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One of my young coworkers has had a very hard time of late. His Father just quit as a parent and moved back to Ireland, where he's originally from. His son Arlo just graduated high school. He's a phenomenal worker, especially for one so young. He's just the kind of young man that's always positive and always very well mannered. We bonded over fishing at first. He loves my stories of commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. More recently he was told about my woodworking. He's seen several pictures and is fascinated and is wanting to learn. His former principal is Al and Claire's Sister in law, which Al and I have done many projects for. If you want to befriend me, showing an interest in woodworking is a surefire way to be successful. Almost a year ago, I made my own macaroni recipe and took it in for the Saturday crew. When Arlo took his first bite he had the biggest grin on his face. He has hinted several times that more macaroni would be appreciated. I've made it 5 or 6 times now. I think he may actually like it more than myself even. A few months back his Sister started working for Fairfax Lumber too. She's in the Nursery. She's as well mannered and as pleasant as her Brother, and adorable too. About a week ago Arlo asked if he could sit with me at lunch and get some advice. That's when he told me that his Father abandoned the family. I'm a good talker. I can talk your ear off. But this time I just listened. He just needed to vent, so that's what I let him do. I did give some advice, but mainly I just let him talk and let him express his anger. Something I've never seen out of him. There's not much I can actually do to ease his pain or make the situation better. He's going to go through several stages of grief and anger. ATM he's focusing on helping his Mother. She's shocked and in a financial crisis. He's working full time and taking fire fighter training (His dream for many years). So he's overwhelmed, but still focusing on helping Mom. He said she's been working all of the overtime she can get. So, one small thing that I could do was save her a night of cooking, and make Arlo's favorite meal. I told his Mom that I'd be cooking and delivering Saturday dinner. I made a giant batch of Macaroni, enough salad ingredients to last a week, two loafs of fresh baguette and a giant apple/berry pie from Costco. And topped it off with enough disposable dishes and lids to freeze/refrigerate all of the leftovers. He didn't know anything about it, but was very surprised when I dropped it all off. His ear to ear grin was worth any laborious prepping tasks. I've had several texts from Mom, Arlo and Sister Nina. Very sweet family and I'm feeling like I did a good deed. The pic is not the macaroni I took them, it's the leftover ingredients that I cooked up today. Lunches for the future.

Today I installed the door jambs that I milled up, for the bathroom the Al and I built the vanity and doors for. Unfortunately the GC didn't listen to me, and built the door opening smaller than requested. It was already the size we wanted, but for some odd reason he filled in the opening a bit. Not the end of the world. I had already discovered this before building the jamb. However the finished doors will now have to be cut down. As I'm picky about symmetry, I'll need to take a little off of each side. It's not a lot. Maybe 3/16" to 1/4" on all sides. The height also needs a bit off, but we anticipated this. I'll only need to remove some at the top, as the bottom rails are taller, which looks better IMO. I don't want to install the casing or doors until the GC builds out the closet system. He's expressed to me that he'll be very careful, but why make it more difficult for him and nerve wracking for me?

You guys are probably right. You are definitely right that looping around the parking lot is maybe the most useless test case. The MY25 bikes are out of stock for new orders and the MY26s should be incoming soon. I have a little time to make up my mind. I’m gonna try and see if I can demo a nice road bike just to be sure.

Um, nipples?

Creo 2 he's looking at has the SL1.2 motor, which is 50% more than what we have. 360w vs 240W. It should be 10-100% assist stock across 10 levels where ours have 3 settings (Eco/Sport/Turbo) at 35/60/100% stock.

With the passage of Rick Davies, I am reminded of one of my favorite mashups of all time. Mashups are invariably novelty tracks, and many (most) of them try too hard and don't really gel properly. Once a great while, one comes along where the whole is is greater than the sum of its parts (like a really good remix.) In 2006, the artist Arty Fufkin combined Gnarls Barkley, Supertramp and Rockwell. It's been in my record back in one form ever since.

😁 This Is d-_-b !!!

Ninja vanish! 🥷 Body Talk by The Deele (1984) from Miami Vice:

That's going to require a two very sharp thumbs up animated gif. Also, the song is really good. Impossible to follow that up, so good a time as any to post my latest obsession -- “It’s a song about wanting to disappear, as in completely vanish and not make a big deal about it,”. Very sombre/bleak/dark/morose. It has no video. https://www.frontview-magazine.be/en/news/skold-pop-the-smoke-new-single-by-swedish-industrial-rock-musician-out-1st-august-2025

Somewhere on this site there's a "here's a neat YouTube video I found" thread. I have no idea what it's called. I usually just post such things in Slow Forum. This video his a number of areas of interest of mine. Also, anamorphic lenses for for DSLR and mirrorless bodies are now widely available and remarkably cheap for what they are. There's even at least one autofocus anamorphic lens, which is some true "I'm living in the future" shit right there. Of course, it's only for goddamn Sony bodies. I swear, you'll see me buy a Hasselblad before a Sony. Watch me buy a Sony full frame body next year.

