Dryden Is Home

Cornell's Ride Board / Easter in New England

My cousin Deanna (sitting in the middle), with her son James on her lap and James' cousin Max (my cousin Sandra's son) standing at left.

I went to New England this past weekend to spend Easter Sunday with my dad's side of the family. Fifteen members of the Makar family gathered at my grandmother's Sunday afternoon for Easter. My two cousins with children were there, as well as two other cousins and my sister, my aunt and uncle and their spouses and my grandmother. It was probably the coldest Easter I can remember. It was good to see everyone. I missed Christmas with the family this year - I went to Buffalo to spend the holiday with Arjan's family. I caught up on what my cousins were doing (shopping for antiques on Craig's List, hanging out at the new cafe in town, creating custom made invitations and greeting cards, learning about raising a baby) and on how my grandmother (now 87) was doing.

I carpooled to New England and back with a group of Cornell students. I posted an ad on Tuesday night at about 6:30pm on Cornell's "Student Ride Board" website (http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/RideBoard/). By 7:30pm I had recieved two phone calls and two emails requesting seats in the car. Felix, my Jetta, only comfortably holds four total people. The two emailers were looking for roundtrip rides and the two callers were looking for one-way rides. It all worked out and by 7:30 the plan was set.

For the next two and a half days I received calls and emails requesting information on availability of seats. I had to say no to everyone else, but at one point, I thought about renting a 10 person van and taking everyone with me. I don't know if all of those other people ever made it to Boston this past weekend.

The Pros and Cons for the Ride Board:

• Pro: Helping the Environment by cutting down on number of cars
• Pro: Helping the Environment by filling a car instead of driving alone
• Pro: The passengers help to pay for gas, tolls, and other expenses the driver sets
• Pro: You have someone to talk to if you want, which might be better than driving alone
• Con: You might have to go slightly out of your way to pick people up in Ithaca (I had to drive 10 minutes to Collegetown and then back by my house  - both on the way to Boston and on the way home. This added about 40 minutes to my total driving time).
• Con: You might have to go way out of your way to pick people up in Boston/DC/NYC/etc (I had to drive from Blackstone, Mass - near RI - to Newton to pick up the return riders. This added about 60 minutes or so to the trip home.
• Con: Your passengers might have to stop to go to the bathroom every hour (mine didn't)
• Con: Your passengers might talk on the phone for five hours (one of mine talked for about 30 minutes, but it was an entertaining conversation about college admissions)
• Pro: You leave on time. Usually when I travel by car and don't have a set departure I am 15 minutes to 3 hours behind as I rationalize about doing more work before going. Knowing that 3 perfectly good strangers are waiting helps you to be much more on time.
• Con: They might not like your music (though they might have an ipod)
• Pro: You might meet someone new!

Finally, the Student Ride Board group is its own community. I drove east with three people. One of them had been a rider with each of the other two - so they already knew a little bit about each other. It seems likely if you are going on a common ride (Boston, NYC, Philly or DC) you will probably get riders who know each other.

I didn't profit from the trip, but the gas and tolls were paid for. I told my friend Joe about the Ride Board and since he has an alternative fuel car he might be able to make a small profit on his longer distance trips from Ithaca.

Cornell's Ride Board: http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/RideBoard/

Ithaca Craig's List Ride Board: http://ithaca.craigslist.org/rid/

My Flickr pictures of Easter Sunday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157600062105141/

My cousin Deanna's son James (my second cousin) looking serious and me smiling:

Cross-posted at Ithaca-Blog

Heather and Mark visit Ithaca

Around 11:30 this morning I got a phone call while I was sitting in the food court at the Pyramid Mall. I was building a webpage to allow for one of my customers to add and remove events from an online calendar. I was doing this at the mall because I was waiting for my cars tires to finish getting rotated by the staff at Sears. The phone call I got was from my friend Heather who lives in Boston. She was calling from Juna's Cafe in the Ithaca Commons.  She was visiting Ithaca with her boyfriend Mark who was here to interview for the MBA program at Cornell.

I drove from the mall to the commons and wandered to Juna's. I let Mark use my computer to do some pre-interview research (on the Ithaca wireless network - Lightlink). Heather and I went for a walk around the commons, but not before briefly talking to Jofish (who was researching LiveJournal stats and their collapse since last March) and then said hi to Meagan who was getting some studying done. Heather and I dropped by T-Shirt Expressions to see Kamran and then made our way to Autumn Leaves to find Carl and then onward to CognoscenTea to see Geri. After all that walking we returned to Juna's to meet Mark and bring him to campus for his interview. Once we got there I saw Tom and his wife Holly (the photographer and dance instructor respectively) and briefly talked to them.

We dropped off Mark's car in the Seneca garage, dropped off Mark at CU and then dropped by my house out in the country. I gave Heather the quick tour, we played with the cats who were basking in the sun and then headed back downtown for half-price sushi at Little Tokyo on the commons. Halfway through lunch, Wil entered the restaurant with his daughter. After we ate we went back to CognoscenTea for tea (I bought a ChocolaTea and Heather bought a tin of tea). We drove to the Winli grocery by Home Depot for egg roll wrappers, stopped by Ithaca Beverage for local beer (for Heather to deliver to her parents) and then headed back up to campus to get Mark.

I drove us back to the Seneca Street garage and after some kind words and well wishes for travel we split up. I headed back home (dropping off the egg roll wrappers at Stewart Little - details soon), checked my email and took a little nap before evening activities.

It was a cold and windy day in Ithaca. This picture is Mark and Heather just before they departed Itahca for Syracuse.

Cold Nights, Hot Car

Own a VW? Know what this symbol is? Did you know that when it goes off and flashes it also beeps loudly? If it didn't you might not even notice that your car's internal thermometer is sitting at 260 degrees. At healthy motoring it is at 190 degrees. The thermostat may be broken or the car may be overheating after I drive 10 minutes. Take your pick. I think the only thing saving me is that is has been freezing cold out here.

One day after going to the shop (last Friday) it was already acting up on a whole new problem.