Brian Redmond's Weblog : Being goofy

Bike ride through the mountains - Complete!

btrst4 — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:59:00 GMT

Below is a trip report from my big ride last Friday (7/8).

Overall, the trip was great. Certainly the toughest physical accomplishment of my life. The first 50 miles were basically simple. After that, it was all uphill and extremely steep over the Chestnut and Laurel ridges. The grades here ranged from 10-14%. I also had a good number of dogs that seemed to want to attack. This really spoiled a lot of the enjoyment for me.

For a picture of the route, click here

Trip Statistics

Total distance: 68 miles
Total time: 5 hours 48 min
Speed: Avg - 12 mph / Max - 41.6 mph
Altitude: Chestnut Ridge (2300 ft) & Laurel Ridge (2800 ft)
Counties traveled: 5 (Washington, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Fayette, Somerset

Route Diary

1. To Monongohela (12 miles at end)
Trip started from my driveway. Followed roads down to Mingo Creek Park and down to Rte 88. 88 South into Monongohela. Joins with Rte 136 and followed this across the river and to the east.

2. To West Newton (22 miles)
Followed 136E towards Rte. 51. Pretty much uphill all the way to 51. First tough climb of the ride. Road had some cars on it, but was not too busy. Plenty of shoulder to ride on if needed. After 51 intersection, 4 miles to West Newton. Pretty much downhill from here aside from a small hill. Stopped at trail entrance just before the river. Bike shop (Korber’s Bike Shop) & bathroom located here.

3. Bike Trail to Smithton (28 miles)
Took bike trail South along the river. There was a parking area in Cedar Creek, but I did not stop. http://www.atatrail.org. It was 6 miles to the Smithton Parking area. This was much smaller, but I was able to spot the exit at the end of the parking lot.

4. To Scottdale / Connelsville (38 miles)
Took a left onto 981 E and crossed the Yough River. I took this rode all the way to Scottdale. Very nice road for riding. No major climbs or attack dogs and traffic was minimal. After about 7.6 miles, 981 split to the left (In Ruffs Dale, PA). I stayed right and the road eventually changed its name to Homestead Avenue.

5. To Normalville (56 miles)
This is where things got difficult. I was hoping to take back roads up the Chestnut Ridge into Normalville. I had it all mapped out, but I could not find the road I needed (T731). These little township roads can be poorly marked. Anyway, after a bunch of looking, I gave up and took 119 S into Connelsville. This was ugly. Rumble strips and tons of traffic. Not really a road that is made for bikes. Then I decided to take the route to the cabin on the roads that I know from driving. I took 711 out from Connelsville. Brutal climbs that were extremely steep. At least 14% grade at times. To make matters worse, there were tons of big trucks going to a quarry up the road. 711 was so tight, that I had to pull off the bike and stop when trucks went by. Peak was about 2300 feet. Climb was 9 miles long. Connelsville is 905 feet, so the total climb was 1395 feet.

6. To Cabin (68 miles)
Stopped in Normalville at a market to recover. Still another big steep climb ahead. 653 was also full of 12-14% grade roads and had a lot of trucks due to another quarry. I climbed as best I could and was going as slow as 3mph at times. A couple times, I really did have to stop. Not sure if it was any tougher, or if I was running out of steam. At the very bottom of the climb, a Rotweiler jumped out at me and was not on a leash. He was showing teeth and looked ready for action. Since I had a giant climb in front of me, I was quite concerned. Luckily a truck came down the hill and scared him off. Yikes. Peak was 2800 feet. Climb was 6 miles long. Normalville is at 1800 feet, so the total climb here was about 1000 feet. When I saw the Laurel Ridge State Park signs, I knew I was home free. All downhill to our cabin from there. Family was waiting for me cheering at the end.

What I brought

3 replacement tire tubes
2 patch kits
Rain jacket
2 bike water bottles + 1 extra bottle filled with Gatorade
2 Cliff Shot Gels – Razz Sorbet
Fig newtons
Tools – pump, multi-tool, allen wrenches, tire irons, Phillips screwdriver
Wallet & mobile phone

Changes for Next Time

Possibly take 819S from Scottdale to 201 and then into Connelsville.
A woman in Normalville from the market told me a better way from Connelsville. She said to take Breakneck, to Quail Hill, to the Clinton Bypass. This would guide me down to 381 and into Normalville. I’m sure the climbs over Chestnut Ridge would still be there, but there would hopefully be less traffic.
For a longer trip (possibly easier), I could pick up the trail again in Connelsville and follow it to Ohiopyle. From there, I could get picked up or take it all the way past Confluence to Rockwood. From Rockwood, I could take 653 going the other way and climb the Laurel Ridge from the other side. Rockwood is at 1,826 feet, so some of the climb would be done on much less steeper grades. Connelsville to Rockwood would be 47 miles and then about 11 miles up to cabin. This would make for an overall distance of 108 miles.

"Guests are not happy in Zoo Tycoon"

btrst4 — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 05:13:00 GMT

Yup, that is the title of this most critical KB article. http://support.microsoft.com/?id=838962

Interesting Performance Monitoring Tool - Download on microsoft.com

btrst4 — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 00:40:00 GMT

I recently found a tool that can help do performance analysis on servers in your environment. This tool gathers the data from the Performance Monitor and does some level of analysis to help diagnose issues. It is especially good at IIS 6.0 and Active Directory.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61a41d78-e4aa-47b9-901b-cf85da075a73&DisplayLang=en

From the Overview:

Service Performance Advisor is a server performance diagnostic tool developed to diagnose root causes of performance problems in a Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 operating system, particularly performance problems for Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 and the Active Directory® directory service. Server Performance Advisor measures the performance and use of resources by your computer to report on the parts that are stressed under workload.

