Had a nice, if somewhat hot, day out motorcycling with Frank, formerly of Linden Lab, now of Aquarium of the Bay. Wandered the far east bay. Wound up again at Port Costa. Had drinks and a sandwich there. Watched trains and tankers and tugs. Talked. Thought. Threw rocks into the Carquinez Straight. Came back through Crockett (whence came “The Rocket From Crockett“) and got home around 6 PM.
The last leg was really interesting from a meteorological perspective. All afternoon, we’d been riding around in the heat. It was dry, and HOT. Waiting for two cycles of a traffic light while we decided where to go next, my bike started to overheat. Coming back South (er “West”) on 80 though it felt so much cooler and wetter. Especially as we got to where the mountains were East of us.
Got home and I couldn’t get the garage door opener to work to save my life. I was thankful I’d remembered (at the last minute) to bring my house keys too. Went downstairs to open the garage door, and finally the beeping of the UPS told me why I was having so much trouble with the garage door opener. No power! Manually opened the garage door, brought the bike inside, and was suddenly unsure of what to do with myself! Wished I’d had an iPhone.
I ended up making a little more progress in The Soul of a New Machine, listening to the occasional chime of the UPS. At least my network and server were up, even if I couldn’t bring up anything to get to ’em with.