I Was Planning on Fat Biking Yesterday Morning...

After watching that SpaceX launch.  But instead there was an unexpected opening at the dentist's office I'd been trying to get into, so no fat bike for the moment.  That's OK, because here are two looks at the Surly Moonlander.  Admittedly my ICT is a model-step down from this particular beast, but it's got a lot of the same welded-in fun-factor.

• In Which Berm Peak Tests It (28 minutes).  Two quotes: "You get up some speed on this thing and you start to see your life flash before your eyes." and "The bike doesn't need to make sense to make fun."
• In Which Surly Asks Berm Peak To Send The Bike Back After He's Kept It A Year (17 minutes).  Instead, he called them back and said he'd really like to keep it and how much money y'all want? and he bought it.  Once you try fat tires, it's unimaginable to live without.

Well, I feel like somebody's punched me in the right jaw after the dentist visit, and in a week or so I go back to get punched on the left side.  Eh, probably worth it in the long run.  Though I wish the pain was from falling off a bike, not something so mundane as a dental deep cleaning.

ps: 

• In which Berm Peak goes rock crawling (10 minutes).  Possibly the weirdest gearing ever seen on a functioning mountain bike.

And Today Brought Quite a Lot

Best pic of the bunch, from the Avenue E wharf:

Gratuitous Pelican has other things on his mind.

ps: Those are pilings to keep boats off the dock on a high tide.  Though they do sort of look like off-kilter obelisks.  

The SpaceX Bandwagon-5 launch went off right on time at 7:04 EDT this morning.  From this far north the launch initially looked like a red dot climbing up from the horizon, then quickly transitioned into a recognizable exhaust plume within seconds, and finally into the "space jellyfish" dispersed plume you see here.

This was maybe 30 seconds before the other picture.

Definitely worth getting up a tad early.

And It's a Scrub

SpaceX Bandwagon-5 launch delayed due to poor weather conditions at the booster recovery site.  Launch re-scheduled for at soonest tomorrow.

Pack it up, see what tomorrow brings.

On The Beach #2

Again, from an isolated, undisclosed location.  Today with full load-out.  Tried for a redfish, no luck.  I was a little late on the tide.  Anyway, it was a great bike ride.

Fear the fat.  It'll roll right over you.  Your back gonna look like a waffle.

Took one route out, one route back: first on a patchy washed-out road down the center of the island, then returned via beach.  The beach way is slightly easier but a boring ride, while the center road is extremely varied: gravel, sandy double-track, wet sandy double-track, soft sand drifts over whatever was still there, wash-out!, more gravel, then damp bayfront hardpack.  Way more fun.

Interestingly enough, another rider was right at the trailhead and on a vintage Surly Cross-Check no less.  This is the direct ancestor of my Straggler, though his was set up as a flat-bar singlespeed.  He made a good effort of it, making it maybe 3/4 of the way there before the sand drifts got the better of him.  It's good to know that I could probably pull this ride off on the Straggler – however the ICT is far better suited for the job.  The 4.8" tires handled the fluffy stuff without drama, though I'm sure that something down to 3.8" would work nearly as well.

Finally, here's a profile shot of a blue heron keeping watch on me.  You know, just in case.

In Case You Missed It

... last Tuesday, SpaceX has another near-dawn launch scheduled for next Monday.  As sent by a friend:

Confirmed by a quick grok query:

Yes — there is a SpaceX launch scheduled for next Monday (October 19, 2026):
Bandwagon-5, a dedicated mid-inclination rideshare mission on a Falcon 9.

• Targeted time: Launch window opens at 6:30 a.m. EDT (10:30 UTC) from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
• The booster is expected to land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG).

After that, the next ones currently listed include Starlink Group 15-15 (Tuesday, October 20 from Vandenberg) and Starlink Group 15-16 (around October 24 from Vandenberg). Schedules can change, so checking sites like Next Spaceflight, Spaceflight Now, or SpaceX’s launches page closer to the date is recommended.

See you down along the waterfront.  Or maybe not, I'll be looking upward and east.  The weather forecast is clear and cool, about 60ºF.

October Sky

One of the perks of living in Florida is an occasional sky light show.  Here are two pics of yesterday morning's SpaceX launch, sent by friends.

Frustratingly, I was up at the time but didn't happen to look out my kitchen window.  Eh, maybe next time.  Also, if the name of this post rings a bell, it's from the 1998 book and its 1999 film adaptation, both of which I heartily recommend.

A Case of the Post-Storm Blahs

You know how everyone takes a soft week after a close call with a hurricane?  That's this week.

Yesterday I was getting the fat bike ready for a redfishing expedition – rod holder: check, pannier bag: check, tackle box: check, etc. – when it occurred to me to check the tide table.  Dead low at 9:30 this  morning, that is to say, exactly dead wrong for fishing.  And while the weather is downright pleasant these day, highs in the mid-80's are still a tad warm for exploring sandy woods trails.  Eh, kick those things back to next week, ride the gravel bike around town today.  Maybe get with that VHF antenna this afternoon.  Because this bike needs a VHF antenna.

