James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

[Norm]

Sanity Plan - Week 1, Friday (1.1.Fri)

It's the end of the week and nothing much of note happened today. I did take some pics for @seanrunnette though. I've been waking up right at the perfect sunrise time this week.

Work was work. Turns out I need to talk to 4 people next week for the interview process, not 5. Rather, I had already talked to 1 of the 5 and he said it wasn't necessary to do another. I have 3 of the 4 calls scheduled already, 1 each Monday through Wednesday.

I don't know if this is blog-worthy so I may not keep going on these updates. I just need something to write between the pictures.

I rode 2 hours at tempo today on the trainer and watched Letterkenny season 4. Not the strongest start to a season, though it came along a bit. I wanted to pile on some constant work for my ride today so it was a good workout. This weekend looks to probably be more of the same.

Today I did some finishing on Septic Bench, specifically the part the kids cut on the quicker side. That's coming along but pretty low-priority. Also started firming up 1 of the berms in the main run, which is going to be pretty important to get right as this one you'll carry a bit of speed into. We added a jump between berms 1 and 2 in the main flow. This may eventually turn into a double.

Everyday I try to work 1-2 main things. I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend we have a solid V1 of the main run. But this overnight rain may slow that down. The rain helps back down the stuff we're building but it also pauses us.

 

[Norm]

Sanity Plan - Week 1, Saturday (Log: SP-1.1.Sat)

I pretty much finished the project for the week, which was the laundry room. One cross bike remains but that's no big deal. We usually have 2 road bikes in there so it's fewer than usual. Next week I will move on to something else. TBD what that will be yet.

Rode for almost 2.5 on the trainer with the idea of just putting in miles and getting close to my 10 hours for the week. I'm sitting at 9.5, so after tomorrow I should get to 11 or so. I may race, or not, depending how I feel. I didn't go hard today because I just wanted the time/miles.

Watched Highwaymen on the ride. Good enough, not amazing. It got me to the end which means it did the job.

Spent some time after lunch working on the mini-Lego kit with Julia. Been doing this the past few days as some good daddy-daughter time for us. She got this as a gift for Christmas from my parents I believe, and it kind of sat around not being used, so this is as good a time as any to do it. It's a mini London skyline, which I guess is redundant as they would not produce a life-sized London skyline. We just need to build the ferris wheel which we can do tomorrow.

Went outside around 2:00 to do some trail work and the boys came out with me, then proceed to do a huge amount of work to build a second bench cut on the septic field side. They're both really dedicated to this, which is impressive. In addition, I spent some time shaping up one of the berms on the main run, digging out the small berm after the big jump, and we plotted out the next flow project with an idea to run a berm into a logover to sort of make a berm-jump.

I went inside and Zac kept at it, and built the berm-jump during the next hour. I have to say the kid is really dedicated to building this stuff. Without question we have spent 100x more time building than riding so far. They absolutely love this and it's been good for me to spend time with them and to get all 3 of us outside.

We already scoped out tomorrow's project which is ambitious, to say the least. One of these days I will do a picotral of some of the stuff we have built.

Baked a chocolate cake with Julia after I came in, right before dinner. Also Facetimed my parents while we did all this. Then we ate dinner and have been sort of chilling out for the last hour. We have our Saturday night Team Zoom call at 8:00 so the rest of my day looks like chocolate cake, team call, then probably finish the book I've been reading.

In all, to be fair (cue Letterkenny), this was a damn fine day. Hope your was as well.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.1.Sun: The Anatomy of a Sunday

I've been waking up early these days, and today was more or less a continuation of that. Out of bed by 6:30 with my espresso and breakfast then I read the end of the Easter Island chapter of Collapse, then went into the living room to relax with a cup of coffee and read the Times. The paper is pretty unsatisfying these days, as even the magazine has gone to a full court press about the same shit, over and over again.

Have you ever looking into a tulip when it's open? It's fascinating & beautiful.

Yesterday was turning the pedals and putting in time, so I decided to do a race this morning. The Zwift Classic series is going on now and currently they're in Richmond. The course profile for Richmond looks like this:

_______________/\/\/\

That's 7 miles of flat then 3 meat grinder hills. I registered for the Bs again and this time made sure my weight was correct. When the race started there were 170 people in the field and I managed to make the selection, along with 34 other people. Not much changed until we saw the first saw tooth depicted above. Then the field blew up and I was blasted out and had to find some sub-selection group, which ended up being 5-6 of us for another 7 miles while the next set of teeth awaited us. We'd been pretty much sitting in 25-30th position this whole time but right before the meat grinder, we were caught by a pack of about 20 riders and it all went to hell.

