I Love Maps

There's something about maps that intrigues me. I love the fact that I can go anywhere new and get from Point A to Point B by looking at a two-dimensional representation of the place on a piece of paper. Then came Mapquest, Yahoo! Maps, and Google Maps, which revolutionized the way we get from Point A to Point B. They give turn-by-turn directions, estimated time, and are starting to add things like traffic conditions. I find Google's maps to be the most useful because you can drag the map, plus it offers satellite images and even a hybrid of the two.

Google now allows you to use its maps on your website where you can place markers, information, links, etc. It is usually done using JavaScript, which I started to play around with but decided that I didn't want to start learning a new programming language just for these maps. Then I found a website, GMapEZ, that shows you how to embed maps using HTML. I'm familiar enough with that language that I was able to get a map going with a little trial and error as I got the hang of it.

The reason I wanted to learn how to embed a map was that I'm working on something where it will help me to be able to visualize where one place is in relationship to another, which I can do by placing different color markers with information on a specified area. Once that's farther along I'll write about it but for now I'll show you a basic map of where I work in all three of Google's options.

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Double-D Engineering
67 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

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I can't seem to get the 'Warning' button to go away. There seems to be an error that I'm missing.

My Alter Ego

I found this business card at a cafe near my office.

California Weekend

It being a three-day weekend and a storm was moving in for Saturday, the question became how could Jesse and I could enjoy the fresh powder yet avoid the holiday weekend traffic. Our solution was to head up Sunday morning and leave that afternoon except head west instead of back to the Bay Area. Strangely enough it seemed that everyone else had the same idea. Traffic was pretty bad going up but we managed to get to Sugarbowl and on the slopes by 10:30 or 11:00am. The powder was pretty well tracked by the time we got on the mountain but we managed to get some fresh lines through the trees on our first run. It had been so long since I last snowboarded in powder that I didn't fair very well and kept getting stuck. But after a few runs I had my snow legs back and we thoroughly exhausted ourselves by the end of the day.

From there we took off with plans to head west on Highway 20 except that we had to deal with more traffic just getting out of there. It took us an hour to go 16 miles, mostly due to what turned out to be an overturned SUV. Once we were on Highway 20 it was clear sailing through places like Grass Valley, Marysville, and Yuba City. We were headed to Harbin Hot Springs just outside of Middletown near Clear Lake. It was a long drive after a full day of snowboarding but it was worth it to be able soak in the open pools under a full moon. After that it was a struggle just to keep the eyes open and I slept well that night.

In the morning I awoke and there was the sound of clucking outside. It was a flock of wild turkeys passing right by the tents on a morning stroll. We ate breakfast and then went back to the pools for another soak before driving out to Cobb Mountain for a mountain bike ride. It was so cold, though, that we only managed a 9-mile loop on some spectacular single-track. It must have been in the low 40s and I was definitely not dressed for it. My body stayed heated from the pedaling but my fingers were so cold and they eventually went numb and then my toes became painfully cold. The thing that kept me going was knowing I could go back and soak in the pools to heat myself back up. After our third soaking we took a very satisfying and well-deserved nap before heading home.

Goodbye To An Old Friend

Back in 2002 I bought a 1988 Toyota 4-Runner with 308,000 miles on it. I did some research and found a number of testimonies with reports of mileage reaching 450, 475k. This one had mostly highway miles and one owner, so I took a chance and flew out to Austin, Texas to buy it and drive it back. It served me well for over three years and more than 50,000 miles including a winter in Canada and a roadtrip around the north-western United States. The day before I was supposed to head down to Santa Maria for Christmas, though, it started to make some serious noises underneath like the transmission was about to drop out. I had to abort driving it down south and I've only driven it a couple times since then but it might be time to say goodbye to it. It's had a hard end of its life living in the city and it became a bit of a burden. It's been broken into multiple times losing three windows in the process and it's a source of countless parking tickets. It gets horrible gas mileage and I just don't think it's worth repairing. The engine runs perfectly but other things are starting to fail so the cost to fix it is going to exceed its value. I'm going to take it to my mechanic just to make sure but I've already been adjusting to life without a vehicle.





What I'm considering doing is donating it and learning to live without a car. I have been thinking about this for a while in anticipation of this eventual outcome and am already starting to implement this plan. I've been riding my bike to work, which is actually faster than driving and I don't have to worry about moving my truck in the 2-hour parking zones. I will need a car for certain things like site visits and inspections but there are a couple companies in San Francisco that offer car share programs: CityCarShare and Zipcar. These allow you to reserve a car by the hour when you need them. Gas, insurance, and parking are all included. I signed up for Zipcar because they have a couple cars near my office and a couple near my house.

For longer trips, such as a weekend or so away, I would just rent a car. It's easy to do online and there are multiple places in the city to pick one up. The one thing I'm going to miss being able to do is make a last-minute decision to go for a bike ride or maybe a one-day trip to Tahoe. But that's a bit of a luxury and I'll just have to learn to plan better. I'll see how it goes and keep you posted.