lockers?
Mon Mar 23 22:22:51 EDT 2015
I took 3 days off last week (use-or-lose vacation), so I hadn't been to the office since Tuesday. Nor on the bike. I took the scenic route today, the C&O Towpath. It was nearly dry, some damp spots, but no mud. I saw ducks and geese swimming in the canal, not far from where there was still ice last week.
There are lockers in the bike cage now - 14 full height, and 18 half-height. Since I hadn't been there in almost a week, I had no idea when they were installed. (But all the ones I opened were empty.) I mentioned them to the other guy in my office who bikes, and he said they weren't there at 08:00, so they were brought in today. I was wondering whether our cage was special, so I rode around a bit on my way out. The smaller cage at the other end of the top parking level has 3 full-height and 12 half-height cages. I went down to the 2nd level, and neither cage has lockers. (There's only 1 bike down there.) There's no ramp from P2 to P3, and I didn't think it was worth taking the elevator and walking around. If they didn't put any lockers on the 2nd level, they wouldn't bother with the 3rd. I don't even know how one gets there from outside on a bike (or in a car).
[There is a ramp from P2 to P3, but half of P2 is closed off, and the ramp down is in that closed half. P3 is only half the size of P1 and P2. There's a waiting list for parking contracts, but 2/5 of the garage is closed?]
There are also new signs on the locker-room doors (inside the building) saying the lockers are for daytime use only, and any locks will be cut off. There's been a sign like that inside the locker room since forever, and people ignore it, and lock lockers. I've been using a locker "permanently", but I haven't bothered locking it. I don't think anyone wants my clothes or shoes. Perhaps the new lockers are meant to be a place where the cyclists can store and lock things, but the parking garage is not a changing room with showers. There's nothing I want to leave with my bike, locked or unlocked. The kinds of things people are locking in the locker room are not things they want to carry back and forth from the garage. And the people locking things in the locker room are not necessarily cyclists, so lockers in the bike cages don't help them at all.
And in the physical-achievements category, the scenic root has the long, impossible hill - the one I didn't even bother trying last week, but which I had a fighting chance on the time before except for needing to leave room for a lost SUV. I made it most of the way up the hill tonight! It starts with a pretty serious little climb up from the intersection with Route 123 at the Virginia end of Chain Bridge, and then it gets really steep - like the short impossible hill (2 blocks from home) - and then it's less steep, for a long way. Yes, you can feel your heart pounding. Then there's a little far-from-level terrace, and a very steep zig-zag up to the next road. I made it up to the terrace tonight. 3/4? 4/5? of the hill. I have no dreams of ever riding up the last part of the hill on this bike. I don't even ride down that top section. The turns are very tight for a long bike. (Think of driving a station wagon versus an Austin Mini.) And the rest of the hill, that I do ride down, I'm squeezing the brakes like crazy. (Yes, I'm looking forward to disc brakes on my next bike.)
I'm taking a final 3 days off (Thu/Fri/Mon) to use my use-or-lose vacation time by the end of the month (next Tues). Another co-worker is taking 8 days, starting today. That puts the last 2 days in the next month, so I hope he's not trying to use 8 days before the end of the year. Having so many people out on the same day is obviously a staffing problem, and could affect responding to problems with the application or the servers. (Then again, a lot of us are not really "gone" anywhere. If there are problems, we can log in and work on them. Of course, that may reduce our use of those vacation hours....) It's also a corporate problem because cash flow in is tied to hours worked, and a lot of people are working a lot fewer hours this month.
I've been working lots of short days, hoping to whittle down vacation hours to fill the pay periods. That's been remarkably ineffective. But next month I think I will have to get back in the habit of working full days, and that will require getting to work earlier - earlier than 15:00.
[OK, Microsoft spellcheck - it's not necessarily an error to repeat a word if there's punctuation between the two words, especially something substantial, like a dash.]
Tuesday 00:31
I don't know why a news item had a link to something 4+ years old....10 Medical Myths that Just Won't Go Away by Robin Nixon | December 29, 2010
Myth: Vaccines can cause the flu (and autism).
Myth: Supplements always make you healthier.
Myth: Cold weather makes you sick.
Myth: We use only 10 percent of our brains.
Myth: Sugar turns kids into little monsters.
Myth: You need to stay awake if you've had a concussion.
Myth: Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years.
Myth: Reading in the dark or sitting too close to the TV ruins your eyesight.
Myth: You should drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
Myth: You should wait an hour after eating before you go swimming.
There's more detail to each one, if you want to follow the link.
