As I write this entry from my second-floor office, my desktop monitor is vibrating back and forth, and the slinky on my desk appears to be trembling in fear, and the thermostat on the wall behind me rattles annoyingly.

Outside a large hydraulic vertical battering ram travels back and forth pounding a wide cement sidewalk to smithereens. It's pretty scary that that thing is hitting the ground so hard that shock waves come this far and affect things on my desk. Scarier is the fact that the thumper driver isn't wearing any ear protection.


Only moderate bike rides over the weekend. On Saturday Shelley joined the club on her brand new bike: a Specialized Allez, which is much like mine, but a slate blue color. We got it Friday after she decided she wanted to spend her bonus fun money on it (we gave ourselves a bonus for exceeing our savings goal for last fiscal year).

She'll probably continue to ride with the club now and then. She and I have another long charity ride coming up on the 16th, up along the coast between Ventura and Santa Barbara, so the new bike should make that experience much more enjoyable for her.


Later today (during lunch) I'm meeting the guy who invented Panoscan, which is the extremely expensive panorama capture system that I long for. He lives and works close by, and I want to have a look at it in person before investing in it, or deciding not to.

I suspect it will be everything I dream of, just way too expensive to justify at this point in time. But I need to see it in order to determine that for sure, or at least make a good case to bank loan officer if necessary.