Friday, July 13, 2007

Moonlight, Swamps, and Lawnchairs


Davis County, from Antelope Island


Antelope by Moonlight, and bike light!
Hi All,
This week’s post is a mixed bag. Most importantly, we upgraded our house with central air conditioning! The furnace was 24 years old and on its last legs, and the evaporative cooler (swamp cooler to you locals) was rusted through, leaking, and I had run out of miracles in keeping it running. 21 years was enough. So now we are learning that cold air definitely sinks! The upstairs is mild to warm, while the basement levels are like the inside of the refrigerator! We are told that the new furnace should be exponentially more efficient than the old one. Time will tell this winter. Here are a few photographs of our new systems.
The new furnace
The new chiller unit
Farewell, oh bucket of rust.

In riding news, I enjoyed the 2007 version of the Antelope by Moonlight bike ride. Almost 1,000 riders came this year! One thing I noticed was that I saw more recumbents than any year before. I had a nice conversation with a couple of fellas riding a Rans Stratus LE, and a Rans Force 5. Slowly but surely I see a few more ‘bents around the valley. You may have noticed a new link in the list to the right for a Trike Store in Spanish Fork; Looks like they are having fun down in the “banana belt” of Utah. Editor’s note: Don’t forget to try out all the hyperlinks!

Also, I am posting one customary photograph from Antelope Island. On a hot, smoky ride this past week, I noticed what looked like a sandbar off the causeway. But, it wasn’t a sandbar! It was a huge flock of birds just standing in the shallow water. Usually they are active and flying about, but on this day, thousands of them just hanging out. I have no explanation to this behavior, but who understands a bird’s duty schedule!

Yep, those are birds out there!
And finally, since most of you know I work in the aviation industry, I am including a photograph and a link that I think is better left as being self-explanatory. No, it is not a trick photo; No, it is not an old Opus cartoon; Yes, some Americans have a vivid imagination when it comes to being different; Yes, it is yet another reason why air traffic controllers seem to age faster! Please click on the MSNBC link and enjoy the whole article.


That’s all the news from here. It is a good bet that there will be more truly momentous news coming this week, so stay tuned!

Happy Riding, Jim

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great night shots! I don't do much night riding down here. There's a Moonlight Ramble every october but it's only 20 miles and all downtown so there's plenty of streetlights.

Dan's Mom said...

Mystery link: it's that guy in the lawn chair, right? I heard about him on the news. RE: next week... I already heard straight from the horse's mouth. Wheee! Love, your Sis