Rails - Aug 2006 - Errno::ENXIO (Device not configured) when using net/https from rails

Cross posting this to the rails list in case it might be rails
specific.  I really have no clue on this one.  OS is Freebsd 6.1.

I have the following code that creates a https connection from within
a rails controller.  Works fine except that if it doesn''t get called
for a few hours it starts throwing an exception until I restart rails
(apache1.3 + scgi).  I wonder if something here isn''t thread safe?
Just a guess.

@postdata = nil
headers = { ''Referer'' => '''',
''Content-Type'' =>
''application/x-www-form-urlencoded'' }
@postdata = "directauth=1&user=#{user}&pass=#{@password}"
site = Net::HTTP.new( ''mysite.com'', 443 )
site.use_ssl = true
response = site.post(''/login'', @postdata, headers) 
<<--- Line 69 in
method authorize

And this is the backtrace:

Errno::ENXIO (Device not configured):
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:566:in `write''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:566:in `connect''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:555:in `do_start''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:544:in `start''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1031:in `request''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:840:in `post''
   /app/controllers/application.rb:69:in `authorize''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:399:in
`call_filters''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:394:in
`call_filters''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:383:in
`before_action''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:365:in
`perform_action_without_benchmark''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in
`perform_action_without_rescue''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in
`perform_action_without_rescue''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:82:in
`perform_action''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/base.rb:381:in
`process_without_filters''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:377:in
`process_without_session_management_support''
  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.12.3/lib/action_controller/session_management.rb:117:in
`process''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.4/lib/dispatcher.rb:38:in
`dispatch''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:23:in
`process_request''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/thread.rb:135:in `synchronize''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:21:in
`process_request''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:291:in
`read_header''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:253:in
`handle_client''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:234:in
`handle_client''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:188:in
`listen''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:186:in
`listen''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:412:in
`run''
   /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:61