I am sick of 6.895

I don't think any of my readers know why that number has been occupying my mind lately. I'd tell you, in detail, but then you'd be so bored you'd kill yourself, and I couldn't bear the guilt.

When you multiply psi times 6.895 you get kpa. This is what mawp is measured in. It should always be kpa, but because a bunch of cowardly Imperial dinosaurs wimped out on converting to metric back in the dark ages, we are still stuck with psi. We should have done it, and gotten over it.

So it turns out in the database I'm working with we don't quite believe the mawp numbers. So I had the bright idea of comparing it to the regulator's database. Many agree, or nearly so, which is fine. After all, that 3 decimal number is an approximation, but good enough.

Then I discovered some of our numbers and their numbers disagreed dramatically. For them I have to check original documentation. Many of these forms are old. So I see a number on the form, usually in psi. I have to convert that to kpa because that's how it's stored in the database. Then compare it to ours and see who agrees, and if they don't, try to figure out why not. It's more complicated than it sounds, having to do with how people and databases deal with units conversion. 

Suffice to say I'm checking and fixing 2 different databases at once. Retail. It means a lot of multiplying or dividing by 6.895. Some of them I know by heart, but you don't want me to prove it.

In other news, hams are still a bit tired. I'd been hoping for a run after work today, but events conspired against me. Furnaces used to be simple. 

In other other news, I had lunch today with people that were part of my team when I started at Penn West. Many of them have moved on. It was nice to get together, but one of them was filling my ears about the joys of retirement. Maybe I should have filled my ears with wax, or lashed myself to the mast. (that's a reference for the literary) In not unrelated news, tomorrow I visit my financial advisor, and guess what I'll be talking about.

Pigeons ate my hams

I'm still feeling beat up from the weekend bike ride, especially my hams and low back. Not hurting, just tired, so I was a bit cautious in yoga tonight. Normally I love it, but wouldn't you know, we were doing pigeon in the middle of a really, really long flow. Longest one ever. Flow, legs up the wall, meditation, Savasana, class over.

Normally I really like pigeon. During pigeon I suddenly realized my hamstrings were really hurting. I had to dial back. Sigh. Not pins and needles like going to sleep, this was an actual ache as if something was pulling it off, preparatory to eating it.

Did I mention I bailed on my swim this morning? Need more rest.

Look what's guarding our garden

So that Monday swim sucked big time according to the clock. Good thing I wasn't fussed about it. My legs felt really heavy and slow from the weekend ride, I think. Twenty trips up and down stairs carrying seven heavy wine kits, and 15 cases of bottles had nothing to do with it, I'm sure.

The Meglioli Moscat white that was taking forever to settle was dealt with firmly. I got out the drill and whipped the bejazzes out of it. I guess I didn't do a good enough job the first time because I got some more froth and tiny bubbles. Then I added some Isenglas I'd picked up, then stirred some more. In less than 24 hours it settled more than it had done in the previous month, and a day later even more progress is being made. At last.

Our little plum tree has buds on it, and I suspect blossoms will be soon. Photos then. I shouldn't, but I sometimes chuckle at Linda. She has a great green thumb with her plants, yet she worries that nothing will come up. She feared the back garden would be a frozen wasteland with 3 dead trees and lots of plants just lying there. Of course, everything is coming up gang-busters! Since we've fenced the back yard, put in the patio, and sheltered the garden with the lodge, it warms up much quicker, and the plants seem to like it. Even though gardening here is risky before May long weekend, she is out, hard at it. She's been itching for weeks to get started.

I spent this evening setting up the two rain barrels we got because it's supposed to rain soon. I'd only done one of them last year for complicated reasons. What's funny is the kit includes threaded joiners that don't fit the size of threaded openings. I don't know why. At least I got enough of ones that fit.

Linda had found this beautiful dragon to hide the end of the downspout, and I installed that as well. I need to fiddle with the base a bit more but I want to see exactly how the rain barrel settles when it's full.

Curtis was underfoot, trying to get into my lap every trip back and forth to get tools. Even when I was in the bathroom. When I looked like I was actually thinking about sitting down in my easy chair, he was RIGHT THERE! It's tough typing on a lap top, when your lap is full of cat. The struggles I go through for my blog readers.

So who's a wheel-sucker?

