Statrix Redux

The weekend is almost upon me and I’m definitely ready for a relaxing one. Well mostly a relaxing one anyway. I always seem so busy on weekends that Monday’s are a relief. 🙂
My dermatologist said I’m fine and to come back in a year. He did get a kick out of all the bug bites though. Still they don’t hurt and have never really itched so there’s not much to do about it. All in all it’s good news.
I’ve ordered a map for Mexico. Ummm…an interactive map at that. I was asked about GPS units a while back and that got me doing some research. With my trip coming up I started wondering if a GPS unit might be useful in DF. Hmmm…don’t know…but it looks like I’m going to find out. 🙂

The one I’m getting is loaded up with Mexico maps, I’m not sure if it’s the full set from Garmin or not, but I should feel a little more comfortable on my bike in DF if I can find my way back to the hotel. Since the device accepts SD (or is it mini-SD) cards I can always add the full version if it’s not.
Aloha!

Today I go back to my dermatologist for a six month checkup after having been treated successfully for skin cancer earlier this year. I’m not worried, but am finding it amusing that he will get to see just how badly I got eaten by something while camping this past weekend.
I’ve added a new feature in the sidebar, the AVH Amazon WordPress Plugin. It should be displaying a random item or two from my Amazon.com wishlist which, if you feel so inclined, you can go ahead and get me for whatever reason seems okay with you. 🙂
Of course, you could just press this button as well…

Thanks!
I’ll try to keep things in there in a variety of price ranges so no need feel that can’t afford to brighten my day. 🙂
And speaking of Amazon, my replacement Canon A590IS is on the truck for delivery. I forgot to put up a sign saying “try the manager” so I’ve no idea if I’ll get the package today or not. It slipped my mind this morning and since I’m not on my moped, I’m not riding home to fix the problem. I’ll just have to track the package and see what happens.
My Mexico trip is coming up soon and I’ll admit to getting butterflies in my stomach over it. I’m not worried about crime or missed connections, my hotel, or even about money(! – I don’t have any, so why worry?). No, it’s just a general sense of excitement which can’t rightly be called fear, just … I don’t know the word. I’m sure the Germans have the perfect word for it, perhaps, but not quite zukunftsangst. Maybe I’m just a morgenmuffel and it’s all nothing. 🙂
Some of it, I must admit, comes from worrying about my Bike Friday which, at one point, was due to ship today. It’s not shipping till next week now but will come 2nd Day which will probaby get it to me faster, but, of course, more expensively. Will it work? Can I take it? Will I screw it up? Probably, probably, and almost certainly. See, nothing to worry about. 🙂
Aloha!

It’s that time of year again and Hawaii Winter Baseball is back at Les Murakami Stadium again.

They weren’t there last year because new DOMO Turf was being put in at the stadium. Unfortunately I’ll miss the bulk of the season because of my Mexico trip, but I’ll be able to see some early games and will be back in time for the championship!

My big worry about my camping trip was that I’d hate it.
I didn’t. I loved it.
That isn’t to say I loved every bit of it or that nothing went wrong, but the big stuff worked well. The details…well there are always things that can be improved.
What worked…
My bike! It managed to carry a huge amount of stuff, more than I needed when you get right down to it. But since it was only an eight mile journey…
My Hennessy Hammock! This is a seriously comfortable piece of equipment. It took a few more minutes to set up than it should, but since this was exactly the second time I’ve tried to do it I think ten minutes is fine. Here’s the thing with the hammock though – the bug netting works well unless you manage to sleep with your arm up against it. It seems ants, or something else, had at my arm at some point and my left arm is covered in bites. The rest of me is fine which leads me to believe it must have been from putting my arm against the netting while sleeping.

