Cycling, Not Worrying

I've spent a lot of years worried about the consequences of our failing civilization. Things are far enough down it is time to stop worrying because the thing wrong can no longer be fixed. The baby in the bathwater turned into a crocodile. America is broken. The world is broken.

The good news is that when you retract your concerns from the international and the national and restrict yourself to regional, state, and local, life makes a lot more sense again. In the real world, the news that matters is the weather. And your own limitations and strengths are down to what you can do in the here and now, depending on the weather today.

I live in California. We've had drought for the last 4 years. This last winter is largely over, and it didn't snow. This is bad, because our water supply comes from lakes fed by snow melt, and there isn't much snow. A pity, to be sure. I expect more dead trees, which is really sad. The local douglas fir and pine trees are 5 feet across and 120 feet tall, on average. The cedar trees block GPS and satellite TV in nearby neighborhoods. Several died last year and got cut down by crews with cranes. Its quite the operation. Sad, yet amazing just the same. There's a bunch of dead trees in the neighborhood, including some of the deciduous oaks. I grew up in Live Oak country, by the coast, where the leaves stay on all year and are cupped to catch the fog, coalesce it into a big drop, and then drip that drop onto its roots for proper absorption. There's a lot of adaptation to low rainfall in California. Once, there were hurricanes up to Redding, and I know that because I've seen the evidence in the rocks. You can see it easier down in LA basin, along the base of all those mountains, those piles of rocks? It takes serious rain to dislodge that.

A couple weeks ago, because the weather is so warm and the winter was so mild, without snow here, now all the flowers are blooming and the leaves are coming out on the trees, my Dad and I opted to put some air in the tires and take out our bicycles for a ride. This is a good place to ride because cyclists are rarely hit by cars. Folks know that its a bike racing stage start for the Amgen Tour of California. It used to begin the whole race in Nevada City, which is about 3 miles away, but it now starts stage Two instead. Keeping in mind I'm at 2600 feet, half a mile up, and surrounded by steep canyons and hills and shaded lanes too narrow to bother with a centerline... yeah, you can picture that right? The roads aren't terribly smooth, which suits competitive cyclists. The roads in France are bumpy too. Tar inside the asphalt flows in the summer heat, and winter rains cause the aquifers to saturate, allowing line-springs to cause pot-hole freezing and cracking of the road surface. Those potholes can make for surprises when at speed.

Despite accidentally overpressuring my 6 year old inner tube and wrecking it, I bought a replacement and installed it since then (see post), and went out for a ride on Sunday. Dad is getting on in years and finding the right balance of effort for his heart without causing an attack seems pretty tricky. He and Mom used to visit the Truckee River Trail running along the river from Squaw Valley to Lake Tahoe, which is a pretty gentle climb for most of it. About half the water in the greater truckee river comes from Lake Tahoe. Riding a bicycle that's properly maintained is a joy. I really like doing this, compared to say being irritated with that racist bastard in NYC. That guy makes moral people angry. Bicycles don't care. They just roll on. With seal sealing inner tubes, a good bicycle is like a Honey Badger. It just don't care.

Not to say I can ride everywhere. I'm no Danny McAskill, after all.

You do need a specially reinforced bike to do that, but you can see just how agile they are. I expect he's broken a lot of bones reaching this level of mastery. Here in the canyon country of the Foothills, I am baffled to see skateboarders on the streets here. Those little wheels hit little pebbles and skid to a stop while the rider keeps going end over end. Thanks to Obamacare, hospital stays are expensive. Before him, deductibles were $250 or less. Now? Over $1000. You're out that for a single accident, and you can buy a pretty nice bicycle for $1000. When you start looking at alternatives for that money, a lot of questions occur. And the answers do not make you happy with politicians. But back to regional concerns. The weather is lovely, and warm enough that bicycling feels wonderful on the skin as you ride, cars don't try to run you down, and the overall experience is joyful.

