robotech_master

 So, this weekend I've been out exploring various discount stores on my bike. Checked out several places I recently found out about but hadn't ever been, and also took a swing through my old neighborhood on the way back home. It was a pretty fun expedition.

There are actually a number of interesting discount stores not far from the Indianapolis downtown area.  Most of them don't have anything too great, but they can be fun to rummage through and see what-all they have. Even if it's not anything you want.

Sadly, none of them have any kind of good DVD/Blu-ray selection. Even the original Bulldog Liquidators, which had a huge selection of movies back in the day, didn't carry them anymore. Probably just as well, given that I can't really afford to be spending huge amounts of money right now anyway.

Today I headed down to visit my brother and sister-in-law Aaron and Karen, about 8 miles east of where I live. Was able to take the Pennsy bike trail for most of it, since they've been working on extending it and have part of the extension very nearly done. The last stretch of it is going to take another year for them to be able to finish, though. Anyway, had a nice game of Settlers of Catan with them (which I won). Will be heading back home soon.

I'm typing this at my brother's house on that keyboard I mentioned the other day. It works really well, just as I had expected, and it's so much fun to type on. 

So, a few days ago, I received an email inviting me to participate in a class-action lawsuit against my employer Anthem, on behalf of employees who had been required to be at work before clocking in or after clocking out, to be able to start taking calls on time or finish leftover work. Basically, they're accusing Anthem of wage theft, and not without cause.

I'm well acquainted with this cause, because for the first couple of years I worked there, up until about a year ago, I had to do that myself. We had to be at work 5 to 10 minutes ahead of time so that we had ample time to log into our computers and launch all the apps we needed, so that we could take calls at the stroke of the top of the hour. It was annoying to me, but given that Amazon's warehouse workers lost their lawsuit over having to get to work 25 minutes early so they could go through security to get in, it didn't seem like there was much hope it would change. Then, surprise! About a year ago, it did change after all. We got 10 minutes at the start of our shift after clocking in to log in, boot up all our apps, and start taking calls, and we have ever since. And I'm pleased with that, even though I work from home now. It might not be worth all that much, but it's the principle of the thing.

As aggravated as I was with the injustice of the thing before they finally switched practices, you'd think I'd want to hop right on that lawsuit. But I'm still on the fence, as there are a couple of things holding me back. For one thing, I'm not sure just how likely it is the suit can actually win. After all, if Amazon's workers could be denied 25 minutes of payment per day, what are our chances of getting 5 or 10? (Though apparently the Amazon lawsuit isn't entirely done yet, and the workers are having another go at it, so maybe they could still turn it around.) And the lawsuit page warns that people who join in the suit "may be required to pay a portion of Anthem’s costs" if Anthem wins. Even if Anthem loses (or settles), class action lawsuits don't generally have a good track record of garnering large payouts to class members. So I'm not sure it's worth potentially putting myself on the hook for legal fees in return for maybe ten or twenty bucks if I'm lucky. Class-action suits are more meant to punish the perpetrator for wrongdoing than enrich the members of the class, and they can undoubtedly punish Anthem just fine without my participation.

Also, even though the law forbids Anthem from retaliating against people for taking part in such a lawsuit, I'm not so sure that I want my name on the list of people who did that, given that it might well influence future decisions they make about me even if they don't directly retaliate against me. I do kind of like my job, and don't think I'd want to do anything to endanger it even indirectly. And since they already fixed the early login issue a year back, and I'm no longer being required to work several unpaid minutes a day, it's not like I even really need to participate. I've already got the better outcome I was hoping for.

So, really, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. But I have until October 3 to make up my mind.

It's been a busy rest of the vacation from the time I last posted. On Saturday, I felt like going down to my brother Alex's place to visit, so I asked him if that would be okay. He said they were just about to head over to his wife's brother's place nearby, but that I was welcome to come along, and even stay overnight. So I quickly showered, packed my CPAP and tablet, and trundled on down there. Took about 45 minutes to ride the 16 miles. Alex made me a cup of coffee and showed me his new laser CNC gizmo, which could burn or cut things with a laser. Was pretty neat.

