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Stand Down Margaret

McCahill Park @ Squaw Run

Summer is behind us, and the 2020 cycling season (such as it was) is ending.

It’s still too early to close the books on 2020, but I can get you caught up on where things stand a couple weeks into Q4.

My last post was my ride report from a September 2th indoor century: my eleventh Zwift “Zentury” of the year. At that point, I planned to simulate two more real-world centuries on the indoor trainer: the traditional autumn Pedal the Lakes ride up in Mercer County; and the Epic Tour, which was originally going to be an international gathering of Herd team members up in Toronto.

However, a week later, my eight year old MacBook Pro started acting up, necessitating its replacement, and postponing those two big indoor rides.

On the upside, my brand-new laptop bumped Zwift’s graphics quality »more

2020-10-15

IMAG1882-B

One Bad Apple

2020 MacBook Pro

After eight years of reliable service, it was time to replace my primary laptop, a 2012 MacBook Pro. It had been my first non-work Mac, and I gave it a lengthy review after buying it.

Back then, I luckily bought the last model before Apple made numerous user-hostile changes to their laptops, such as their unreliable butterfly keyboard, sub-par graphics, eliminating all user-serviceable or upgradeable components, and many other revisions I’ll mention below.

So having avoided those pain points, I wasn’t predisposed against ordering another MBP when the old one wilted. And rather than go back to a Windows machine, I opted to replace like with like.

Let me start my review with the machine’s good points. They’re quickly enumerated:

  • A 16" screen in the same form factor as my old machine’s »more

Not Pedaling, Pittsburgh

This time last year, after riding Pittsburgh’s big populist city bike ride for the fourth time, I wrote: “With iffy support, poor route design, and a registration fee north of $75 that funds a cause I don’t agree with, I probably won’t do this ride again.”

My determination not to have anything to do with this ride was doubled when the organization behind it publicly declared their opposition to enforcing traffic laws that protect cyclists and pedestrians, which I ranted about in my preceding blogpo: “My Advocate: My Enemy”.

But none of my apprehension about the event would apply if I simply mimicked the route’s distance and climbing on my indoor trainer. So on Wednesday I saddled up to simulate another major event indoors.

Consulting my Zenturizer to find a course on Zwift that was comp »more

2020-09-03

2020-09-02_10491816_clean-B
Pittsburgh currently:

Fog/Mist 57° wind S 25 mph
Air Quality Moderate (58)


Site news:

Site News: Flickr cleanup
Merged all Flickr photos posted on one day into a single entry. Also excluded any tables in Livejournal posts.
Posted Sun Feb 2nd 2020

Most recent blog post:

One Bad Apple (1534 words)
After eight years of reliable service, it was time to replace my primary laptop, a 2012 MacBook Pro. It had been my first non-work Mac, and I gave it a lengthy …
Posted Tue Oct 6th 2020

Most recent cycling post:

Stand Down Margaret (524 words)
Summer is behind us, and the 2020 cycling season (such as it was) is ending. It’s still too early to close the books on 2020, but I can get you caught up on …
Posted Thu Oct 15th 2020