managing stress in a fast-paced world

I’ve been waiting on a new bike I ordered for almost a month now, it was on backorder, but they finally shipped it last week and it’s here. It’s a Dahon Jetstream P8, I really liked the Helios SL I bought last year, after setting up and going for a short ride the Jetstream and Helios seem like two very different bikes.

The Helios is a really solid lightweight bike, you can tell by riding it that it’s really built for one purpose… speed.

The Jetstream is more like a comfortable cruising bike, I was really disappointed that the handlebar height isn’t adjustable. Other things I didn’t expect, but maybe I just need to fiddle with it more… the shocks are not adjustable, the springs are much stiffer than I had expected, and the bike doesn’t stand when folded.

One major thing I need to get used to is the components, the Helios is equiped with higher end SRAM components, where the Jetstream is lower quailty SRAM, I guess you never know the difference until you get them side by side.

I need to go out and get some bigger tires for it, and maybe fiddle with the suspension a bit.

I happened to finally find a message left for me 3 months ago in an old account I never check anymore. It was from an old college friend who I havn’t spoken to since she got married back in 2002. I called her up and we talked for almost an hour, she just moved into the area for work. I was so surprised to hear she wasn’t enjoying work, it seems like she’s actually going through some tough times. It’s funny because in some ways, I can relate and I’m sure she’s overwhelmed with everything going on in her life… I hope she sticks with it for a little longer, hopefully give it a chance before making any permanent decisions.

This whole weekend was pretty nice, a bunch of us saw Batman Begins on Friday, did some biking on Saturday, had dinner with friends that night and on Sunday. John and I managed to squeeze a little fishing in too. I finally got the E30 back to normal, now it’s time to fix the other stuff on it.

Sometimes I really hate to do things by trial and error, but I admit, it’s usually the easier way even though it takes longer. Case in point, I’m fixing the alignment on my E30, yes I am not afraid to align a car. Anyways, I would adjust, measure and go out and test. What really bugged me is that everything looked good until I went for a test. Eventually I figured out that one tire had about 10 PSI less than the other tire and thats why it was driving funny. Once I fixed that it was all good, well at least until this morning. It looks fine, but it drives bad. I’ll have to check it again tonight.

I’m really curious to see how much the final bid is…

Ebay Auction

Some people may call us crazy, friday after work I ran some errands and then started working on the E30 again, I’ve got the steering rack all in, but the u-joint connections just won’t go back together. I finally gave up and Greg and Mike came home and we all went fishing. I didn’t catch anything all night, we did catch everything we normally catch in San Mateo, sharks, rays, and even our first sevengill. Afterwards we had dinner around 11PM and finally got home after midnight.

So I had organized a 10AM biking trip in San Francisco Saturday morning, Greg had a great idea… lets go fishing before going biking! So after only 4 hours of sleep, Greg was over again and we were packing bikes and fishing gear at 5AM. We arrived just before 6:30AM at Baker Beach (Johns photo is as we were leaving), it was surpringly crowded with other fishermen that morning. I recognized a few guys who we knew only online, so we made our introductions and headed out to the far end to fish. The waves were insane, I was throwing out over a half pound of weight and the surf just kept moving my line all over the place.

As the morning started to disappear, we packed up everything and headed back to the car, then it started to rain… it rained for a good hour. People called asking about the biking and I felt really bad that I had to cancel it, but I didn’t want people to come all the way into the city and have it rain on the trip.

So we had breakfast at Mel’s and around 10AM, the sun came out again and there were blue skys! We decided to go biking after all. Along the way we saw a 37.5″ fish caught at one pier and so after the biking we came back and went fishing again!

A few months ago I suggested to some of my friends that we do a weekly dinner “thing” meaning each week we take turns cooking for the rest of the group. So far its turned out pretty good. Last night it was my turn, since I usually cook way too much, I invited some extra people over. We still had leftovers, but everyone put a pretty good dent in the food.

I guess the thing I like the most about doing this weekly is that you don’t have to cook or go out at least one day of the week, and you get some variety in food, plus it’s homemade which I prefer. So last night I made a pesto chicken pasta, a cajun roasted salmon, cooked spinach, and for dessert we had grilled bananas and ice cream.

Yea I like to cook, and cooking for 2 or 3 is about the same costs of cooking for 7. I just end up with fewer leftovers, which I never eat anyways.

There is no end in sight, day after day the same stuff just a different day. Oh what I would give to have the luxury of doing something different each day. It could be that I’m bored, it could also be that I don’t have enough to do, maybe I’m not happy with the daily grind.

I played photographer at a wedding today, boy was it a workout! The day started at about 10am and ended twelve hours later. My arsenal included my new 1DmkII and a borrowed 20D, both great cameras. So here’s what I’ve learned:

1 - Switching lenses in the field is a pain.

2 - I need an assistant to carry my lenses with me.

3 - I still need to learn to use my camera.

4 - I need more flash memory, alot more.

5 - I need fast memory, very fast.

6 - The 1DmkII is AWESOME!

Overall, it was a fun night, the couple was great to work with, I basically got full access to everything. All night was non-stop, when it came time to eat, it was literally eat and run. There was a total of 3 photographers, the other one was a really nice guy, he offered me some jobs and really liked to share his work.

Once I finish downloading, I’ll post up some of the photos to share.

Early Monday (6/13) …

I’m still organizing the photos, but here’s one I really like

Weekday fishing is the best, I got home early yesterday, I headed off to work early and prayed that I wouldn’t have to go in for jury duty.

Anyways, I got home at around 3pm and found my new steering rack for my E30 had arrived. The car was just waiting on jackstands to get fixed, so I got right to work, eventually I gave up for the day taking it off. One of the bolts just wouldn’t move, I showered and next thing I knew, Greg was calling me telling me he’s on his way over to go fishing.

So Greg picks me up and we meet Mike out there for some shark fishing, this time I remembered to bring my camera. And good thing since it was the best shark fishing so far last night.