I enjoy bicycling. Its great exercise and you feel amazing freedom, even though you are working for that freedom via pushing the pedals with your muscle power. Every part of a bicycle makes sense, and you can easily see, without paying some mechanic, how each part works, how to adjust and maintain it. This is a type of strength. I don't think you should bicycle in heavy traffic, or dare cars to hit you. That's immensely stupid. That is your fault, and its suicidal to put yourself in harms way, then insist that drivers "should watch out for you". That is swimming with sharks, and you deserve to be mocked for getting eaten. I see way too many posts from injured bicyclists who dared a car to hit them and lost. Just because your muscles are tired doesn't give you special rights. Instead, bicycle in safe places, at quiet times when there's not much traffic. Be sensible. Hospital visits are expensive. Exercise on a bicycle can be cheap, and a cheap bike is just as good exercise as an expensive one. Its all about the pedalling and if you don't go as far but get just as tired, so what? Adjust the tightness of your bearings and lubricate things properly, you end up just as fast. It still comes down to fitness more than equipment. Buying fancy equipment is rarely the answer. And picking a route away from distracted drivers, onto side streets and back roads is often the solution to avoiding traffic accidents. Get out of their way. You're only 10-25 mph anyway. A slow back street is perfect. Use that. Don't "take the lane" and then be surprised about being rammed. Duh! I've been riding a bike for decades, and never been hit by a car. There's been some close calls, and those were always when I had to join traffic. My options were gone. When I got back to the parallel side streets it was fine. If you are sensible, you will protect yourself and get fit at the same time.

Darcy Lewis, Vampire Slayer, Semi-Retired

If you saw the first Thor movie, a few years back, you knew it was pretty silly, but it was only meant to pass a summer waiting for Avengers, which turned out to be pretty good popcorn movie for a Saturday afternoon. Review of the plot-chasms reminds one that the sort of people who create comic book plots are the sort of people who draw big muscles and giant swinging boobs and belt pouches (Rob Leifeild, this means you!), which has something to do with why I never got into them.

Anyway, one of the amusing characters in Thor was Darcy the Intern. Darcy was a poli-sci major, working an internship because she needed the units. She ends up tasing Thor after hitting him with the van they're driving in the desert of New Mexico. Tasing the god of lightning and thunder. That's an image that stays with you, more than the rest of the film, though Eric Selvig getting hammered drunk with Thor in a bar should be been more celebrated than it was. While Thor was directed by noted Shakespearean actor Kenneth Brannagh (Much Ado About Nothing), Avengers was directed by Buffy director Joss Whedon, a man who took his obsession with comic books and turned it into a career directing comic book characters with a bit of humor and the best directed Scifi to date (Serenity). So Slayers, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, look harmless, and super-hero strong, and you never see them coming. Obviously, the intern who happens to be at the critical New Mexico town working for the Einstein Rosen Bridge researchers (ERB's are what a stargate creates), it would totally figure that she would be a Slayer, like Buffy and Faith. A fan spotted this potential and wrote a series of short stories about it. It is really a shame this isn't canon. It would work. And the potential jokes between Darcy and the Avengers at the right moment? Whedon would be able to play some hilarious moments of jaw dropping surprise. Nobody expects the Slayer. They just turn up. Its mystical.

I just watched Thor the Dark World, which is one of those standalone type stories to tide you over till the next Avengers movie, Ultron. Darcy gets a bunch of jokes in the course of the film, including dipping her own intern in a kiss. Something a slayer can do because they're so strong.

Slayers are also, usually, short. So is Darcy a slayer and just hiding it? Is Whedon implying this is canon after all? Is Darcy going to have a crowning moment of awesome at some point in the future?

Leading Racist Democrat Quits

Harry Reid is quitting the Senate, won't run for re-election. He should have been fired for his racist comments last year, but the Media is Democrats, so shushed the story. This is typical, and just shows racial bias in the media.

I don't have much faith in New York news agencies. They are racist propaganda machines and should be taxed, not paid. Treat them the same as snake oil salesmen. If Jefferson State were real, we could do that. Sigh.