Tuesday 22:30
I've got 4 of these blinkers on the back of my bike seat (plus 2 more of something newer, even brighter). One of them broke off tonight, going over some rough pavement. (That's one of the reasons I'm looking for suspension on the next bike....) Amazingly, it (1) landed on the rack, and (2) stayed there for a couple of blocks, until I stopped at the next red light. It was making quite a racket (bouncing, loose on the rack), and I thought there was something loose with a pannier. If it had fallen to the road I might not have noticed it was gone until miles later (like in Virginia, not 4 blocks from the office), since I was using only the newer blinkers at that point.
I've got several more lights like this, so I'm hoping there are more mounting brackets here someplace.
It's not that surprising that it broke off, because the 2 highest lights are higher than the back of the seat, so they're rather vulnerable if the bike gets knocked over. ☹ But you want them high for visibility.Upon reflection, another possible explanation:
Someone knocked my bike over in the garage, breaking the light off.
(S)He left the light sitting on my rack, and I didn't notice it when I left. (The seat is the place to leave something, to ensure it's noticed.)
I rode through the garage, up the ramp, out past Union Station, and then heard something rattling when I got to the first fast down hill.
Both explanations seem unlikely. I would have to mount my panniers on the rack without seeing the light sitting there, and turn on the new blinkers without noticing an old one was gone. But the first scenario of breaking off while riding and landing on the rack seems nigh impossible.
kevlar51The springish weather last night was just a tease. It's been cold again this week. It was 34°F/1.1°C when I got home tonight. This March is not going out like a lamb.
Hmmm, it's supposed to be over 70°F/21°C Thursday, but raining.
Wednesday 13:57
Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Pecan Bunches
Great Grains Crunchy Pecans
Both are from Post Foods, LLC. Both have a serving size of 3/4 cup. But 3/4 cup of Honey Bunches of Oats is 29g, and Great Grains is 52g. How is anyone supposed to compare products with such vastly different amounts?
Thursday 18:52
I'm out on the deck, in a hammock chair. It got up to 76°F/24.4°C today and sunny, although rain was forecast. I've opened most of the windows in the basement to let in some fresh air and warm up.
Thursday 19:35
It's just started raining, and I'm back inside. 73°F/22.8°C; the temperature's been climbing all afternoon. This rain is a cold front coming through.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/729130.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
I took 3 days off last week (use-or-lose vacation), so I hadn't been to the office since Tuesday. Nor on the bike. I took the scenic route today, the C&O Towpath. It was nearly dry, some damp spots, but no mud. I saw ducks and geese swimming in the canal, not far from where there was still ice last week.
There are lockers in the bike cage now - 14 full height, and 18 half-height. Since I hadn't been there in almost a week, I had no idea when they were installed. (But all the ones I opened were empty.) I mentioned them to the other guy in my office who bikes, and he said they weren't there at 08:00, so they were brought in today. I was wondering whether our cage was special, so I rode around a bit on my way out. The smaller cage at the other end of the top parking level has 3 full-height and 12 half-height cages. I went down to the 2nd level, and neither cage has lockers. (There's only 1 bike down there.) There's no ramp from P2 to P3, and I didn't think it was worth taking the elevator and walking around. If they didn't put any lockers on the 2nd level, they wouldn't bother with the 3rd. I don't even know how one gets there from outside on a bike (or in a car).
[There is a ramp from P2 to P3, but half of P2 is closed off, and the ramp down is in that closed half. P3 is only half the size of P1 and P2. There's a waiting list for parking contracts, but 2/5 of the garage is closed?]
There are also new signs on the locker-room doors (inside the building) saying the lockers are for daytime use only, and any locks will be cut off. There's been a sign like that inside the locker room since forever, and people ignore it, and lock lockers. I've been using a locker "permanently", but I haven't bothered locking it. I don't think anyone wants my clothes or shoes. Perhaps the new lockers are meant to be a place where the cyclists can store and lock things, but the parking garage is not a changing room with showers. There's nothing I want to leave with my bike, locked or unlocked. The kinds of things people are locking in the locker room are not things they want to carry back and forth from the garage. And the people locking things in the locker room are not necessarily cyclists, so lockers in the bike cages don't help them at all.
