Nothing to see here.

Here is a scary graph that I found. Not only is the CO2 concentration increasing, but the rate of increase is increasing.

I also found these other scary graphs which I think are also quite interesting.

Surely this has nothing to do with human activity. :-)

Last bike time trial of the season

Just finished the last Tuesday night bike time trial of the season. It was a good one, 8 miles in 17:23, average speed of 27.6 mph. Weather was just about perfect, not too hot and not much wind. My time was the fastest by an over-50-year-old in the 6 years they've been having these time trials.

Complete results (I'm 5th):

Results of 8 mile bike time trial

Record heat in Austin

July was the hottest month ever recorded in Austin. It doesn't look like that record is going to last long, since so far August is even hotter than July.

July's average temperature was 89.5 (average high = 102 ; average low = 77 F).

As of the 25th, the average August temperature is 90.0 (avg high = 102.5, avg low =77.5).

Tuesday night bike time trail (again)

Another Tuesday night bike time trial, 8 miles in 17:38, average speed of 27.2 mph. Weather was decent, except for it being 103 degrees.

Complete results (I'm 6th):

Results of 8 mile bike time trial

Tuesday night bike time trial

I did my best time at the Tuesday night bike time trial, 8 miles in 17:28, average speed of 27.5 mph. Jon H. did his best time, too. There was very little wind, which made for good conditions, except for the fact that it was 105 degrees! I think we must be getting used to the heat.

Here are the complete results, I'm 5th and Jon is 9th:

Results of 8 mile bike time trial

40K bike time trial, and Wool Capital Triathlon

A busy sports weekend! Saturday was the 40K bike time trial, state age group championship bike race. I rode well for me, with a time of 57:44. Jon H. rode well too, and finished under 1 hour, 59:55! Here are all the results:

Complete results of Texas State Championship 40K bike TT.
(I'm 48th overall, 5th in age group).

The next day, Sunday Aug. 9, was the Wool Capital Triathlon in San Angelo. So I raced 2 days in a row. I was 13th overall, in 2:11:06. The distances were 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run. I've done this triathlon 4 times now, on exactly the same course. So here is the trend:

2006: time = 2:11:27 (22:46 swim, 1:03:08 bike, 43:35 run) age=48
2007: time = 2:11:52 (22:50 swim, 1:02:20 bike, 45:04 run) age=49
2008: time = 2:10:31 (23:00 swim, 1:00:09 bike, 45:30 run) age=50
2009: time = 2:11:06 (23:14 swim, 1:01:00 bike, 45:07 run) age=51

Harry Potter Movie (#6)

Lisa and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie, "Half-blood Prince". I thought it was pretty good, the best HP movie so far.

When we purchased our tickets, Lisa was charged $7, but just $6.50 for me. According to my ticket, I got the senior discount! I didn't even ask for it. I think the girl selling the tickets was a teenager, so I probably looked ancient to her.

My first senior discount -

Tuesday night bike time trial

The first 8 mile bike time trial was last night. It went well, which was a relief since I was worried that I'd slowed down a bit since last fall. My time was 17:45 (27.0 mph), which is 13 seconds slower than my personal best, and pretty good for me. Weather was good, just a little headwind going toward the finish.

Several of the local fast guys were there. I was 14th overall, first in age group.

Results of 8 mile TT, April 14, 2009

Savings accounts & rate chasing

It has been getting more challenging to earn a decent interest rate on savings. So I've had to use more creative approaches to earn interest on the promotional 0% money that I borrowed from my credit cards.

A number of smaller banks have recently started "Rewards checking accounts", the best of which pay interest of 6% on balances up to $25,000. The catch is that they require typically 10 to 12 debit card transactions per month, in order to get the high interest rate and no fees. I've recently opened a bunch of these accounts, and now I find that I need to make about 52 debit card transactions per month. To do this, I've been paying the phone bill on-line every weekday, $1.01 at a time. That gets me about 20 transactions. Pumping self-serve gas a dollar at a time is also good; this is best done when the cash register is staffed by an apathetic looking teenager, rather than someone who looks like they could be the actual owner of the store.

For some reason the best rates seem to be at small banks located in the rural south. I've recently opened rewards checking accounts at Southern Missouri Bank, Heritage Community Bank in Arkansas, and my favorite, "Redneck Bank" in Oklahoma, which has the motto "Where bankin's funner!". Their web site is pretty good. If you mouse over the outhouse, the door opens. Best experienced with the sound turned on.

Link: http://www.redneckbank.com

Yes, they are a real bank. More frugal tips to follow!

Painted gourds

"Capuchin with Clementine" was completed in December 2008 by Lisa Hoffman, and was created to resemble the paw of a Capuchin monkey holding an orange. The sculpture was created from a winged gourd, three-dimensional and acrylic paints. This is one of only a few pieces that have been released from the artist's vast personal collection. The gourd currently resides in a private collection, in a location that will remain undisclosed for security reasons.

Bike race: Lost Faculties vs. Lance Armstrong

Yesterday, Jon and I (of team "Lost Faculties") competed in a bike race in Gruene, Texas. It was 16 mile time-trial, on River Road which follows the Guadalupe River. There were about 150 entrants, including Lance Armstrong, as well as many of the top state and local riders. Riders started at 30 second intervals for about an hour and a half, except the last few riders started a minute apart, and Lance started last with a 3 minute gap. The out-and-back course was more difficult than previous time-trials I've done, with a lot of small hills and turns, so it was hard to get going fast and easy to lose speed. Lisa came to watch, and also Jon's wife Sylvie and daughter Coralee.

Sylvie took pictures!

Team "Lost Faculties" before the start, clearly not intimidated by Lance's presence:


Lining up for the start, with my "sunflower wheel". My start time is 30 seconds behind Jon. We didn't plan it that way, it just happened.