In other bike-related thoughts, 

• a 2024 interview with Dirt Rag co-founder Maurice Tierney.  49 minutes.
• annoying-but-funny dude switches to flat pedals for a month.  My take?  Flats have their place for me (eg: on the fat bike) and for the right rider are the right choice anywhere, but having ridden clip-ins for over three decades now, for serious biking I'm not switching.  Also, the claimed 20% extra power in those maximum-effort bursts (see the video) makes them worth it.
• Riding the gravel bike out to the EOC a couple of times this week reminded me of why I both love and hate road biking.  Love: speed, clean speed.  Hate: the guy who has to pass on a double-line curve – and nearly head-ons another truck 100' in front of me.

That is all for the moment.  Maybe I'll get back onto slow-scan TV, now that the summer thunderstorms have somewhat abated.  Then at least I'll have some interesting graphics to intersperse into these walls of text.

ps, somewhat later in the day:

Good to finally see.

All Clear – I Think

Haven't yet had a chance to look around outside yet – just getting daylight here – but things seem more or less OK this far east of landfall.  In many ways a replay of 2020's Hurricane Zeta (#6, #7), but worse for those near the X.  These October storms that come up from near the Yucatan Peninsula are unpredictable and dangerous.

Will give it a look as soon as we have good daylight.

ps later Saturday: 40 mph sustained with 55 mph gusts, tides 5' over normal.  The Hole overflowed onto Bay Avenue, but just barely.  Here's a photo of the trash line, right down the middle.

The Terabyte Coffee Machine

Article at cybernews.  TLDR: An internet-attached Keurig machine blurped out an astonishing amount of data over the users' home network connection.  Probably a bug.  Wry commentary follows.

Do you ever look at something and think to yourself, "This makes no freekin' sense."?  I don't mean the fact that a coffee machine pushed out 1,000 gigabytes of data in ten days, that was almost certainly a glitch in its network system.  I mean, why in the name of St. Kaldi would anyone hang a coffeepot on the internet?  When a heat-producing device is at hand and best operated by hand, does it in any way shape or form need this capability?  It's akin to having a remote control for a car radio, except worse because it reaches out into the rest of the world – and lets that world reach into your coffee pot.

Look, the internet of things has its uses, but you'd better have some competent programming and real security to back it up.  A coffeepot isn't worth the trouble.  Best comment is in the inset image.

Back to your regularly unscheduled October Surprise hurricane.

Close.

As of right now, things are probably OK, but we'll see.

Will be busy for a couple of days, might need a little maneuvering room here.

A Link To: A Media Guide to Amateur Radio

Suitable for emailing to your favorite media outlet, with its own pdf link included, at KB6NU.

Good stuff, both for media folks, or just good background in a compact form for everyone else.

In other news, rain rain go away.

Looks like it will be a few more day.  [sic: dropped the 's' to keep the rhyme]

When cool weather gets here, I just can't say.

Two antenna climbs scheduled for first clear day.

Well that was pretty bad, but being rained in since last Thursday does something to people.  Storm drains here are being pressed to their limits, even after all of the repair efforts by the City over the past year.  Good thing those repairs have been made, we'd be somewhat literally up the creek without 'em.  "Pack it up, see what tomorrow brings."

Raccoons Borrowed My Bike – The Comic Series

It's somewhat less literal than the title, mostly drawings of animals and off-road bikes & related gear, with wry commentary below about the sort of riders and other people who do something somewhat related to the critter in the cartoon.  Best bike art I've seen since the early days of Dirt Rag.  It was supposed to be compiled into a book, but I can't find an actual working link anywhere.  If I can, I'll post it – right after I buy a few copies.  Anyway, here's the link to the 12 installments of 5 series at nsmb.com.

 

A small sample of what's in store.  Still can't find the book though.

Two Transportation Reveals Set For November

• REO Trucks has their initial design for their new Runabout scheduled for sometime this November.
• Surly Bikes has... something? scheduled for announcement on November 2nd.  No idea.

In the market for one, probably not in the market for the other.  We shall see.

Coffeeneuring '26

Briefly, the rules have been announced here.  Starts October 10th, runs thru November 25th.  Give or take; there seems to be some play in the rules with "Early Bird" this and "Secret Bonus Day" that.  Eight rides of at least 2 miles each, eight cups of coffee.

My "probably not" thoughts here.  OTOH, maybe I will this year.  You never can tell until these things happen, or they don't.  Maybe start it and fail to complete.  That sort of fits the mood of life these days anyway.

On This Rainy Saturday

Go read a book.  Which book?  See previous post.

Four Your Consideration

Through following links from an email I received yesterday, I stumbled across this some-months old article:

4 Sci-Fi Books Veterans Say Every Service Member Should Read Once

TLDR, from the closing paragraphs:

Starship Troopers asks what duty is worth.  The Forever War asks what war takes from those who survive it.  Armor asks what repeated combat does to the mind.  Old Man's War asks what happens when the military rebuilds a person for its own needs.

To be clear, the last time I swore an oath and wore a uniform was in the Boy Scouts.  (I did get kicked out for fighting though, so there is that.)  Nonetheless, I've read Starship Troopers many, many times and have read Old Man's War and even reviewed it here.  Armor and The Forever War however have thus far escaped me.  Will get on these two over the winter.