My stove! My stove works well. The ancillary equipment less so I’m afraid. The stand I built wasn’t sturdy enough and fell over more than once causing me to lose my hot water. That meant I had to reheat more water ultimately costing me more fuel. I finally fixed the stand with soda cans I found in the garbage at the site and all was well, but by then I was mostly out of fuel. Next time – more fuel.
My Asus Eee PC! This worked great and I managed to do site updates for a site I manage while camping. This gives me hope that I’ll be able to blog while traveling with the bike in the future. I do want to look into a solar panel for charging it though. Still there was enough juice to use it every day, if for limited periods – and limited periods are what you want to doing anyway, otherwise you might as well stay in your office!
Then there’s the stuff that didn’t work too well and will need to be improved upon in the future…
My camera. I brought along my new Canon A590IS. The camera itself is fine but…unfortunately I discovered that it came with dust on the sensor and in most images it looks like I either have a log on the image or an out of focus log on the image. I’m sending it back. This isn’t a complaint about the camera per se, but about the quality control at some point from the factory to me.
My cooler. Don’t bother, gel ice packs don’t really stay cold long enough when you can’t use enough of them. I think on an extended journey simply buying fresh food for the day will have to do. Besides too much of the cooler is insulation which adds space with, as it turns out, not much value. Still it was nice to have cool drink when I arrived. That was about it though. You could make your own though if you were up it, check it out!
All in all it was a great success and I will be doing this again, but with some refinements.
Aloha!

I didn’t sleep well last night, but I’m not going to blame it on the hammock which is very comfortable, far more so than sleeping on the ground. It wasn’t the occasional jet airliner. It was just me I’m afraid. No, it wasn’t the restless sleep of the guilty, unless I’ve suppressed something awful of course. It was just being in a new situation and such. I must have gotten some sleep though because I feel fine this morning. Go figure.
Here’s a bad picture of the sunset from last night…

I’m a little teed off about the camera as it has a large chunk of dust somewhere, perhaps on the filter above the sensor and that means I get an out of focus f’ing log in my photos at the right focal length. Sigh. That’s one reason I got a new camera. I may have to send it back. Damn, I hope I kept everything.
Time to save the battery again!
Aloha!

I made it!!!
The ride to Sand Island was a bit harrowing, I’d never actually ridden with so much stuff on the bike. I certainly have too much, but it all fit and the bike handled it like champ. I was going very slowly, but given it was rush hour on a Friday I still made it faster than the traffic, at least along Nimitz Hwy. 🙂
Setting up was easy. It did take a bit more than 2 minutes to get the Hennessy up, but it was, even for this novice, faster than a tent. Here’s she is..

The place is, frankly, a bit of a mess and I may spend some time tomorrow policing it up. There are lots of ants. Lots. That’s not so nice, but I think it’ll be okay.
So far my nearest neighbors are a nice quiet couple. The noisy folks seem to be a bit further down and I don’t expect it’ll be a problem at all. Everyone seems very nice.
That’s it for now, I’ve got to keep my battery use down out here, I don’t have an outlet handy at the moment. 🙂
Aloha!

Apparently I am incapable of reading a calendar. I discovered that today while preparing for my upcoming jaunt in the park. It seems when I took out permits for my trip I took them out for Friday the 20th till Sunday the 22nd.
Ummm…maybe in some year, but not this one. What I’d actually done was gotten a permit for Saturday through Monday. Since I’m very busy on Sunday afternoon and have to work on Monday morning, this was not a good idea.
The office for camping permits closes at 3:30 pm and I discovered this at around 2:45pm. Off I went, dashing down to the permit office. As luck would have it I managed to get my permit changed in time, and was even complimented by the lovely woman at the counter for not showing up at 3:30pm. My suggestion for everyone would be, don’t show up at 3:30. Show up at least a few minutes early.
Whew…I’m good to go.
Aloha!

I’m going through the list of stuff I need to find around the house, buy, or otherwise acquire for my two nights and it’s beginning to look like I’ll be away from home for…well a long time.

