It's Still Winter

At -25°F, the temperature is still very "winter like" but warmer than it was last week. I'm still walking (some jogging) but not losing any weight. Kind of depressing. The Nike+ challenges have lost their motivational ability mostly due to people cheating the system and Nike not doing anything about it. On some challenges, there are people posting runs of 40 miles per day... every day. Or posting the same run 4 or 5 times in a row... every day. Kind of eliminates any desire to participate. I guess I'm the type of person that still needs motivation to exercise. On Monday, I ran intervals (2 min run followed by 2 min walk) for an hour then felt pretty good so I ran for another 45 minutes. I followed this with a full round of the weight machines and felt pretty good when I was done. Maybe I just need more days off. BTW, I don't think I ever got the memo that Monday was a university holiday. I showed up to an almost empty building on a deserted campus. But since I had plenty to do, I just stuck around and worked until mid-afternoon then went to the Alaska Club.

The new university sponsored program, WIN for Alaska Get the Point, starts up in a couple of weeks so maybe that'll help. I'm not sure what the awards will be this year but the last two were pretty good. A Garmim 305 gps one year and an 8 GB iPod Touch the next. Maybe this cold spell will let up for a while so I can start walking outside again.

Google -vs- China

A very interesting story was posted on the Official Google Blog about the Chinese government's attempt to access activist's Gmail accounts. Google may terminate all China operations and pull out.

Believe It Or Not

It looks like winter is settling in for a while. January and February seem to be the hardest months to deal with around here. No big holidays nor cheery decorations to lift your spirits. But on the positive side, I noticed that sunrise is starting to get significantly earlier. Sunrise is now around 10:30 compared to after 11:00 around December 20th. While walking down to church yesterday around 9:00, you could already see a fair amount of red on the south-eastern horizon.

There is little, if any, heat from the sun this time of year. Late last night, it was -38°F, this morning -42°F and now that the sun has risen, it is -45°F. Temperatures are not headed in the right direction. There is a significant inversion now as it is over 20°F warmer at moderately higher elevations and coldest near the river. Temperatures on the weather sites are reported from the airport which is next to the river. Obviously, the lowest point in the valley.

Tuesday Morning - I don't think it is getting any better...

Beginning of a New Year

During the very quiet New Years break, I finally did get to some of the tasks on my list. Of the nine wires in the loom to the left rear door of my truck, 6 were broken. I guess Dodge must use some pretty cheap wire. Or at least wire that doesn't do well in the cold. The only intact ones were the heavier gauge ones for the window motor. To simplify repair, I just cut them and spliced several inches into all of them then wrapped the whole thing in silicon tape. I'll see how long that repair lasts. On the bike, a 1983 BMW R100RT, I was dreading removing the exhaust nuts as they are aluminum and threaded onto the aluminum exhaust ports. If they don't come off easily, they need to be cut off to avoid damaging the aluminum threads on the head. Fortunately, the previous owner or whomever was doing the maintenance, used anti-sieze and they came right off. It is my intent to pull the heads to take a look at the valves. This year and model has a known problem with valve recession.

I also removed the rear wheel to get started on another maintenance item referred to as a "spline lube". The transmission needs to be pulled back a couple of inches to get a grease/moly mixture brushed onto the input shaft of the transmission. This would also be a great time to take a look at the clutch to see how it is wearing. I've only had the bike for two years but have very little information on the work that has been done to the bike. All I've done since owning it is replace all of the fluids (some several times), grease the rear drive spline, and replace a couple of lights and the starter relay. I'm thinking that I need to invest more time and $$ if I really want to start riding it long distances. For example, the stock charging system is only 240 watts @4000 rpm, so there really is a reason for my wanting to take the scenic ride home... I need to ride long enough to charge the battery. Speaking of the battery, it probably needs to be replaced as well since the sticker says 5/2003. Maybe I'll try one of the Odyssey dry cell ones. Perhaps I should have looked for a newer bike but one of the attractive features is the simplicity when compared to newer machines. No computer or other electronics, no cooling fluids, a simple dry clutch, shaft drive and a reputation for being long lived. It should last a long time with a little preventative maintenance. It is completely stock and the only farkle is a RAM mount for my gps.

After slacking off most of December, I've started to get more regular exercise. I'm trying to get to the Alaska Club at least three days per week to use their weight machines. I'm intimidated by the free weights so I haven't tried them at all. And also trying to get a fair amount of aerobic exercise. Usually the treadmill. It's easy, familiar and I have one that I can use at home. The ones at the Alaska Club are much easier to run on. Today, I actually tried running instead of just jogging but couldn't keep it up for more than a mile. Still, for me that is a real accomplishment. A year ago, I was walking about 8-10 miles per day but it was taking too much time. This year I'm trying to jog or run and that has dramatically cut down on the time as I just can't manage the same mileage.