Douglas E. Berry

From a crappy ride over to the train on, today was a bitch. I was riding on Blossom Hill, in the bike lane, when an asshole in a pick-up comes within inches of me to turn into a driveway. It's 0550, no traffic.. he couldn't wait for me (doing about 14mph) to clear the driveway?

Get to work, and get loaded fairly quickly. First part of the day was easy, then things got very annoying.

I had to go to our supplier in Brentwood, which is hell and gone from everything else. Without this stop, my day would have been straight up 680 with a side jaunt into Livermore and Dublin. With it, I had to do a great circle route. 680 to 580, to Vasco Rd, stop in Brentwood, the Hwy 4 out to Concord and hit my San Ramon stop on the way back. This adds close to eighty miles and at least two hours to my day.

I get out to the supplier, and they ask me why I'm there. Um, I have two POs to pick up? Oh, those went on our delivery truck this morning. Mike (names changed to protect the stupid) threw it on.

Normally, this is a good thing. But Mike neglected to freaking call us to let us know that our orders were no longer will-calls! Mike is the kind of guy who has a great idea and implements it immediately without any further consideration of what needs to be done also to support that move. A few weeks back he was the guy trying to load me with every pallet he could find even though most of them were way too heavy for my truck.

So, no pick up, and a big hole in my day. They get my order wrong at Taco Bell, people are driving like idiots, and I'm seriously wondering who is going to play me when America's Most Wanted does its profile of the "Highway 4 Rammer." I get to our supplier in Concord, who are normally very cool people (they have their warehouse wired with a sound system that makes you weep.. I came in to hear a live recording of Sexual Healing at concert levels). but today there was a suit in the building who evidently graduated from some MBA program that stressed being a condescending arse to everyone who doesn't drive a Lexus.

To be clear, I don't give a damn about buzzword bingo, or chatting about how much you make. I want my thousand feet of hanging wire (with clips) and my paperwork. The final straw was when he started mouthing off about how i seemed to be a smart guy, pity I wasn't "doing anything" with my life.

Call Rome. I didn't strangle him with his cheap-ass YSL knock-off tie. I just joined in the impromptu sign-along to What's Going On? then left.

Had two more drops, one of which involved doing a truck square dance with a hospital supply truck and a FedEx semi, and back to the warehouse.

Where those thousand wires slide off the forklift. Cleaning that up killed a half-hour or so. I do feel sorry for the night crew.. they have to count and rebundle all that wire.

Finally got out of work, and the bike racks were full on light rail. Get home to find that Avalanche Press had sent me the wrong order. This really pisses me off.

The All-Star game is a joke. Every half-inning they're stopping play for some BS presentation.

One moderately good thing. My truck now has a camera installed to help me back up safely. Not overly useful, but interesting.

I think I'm calling it an early night.

Today was my first day of riding/light rail to and from work. This was very successful! But first the details.

Distance: 5.479 miles
Maximum Speed: 20.1 mph
Average Speed: 10.8 mph
Time Riding: 30m 34s

There were of course, breaks in that. I ride from home to the light rail station, then take a train for about 25 minutes to the Civic Center station. Then it's a little over a mile to work. After that, there's this 8 hour+ break where I earn a living.

The ride over was nice. Very little traffic at 0545, my backpack was comfortable, and the trail was empty. I made it to the station just as a train was coming around the bend. Hanging my bike on the rack took a little effort, but it was my first time. Spent my time on the train reading. At my stop, I easily got my bike down and rode to work. I'm not the only bicyclist, and we have an area to park our bikes. Changed into my steel-toes, and clocked in.

Work was.. interesting. I had to load eight pallets of material for two stops. What made this difficult was one of the stops was getting over-sized pallets. Just big enough so I couldn't load them side-by-side. I ended up with all the pallets for one location on one side, and thew pallets for the other stop on the opposite side of the bed. Luckily the two stops were close to each other, so I wasn't off-balance for long.

No, the real amusement came when I got back to the yard. We have several racks to hold strut. There are two racks that our daily orders are loaded on for us to find each morning (always amusing when the one thing you need is buried behind 900 feet of others' work.) Then there's the inbound rack. When we bring back anything strut-like from our suppliers, we put it on the inbound rack. When the Unistrut fairy visits, it goes on the inbound rack.

