Adventures in Onionism

Gf and I are back from six days in the Tahoe area. First, why did we ever leave California? We flew to Reno, arrived late and went straight to our hotel. The instant we left the next morning to walk around the riverfront and Midtown areas, we remarked how nice the dry heat and sunshine was. People like to mock Reno, but I dig it. I immediately regretted not bringing my packraft, since between the Truckee and Walker Rivers (the Truckee goes right through downtown Reno), I could have hit some really fun rapids. With a rental car, a second driver, and free checked bags on Southwest, it really was a golden opportunity for easy shuttling and great water. Oh well, hiking and running was plenty. Walking around downtown Reno I thought "it's nice now, but it's probably crazy busy with cars on a regular work day," assuming it was Sunday morning. It was actually Thursday morning, so downtown Reno is apparently just not busy, which is fine by me. We also walked around Midtown, ...

I went to UCLA to present my research. I went to London to help run a research transparency and reproducibility workshop. GF and I went from there to Scotland after and the rental car was a lemon, it overheated, I blew the head gasket, and per Enterprise's instructions we left it by the side of the road in order to catch our train. It's as pretty as you've heard Summit of Ben Nevis Then back home I got hit by a car on my bike (an Uber with passengers, who fled the scene when I pulled out my phone to document and call the police!) I was not hurt but fuck Uber for not caring. This is a felony. This is a felony. This is a felony. Murder someone, don't pay tolls, whatever. I've got dealer tags!  Thankfully a change to the dealer tag law has already been passed and will kick in after just one more year, only 3,000 California traffic fatalities from now. This is the turd who could've killed me In October I ran the Eu...

GF and I wished 2016 good riddance together, which was fun. We had the house to ourselves for Christmas and after making pancakes and vegan (TVP) sausage Christmas morning, I found a discarded tree in perfectly good shape not half a block from my house. So we gave it a new home and decorated it with cut-outs from Science and the New Yorker . We also went to see the SF Gay Men's Chorus at the Castro Christmas Eve. Camp is definitely, definitely not my style of humor, so mostly I enjoyed it for the fact that they, unlike MoTab, would pretty clearly not perform at the inauguration of the next president even if they'd been invited. I finally managed to find GF a steel-framed bike that fits her (47.5cm Terry Symmetry), so that was her present. We took it for rides around the marina and Treasure Island. We also went to Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. I didn't really know anything about it before going, I was just looking for nearby B...

Woohoo! I ran the Euchre Bar Massacre 50-miler yesterday. In its second year, the Massacre is a fat ass (a low key fun run) in the North Fork of the American River. I've been told about the North Fork before, but it hadn't really registered. Now I understand, and I will definitely be going back. The race is in the Barkley style--off trail, a ridiculous amount of steep climbing, minimal aid stations, and books placed in the woods. You rip your bib number's page out of the book as you go along to prove that you covered the ground you were supposed to. The organizer asked us not to share the directions or map with those not involved, so I'll only post this elevation profile. Look at it! A thing of beauty. By my Garmin: 18,820 feet of climbing in 46 miles, or slightly steeper than Hardrock. The entire race is probably closer to 60 miles, but unfortunately I did not finish. The race is best thought of in terms of hills, of which there are 8. There were only two cutoff...