The stretch of vitality

OK, I’m all done with Flagstaff. The Green Machine is once again fully loaded and ready to drive out to Burning Man. The last two weeks here have gone by quickly. Burning Man generates a ridiculous amount of chores and to-do items. Plus I had to spend 6 days total in Cupertino this month. Last week was some transition stuff and the past two days I was there for some Agile Development/Scrum training. Yesterday was my last official day assigned to the HP Server Automation project, which I have been working on exclusively since I joined Opsware in August 2004. Actually, I just now realize today exactly completes my fourth year at Opsware. In September, I’ll be working on a new project, which is going to be a big change, and hopefully all for the better. New code base, get to pick our own tools, better lab, no customers (yet), no huge ominous backlog of bugs, no legacy code written by dozens of different people in different languages over a period of eight years, no tech support escalations, no sales demos, etc, etc.

So the plan is to leave within the next 30 minutes or so, get some gas and lunch, then drive about 4 hours to Las Vegas. Find some cheap hotel and just wonder around Las Vegas tonight. Then tomorrow drive another 8 hours or so to Reno, NV and meet up with the Freedom Community camp convey, which should depart out for Black Rock City (the temporary city where Burning Man occurs) sometime around midnight Sunday. The man burns the following Saturday night, and then that Sunday I hope to get from Black Rock City to Park City, UT, but there’s a good chance I won’t get that far. Then on Labor Day I try to make it to Golden, Colorado. I’ve rented a gorgeous house up at 9,000 ft in the mountains about 35 minutes outside of Boulder. It has spectacular views and a fantastic outdoor hot tub built amongst a huge enclave of giant boulders. Then the new project at work starts as does the house hunt.

Anyone placing bets on whether I last a week out in the desert with no power and no plumbing and 50,000 hippies and freaks?

Today I had a fantastic mountain bike excursion. I drove down Lone Tree Road as described in my guide book and hunted around for the right place to park, which I eventually found with some directions. I parked in a small lot next to the Flagstaff Urban Trails System trail. There was one other car in the lot. A young woman was sitting in her red truck with her bike on the rack. I was hoping she would get out and be able to help me find the trail I was looking for, but she just stayed in her truck. I figured she was meeting someone there or waiting for the weather to clear up as it was cloudy and threatening thunderstorms. I took off on my bike and eventually found my way onto one of the FUTS trails that I thought I could take around to the Fisher Point trailhead. As I cruised around it started to rain, as it does pretty much every afternoon here during the July/August monsoon season, so I took shelter under the I-40 overpass, queued up Mahler Symphony No. 2 and waited it out. It cleared up pretty quickly and I continued on in the trails that were now wet, muddy, slick, and dotted with puddles.

After not too long I was back at my car and realizing this trailhead was harder to find than I thought. The red truck was gone. I headed the other direction. I knew I had to cross through a golf course community to get to the trails, but exactly how and where I was to do that was not indicated in my guide book. As I rode up the road toward the entrace to the residential section, I spotted the same red truck parked across the street, bike still on the rack, driver still inside. So I figured I’d ask for directions. The driver said she and her girlfriend had just ridden that trail last week and that it was great riding and beautiful scenery. She gave me some directions and I asked if she wanted to come along for the ride as well, since she had been apparently somewhat hesitant about whether to ride or not. She agreed, threw together her gear, and off we went.

The weather cleared up on the way out. It was some fun riding. Muddy and puddlely at first but dryer as we gained elevation. We went past the beginning of Walnut Creek Canyon, which has some cool rock formations. The last two miles or so to the point is steep enough that you have to hike for the most part and ride when you can or you dare. It didn’t take Lisa long to notice my $70 Wal-Mart Mongoose bike. Of course I explained that it was just a beater that would take a lot of abuse at Burning Man, but when the chain on her fancy K2 bike started acting up and my Mongoose was working great I teased her about that.

We enjoyed the nice views and a rest at the top, and then did the fun downhill. There was some really fun terrain to coast down on. I almost crashed at one point but I managed to sort of let the bike fall out from under me and remain standing, so it doesn’t officially count. Pretty much as soon as we were back on level ground again, it began to rain and then thunder and lightning, so we waited it out under a tree, discussed lightning safety statistics, and then carried on in the now even muddier trail when the rain abated. There were some seriously slippery spots that caused me to fishtail all over the place, and by now we were both completely caked with mud, but it was a blast. The plan is hopefully week after next have Lisa show me some trails outside of Sedona.

