• Dissolution

    Posted on by Don

    Beautiful weather so far this week, but I haven’t been able to get out quite yet. I did get to do some trail work at Sals on Sunday, while Anne did some hiking with Deb, so there’s that. Tomorrow is my volunteer day at the Canal Museum, and I’ll be riding over.

    QGIS vs GRASS vs SAGA: I’ve been trying to work with some more geoprocessing tools, specifically Dissolve (where several regions that touch or overlap are combined into a single shape — their borders are “dissolved,” hence the name). I set up some small test shapes and tried dissolving them. It worked perfectly well with GRASS, but with QGIS the two shapes did not actually become one. I tried using SAGA, and got the same failure — WTF? I thought at first that both programs were broken, but then found out that the two shapes weren’t actually adjacent, there was an infinitesimal sliver of empty space between them; technically, they didn’t actually have a common boundary for these two programs to dissolve, while GRASS apparently has a built-in tolerance to handle slivers like this and just ran with it. The more you know…

    More Maps: Check out Walking Purchase Park on the MTB Project. There were a few trails already done, but I added a bunch more, and it should now hopefully be a useful guide to the trail system there.

     


    📂This entry was posted in tech talk

  • Getting In The Miles

    Posted on by Don

    We just had a string of nice days this past week, and I finally got in some decent riding: I did a towpath ride on Monday, a decent (if slow) lap at Sals on Wednesday, followed by another towpath ride Wednesday night with Anne and some friends, and I took the towpath to get to and from the Canal Museum yesterday. (I also got in a good ride at Jacobsburg last Friday, as well as that aborted Nox ride on Sunday.) The rides are currently a bit Towpath-centric, but I had a lot of fun at Sals and the ‘Burg so I think I’ll be branching out. I still have yet to get out on the road bike.

    Today is rainy, and tomorrow and Sunday might prove to be the same. Blogging, bike maintenance, listening to the blues…

     


    📂This entry was posted in the sporting life

  • What Not To Do

    Posted on by Don

    Today I had plans to ride at Nockamixon, my only worries being that the trails might be closed because of recent rains (though it hadn’t rained in four days so things were probably OK), and if it were open, that it would be so crowded I wouldn’t be able to park at Tower Road. I got a late start, and the Tower Road parking lotwas pretty crowded but there were still a few spots open. So far so good: I got a spot and the trails were open.

    There was a weird vibe there though, something I pick up on sometimes at certain New Jersey trailheads: a sort of laconic cockiness in the conversations, everyone pretending to be the alpha male or something, and trying to sound superior without allowing the effort to show. Hard to describe, but I know it when I see it or hear it, and it always indicatesthe presence of assholes. Uh oh, maybe Sunday isn’t my day to hit Nox.

    I didn’t know anyone there at first, but then Jen S rode up just as I finished getting ready. She was parked right next to me, and we got to talking. She said she’d come out with the intention of doing several laps but had stopped after one — the place was really muddy.  Now I was in a quandary: Nox is fragile and the ground gets really soft when wet, but I was already there after a 40 minute drive, and I really wanted to ride…

    I rode anyway — I figured it couldn’t be all that bad and still be open, but I was seriously mistaken. I got about a mile in on the first loop and hit a long section of inches-deep, churned up mush with standing water on top, and saw moving water, like maybe from a seep, flowing over the ground in another area, and decided that being out was a bad idea. I bailed not long after, taking a grassy doubletrack that led back to Tower Road.

    It was a bit disconcerting to think that so many people were riding there in these conditions, but of the people I came across on the trail, I was the only one who seemed bothered by the mud, at least in terms of trail damage, and I was the only one who didn’t continue.


    📂This entry was posted in the sporting life

  • Where Does The Time Go?

    Posted on by Don

    I’m not sure where it’s gone, but here I am all alone… Anne is at a knitting convention; she should be home tomorrow, but I’ve been on my own the past few days.

