Saturday, 26 September 2015
Riding in Google's self-driving car
Google threw open its doors and let the neighbourhood in to talk to engineers, see various iterations of self-driving cars, and best of all, get a ride in one. It was great stuff. There was a course for the cars that included a pedestrian and a bike rider that the car detected and avoided.
Sunday, 30 August 2015
An unusual visit to the beach
Today was like lots of times we've been to the beach, or played near a creek, until it wasn't.
E and I were at the Kirkland Marina Park, throwing rocks into the water, building rock cairns and knocking them down with stones. Then I got the idea of throwing rocks off the boat jetty into the deep water. We picked up fists full of rocks and walked out onto the jetty. E is miss independent and didn't want to hold my hand, which made me nervous, so I held onto her jacket, which annoyed her just as much. In any case we got to the end and dropped our rocks off one by one while singing the Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme-song. We faffed around on the jetty having a great time, and then went back, got more rocks and did the same thing again.
On the way back we passed, for the second time, a mother and son who were fishing. Not long after we walked past I heard a splash, looked back, and saw the mother jumping into the water fully-clothed. Uh-oh.
I picked up E and ran back and saw the mother struggling to hold her son's head above water. They were trying to hold onto the jetty pole but it was very slippery with algae. It was also crazy windy with whitecaps on the lake and a small swell (I just looked up the monitoring buoy temperature for Lake Washington - turns it was surprisingly warm at 20°C, I assumed it was super cold at the time). I called down that they should swim to the ladder, which was just on the other side of the jetty, maybe 5m away, but they didn't understand or couldn't see it.
I was sorely tempted to jump in and help them, but I knew from first aid training that this often doesn't work out well, you just end up increasing the number of people who need to be rescued. I saw another guy coming up the jetty and called out "we need a life ring!". I ran back to the main part of the jetty and put down E and said DON'T MOVE, in what I hoped was my most authoritative voice. I didn't want to be rescuing her too.
I started running for the boats, figuring I could find some sort of flotation there, but there was nothing to be found, all stowed away. The guy behind me said he could see one and pointed back at the hut near the beach, not far away. I sprinted back and found a few lifejackets, and he came up behind me and grabbed a life ring he had seen.
I sprinted back and dropped the lifejacket down to them, and as I did I realised they were actually closer than I first thought, and I could reach the kid's hands by lying down on my stomach and leaning right over. Luckily he was light, maybe 8 years old, so I could pull him right up out of the water without too much trouble. It's strange what runs through your mind, but as I was doing it I was thinking about the technique for pulling people out of the water using your bodyweight when white-water rafting. Anyway, once he was up I directed the mother to the ladder and climbed down the first few rungs, she swam over there with the help of the life ring and life jacket.
We even managed to recover the fishing rod by pulling on the line, which had gone in with the kid as he stepped back one too many steps to cast. I warned them about secondary drowning, but the kid said he hadn't gotten any water in his mouth.
Em had seen me sprinting and had assumed E had fallen in, and was initially furious that I wasn't in the water rescuing her. She came running and I found her with E and F on the main part of the jetty when all this was over.
We redoubled our commitment to making sure the kids know how to swim.
E and I were at the Kirkland Marina Park, throwing rocks into the water, building rock cairns and knocking them down with stones. Then I got the idea of throwing rocks off the boat jetty into the deep water. We picked up fists full of rocks and walked out onto the jetty. E is miss independent and didn't want to hold my hand, which made me nervous, so I held onto her jacket, which annoyed her just as much. In any case we got to the end and dropped our rocks off one by one while singing the Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme-song. We faffed around on the jetty having a great time, and then went back, got more rocks and did the same thing again.
On the way back we passed, for the second time, a mother and son who were fishing. Not long after we walked past I heard a splash, looked back, and saw the mother jumping into the water fully-clothed. Uh-oh.
I picked up E and ran back and saw the mother struggling to hold her son's head above water. They were trying to hold onto the jetty pole but it was very slippery with algae. It was also crazy windy with whitecaps on the lake and a small swell (I just looked up the monitoring buoy temperature for Lake Washington - turns it was surprisingly warm at 20°C, I assumed it was super cold at the time). I called down that they should swim to the ladder, which was just on the other side of the jetty, maybe 5m away, but they didn't understand or couldn't see it.
I was sorely tempted to jump in and help them, but I knew from first aid training that this often doesn't work out well, you just end up increasing the number of people who need to be rescued. I saw another guy coming up the jetty and called out "we need a life ring!". I ran back to the main part of the jetty and put down E and said DON'T MOVE, in what I hoped was my most authoritative voice. I didn't want to be rescuing her too.
