Heinz Trucking

So far this year, I've ridden 2200 miles on my bikes - my goal now is to hit 2500 by the end of September and to shoot for 2750 if the weather holds into October.

This sounds more phenomenal than it feels because at least half of it is still little 10 mile rides back and forth to work; and even though my goal for the year was to complete a century I still don't seem to have the staying power to do so. I managed an 80 mile over rolling hills ride back in July - but despite being in one of the first teams to leave I still didn't get to the turn off for the century ride before they closed it and diverted people to the 80 mile course - and at the last rest stop I had at least 3 different volunteers ask me if I wanted to get in the SAG van.

• Riding

Way back in March (I think) I bought an Arduino to add some flash to this train layout. I played with it for a few days, said "This is going to be cool" and went back to riding my bike.

The problem is that, while the software is obviously going to be easy the mechanics of the assembly isn't - not for me, anyway.

For example, I need to run 8 (up to 16, really) white LEDs out onto the layout, and maybe 4 tri-colors. Took me 2 hours to set up the soldering iron and make a single LED+wire-harness. A lot of that was "find all the junk and get it in one place" time, but still.

Sigh.

• Train Layout

Switched from Comcast to FiOS:

Just venting a little here. Switched to FiOS the other day, mostly because they're offering a deal that's going to save me about $100 per month over Comcast + POTS line.
So, anyway - I log into the router/modem (is it still a modem?) they provided and the first thing I see are convenient links on the side to help me to shop for additional Verizon services.

• Diary

So, a friend got me to commit to a charity bike ride for July 24th. I've been doing 50 mile rides almost every week and a couple of metric centuries as well, so I said "What the heck, sign me up for the Traditional."

• Riding

How does this work again? I type here and words appear on the internet?

Okay. Now all I have to do is remember how to construct a narrative.

• Diary

Okay - so before I can automate (and I have plenty of ideas for that) I need to finish the deck-work. The design for the 2009 layout looked something like this:

Although the actual layout was somewhat different.

Currently, this is all on a 2x4' sheet of plywood with 1/4" rubber feet. To make room for the electronics and wiring underneath, I need to lift it up onto a base - but it also needs to be able to come off the base again for storage. (And "storage" means "in a protected spot where neither cats nor children nor spouses nor self will smash the landscaping".) The best idea I've been able to come up with is this:

• Train Layout

After coming close to 270 pounds before New Years, I weighed in at 251 on Monday. 220, here I come!

For anyone else thinking about losing weight: Despite paying actual $$$ on ediets.com, I turned around and paid more $$$ to subscribe to thedailyplate.com, too.

• Weight Loss

I forgot to send this to you before - love the picture!

So, by the end of 2009, the train layout was fundamentally complete but also fundamentally boring. So I decided to set two goals: (1) completely computerize the train layout while (2) spending as little money as possible.

Because I want to do this cheaply I decided to do in stages, one stage per year. Here are the goals for the 2010 stage:

Finish the scenery.

This means adding a few more buildings and an ice skating pond. I already have the kits for the buildings and a box of goop that promises to look just like water when it's done.

Add realistic lighting to all the houses

• Train Layout