. It’s especially hilarious using the outdoor dining area in front of an organic restaurant on an island in the Seattle area that’s only really accessible by car as a backdrop for a good conversation about the organic and locally-grown food movement versus the Green Revolution and industrial farming… just saying.

Anyway, Seattle was cool… definitely more of a walker’s city than a driver’s, if you’re looking at downtown anyway. Also more of a daytime city I think … there weren’t many people out at night, but we could find more than a place like Phoenix.

Also, the update I neglected before: a month before that we went to Louisville for work to do another node refresh. Also fairly smooth, having your shit together definitely helps these things! We ate at two places right across the Ohio river: a place called Buck Head’s that my dad recommended and an Italian place right next door to it. Neither was phenomenal, but both were pretty dang respectable. We also checked out this fossil bed by the Ohio river that was cool, and just generally chilled out there.

On a related note, I’m finding myself absolutely fascinated by rivers, lately. They’re pretty insane. Think about it!

Anyway, so that’s the update… pics are on the gallery.