    So, what have I been up to, this past week and this past month? Lets see:

    Riding: I got out at Jacobsburg yesterday, and I got in a towpath ride the day before — a fairly hot lap too, for me and for this time of year, which I guess is why the ‘Burg was so tiring. Today I helped out with Bike Smart Easton (kid’s biking education program) at Calypso Elementary, but otherwise took it as a rest day, and tomorrow I may ride either Sals or Nox. I’m supposed to help with a Sals trash cleanup tomorrow, so that may influence my decision, one way or another.

    Travel: We just got back from visiting Emmi and Kyle in Durham, where we participated in the March for Science in Raleigh, among many other things, except riding: we did a run the first day we were there, and it was sunny for the march, but otherwise it was a rainy, rainy visit. Plenty of good but heavy food, some bookstores and coffee shops, and some really cool night spots — our typical Durham visit.

    We also did a short trip to Rehoboth Beach about a month ago, just a few days to do some riding and visit Dogfish Head Brewing.

    Reading: I’ve been obsessing over the “Expanse” series, by James S.A. Corey. More on this later but it’s some seriously good space opera, and I’ve read five of the six published books (out of a total of nine planned).

    I’ve also been doing a bit of volunteering at the Canal Museum, and also quite a bit of playing with the mapping software, but those’ll have to be other stories.


    📂This entry was posted in cultural ramblings day by day the sporting life

  • Brew Day

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 192.0#, 14.0% BF

    (Those are the figures from yesterday morning.)

    We got up this morning at the crack of 10:00 AM  — thanks, Daylight Saving Time! — went for an easy mile run, and then after breakfast we got down to brewing. We’re doing it inside today because it’s just too windy out for the propane burner, so that means we’re stuck brewing for six hours on the stove burners instead of two on our “jet engine” of an outdoor system, but it is a nice day to just hang out.

    NEWS FLASH: Anne and I played a duet together today, for the first time ever! I broke out the cello and we played some of the things from the first Suzuki book. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” that sort of thing — all I could really handle, really… I’ve been resisting this for a while, but a friend came over and played with her the other day, and I realized I was no worse than she was, if not much better, so we gave it a try. Totally fun, but now I have to start practicing again.

    Yesterday was another mellow day at home, with a visit from Ray and Lorraine in the middle of it. We did get out for a walk in the afternoon, over to the Southside where we put in an order for our brewing supplies at Keystone, stopped in for a beer at Bonn Place, and then picked up our supplies on the walk home. Tonight we’ll probably do the usual with John and Donna.


    📂This entry was posted in day by day

  • Captain Beefheart

    Posted on by Don

    We were at the Allentown Farmer’s Market the other day, and Anne bought half of a beef heart.

    There was a heart for sale at the butcher shop a few weeks ago, and she was so intrigued she asked the butcher what you’d do with one (he recommended pickling it). She was going to buy it right then and there, but the look of horror on my face stopped her in her tracks. Fast forward a few weeks, and this time I guess I wasn’t paying close attention…

    beef heart
    Cleaning the heart before cooking.

    When we got home she washed the heart off and slow-cooked it for a few hours, letting it simmer with a bunch of spices — the house smelled awesome — and when it cooled she cut the heart into chunks, put it in a pickling brine, and put it in the fridge.

    Pickled Beef Heart
    Pickled Beef Heart

    It was ready to eat after a day or two, but we needed to work up our courage — we ended up trying it when we got home after an evening out. It was shockingly good, with a very strong steak taste behind the pickling, and a similarly steaklike texture (but no marbling). I think the both of us were surprised, and it’s now one of my favorite cuts of meat. Who knew?

    The ancient ones, that’s who…

    Sliced Pickled Beef Heart
    Sliced Pickled Beef Heart

    📂This entry was posted in pioneer arts

  • Big Breezy Day

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 193.0#, 15.0% BF

    Not sure what happened there with the weight, except that there were several days without real exercise — hey but I did make my steps! — and last night was a night out with John. We did the Brew Works, our usual, where it was quiet, almost empty even when we arrived, but it eventually picked up. Anne and I had eaten a fairly healthy meal at home (lamb with cauliflower, delish) but I had a rye IPA and two glasses of mead, and I think that might be at least partly to blame for those numbers.

