Technology in the Corn

My migration to Iowa continues unabated.  Realtor contacted and in motion, movers scheduled, blah blah blah.  All very exciting, especially while trying to organize Christmas concurrently.

Due to the "aggressive timeline", I'll be in short-term housing for a month or two until I get into a house.  During that time, my main PC (and most of my other belongings) will be in storage.  The Droid is great as a miniature computer, but its small screen and tiny keyboard make casual web surfing, blog updating, and email composing less relaxing than I'd like.

Enter CostCo.  They have the Acer Aspire One netbook for $300.

It fits the bill as a temporary computer perfectly!  I can use the WiFi to do email, surf the web, etc. etc. with a relatively comfortable keyboard and screen.  8 hour battery life means I'm not tied to a power outlet.  And then I remembered that with the latest update, the Droid can serve as a WiFi hotspot!  So here's the scenario.  I'm driving to Des Moines.  I get the urge to update this blog.  I pull into a convenient location, fire up the Droid, set it as a WiFi provider.  Fire up the Acer, and POW!  I am composing essays on the glory of corn in the middle of a cornfield!  Oh, the delicious irony of it all...

Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of an Acer Aspire One netbook.  Merry Christmas to me!  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go schedule an "on-sight survey" so the movers know how much truck to bring.  Carry on.

New Job

Well, after a long summer of leisure,  I have finally found a new job to my liking.  It is in Des Moines, Iowa, about a 6 hour drive from my current home.

That's where it is.  I'll be helping to develop the next generation of high-throughput robots for a well-known agricultural company in the area, should be fun.  In addition to corn, Des Moines has a downtown:

They also have a nice big lake, tons of bike trails, and minimal traffic.  I start on January 3rd, which leaves me little time to find a place to live and get my backside up there.

Retirement is Tiring

My life of leisure is anything but.  I've become brainwashed by Costco, and promptly bought some shelves and a big pile of totes to store my stuff in.  Rather than merely on the floor, which is where most of it was this morning.


**Due to privacy concerns, the content of this blog section has been deleted.  And by privacy, I mean my shoes.  And by concerns, I mean I don't want them eaten by the dog whose tail is in the picture that was previously in this location.**

I'm still working on Colorado pictures.  Hold your horses.  I'm retired, it's very busy.

Update - No Time!

So faithful reader(s)...it's been a while!  Since my last post I was laid off from work, coincidentally started summer vacation, found a woman who tolerates me, paid off the Super Wagon, bought a motorcycle (2008 Honda CBR600RR, great-grandson of my 1992 CBR600F2), and went to Colorado for two weeks of adventure.  Rafting, high-altitude hiking, rock climbing, living without plumbing (outhouse!), and great fish tacos in Salida, CO.

Someday maybe I'll post up some pictures.  Right now I'm too busy enjoying my life of leisure.

Carry on!

What a Day

I'm exhausted, in a good way.  The day started with some cycling around the Chesterfield Valley/Wildwood areas.  Nothing too extreme, just shaking out the legs.  After some lunch, high-speed hiking (with an attempt at trail running thrown in to keep the heart rate up) at Lewis & Clark.  Which, by the way, is in fine shape after yesterday's spotty rain.  And to wrap it all up an evening paddle at Creve Coeur Lake, in my sister-in-law Amy's 12.5' boat, which has now replaced my 17' monster at the CC Lake Boathouse.  Because she doesn't like my boat, and her boat is plenty capable in the placid lake environment.

I can't believe it's 8 o'clock already...where does the time go?

Quick Update

Wow, over a month since the last post.  Oh, well, life gets in the way.  So here's a quick update.

Still employed by the Great Pharmaceutical Juggernaut, for a couple more months anyway.  Today the site was handed over to the company that bought it.  Tomorrow should be interesting.  Also had to say goodbye to my good friend and cubicle-neighbor Gary, though I'm sure I'll see him again soon; today was his last day of employment by the Juggernaut.  Their loss, he's a legend in the small world of NMR.

Regular exercise, food moderation, and riding at Babler have been improving fitness quickly, as well as burning off the flab accumulated over the winter and at work.  For some reason that job made me fat, but that's all over now!  It's amazing how much easier it is to climb hills on a bike now...

The Trek and the Gunnar still vie for supremacy.  I'm not sure there will ever be a final decision, they are both amazing bikes in their own ways.  The Trek is stiff and fast, the Gunnar is quiet and smooth.  If only the Trek was quiet, it could achieve outright victory.

With warm weather being more and more frequent, my legs are feeling the burn.  It's tough not to ride when the weather is this fantastic.

Trek vs. Gunnar: Throwdown at Babler

So at some point I bought a Trek Madone 5.2 Project One bike, tricked out in orange with Sram Rival component group and Easton Circuit wheels.  Recently it was upgraded with a set of Red shifters I had lying around:

At some later point I bought a Gunnar Roadie frame in sparkly blue from my buddy TK.  It was built up by yours truly with SRAM Force components and Mavic CXP33 wheels:

 

The Trek is a modern bicycle of bonded carbon fiber.  The Gunnar is a "new classic" bicycle handcrafted from the finest of modern steel.

My curiosity leads me to constantly compare the two.  Steel vs. Carbon.  On flats and moderate inclines, I could tell little difference.  Both transferred my leg power to the wheels effectively, both were silky smooth.  The Trek has a lot more drivetrain noise - whether this is from amplification of noise through the ginormous frame tubes, or less exacting frame alignment I cannot say.  Aside from the noise, though, both are comparable.

Recently, I took each to Babler Memorial State Park with the intention of comparing them on the brutal climbs there.  Grades around 20%, where pedal mashing at VO2 max is the name of the game.  I do not "spin" up those hills, I grind and slog up them as best I'm able.

In the end, I'd say the Trek is marginally more efficient.  It was also noticeably more stable on the high-speed (40mph is common) descents.  This is not to say the Gunnar is a slouch, we're talking very fine degrees of difference.  Some or all of which could easily be in my head.  Except the downhill stability, which was pretty obvious...but also could be attributed to wheel or fork characteristics and not just frame material.

So which is my favorite?  That's a tough call.  I prefer the Gunnar's quiet ride.  And the steel bike does feel "springier", and "more lively".  Traits that are hard to quantify or even describe, but there you are.  For all out speed the Trek holds the edge.  It also weighs a couple of pounds less, which makes a difference.  For longer or more leisurely rides I'd choose the Gunnar in a heartbeat.

In the end, though, I'm quite impressed with the modern steel alloy.  The steel frames of yesteryear were quite noodly and flexible beneath my enormous bulk, and I wasn't sure what to expect from the Gunnar.  It is astonishing how competitive it is with the aerospace marvel of carbon fiber.  The Gunnar craftsmanship is miles ahead of the Trek's mass-produced but advanced technology.  In the end it comes down to your style of riding.  If you're racing, carbon fiber hands down.  Everything else, modern steel.  Or if you're really lucky, one of each.