Changing a Bike Inner Tube

There's a right and wrong way to do this. I learned the right way thanks to a book written by a Tour de France bike mechanic/competitor, back in the 70's. And yes, I was already reading non-fiction in the 1970's. I know way more than any sane person should about longbow construction before I was 11. We had a good library in my home town.

1. Verify your bike inner tube is flat by filling it, test, wait, test again. It should be obvious. 
2. Remove the wheel from the bicycle. 
3. Deflate the tube as much as possible. Use a tool like a phillips screw driver for this. You'll need to do this multiple times. 
4. Run your thumb around one side of the wheel, freeing the "bead" from the "rim". Repeat for the other side. 
5. Use the plastic levers common to all repair kits to very GENTLY lift the tire bead over the rim on ONE SIDE ONLY. You don't need to do both beads. Just one is fine. 
6. Grasp the inner tube, which will still have some air in it, from the side opposite the wheel with the stem and extract it from beneath the tire on the same side as the bead is free. This will be obvious. Gently remove all but the stem from beneath the tire. 
7. Remove the stem and extract the inner tube. 
8. Verify that the liner strip which covers the spoke heads/anchors on the wheel is intact. If this is damaged, replace. You can buy or you can use your old inner tube, a cloth tape measure, scissors/shears, and some rubber cement to make a new one. This strip keeps the spokes from tearing holes in your inner tube. Yes, that is a real world problem with bikes assembled by monkeys. Rather than be amazed that monkeys can build bikes, be more impressed that companies charge money for bikes assembled by workers that are monkeys. 
9. Remove new inner tube from box. If it is a slime-type self-sealing tube squish the slime around inside the tube. 
10. Coat the exterior of the new tube with baby powder, specifically talc, not cornstarch. The starch gets wet and causes damage. The talc doesn't. Talcum powder will prevent damage to the tube during inflation and while riding. This is a key trick that isn't shared in any books I've read since 1980. 
11. Partially inflate the new inner tube with a hand pump. I prefer hand pumps to mechanical air compressors. The valve may stick or be partially flooded with goo so be gentle and patient till the goo clears the valve and the air flows into the tube. 
12. Insert the valve stem into the wheel rim. 
13. Insert the tube under the tire. It should fit loosely. 
14. Slip the tire bead back over the rim. It should be much easier now. 
15. Verify the tire stem is seated deep and straight before adding air to the inner tube. 
16. Add about 10 pounds of air, then rotate and bounce the tire. This will help the tire seat to the bead. Verify the stem is still straight and seated all the way down. Add more air. Repeat until you reach about 60 PSI. If you do this correctly the inner tube will be evenly distributed and not torn. This is where that talcum powder has done its job. A surprisingly number of n00bz leave off the powder, inflate all the way, and the tube rips inside the tire. 
17. Once you are close to enough pressure, put the wheel back on the bicycle. 
18. Ride it around for a couple minutes. The tire should be fully seated at this point. 
19. Inflate to full pressure. Do not overinflate. That's how I wrecked my last inner tube, and that was an accident thanks to one of those mechanical air compressors. Again, hand pumps are better. 
20. Remember that lower pressures roll over stuff more easily and reduce punctures. The lower the pressure you use, the more fun you will have riding because the tires will absorb a lot of road bumps, like a shock absorber, and increase your contact patch. 

