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13
Jan 12

Cold enough? Cold enough.

It was a mistake to ride my bike today. Did 30 miles. Most of the first few miles felt pretty bad, but you can’t quit during the warmup. Somewhere around miles 10 through 16 — the most generally downhill section of the route — where the best part of the ride. Everything beyond that was either bad or outright miserable.

The maximum temperature today was 41, the mean was 34. At one point, as I calculated when I got home, I made my own wind chill of 26 degrees. Felt like this guy:

So that means that, between the heat index of July and the wind chill of January I’ve found myself in an 84-degree swing of temperature. In a few days, though, the temps will return to more moderate levels, and then I can struggle through another ride.

We hit Hobby Lobby this evening to round out a few framing projects. The Yankee picked up a matte for a Christmas poster. We found four frames and mattes for over the mantle. We also got a shadow box for a Christmas gift.

The matte guy had to cut our orders because they had no white 8×10 boards ready for a 5×7 print. You buy the large board, he cuts it and charges you labor. But he gave us the remainder of the board — we’d bought it after all — for the next matted project.

It wasn’t until after we left that I thought “We should have asked for the 5×7 holes. We could have had 4×6 opens cut out of them.” You know, for when you want to get really crazy with your framing projects.

Visited World Market, which was just next door and had cluttered every window with giant signs advertising furniture sales. We have a few pieces from World Market, and they’re not bad at all. And, since we’re soon going to be looking for another decorative piece of wood inside which we can store things, we thought we’d visit.

They did not have anything interesting.

So, then, the grocery store, the frozen crab. Pasta and various accompanying vegetable things were purchased. Chicken and tomatoes and artichokes were mixed with a wheat noodle in a light oil. I’d endured 30 miles on my bike, I felt no guilt in the carbohydrates.

I did not notice it was Friday the 13th until someone else remarked how they hadn’t noticed it was Friday the 13th. (I’d forgotten again by the time I was ready to publish this.) Wonder what that means?

Auburn / cycling / football / Friday / history / journalism — Comments Off
6
Jan 12

An ode to some pickles

Updated and edited my vita, which was a job that was past due.

Rode 25 miles on my bike, enjoying the beautiful January afternoon. The afternoon was the best part about it. It’s going to take three or five good long rides to start getting my form back. My only complaint about riding is that just when I hit my stride events overcome me. Something will come up to preoccupy me for too long and all that hard work is undone.

Around finals I had a nice 45 mile ride and just started to get back into a good pace and comfort level. Then I got sick for a week and change, and then there were 10 days of holiday travels.

So this week has been a return to square one. (I’m not a very good cyclist.)

Visited the library this evening. Thought I’d do a little historical research. This is an issue of the 1914 Orange and Blue, Auburn’s student paper that preceded The Plainsman:

Note the championship-wining football team’s headline. The story included this argument for facemasks:

Babe Taylor, Auburn warrior, and by the way, Birmingham-bred, displayed a vast amount of gameness yesterday afternoon. In the early part of the first quarter someone, unthoughtedly of course, kicked in the upper section of Babe’s face, in the neighborhood of the left eye. Babe’s face wore an expression of agony and the blood trickled down his features in doublequick time, but he stood by the fort and played a grand game of football.

Sixty percent of the front page is devoted to football, which happened pretty regularly, even in 1914. Note, also, that the band played Touchdown Auburn, which was a tune that pre-dated Jim Fyffe’s famous call by many decades. There’s a note that students from Alabama telegraphed their congratulations on the championship — you have to wonder what their angle was.

There’s a poem on the right hand side, a dream of a beautiful young woman, and “An Ode to some Pickles.”

Upon a night long ago
Three fellows sat at ease
And tried to soothe their inner man
With pickles and with cheese.

The cheese, by nature yellow,
Met quick and sure defeat;
But the unassuming pickles
Were very green and sweet.

The eats were good and everything
Seemed lovely for a while —
Till a feaster’s flesh, turned wan and pale
In the middle of a smile.

