nosrednayduj

Unexpected, fast-track route.

Yesterday my great grandboss sent me a meeting request to "discuss some important business updates".

This is not my first rodeo. So I was not at all surprised when they laid me off in that meeting. I guess the "important business updates" are that they are trashing our entire product. Although they were a little cagey about exactly who was being laid off, giving the excuse that some people hadn't been told yet. I got some text messages from some of my coworkers so I at least know about some of them. I'll wait until tomorrow to ping the others for whom I have phone numbers.

I was also not terribly upset, because I'm pretty close to retirement age, and I'm reasonably well set up financially. They are giving me 18 weeks severance and paying out the full bonus from this past year. So I'd be okay for half a year anyway even if I hadn't been shoveling the max contribution into my 401(k) for the past 15 years.

They started the conversation with "these are difficult conversations to have" and I said "I've been laid off five times before, it's okay." I mean, I'm kind of emotional about it and I'm telling everybody, but generally I'm fine. I mean, in the computer industry, you have to have in the back of your mind, "I could be laid off today". It just fades into the back of your mind like "I could get hit by a truck today". Both things are true; being laid off is a little more likely.

Today we started out with the aforementioned nearby protest. There were about 75 people, and the usual mix of happy tooting, nothing, and thumbs down/middle fingers (more of the former and less of the latter). In fact, there was more happy tooting and less nothing; I think people are primed to be upset about the whole situation. Best sign: "we all saw the video".

Then Ken and I rode our bicycles to a car shop 7 miles away which had a used (2023) Subaru Solterra. It's a lovely car, it fits Ken's bike, it has adaptive cruise and heated steering wheel. It has cool AI-ish feature where it has a camera in the front and a camera in the back and probably the sides also so that it can show you all the surrounding stuff, not just a backup camera, and it does some integration of what it has seen with those cameras and where you currently are and shows you what is underneath the car. When you turn in some way as you're backing up, you may cause the car to go over a place that has not yet been seen, and then it shows that as black in that area and corrects itself as it sees more and more. It shows you this surrounding stuff when going slowly even forward, and I think that's going to be great for me because I often do a bad job of parking between the lines.

It's a little bit wide for getting into the garage, but we think it's narrower than the Tesla. We measured the car and then we measured the garage opening and then we thought about how much clearance we normally have with the Tesla. And the surround vision thing will enable us to be much better about aim. I might paint some access lines on the driveway.

We then called Ken's electric car nerd friend and he's not a fan of the Solterra and suggested a bunch of different cars that might suit our needs. Unfortunately it is very difficult to find out the actual dimensions of the cargo space. They all say things like "83 cubic ft." I care about the shape more than the total volume! Which is why we had to actually go there with the bicycles. His nerd friend also says he knows about a place to get batteries that might be cheaper, but it's not clear that it's enough cheaper to warrant actually fixing our car. So anyway, we now have to decide if we want to spend many hours trying to get Ken's bicycle into different cars or if we just want to buy this one, regardless of nerds not liking it. It's possible that he doesn't like it because it's just an SUV and while it seemed to have pretty good pickup on the test drive, it's not a Tesla performance model S and this guy is all about speed.

Going home, I got ANOTHER FLAT. This was in the rear tire, which is not the one that I replaced in November. It appears I didn't blog about all my flats. Looking at order histories, it seems that I replaced the most recent one this past spring so it has less than 2000 miles on it. You'd think it should last longer than that? But anyway, I do have a spare! So I replaced it this evening. I was lazy at the side of the road and I called home for Valerie to come get me in the borrowed Prius rather than trying to fix the flat in situ.

Massachusetts passed a boater safety law last year which requires operators of a power boat to have a safety certificate. If you're old, this doesn't actually take effect until 2028, but if you are young, it takes effect now. There are a bunch of young people whom I have taught to drive the boat so that when they are visiting, we can go waterskiing with just me and a couple of young people. So now I have to get them to take the class and get their safety certificate. I will pay for the class. But it takes time! Something that most young people are short on.

Even though I'm not required to do it yet, I took the class and have earned my safety certificate so that I would know what it was like. Strangely, you can do in-person classes offered by the state for free (at inconvenient times in inconvenient locations), or you can do self-paced online classes for money. Even though the online class does not involve a real instructor but is just videos and reading text and little game-like things showing things like right-of-way rules. Then you have to take a multiple-choice test and pass with 80%. 60 questions; I only missed one, though I did guess on a few of them. It's the typical situation where two of the answers are obviously completely bogus, one of the answers is right, and the other answer is plausible.

It's not a lot of money, $45 for the one I took. There's a different one that's more expensive and in theory takes less time; maybe one of my young people will take that one and they can tell me how it differs.