It is astonishing just how many people get these steps wrong. I've read so many complaints from people who buy bikes built by monkeys and tried riding it before deflating the tire to verify there's even a spoke strip inside the wheel. They don't own talcum powder, and don't adjust their brakes or know how to adjust their gear shifts so they work properly. They spend three times the value of the bike on mechanics who adjust things minimally so they can do it many times to get even with the jerk who bought a bike from someone cheaper. This is how bike shops really are, too. Their money comes from component upgrade sales, which is pretty ridiculous since the only thing that's really changed over the years is available materials. Aluminum has been around since before WW2. Plastic since after. And carbon fiber since the 90's. Most components can be had in perfectly reasonable weight for a very cheap price because the technology was perfected by 1975, or possibly 1994 if you include carbon fiber, which I generally don't. Any bike that costs more than a motor scooter is for racing events, not riding around with a club. If your club are such jerks they ride faster than you can keep up, such that the 2-5 pounds of difference actually matters, get new friends. You are carrying that much water in your blood and will piss it against a tree in a couple stops along the way. You are the heavy thing. You are the engine. You are the wind-drag. Fussing with oddly shaped spokes and carbon fiber wheels is silly and mostly just about money. Get new friends. Ride for fun, or for exercise, which is irrelevant to the weight of your bicycle or your speed. Its about heart rate and duration, and you can do that with a mommy bike up a hill. There's good reason I don't belong to riding clubs. They're just rich snobs showing off, and its not very much fun. If you want to have extra fun, put a radio/music box on your bike and ride with that playing, up the roads that end with a pretty view. That's fun. 

The Modern Gypsy Technical Worker

Airstream trailers hold their value because they last for decades. 

I am skilled labor. Not strong back labor. Not a housing contractor. Not a heavy lifter. Not a bookkeeper or accountant. I'm helpdesk IT, and I'm a librarian (in training). I am skilled just the same. I endured some terrible jobs over the years, and I don't think others should put up with a bad boss. I never plan to do so again. I would rather pack up and move somewhere else. So I've been looking into the options. While I'm already reducing my "stuff" to pretty minimal levels, I could reduce more. Ideally, I should be able to pick up every single thing I own, other than my car, by myself without help. That's true freedom, being able to move without begging someone to lift the other side of some furniture. I donated most of that stuff to charity. I will probably donate the rest as well. Light and strong are certainly possible, and I'm finding that having electronic format books is just fine.

Eventually I'm going to get down to cloud-based entertainment and basic living requirements, plus cooking gear. This gets me down to trailer size. I can really live in a trailer, and never pay $1450/MONTH for rent again. Boy, that was a ripoff. Ideally, a nicely furnished Airstream trailer, with solar panels on the roof, wifi antennas, a decent fridge, a comfy bed, and sufficient counter space to cook full meals the way I like to, that would work for me. Park this in a high end park with full hookups, do the job, finish the job, move on to the next job and good upscale park: I could live with that. I really could.

Full Sized Airstream, a small house inside, and only $135K. 

I really do think about this. It is rational and efficient. Its better than trying to get a job you don't want in a town that doesn't want you. And I sometimes feel that way here. Everywhere I interview, they only want local boys. Or chesty women with negotiable affection rates. If you aren't from here, or desperate to get a back injury, they don't want you. 

I don't own a puller vehicle, but if I did, it would probably be a pickup truck. They are boring to drive, however, and in a more perfect world, I would totally drive a motor scooter or motorcycle to work and leave the towing truck at home, just use it on rainy days and the grocery run. This is rational, and I've got experience pulling trailers. Its mostly about accepting you need to go slow, to stay on smooth roads in the slow lane, and avoiding backing up as much as possible.

Piaggio Fly 150

A light vehicle for commuting across town or into town from a trailer park or campground a little too far away for a bicycle makes good sense. That's why I keep interested in them as a viable vehicle, and you should too. These things may look antique and dangerous when considered in LA traffic, but in the boonies or a tiny town in the midwest or a farm town? These are 80 mpg fuel sippers. Compare that to a 10 mpg pickup truck or 8 mpg RV.

Yamaha SR 400

Motorcycles and scooters are light enough to carry on a ramp on the back (or front) of an RV and allow you to go for miles on country roads without getting exhausted like a bicycle can.

Bus Frame Based RV

Winnebago Sprinter, large Van based RV. 

A big RV is dandy on smooth roads and has lots of living space inside. However, if you think you need to back up a lot, or go on rough roads then a bus-frame RV like this is wrong for you. You need to be looking at an RV instead. While the huge RVs based on a tour-bus frame are the most comfortable, they are NOT capable on rough roads, nor are they much good at backing up. A proper RV is a lot smaller, and has ground clearance to backup or go over rough surfaces.

