Hi all Happy September!  Wow how did that happen?  One minute it's winter, then suddenly it's Spring, Summer whips by, and now Sept - Fall - Halloween - Thanksgiving - Christmas - New Year.  The Earth's orbit around the Sun is definitely speeding up.

Yesterday I drove my bike up to Arroyo Grande and took a nice out-and-back ride to Avila Beach.  Here's a composite video from the ride:

This is a test, there are several things going on here.  First the video itself is a GoPro time-lapse combined with a Strava GPS flyby, with embedded iPhone pics. Experimental, and I like it.  Composed with Adobe Premier.  LMK what you think.

Next, this video is in my Dropbox, bypassing YouTube which I've historically used to host videos.  I don't like YouTube (don't like Google); they stick in ads and generally cruftify* everything, and who knows when they'll delete my videos forever.  Dropbox is more direct (but does it work?)

* yes of course cruftify is a word

And LBNL, this is my first time posting a video with my new spiffy (shaved-yak) email-to-blog mechanism.  I love it by the way; this is being composed on my iPad, sitting in my den, miles away from my laptop and office.  

{Update: it all worked, yay.  Only thing is it isn't obvious that the pic above is a link to a video.  I added "(click to watch)" but I need some kind of "video frame".  (Huh)}

{Another Update: modified the API to support embedding videos, as opposed to merely linking them. This takes advantage of modern browsers' support for video; in the bad old days I used to embed various video plugins, and in the worse older days used Flash. But now even mobile browsers can play video directly ...}

Well enough of the navel gazing; it was a fun ride watching the masses at the beach, and traversing through Shell Beach which is a beautiful little residential neighborhood tucked in between Pismo and Avila.

Pismo Beach is a real slice of Americana; except for the size of the people and their tattoos, could have been any time in the 1980s; the kids and dogs playing in the surf were just the same.

Speaking of dogs, this has to be the best way to tour around with them, and is my favorite pic from the trip.  Woof.

And onward...