In the end I was 50th in game and then 29th on Zwiftpower once the results were in. I'm super happy with that result as this class is some seriously hard shit. My FTPwent up again, from 294 to 295w.

After the race I took a break then went outside with the boys to start working on the next project, which is a colossal rock build effort that's going to take some time. Yet again the kids impress me with their dedication on this.

We went inside for lunch then the kids did a treasure hunt for Easter-plus-a-week since we didn't have the kids last weekend. D put together a bunch of clues and the kids went around the house finding one after another until they found the motherload of chocolate bunnies hidden outside in the middle of a hollowed out tree trunk.

After that I spent some time with Julia finishing up her London LEGO, then we went for a walk before her mother came to pick her up mid-afternoon. She has another small set that we can do when she's here next week.

After the walk we checked out the progress the boys were making and Zac is well on his way to becoming a master trail builder. Julia went around the yard taking pictures with her new phone (iPhone 11, happy birthday kiddo) and I jumped in with the boys to help with the rock work. I get the parts like chainsaw needs, or sledgehammer requirements, in addition to lifting the super-heavy pieces of cemented rocks. Made some serious progress on the day, but this one has a bit more work before it's going to be rideable.

Around 3:00 we hit the road to go to Dickerson Mine to actually ride mountain bikes, as all we ever do around here is build trails in a sort of never-ending outdoor earth sculpting project. Many fewer people there this week but apparently there were more earlier. I'm glad the town is taking an open stance on this because the closed parks is pretty absurd. At least there's somewhere to go and we can all ride together here. In all almost 12 hours in the saddle this week.

Grabbed a pizza from down the street because we're tired of cooking and we were also tight on time. Ate real quick then jumped on a Zoom call with D's family, which honestly we should be doing every other week since it's not like this virus is keeping us from seeing each other, as we live all over North American as it is. Maybe that's something that will come out of this. It's not a bad idea to have family, or team, or friend calls on video once in a while.

That is the anatomy of a Sunday. And the end of end of the first week of my sanity plan. So far, I think things are going pretty well and I am especially enjoying taking these pictures.

 

[rottin']

@Norm actually have looked at the center of a tulip...here are a couple of.mine from today doing yardwork...

I also liked the gerber daisy at the end. Used to get those for Mrs rottin'

When do we get to see.said earth sculpting?

 

[Norm]

SP-1.2.Mon: A Case of the Mondays

I took a lot of pictures today. I don't have enough to say to warrant 10 pictures. But as the title suggests, I guess I had a case of the Mondays today, so I took a bunch and deleted fewer than normal.

The guy above is often outside the kitchen window and this morning, he was chowing down on breakfast while I was drinking my espresso, and showing off those colors. The bird, not me.

Ok @rottin' I will try to put something a little more comprehensive together by the end of the week, but the above is a sneak peak of what we completed today. Zac build this whole thing himself, I just smashed the concrete with a sledgehammer and provided guidance when requested.

By 7:15 this morning, I started getting emails that set the wrong tone for the day. So you know, I started taking pictures.

Above is the backside of the biggest jump in the park. We haven't named the system yet, but Zac's first thought was Kingdom Fails. We're not going with that, but it was clever nonetheless.

At 9:00 I had the next interview and it went well. A bit more talking shop than the previous call but nothing crazy. I know I said I was probably going to stop talking about this but I need words to go with all these pictures.

We did more trail work today, which is what we do when we're done with school & work. We did actually ride it for a while, and I got in 30 minutes of runs. It's the first time we rode it for any length of time and it was a good review of what we've done. I also know where I need to put some effort in the next few days when the boys are away. Looks like rain tomorrow though, so not sure how much I'll get in tomorrow.

That was all I did on 2 wheels, because I am exhausted today. Ideally this would be a great way to play around on the days when I don't feel like doing anything structured.

Ok I'm running out of things to say. The sun came out at the end of the day.

Apparently this stuff takes over the yard. But it doesn't mean you can't take pictures of it.

 

[pooriggy]

I think that's Veronica. Happy Tuesday.