Consulting from home...

btrst4 — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 16:29:00 GMT

I have posted on this Blog recently about life in MCS. This probably holds true for consulting engagements in general. Setting a comfortable travel schedule is really important when you are on the road all the time. On the other hand, this travel schedule would need to be negotiated with the client. In my case, that negotiation is not done by me, so I have very little to say in that. Once things get rolling and you get acquainted with the client, you can probably figure out a good way to balance this.

Working from home is an interesting idea. On paper it seems to make sense. If you are writing documentation, why would you need to be at the client's location? Depending on your situation, you may get more interuptions at a client site than from little kids at home! For short periods this might work, but in the long run, I believe a big part of consulting is building relationships with the customer. Having face time to discuss the issues and iron out questions can go a long way in building a deeper level of trust. If you are at home all the time, they tend to forget about you and start to stop seeing the value. You could do this here and there, but not all the time.

Good news, my family is visiting this weekend!

btrst4 — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 17:50:00 GMT

Normally, I travel back and forth each week from my home to my client and back. Drive or fly, it can certainly get old. I barely have time to unpack and I am packing again.

This weekend, my wife and kids are coming to see me. Nice change of pace. I am in the DC area, so we are going to see some sights and enjoy the area. It also saves me the trouble of traveling for at least one weekend. We will of course cram all 4 of us into a not so large hotel room, but that is the price you pay.

What it is like to work for MCS...

btrst4 — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 23:41:00 GMT

I got a question asking what it is like to work for Microsoft Consulting Services. This may very well be one of my friends messing with me, but regardless, I thought it might be worth telling some stories now and then.

The particular question was about work/life balance. There is no sugar coating here; there is very little balance a lot of the time. The key is that you find a way to catch up now and then. There are some time periods where you have to learn something new or you are developing something beyond your regular engagement. During these times, you work a full day with the client and a full day that night with everything else.

Sooner or later, it catches up with you and you need to find a way to slow things down. For the most part, the job asks for as much as you are willing to give. I really enjoy the work, but I could use a break now and then. I have a wife and two wonderful girls (4 and 6) who need me to be around. Luckily, we have a pretty flexible travel policy, so I am able to be home a good amount of time.

This is still the place for me and a great place to work.

You know you have reached king of geekdom if...

btrst4 — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 04:24:00 GMT

http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/solar_finetex_shell.shtml

There comes a point when you have solar panels and a USB port on your jacket that you might need to chill out and get away for a while.

Sorry, but I have been busy

btrst4 — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 04:08:00 GMT

What ends up happening is that I start a new project and get horribly busy and have no time to post. I ended up making a bunch of notes of good things to post, so I have a little backlog of things. Expect a bunch here over the next couple days.

I'm afraid of Nanotechnology

btrst4 — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:42:00 GMT

Well, maybe not completely afraid- I'm not ready to write a manifesto or anything. The advances in technology are great and I am a big technology fan. I guess I am buying into movies and books too much. Have you read "Prey" by Michael Crighton? This is a really interesting book about nanotechnology gone wrong. Crighton always gets you thinking about all sides of science and technology.

Then I read about "Software Factories" and was a little miffed. http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/overview/softwarefactories. Computer programs writing other computer programs. Matrix ring a bell? How about the Terminator? Since I really am an infrastructure guy, I probably don't understand the software factories, so I'm sure there is more to it. It just sounds a little crazy to me.

Then I read this: http://science.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Computers-Can-Argue--Researcher-Claims&story_id=26480&category=innv. Computers arguing?!? "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that..."

Pretty crazy stuff to get you thinking.... Back to work.

My privacy policy

btrst4 — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 16:00:00 GMT

I'd also like to take the time today and post my privacy policy...

Any information on this site is not the least bit private. If you post information here that is private, I will likely release to any and all companies so they can send gallons of advertisements to you that you do not want.

Of course, I will also send my privacy policy out in paper form to anyone that has ever seen this web site. This will add to the amount of privacy felt by our community.

What is Coleco ADAM?

btrst4 — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 15:53:00 GMT

I got feedback from Brian Senecal that mentioned ADAM also relates to Coleco ADAM, which is a computer / game system from the early 80's. Pretty funny because I never considered that when I posted this. Time for the conspriacy theories to start...

Here is a picture:

Coleco ADAM seems to still have a cult following and there are a couple on Ebay right now for close to $10. You can also download Coleco emulators and play some of the games.

Really cool portable media viewer

btrst4 — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:15:00 GMT

Check this out! Finally a portable media viewer that I can afford!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5479821

It's been a while...

btrst4 — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 15:54:00 GMT

It seems that I have not been able to find time to post for a while. I am still here. I was starting a new project that was keeping me busy and then we went to our annual Microsoft Global Meeting in Atlanta.

Anyway, I have some things queued up, so keep looking. Here is something related to identity management that is pretty funny.

Hair Color of the "Person" Icon for a User Group Becomes Gray If the Group Contains More Than 500 Users: “http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281923

There are certainly 3rd party products to help with grey hair color...

William Hung is my hero...

btrst4 — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 20:44:00 GMT

Scary that I even know who he is, because I do not watch American Idol. This guy (http://www.williamhung.net) has built a career on basically nothing. At the same time, I tell my kids all the time how important it is to do something with confidence and not worry about what people will think.

Clearly, this guy doesn't care what people think...

If you don't know anything about him, do a google search on William Hung. Expect to see his excellent redention of “We are the Champions” this week.

Does anyone know how to get a song out of your head?

btrst4 — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 22:32:00 GMT

Somehow, I have “Oops I did it again” stuck in my head. If anyone knows how to remove it, please let me know.

I had heard that singing “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant will remove songs from your head, but that is not currently working.