My installation did not work without some post-tweaking though.

I had to change the /usr/local/bin/rake that gem installed to permissions 755. The “sudo gem install rake” command had the ownership/perms so that only root could see it.
Before I fixed the perms root picked up all /usr/local/bin versions of rails + tools (good) but my own user got /usr/bin/rake instead of /usr/local/bin. Here’s how to test that:
for cmd in ruby irb gem rake; do which $cmd; done

Next issue, I was getting this error any time I tried to run ruby:

gem environment
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems.rb:10:in `require': no such file to load -- rubygems/defaults (LoadError)
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems.rb:10
from /usr/local/bin/gem:8:in `require'
from /usr/local/bin/gem:8


Turns out /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems directory has perms 750 and is owned by root/wheel. The equivalent OS X system version in /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems has same perms but ownership root/admin. I decided to create a dev group, add my user to that group and change the group ownership of /usr/local/lib/ruby.

I also ended up having to change the perms on /usr/local/bin/rails to allow all users to read and execute.

Success!

$ ./eclipse -clean -consolelog -d32 -vm /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Home/bin/java

I need to run the java 1.5 vm and use 32 architecture (Snow Leopard uses 64 bit java by default).

I was getting all sorts off odd errors otherwise — class not found exceptions, etc. Seemingly unrelated errors ;p

GrrlDate, a lesbian dating site, launches

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Vanguard’s The economy: At a critical juncture

Nouriel Roubini’s “How authorization to recapitalize banks via public capital injections (“partial nationalization”) was introduced – indirectly through the back door – into the TARP legislation”

The world is at severe risk of a global systemic financial meltdown and a severe global depression

But about the ride. Well it is 7 days of riding every day. You really have nothing to think about or do but get up, get in the porta-potty line, pee, brush your teeth with a cup of water, get in the breakfast line, eat, go tear down your tent and pack up, check in your gear and tent at the gear truck, get over to bike parking and get your bike ready, get in line to ride out, ride out, ride all day, get back and get your gear and tent, get in line for a shower, shower, pitch your tent, get in line for dinner, eat, socialize a little (I saw enough people all day on the ride so I skipped this part often) and get to bed. Start this all over the next day.

It could be challenging at times, on many different levels: physical, mental, emotional, social. I had a hard time being around 3000 people 24×7. I ended up taking my friend Tavia up on her offer to stay in her hotel 5 nights out of the 7! Now this might sound easier but it had its own set of unique challenges. The logistical ones: how to get from camp to a hotel in a strange town every night, lugging my 50lb suitcase along, getting checked in and showered before it got too late to find something to eat in town, getting in bed and getting some sleep at a reasonable hour, getting back to camp and riding out early. Not to mention backpacking on someone else’s roadie that they had set up before the ride.

All this is just the facts. I had to get the truth of the matter out there!

Overall, I’m glad I did it and it was quite an experience. I guess it’s like being in the Army, you make some good friends fast in these conditions! You also get to know people like you would not in typical life situations. Once I accepted that all my life amounted to for 7 days was riding my bike from one place to another, I started to enjoy my surroundings. Some of the campsites were really beautiful as were the ride routes. And I had a deer run alongside me for 5 paces on PCH somewhere above Malibu. That alone was worth the whole ride!

I quickly learned that the best way for me to approach each day was “one day at a time” — those AA people are on to something. Early on, I stopped thinking about the next day’s ride. I did not look up the route or the mileage. I found that it really worked. If I looked it up, I started worrying about it the night before, started fretting that I would not enjoy it. But if I just got up and let myself respond to whatever the day presented, I found I always had the energy and the willpower to do it! I started to really live Buddhist “impermanence!” And I started to really enjoy the ride and my friends that rode with me each day.

What else can I tell you? The rides each day were all different and similar. Some days we had long rides with sections of horrible crosswinds. Crosswinds are my least favorite winds. Headwinds blow you backward and make you ride harder to go the same distance. But crosswinds blow you sideways and make you fight them all the way and are scary too because they blow you into the road. A big truck passes and sucks you out into the road because you are fighting the crosswinds and leaning into that direction already. I hate crosswinds.

The first 3 days of the ride I was starving all the time. There were no complex carbs in their vegetarian meals. All simple carbs. I would eat a heaping plate of food and be starving in 2 hours. I could not eat enough and I was eating all day long. The second night I stayed at a hotel, I got smart and ate pizza. Then I ate pizza every night after that. I finally stopped feeling like I was starving and faint. And when I got home from the ride, I notice I lost 5 lbs. I don’t really need to lose any weight. Thank gawd for pizza.

