Point Lookout
Musings from the hillside

Jordan and I are most relieved to have made it through the Radio Club Holiday Dinner. I spaced out and didn’t beg for help among all the other nonsense going on. There are a couple of annual awards and a radio raffle still hanging too. But the party went off and was, by most accounts, a great success.

Today, Jordan and I have been resting and trying to stay out of trouble’s way. It was gray and threatening for a while but it’s cleared off if still cold.

Eric was glad to see me a week later … the shortest time between haircuts either of us can remember. He is convinced a $100 bill will fit under the door if I need to just drop money off on my way by … he looked at the cut on my cheek and took a few minutes to coach me a little. I’d pretty figured out the up-and-down only concept but he added some other thoughts. A better shave this afternoon.

Off to a sort-of radio thing, the commission’s having an informal get together and Gene’s announcement as volunteer of the year hit the little paper that arrived today.

This Wi-Fi piggybacking widespread tripe is simply wrong-headed and legally stupid. There is no law saying that I must secure my WiFi port and furthermore, if I choose not to (and decide to take the risks associated) there is no law that says a neighbor or passerby is breaking any law. The article makes it sound like there’s law covering this and there simply is not.

Am I (are we) taking a risk of sniffing and password and identity theft? Yes. About as much as with any other network open to the public like T-Mobile’s or Boingo’s. They are no more protected than my home network and they’re in lovely places where there’s lots more concentrated action to sniff and snarf. The protections they offer are to themselves to assure people don’t get access to their unsecured networks without paying!

In a Freakonomics Blog entry in the NY Times, we get a collection of interesting pundit/expert quotes. Most of them have germs of ideas we can learn from. The bulk of the message is that they, the experts, are smart and the rest of us are dumb.

They are probably right but that’s not as helpful as you’d like. I suppose, in the fullness of time, one takes the critiques as guideposts but only after filtering out the unhelpful noise like criticisms of populations that live in danger areas.

This is very much stuff that talks to the foundation concepts that have woken me up to the need for action here on the local level. I resonate to some of the ideas but find the grandiosity and pomposity a bit nonproductive and annoying. However, since it’s in the Gray Lady, we all must realize that these are corporate-sponsored mouthpieces and therefore, the next step is probably to figure out whose axes they’re grinding and decide if we feel like either trusting or supporting them as voices.

Sorry to be cynical. Not very sorry but mebbe a little sorry.

Got the draft Letter of Understanding tweaked. No word on their Appendix C (the plan) but that’s not the issue. The issue is getting agreement among the cats that being herded is a good thing.

Decided to bail on the EC meeting last night. Just wasn’t up for it. Besides, the Chicken Soup for the Old Fat Guy’s soul was smelling pretty good. Forgot that the secret herb was Thyme (Mr. the Foodie had to remind me this morning.) My weight performance the past couple of weeks has been pretty sad but c’est la vie.

I guess the face is toughening up. The last shave was rushed and I still got a decent shave with no real discomfort. When I splash the bay rum on, it doesn’t sting very much any more .

We woke up to another morning of dense fog. It hung over the valley late into the morning. Taking the daily constitutional in shorts is getting harder and harder.

The weekly trip to “the farm” (where we pick up our food from the CSA) yielded a couple of mandarin oranges among more prosaic eggplant, greens, late-planted carrots, and peppers. Jordan was a gentleman to the other person picking up her stuff and we were first there at like 8:30.

The walk was uneventful. The latest bill for the printing of the radio club newsletter hit an all-time low of just under $55 … I’m not asking any stoopid questions. One more Board Meeting to run and I’m (at least temporarily) out of a volunteer job. That will be nice for a while. Classes start in January … don’t know how many or where yet.

A morning after story. The “adventure” was yesterday and a good time was had by all. There were a 10K run and hike, a summit run, and a half and full marathons on the mountain. The only one upset was Jordan, who stayed at home.