His face began to shudder,
A twitch and then a jerk;
We looked at him and realized
The pickles were at work!

A private, and not especially good, joke 97 years ago was published in a newspaper. And you’re reading it today. None of this would have been conceivable to the poet who wrote those lines.

Didn’t find what I was looking for — though I have a feeling I’m getting close — so I’ll have to go back. No problem there, the old microfilms are great fun.

cycling / history / links / memories / site / Wednesday — Comments Off
4
Jan 12

4,231 > 17

We’ve been trying to have doughnuts for breakfast since Sunday. But that was New Year’s Day, and so our local doughnut shop was closed. Monday? Closed for New Year’s Hangover, I suppose. Yesterday we had a real breakfast. Today we made it happen.

After the sugar kicked in and moved on — and after having made it through the morning edition of email, text messages and RSS reading — we decided for a light ride. Would have ridden yesterday, but it was too cold. Today it was just right, a light chill in the shade and a good breeze to keep the temperature right when you started working a bit.

Not that there’s a lot of that when you haven’t been on the bike in weeks, another victim of the holidays.

On Monday, though, I installed the new computers on our bikes. Now we’ll now just how bad at this we are! (Hint: Bad.)

The Yankee had two flats. It was one of those days.

At one point I was tucked in behind her, but went around because the time was right. We were about to hit a stretch where I perform slightly better than she does. There was a car coming, which is not where I want to be putting brakes to wheels. So I kicked.

And for one glorious, brief, sprinting, downhill, mass-forward, aerodynamically-tucked moment, I hit 37.6 miles per hour. If I could keep up that pace for 4,231 I might have been competitive in the 1987 Tour de France. The race has gotten a bit faster since then.

But I only rode 17 miles today, clearly there’s some work to be done. But that’s what tomorrow is for.

We made dinner to the Beatles, ate over the bowl game.

Somewhere along the way we put away clothes that will be donated. We ordered four pictures for over the fireplace. I found a new water filter for the refrigerator. It was a perfectly low key evening.

Finally answered one of the many nagging questions of my faulty childhood memory. It was a Woolco. The town I grew up in had a Zayre’s and one of the W stores in what I think of as the place’s two original strip malls. I could never recall if it was a Woolworth or a Woolco, though. Woolworth, you might remember, was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. They slipped in the 1980s and disappeared entirely in 1997. (Now their existing properties are the struggling Foot Locker entities.

Woolco, on the other hand, was their discount store. Think about that: the discount of store of a five-and-dime shop. I don’t remember much about it, I couldn’t even remember which name the store had. Woolco died in 1982, so I guess that’s when that store went away. Soon after Wal-Mart moved into that spot.

Not too much longer after that the Zayre’s down the street shut their doors. K-Mart went in there.

After a few years Wal-Mart moved three miles down the road to the interstate and a new Supercenter. There’s a Big Lots where the Wal-Mart and Woolco once operated. A thrift store occupies the place that used to run as Zayre’s and then K-Mart. That entire part of that town has dried up. What was once upon a time the longest lit road east of the Rocky Mountains and, prior to the Great Depression, was intended as the nation’s first freeway is a husk of itself.

For years, though, I’ve wondered: was that a Woolworth or a Woolco?

These are the questions that occupy a preoccupied mind. This all came about because of an essay I read about Best Buy:

Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits. I can’t say when exactly, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time, maybe a few more years.

Consider a few key metrics. Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City, the company is losing market share. Its last earnings announcement disappointed investors. In 2011, the company’s stock has lost 40% of its value. Forward P/E is a mere 6.23 (industry average is 10.20). Its market cap down to less than $9 billion. Its average analyst rating, according to The Street.com, is a B-.

Those are just some of the numbers, and they don’t look good. They bear out a prediction in March from the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column, which forecast “the worst is yet to come” for Best Buy investors. With the flop of 3D televisions and the expansion of Apple’s own retail locations, there was no killer product on the horizon that would lift it from the doldrums. Though the company accounts for almost a third of all U.S. consumer electronics purchases, analysts noted, the company remains a ripe target for more nimble competitors.