The class didn't actually suck. The videos were okay, and you can run them at double speed. They had a set of actors who were going around in boats showing different things like parts of boats and navigation buoys and potential hazards and docking techniques and different kinds of lifejackets, and it was the same people in all the videos so you kind of got to know them. I did it in several different sessions; I didn't really keep track of the amount of time, but it was probably 10 hours.

It's a little annoying because there's only one type of boat license and so the class covers things about boating in the ocean that you'll never need if you are only dorking around on a small lake. I had a leg up because I have boated in the ocean and I did learn those things before we headed off to Bermuda, by reading parts of the Annapolis book of Seamanship. Though that was now 30 years ago.

Bicycle mileage: 2139. I did math. Arithmetic, actually. I took all the miles that I rode on the wrong wheel, and all of the miles that I rode on the new tire on the right wheel, and multiplied them respectively by ratios of miles that I clocked divided by miles that Ken clocked on both of those wheels. Then I added the entire result to the previous 1939, and added 5 miles that it had cheated me. I was confused because the number on the odometer is 2148, and scrutinizing the numbers it seems like I failed to write down a 5 mile ride. Whatever. More than 2000!

Beds:
All: Sharon, MA
Jan: Cambridge, MA (Arisia)
March: Troy, NH (tech squares weekend)
April: Fairlee, VT (games)
July: San Francisco, CA; Millbrae, CA (IAGSDC square dance convention; visiting various people)
Nov: Missoula, MT (Ken conference; visiting cousin)

Books: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2025/10758541

Politics: 19 total actions, ranging from a giant protest in Boston Common to 10 people standing on the streetcorner in my town.

Today we took out the rest of the dock. It's a very fast job if you have 4 people: we finished in less than 45 minutes. The lake level is still pretty low and so we were able to do it with two people in waders and the others on the shore carrying things as we disassembled. I measured the temperature of the lake a week ago and it was 45. Probably slightly lower than that now. The whole lake needs to get to be 40 before it can freeze. Next week it's going to be cold, lows in the 20s and highs in the 30s, so while it probably won't freeze completely, we will see ice here and there.

After the dock was out, I rode my bike down to the center of town where there was a small protest scheduled. I was surprised that there were only 15 people there, because the timing was perfect for the local UU church letting out, and generally speaking they are on the right, meaning left, side of these issues. And it was announced on the church social mailing list (which I am on, even though I never go to church), so I fully expected a large number of people to join us at around 11:40. But only a few did. It was cold, so maybe that was the issue. "Fair-weather protesters." Of course, I had my heated insoles in my boots.

I had a flat tire a month or so ago. I found a weird bulge in the tire material at the corresponding place to the hole in the tube, which I assumed contained a small piece of shrapnel, but I couldn't get it out. So I carefully arranged the patch to be under the bulge, thinking that the patch was pretty thick.

Then, I got another flat Friday. This was in a different place, and this time the murder weapon was easy to locate still in the tire and possible to pull out with needle nose pliers. But with two flats in a month, plus the funny bulge, it is now tire non grata, so time to replace. So off I go to the local bike store ("small business Saturday") but they don't have one, because it's the front wheel of my recumbent which is an odd size. So I had to order one (did not wait for "cyber Monday"). Normally, I would just curse and put the old tire back on my bike and hope that I don't get a third flat while the order is being shipped. But I recently got a replacement bike, so I can use it as a parts bike! Swap the wheel and all is good.

Issues: in the last four months most of the air had leaked out. Four months is a long time, so I just pumped it up. It's not the same rim width, so I had to adjust my brakes. It's not the same size of tire, being both slightly narrower, 1.25 instead of 1.5, and thus less tall, and also having less aggressive tread, also reducing the height. So the circumference is less. Which means that my odometer (which I see I neglected to mention in blogs that I replaced the wiring harness so it is no longer flaky) will read the wrong number. The wheel goes around a slightly larger number of times during each mile, so it records a mile somewhat earlier. Thus: cheating.

Ken and I went on a ride together, and he went 6.81 miles while I recorded 7.18, so we know that it is 5% high. Then I recorded 10.37 after that. Unfortunately I didn't look at the total odometer before I started off on this cheating plan, but subtraction shows that it was 1939 or 1940 (it only shows whole miles, and we don't actually know when it clicked over to the current 1957). I'll just keep track and adjust later; probably it won't be as much as the 5 miles or so that it owes me for the flaky odometer. Also, the new tire I ordered is likely to be a different circumference than the one I replaced. So there will be more adjustment needed. It will all come out in the wash on January 1 when I reset for the new year, and I will get new measurement of my circumference before then.

We dithered about whether we could take the train which would get us to the airport only one hour in advance. We decided to chance it, and in the end it was so smooth. We just breezed through pre-check. Then our flight took off on time, and there was room in the overhead bins for our stuff even though we hadn't paid for early boarding. The next flight was late, so we had an extra hour in Salt Lake City, but that wasn't terrible.