I headed back to my car. I was so muddy that I had to strip down to my skivvies before getting into the car, and then when I got home had to spend some quality time hosing myself and my gear off. After a nice shower and a quick rest, I finished the evening with the amazing George St. Pierre defending his UFC title. Then I drove out to the Fort Valley trailhead, parked my car with Laura Viers playing, and laid on the windshield watching the stars for a while. I saw three shooting stars, including one that seemed really close and had lots of detail visible in the tail. A fantastic Saturday overall.

More photos here.

Today I went to the Navajo Arts and Culture festival at the Museum of Northern Arizona, which is just around the corner from my house. I did a quick tour. There were some interesting paintings, but it was mostly weaving and jewelry which were not too interesting to me. The museum does have a nice exhibit about the Therizinosaur, a new species of dinosaur that they discovered in Arizona recently. After that I drove down to check out Sedona, which is about 50 minutes south of Flagstaff. The road takes you through some gorgeous scenery including Oak Creek Canyon and Slide Rock State Park. I walked around the touristy streets and shops in Sedona a bit, and had a nice long lunch with phone calls to my parents and Thorp. I waited out a thunderstorm, then checked out a few of the nearby lookout points with views of the red rock formations.

The rest of the photos are here.

Pretty good Saturday today, given a late start. I left Quinn’s Restaurant in disgust at their “stop serving breakfast at 11am” policy, which is a heinous crime, and headed to the Downtown Diner, which has a proper policy regarding availability of pancakes. Then I headed across the street and did some hacky sack in heritage square. Shortly thereafter the local belly dance class Gypsy Chicks did a performance. There’s some less than impressive photos here. Then I ran a few errands around town. Late in the afternoon I went for my second ever mountain bike ride up Schultz Creek Trail, which is quite nice. I have a feeling I will really like mountain biking. It has many of the same appeals of skiing without the cold weather, bulky gear, expensive tickets, crowds, etc. However, on my way down I did experience my first mountain bike crash. In a way it was satisfying because unlike skiing where as a beginner you usually have a few silly topples before you are actually good enough to partake in a bona fide yard sale wipe out. However, this was a legitimate “la la la here I am coasting downhill on my bike” one second and “la la la I’m not on my bike anymore and the electronics in my backpack were probably just crushed” the next second type scenario.

Today unknowingly and by chance I bought a pair of air mattresses from the same guy who sold me a tent a few weeks ago. The first time we met up at the climbing gym in town and when I told him I needed the tent for Burning Man, he said that he had gone before and was disappointed that he wasn’t able to go this year. Today I went to his house to pick up the mattresses and I was like “Hey, aren’t you the guy that sold me the tent”? He said when he next digs out some old camping gear he’ll just email me directly and cut out the craigslist middle man.

But even funnier than that small world moment was what I saw on a neighbor’s lawn as I cruised his street looking at house numbers. I only caught a glimpse of it for a few seconds, but it was all it took to tell the story. There were five or six young kids assembled on a trampoline. No one was jumping. About four were on the trampoline and two standing at the side. They were basically all motionless and exchanging nervous glances, eyes bouncing from face to face. A girl of about eight in a bathing suit, soaking wet, held a hose nozzle in her hand. About eight feet up the hose, a boy maybe ten in regular clothes and dry had the hose folded over in his hands, stopping the water. The other two on the trampoline were in regular clothes and dry. I only caught a glimpse of it driving by and didn’t see the conclusion, but the expressions on their faces were spectacular.

However, the power struggle and moral dilemma were appropriate because I just got back from The Dark Knight. Now, I’m a huge fan of the “original” Tim Burton Batman (holy crap that was 20 years ago. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to say that), but I can honestly say this was by far the best Batman movie ever. It was awesome to see in the theaters, and I’m going to go see it again, which I only rarely do (most recently for There Will Be Blood). Heath Ledger was amazing, and it just so happened that when I left the theater all pumped up my car stereo came on with Tool’s “Jerk-off Live” track from Opiate, which kicks ass.