And in the physical-achievements category, the scenic root has the long, impossible hill - the one I didn't even bother trying last week, but which I had a fighting chance on the time before except for needing to leave room for a lost SUV. I made it most of the way up the hill tonight! It starts with a pretty serious little climb up from the intersection with Route 123 at the Virginia end of Chain Bridge, and then it gets really steep - like the short impossible hill (2 blocks from home) - and then it's less steep, for a long way. Yes, you can feel your heart pounding. Then there's a little far-from-level terrace, and a very steep zig-zag up to the next road. I made it up to the terrace tonight. 3/4? 4/5? of the hill. I have no dreams of ever riding up the last part of the hill on this bike. I don't even ride down that top section. The turns are very tight for a long bike. (Think of driving a station wagon versus an Austin Mini.) And the rest of the hill, that I do ride down, I'm squeezing the brakes like crazy. (Yes, I'm looking forward to disc brakes on my next bike.)
I'm taking a final 3 days off (Thu/Fri/Mon) to use my use-or-lose vacation time by the end of the month (next Tues). Another co-worker is taking 8 days, starting today. That puts the last 2 days in the next month, so I hope he's not trying to use 8 days before the end of the year. Having so many people out on the same day is obviously a staffing problem, and could affect responding to problems with the application or the servers. (Then again, a lot of us are not really "gone" anywhere. If there are problems, we can log in and work on them. Of course, that may reduce our use of those vacation hours....) It's also a corporate problem because cash flow in is tied to hours worked, and a lot of people are working a lot fewer hours this month.
I've been working lots of short days, hoping to whittle down vacation hours to fill the pay periods. That's been remarkably ineffective. But next month I think I will have to get back in the habit of working full days, and that will require getting to work earlier - earlier than 15:00.
[OK, Microsoft spellcheck - it's not necessarily an error to repeat a word if there's punctuation between the two words, especially something substantial, like a dash.]
Tuesday 00:31
I don't know why a news item had a link to something 4+ years old....10 Medical Myths that Just Won't Go Away by Robin Nixon | December 29, 2010
Myth: Vaccines can cause the flu (and autism).
Myth: Supplements always make you healthier.
Myth: Cold weather makes you sick.
Myth: We use only 10 percent of our brains.
Myth: Sugar turns kids into little monsters.
Myth: You need to stay awake if you've had a concussion.
Myth: Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years.
Myth: Reading in the dark or sitting too close to the TV ruins your eyesight.
Myth: You should drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
Myth: You should wait an hour after eating before you go swimming.
There's more detail to each one, if you want to follow the link.
Tuesday 22:30
I've got 4 of these blinkers on the back of my bike seat (plus 2 more of something newer, even brighter). One of them broke off tonight, going over some rough pavement. (That's one of the reasons I'm looking for suspension on the next bike....) Amazingly, it (1) landed on the rack, and (2) stayed there for a couple of blocks, until I stopped at the next red light. It was making quite a racket (bouncing, loose on the rack), and I thought there was something loose with a pannier. If it had fallen to the road I might not have noticed it was gone until miles later (like in Virginia, not 4 blocks from the office), since I was using only the newer blinkers at that point.
I've got several more lights like this, so I'm hoping there are more mounting brackets here someplace.
It's not that surprising that it broke off, because the 2 highest lights are higher than the back of the seat, so they're rather vulnerable if the bike gets knocked over. ☹ But you want them high for visibility.Upon reflection, another possible explanation:
Someone knocked my bike over in the garage, breaking the light off.
(S)He left the light sitting on my rack, and I didn't notice it when I left. (The seat is the place to leave something, to ensure it's noticed.)
I rode through the garage, up the ramp, out past Union Station, and then heard something rattling when I got to the first fast down hill.
Both explanations seem unlikely. I would have to mount my panniers on the rack without seeing the light sitting there, and turn on the new blinkers without noticing an old one was gone. But the first scenario of breaking off while riding and landing on the rack seems nigh impossible.
kevlar51The springish weather last night was just a tease. It's been cold again this week. It was 34°F/1.1°C when I got home tonight. This March is not going out like a lamb.
Hmmm, it's supposed to be over 70°F/21°C Thursday, but raining.
Wednesday 13:57
Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Pecan Bunches
Great Grains Crunchy Pecans
Both are from Post Foods, LLC. Both have a serving size of 3/4 cup. But 3/4 cup of Honey Bunches of Oats is 29g, and Great Grains is 52g. How is anyone supposed to compare products with such vastly different amounts?
Thursday 18:52
I'm out on the deck, in a hammock chair. It got up to 76°F/24.4°C today and sunny, although rain was forecast. I've opened most of the windows in the basement to let in some fresh air and warm up.
Thursday 19:35
It's just started raining, and I'm back inside. 73°F/22.8°C; the temperature's been climbing all afternoon. This rain is a cold front coming through.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/729130.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]