It took a couple of weeks of riding before I finally had a really nice ride.  Finally, a ride that didn't seem to be more painful than fun.  Finally, a ride where I came home, wishing I had another hour to ride.

It's also the longest ride I've done so far this summer - 20 miles.

I think that I'm a distance rider.  It takes me 8, 10, 12 miles to warm up and then I hit my cadence and can seemingly ride forever.

It's what happens to people that write software.  Often, the problems that we have aren't caused by the code that we write as much as they are caused by the configuration of the particular machine we're running in.

For example, many moons ago, I created a script that automagically backs up the databases on my server and emails them to my Gmail account.  The Gmail account automatically deletes these backups.  Since Gmail keeps 30 days of history in the trash, the practical upshot of this situation is a 30-day rolling backup of my databased.  Perfect!

Then, I changed from one host to another and the script quit working completely.  I messed around with it for an hour or two, but finally just gave up.

It turns out that on the one server, PHP was installed as a CGI module and on the other, it was installed as an Apache module.  All I had to do was add a "shebang" line to the beginning of the script that pointed to the php executable on the new server and BAM!  It started working again.  Woohoo!

I was also having some database problems that was causing a forum to completely not work.  One could view posts and topics and everything, but no new posts could be added.  That makes a forum pretty darned useless.

It was another configuration issue.  I had upgraded the database server and an obscure setting somewhere was changed during the upgrade.  When I finally found it, BAM!  It started working again.

It's always the little things that cause the big headaches.

Right now, I could be watching the yet-to-be-released Harry Potter movie. My wife's work party is an advance screening. But I'm not at the work party. No. I'm at work because I have a lot to do. And I'm just not THAT much of a Harry Potter fan. Sure, I enjoy the books, but I still haven't seen the 4th Harry Potter movie.

Now before you die-hard Harry Potter fans start screaming at me and leaving me nasty comments, hear me out.

It's a good thing that I'm not seeing this movie before some of you. If I saw the new Harry Potter movie before some of you, it would be proof of something fundamentally wrong with the universe and the world would quite possibly end.

If the world ended, you wouldn't get to read the seventh book in the series. The world kinda-sorta needs to be here for that to happen.

You can leave your "thank you" in the comments below.

The first ten miles are the hardest.  Or at least, that's what they say.

The first four miles were the hardest.  The next four?  They were the hardest too.  And the next four.  And the next four.

But I put in 16 miles this morning.  Now that I've started again, I can get some momentum going.

So, not only do I have the dubious privilege of taking an antiviral medication that is closely associated with a sexually-transmitted disease, I get to put up with a less-than-pleasant side effect.

 POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: SIDE EFFECTS, that may go away during treatment, include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, sharrhea, or headache.  If they continue or are bothersome, check with your doctor.

Since Friday, I have felt like I'm slowly spinning to my right.  Constantly.  Whether I'm standing, sitting, lying down, have my eyes open or closed...  I'm constantly, slowly spinning.

If it were any faster, I'd have the nausea and vomiting as well.  As it is, it's just VERY annoying.  I can still drive.  But I have a hard time walking in a straight line.  Tomorrow evening, I'll take the last pill and it'll go away.  Ugh.

A friend of mine sent me the coolest link today.

I want one.

I've been looking for a way to have music as I ride. Using headphones is dangerous, because you need to be aware of traffic around you. This idea is just brilliant.

Maybe I should be cursing this friend. I think he cost me $99.

But I still want one.

I've told some of you that I'm under a lot of pressure at work at the moment.  I'm pretty stressed, actually.

The stress has surfaced in a more visible and more painful form.

On Sunday, I found a circle of what looked like pimples on my side behind and a little above my armpit.  They felt like pimples--sort of tender.  No big deal.  But because they formed a rough circular shape, I thought they might have been bug bites.

Again, no big deal.  But then they started getting bigger and more inflamed and more sore.  That's fine.  I could deal with that.  But then, today, the pain started feeling deeper.  Kind of like a deep muscle ache.  Now THAT was strange.

I went to my doctor's office and found out that I have shingles.

I had shingles once before.  I was in 7th grade and got shingles on my face.  That was before I knew anything about STD's, so you can imagine how people laughed when I told them that what I had on my face was something that the doctor called "Herpes Zoster."  Yeah.   Nice.  I was the kid in 7th grade that got herpes on his face.  Not that I had any friends anyway... but that certainly didn't help.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpocks.  In some people that get chickenpox, some of the virus particles leave the skin blisters and move into the nervous system.  When someone's immune system is worn down or when they're having a lot of stress, the virus can reactivate and move along nerve fibers that extend to the skin.  The result is shingles.

Nowadays, there are antiviral drugs that can help treat shingles.  The antiviral drugs slow down the virus so the body's own processes can hunt them down and kill them.  The body never completely gets rid of the virus, so there's always the risk of future outbreaks.

You've probably seen commercials on television for the antiviral I'm taking: Valtrex.  Yes, it's the drug being marketed to people with genital herpes, which is a different strain of the same virus.  There's no generic, and it's EXPENSIVE.  My 7-day regimen cost $206.49.  That's almost $10/pill!  I'm grateful for health insurance.  I only had to pay my $15 co-pay.

See?  I really AM stressed!

Last year, the Utah Lake Century Epic Ride was going so well until I broke a spoke.

This year, the route is going around the lake again and it's starting and ending at Thanksgiving Point.

I just registered.  Now to get back in shape!

Remember the rebate hassle I had a couple of weeks ago?

Today I looked at the status of the rebate on Sears' web site.  The check has been approved and will soon be mailed!  A little perserverence along with a calm and rational demeanor has resulted in a $60 payoff.  More importantly for Sears, I'll someday be buying a refrigerator and an over-the-range microwave for the new basement kitchen.  That $60 payoff for me means that I'll look at Sears for these items instead of taking my business to a competitor.

My vacation is, unfortunately, over. It was an incredibly fun, yet relaxing time.

We drove part of the way on Sunday afternoon and stayed in Rawlins, Wyoming. Oh, and if you ever have occaision to stop in Rock Springs, Wyoming... don't. It's dry, rocky, and generally ugly.

On Monday, we spent a few hours at Martin's Cove at the Mormon Handcart Pioneer Visitors Center. We pushed a handcart and hiked and saw the fort and heard story after story about how those poor people barely survived.

On Tuesday, we visited Wind Cave National Park. We took two tours: a scenic-type tour and a tour completely by candle light. Extremely fun!

On Wednesday, we did a drive-by of Crazy Horse Monument and visited Mount Rushmore. We also drove up to Deadwood/Lead, through Sturgis, to Rapid City, and then back to our hotel in Hot Springs.

On Thursday, we visited Jewel Cave. We took another scenic-type tour and a tour by lantern light. The lantern tour was probably the most adventurous tour we took. Again, extremely fun!

On Friday, we came home, but stopped at Martin's Cove again to see a re-enactment of the Pony Express as they changed horses there at Martin's Cove.

And today, I'm back at work... I'll blog more details and post pictures when I have time!