Ron's Log

A Little More I-5

I forgot to mention that the central valley is almost dead flat. Flat enough to rival northern Illinois. Observe this photo taken during one of the unexplained dead stops on I-5:

But after sunset it was really nice on the occasional curve to be able to see the lights of the cars twisting off into the darkness. The real topper came at the nighttime, southbound approach to Tejon Pass. Six solid lanes of red taillights being pumped up the twisty highway like an aqueduct of blood for L.A. Never saw anything like it before.

Dell Digital Jukebox Music Player vs. iPod

Fortune has some nice backhanded compliments for the Dell DJ in this fairminded comparison with the iPod.

The NY Times has an analysis of the history and success of the iPod.

Vehicles

Went out and looked at vehicles at the I-10 Auto Mall in Indio. I think I want a compact pickup. In order to organize my thoughts I made this little table of likely trucks I saw today which I'm going to share with you:

2001 Toyota Tacoma	$15,495	25,085 miles	automatic	Mfr. warranty thru 7/07
2002 Nissan Frontier	$13,459	20,501 miles	5-speed	Mfr. warranty until ?	Extended cab
2001 Ford Ranger	$12,995	40,206 miles	automatic	30 day, 100% warranty	Extended cab
2003 Ford Ranger	$10,995	18,4123 miles	5-speed	Mfr. warranty until ?
2001 Ford Ranger	$ 9595	35,972 miles	5-speed	30 day, 50% warranty
1999 Mazda B2500	$ 9015	27,154 miles	5-speed	30 day, 50% warranty

If you have input to make, feel free to spew.

Miami to Key West AIDS Ride

The Miami to Key West AIDS Ride earlier this month raised $172,000. I'm guessing that's gross. The actual name of the ride is either "The Southern Most AIDS Ride 2 (SMART Ride)" or "Bike It and B.E.A.R. It for AIDS." The article is ambiguous.

Dell

William has been having a nightmare time of it with a Dell PC. I've heard stories like this more than once and would never buy a Dell for myself, although I don't stop my friends from doing so.

While at Costco I saw some e-Machines flying out the door, so I checked the specs. This PC doesn't seem to be up on their website, so I can't give you a link. For only $700 you get a 120 Gb hard drive, 512 Mb RAM, a CD-RW/DVD and a MONITOR! It's only a flat screen CRT monitor, but it's also only $700 for the whole package. You could buy two of these for the price of a Dell and probably have fewer maintenance problems.

I-5

The drive to the Bay Area (I guess that's a name to be capitalized) was about 475 miles one-way, the biggest chunk of it on the [in-]famous I-5. Having done 3000 miles in a truck (actually a Ford Econoline van on steroids) I was cocky, but I-5 in a compact car on Thanksgiving weekend is a real rite of passage.

I joined I-5 on its ascent to the Tejon Pass. The road has about 6 lanes or so. Traffic was heavy, but not congested. Everybody was well above the speed limit (except the big trucks, of course). I was speeding too, of course, but keeping it under 80. So these L.A. SUV drivers have a not uncommon habit of coming right up to your rear end at 85-90 MPH, not dropping their speed until the last very few feet. Even though they could easily have switched lanes to pass me (even on the right if they wanted) they would hang there on my ass a minute or two waiting to see if I would flinch. They underestimated me. I never flinch from a fast, aggressive rear end approach.

On the other side of the Pass (4,165 feet) this silliness continued during the descent. The only difference was that the truck lane was now limited to 35 MPH. A couple of truckers thought that didn't apply to them. Even so, there was plenty of room for the expensive trophy cars of L.A. to behave like nuts. The weird thing was that as soon as we got to the flat of the central valley, all the nonsense stopped. It was as though these drivers had turned off, but there had been no exit.

After we passed the turn off for route 99 I was surprised to see that the much-vaunted I-5 dropped to only 2 lanes in each direction. I certainly would not support an expansion of the highway, even if California had a balanced budget, but 2 lanes is just not enough on this road.