But the numbers only scratch the surface. To discover the real reasons behind the company’s decline, just take this simple test. Walk into one of the company’s retail locations or shop online. And try, really try, not to lose your temper.

The store goes on, sounding much like Circuit City and Service Merchandise and many others before it. The piece also included a Wikipedia list of defunct American stores that started between the 1920s and 1950s and now out of business, either consolidated, liquidated or folded. It is a great list for nostalgia.

The only thing I remember buying at that store is maybe some superhero-themed clothing. I wanted a digital watch, I remember distinctly, but my parents wouldn’t buy it for me. I needed to learn the analog watch first, they said. It was a good lesson.

I almost never misread my watch today.

The clock display on my bike’s new computer? Digital in every way.

Alabama / Auburn / cycling / football / Monday — Comments Off
2
Jan 12

A day of football

Slept in, mostly because I stayed up late. I stayed up late mostly because I didn’t fell well the night before. Something I’d eaten didn’t agree with me. When that unpleasantness passed me by I slipped under an electric blanket for a hibernation.

And so then there was a lot of football today. Somewhere along the way Ross Collings started examining Georgia’s big game performances in recent years. That turned into this long bout of schedule staring.

This is what I did during breaks in the football action today: the complete SEC story of victories against teams that finished in the top 25 of the BCS for the years between 2008-2011.

They are sorted by the most successful program against their opponents in terms of raw wins – no style points, home/away, injuries, upsets or other considerations have been made. Each school has a list of the year of the game, the team they defeated and that opponent’s final BCS ranking of that season.

All efforts have been made to keep this accurate, but your eyes get dizzy looking through 14 teams’ four years of scheduling. No, seriously, have a look. The source links for the BCS rankings are below. If you find any errors, write them in the comments.

As you can see, LSU has had an impressive run, particularly the last two years. They’re neck and neck with Alabama. In fact, the best part of the upcoming BCS title game is that it will break a tie between the two programs. Auburn is next in terms of wins over BCS ranked opponents. Not bad when you consider that we’re talking about 2008-2011 here.

LSU**
2008: Georgia Tech (14)
2010: Alabama (16)
2010: Texas A&M (17)
2010: Miss State (21)
2010: West Virginia (22)
2011: Alabama (2)
2011: Oregon (5)
2011: Arkansas (6)
2011: Georgia (16)
2011: West Virginia (23)
2011: Auburn (25)
**LSU and Alabama meet for the perfunctory rematch on Jan. 9.

Alabama**
2008: Georgia (15)
2008: Mississippi (25)
2009: Texas (2)
2009: Florida (5)
2009: Virginia Tech (11)
2009: LSU (12)
2010: Arkansas (8)
2010: Michigan State (9)
2010: Miss State (21)
2011: Arkansas (6)
2011: Auburn
**LSU and Alabama meet for the perfunctory rematch on Jan. 9.

Auburn
2009: West Virginia (16)
2010: Arkansas (8)
2010: Oregon (2)
2010: LSU (11)
2010: Alabama (16)
2010: South Carolina (20)
2010: South Carolina (20) SECCG
2010: Miss State (21)
2011: South Carolina (9)

Arkansas*
2010: LSU (11)
2010: Texas A&M (17)
2010: Miss State (21)
2011: South Carolina (9)
2011: Auburn (25)
*Hogs play BCS #8 Kansas State on Jan. 6.

Florida
2008: Oklahoma (1)
2008: Alabama (4)
2008: Georgia (15)
2009: Cincinnati (3)
2009: LSU (12)

South Carolina
2008: Mississippi (25)
2010: Alabama (16)
2011: Clemson (15)
2011: Nebraska (20)

Ole Miss
2008: Florida (2)
2008: Texas Tech (7)
2009: LSU (12)
2009: Oklahoma State (19)

Georgia
2008: Michigan State (18)
2009: Georgia Tech (9)
2011: Auburn (25)

Missouri
2008: Northwestern (23)
2010: Texas A&M (17)
2010: Oklahoma (7)

Texas A&M
2010: Oklahoma (7)
2010: Nebraska (18)
2011: Baylor (12)

Vanderbilt
2008: Mississippi (25)
2008: Boston College (24)

Kentucky
2010 Carolina (20)

Tennessee
None

Mississippi State
None

This would look very pretty, and reveal something, I’m sure, if you put it in the appropriate type of chart or infographic.