After that, we drove over to Target and Alex kindly bought me a six-pack of beer to take along. After checking the selection, I opted for the whimsically titled "Fear. Movie. Lions" double IPA, which was suitably tasty. And in reading the text on the side, I was introduced to a system of navigation called What3Words, which assigns a specific set of three words to every three-by-three-meter (or ten by ten foot) square the whole world over, so that you can tell someone exactly where you are just by making sure they're clear on what three words you just told them. You look it up in their app, and their app can then call whatever GPS navigation software you use on your phone to plot you a course to it. Or, you can look up the words via their website to see where they are.

I think it's a pretty nifty idea. Just make sure the person you're giving directions to also has the app installed, or else can look it up in the web browser, and then you can tell them exactly where to find you with just three words. Could be especially useful in situations where there's no precise street address available, such as rural areas, parks, and so on.

We didn't opt to stay into the evening for fireworks, but instead headed back to Alex's place. As it got dark, I sat out on the back porch and watched the rest of Alex's neighborhood shoot off fireworks for a while. He lives in a fairly well-to-do suburb, and several houses seemed to be firing off full-fledged semi-professional starbursts. They were seriously impressive, though I had to wonder what was going to happen if burning cinders fell on top of someone's house and lit it on fire.

Later that night, after the kids had been put to bed, I walked Alex through the first couple of ships on Hardspace: Shipbreaker, a fun Steam early-access deconstruction game centering on taking spaceships apart piece by piece. He seemed to get the hang of it pretty well. I wonder if he'll continue playing it.

After that, I went to bed. I was a little nonplussed to realize I'd forgotten to pack my toothbrush, my pills, and my weighted blanket, but I could get along without those. I had packed my CPAP and some distilled water for it, which were the important thing. As it turned out, even without the weighted blanket I slept like a rock, and awoke refreshed and well-rested. I had my brother spray sunscreen on my back and covered the rest of me in it myself, and hit the road for home.

On the way back to my place, I decided to play some Ingress—or as it's called now, Ingress Prime. I hadn't really been into this geolocation game for a couple of years, since I had lost the ability to get easily from place to place, but with the new bike, and the seventeen mile route back home, I felt like giving it another shot. There was only one in-game badge keeping me from hitting level 14, and the easiest one to get would involve creating a few big fields. And as it happened, there were a couple of portals en route that would make great anchors for a multi-layered series of fields I could set up through various portals in my home neighborhood.

So I stopped at one of the portals and hacked out a dozen keys, then headed on back north to the Ash & Elm cider brewpub, where I enjoyed a couple of glasses of apple cider while hacking out a dozen keys there. After that, I headed home to my neighborhood and started making my fields. If the preceding doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you, don't worry. It's game talk. Other Ingress players would understand it, though. Suffice it to say that before I was over, I had made level 14, so yay there. It'll probably take forever to get the quals for level 15, but there's only 16 levels in the game, so having made 14 is quite an accomplishment.

After that, I headed back home. After spending some time relaxing, I took my Trek bike over to the local bike shop to put it in for a tune-up. They're about three weeks backlogged, but having the new bike means I don't really need the Trek for a few weeks anyway. And it gets it out of the way in my house for a while.

When it came time for bed, I found that the application of sunscreen to my back had been a little spotty. A stripe had been missed right along my back, just above my shorts. It stings, even with the aloe/lidocaine aftersun gel I had bought during a previous encounter with sunburn. But oh well. 

This morning, got a call from the bike shop saying that my bike's drive train is completely worn out and needs replacement, to the tune of $230. Which I certainly agree probably needs doing, but it's not exactly in my budget right now. When I went out to mail a package this morning, I stopped in there to discuss it with them. I'll probably just end up having them do the regular tuneup for now, and bring the Trek back in for the replacement when and if I get another stimulus check. 

And that's pretty much all the news I have to report from the tail end of my vacation. Tomorrow, I go back to work from home on the phone for Anthem, spending all day taking calls from my attic. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, though given I've had over a week off to rest and recuperate I think it will actually be a nice change of pace. And at least I'll have greater mobility during the times I'm not working. And I'll finally be getting some proper exercise.

