Longest WnD Ride of the Year
Last Wednesday we did the longest Whine and Dine ride of the year. The bummer about summer is that it means the days are getting shorter again. It was a fun ride though. That is my son Jeff on the far right. Also on the ride were Peggggy Zagelow, Scott Riddle, Brad Brewer, Joe Armstrong and Tom Nguyen.
Technorati Tags: ACTC, Cycling, Sloan Family, bicycling, ssloansjca
Staff union contract extended 31 days
I first reported this as 30 days, according to a memo from the union it is 31 days! My bad...
On the last day of the existing statewide contract between between the California State University and the California State University Employees Union, both sides agreed to extend the contract for 31 days. Today was the last day of this negotiation session that has been at SJSU for the last three days. This is what the union just sent out:
"The CSUEU bargaining team reports that the contract has been extended for 31 days - up to July 31, 2006. A bargaining update will be issued early next week"
Negotiations are scheduled to resume on July 10 at San Francisco State University.
Shadow did not want me to go to work this morning. He laid on my backpack as I was getting ready to leave.
We have skunks
The other evening I was sitting in the back yard with Susie when I heard a rustling in the corner, then a thud, like something fell off the fence. I turned around to see three skunks running across our yard. Then, late last night Pixel, one of our Burmese, went outside. Susie went chasing him behind some bushes. She saw what she thought was him. When she approached she saw what she thought was a cat was a skunk! Thankfully the skunk had other things on its mind and ran into the neighbors yard. Today I called vector control and they are going to come out and set traps.
Whine and dine ride wiped me out
Maybe I still have not recovered from the tour but I am pretty tired from tonight's ride. It was a long ride and I was dropped pretty early on. It is one of my favorite WnD rides.
Bob Thompson Photo on Ferry
Bob took this picture on day three of the tour. We made two ferry crossings of rivers in the delta. That was pretty cool!
Why do we ride?
People ride for many reasons. Some ride for the physical challenge. Some ride for the pretty scenery. For me it is that and more. I ride for the nice people I get to ride with. Looking back on last week, it is the folks on the ride I think of most.
My body is almost back to normal
It is amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it. Peggy Zagelow took this picture on a very hot day near Lodi. Lodi is not one of the most pleasant places to be on a very hot day. Thankfully the rest stop was in a nice shady location and I was able to rest. I even went wine tasting here and bought a bottle of Cabernet before I got back on the bike and continued the ride to Ryde. The SAG driver kept the wine. It was my contribution to the Thursday wine and cheese party at Casini Ranch.
Technorati Tags: Cycling, sierra-to-the-sea, ACTC, ssloansjca
Overall
I am done with my ride and I am recovering today. I slept until about mid-day and my body is still in recovery.
My Impressions?
I have another blog where I post my opinions and ratings on lots of things. Everything posted here is just my opinion and you are free (as always) to disagree. To read my opinion just follow this link.
Day Seven: A ship going under the Golden Gate Bridge. I am in San Francisco! This is where the ride ends. It is cold and windy on the bridge. I had a great tour but I am hurting and am glad it is over. I miss Susie!
Day Seven: Fog on Mount Tam. The climb up the mountain was hard and my legs were weak. In places cold winds drove the moist fog across the road. When we broke above the fog it was very pretty.
Day Seven: I picked up cell phone coverage here, near Bolinas on way to San Francisco. There was no cell coverage at Olema campground last night.
Day Six: Friday breakfast in Bodega Bay. The heat is gone and it is cold. I do better with heat. Cell phone coverage has been very spotty. There was no coverage at the last campground.
Day Five: Ice cream on a hot ride. It was 106 in Guerneville. I was riding pretty strong this day.
Day Five: Now we are in the Dry Creek Valley, where such wonderful Zinfandels come from. This winery is Passalacqua. It was the first rest stop of the day. I bought a bottle of Old Vine Zin here.
Day Five: Jimtown store in Alexander Valley Cabernet Country. Great ride today in some wonderful wine country.
Day Five: Calistoga, great breakfast. I ate with Pam. Shown here is Pat, April, Cora and Robin.
Day Four: Wine Country! This is Twomey cellars. They have some of the best Merlot I have ever had. It is 75 dollars a bottle. I normally am not a Merlot fan and see it as a blending grape. But, their 2000 is superb with complex layers of vanilla spice.
Day Four: In Calistoga doing laundry. Sue was supposed to join me this day but came down with the flu. I sagged in most of the way. I need some time off the bike.
Day Three: Miguel gets some neck kinks worked out at Rio Vista by Massage Therapist, Cyclist and Talented Musician Shanti.
Day Three: This is the ferry "The Real McCoy" one of two cable ferry crossings we made today on our ride from Ryde.
Day Three: Tuesday, in line for breakfast, Robin Ross points to something out the window. Ryde is a very pretty spot in the delta. I had a great ride to Ryde yesterday.
Day Two: I am on Stony Creek Road. This is one of my favorite parts of the tour. This is Pardee Reservoir. This is a very sweet ride.
Day Two: Jeff Olson getting ready for the morning ride. It is going to be nice and warm today. It should be a nice ride!
Day One: As this photo was taken SAG riders were discussing naming next years ride the sierra to the sea extreme edition.
Day One: Cyclists jammed in the back of the SAG wagon. In my opinion: the first day has been a death march. There have been far more people needing rides in the van than there was capacity. When we were driving to the Whiskey Slide Rest Stop, and at the rest stop, I counted 14 people who wanted to be sagged who could not be accomodated. All we could do is give them water. We have people jammed in the SAG wagon anywhere we can fit a body.