The rental car agencies want you to check-in in advance these days, but that's a really stupid idea, because you have no idea if you are actually going to get there on the right day, given the vagaries of air travel. I did check-in in advance from SLC, but only after the gate agent showed up and started making announcements that made it clear that we were actually going to be getting on that flight (like, the aircraft had arrived.) It does have the advantage that all of the up selling is done online rather than in person, so you can decline more easily.

Our Air B&B is a basement apartment, and it's a little funky because of how they had to shoehorn rooms in between structural supports for the house, but it's okay. After dropping our stuff, we hared off to the local grocery store to lay in supplies.

Sunday we did some outdoor exploring. We hiked to a large letter M that has been placed on the hillside above the University of Montana in Missoula. This trail is extremely well-traveled; we must have passed more than 50 people on the way up and down. They must have 500 people every day. Then we continued on for another (less well-traveled) mile to an old abandoned copper mine, which was kind of cool. You can't go very far in because they have filled it in, and also you kind of have to crawl for some of it. But it was "dark as a dungeon way down in the mine."

Then we wandered around on the university campus for a little bit looking at various historical markers and outdoor art, and had some lunch before our next adventure, which was to go to a natural Hot Springs in Idaho. (Not that far given that we are in Western Montana.) You never know what you're going to actually get when you visit a hot springs that you've only read about online. In this case the directions were slightly confusing at first because we went to the wrong parking lot, but after figuring that out and finding the right parking lot, we were able to walk up to the hot springs which was about a mile of mostly flat walking in the woods. The flora was very different because we had crossed over a mountain pass and were on the other side of it now with different weather, so it was dense pine forest, whereas in Missoula there had been some forested areas, but also a lot of grassy hillsides like you get in California. It had also commenced to rain (which we know about, so we were prepared. Also, we were going to a hot springs. What, we will get wet?)

First we had to find the actual springs. The first place you come upon is right next to a river, and too much of the river was flowing into the pool where the hot water was also flowing, so it was not actually hot. Fortunately someone who was already there gave us a report before we stripped. So we carried on to the next location. This had several different pools which were larger, and not right next to the river, so the only cooling was from the air (and the rain). There were some sites further on but we stopped here.

It was advertised as clothing optional, but when we got there, everybody was wearing swimsuits. Of course, we had not brought them because it was clothing optional. Before stripping, I mentioned this to a random older adult who was nearby, and he commented that he had intended to be naked but his kids had nixed that idea. I guess aging hippies are cool with nudity, but the younger generation is not? We forged ahead by stripping and just climbing in. Maybe some people were embarrassed but nobody mentioned it, and so we just hung out for an hour, and then dried off as best we could with our damp towels, redressed, and headed back to Missoula. It was a little hard to find a good place in the pool that wasn't just lukewarm, but we did find such a place to bask.

On the way back we stopped at a couple of historical markers and read about various explorers and naturalists who had been here in the 1800s. One of the places was a little park which somebody had done a lot of work on and was quite nice. I didn't actually remember in whose name it was, but some diligent Internet research eventually revealed that it is the "Devoto Grove Picnic Area & Trailhead". Recommended if you happen to be driving between Montana and Idaho on Route 12 and want to stop for 20 minutes. (Why would anybody I know be doing that? But you never know.)

At the visitor center at the top of Lolo Pass there were some educational materials about the Nez Perce and their struggle with the United States who was driving them out. This is the story recounted in the Fred Small song "Heart of the Appaloosa". It was interesting that one of the displays, which was about 100 feet from the main display, was all covered up in black plastic. I wonder if it was "too woke for Trump", and so they covered it up. We didn't try to uncover it and find out what it actually had said. I mean, the whole story was about the US doing pretty terrible things, and some of that was in the main display so I'm a little surprised.

Today is the start of Ken's conference, so he has headed off there on foot (it's about a mile), leaving me with an extra day because I'm just going to meet my cousin tomorrow in Butte MT, which is halfway to her house, and on my side of the Continental Divide. Unfortunately, while there seem to be a few interesting things to do in Missoula, they are closed on Monday. Dang. I will have another opportunity on Wednesday morning, and I'm going to go check out one of them before picking Ken up at lunch after the conference. For today, there is a nearby walking/bicycling self-guided tour of some outdoor things, and there are bicycles at the Air B&B, which we spent 20 minutes yesterday adjusting the shifters and brakes of. One of the bikes is totally not ridable, but another is okay. It's an upright, so I was concerned about how well I do on an upright.