This truck-top RV camper shell  can extend its jacks and you can drive the truck out from under it. This is handy because you can then use the truck as a vehicle without all the weight. The downside is that the living space is basically room to sleep and heat a meal. Its not comfy, not like an Airstream trailer. But is is practical, and I know building contractors who use these to live in at a job site. If you're fresh out of the army and hate having the same view all the time, but want to decompress as a rentacop without the hassle of a mall crowd, an RV or trailer will work for car lot security. In towns like mine, the guards live at the lot and keep the local junkies out of the new cars. I'm not sure that's really needed, but the local car lots pay them just the same.

A couple years ago I would have thought being a Librarian is a stable job. My education is showing me that isn't the case at all. Budgets for libraries are largely controlled by property taxes, and with unfunded Federal mandates for many special programs, there just isn't enough money left over to maintain jobs at Libraries. For many new librarians, you have to be mobile if you want to make a living, or get paid consistently. Thus all the RVs and trailers.

Moving to the jobs is the rational response to the economy, and quitting jobs that are going under anyway due to budget cuts or broken promises, well that's just being responsible in the modern disloyal America of today. People are jerks. Don't let it get you down. Watch them get smaller in the rear view mirror as you abandon them to their lonely fates. A house with wheels is the ultimate "f-u and your community". That may sound hostile, but getting kicked to a curb after fixing someone's problems with the promise of continued employment? Yeah, that's what keeps happening. I'm done with that. Give me contracts with much higher pay, in writing, and none of this BS 'well we've got this job maybe you could do if you fix this little problem for us". That's ALWAYS a lie. Managers are just too comfortable being bastards.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

As a dedicated personal chef, I am cooking corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes in a big cast iron pot on my stove right now. I often feel sorry for lesbians, vegetarians, and lesbian vegetarians. They're missing out on life, and always look angry. I've got beef and cabbage and red potatoes, flavored with onion and celery and some carrot for color and sweetness. Its very healthy food, very easy to make, and very slow to cook if you're doing it right. Slow food is often best. People who don't cook learn to eat fast food and hunt for the better stuff if they can afford it. In this post-civil America that may be a very expensive hobby. I prefer slow food, exchanging time to get a better tasting result. This often works. And I'm happy for that.

I hope my readers, both of you, are cooking corned beef and cabbage today. Cheers!

F1 2015: Melbourne Grand Prix

Good race, except for all the Hybrids dying on the side of the road without any apparently visible cause. They just... stopped. 13 cars finished the race, one of which was last but considered a victory because it FINISHED. Melbourne looks like San Diego, like Mexico COULD be if it was clean and law abiding. They provided a great location for the race so kudos to Australia for hosting this race. The world often forgets Australia, but we get reminded you exist from time to time. I encourage my readers to watch Formula 1 racing. It is interesting because its a mix of technology, skill, and strategy, and I think car racing will continue after the oil age, even if they have to synthesize the fuel in factories, and fans show up to the race on bicycles or electric trams or even horsedrawn carriages and buggies. People used to show up to air races that way, did you know? Can you imagine cycling 50 miles and camping in a tent or hostel to attend a race with thousands of other people who went to similar effort just to be there? To hear a car engine and see the state of the art roaring by at speeds only the very rich can experience. That's the future.

Good times. I am excited about watching these races.

Pratchett Died

Apparently, Terry Pratchett, my favorite author these days, passed away last Thursday. A pity, and he will be missed. It is rare for an author to develop such a consistent level of writing craft. He was great, from long effort and practice. I will miss him.

Putin Stroke Rumor

Confirmed by denial? Who knows.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/vladimir-putin-health-fears-kremlin-denies-rumours-president-is-ill-after-he-cancels-second-meeting-in-two-days-10102967.html There's several different articles on this, but it is probably just a rumor. Putin acts like a maniac clown, but he was head of KGB for a decade and you don't get there by being stupid. If the Russian Oligarches mobilize their private troops or the nuke missiles get fueled or the Ukraine war gets suddenly more exciting, that tells you something. For now, this is a rumor.