Granted that my bike's electric motor is doing the vast majority of the work getting me from place to place, I'm still able to put in some effort pedaling along. It's just that I don't have to. So I'm thinking of the bike as being effectively like a stationary exercise bike that also happens to move. I can pedal along as much or as little as I want, but the more I do pedal, the more I'll eventually be able to pedal, and it will help build up my endurance and perhaps also start working off some of the quarantine/work-from-home weight. Back when I was bicycling to and from work on my Trek over the last couple of summers, I actually lost a few pounds without even trying to. Hopefully the same thing will apply now. I just have to keep pedaling until I get tired, and eventually I won't get tired as quickly.

Now that it's the evening and the sun is down so it won't further aggravate my sunburn, I'm thinking I'll get on the bike again and go a few more miles. Maybe I'll head downtown and back, eking out some nostalgia from following the old routes I used to use to commute in and home on the Trek. Since the bike has lights, it'll be a pretty safe run.

Anyway, I hope you all had a happy fourth, and that the coronavirus doesn't get ya. Later!

So, I rode 39.7 more miles today.

This morning I got up at 9, and at about 10 biked down to Hardees to get breakfast. Had a little difficulty making myself heard at the drive-through, finally had to wait 'til the truck behind me pulled up to trigger the detector so I could place my order too. When I got up to the window, I found the person in the car in front of me had paid for my order. That was nice of her.

At 11:30, after calling to make sure places were open, I sprayed myself all over with SPF 50 sunscreen and hit the road again. Headed down to a nearby Speedway to fill a jug with ice water, then headed north to Michigan and west to the Monon Trail. Technically, you're not supposed to have e-bikes under motor power on that trail south of 96th, but I've never gotten in trouble for it yet, and I think as long as I ride politely and don't hazard anybody else along the way that I probably won't.

Partway up the trail, at 12:30 I stopped at the Half Liter brewpub, formerly known as Bent Rail. Didn't really care much for their selection of beers, as they're mostly Germanic lagers, and no IPA on the menu. Had a smoked lager, it was okay, and was on the way again at 1. I took the Monon farther north than I ever had before, to 116th street, then headed east to stop in at Cost Plus World Market. Got there at about 1:30, picked up a few snacks and stuff, a Terry's dark chocolate orange (which the cashier warned me would melt in a hurry if I wasn't careful), and a six-pack of assorted novelty sodas—two each of Cheerwine, Moxie, and Earp's Original Sarsaparilla. Put the sodas in my front basket, and left a little after 2. As I was leaving, I noticed a Jeep with Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. decals pull into the parking lot. Doing errands for Agent Coulson, were they?

Got to Trader Joe's a little after 2:30. Waited in line outside for 10 or 15 minutes, then got in and did some shopping. Again, I didn't get much stuff, just some snacks and frozen stuff to put in an insulated bag I'd brought with me. (And I chucked in that chocolate orange, too.) Hit the road for home about 3:15.

Just about three miles from home, there was a loud POP. One of the soda bottles in the front basket had gotten jounced around enough that it finally exploded, just like someone had shot the top off it with a six-gun. Really, it's just a little too on-the-nose that it turned out to be one of those Earp's Original Sarsaparillas.

Got home around 4, put the frozen stuff in the freezer, carried the five remaining soda bottles up to my attic to go into the mini-fridge, took the bike out to the garage to charge. And now I'm sitting at my computer relaxing. It was a fun trip, but kind of exhausting, especially since I tried not to let myself just coast on the motor all the time—I made sure to pedal a bunch too, so I would get at least some exercise out of it.

This is just so much fun…I wonder where I'll go next?

So, I had my adventure today. After two months of waiting, my Juiced Rider ODK II was finally ready. It was time to go pick it up and ride it home.

At 2:30, I caught the bus downtown, and took a transfer to a bus that went to Traders Point Mall, the farthest point northwest in the Indianapolis city bus system. Then I called for an Uber to take me on out to the eBoom Electric Bikes shop in Whitestown. When I got there, at about 4:45, I paid the costs of the tuneup and repairs (about $170 in all), and they finished bolting the battery in place. Turned out that they had to get new screws for it; the new battery was from the next year's model of bike, and had switched to a different screw size. Also, the relay from one of the handbrakes to cancel the cruise control was still broken off and dangling, but they were able to electrical tape it into place. Happily, the battery had finished completely charging during the day; apparently it had been shipped partly charged after all. So I strapped the old battery onto the cargo rack, told Google Play Music to cue up "Born to be Wild," and off I went at about 5:30 or so. My plan was to head east to Cost Plus World Market, a nifty foreign and specialty foods, drinks, and furniture shop, and get a little shopping in.