Update: The War Eagle Reader has picked this list up, too.

Also I added a CatEye computer to my bike today. This was a thoughtful Christmas gift from The Yankee and, in that spirit, I attached it in that spirit. I’m never good at building or installing the first of something. Sure, there are instructions, but there’s always some detail missing, or an extra part that psyches me out, or a missing part whose absence can defeat even the heartiest of spirits. Or, more to the point, some small thing I didn’t notice in the illustration.

This computer requires a magnet on the spokes, a sensor attached to the fork no more than five millimeters away, and then the computer itself, attached in a four-part ceremony to the handlebars. The computer must be no more than 70 millimeters away from the sensor, and the back of the computer must be facing the sensor. And, also, it must spend at least 48 percent of each lunar cycle pointing to magnetic north.

All but one of those facts are true.

So there was first the incorrect installation of the sensor on the fork. Then there was struggling through the computer, programming the clock, tire circumference and the always troubling 12-hour or 24-hour setup. Then there was mounting the computer in the four-part handlebar bracket, which was its own series of curiosities. After which I discovered I couldn’t remove the computer from the bracket.

A few engineers were consulted and we finally concluded that our instincts are wrong and sometimes you must force it.

So now the sensor, the magnetic it is detecting for movement and the computer are all mounted. I pick up the front wheel and spun it, the first test to see if the computer and sensor are communicating. One of the LCD elements in the crystal should be flashing.

It is not.

The first troubleshooting element is the sensor and magnet configuration. They must be no more than five millimeters apart. Not six, because that is not in the Holy Book of Armaments. So I nudged over the senor a bit closer to the magnet mounted on the spokes. Pick up the bike, spin the wheel, the LCD flashes. The computer works.

This should have taken about six minutes. It took me the better half of one half of a football game.

So the first time is always a challenge. It could have been that I was working from the Korean instructions. Next time I’ll use the English version.

The second time was a breeze. I installed the same computer on her bike. It was done in no time flat. Now we are ready to ride and see, truly, how fast — or slow — we are going. And, of course, if you’re dissatisfied with the speed you can always reprogram the computer’s understanding of your tire circumference.

So you can imagine why digging up that list of football victories above was a good way to spend a windy evening. There’s an impressive, and thankfully temporary cold front blowing in just now. We won’t break 40 degrees tomorrow. I’ll try out my new cycling computer on Wednesday.

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1
Jan 12

Catching up — New Year’s edition

Happy New Year! And in order to look ahead we must look back. Previously I’ve written posts detailing of all of the interesting, important and neat thing that happened in the previous year. I’m not going to do that this year. The archives are in the column to the right if you are interested, but the short version is this:

A.B.D.
Conferences in Troy, Little Rock, Boston, Portland, and St. Louis
Visited Bermuda, Notre Dame, Gulf Shores, D.C., and others
Took a much needed summer break
I rode my bike about 1,000 miles, but not nearly enough
I worked a lot, but not nearly enough
We generally had a terrific, lovely year

So with done, let’s empty the last few photographs from late in the year that I’ve been holding for just this post.

This is a second cousin of mine. Apparently he had an appendectomy in the summer and later in the year the hospital turned him into a newspaper advertisement. His great-grandmother, my grandmother, showed me this ad at Christmas:

Feel free to enjoy this delicious blueberry muffin recipe:

Toys R Us, on Christmas Eve. Spooky place:

The Yankee, as a child at the beach. She still flashes me this smile:

Tomorrow: 2012 jokes!