I started running for the boats, figuring I could find some sort of flotation there, but there was nothing to be found, all stowed away. The guy behind me said he could see one and pointed back at the hut near the beach, not far away. I sprinted back and found a few lifejackets, and he came up behind me and grabbed a life ring he had seen.
I sprinted back and dropped the lifejacket down to them, and as I did I realised they were actually closer than I first thought, and I could reach the kid's hands by lying down on my stomach and leaning right over. Luckily he was light, maybe 8 years old, so I could pull him right up out of the water without too much trouble. It's strange what runs through your mind, but as I was doing it I was thinking about the technique for pulling people out of the water using your bodyweight when white-water rafting. Anyway, once he was up I directed the mother to the ladder and climbed down the first few rungs, she swam over there with the help of the life ring and life jacket.
We even managed to recover the fishing rod by pulling on the line, which had gone in with the kid as he stepped back one too many steps to cast. I warned them about secondary drowning, but the kid said he hadn't gotten any water in his mouth.
Em had seen me sprinting and had assumed E had fallen in, and was initially furious that I wasn't in the water rescuing her. She came running and I found her with E and F on the main part of the jetty when all this was over.
We redoubled our commitment to making sure the kids know how to swim.
Saturday, 8 August 2015
Philadelphia: Penn's Landing
I was in Phili for work, staying at Penn's Landing. There is a great night market there, with lots of food trucks, beer, and floating bars.
Monday, 25 May 2015
Mountain Biking Verbier, Switzerland
I stayed a long weekend with Phil and Lucy of bikeverbier.com and had an amazing time being guided around some awesome Swiss singletrack. It was all wildflowers, glaciers, snow-capped peaks, wildflowers, wildflowers and some more wildflowers.
Day 1: Col du Tronc and Martigny
Day 2: Val Ferret traverse, climb to Lac de Champex
Day 3: Verbier
Day 1: Col du Tronc and Martigny
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| On day one I thought this singletrack through a field of dandelions was impressive. Little did I know what was to come :) |
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| Lunch in a Roman ruin in Martigny |
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| Descent through a vineyard (really, through the middle of it). Never done that on a mountain bike before. |
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| Looking over Martigny |
Day 2: Val Ferret traverse, climb to Lac de Champex
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| Phil took this just before I hit that rock on the uphill section and put a foot down :( |
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| Cool rock sculpting by the glacier |
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| Lunch (and a coffee at the cafe) at Lac de Champex |
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| Did I say wildflowers already? |
Day 3: Verbier
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| Dropped off in the van by Lucy at 2140m, it was chilly! Watched a paraglider take off and then jumped on the bikes to warm up. |
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| Some pushing through a couple of snowy sections :) |
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| Looking at Mont Fort (3329 m), lost in the cloud |
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| Some more visibility would have been great, but getting 3 dry days in a row in May was amazing, so I'm not complaining. |
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| Today was a bit muddier... |
Sunday, 17 May 2015
Road climbs around Zurich
With some great tips from a friend I set out to do the biggest road climb I'd ever done. I caught the train to Zug, rode around the edge of Zugersee, up Balisberg, around the edge of the Zugerberg summit, and down through Sihlwald to Langnau-Gattikon. 50km, 1km elevation.
And since I had another day available I beat my 24h-old climbing record by climbing Ibergeregg pass the next day. Starting in Arth-Goldau and ending at Biberbrugg it was 50km, 1.6km elevation.
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| Passing through Walchwil, views over Zurgersee |
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| Good spot for lunch! |
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| Very little visbility at the top, but at least it didn't rain... |
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| Cows sitting in dandelion fields, like they do in Switzerland |
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| Cute church in Arth-Goldau |
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| Lauerzersee |
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| Starting the climb up |
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| Pretty forest along the way. Also lots of other road bikes, sports cars and motorbikes for company. Road was fairly quiet though, not scary. |
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| Golden dandelion fields |
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| Awesome, this must be the restaurant at the top...wait...1000m....dammit 400m more altitude. Noooooo! |
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| Huzzah! |
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| Yes, that is a woman pulling her kid up the pass. I am weak. She was followed by a 12yr old girl on her own bike who was literally crying with pain as she reached the top, screaming at her brother in German. They start them young here... |
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| Even more yellow fields down the other side |
| I was sitting in a bus stop trying to collect together my will to keep pedalling, and wishing I'd brought more food when this crazy cow parade appeared amongst deafening bells. AFAICT it was Inalpe, the opposite of Désalpe |
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