That is not my bike, my photo, or my plan. It sounds like a heck of a trip though and I suggest you read about it! It’s a great story so far and I’m learning a lot.
As for my ride, let’s take food.
It seems I’ve got enough planned for three meals a day and snacks for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sensible, yes? No. You see I’m only going to be there Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning. So of nine possible meals, I’ll be there for five at the most. In addition, I generally, even when active, only eat two meals a day – especially after all the feeding I did at my folks on the Big Island last weekend. Yeesh!
Narrowing it down I figure I’ll take some eggs, cheese, an onion, and bread – omelets for breakfast or dinner. Some instant oatmeal and raisins for breakfast or if I get really hungry. A couple of bananas because I like them. And, of course, coffee supplies and tea supplies which don’t amount to much in size.
Okay, that’s more realistic.
Of course I like sausage and crackers, which goes well with cheese. Sigh…and so it starts again.
Seriously I figure I buy a bunch of stuff and pack what I can. If I can’t pack it, I’ll eat it later. Or earlier.
The rest of my equipment could also mostly be done away with – I’m taking a computer, my 10″ Eee PC, because, well because. I’ll have my Kindle along for reading, which necessitates a little light. And naturally I’ll want to document it all, so a camera. I’d bring my ukulele if I could, but it’s too nice and too fragile. I really should get one of those cute plastic ukes…a Flea. Or I could just buy a cheap wood soprano across the street at Easy Music.
No, no ukes this trip. I’ve got enough junk and I don’t play well enough to make it more than mildly amusing and certainly not at all amusing for my neighbors.
So far I think everything should fit in my panniers and rack trunk, I shouldn’t need a backpack which is great because they are uncomfortable and sweaty.
That’s about it for the moment, I’m making my list and checking it twice. I’m gonna find out if this is nasty or nice. I suspect nice, I want nice, nice is good, but we’ll see.
Aloha!

It seems my bike needs a wee bit more tweaking. I think my seat might have been moved just a bit too far back as I’m developing shoulder pain in my right shoulder. Tweaking the bike seems to be sort of a never ending process. Fun, except when it causes pain. The late Sheldon Brown has a great “point to it” chart for determining how to fix what ails ya.

And on to camping. I’m over my stove obsession. That doesn’t mean I won’t be using it, just that I’m not feeling that I have to spend my day creating another one. Or do I? 🙂
My next task, as I mentioned, is finalizing what to bring…

1. Camping permit – no good comes from leaving this behind
2. Bike – duh!
3. Hennessy Hammock – the point of all this
4. Sleeping bag
5. Pillow – I’m all about comfort
6. Alcohol stove
7. Cooking kit
8. Camera
9. Eee PC – admitted unnecessary, but…
10. Towel – always bring a towel, you just can’t go wrong there
11. and…

I still don’t know what to do about food. I certainly won’t be able to bring sugar free Popsicles®.
Everything else is sort of up for grabs at this point. I guess I’ll have to go over the store and see just

Today I went shopping for a couple of things I need for camping. The most important was a tiny pillow so I can be comfortable. $3.99 later I’m good to go. 🙂 Actually I also picked up a very small warm weather fleece sleeping bag, a tiny camp cooking kit, and to top it all off, the makings of a camp stove.
Makings of a camp stove? Yep, it’s a DIY alcohol stove. It seems they are, excuse me, hot stuff. Here it is on the edge of my sink where I just finished heating two cups of water for tea in about 3 minutes using under 2 tablespoons of denatured alcohol (one of the kinds you can’t drink).

It took about 20 minutes to make and, sadly, about 2 hours to get all the tools and parts together. The real problem is that I just don’t have a lot of tools. Mostly I needed a 1/16″ drill, a pair of pliers, a razor, some sandpaper, and…um, I think that’s about it for tools. Actually much better instructions can be found by clicking the image.
Speaking of the image, the stove is the part with the penny in it. It’s sitting on an aluminum plate which isn’t part of the stove, but I didn’t want to burn down the house so I figured I’d be better off putting the whole thing on something I could tip into the sink. As it turns out it wasn’t at all necessary – the thing worked as advertised and I got a nice hot cup of tea.
I may not use it for cooking while camping, but I’ll certainly be able to have a cup of tea or two. Speaking of eating, I’m going to have to come up with a menu tomorrow. I figure I can’ easily bring food for the first evening with me and pick something up the next day at a minimart, but hey, if I can pack it all in, so much the better.
Aloha!