Not the year I was hoping for, but still some good miles racked up! The hamstring/groin injury continues to heal and I’m on a path back to where I want to be. The addition of kayaks and motorcycles into my life reduced the frequency of outdoor bike rides! I plan to add some functional and strength training into the 2022 routine, and will commit to another 2-3 months of daily riding, exercise, and healthier eating. Starting January 2nd! ...
This past Sunday had some nice weather on tap, so we set off for the northern reaches of the state to explore a State Park we had never visited before. Norvin Green! We hiked the “candy cane” trail, e.g. the one which had a red/white slashed blaze. It felt appropriate on the day after Christmas! Finding the trail, though, was not a great experience as evidenced by our first photo in the gallery below. We ended up on a fire road instead, which was filled with quite a few deep and water-filled holes. However, once we did reconnect with the trails proper everything was well-blazed and easy to navigate. Lots of twists and turns on the trail, too! Every thousand feet was a blaze directing a sharp right- or left-hand turn. ...
Into week 3 of what will certainly be a years-long event around this log4shell vulnerability. Some thoughts. Ok, what is log4shell? If you are not technically-inclined, please bear with me. I will keep this straightforward! Log4shell is a vulnerability in the log4j logging library. From the Wikipedia entry of Log4j: Log4j is an open source logging framework that allows software developers to log data within their applications. This data can include user input. ...
As is about tradition for this time of year, we’ve been off visiting my family in Tarpon Springs, Florida. This means a week with good Greek food and lots of sun, and also some time out on the water enjoying a climate much more temperate than New Jersey at this time of year. The weather did not cooperate with us for ocean kayaking, so we took to the natural springs of Weeki Wachee State Park to float down along the crystal clear river. The blue-green colors and the clarity of the water is really something! ...
For the past two weeks I have been passing by the Delaware & Raritan Canal tow path, at the point where it runs underneath Route 29 northbound on the New Jersey side of the river, and noticing the pedestrian footbridge was nearing completion. Earlier in the week a few souls had been wandering along it. As a small part of the project to replace the entire Scudder’s Falls bridge, a pedestrian footbridge was constructed on the upstream span. It connects the NJ D&R Canal and the PA Delaware Canal paths. A few days ago the entrance from the canal path onto the footbridge appeared unencumbered. No barricades. No warning signs. No construction workers. Was it finally open? ...
On our way to visit my aunt’s for the holiday’s, we took advantage of being in northern New Jersey to hike along the Appalachian Trail leading to High Point, NJ. It was a chilly yet beautiful day to be outside. Starting off around 9am the temperature was 35 F. By the time we finished and arrived back at the car it had improved to 44 F. The clear skies and warm sun meant that for the hike back down we could lose the gloves and unzip our jackets. ...
A key part of visiting Skyline Drive earlier this month was the plan to camp out for two of the three nights on the trip. I’ve always enjoyed camping out in the woods (except in the snow…never again) and over recent years I’ve acquired lots of camping gear that packs up small and light for use on a road bike. Camping off the back of a motorcycle is pretty much the same thing, right? ...
macOS Monterey was released yesterday and it brought Shortcuts (formerly Workflow) from iOS to macOS for the first time. Shortcuts is a powerful yet simple to use automation framework, and along with the Day 1 release of Monterey my image editor of choice Pixelmator Pro introduced 28 new Shortcut actions. Time to have some fun! Since introducing the photo lightbox component of this website a few weeks ago, I have explored ways to layout the photos inline to a post without a disjointed layout. This is what I mean by disjointed. ...
Was watching this video the other day and it took my thoughts down a familiar rabbit hole of infrastructure maintenance! Always a fun one. When I go out and purchase a car or a bicycle or even an axe, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about “how am I going to maintain this thing?” The car will need oil changes and tire rotations. The bicycle will need chain lubrication. The axe will need its blade sharpened. All of this periodic maintenance can be called the “total cost of ownership” of the thing itself. A bicycle doesn’t cost $1,000 one time to purchase; that is the cost floor. The small bits of required maintenance add up over time and the true total cost of ownership can be a fair bit higher. ...
Getting There, and Skyline Drive About a week ago, I checked the weather forecast for Front Royal, Virginia. Since passing the basic rider course and acquiring a motorcycle last month I had been anticipating an opportunity to take it on a single trip this year. My first inclination was Vermont to enjoy the fall foliage and cruise some winding back roads, but the predicted weather in Virginia made the decision for me. ...