Today, the inbound rack collapsed. We all had to park and unload on the street while they cleaned up the mess.

Once i was unloaded and out, I rode back to the light rail. Amazingly enough, after a long day I felt good on the ride. Having Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls off S&M come up as I rode away helped. The only tough part of getting home was the climb to get off the Guadalupe River trail.

I left work about 1515. I got home around 1610. When I was taking the train/bus to get home, I would have just boarded my bus at that point. So the bike is a good thing.

I was doing some noodling on the Valley Transportation Authority website and found an interactive map of the bike lanes and trails in the county.

One of these trails runs along the Guadalupe River from Almaden Lake. This is right by our place. I was pleased to see that along with the trail entrances I knew about on Blossom Hill, there's one at Chynoweth Ave, right next to the light rail station I use. This won't cut much distance off the ride (looks like about a mile and a half) but it will take me off the streets and into a more pleasant environment for at least part of the time. Which will be nice riding home in the afternoon, I imagine.

Tweaked my ankle jumping off the truck. So no ride tonight.

My paycheck this week rocked. So we went out today to get Traveller, my bike, fixed up finally and do a little retail therapy. Before we left I renewed my Pyramid subscription and finally ordered GURPS Space. I was supposed to get a comp copy, I'm listed as a play tester anyway, but nothing showed up. Oh, well. I can afford the forty bucks.

We got to the mall fairly early, and looked around Target for a while. Almost bought a new backpack (nod to Kylie the Wonder Niece) but decided it was a bit large for my needs. I'll probably hit a surplus store for a messenger bag. We then made the fatal error o0f entering a bookstore. Came out with 1634: The Ram Rebellion by Eric Flint and Virginia Demarce. Not a novel, but instead the closest thing to RPGing in a book we'll ever see. The book is a collection of related short stories tied together to create a story. Many of the stories were born in the fertile ground of the Grantville Gazette fan stories. Nice to see such a rich universe thrown open to all comers. The results, like what you get in a good game with active players, are interesting and I'm certain not at all what the original author was thinking.

My other book was The Wreck of The River of Stars by Michael Flynn. I really enjoy Flynn's work, and this looks interesting. The last of the great solar-sail ships, converted to fusion drive and used as bulk freighter, suffers an accident that leaves her dead in space.. unless the crew can restore her rigging and bring her into port under sail...

I also picked up Iron Maiden - Death on the Road a live album recorded in Germany in 2003. Live metal is always good, and this has some rarities like Paschendale. Listening now, very good.

But the big thing was my new iPod! We got me a shuffle, same as Kiri's. Now I can listen to my music while traveling to and from work.

We malled a little, ending up at Goth'n'Go. Kiri found a set of two iPod shuffle covers, one black and one purple. How could we resist? I also grabbed a "replacement" t-shirt. The tour shirt for Iron Maiden's 1981 Killers tour. Not that I went to the show (they didn't come close to the Bay Area, but I had the shirt for years.)

After that to the eccentric little bike shop we love. Built into an ancient (late 20s) farmhouse, its yard is a graveyard of old bike parts. They do great work for excellent prices, and just hanging out reading in their yard made for a pleasant afternoon. I had Traveller lubed, tightened, cleaned, and a rack added to the rear.

I'll take her out tonight. Once I've built up some endurance again, my plan is to ride to the light rail station, take the train to work, and ride from that station to the warehouse. Reverse that in the evenings. Save wear and tear on our poor doomed car, and get some exercise along the way. So expect a return of the daily bicycle log!

Right now the only big bummer in my life is a freaking cold sore on my lip. Sucker hurts, and when I put tooth goop on it, it really hurts.

Heh. I now have five different live versions of the song Iron Maiden.

The Giants are driving me insane.

Right now, the only big plan for my big 4-0 is dinner with the family. Ann (who shares my birthday) and I agree that Chili's is our preferred eatery. Kylie will of course steal the show.

If anybody is determined to get me a gift, I do have this.. or these guys give e-gift cards...