Anyway, I took a lot of photos. And my friends took a lot of photos. I put my favorites into a slideshow. It kinda follows the chronological order: Orientation day where we sign in and take a look at our bikes that we had shipped up to SF; Then Day one of the ride when we leave SF from Cow Palace through Day Seven where we arrive in LA and ride into the VA Hospital compound. Day Five is Dress Red day — everyone wears red so that the riders look like a red ribbon from the distance riding along the route. It informally turned into Red Dress day so you see a lot of crazy outfits. And the crew at the pit stops (where we get food and use the porta-johns) dress for themes and put on shows. It can get crazy! And along the route, people just park their cars and play drums, sing songs, cheer, etc for us as we ride by. I don’t have photos of all of them because I woulda wrecked my bike trying to take them. There was so much going on that I can’t remember it all now. You can see that we had a lot of fun. I notice that we tend to take photos only when we’re happy! I’ve told you the down sides of the ride. The slides show you there was plenty of happy too

Overall, it was an experience not to be missed. If I were to do it again, I would definitely do the hotel thing. And definitely train for it (that was my smartest move). Don’t make the physical your biggest challenge, there will be many others

tomcat apparently has supported multiple instances with one application install for a long time. But it’s still not clear how to shut them down independently.

That said, I figured out a way!!! YAY!!!!

$CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh -config $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml

Long live the queen!!! Oh sorry. This took hours of tinkering and googling. And NO I did not find the solution on google. I had to actually sit around reading all the stupid tomcat bin scripts and manually testing arguments.

Last weekend we rode from LA to SB Saturday and then back Sunday. A dual century. In record breaking heat. All in all it was not as bad as it sounds! The traffic coming back in to LA near Malibu was was horrific on Sunday though. And Peanut rode so fast for that last 30 mile stretch that I was scared and taxed trying to keep up with her! Karrin finished about 2 hours ahead of the rest of us! The Shifting Gears people put on a really well run ride and I would not have made it without them or all the help training from Karrin. I’m still amazed I did it! It was damn hot and that added to the difficulty. That and some amazingly strong head and cross winds. The cross winds are the scariest. They really lift the bike wheels sometimes I swear.

Us!

Saturday

We made good time for us beginners especially. Tavia got lost at the very end and came in a different side of the hotel than us. We were able to guide her in because as I was talking to her on my cell, she heard a wedding procession car honking that had just passed her so she knew which way to head then! The stats for this ride are a little short since I forgot to turn my gps on when we started. I think they are about 9 miles short.

After Saturday’s ride we all walked to dinner downtown. On the way I was looking at the dusk sky and enjoying the cooling night time air. Tavia was walking next to me and she commented out of the blue “I hate pedaling.” She kills me.

Us at the first pit stop.

Tavia’s specialized finish ride in.

Us at the SB finish.

Karrin got to SB like 2 hours before us. Here is her finish: beer.

Me at SB finish.

Tavia’s decorative tan after the first day.

Tavia has everything all laid out for tomorrow morning’s ride out.

Sunday

Unfortunately, Tavia had bad swelling and pain in her knee (Is there good swelling and pain? Mom?) and had to get swept (the fancy term for being picked up and taken to the next pit stop) and then get a ride home for that day. That happened after the first pit stop. A smart move because it’s too close to the real event (AIDS LifeCycle for those not following the whole training log) to risk injury.

Ready for ride out.

Karrin’s pre-ride massage. She’s happy I’m taking her picture.

Me at the finish at SM Helen’s bikes.

For some background, the Solvang Century ride is beautiful and very hilly. As Tavia said “I have a comment…I believe that it is possible to do too many hills!”

Here is a map of the elevation for you to enjoy while you sit at home or work, or wherever you are, and leisurely read this blog. Also, you can check out the route map.

This is at mile 41.8 and we’re still alive.

And our first flat! And it’s a rear flat. Thank gawd for Karrin cuz Linda didn’t even have to change it herself. And all I had to do was take photos.

Here’s Peanut in Santa Maria, still looking cool at mile 59.9.

At the next to last pit stop, mile 73 (Sisquoc), we did a little yoga.

Our favorite part of the whole day. It was a 9.5 hour day with 7 hours spent on the bikes. Here we are crossing the finish line (ok all but me, cuz I took the photos).

Sunday morning breakfast with the ole married couple, Tony and Doreen from Shifting Gears. We ran into them at Paula’s Pancakes. Look at their shoes!

And our favorite thing of the whole weekend is the bunkhouse we stayed at. Thanks Linda for hooking us up with such a great place to crash:) Look how happy we are the next day.

And if you just really love looking at us, here are some more photos of us on our bikes during the ride. Proof we really did it!

I ran across this bit of proof that it was DIFFICULT. It’s the actual rating for Solvang Century!