Tupper knows what summer is about
Time to relax and take it easy! I am getting ready to hit the road on a week long bicycle tour. I will be mostly off the grid. I will not be near power so I will have to conserve my battery powered phone. I will try to post a few messages when I can from my phone. I will be back on the 26th.
Technorati Tags: Tupper Sloan, ssloansjca
First Whine-n-Dine couple getting married
Sarah and Scott are regular riders on the spring and summertime Whine and Dine bicycle rides that Tyler, Jeff and I lead. Now Scott and Sarah are engaged and they are getting married next month. This is the last ride they are doing before they get married that we will be at. So, after last night's ride we celebrated with champagne, wine, confetti and a cake. We did a toast and wished them happiness. It was a wonderful fun evening.
Janet Michaelis
One day in the 1980's I was in a darkroom at San Jose State developing film. A room nearby was a classroom. I heard a knock on my door and when I answered it there was this little woman who said something like, "is there a darkroom here?" That was Janet and we have been friends since. At the time Janet was with Lee and Lee was and is a Veterinarian. That was when Candy was alive and she was an animal lover. It was a match made in heaven. When we would get together Janet and I would talk photography and Lee and Candy would talk about animals. We would go and visit them at The San Francisco Pet Hospital where they lived and the kids would play in the cages. Candy died and Janet and Lee split up and we remained friends. Janet moved to Ohio and we became long distance friends. When Janet came to California and visited last week we opened a bottle of our best Pinot Noir. This was an event to celebrate!
Technorati Tags: Sloan Family, Janet Michaelis, ssloansjca
Kenneth is working at Pete's Coffee
Kenneth has a new job working at Pete's coffee on the Alameda. It is a great location and looks like a great place to work. The folks he works with seem really nice and he seems to fit in well.
Technorati Tags: Sloan Family, Kenneth Sloan, ssloansjca
Fun time at ball game with Family and Help Desk Friends
Yesterday (Saturday) we went to see a minor league baseball game with Kishwer and Shahina from the Help Desk and Jeff, Madison and Kathy. It was fun introducing my grand-daughter to them and spending time with them at their first baseball game. I enjoyed explaining the game to them as it went on. The young people who work at the Help Desk are like family to me and we all had a great time. The weather was good and the San Jose Giants won. I like going to the minor league games, they are very casual, you are right next to the players and have a very different character than big league games. I hope they can now go to a big league game and can contrast the two. If I were in India I think I would have to take in a Cricket Match.
Technorati Tags: Sloan Family, sjsuhelpdesk, ssloansjca
Camera Phone Post: from Jeff
We are at a ball game with Jeff, Madison, Nicole's mother Kathy, plus Kishwer and Shahina of the help desk staff.
Camera Phone Post: Friday eve at the train club
Just before sunset an evening train went by the model railroad club. I got to run my new locomotive and it ran great! I was really pleased. There a lot of fine fellows at the train club and there were a lot of trains, big and little
Camera Phone Post: Lou's Living Donut Museum & World's Best Donuts
A downtown San Jose icon, Lou's has been around as long as I have. It was founded in 1955, the year I was born. The founder is a World War Two vet who has a collection of memorablilia in the museum. It was started in another location. I have been going to Lou's off and on for about 25 of those years. I have never found donuts as good as Lou's. Sometimes there are lines out the door. It is closing this month.
Camera Phone Post: Wednesday Whine and Dine Ride
This evening we rode to Sanborn, a really pretty spot in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Saratoga. The long evenings and warm weather make for wonderful "whine and dine" rides.
Post Election Day
Cindy made it into the run-off election and I am very happy about that. I think she will be a great mayor and I hope everybody votes for her this November. In my opinion she really cares about working families in San Jose and has consistently been there for university employees. I am proud to have worked for her and wish I had done more.
Looks like we avoided Armageddon today
Today, after work I had dinner with with Kamlesh Kudchadkar, a friend and an Indian Graduate Computer Engineering Student at SJSU. We went to a local Indian restaurant and then had a conversation that is going to be podcast. Off mike the subject of the meaning of 666 came up in conversation. So we talked about the Book of Revelations, the end times and Armageddon.
New Loco
Today I got a really cool locomotive. It is a Santa Fe SD45-2. This is a very favorite of mine and I am thrilled to get it. It has six axle trucks and 3600 horsepower. Of course 36 is 6x6. So that is 666! Boo!!!
Here is a new pic of Madison sent by Jeff. He sent it from his portable phone to mine and I forwarded it from there to this blog. Isn't mobile blogging cool!
Planning a new media journalism class at SJSU, Pizzacast 2.0
Podcast twentyfour, 1:00:43 duration, 55.4 MB MP3 - Posted June 04, 2006
The second of two podcasts recorded May 23, 2006:
To listen to high quality audio, click here --> MP3 File Here
At a geek dinner in San Jose, students, faculty, staff and Gabe Rivera of memeorandum fame continue a conversation about a new media class, Journalism 163, planned at SJSU. Speaking, besides Gabe, are Keith Callenberg, Evan Luine, Andrew Venegas, Joshua Marx, Cynthia McCune, Ryan Sholin, Lambert Lum, and Steve Sloan. 1:00:43 min, 55.4 MB.
Links: Keith Callenberg | Evan Luine | Andrew Venegas | Joshua Marx | Cynthia McCune | Ryan Sholin | Lambert Lum | Steve Sloan | Gabe Rivera
The model railroad is in an old train depot and big railroad tracks are outside the Depot. A Capitol train just went by the Agnews depot. So I took a break from the little trains to watch a big one.
I am at the agnews train depot that houses the model railroad club Kenneth and I belong to. I am running trains. This is very relaxing to me.
