In case you didn’t notice, google added a new feature to google maps this week, and it’s excellent. If you use the driving directions feature, you can now drag the route line around to rearrange your route, and can add new waypoints to the map to help with the printed output and to highlight important road/highway changes. It’s superb. Here’s a sample to illustrate: my handcrafted route for part of this weekend’s plans. I have a match.com blind date on saturday in Lenox, MA, and this route is how I’m getting from there to the rest of my weekend’s plans. I’ll post about those after they’ve actually happened, since I’m going to play part of it by ear based on the weather.

So I decided this spring I would try and make it through the year with no AC, the idea being I would try and be a responsible citizen and not use energy I don’t really need to be using. I lived my entire life without AC until I moved to Saratoga Springs some years ago and the place I lived in came with it, and somehow I made it through super muggy summers in OH and NY when I was younger without too much trouble.

I’d made it through several hot spells already this spring without too much trouble, simply by sealing down the house in the mornings and then opening the windows after sundown and using fans to draw in the cooler air. All was well until now. We hit 98 and humid Tuesday and A) I discovered my computer couldn’t handle the heat – even regular web browsing was causing heat warnings, and forget about games – they would kick off the heat protection and dump me out of the games. I also got no sleep Tuesday night, Soolin and I both tossing and turning my my muggy bedroom, leaving me grouchy and dull witted at work on Wednesday.

So…so much for that experiment. A little work on the PC and an AC unit in the window above it with a cardboard duct to bring the cool air to the PC and I can use it again, and an AC set to low in my bedroom and I can sleep again.

I don’t know how to explain how I handled this so much better when I was younger but certainly I can’t handle it now. I could sleep in the basement but my basement is dirt floored and disgusting so that’s out. I could sleep outside under a mosquito net but I live on a busy and noisy road so that’s out too. Instead I’ll live on a lightly used AC system and remain a bit of a hypocrite.

…and it wasn’t about money. So I made a mistake and forgot to turn in a timecard for a student who works for me. It was due a little over a month ago and she sent me a reminder about it via email. I head over to the treasurer’s office to turn the card in and they have to consult on the issue because the student has graduated and there is a problem with the way payroll works. A different accountant comes out to discuss the issue with me and says ‘so, you’ve graduated and this is causing a problem…’

She thought I was the student!

Never mind made my day, it made my whole week. Me, recently turned 40, passing for a 21 year old. I must be doing something right.

😉

First let me get the bad out of the way. I lost my digital camera, a waterproof Pentax Optio W20, that I liked and more importantly that had pictures of my last two hikes plus a bunch of other stuff on it. That’s the less than perfect angle to my otherwise excellent weekend. My best guess is I must have left it on the roof of my car as I pulled away from a trail head.

We had great weather. Saturday I took back roads and the cobbled together state highway system in MA up to Watatic Mountain, ~1800 feet, where Soolin and I made a roughly 3 mile hike. The views from the summit were great, encompassing a clear view of about 220 degrees of the surrounding area and with exposed granite rock to clamber around on. The trail itself was a decent cardio buster for a stretch and most of it worked its way through beautiful old pine forest. It was a bit shorter than I had expected and there were a lot of folks around, which surprised me since it’s in a relatively remote area. I guess it’s easier to get to from Worcester than I imagined when I was scoping it out on the map.

Anyway I decided to take a leisurely back roads cruise home, starting with 119 which wends its way through several small New Hampshire towns. I cut south on 10 and from there back onto 91. All in all this took most of the day – I left home around 10 and got home around 5. Had a nice dinner, watched the mediocre The Killers (I’d read that it was one of the movies that inspired pulp fiction and that Hemingway had written it. As to the former, I guess I can see the connection, as to the latter….the script didn’t really impress) and an even more mediocre boxing match which I fell asleep to.

Sunday I mowed, ran errands, and took Soolin for a swim. Nothing exciting really but a pleasant end cap to a great weekend.

I took a 3 day weekend and spent friday on a hike and drive in north central MA, then headed down to Long Island for my friend Pat’s 40th birthday.

I’ll post a few pictures from the hike later. I went to a trail system near Long Pond, which is sort of near Athol and Royalston, MA. These are the kinds of areas I like in MA – they’re only lightly populated and generally aren’t afflicted with the sort of run down strip mall retail blight you find is so much of the more populated areas of MA. Plus you occasionally run into one of the quaint old towns with a public square and grand old houses.

The hike itself was decent. I found what would have been a spectacular waterfall had I gone in the early spring. It was still running enough for it to look cool, and Soolin had a blast clambering all over the place. We also made our way to a rock ledge that sat about 1100 ft above long pond and looked out over the surrounding area. All told it was about 4-5 miles round trip over generally really easy terrain – the only hard stuff was near the steep sections of the creek that fed the waterfall. The bugs were annoying but not overwhelming and the weather was excellent.

I also took a leisurely drive home in the afternoon, choosing to try and hug the east side of the Quabbin reservoir since I had not yet seen that side of it, but I managed to miss a turn and ended up sort of lost. It was funny in that I ended up in South Barre, a town my friend Andrew used to live in where I visited him occasionally, so suddenly I had this ‘aha! I know where I am!’ moment after a half hour of feeling like I was heading in the wrong direction.

Saturday I headed down to LI and went to Pat’s supposedly surprise 40th birthday. I showed up first and ended up being the only surprise for Pat because he showed up second. All in all we had a blast, with tons of kids running around, lots of beer, and a ton of jumping in the pool.

Sunday I went to a Father’s Day party at my sister’s inlaws place. They had a pool too and Soolin had a blast jumping in after toys. Kir’s inlaws are great cooks and the food was fantastic.

I’ve grown to love the ferries – that’s how I got home. Despite only booking a reservation Sunday morning, I managed to get on the 7:30 ferry and I was home in bed by 10:30. All in all a great summer weekend. I had so much fun I want to go back again next weekend.

One of the tips Andrew posted links to in the comments on that story ended up working really well – I

I lost two friends in college to a house fire and I’ve been nervous about them ever since. Last night I got the shit scared out of me by a keening smoke alarm. I went to bed around 12 after watching the Sopranos and Tudors finales. I fell asleep and woke some time later to the smoke alarm going off. I woke up pretty quickly, popped the light on and noticed smoke seeping under the door. Shit! I did just like they taught you in elementary school and felt the door for heat. There was none so I grabbed a fire extinguisher (I keep one in my closet) and popped open the door. The house was thick with smoke. I started running through the house popping on lights to try and find the source of it. It had a very funny smell and at first I thought it was electrical, but eventually I found that a burner in the kitchen was on and had started a fire in the pan I cooked my dinner in. The lid was on it and it had been simmering away for over an hour. I had a tex mex burger with jalape

So I noticed this great quote in a discussion over on metafilter.com by Benny Andajetze which cracked me up:

If Dumbya causes the collapse of the Republican party, can we say they were hoist with their own retard?

Cracked me up and should be at least worth a smile to anyone with sensibilities similar to mine.

I love spring. Yesterday it was a bit windy out. There are several flowering trees in my yard including a large apple tree, a pear tree, and a really large tree that has small white flowers. I pulled into the driveway and hopped off my bike just as the wind picked up and I was engulfed in a flower petal snowstorm. It made me laugh out loud, and I paced back in forth in it grinning and laughing. It went on for a good sustained bit and then came back periodically yesterday as I played with Soolin after work. Spring rules, that is all 🙂