Jon in the starting gate:

Me in the starting gate. Always aware of safety, notice that I only clip in one pedal before the start signal. :-)

Lance approaches the start line on his white "Trek" bike, surrounded by fans:

Lance tried to intimidate the Lost Faculties by wearing a black skin suit and scary looking helmet:

Lance in the starting gate:

A picture of me, somewhere out on the 16 mile course. Remembering to keep my head down:

Lance finishing:

Results are posted! Lance won the day, but both members of team "Lost Faculties" made the top 20 overall, and made the first page on the results list along with Lance. I was 10th, in 37:06, which put me among several of the top local riders, and less than 4 minutes behind Lance. Jon was 20th, in 39:05. The 2nd and 3rd place finishers were the top two in the Texas state 40K time-trial championship earlier this year, so Lance is in good enough form to hold off the top riders in the state.
Click the image to enlarge and make readable.

Lance may have been the overall winner, but I did manage to win the "age-group prize" for first old guy! They didn't let me keep the flowers, what's up with that?! But I did get a cool medal.

Other statistics: Lance averaged 28.9 mph, and I averaged 25.95 mph. I noticed that most of the top local riders were about 2 mph slower here than in the state 40K championship, so this was not a fast course.

Here is a link to an article on the race in Cycling News, with full race results and more pictures: Link to article

Also, here is a link to an article about the race in the San Antonio paper: Lance getting back in gear

Longhorn triathlon

The Longhorn triathlon was last Sunday. This was a huge race, with over 2000 participants, which is amazing for a half-iron distance on a hilly course. I finished about 68th overall, in a time of 4:40:35. I was the first over-50-year-old.

The swim went fine, I took it pretty easy, and came out about 65th overall, and first in age group. On the bike I just rode comfortably for the first 20 miles, then gradually picked up the pace, and rode from miles 40 to 56 very hard. The course was a single long loop, which kept it from being crowded. I could usually see 1 or 2 other riders, but that was it. Average speed was 22.5 mph for the 56 miles, which I was very pleased with, given the difficulty of the course. The run was two loops of 6.55 miles each, with 6 hills per loop (yuk!), one of which was very nasty and steep. I ran well and did not walk one step. I even ran through all the water stops, so I actually went the last hour and 44 minutes of the race without drinking. This seems nuts now that I think about it, but I did drink a lot on the bike, so I guess I was pretty well hydrated before starting the run. I averaged a little better that 8 min per mile on the run.

Results for men 50-54 age group. (I'm first)

Link to full results. (over 1900 finishers!)

I felt good the whole way on this race, so I am going to write down what I ate, in case it is useful in the future:

3 hours before race: 2 cups coffee and 2 chocolate Cliff bars.
Before start: Plenty of water.
During the 56 mile bike: 16 oz. of cold coffee in my bike bottle, then lots of water.
During the 13.1 mile run: nothing.
I was very thirsty at the end, but OK. Temperature was about 70 at the start, low 80s at the finish, windy, partly cloudy, with low humidity.

PS - I received some race photos. Below are: On top of big hill at mile 55 of bike; bike-to-run transition; mid-way through the run.

Rate chasing news

The yields on Fidelity's and Vanguard's tax-exempt money market accounts have recently increased dramatically, especially in the last few days. For example, the yield on the Fidelity tax-exempt municipal money market fund (FTEXX) is 5.88% (!!) compared with 2.70% on Select Money Market (FSLXX). FTEXX has, in principle, a stable $1.00 share price, although this is not guaranteed.

Here is an excellent article on the Vanguard web site, explaining the very high current yields on tax-exempt money market funds: Link. If the Vanguard article is correct, it looks like FTEXX should be safe.

So I shifted our savings that were in FSLXX into FTEXX. I guess I'll see how that works out. I think Fidelity will be very reluctant to let the share price drop below 1.00; I think their reputation practically depends on it.

Tuesday night bike time trial

The last bike time trial of the season was Tuesday, and team "Lost Faculties" did pretty well. I did the 8 miles in 17:43 (27.1 mph) and my training buddy Jon did it in 18:17, which were good rides for both of us. Next up for me is the Longhorn triathlon on October 5th.

Results of 8 mile bike time trial (I'm 5th place)

Investment comment

The recent stock market ups and downs have caused me to think about our investments. I've decided not to make any changes for now. So this means that we remain invested in a fairly diversified way, but with an overweighting in international stock mutual funds. Because of the rules of our 401K and 403b retirement plans, we are mostly restricted to Fidelity mutual funds (largest holdings are FEMKX, FSIIX, FICDX, FSTMX), but we also have a Vanguard REIT index fund (VGSIX) and some CREE stock, which is a semiconductor company involved in LED lighting. With our regular (non-retirement) savings, we are "rate chasing", taking advantage of various promotions and bonuses at a variety of banks and credit unions scattered around the US. This gets us a high and safe yield on our short-term savings.

A good source of information for rate chasing can be found at the Bankdeals blog. This is where I found out about the Wachovia way-2-save accounts (9% yield for the year if opened last Feb.), WaMu savings-for-success (6.5% yield if opened last March), a Patelco credit union 7% CD special, and several others. I check Bankdeals a few times a week, the web address is http://www.bankdeals.blogspot.com

Its been a pretty rough ride lately, but I am cautiously optimistic that if we just stay the course and don't sell into panics, then things will eventually work out.

Anoli lizards

Our yard is almost filled with native plants, with very little regular grass. So we have lots of butterflies, spiders, bees, anoli lizards, and the occasional possum and raccoon. I particularly like the anoli lizards, which hunt insects. The males sometimes display pink skin on their necks.