Remodeling Delay, Rocketdock, California Wildfires and Natural Barriers, Very Old Coin

Remodeling - Blog Delay

Not much in the way of blog entries here for the last while. We're taking some time to remodel the last full room we are going to do - the dining room.

Below are the entries I was working on before I start, the wildfire one is, of course, a bit out of date.

Rocketdock

You guys with Mac's have one thing that I really love - the program dock.

I tried a lot of dock programs for Windows - Sideslide, Rk_launcher, Objectdock, Mobydock, Y'z Dock, etc., and finally settled on Rocketdock. The website says "The single greatest piece of software" and that's not far from the truth.

It seems to take up the least amount of resources but has the most features I want. RK_launcher is very similar but uses slightly more resources, and doesn't have as many options and abilities. Sideslide is rather unique, in that you can have a workspace or desktop right on it. This was the closest runner-up for me.

Rocketdock also uses Objectdock docklets, SysStats plug-ins, and is completely customizable and skinnable. I like using YAM and KKMenu on it - to access the Start Menu as well as storing installed program shortcuts without taking up resources by having them on the ol' Windows Start Menu, but you can run any program or add-on, pretty much.


California Wildfires and Natural Barriers

Amazing about the wildfires in California, over 320,000 people at this point! Even incredibly dangerous tornadoes caused by the fires.

This is another case of humankind not being aware of the natural barriers to disaster. Another good example - the Army Corps of Engineers' years of messing with the natural system in Louisiana, destroying much of it to the point that they made the flooding much, much worse then it could have been. There was a lot of blame to be had, from the president on down, but the ACE probably did the most damage over the years preceding the hurricane.

Old Coin, or Whatever It Is...

I thought I would post a pic of this old coin or medallion or button. My father found it out in his back yard when he first moved into his place many, many years ago. The emblem on it seems reminiscent of the Grange, Freemasons, Masons, etc. If anyone has any info we'd sure be interested.

Playing Hookie - A Bike Ride on the Lakeview Wildlife Trail and Beach

Finally got a chance to type this up. The week before last week the weather reports seemed to be pointing toward there being an extremely nice day, so I decided to just do something for myself and take a few relaxing hours to myself. I always feel guilty; there's so much to do, so much work to do, even on weekends I'm thinking about what I could be doing. Anyway...

So the day came and it was looking overcast, and like it might be heading toward a rainy day but for the time-being it looked good.




So I attached my bike carrier to the car, secured the bike to it, grabbed lots of water and a small easy-to-carry lunch (and my camera and GPS, of course!), and drove down to the Lakeview Wildlife area. The beginning of the trial is on a small lake, and the trail curves around this and then out through the protected dune system and finally to the open beach.

Only one truck was there in the entrance parking lot, and no sign of anyone.

The trail itself was nice, cool, and the day was good for riding. The trail itself is fairly good riding, a few ruts, lots of leaves this time of year but not hiding anything big but the occasional stone.

Once through the wooded trail it was over the elevated walkway and onto the beach.

I headed down to the very edge of the water, and rode right along the interface between sand and fluid. Incredible, something I guess in the back of my mind I had always wanted to do - though I thought perhaps it would be ocean I'd be riding along.

Next time we take a trip to the ocean I'm taking my bike...maybe.

The sand was nicely packed away from the sand dunes and easy riding. I went right first, until I reached one of the Southwick Beach parking areas and then rode back in the other direction - passing where I had exited the elevated walkway.

After riding for a bit I found another elevated walkway (pic below, right), I hauled to bike up the short steps and rode down the short walkway until I reached the other end - a small very-low-water-level lake (or large pond) called Lakeview Pond. After a long look along the shore of the other side I picked out the canoe ramp and then the truck and my car in the parking lot.

I hauled the bike up the stairs and rode down and back to the beach again. Propping the bike up I took a few pics, and unstowed my lunch and sat on a large fallen tree and sat back to unwind. When was the last time I'd taken a real vacation? Years. This wasn't the same of course, but nice for a few hours.

In the distance, in the direction I was heading, I could see a person and a dog getting closer.

After packing my lunch back up and back into my bike's pack, I headed out again. After a bit I passed by the guy with his dog, a polite wave and a glance from the dog. He had walked quite a long ways from the Southwick Beach area or the Lakeview trail.

I continued, at times, speeding up, other time's barely crawling. Even the seagulls didn't really mind me, I rode through the middle of them a few times and they just skipped away without much fear or concern.

Further down I ran across a place where someone had had a fire and likely a party, from the looks of it.

Above this place balanced a piece of wood on another tall piece of wood, an old tree stripped of it's limbs or something. I messed around with it, trying to figure out how it was balanced. It spun, but didn't fall off. Someone must have nailed it on, and then set the whole thing up. Strange (see pic at bottom).

Finally, I had biked far enough, I could have went miles from the looks of it. The day was perfect, not too warm, not too cool, overcast but not dark, and the water was misty enough so that I could only see a short distance - not even the Oswego nuke plant could be seen.

On the way back I rode even slower for the most part, and stopped at the walkway to the small lake again.

After getting back to the main walkway I took the dogleg left toward the Southwick Beach area, biked that, and then headed back.

It was one of those unexpectedly relaxing days, and I neither bike enough nor relax enough so it was certainly welcome. A nearly perfect trip (after packing my stuff back in and on the car I got in and went to adjust my mirror, which promptly dropped off. Now I have to get some mirror glass glue for it, ergh).

Nice day and trail and ride, and if you have a bike I highly recommend it.