 

[ChrisG]

I think that's Veronica

Elvis Costello has a song about it.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.2.Tue: Tuesday Shit Heads

Happy Tuesday @pooriggy. Historically, Tuesday sucks. I know I've said this before, but in terms of work, Tuesday tends to be the worst day of the week. It's when the shit heads you work with, the ones that did absolutely nothing Monday, wake up and realize that they have to get off their asses. So they spray the world with incompetence and more often than not, it falls on those of us who actually try to do work.

Anyway, today didn't turn out worse than any other day. The primary shit head, The Big B, is and was the same every day of the week. In the end I think the day was ok.

Had interview #5 today, which went as well as any of the other 4, probably better. Found out more about the company and it still sounds like a really solid place to work. Have another one tomorrow.

Sorry I don't have a lot to say today. I offer this cow timer as penance.

Rode for 90 minutes pretty easy while I watched the end of Letterkenny season 4 today. I have to say that this season was a bit of a disappointment. It was actually a lot of a disappointment. I think some of the earlier stuff was brilliant. I think this season went to the goof-well a bit too often. Too much slapstick and not enough good content. Hopefully they bring it back together in season 5.

The boys aren't here today, so I spent my time outside doing the slower, sometimes boring but necessary, finishing work on some of the trails. I worked on the lead-in to the first jump, the first berm, and the lead-in to the second jump plus the jump itself. I pulled out a lot of rocks, raked out a bunch of leaves/grass/chaff/etc, steel-raked the dirt, trimmed a bunch of the small roots & other various things sticking out of the dirt, and so on.

The big project was that first berm which needed to really be dug out a lot. I got the tread down reasonably well but the bottom needs to be dug out & groomed better. I want to ride it a few times before I do more work on it. It's gotten bigger/better but it's rough as-is. I watched a video of a guy building a berm in which he dug a foot down into the dirt. The earth here is tough to work with, pretty much the same ridge as Chimney Rock so you know what we're working with. There's no such thing as a shovel full here. You cannot sink a shovel into the ground without smashing a rock. So the work is a lot of rock pulling, dirt chipping, and so on.

Like I said, maybe a little boring but at the same time it's really fun. I'm enjoying the shit out of this right now and it's a bonus that came out of this whole quarantine thing. I still have some work to do before I can do my expose for @rottin' this Friday.

Good night, @pooriggy.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.2.Wed: Humpty Dance Day

Had call #6 today which was the only woman in the lineup for this process. She and I worked with the same person at different points in our career and this is the same person that tried to get me into the last job. Again, it was a good call, and again, nothing but good things to say about the company. Tomorrow is the last guy so I'm hoping by the end of this week we can see the finish line on this. I would hope if any of the people I talked to had a "hard no" objection, the process would have ended. I think things are going well.

I cannot say the same for the current job. I got wind that at the quarterly board meeting there was a directive to present options from an organizational direction on which of several ways to go, including a total pivot if it makes sense. When asked, "Does this include a spaghetti delivery service?" we were told, "Anything is on the table."

So yeah, there's that.

Today I rode for 76 minutes which is exactly what the workout called for. For the first time this year I was able to hit every interval at 100% which is something I probably have never been able to do. I had no set plan today, but I like to throw these interval workouts in when I need focus. It was nice out today, but frigid and windy, and I'm getting soft at this point. Plus I think the structured stuff is just better on the Zwifter.

I had nothing to watch so I went with Scrubs, still on season 1. This comes from the days of yore when seasons were like 20+ episodes, which seems crazy in this day & age.

The above is another sneak peak at the system for @rottin' - though I may have to waffle on the promise to get you something by the end of the week. Tomorrow the rain is going to hit around 5:00 then from there I think our Friday is a wash. I was hoping to be able to throw some video together but I don't know if we'll have that first full run all groomed by then.

Today Simon and I worked on the next berm and I think we really shaped it out well. When Zac rode it later he said it was solid, and the flow is really coming along. After that we all pitched in to work on some of the rock work (above is the 3rd line) and especially the entrance to the newest 2. Getting a solid start is key and when we were done, even Simon was able to nail both of these.

Things coming together. I really love the way this is all panning out. Then Zac made dinner.

 

[rottin']

@Norm normally I would say the delay is unacceptable on said video, but given the current circumstances and weather challenges I support the organizational decision to pivot on release date.

