andyreagan.com

I’m actually beginning to realize that this is less of a blog and more of a diary, but I’m OK with that. There are two legit blog articles that I plan on writing, one about making of this website and everything that is involved therein, maybe I’ll title it YourName.com demystified. And the other other has to be about libertarianism/government. Those will hopefully be a more entertaining read.

Thursday

Pretty much the whole weekend from Thursday-on was dreary weather…so I’m not going to keep complaing about that but it did suck. No biking, and no ice cream, and obv. nothing outside b/c of the rain! I don’t know about you, but I can’t get excited to go get ice cream when it is cloudy and rainy out…After work I was going to watch Zdanowski coach a baseball game in the Valley, but it was cancelled due to rain, so we went to dinner instead still watched a movie after. We went to Luigi’s, where I got the “tour of italy,” not what they called it but that’s what I ordered haha. It was good, and I think Carly and Kate and Dan all enjoyed their ziti too. I even met someone who has ties to VT, I was wearing a VT Cycling shirt and a woman asked me if I went there when she was leaving, and told me her son does. Go Hokies!

For the movie, Kate insisted that we watch Taken, since she was the only one who had seen it. Not that I was opposed though haha, I just don’t like watching movies that I have seen where there are so many other choices! Basically, the movie was really intense, Liam somethin-or-other, the main actor, just owned up all the noobs and got his daughter back. There were only a few parts that bugged me from the realism, like him hiding from machine gun fire behind a couch, but all those bullets, and others, could have jsut missed him outta luck I suppose too. But he still kicked some ass, luck or not, and I thought it was really good haha.

Friday…

Well I don’t really remember what exactly I did Friday…haha JK. Gotcha! We played basketball at the park at 6, like always, with the bball guys. My Dad came too, keeping getting in top shape! All I really remember about basketball though is that I gaurded Jeff the whole night, and he is quick as hell. My shoes were sliding on the pavement trying to keep up with his cuts, but I think I kept up with him regardless, I’m gonna name myself as the team “defensive specialist” for the 3 on 3 league that start’s not this Thursday, but the next. Zdanowski stopped by at like 7:30 with a girl he knows from Brockport at like 7:30, and since he was heading out in an hour and we were still playing basketball, it didn’t look like I was gonna make it to JD with him for the night. So I was just gonna watch a movie and relax, and I was txting Carly at the time so she came over to keep me company! We watched “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which neither of us had seen, and I thought that it was really good too, two good movies in a row!

Lazy Saturday

That movie was like over 3 hours long though, and I didn’t even realize that until the movie was over and it was 12:30…I was thinkin wth, but it was just a long movie! So I slept in till a record 11 o’clock, getting in solid 10 hours, which I think I really needed. The rest of the day followed suit, I didn’t do much of anything. Me and Del and Dknick went to the bluewater for dinner, which was really good, and Sarah got off early so she joined us to eat too. We drove up to the mall after cuz we were bored basically, and I got my Bro a bday present, so that was good. Then me and Dan just chilled in Del’s room for the night, it was pretty fun actually. That’s about it though haha.

Sun & Mon

Again, Sunday, the weather sucking=no biking! And it also means over 100 emails from the OCC listserve too aparently…but then the weather did get nicer later in the day I guess, and I went on a run with my Mom and then played basketball with my Dad, I gotta keep ‘em both in shape! But I can’t really take any credit for keeping my Mom motivated to run, she just enjoys it! We went like 3.5 miles, and my legs are still sore today from that!! I kept up just fine though, might have even pushed her pace at times, definitely did up the hill, but by the end I was done, and struggled all the way to the very end of the street, but I made it! Then in the third game of basketball, the tie breaker, it was tie game at 15-15 and as I drove by him, his “good defensive position” left those knobby knees sticking out and I took one during full acceleration through my thigh, and I was down for the count. I didn’t even think I was going to walk Monday, literally. After 10 minutes or so, and being taunted about forfeit, I hobbled around for another minute or two so that my Dad could win* the series. I’m keeping the asterisk there.

Monday was my uber-productive day of the week. I don’t even think I can list all the stuff I got done. The phone’s were a ringin, for sure. Basically, I planned the camping trip for all of us this weekend which comprised many many phones call to them and the friends and paying for canoes and printing maps, got a hold of and got some answers from Bike & Build, found out about getting some sweet vibram five-finger shoes which I’m hopefully gonna pick up on my way home from work today, prepared a clothing order to ship in the morning, talked with Verizon and got my Storm ordered online (it’s in the mail!!), wrote a long letter to Lauren, filled out an afidavid (spelling?), and so much more haha. And I’m getting to bed in time for 6 hours of sleep!

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.