    In terms of rides, I just got back from one, down the towpath to Easton and back. It’s a beautiful day and, except for a strong breeze, cycling conditions were ideal. It’s hard to believe we’re expecting two to four inches of snow tomorrow.

     


    📂This entry was posted in day by day

  • I Am Not Your Negro

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 191.0#, 13.5% BF

    We saw I Am Not Your Negro last night, the the documentary about James Baldwin. Unbelievably good — it cut between Baldwin himself in speeches, interviews etc, other documentary footage from various eras (60’s era riots, lynchings, Ferguson) and movie footage, especially of movies from when he was a kid, with a voice-over of his writings (mostly musings from an unfinished project, a tribute to Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King — “three friends who had been murdered” as he put it at one point), read by Samuel L. Jackson. More a “time to face some things you already know but have trouble admitting” story than an eye-opener, the structure, and Baldwin’s own powerful words, made for a very intense movie.

    Highly recommended — go see it.

    Afterward we went to a nearby pub that shall remain nameless, where the food was good and the beer was pretty decent, but it seemed one of those places — there are a number of them in the Valley, on the outskirts of urban areas — where there were noticeably no black people. (Admittedly, there were few people at all in there, and those few were annoying, so maybe I had a sour view of things.) There was also a whiskey ad on the wall, a mocking take on “Black Lives Matter.” Nothing serious, maybe a bit “edgy,” passive-aggressive even, but hey free speech and where’s your sense of humor?

    It could almost have been a scene from the movie, like a substitute for the outtakes from “The Pajama Game,” while the voice-over talks about white apathy and the emptiness of American lives. I guess that’s what great art does to you, it sensitizes you to the things it showed you.

    Anyway, not much else got done yesterday, though I did manage to lose another half pound. No ride today, since I’m going over to volunteer at the Museum, but possibly a road ride tomorrow.


    📂This entry was posted in cultural ramblings day by day

  • Bright New Monday!

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 191.5#, 13.5% BF

    Did a towpath ride yesterday, ended up fighting headwinds again on the way back but it was a beautiful day. I can’t say I ate all that smart or light yesterday, but they were healthy meals at home, so that’s something.

    Today is a rest day: did a few online and IRL chores, and hopefully I will be heading in to help with more Bethlehem Steel drawings this afternoon at the Canal Museum. Breakfast was fruit with cottage cheese, lunch will be something in the same vein.

     


    📂This entry was posted in day by day

  • Home Sweet Home

    Posted on by Don

    Morning weigh-in: 192.5#, 13.0% BF

    Oh yeah, I’m back to that….

    We are also back from a mini-vacation: several days in Montreal, followed by a few more in Northampton, Massachusetts — a week in total, Wednesday to Wednesday. Our plan was originally to do a little XC skiing somewhere in New England, but in the week before we left it became apparent that the weather would not cooperate, so we aimed further north. Even there, the weather was forecast to be weirdly warm, but we figured we’d find more things to do in a big city if the skiing didn’t pan out.

    And that’s exactly what happened: we visited the Biodome and Insectarium, and the art museum (“Chagall and music”), and sampled the local nightlife, and got in several good long exploratory walks through the city, including a hike up Mont Royal. Northampton was more bookstores and coffee shops, but we did get in a day hike, to the overlooks on Mt. Tom.

    We drove home on Wednesday, and were back into the maelstrom by Thursday. Friday I got in a morning towpath ride, and volunteered again at the Canal Museum, where I’m helping to evaluate old — like, circa 1900’s old — engineering drawings they’d acquired over the years from Bethlehem Steel. Yesterday was housework and food shopping…

    I may go for a ride this afternoon if it warms up, or a hike if it doesn’t.


    📂This entry was posted in day by day