TSA via awesomeness.

I found a great $800 Honda Insight with a broken motor on eBay.  I watched the auction for a bit and it topped off at 2.5Gs... cheap enough that when I decide I need a car again, I'll use an insight as a donor for an electric car.  It's gonna be a sleeper; 200HP 3-phase electric...

Back in 3HP-land: last Saturday I challenged a friend to a race: his moped vs. the ebike.  You're probably chuckling at the sight of a moped and bike racing down Shoal Creek,  but so were we.  The moped lead for about 1 second, at which point I floored it (not sure why I didn't do this initially) and passed with relative ease, winning the race :).

When we got to Burnet we raced again.  This time I won by at least 10 seconds because the moped tops out at 35.  I can only imagine how fast a 200 horsepower sleeper insight is going to accelerate.

 In other news, my roommate got a recumbent bike, which I find comfortable but difficult to ride.  It definitely takes some getting used to.  Also, he got the new hotness Cygolite headlight.  It weighs about the same as my old busted one, but is smaller and probably twice as bright.  Time to find whatever LEDs they used in his and put them in mine (I've already done this once before... my light is several years old at this point, but $40 for new LEDs is much less than $350 for new hotness).

I took a trip on a plane to check out TSA's new enhanced screening procedures.  As Austin's airports don't have the equipment yet, I didn't get to see the erosion until my return flight.  I pretty much get searched everytime I fly because I refused to show id for so long... I think im on some list.

So I show up to the checkpoint, show my concealed handgun license* and ask to opt out of screening (my clever touch now that TSA mandates an ID) and the agent just lets me pass through without using the scanner.  No enhanced screening.  Win!  And a major security lapse...  Go TSA!  Ah, the illusion of safety.

*Note that the Texas CHL is issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety - the same organization that issues the Texas Driver (not plural) License - and is therefore a valid form of ID.  Further, in CA, CHLs are may-issue, which means only the police chief and his buddies have them... I think this explains the lapse.  Per TSA:

Backing up a bit, I chose San Francisco as a destination to visit my brother.  We went to Yosemite and visited Camp 4 (birthplace of rock climbing).  I had never thought about crapping in a bag during a multi-day climb, nor had I ever thought the national park service could write a humourous publication, but I discovered both in a pamplette on that topic while reading the Yosemite climbing guide.  

 Unfortunately, it rained the entire trip so we couldn't climb.  Instead, we visited a 1400 foot waterfall, trekking from bottom to top on a trail only 3 miles long.

at the top

The footsteps vanished at the top, so we wandered around for a bit trying to find the trail, finally giving up and talking to three French tourists until we were sufficiently cold.  They had beer.  We had fun.

On the way down we had to be extra careful not to slip.  I still fell hard three times before giving up bipedalism and sliding my ass down the trail.  The fog cleared as we got to the bottom:

Disc golf is difficult in the rain, but as climbing is impossible, we ended up throwing multiple courses.

Somebody added a B' hole.

Sold by Eaches.