andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Same Ol'

Sunday I did manage to get out to go for a bike ride, and met my parents down at Marcellus Park to play volleyball...I saw some girls I knew from high school playing on the other court too, but me and my parents play against some random people who weren't very good at all, which made it somewhat difficult to get some good practice for Tuesday, which is why we went down there in the first place, but by letting them serve (they had trouble returning any) we were able to get some practice setting and such. I rode my bike home, so I got a good 20 miles total, which now does feel like a shorter ride. Problem with rides longer than that is that well, they take so much longer and I haven't felt like riding for quite so long recently...idk. That was pretty much it for Sunday, I think I might've thrown the frisbee around with my dad some too when I got home.

I was able to make some progress on the toaster, I took apart the toaster oven that I bought and hooked it up to my powermeter. At full power, it consumes 1,330 watts, which I am definitely not going to be able to deliver. After dismantling the toaster over though, it would be super easy to move the heating rods closer to the bread, and even to take two of them out. I also made progress toward an alternator, sending out like 10 emails to craigslist listings of assorted motorcycle, and have so far gotten two reponses about alternators. I was hoping since they were craigslist syracuse that they would be local, but having not paid attention to that while looking for the listings, both of the ones that got back to me are far away enough that they will have to be shipped. They're in Rochester and Niagra Falls, and one guy wanted 30 for his off an 87 Honda CBR1000 and the other didn't give a price yet but he said it was in great shape, only 1600 miles, and only had to sell it cuz the bike was crashed at the frame bent. I think that I'm going to call my uncle Carl too, to see what ideas he has on where to get one...I do think that car alternator would be too big (again 80amps X 12V = 960 watts) so maybe his friend Dave will have one lying around, something from a snowmobile would probably be about right too. When I got to looking at NiChrome wire to use to make my own toaster, since the toaster oven will probably be too power-hungry, I think that I ran into yet another technical problem. The coils in all of these types of heaters have resistances, measured in Ohms, that are designed and ideal for 120V circuits. Doesn't sound on the surface like so much of a problem, but a lenght of wire that has a total resistance of say 50 Ohms will resist a given amount of current, resistance is the opposition to current, and so where a 120V input will have a smaller current that 12V input of equal power, the current of the 12V circuit will be 10 times that of the 120V for an equal amount of wattage (power), so when trying to push current through a 50 ohm wire at 12V, that will seem like 500 Ohms at 120V!! So I will need different wire or to somehow step up my voltage...different wire will probably be the most economic choice in that case.

Tonight is volleyball at the park, and it should be a lot of fun. For sure, I think we've got me, my Dad, Del, and Andy Caster. Andy was going to try to get ahold of Sarah Clere and Jenn Daley, who played with us last summer. Sarah Holden has a lax game later...Zdan has baseball stuff...and Carly has a play recital but they should be able to make it in the coming weeks. Dan I think is good in July, and Carly's practice times will be different week to week I think...but hopefully we can get a pretty consistent group together and it will be a lot of fun. Tuesday is the night that everything else seems to happen on though...both the time trials and the TNTS which are the big rides for the Onondaga Cycling Club are that night all summer...and I'm not sure what else is Tuesdays but I remember there being even more haha...

As for the Onondaga Cycling Club (OCC), I am definitely going to join. There is a ride Wednesday night that I am going to go to, the guy leading it seems pretty cool, his name is Anthony Baleno I think. He sent out a request for somebody else to lead the ride starting at Marcellus on the 27th, which I offered to do, I mean it's in Marcellus Park! Sarah Holden mentioned that we should go camping that weekend, so maybe I can't lead the ride, but either should be fun.