Turned out it was sort of okay. I rode about 5 miles total I think, maybe it was a little more. Around the river walk, stopping at various little plaques telling us about the history of Missoula. Hit the grocery store again, and stopped to ride a carousel that has kind of a nice origin story, https://carouselformissoula.com/our-story/. My wrists were okay, my neck only hurts a little, my lower back is feeling it, and my crotch is sore. Last time I rode an upright, my wrists hurt a lot and so did my neck, and I didn't ride long enough for the other things to be a problem. Still, going to stick with the recumbent when I get home. Good to know that at least short rides are possible on an upright.

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The mine entrance and its sign

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There are benches on the way up to the "M" which has been funded by donations and so have plaques commemorating whoever they wanted to donate on behalf of. I liked this one the best.

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The M as seen from campus, along with a bit of the original first university building from the 1890s.

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The carousel, and me riding it. You can't tell but I picked a "horse" which was a dragon.

Valerie knew about an action in nearby town organized by Indivisible Mansfield and Beyond, so I joined her. This was not a big crowd, but a small number of activists standing on the road with coordinated signs. The theme was "signs of fascism", and they had us line the road about 30 feet apart so that the cars could drive by and read all of the signs and then at the end it said "our grandparents fought fascism" and "what will you do".

Burma Shave.



Tomorrow there will be another "random people hold random signs" action in our town, and I might go at the beginning for action #18. A friend of mine is getting married in the afternoon and the timing is tight. Or I might decide that one action in a weekend is enough.

We got tired of our Black Lives Matter sign being stolen. I suppose now they can vandalize it, but they haven't yet. On the other hand, meantime between thefts is several months.

The sign is glued to a quarter inch thick stainless steel plate where we drilled these holes to put the locks through. Locks are locked to ground anchors which go in over a foot into the ground. We had them left over from when Jocelyn had her aerial rig and we constructed a tent inside it for winter usage (which was not a success and only extended the season a little bit) and needed to be very well anchored to the ground. Then there is an angle bracket (also stainless steel) to keep it upright. It was more expensive than an air tag, but we think it will be more effective as well.

Speaking of which, I check on the one with the air tag periodically, and it has been in the same place since it was stolen. Apparently the battery has not yet run out. I keep thinking I'll drive up there and take a look at the neighborhood myself, but I haven't done that. Presumably the sign itself is in a pile of rubbish somewhere behind somebody's house, so I won't actually be able to see it. It must be on a private road, because there is no street view available.

I went to two protests, so I count them both. Ken wondered if I would get counted twice in the "5 million people across the country participated…" Of course there's not actually an accurate census of these things.

The local one was again at the shopping mall, picking up the Saturday morning shoppers starting at 9:30. This was less convenient for me, because it's further from the train station than the center of town, so I had to leave after only 20 minutes to catch the train into Boston. (I suppose if I hadn't bicycled I could have protested there for longer. But I felt like bicycling.) Unfortunately the train was inconveniently timed so I got to the Boston thing fairly early. On the other hand, then I got a good "seat" (standing location).

Lots of other people were on my train with signs, and lots more people were already on the Common when I arrived 40 minutes in advance of the start time, and tons of people were just streaming in from all directions. I will be interested to see a crowd estimate. It was enormous.

The MC had good energy. The music was some good, some mediocre, the speakers were "what you would expect at an event like this". There was a heckler who tried to interrupt Michelle Wu's speech. Michelle was very professional about it and completely ignored the guy, did not get distracted, made sure that she was right in the microphone so that her remarks were louder. She said various dramatic things that we were all supposed cheer after and so she paused at the right time and we cheered appropriately. So the heckler did not achieve his goals. The MC then talked about how "we don't all agree in this movement and that's okay, but we need to all be in the movement. We need to not be divided." Which was good and off-the-cuff and well spoken. A couple of other times he also had impromptu remarks on different topics.

I decided I was tired of standing around after 2 hours (more, including the time I was there early) and bailed to go catch the earlier train home. It's very confusing when you get walking directions and you're in the middle of the park which is full of people you have no idea what direction you're facing. So I walked for a while and saw if I was getting off the path and kind of wandered around until I found the path. Fortunately I allowed an extra 10 minutes for the walk to South Station, and I arrived early enough to be comfortable. Given the number of people on my train home holding signs, I was not the only one who thought that a three-hour rally was too long. On the walk back to South Station I did see some people coming towards the rally holding signs, so I guess we were the changing of the guard.

My annual square dance is in 2.5 weeks. Therefore, it's time to get the Covid vaccine. So earlier today I biked to the pharmacy, and now I am very tired.

I elected to get SpikeVax rather than mNexSpike because Ken says that mNexSpike actually was formulated earlier due to regulation delays, and therefore on an older variant. It wasn't hard to get them to do what I wanted, even though it's not the default for my age. They were extremely efficient; I was in there for less than 10 minutes, and got home in plenty of time for my 3 PM meeting.