The coldest winter I ever spent
We went to the Oakland Zoo last week and had a great time! The building at the top of the gondola was built by Doppelmayr, the ski-lift company. Every bit of it, from the sound of the machines to the roof angles, reminds me of skiing in my younger days!
I rewatched Avengers Endgame. When I first watched it in the theaters, I thought it was fun and my buddy really didn’t like it. I rewatched it recently and, yeah, while it’s easy to get wrapped up in all the fights and explosions, it’s got lots of holes and incomplete, messy writing. Since they had total freedom to do ANYTHING, like kill off any characters, break timelines and such, it could have been so much better.
Darn, I thought I was going to be treating myself to the pinnacle of the Avengers series and instead I kept grumbling “Ugh, another sloppy bit?”
Megan got an eBike last month and she’s loving it! Here’s some pix and such.
2023 Tern Quick Haul D8 Cargo Bike
Color: Tabasco (Orange) /Silver
Serial: LM22T50301
Manufacturer’s service tag: THR3D008
Vehicle type: Cargo Bike (rear Storage)
Manufacturer: Tern
Model: Quick Haul D8
Year: 2023
Primary colors: Orange
Seat tube length: 18in
Wheel diameter: 20in
Frame Material: Aluminum
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Orange with silver trim e-bike with cargo space/captain’s chair on back, stirrups and handlebar for rear rider. Front and rear fenders. Abus folding lock on downtube.
She got a captain’s chair in the back so Abigail could ride along.
400Wh battery
250 watt motor
Max speed assist: 20/28 mph (depending on whether it’s configured to be a Class 1 or Class 3 pedal assist bike. I think it’s a Class 1)
Ebike weight: 45 lbs
Max rider weight: 265 lbs
Max weight on rear rack: 110 lbs
Max gross vehicle weight: 330 lbs
Warranty: 10 years on frame, handleposts, forks. 1 year on Tern or Biologic parts
We registered at BikeIndex.org and Project529.com in case it was ever stolen.
This is just a reminder that while content on the internet feels forever, it isn’t.
I just noticed an email I got from Blogger.com saying
Hi Lee,
This email address has a legacy Blogger account associated with it that hasn’t logged in since 2007. In 60 days it will lose access to the account and associated content; the data will be permanently deleted unless migrated to the Google Account system at Legacy migration page.
I noticed the email today but I received it about 4 months ago. Oop! Whatever was there is gone! No sweat, I didn’t have anything valuable there… I don’t think.
There has been all kinds of news about how the “defund the police” movement and “don’t stop shoplifters” laws is killing downtown San Francisco. Here is a more clear take, illuminated by cold, hard numbers.
San Francisco police apparently started a work slow-down in 2020 and haven’t started again. Here is a chart of traffic citations issued:
(source: SFGov.org)
San Francisco has talked about changing police budgeting (“defund the police”) but is hasn’t happened (1). Similarly, no shoplifting laws have changed in California despite talk about doing so (2).
Why have they done this? There is much speculation, all of it centering around politics and money.
Saw this at the El Cerrito Library! I observed a few patrons see the sign and call into the slot. Heidi, the supervisor was called over and shown the sign; she laughed and said with dismay that it was her responsibility to remove it.
Why Does Everyone Gets Email Newsletters Wrong?
In the vast majority of cases, my only options for signing up for a mailing list are:
That is stupid. I like you. I want to be reminded of your services! But why the hell would I want twice-a-day reminders for a service I use twice a year? Give me the option of getting weekly or quarterly reminders!
Just a quick reminder: Only Republicans can vote in the Republican Presidential Primary. Switching party preference takes 5 minutes in California: https://registertovote.ca.gov/ . Moreso, ALL of the California electoral votes go to one candidate!
Tell a friend.
The Murderbot Diaries is a really good book series! I just finished the second of six books. I picked it up because I saw it won some awards and, yeah. The NPR review captures the essence well but is a tiny bit spoilerish so I’d say to just dive in, or read the review
It’s Christmas Eve in “Gallahop”, our travel trailer. We are parked in my sister in-law’s backyard. We just had a fun Christmas Eve dinner with a great pot roast, fun food, and amazing desserts. The children had gone to bed and we had just set out all the presents for the morning. When we got into Gallahop, I noticed it was a bit chilly. Where we are in northern California, Santa Rosa, the evening temps have been in the low forties but our little house on wheels has kept us cozy warm.
Megan had jumped into bed and asked me to turn up the heat. I did but I thought about how it shouldn’t have gotten quite so cold in the first place. I fiddled with the thermostat for a few minutes but got nowhere. So I went outside and checked on our propane supply. We were out!
I immediately was brought back to a Christmas day some 40 years ago. The heat in our house in Smoke Rise had gone out ON CHRISTMAS DAY. We we about to have some 20 relatives coming over with fancy hors d’oeuvres, Christmas clothes, and presents, but the temperature in the house was slipping into the seeing-your-breath range! We set a kerosene heater up in the middle of the great room and turned it up full blast but the temperature in the house was falling quickly and one little space heater wasn’t going to do much to stave off winter! The house would be below freezing in a matter of hours! I imagined pipes bursting and mayhem descending!
Of course, my dad managed to find a plumber that would visit us on Christmas Day. He went into the basement and fiddled for a while. Eventually, he and my dad went to the 1,000 gallon propane tank buried in the front yard and saw that we were out of propane! My dad relayed to me just recently, “The kid forgot to make a delivery. We called the company and they came out and gave us a fill.” I kept thinking how there was no way we could reasonably wait even a day for service!
Now I got to participate in this apparent Christmas tradition. Just a day ago, I was idly considering bringing another propane cylinder to the RV because we had it and it wasn’t doing anything useful in our shed. I had in fact brought it! If I hadn’t made that tiny decision, I would have been tasked with finding a propane refill at 9pm on Christmas Eve, a daunting, if not impossible task! But as it was, I just needed to swap out the tank in the dark, power on the heating system, and breathe a sigh of relief.