Moving, and other stuff

[pecunium]

I now have, after a fashion, pretty much all my worldly goods again. Marna and I went to LA and collected them from "the bunker" at Maia's folks' place. She also was kind enough to load all the stuff which was in the outbuilding which used to be our room.

Now I have to go through it and see what I still want. I've not seen some of it for about a decade.

Classes have started again. I have a really rough schedule. It's very left-skewed. Mondays I have 40 minutes of open time, from 0800, to 1700. On Weds I get done at 1400, and Fri. I have a single class, for an hour, at 0800.

The motorcycle continues to amuse. I've put 70 miles on it in the past two days. I've bought some new gear: gloves, helmet and jacket. The helmet is to make sure the old one wasn't degraded in the scooter crash. I also bought a tinted visor for it. The tint is a light (about 5%) grey, just enough to take the edge off the sunlight.

The jacket is a synthetic, with removable liner, good venting, armor and padding. It's got pretty good options for adjustments. I had to open the vents to avoid overheating today. It's also rated as raingear. The gloves are problematic. They aren't as close fitting as I'd like, and I don't really feel I have as secure a grip on the throttle. On the upside, I've gotten much better at engaging first gear, and maintaining speed (it helps that I've a much better idea of the desirable RPMs).

I suspect I shall look for better gloves, and relegate these to winter.

I still need riding pants, and (perhaps) motorcycle specific boots. The planned road trip to Ottawa this summer (by way of Tennessee and New York; perhaps a stop in Boston) is looking a lot less crazy. Marine Bio will help, as I have to make four trips to Santa Cruz and one to Monterey.

It's been, all in all, a good week.

Comments

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

The planned road trip to Ottawa this summer ... is looking a lot less crazy

I dunno, it's still OTTAWA. To see some crazy Canadian chick.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

And to New York, possibly to see some other crazy Canadian chick. :)

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Crazy Canuck Chicks FTW!

[mycroftw.livejournal.com]

Yeah, man, Ottawa. To get to which you have to drive through the Prairie, the long way (you know, 1000 miles, no corners, repeat a couple of times?) Much better to come to Calgary - almost all of which can be done on mountain roads.

But I'd also do crazy (or worse, mind-numbing) things for a crazy Canadian chick. I can totally understand that one. In fact, almost all of the best parts of my life have been in the company of one crazy Canadian chick or another. Of course, I have a leg up on you there - being Canadian and all, it's just a priori more likely for me to be in said company.

Oh, and on topic for a change, s/to make sure/because/ s/n't degraded// on the helmet. Yeah, I know that's what you meant.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I'm more concerned about butt-numbing, really. :-)

[beable]

This is what sunk a friend of mine when he planned The Great Road Trip from Madison to The Undisclosed Location in Nfld.

He had set a fairly heavy biking schedule for himself (needing to cover about 8-10 hours a day), and he ended up bailing before he hit Nova Scotia, and took a more leisurely trip back home with more "stop and visit people he knows" breaks and shorter bike distances.

It wasn't just butt-numbing, it was apparently butt-numbing, back-aching, leg and arm-cramping.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at more on the order of 6-8 hours a day. I hope to have a good seat. We shall see about the arm, but my plans are for about 450 miles a day, and not more than about a week at a time in the saddle.

[mycroftw.livejournal.com]

When I did my big trip (Edmonton-Fairbanks), I took it very leisurely; 6 hours a day (over 10 hours) about 300 miles (and this being the Alaska Highway, it was mileposts, even though signed in km). That was comfortable, but only because I was on a low-grade oldsmobile (Suzuki GS850 with full touring kit). If motorcycle isn't happy (as opposed to capable of) doing 60 mph for hours, don't try it.

And yeah, butt was never the problem - more hands and wrists. Oh, and the wasp that hit my chest, fell into my leathers, and didn't quite die. That was the fastest "stop, kickstand down, get off, strip" I've ever pulled off...

Prairie, desert, same thing riding a motorcycle. BORING. (On the other hand, straight chews up the miles better than 60 km of Kluane Lake-front meandering, so your 6 hours will cover more ground than mine did).

[cavyherd.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, there's this lovely metro area you could stop and crash at for a day or two, right in the middle. Plus some REELY COOL mountain driving, right nearby.... (Okay, so it's a state or two north of your optimal route, but hey! What are road-trips for?)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The back end is Seattle/Portland/SF.

[cavyherd.livejournal.com]

So, you're basically just going to lap the US, eh?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't have to go through prairie to get to Ottawa, I go through desert.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there's a band of prairie between the panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Saskatchewan that is neither desert nor avoidable unless you take a Really Long way around.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

LA to Tenn, to New York to Ottawa. I've never thought of 40/66 as prairie.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

I waive my hands at states and declare them to be prairie without particular attention to their interior details. Wikipedia is ambivalent on the topic of Oklahoma as containing a north-south continuous band of prarie, but this part seems pretty certain of it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains