Feels like Spring

The days are getting longer and more mild. There is still some ice on the cliff behind my office, though. It was a nice sunset, and I got to ride home without a jacket.

Lighting design post on my other blog

Yes, here we go again on my shameless promotion of my building science blog at HGTVPro...

I have been trying to apply some of my engineering tools to a field that sort of defies typical engineering methods much of the time, or at least the more academic side of it. I think it's changing as some of the big builders are looking into process mapping, lean busing models, and even manufacturing quality control strategies.

In the post, I put up a list of requirements that a lighting package in a house should satisfy and a list of all the entities that I consider 'customers' to said design (such as the homeowner, builder, architect, etc).

If you're not already asleep, maybe the actual article will finish you off. Go check it out if you wish: Lighting package desires and requirements.

Bad father of the year award

Yep. That's my claim to fame for the day. Bethany left to teach her yoga class. I wanted to feed Silas a little food before putting him down for a nap. So, I grabbed the sweet potatoes from the fridge and started feeding him. He winced big time at the first bite and gave me a really perplexed look. I laughed, because I thought he was shocked at how cold they were. He opened his mouth, and I fed him a second spoonful. Then, as I gave him the third, I remarked, "wow, Silas, why are you turning red?" Well, it turns out that the container happened to contain leftover Franks Red Hot sauce and butter (buffalo chicken salad for dinner last night).

The great thing was that he took it with style. His poor father freaked out, of course. I washed his mouth out with water, fed him a ton of yogurt, and let him drink about half a sippy cup of water.

I kept him up from his nap until I was sure his tongue wasn't going to swell and block his breathing and ended up sitting with him reading a book while he slept, checking to make sure he was still breathing...

Don't the sweet potatoes and buffalo sauce look similar in the picture above?!?! Who can blame a tired father?

So, long story short: he's ok. I'm kind of frazzled.

After Bethany got home and laughed at me, we had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant, where Silas got to try new eats: a little lamb curry, naan bread, mango chutney, and mango lassi. Here's a parting shot to show he's ok.

Mon Wharf trail work starts

The city has started work on the riverfront trail along the Mon Wharf parking area. This project is very exciting, as currently, there is no non-traffic connection between the Eliza Furnace Trail (lovingly called the Jail Trail locally) and Point State Park. The Eliza Furnace Trail (more info on the Three Rivers Heritage Trails) runs on the north side of the Monongahela River between Oakland and Downtown and connects via the Hot Metal Bridge to the Southside Works and the South Side Trail (Station Square to the Glenwood Bridge area).

The Mon Wharf is parking lot for the folks that work and visit downtown. It's a dodgy place to park in that the Monongahela River floods the outer edge of it when the river crests 18 feet, which is about any time it rains more than a drizzle. The work will remove some parking, but create a promenade that will allow bike and pedestrian use and green space.

I'm very excited about this, in that I frequently ride from work through Point State Park and then navigate my way through traffic up to the Eliza Furnace Trail to head back home. I'm comfortable riding in traffic, but there are many weekend riders of the Eliza Furnace Trail that would be well served with a safer route to the point. Many times, I've seen parents with small children on bikes fearfully making their way along Boulevard of the Allies (busy, arterial road) to get between the trails.

The Post Gazette article about the start of the work can be found here. Here is a picture I took of the Mon Wharf looking up the Monongahela River.

This last image, courtesy of the Post Gazette. Note that this is looking the opposite direction from my picture above and shows a different bridge.

Soon to be opened brewpub

Hofbraeuhaus Pittsburgh has been under construction for what seems like a very long time. It is supposed to finally open this week! I ran across their training course in an empty storefront elsewhere in the Southside Works. Check out the menu on their site. I'm excited to try it out.

Clean chain!

My chain recently spent a few hours bathing in a cleansing bath of citrus degreaser. It was much happier as a result, as was I. I didn't feel like I was leaving little piles of gear dust on Liberty Ave so I could find my way back home at the end of the day.

Playing at work

One of my responsibilities at work is the overall management of our data acquisition and monitoring activities. Another engineer, Dave, does most of the actual work these days, but I get to play with the parts and pieces as much as I can find time to. We're transitioning to a new server and ultimately a database for our data collection and needed an in-house logger to test out the new system. Dave set up a logger in an enclosure, and I got to program it as well as play around with modifying one of the bazillion old UPS's lying around the office.

These uninterruptable power supplies are basically a charge controller for a 12V sealed lead acid battery and a somewhat crude inverter to supply AC current to the load (computer, etc) when the power goes down. The UPS's that have been pulled out of commission in the office are almost 100% due to the batteries having died and not the electronics. The loggers we use (Campbell Scientific CR10X or CR1000) also use a 12V battery and don't draw much power. So, I jumpered off the battery in the UPS to power the datalogger. The logger has been running for the better part of a week now and hasn't caught on fire. That's a good sign, right? :)

Modified UPS:

The datalogger cave:

February 2009 human-powered transportation wrap up

I recovered from the surgery enough to have gotten back on the bike and back in the running shoes in February. Here are the monthly totals:

Biking (95%+ commuting/errands) = 70.0 miles
Running (0% commuting) = 27.0 miles
Canoeing (0% commuting) = 3.4 miles

The photos are from my daily commute on a frontage road parallel to the busy street that my office is on.

Future paddler

Silas, sporting his t-shirt from Rutabaga. Thanks again to the Bagans who sent us this shirt! I think that my friend Jason in Wisconsin did the artwork.

We can't wait to get back on the water. I get to go on the nicer days on safer water, but the water temperature is way too cold to risk bringing Silas out yet.

Handmade bikes

I went to Indianapolis for the weekend to visit my brother and a friend from college as well as to go to the 2009 North American Handmade Bike show.

The show was really fun. It's great to see so many great city and commuting bikes. The carbon bikes are cool, but not nearly as dear to my heart as the good old steel frames built with love to last forever as a classy ride around town.

Check out the pictures over at our flickr account.