So you knew about the ride Friday afternoon instead of working. That was nice, even if it was really windy. I figure I'll keep going out, sooner or later it will be less windy.

Saturday was a putter around the house day. Lots of things crossed off my list. Yay me! Not the big one though. My desk is still a mess, and I had hoped to at least get started on catching up on my filing and organizing. It was so nice out, even if there was snow on the ground when we woke up.

Sunday at half past still frigging cold, Michelle and I met up with Saskia and her buddy Sarah out at Priddis. We had a lovely ride to Bragg Creek and back. Not so windy, sunny, but cold to start, and cool to finish. In a news flash that will stun you all, I am still a week feeble reed going up hills. Maxed 70 KpH on one of the downhills. We saw a ton of other cyclists. I've ridden past where we parked a zillion times, but I hadn't known how many people drove there, parked, then rode.

On the way back I caught up to Michelle (she was being kind) then mercilessly sucked her wheel for a while while I recovered. Then I passed (it was downhill) and told her to stay tucked in. A minute later there was a surprised "Hey, I hardly have to pedal!" Exactly.

Anyone see anything funny about this readout from the bike ride log? One number is so not true.

I knew from yesterday that all my wine kits are in, so after eating and showering I zoomed off to Red Deer. Holy Hanna what a gong show the highway was! I thought I was going to see two collisions and had already begun to take evasive action. Fortunately not. There were a lot of big pickup trucks being driven excessively fast, even for Highway 2.

The habit that scared me the most was the casually cutting back into the right lane when there was a break in the slower traffic. Then they'd hammer it right up to the bumper of the slower vehicle they'd eventually meet, and cut back in. I had it done to me, and I was more than just a bit bug eyed. No signal, other than reading the vibes of the vehicle. No shoulder check, just move and assume there was room. Jerk.

This was the very soothing sign I was looking for. In all Alberta, this is THE best place to buy your wine kits.

Here's the supply of kits I brought home. This will keep me out of mischief for a while.

Curtis "helping" by keeping an eye on the raisin pack for the Chilean Vocanic Red that I started tonight.

Road to Nepal, you flirt you

I am playing hooky from work right this minute. Yay me! Though since I'm the one that sets my hours, I suppose that's not as cheaty as it sounds.

It started with a swim this morning. The training pool was closed, and only four lanes were open in the other pool. We watched my buddy Katie navigating the complete GONG SHOW going on in the four open lanes. I couldn't believe it. Two guys standing there, watching the chaos, decided to add to it. One fell off the ladder going in, and nearly landed on someone. The other jumped in and headed up the middle where the lane rope would be, dodging people left and right. What an idiot. I was wishing for a long shepherd's crook to haul them out by the neck.

We slipped off to the dive tank and practiced technique till the swim club cleared out of the other lane. I love swimming in the dive tank. It's so big, and well lit, and is such a fun place to play. No wonder the snychro swim girls always have a big smile.

Then we were into the other pool. Michelle is really looking like a swimmer now! I churned along, mostly doing technique work, but busted out some good stuff. First was 2 hard 100's, 87 seconds and 91 seconds with a 30 second recovery. Then a bit later after some drill, 5x100m on 2 minutes, at 99, 100, 100, 99, 100. I'm really pleased with that, though I was getting close to the retaste zone on that last one. By my normal interval rules I should have tried for number 6, but I knew better.

I was having fun focussing on my technique while chatting with my inner shark. He showed up in the dive tank, and followed us to the other pool, though he wasn't so thrilled with the cloudiness of it. My swim was feeling quite strong, and he was encouraging various elements of my stroke. Today was mainly recovery and catch, working on my roll and breathing out the whole stroke. I'm still not sure why that's supposed to be faster, or if it's making a difference for me. It turns out my inner shark has been off hob-nobbing with my book characters. Who knows what they are getting up to? When I asked, all he gave me were hints that could be called lurid and cryptic.

The novel has been on a bit of a pause lately, as other workout stuff has picked up. And taxes. It took a bit of doing to get it all together, and I missed the one slip that details how much I paid last year as installments. Oops! This weekend I must, I simply must get my desk tidied up and get started on organizing business taxes. What fun.

