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Another Day, Another Downed Tree…

Published August 11, 2011

After one of the recent windy days another dead tree fell on the trails at River Bends, and thankfully I was able to remove this one with just a hand saw and a bit of creative thinking. The tree was partially rotted, so there was only a solid core to saw through. Fifteen minutes of actual work and it was gone.

Once the tree was cleared I spent some time wandering around some undeveloped parts of the park, and from what I can tell there’s a really great opportunity to build some more single track heading generally north from the end of the current loop. this needs a little more thought, but I think we may be able to build a return trail so that most of the route north back to the trail head can occur on single track.

Here is a (blurry) photo of the downed tree and some tools right after I arrived to remove it.

There were a surprising number of people out riding the trails today, and this was rather nice. It’s really great to see a bunch of people out enjoying them.

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Cancelling Cable TV

Published August 10, 2011

After putting it off for over a year, the whole time thinking that I might hook the service backup, I finally cancelled Cable TV service. This will decrease my monthly Wide Open West bill by ~$40/mo. As part of this I’ll need to return the multi-stream CableCARD (aka M-Card) seen above. This had previously been fitted in a TiVo HD to allow recording two encrypted digital CATV channels at the same time.

While I originally thought that something would demand Danielle and I to hook broadcast TV back up, all video watching that we do comes from legitimate streaming sources online. A mixture of Hulu, Netflix streaming, and BBC iPlayer has provided more than enough content to meet our limited entertainment needs. With a small Atom-based computer hooked to the television we’re able to stream anything to a TV, or (more typically) we watch things in a browser while doing other stuff.

Now I just have to handle returning the CableCARD. I can either drop it off at the Wide Open West office in Madison Heights or wait for a tech to show up on Saturday evening and collect it.

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How To Decrease Grip

Published August 8, 2011

The orange plastic shown above is the pull-off / snap-on cap from an Elmer’s All-Purpose Glue Stick, the same one which I’ve been using to glue labels on to SDrive NUXX packaging. For some reason the packaging designers for this glue stick saw fit to add vertical serrations to the cap, oriented in the direction that one pulls to remove the cap. These serrations would be useful if one had to twist the cap to remove it, but as it simply snaps off they only serve to make the cap harder to use than necessary.

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Injured Robin at Bald Mountain

Published August 5, 2011

Yesterday evening while riding to Addison Oaks by way of Bald Mountain I came across this robin laying on it’s back in the middle of the Conklin Road connector. It was laying across the entire trail, and it took a bit of effort to stop before running it over. Looking like it’d just been in some sort of fight it just laid still while I took it’s photo, doing little beyond pivoting it’s head to look at what I was doing.

After a minute or two of looking at it I tried to get it to grab on to my finger with it’s feet, but seeming uninterested in this I tried to pick it up and move it off the trail. As I went to pick it up it bit/pinched me with its beak then lopsidedly flew away down the trail. I’m quite curious what it’d been hurt by. Perhaps a cat or maybe some larger bird?

Once the bird was moved from the trail I carried on, not stopping until I got back to the car, a bit more than 2 hours later. It was a great night for a ride on one of my favorite local trails.

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Colorado Beer

Published August 5, 2011

Erik and Kristi recently came back from a long weekend trip† to Colorado bearing beer. As a result the house is now graced with thirteen bottles of stuff that’s not available in Michigan. The twelve normal bottles are now in the fridge cooling and the one 22oz of Magic Mirror is sitting in the basement aging.

This sampling is comprised of (left to right):

Left Hand Brewing Company:
400 Pound Monkey
Milk Stout
Black Jack Porter
Stranger American Pale Ale

New Belgium Brewing:
Mothership Wit
Ranger India Pale Ale
Somersault Ale

Grimm Brothers Brewhouse:
Magic Mirror Imperial Köttbusser Ale

Odell Brewing Co.:
Myrcenary Double India Pale Ale

Boulder Beer Company:
Kinda Blue Blueberry Wheat
Mojo India Pale Ale
Sweaty Betty Blonde
Hazed & Infused Dry-Hopped Ale

These will be quite tasty over the coming weeks. I know for certain that the couple of these which I’ve had before are quite good, and I’m quite certain that the rest will be quite tasty as well. Mmm.

