weekend bits

[cellio]

Seen while walking home Saturday: a car with blinkers on, being followed by two police cars with flashing lights but not sirens, all going about 30mph, and all running a red light at a busy intersection. If the police were escorting the car I would have expected one in front and one behind; if they were chasing the car, they weren't doing a very good job of it. There were plenty of places to pull over, so it wasn't a traffic stop in search of handy road-side. The whole procession turned a corner and I lost sight of them. How odd.

This weekend I read about a new (expensive) geek-appeal gadget, a robotic vacuum cleaner. It wanders around your house and automatically goes to the docking station to recharge or empty itself when needed. The review I saw said that it's slow -- its navigation isn't the greatest, so it might do a stretch several times before getting to parts it hasn't done yet -- but since it's the robot's time, the reviewer doesn't care. He was out running errands. :-) This sounds handy (though I do wonder how pets would view it). Now if they could just build the laundry robot, the shopping robot, and the kitchen-cleaning robot, life would be grand. (At $1500, I should clarify that this is wishful thinking, not a planned purchase.)

Shabbat morning we had another new torah reader (and new service leader, the mother of the torah reader). They both did good jobs and I think the mother, at least, will sign up to do this again (and even read torah). I am pleased by the progress our minyan is making, building participation one person at a time. We need to think about workshops or tutorials or something for people who lack self-confidence. (There are several people who I think would do just fine, but they don't think so yet.)

Today was the local SCA group's 12th-night event. It was a fun, low-key event, like many I remember from 20 years ago. This was the second year we've done it; I hope this establishes the tradition. :-) Free site (university), pot-luck feast, good mix of planned activities and schmooze time -- very pleasant and comfortable.

Mapquest says Pittsburgh to Cincinnati is a 4.5-hour drive (slightly under). Is that really right? I thought Pittsburgh to Columbus was close to four hours, and Cincinnati is a good deal beyond that. I thought Cincinnati would be 6 or 7 hours just from looking at a map.

Comments

[geekosaur]

Re Cincy: Add 2 - 2 1/2 hours from Columbus.

[sk4p.livejournal.com]

and Columbus is 3.5 to 4 from Pgh.

[cellio]

Thanks.

If I'm not mistaken, the canonical route to Columbus is via the turnpike (I-76). For Cincinnati, Mapquest recommends I-70 (so south to WV and then west). Thus, you go nowhere near Columbus if you follow their route. I don't know if that's actually an appropriate route, of course. Having been burned in the past, I now use Mapquest as opening advice only. :-)

[geekosaur]

Er? 70 is a straight shot from a little south of Pgh. into Columbus (which is at the confluence of 70 and 71); you then follow 70 further to either 75 south or 675 to get to Cincinnati.

[geekosaur]

And 76 takes you north to Cleveland, you end up pretty far out of your way and it's more complicated. (76->[80->]480->271->71, figure 7 hours (!))

[cellio]

Oops, my mistake -- the WV part is just the northern panhandle, which hardly counts. For Cincinnati, Mapquest recommends 79 to 70 to 270 S to 71 S to local stuff. 284 miles, mostly on 70 and 71. I've only been to Columbus once, and I was obviously misremembering what we did. (Mapquest says 70 for that, as you suggested.)

[geekosaur]

71 to local stuff sounds a little odd, I wouldn't expect that to be significantly faster or shorter than 70W->675S. (You do still want to take 270 around Columbus, though; staying on 70 looks obvious but you really want to avoid going through downtown Columbus.)

[rani23.livejournal.com]

Columbus is two hours from Wheeling, WV. (So sayeth the West Virginian.) :)