It's such a beautiful summer day out there, mid to high teens, sunny and lovely. I haven't taken Estela down Road to Nepal in several years now, and I could hear the road calling to us in four part harmony. For those who haven't done it, it's a fabulous training ride. All hills, all the time, nice pavement, not too much traffic, and a parking lot at the top. Once down and back (37 tough K) is a good workout, especially if you push on the hills. Two is a super workout. I've never done it twice in a row.

I listened, and bailed out of work at lunchtime, using up some extra hours from last month, so I'm not behind on billable hours. It didn't take long to get ready. Wow. Even more wind once I got out of the neighbourhood. It was straight from the south and strong. It normally takes me about 20 minutes to do the 7.5 K down to 22X. Today was 30 minutes even. That is the slowest time ever, I think.

Then down the first hill, slowly. Up the other side was brutal. I was going less than 7 kph for much of it. That hill is normally 10 kph or so. Remember what I was saying last week about being a week and feeble reed? On the way back there were several times I was going 50 kph, in a dead calm. Let's not talk much about the little gusts from side to side.

After taking stock at the top of the hill, and watching my bike computer tick over 40 minutes, I decided it would be smart to head back. I think if it hadn't been windy I'd have gone further. Maybe. 40 minutes out, 20 minutes back. Yes, twice as fast. That's what a bit of wind will do. After all the slow bits, I prefer to remember the max speed, 75 Kph, per the bike computer. 1 hour, 20 Km total.

Here's the graph of the ride.

And garden things are blooming! I don't know what these two little blue things are, but they're growing already. We're going to try to get out into the lawn and garden to start cleaning up after winter, even though we've got another month where it could quite possibly snow.

The first 950 were good, then

Monday and Tuesday were easy relaxing days. Well, except for being back at work. And sleeping poorly. And watching it snow really hard Tuesday evening.

Back in the pool today. It was lovely for the first 950 m. I was cruising along at an 18:30/Km pace nice and relaxed, and then it fell apart on me. Just fell apart. It didn't feel like I was doing anything different but the last 550 m was slower. 28 minutes overall, instead of the 27:45 I was expecting. Short course too, so I can't even blame the pool.

After a short rest I busted out 3x100, on 2 minutes, done in 98, 99, 100 seconds. That felt pretty good, but I wasn't going to try for a fourth.

I even tried a bit of fly after a rest, and that lasted 3 strokes before my hamstrings and calves gave their notice that extreme and serious consequences were going to happen sooner than instantly. I stopped and soothed them. Stretched on the side of the pool.

The election is so depressing. My choices in our riding are the PC's, the Wildrose, and the NDP. I was hoping the Alberta Party would run, but oh well. Can't have everything.

Dave Rodney is running for a fourth term. The best thing that can be said of him is that one doesn't read of him in the newspapers. And he's climbed Everest twice, as he will tell you. Often. His greatest sin is that he's running for an arrogant, corrupt party that is long, LONG past the best before date. It needs to be taken out and dumped in the trash can of history.

The Wildrose and their lake of fire are unacceptable. Period, end of story.

The NDP guy is an experienced project manager, he says, for many years, so I'm assuming he has at least basic organizational skills. OK.

Quite frankly, I've vote for nearly anyone that wasn't PC or Wildrose. I am seriously pissed at the PC's. They've been mismanaging the economy here ever since Lougheed retired and people keep voting for them. It baffles me.

I was totally gobsmacked driving in to work this morning, listening to an article on the radio. The Calgary Board of Education is seriously proposing to cut the janitorial staff at schools. They are behind on maintenance already, and can barely stay ahead of the bare minimum. If a kid vomits in class, they put powder on it, and a desk over it, and wait for hours for a janitor to clean it up. That hardly sounds sanitary. They were forbidden to dip into their reserve, but they did anyway, which is a risky thing. The last board that didn't do what it was told to do was dismissed in it's entirety and replaced.

Yet Prentice can spend 30 million on an unneeded election, while your kids could be sitting in a classroom smelling vomit for hours.

They said they are going to honour existing contracts but bargain for zero percent raises for provincial workers till the budget is balanced. Well, with that sort of incentive it will NEVER be balanced, and there's nothing to stop Prentice from giving himself and his elected buddies a raise any time they like. Is that really what you want running the province?