The bike's low center of gravity and huge handlebars took a little getting used to after two years of riding my Trek. (And my Trek also takes getting used to after I've done much riding of the Juiced.) But happily I soon got the knack again.

The ride was a fun trip through Indianapolis's rural outskirts and suburbs. I passed huge fields of corn and other crops, met the occasional cyclist, while nifty music blasted in my ears. I rode down a bike and jogging trail while listening to Deep Purple's "Highway Star," that was fun. I got to see parts of town I'd never seen before, and may very well never see again as I probably won't have any reason to bike that particular route again. At one point, in a suburb, I drove past what looked like an ancient cemetery with a sign up saying do not disturb, it's being restored. Now I kind of wish I'd stopped and taken a closer look at it. I doubt I'd be able to find it on Google Maps.

I got to World Market a little before seven, parched from my ride—but their chilled-drinks cooler was out of order, so they didn't have any cold drinks. So I headed over to a nearby McDonalds, paid $1 for a big Barq's root beer, inhaled it, used the restroom, and headed back to World Market…to discover that the place had closed at seven. Whoops. But no big deal; I can go there again earlier in the day sometime now that I've got my e-wheels.

So I headed on to my next stop, Triton Brewing Company, a nifty place that I'd been to a few times before when my bike had been working with its original battery. It has a convenient power outlet right by the bike rack, so I was able to give the bike a half hour of charging while I had a couple of beers. (I make the joke that the company that makes my bike renamed itself from Juiced Rider to Juiced Bikes…but since I was able to charge up my bike while I drank, I had a juiced bike and a juiced rider!)

After that, I headed down to visit my brother and sister-in-law, who live out by German Church Road. (I blanked out their address in the photo below.) Had a nice chat, then headed on home as it is getting dark. At Post Road, I headed down onto the newly completed segments of the Pennsy Trail to ride it the rest of the way home. It's not officially open to the public yet, but all the segments west of Post are paved, it's easy to navigate around the sawhorses blocking the ends, and it's a safer and nicer path for a bike than going along the busy road. Over the next few months, it should extend all the way out to German Church Road to link up with the segment of Pennsy Trail that starts there and continues east. I'm quite looking forward to being able to visit bro & sis-in-law as easily as just getting on the Pennsy a block east of my house, and getting off it a couple blocks north of theirs.

I got home around 10ish, having ridden 45.1 miles over the course of the day according to Google Maps. And although I had added a half hour of charge time at Triton, nonetheless the battery indicator hadn't even had a single light go out yet. This battery is everything I need it to be in terms of charge time.

Before I put my bike away, I went ahead and mounted the Schwinn detachable front basket I'd ordered in from Amazon. Had to move my headlight, but all in all it worked.  It's going to be handy to have that extra space to carry groceries and stuff. Down the road, I'll look into getting a trailer, but I've pretty much blown my budget for the next little while.

Now the bike is out in the garage, recharging, and I'm up at my computer…also recharging, but in a different way. As I had planned to do, in celebration I opened one of my $10 Dogfish Head 120 Minute beers that I save for very special occasions. It was good. 

I guess that's all I have to report about my adventure today. The whole thing was great fun, and I can't wait to take my bike out on some more longer trips over the next few days before I have to get back to work again.

Got some unexpectedly good news on my bike battery today. Gave Juiced my delayed weekly call, and learned that the approval from FedEx to start shipping bike batteries through them finally came through last week. The CS rep said they'd re-escalate my request to their manager, who would contact me by phone or email with an update. So, fingers crossed that the logjam will clear and the thing actually will ship soon. Really looking forward to bringing that e-bike home.

Definitely enjoying my new phone and my new smartwatch. It's nice to have a wrist gadget that actually works right again.