UPDATE: It turns out that the Boulder Beer Company stuff is actually available in Michigan. That doesn’t make it any less tasty, though.

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Replacement EPDM Bands for Garmin Quarter Turn Bike Mount

Published August 3, 2011

New Garmin cycling GPSs (such as the Edge 500 and Edge 800) use a new style of mount that can only be affixed to bikes with an elastic band mounting system. This Quarter Turn Bike Mount (Part Number: 010-11430-00) comes with EPDM bands for this mounting, and documentation (seen above) strongly suggests that the same sort of replacement band be used. This is a valid recommendation as EPDM is a very good material for long-term exposure to the elements, but it’s not always that easy to find a specialized material like this.

While Garmin sells the Bike Mount Elastic Bands (Part Number: 010-11430-01) set (six bands, three of each size) themselves for US$5.99, it’s possible to buy them from an industrial supply shop like McMaster-Carr for quite a bit less. Specifically, these rings appear to be as follows:

Small Garmin Elastic Band
AS568A Dash No.: -125
Width: 3/32″ (.103″ Actual)
Inner Diameter: 1 5/16″ (1.299″ Actual)
Outer Diameter: 1 1/2″ (1.505″ Actual)
McMaster-Carr Part Number: 9557K158
Price (as of 2011-Aug-03): US$9.12 for 50 Pieces

Large Garmin Elastic Band
AS568A Dash No.: -131
Width: 3/32″ (.103″ Actual)
Inner Diameter: 1 11/16″ (1.674″ Actual)
Outer Diameter: 1 7/8″ (1.880″ Actual)
McMaster-Carr Part Number: 9557K165
Price (as of 2011-Aug-03): US$9.62 for 50 Pieces

While a pack of 50 bands is overkill for most people’s needs, the price of ~20¢/ea is considerably better than Garmin’s ~$1/ea. At that price a group of friends, a team, or a shop could go in on a box of replacements and just keep them sitting around for use as needed. It also would be trivial to order smaller or larger bands if one needs the mount to fit larger or smaller surfaces; just be sure to get the 3/32″ (.103″ actual) bands and order whatever diameter desired.

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Black & Decker Pivot Driver (Model 9078) Power Supply

Published August 2, 2011

Today’s public service announcement is to inform you that the Black & Decker Pivot Driver (Model 9078) uses a 5VAC ~200mA power supply with a typical 2.5mm barrel connector for charging. The 3.6VDC marking on the driver itself is the power requirements for the motor, the charging connector is unlabeled, and a decal on the unit simply directs that only power supply 90500898 be used. Now you know that 905 That is all.

(This sort of information is often terribly hard to find when needed, such as when the device needs a charge, the power supply is missing, and a suitable replacement can’t be found. Hopefully stuff like this will one day help someone.)

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Fennel, Propolis, and Myrrh Toothpaste

Published August 2, 2011

For the last few months I’ve been using a tube of Trader Joe’s-brand Fennel, Propolis, and Myrrh toothpaste when brushing my teeth. I rather like this toothpaste, as it tastes strongly of fennel (one of my favorite flavors) while brushing, yet doesn’t leave a lingering, cloying, fake-mint taste in one’s mouth like most big-name toothpaste. Also, unlike mint, the slight leftover fennel taste also doesn’t clash with whatever breakfast food I happen to eat later in the morning, be it coffee, orange juice, cream cheese, or just about anything else.

I’d prefer it if I could get this flavor toothpaste with fluoride, but neither the Trader Joe’s labeled product nor the natural toothpaste heavyweight Tom’s of Maine (now partially owned by Colgate-Palmolive) offer this flavor with the tooth-friendly additive. Unlike some It’s a good thing that I’m a regular drinker of tap water; I’ll just get my fluoride that way.

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SDrive NUXXs Ready To Ship

Published August 1, 2011

There we go, twenty nine (29) assembled SDrive NUXXs packed in bubble wrap and ready to ship. The thirtieth unit is waiting on some parts (small plastic key caps)that Digi-Key mis-shipped. Or, if a buyer so chooses, I’ll fit their unit with yellow key caps. Here is the USPS Priority Mail packaging sent complimentary upon request. It, of course, requires that I use them for all shipping, but I was planning that anyway.

Now, time to sleep. I’m very overtired. This is a bit more work than I planned on.

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