When one considers the insanity that is an essential part of California, and ponders "where do I start?" a reasonable person might first think "voter education." How to educate the California voter to respect democracy and balance it with republicanism (small "r")? Maybe the League of Women Voters? But then one gets on I-5 and sees a much more immediate need: the repeal of separate speed limits for trucks. It was merely an inconvenience when I was driving the truck, but put yourself in a car on a heavily trafficked highway on a holiday weekend in California and the unnecessary danger created by the 55 MPH truck speed limit becomes obvious. With only 2 lanes and a 15 MPH (theoretical) difference in speeds, every time you come to a truck, ALL the cars have to get over to the left lane, roughly doubling the density of traffic there. You have some drivers (like me) who spot the truck, sigh, and move over to the left lane to join the long line struggling to get by. The immediate result of that is you could have a dozen or more cars stringing along in the left lane waiting to get up to that truck. Now, the sporty L.A. driver with his trophy SUV is not about to sit and wait safely like me, hoping to get an "attaboy!" from his high school driver's ed instructor. No. They shoot up the right lane until they are about 10 feet behind the truck. They sit there and wait for a space in the left lane that is just about the right size for parallel parking and pop themselves over (we are not even going to talk about the turn signal issue here, as it is so minor compared to this other grossly dangerous behavior). When they pop in like that, the car behind them needs to slow down a bit because, remember, they are probably one of the safe ones who think that 5 feet of clearance at 75 MPH is a bit too tight. Sometimes they even touch their brakes. This causes a little ripple to pass down that long line of cars in the left lane (where I am trying to be patient). Sometimes it's a big ripple. I found myself sometimes putting on the brakes to drop from 75 to about 40, then back up to 75, then down to 40 and back again, all within less than a mile just while passing one truck. Fortunately California drivers hit each other only very rarely. And I knew I wasn't in Massachusetts or New York because no one was stupid enough to honk.

Anyway, lots of times while sitting in the left lane waiting to pass I realized the truck we were aiming for was actually going faster than I! After about a dozen times you begin to think those nuts who shoot up the right lane might be taking the best approach. I only gave in to their wicked ways once, and that was when I found myself sitting behind some old guy in the left lane who seemed to have no ability to perceive the traffic around him as his speed drifted between 65 and 70 MPH. Obviously he was never going to pass the truck, which was doing 70 itself.

Wednesday was the worst day because there were LOTS of trucks. Returning home on Saturday the traffic was still heavy, and we actually came to one long dead stop (I have no idea why), but there were a lot fewer trucks. When there were no trucks around, traffic moved between 75 and 80 with no nutty behavior. This separate speed limit for trucks needs to be repealed except in a few special places, like Tejon Pass. I don't know if Californians ever drive in other states, but it might surprise them to know they are in a severe minority on this speed limit issue.

Just so you know it wasn't Pure Hell here's a nice autumnal photo I caught at one of the rest stops.

Home Shopping

While doing some laundry today I ran into Linda, who is on the board of trustees for this gated community in which I find myself living. She gave me the lowdown on things. It seems there is, in fact, one alleged drug dealer in the place, and he's about to get the heave-ho. She repeated the oft-heard warning about buying on "Indian land" (i.e., on the reservation) because you have to pay land rent forever. I asked her about the other oft-heard warning about buying too far north so that you are victimized by the incredible winds. Here we are in the northernmost habitable dwellings in Palm Springs and she says it's not too bad here, except maybe April through June. Just north of this community, another development is being built. The distance from here to there is only the width of one street, but Linda says she would never consider buying there because it's going to be too windy. It's like the grass is always greener on my side of the fence.

Go here for a panorama of that more northern development, behind which you can see the windmills and San Gorgonia.

Linda tells me the units here (all 1-bedroom) are going for about $90,000, which she consideers an outrageous price, since she paid only $30,000 a few years ago. That's no way to look at it.

Thanksgiving

I drove up to the San Francisco Bay area to celebrate Thanksgiving at Bill & Emrys' fabulous place in Concord. What a time! Here are thumbnails for a few photos I managed to squeeze out before the martinis and wine kicked in. The food was wonderful, and we didn't have to watch any football (although somebody did turn on the Macy's parade).

Local Weather

I mounted a thermometer today that includes a hygrometer, so I can tell you reliably that it is 58.6° right now at about 6:40 PM (a bit chilly I think) but the humidity is only 25% (so it's a dry chilly).

Local Views

Here's the roughly westerly view from my current abode:

That's Mt. San Jacinto, of course. At night I can see the lighted tramway cars going up and down on some parts of the route. The very middle of the tram line is visible, so I can see the two cars pass each other at night. There should be some local myth that if you hook pinky fingers with the man you love while watching the tram cars pass, then you'll always be together...or something like that.

You can't see the tram cars in daylight, but at certain times of the day you can see the reflections from the cables.

And this photo is the roughly easterly view where you can see the Little San Bernardino hills.