If you only rode the Creo around a parking lot or something, it isn't a realistic picture of using assist on a real ride. I thought I could cruise up to Stretch's place on my Turbo Vado SL peddling around the lot around the bike shop but didn't feel a anything like that after going up lesser hills. I don't know what assist level the Creo has but mine is only 2.5 X whereas lots of ebikes are much higher.

He's smart and understands that working hard will payoff. I wish that I could do more for him. I will be there when he needs to vent again. My Dad was rough, but he never once thought about leaving us. That's a tough thing to wrap your mind around.

Happy Birthday, Jimmy Another, Best Birth Year Birthday 😉

Sounds like wonderful young man. His poor Mom. So good of you to help, Steve.

I had one of the scenes with Tyres O'Flaherty raving to something as my ringtone for the longest time.

That sucks, but I do love the quote in that article that he died "a after a long struggle with life." My friends' band that I managed for a time used to play Sex Bomb as an encore, especially at parties. RIP Mr Loose

Argh, every time I’m back the bike I think “I don’t need the assist.” The point is to suffer, right? I tried the Creo and it was honestly a little overwhelming with the assist. I think i need to try some other stuff before making up my mind. A more dedicated road bike, for starters. Like giant defy/trek domane/cannondale synapse

There was a roast chicken Followed by grilled pineapple, coconut yogurt, coconut and lime ice cream, with toasted coconut

Catching up on a series that I should have watched in the first place.

E-bike is gonna be it for me. Who am I kidding? I’m like the bare minimum of cardio fitness to do these rides and these are the easiest 25 miles will ever be because flat farm roads. I did 50+ miles on the Diverge and I feel confident this is the right choice. I will say, I am not sure people are on about with these 1x front chain rings. Nice to have a bunch of climbing gears but I never felt like I had exactly the gear I wanted for the public roads. I'm certainly fit enough to ride a road bike around on these farm roads but I get the feel that if I go back to Marin the constant up-and-down will end me. Going faster than my power output would otherwise allow also has some appeal.

Yikes. Beastly!

A couple of pies for dinner with friends from across the street. One with Mexican chorizo, red onion, corn and jalapeño, over cheddar, mozzarella and topped with grated cotija, which was the clear winner. The other with pepperoni, shaved fennel, mushrooms, and fresh basil grown by the neighbors over mozzarella, which was tasty but more basic. Working with a shitty oven and a pizza stone instead of a pizza steel was a handicap, but it worked out fine.

After the air disaster article linked in the reading thread where Rear Admiral Moffett doesn’t exactly come off well, decided to return today with Esmé to the Moffett Field Museum that’s five minutes from our house. Of course the museum is about the place, not the man the place is named after, and the emphasis is on the USS Macon, once docked here, not its sister ship the USS Akron, where Moffett and nearly the entire crew perished (twice those of Hindenburg), all in the pursuit of military rigid airship supremacy (20/20 of course on what was accomplished there), but sometimes strange how heroes are selected. Bonus: Tom Cruises. Still a great, volunteer-led tiny museum

just a good song.

Holy schnickes. Orbital announces half-speed remastered 4CD/4LP Brown album. Orbital 2 AKA "The Brown Album" is the single greatest electronic music album. I say this with zero hesitation. ~$152. Dunno about shipping. This release is a compelling argument to but an expensive phono preamp.

Mark Volman of The Turtles, Zappa's Mothers, Flo & Eddie and much more, passed away last week.

RIP Rick Davies, co-founder of Supertramp. Wish I could have seen these guys live. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rick-davies-supertramp-dead-obituary-1235422832/

Tiny vinyl - 4" record format for Gen Z: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/tiny-vinyl-is-a-new-pocketable-record-format-for-the-spotify-age/

RIP Maru the cat, who was at one point the most famous cat on the internet (and by extension, the world.)

RIP to Bruce Loose, vocalist for the band Flipper. Haven’t listened to them in a long time, but will pull out Generic Flipper and raise a glass…. https://www.nme.com/news/music/flipper-singer-bassist-bruce-loose-dies-aged-66-3890561

One of the greatest clothing designers ever, Giorgio Armani, has died at the age of 91: I am sure he came into my orbit in 1980 as the person who created Richard Gere's iconic looks in the movie "American Gigolo": RIP to a legend in the industry.

Also Terence Stamp at 87 https://www.salon.com/2025/08/17/terence-stamp-general-zod-and-film-icon-dead-at-87/

Ronnie Rondell, Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' Stuntman, Dead at 88 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ronnie-rondell-jr-stuntman-wish-you-were-here-dead-obit-1235410240/ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05e0z9lj3mo Ronnie Rondell Jr. Dead: Pink Floyd Album Cover Stuntman Was 88 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ronnie-rondell-jr-dead-stuntman-pink-floyd-1236346066/