-- The Management

 

[Norm]

SP-1.2.Thu: Rinse and Repeat

Wow, this page is really long now.

Had the 7th call in this interview process this morning. This guy was supposed to be the "difficult" guy in the group but we ended up having a great call and he said he was going to recommend me with "2 thumbs up." I wonder if that means I'm a jerk. No matter. I have a call with the hiring manager tomorrow morning and should know what everything looks like soon enough.

I remain cautiously optimistic but I'm starting to think this is a cruel joke, and on the call tomorrow he's going to let me in on the gag. Then I will punch kittens.

The above is the inside of a tree that fell, which was all rotted out in the middle.

Worked on the trails again today, which isn't new. It allows me to blow off steam when I get frustrated with work. So yeah, lots of trail grooming today for obvious reasons. I managed to get the v2 version of grooming done on the full run so after a few runs and additional tweaks, I think we can put together the presentation for the Management. Unfortunately I hit a patch of buried glass today so that threw a monkey wrench into the work. I mean, I get that people used to throw garbage in their yards but FFS why panes of glass? Assholes.

We made an executive decision to trim off the top of the big root ball with the chainsaw and build a ramp to the top which will roll down into the first berm on the main run. This is all coming together really well. Zac finished up the exits on the 2nd and 3rd rock lines today as well.

Above is the chunks of rotted tree internals that I chipped away. That is all.

After I used all my energy I got on the bike and struggled to get to 1:12 just to bring my weekly total to 4.5 hours. Tomorrow looks like rain so I'll make up some time then. I need to get in 5.5 hours in the next 3 days to hit my 10 hours on the week. The chromecast didn't work so instead of watching TV I listened to Seveneves, which is ok but far less entertaining than Reamde.

I know this story is sort of rinse and repeat but WTF is going on in the world right now?

 

[JimN]

I listened to Seveneves, which is ok but far less entertaining than Reamde.

Not sure how far into it you are, but if you finish part one and don't think it was awesome, then I wouldn't bother with part two or three.

 

[rottin']

I don't mind the "rinse and repeat"-edness of this current chapter of the thread. I enjoy reading about the updates to the Normandy Trail, and dig that the boys are so engaged in being a part of this. This is going to be a point in their life that they will remember forever ( I suppose we all will), and hopefully this aspect will be one of the good memories they have of the pandemic times of 2020.

 

[pooriggy]

Yeah, any project around the house that you can get the kids to join in on and be amped about is a good project.

Building and even reading about building trails is therapeutic right now.

Do the people on the phone call interviews all axe the same questions or do they at least mix it up, with one guy doing the Where do you see yourself and another with What are your assets. 7 phone calls seems ridiculous, I guess they are slow? Even if you don't get the job, tell them they can still call you to shoot the shit, practice interviewing or talk about trails.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.2.Fri: Another Week Down

@JimN funny you say that. I just ended part 1 today and started part 2. I don't think it's awesome. I honestly don't get the point of the book right now. It seems to be a logistics setup for this space ark thing. Other than the second sentence of the book, I mean nothing at all has happened.

I should take a side step and say I'm having problems following the characters, which I blame the narrator for. I'm not sure if you read the book or listened, but I think reading this would be better than listening. Sometimes I don't follow every word of the narrative so I occasionally find myself clueless as to where the narrative is when I tune back in. She does some shitty voices too, which detracts from the whole thing.

I felt that Reamde was really easy to follow, and the reader was incredibly good.

@rottin' I agree this is going to be memorable for them, as well as me. As we make this more comprehensive, it'll become more memorable. The next few weeks should see the addition of more wooden structures and the fun factor will go up by the day. The minute the rain stopped today they went outside and built more. I skipped today due to a few factors but I should be able to put some time into it this weekend.

This whole post is littered with some sneak peek pictures for your viewing pleasure.

@pooriggy I agree 7 sounds like a lot, but this is a small group and they want to make sure that everyone I'll be working with gets a chance to talk to me first. I get this, only too well, as the company I'm currently working for hired some people I didn't have a chance to talk to first. Specifically, the guy I work with every day, The Big B. In general all these calls are just "get to know you" calls. There have been no technical questions at all.

For the most part we just shoot the shit for 30-45 minutes and go about our day.