Now a soothing cat picture to calm me down for yoga class.

Your $, spent on dumb stuff, killing retirement

What with retirement thoughts percolating through my brain (I'm glad my manager doesn't read my blog) I've been thinking about money lately. From conversation with other people, they think about money a lot too. Mostly as in not having enough of it.

But really, the problem is that they spend too much of it on illusions. I was musing about ranting about that a bit, but I've spent the entire afternoon reading Mr Money Mustache. You can find his blog here. He says everything I'd have said about money, better, in more detail, and with much more personal experience involved. Seriously. When you're done reading my blog scroll back up and visit him. You'll be glad you did.

I've already grasped the essence of his method. Spend less money, then invest it. No, really spend less. People think they are doing well to save 10% of their income. That means you're going to be working a long time before you can retire. If you save half, or more, you can work a lot less before you can retire. On two normal incomes, he and his wife retired at 30. And no, they aren't living in a mud house in the boonies.

As I acerbically commented on another blog about finding the time to run, give up watching cable TV. It's a waste of time, and costs money. I've never had a cable package so I don't even know what they cost, but friends tell me you're doing well if you're spending only $100 a month on it. 1200 a year. After 30 years of modest returns you'd have nearly $60,000. Put that $100 a month in the market with a 7% rate of return, compounded yearly, for that same 30 years, and you'd have $117,000.

Maybe you think that's a reasonable price for watching The Simpsons, or Game of Thrones, and way too many commercials. Network TV turns your brains to tapioca. Have I ever told you that I sincerely believe there are brain sucking apace aliens that like tapioca flavoured brains, and have thus put themselves and their minions in charge of television network programming. They'll start the harvest any time, I'm sure. I can't wait to see the average IQ going up sharply.

There's a website that does the same calculations based on buying a Starbucks "tasty" artificial ingredients beverage that might or might not taste something like coffee. I don't even know what that beverage costs, but you can do that math too. Let's just say $5 per beverage, averaging one a day. $1800 a year. More than the cable package! Buy real coffee instead.

Let's go for something bigger. Cars. In rough terms a car costs you $10,000 a year, every year. That adds up quicker, but I'll let you do the math, because you won't believe the amount over a working lifetime if I just tell you. Hint, you'll probably need 6 figures. I'm glad to see that someone else thinks that most of the vehicles I see around me on the road are completely impractical for the intended purpose, and are a foolish use of money. And if it was borrowed money, is strong evidence of actual insanity.

My question has been, do I want to afford that, and more and more, the answer is no. I buy what I actually need, to do the things I'm actually doing. Things I actually enjoy doing. I don't enjoy shopping. It's a painful experience to get through it to pick the thing I've decided to get. I cannot imagine shopping for pleasure. Going to a store, being around people that are in my way, in traffic there and back, looking at (usually) cheap shit made in China by near-slave labour that I don't want to buy is a close approximation of hell for me.

In any case, I've been having fun reading his blog. He's a Canadian, BTW, if that makes a difference, and some of my Boulder buddies might have met him. Small town, he rides his bike a lot. It's possible. Which reminds me, I should be riding my bike a lot more, for as long as I'm going to work. I've added him to my blog roll, though right now you have to click the show all button to see him, he last posted about a week ago.

I probably shouldn't burble too much about how much I've enjoyed this week off. Two outside bike rides, several swims, several runs. Several industrial strength cat cuddles. A few afternoon naps. Some writing in the lodge. Running the BBQ. Generally relaxing. I'm feeling awesome. Let's see how long that lasts. One week off work has put about 70 emails in my inbox. Considering I rarely have more than a couple unread items at a time, and never more than a dozen in my inbox, this is an unacceptable state of affairs.

Swam this morning with Michelle, working on stretching out after the bike ride yesterday. I probably swam 400 m very slowly before I began to feel like normal in the water. Chatted with Katie a bit, though I was surprised to see her back from vacation. Then to a book club meeting (The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins). Everybody liked it. It was pretty good, but you have to pay attention when you read it, and I found it a bit confusing. Napped. I could get to like this not working lifestyle.

The photo of the aftermath from Saturday's ride didn't show up until after I had hit the publish button. Here's Celina, wearing one of the booties Michelle gave me. Yes, I know I'm going to cat hell for another eternity.