The long routes made logistics and communications complicated. The limousine (van) at the summit got up there a couple of hours early (probably forgot that the clocks moved back the night before). We had six radio teams on the hill and at least one of them could only be reached by relaying. Net Control was well up the mountain and mobile.

As usual, there were important questions from the organizers that got answered quickly. There were important updates that kept everyone at the bottom of the mountain comfortable that all was as it should be on the courses. It’s another event that can’t be covered by cell phones and really needs the safety net of radio communications.

The two memorable situations were the wheelchair racer on the 10-K course whose mountain-wheelchair’s frame broke and bib number 340 that we couldn’t account for. In spite of the rider’s assurance he could make it, we talked him into a ride the last couple of km. This was a fun-run, not a performance event and he ended up relieved for the ride. Bib 340 showed up, picked up his bib and a tee-shirt, and decided to go home. Fortunately, we got a cell phone call through to him at home before the Sheriff’s and Park District’s Search and Rescue Teams started a full blown search on the mountain (we were still well away from that, actually, but the team leaders were standing there looking professional and ready). The most serious problem was a woman on the course, not an adventure participant, just someone on the course, who fell and injured her leg. She got treated at our first aid station and trucked off to Kaiser.

All in all, another great event by Save Mount Diablo and the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club. Julie and her team and John Stuart of our team really did a terrific job (as did all the volunteers). I even heard KI6FYJ and KI6FYK up at aid station 3 got on the air!?

Well, the scale said exactly 200.0. It’s a fanatically accurate digital thing so it must be accurate. It just seems to refuse to let me drop below the leading 2. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow it will let go of its 2 fetish.

After a spectacular weekend here, it dropped fifteen degrees or so, stayed windy all day, and clouded over. No rain of note but threatening. There were showers all around us but nothing here.

Jordan, the village inspector, found nothing wrong and reported so to Emmanuel Ursu, Planning Director, yesterday morning. It was still warm and nice at the time. Jordan was in a fine mood as was Emmanuel to all appearances. I really must introduce myself to “The Public Works Guy” … we see him all the time and he was especially nice to Jordan yesterday. Perhaps today we will go to Peet’s for a scone then to Safeway for more Halloween supplies (I ate the last batch, weight loss notwithstanding).

Nothing from Nihola (the other Dutch cargo bike manufacturer who claims global shipping). Nihola is pointed to from Cycle Chic, a very clever and attractive bike-hype blog. So is Christiania which doesn’t catch my fancy quite so strongly. Sad that Nihola hasn’t replied.. I don’t know if it is cheaper than the Bakfiets branded bike available in Portland from those lovely people at Clever Cycles. I like the two-wheel Bakfiets look but the Nihola tricycle is worth a look. Neither is very practical here with my cliff but the idea just tickles me.

Jim Tiemstra sent the Oakland radio docs so we’re a step closer. K6ORI.com is registered but the home page is empty … gotta do something about that later today.

It’s a gorgeous day in Orinda. I feel guilty given the disaster that’s befallen Southern California and most of our friends down there. In spite of the guilt, the warmth and sunshine feel good.

Yeah, right! Micro-bursts. Who was the genius that found this one. Warm up … say … a mere 15 minutes (I’m tired already) and then do ten minutes of 15 seconds of heavy load followed by 15 seconds of light. Repeat to kill time … then another mere 15 minutes of cool-down (I didn’t/couldn’t). Then I took Jordan for a walk to keep moving.

Great theory. Hope I can walk in the morning. I need to get something that tells me rear wheel speed on the trainer so I can try to work out the power output and track progress.

Sigh.

turns into another quarter of an inch during prime walk-time.

Under 203 again this morning. It’s drying out a little. maybe I can get the bike on the trainer for a bit this afternoon. Funny twinges in left knee and lower back but I’m not convinced they matter.

Got the Pacificon banner to the sign guys … sigh. Another $100 to the cause