:: seanlangford ::

So I headed out for the wampatuck critand trying a new shortcut via rte 3 I soon realized I was entering a militarized zone thanks to the Democratic National Convention which has essentially evacuated the greater Boston area. I remember this Spring how zealous our great city was for this convention in terms of how much attention and profit it would bring. Thanks to much of the terror hyperbole found in area media it had a very opposite effect. As I crosscut Boston heading toward its center, I noticed more and more state police and armed national guardspeople as I got closer to the Fleet center. Spotted military helicopters and jetfighters overhead. When going over Zakim bridge it was 5:30p and there was no one else around. Boston was a ghost town. Wierd. Anyhow, headed down to the race and had a great time. Went out on a couple of breaks; felt strong – starting to find my fitness again.

Checkout AJ’s take on the smashing.

So this weekend we tore my brother’s new house inside out. Carpeting, wall covering, tiling, subflooring, and loads of just misc junk and garbage got packaged up and moved out of the place. The former owner of this house lived in it for over 70 years and had accumulated a massive amount of junk. The house was sold as-is with all its contents; furnature, appliances, clothes – even food in the fridge(!) A huge win for the expansive ‘family and friends’ construction team of JLT, FT, JPH, JWH, M, CL, CF, LF, TF, JL and myself. We covered more ground together than any of us thought possible. We filled a huge dumpster and over 60 garbage bags. It was chaotic but alot of fun. It was interesting to watch the goals and tasks evolve as more was being learned and resources were changing. Learned alot of cool construction techniques like plastering, skim coating, sanding and of course wallpaper removal.

Some highlights:

• watching JH smash stuff with an axe to better fit in the dumpster and watching a small crowd of neighbood kids assemble
• tearing up 5 layers of kitchen flooring in 45 seconds using shovels
• scraping last bit of wallpaper off in the 7th room
• finding miscellaneous bits of pR0n in this devoutly(?) catholic household

Now after working at shops which have a continuous integration loop with tests, it seems so obviously neccessary. Still, its really surprising how many groups don’t have one. Now with cruisecontrol’s customizable JMX interface its pretty easy to implement custom builds. Now working on implementing some automation around our build process here at work. Don’t usually do release engineering work, but a short diversion to get this done IMO will really help our process.

So my brother bought a house and it closed on his birthday today! Congratulations CL!! Its a sweet place right in a great location. It needs a little work, but with some TLC he should get some excellent ROI IMO.

So the road stage was a bit of a washout for me. Not enough gas in the tank and not really motivated to race that course in the rain; I think when you are racing cat4 in the rain you have to be able to accept the strong liklihood that there will be crashing. If you are unable to accept that fact then you shouldn’t be racing. That was me tonight. I’ve got too much cooking right now to risk injury. When things settle down then maybe I’ll find that place again. Until then; dry, safe(r) racing only.

Did the TT for the WMSR. The rain was a bit intimidating; not terribly used to cornering on the TT bike and there is no shortage of corners on this course! Had a fun ride; nearly caught my 30 second man. Got exactly the same time last year to the second. Sheesh. So much for incremental improvement. Anyhow my favorite stage, the road race stage 2 is tomorrow. Psyched!

Started out with some long needed bike maintenance. Was using a wax based chain lubricant which has been annoying me lately with the amount of schmultz it accumulates on the machine. Took my cassette apart, degreased it, lubed cables, and gave the bike a good washing. These are common maintenance tasks for any good cyclists to regularly perform; since I’m not a good cyclist, I don’t have to do it that often . Anyhow, started out toward Newton to do the Well’s Avenue training race. Now have clearance from my doctor to get back into racing after the concussion I had earlier this Spring. Was a bit nervous actually to get back into it and was really concerned with my fitness compared to those I’d be racing against; after all, its been 12 weeks since my injury and 14 weeks since my last race. I knew I had some fitness but was concerned if it would be enough. Anyhow, at Well’s there’s 3 racing groups: a ‘C’ race for first time and early development riders, a ‘B’ race for more developed riders, and an ‘A’ race for ’serious’ riders. I really wanted to race the ‘B’ race but got talked into racing the ‘A’ race. This turned out to be the right decision; felt amazing with plenty of energy; was even able to go off the front a couple of times. Anyway after that went straight out onto the boat with J, C & C. Went out back behind Crane’s Beach and met up with the PG, JG, AG, JG, AM, GH, BH and the S clan. Did some swimming, fishing, and relaxing. Got home around 9p and watched the TdF. Definately a fun day.

A great weekend; went to a great Italian wedding in Providence: T&SA. Congratulations. What a beautiful wedding and a great party. Hooked up with NS who spent the night. Went for an early 2 hr mtn biking ride in Harold Parker State Forest then headed out on the boat for some fireworks. Was a little cool but was fun anyway.