it is 64 degrees outside

It's not even noon yet (altho I guess that depends on which definition of noon you are using).

I foresee still more mosquitos in my future. It really bothers me that people persist in thinking of this as "nice" weather. This is not "nice" weather. This is really scary and it is ruining my fall.

more NYT rail coverage: incrementalism vs. new right of way

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/06/06greenwire-stimulus-sparks-scuffle-among-high-speed-rail-16795.html

It looks like the incrementalists are attempting to freeze the high speed dedicated right-of-way new technology crowd out before the debate gets underway. The incrementalists are (probably rightly) concerned that if the rail community does not present a united front, other modes and rail skeptics in general will leap on the disunification as an excuse to not put any money into anything rail related. The incrementalists are accustomed to making do with dribs and drabs; they are more dedicated to not losing what they have than they are worried about failing to get everything they could possibly get.

Nothing unreasonable going on here -- altho it would be nice if we could actually have the France/Japan vs. Germany argument in a less dilute form. Both approaches can (and have) worked, altho if you genuinely want to take mode share away from airlines, dedicated works better than incrementalist (because you get higher average speeds along with the likely higher max speed). Either approach will take mode share away from asphalt/single passenger car, thus improving things from a cost and/or climate perspective.

Today's activities include: more bicycling, writing, groceries, cooking

I made a very tasty stir fry today and got the fried tofu almost exactly right. We have a wok ring. I should probably get a wok. I don't think I want to argue with R.'s rolled steel wok; he'll probably decide I destroyed the seasoning on it or something.

I picked T. up at the school, and then later I took him to Idylwilde. Where it turns out they stock Stonyfield Farms Frozen Yogurt Gotta Have Vanilla. Previously, we had to go to the Groton Shaw's to get that, since Roche Bros. didn't carry it, and we hadn't found it at either the Acton or the Littleton Donelan's either. This is extremely exciting. As, of course, is all the wonderful produce at Idylwilde, like lacinata kale, which I've now forgotten to buy twice.

I'm up to 30083 over on the not really a novel memoir that I'm doing for NaNoWriMo.

Best of all, T. and I finally got to _go inside_ at the model railroading center. The hours are interesting: evenings MWF and then all day Saturday. We headed out on the bike to get there around 7. T. lasted about ten minutes, but it was an extremely on task 10 minutes of him pushing the button to make the biggest gauge train go around and watching it go, and occasionally trying out the other buttons to do the other gauges. The guy running the place was very, very sweet. If you have a yen for the model railroads (or not so model railroads -- they have videos), I highly recommend a visit. I'm very tempted to go back and check the stock out. He carries used stuff you can't buy new anymore.

Yeah, okay, I'm going to keep resisting that temptation.

a bit more about nanowrimo

I hit this point today where I realized, I really want to write something seriously long form about policy and politics. Like, take my 2 page personal platform, completely rework it to reflect my current thinking, and then run it out to about 2000 pages. Or so.

I had so many ideas bouncing around in my head, I thought I'd post a brief summary as a private post on LJ. Ouch. It is not brief. :l