This morning I built a ladder bridge to mount to the root ball that we chopped up yesterday. I also mostly put together a ramp (not a jump, different thing) to use somewhere. Not sure where yet. It may go as part of a standalone feature or it may be part of a future log ride, which is in one of these pictures on this post.

The rainy days are going to be my woodshop days. I need to run to Home Depot and buy a bunch of wood.

Had my 8th call today which was a repeat with the hiring manager. I passed the (long) screening process, and I'm going to have a call with his boss Monday, which is the final piece in this puzzle. We talked about specifics like salary & benefits & all that stuff so I'm taking the mental step past cautious optimism to eager anticipation. I'm hoping to close this deal next week and start the transition process.

So yeah call #9 has been scheduled.

I had far too many meetings today so I didn't get to ride until later afternoon. Decided to do another interval workout but I wasn't able to keep it at 100% for this one. Legs just weren't there so I had to drop to 90% and even then I wasn't able to nail the last piece. The RPE was through the roof on this. Did what I could and it was a good workout but the tank wasn't full enough to nail it down.

I finished Scrubs season 1 on this ride, all 24 episodes. I imagine some people think this show is stupid but I'll be damned if this show doesn't just make me feel good sometimes. It also makes me laugh. Some really good material in this show.

I need to stop taking so many pictures. I don't have this many words. Look! An awesome sunset! Have a great weekend!

 

[JimN]

I'm not sure if you read the book or listened, but I think reading this would be better than listening.

I find that I have a hard time listening to books. I probably finish 10% of the books that I start listening to. My mind wanders too much maybe. The first book of The Expanse is probably the most recent example. I got about a third the way through and then just stopped listening because I didn't remember who people were or what was happening. I probably just need to pick up the actual book.

I felt that Reamde was really easy to follow, and the reader was incredibly good.

Reamde is the most un-Neal Stephenson book that Neal Stephenson has written.

I won't ruin anything for you in case you plan to finish it, but I really enjoyed part one. Part two I found myself yelling at the characters too much. And I won't say anything about part three until you listen to it or tell me that you will never listen to it.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.2.Sat: Zoom & a Bike Ride

Was up early today because I can't really sleep past 7:00, so I installed the ladder ride-bridge on the stump after chipping away some more of the stump to try to get it to fit. We'll need to ride & adjust it I'm sure. But that shouldn't take too long. I walked around a bit and did an assessment of the trails, which is easier after the rains. It helps wash away the loose dirt and you see how the trail has settled and packs it down a bit. Gave me an idea of what I need to trim up over the next few days.

Mushrooms!

After spending a bit of time inside hanging with D (no kids this weekend) and having some tea & more breakfast, I went back out to mow the lawn for an hour which isn't especially fun but I did get to listen to Seveneves for an hour (@JimN I'm going to finish) and it's gotta be done.

Below is the stump ride. Wood comes a little high but I'm going to need to cut a lot more wood to drop it the last few inches so I need to see how it rides before I blow an hour cutting this up more.

After the lawn I spent an hour on the trails. Did some grunt work fixing the bench cut on Septic Bench (upper) then I added a small berm & roll on another line I'm putting together. I don't know what to call these features. It's not really a jump so much as a swoopy-roller kind of thing to add some pump-roll action and slow you down a little bit. The runs are kinda really short, so I'm trying to add as many swoops and rolls and fun shit like that.

Official term: fun shit like that. Call it whatever you want.

After an hour of trail work I went inside and had some lunch with D, then we went out for a road ride which oddly isn't something we do a lot of these days. Managed 2 hours on a beautiful day and saw about 14,000 people outside. Weather isn't looking amazing the next few days so it was great to get outside. It was nice to get out for a ride with the lady today.

Below is the Septic Bench cut. Turned out really well but it needs to be bedded in for sure.

Then we went to Acme. Suddenly it was like 7:00. Where does the day go?

Wrapped it up with the team Zoom call.

With that, half the weekend is over. In the background is one of the rock rides we've built up this last week. Like I said, these kids are serious about this.

 

[jmanic]

Septic Bench (upper)

Looking forward to when this hits TrailForks, just for trail names.

 

[Mitch]

Looking forward to when this hits TrailForks, just for trail names.

Upper Shitter

 

[JimN]

Upper Shitter

Assuming there is also a Lower Shitter, then you can make a Shitter's Full segment for both.