Be A Farmer

Most people prefer working to sitting around. I have to wonder if America should do what Japan has done and start training the unemployed in how to farm. It sure isn't doing its part to bring manufacturing back to America, not with us so beholden to China, probably under implicit threat of economic retaliation.

The USA itself has a huge population and is land rich, but needs proper irrigation to use more of it for its primary export: food. Specifically grains like Wheat, Corn, Soybeans, and Rice. That can't happen as long as there's no money in agriculture, which is why the higher prices in food are a good thing for farmers. Of course, Farmers are huge users of petrochemicals: diesel fuel, pesticides, fertilizer, and transport fuel. The smart ones factor in the oil price to their selling price so they can stay in business. Organic farming avoids most of the petrochemicals. Solar power to charge up battery powered electric tractors (don't laugh, they exist) is starting to become a real way to do business in desperately rural locations, ones where the cost of delivery of diesel fuel for a conventional tractor just wasn't economical. I can see these becoming a common thing. With cheap solar panels, a lot of things start to make sense again. Like pumping from deep water wells. It would be better if the aquifers were full, but that's a big project that will take decades to complete. A topic for another post.

Many of the people who are unemployed today would probably welcome the long hours of labor if they were trained in farming and deposited on an abandoned farm for a reasonable mortgage. I couldn't be a farmer straight out of nothing, myself. I don't know when to do what step, what to prep for, how to do field repairs of machinery, or the consequences of screw ups that aren't painfully obvious. I'd need training for that. The local college has Horticulture classes, but they aren't farming oriented so much as how to be a landscape contractor and compete with Mexicans with a lawnmover and leaf blower.

That's not the same job. I'm talking about managing 1000 chickens at an egg factory in a shed built or converted for the purpose, with humane sized cages, ventilation, feed delivery, limited climate control. I'm talking about learning how to set up delivery contracts for the local restaurants and markets. Hiring or making the deliveries daily so fresh eggs are served at breakfast at every greasy spoon in town. And doing it cheap enough that no competitors ruin the egg farmer. Who trains that? I can certainly tell you that you won't make enough to pay off student loans from UC Davis at that scale of operation, and small operators are what the nation needs, not another giant.

How about training as an Orchardist? Learn what special trees should be chosen for your soil type and climate. How to plant and care for them the 3-5 years they need till they start producing fruit. How to identify and protect them from disease. How to prune them back properly every winter so they keep putting out fruit annually. And calculate having enough acreage of fruit trees to support yourself and pay the mortgage on the land etc. And do it cheaper than imported fruit can. The investment of those first 3-5 years with no income from the fruit, that's going to add to the interest on the loan too. Managing the money from good year to bad, when frost or hail can wipe out your crop, this is why people gave up farming and moved to the city. If you can only get poor farming, why do it? That's a big problem. Never get into an industry that has rock concerts to raise money to keep it going. Unfortunately, farming is what America is good for.

So are we all going to end up farmers eventually? Probably not. But many of us will either be farmers or part of their support structure. All that really buoys up our currency is farming. The rest are shares in companies that are offshored into countries with unstable structures and just as likely to fail for many reasons. Who needs that? Farming is a growth industry.

• If you hate being dirty but love to shop, be a wholesaler with a truck (or a boat). Buy direct, do the transport, sell it on for a profit.
• If you like metals, work in the welding and machining industry, fixing or making all those agricultural implements. There's work in that. If farming expands like I think it will, lots of work. A real growth industry. 
• If you like to cook, run the cafeteria or catering company feeding the farm workers, or run a greasy spoon in a farm town. Those still exist, you know. 
• So do the pubs for after hours. People good at brewing beer or distilling booze or making wine have a bright future for all those tired farmers. No sense being miserable just because you work 18 hours a day covered in dirty and dooky. 
• There's also crucial jobs for preserving and packaging the food harvested, and maintaining the equipment that does that job. Its seasonal, so have something else to do the rest of the year.
• Throw in the transportation of those packaged foods via train (again a growth industry) and barge and ship, internationally. If China seizes the Panama Canal, you'll get to either go around the horn or do runs along the Pacific coast, trading back and forth, avoiding pirates and storms. Adventure!
• There's also unconventional farming, fish and shellfish on the coasts and on the open ocean. Perhaps very boring, but its a job and it will make for a lot of cheap protein (that isn't eggs) to eat. Might be okay for couples, as its a Lighthouse Keeper kind of job. Good profit too, provided you can keep it running through the various conditions. Farmed salmon is the primary kind sold to restaurants and the public these days. Same with oysters and mussels. 
• Traditional fishing is going to come back once the diesel goes away. All those diesel fishing boats are going to be obsolete. It will take years to train crews and build boats good at fishing via sail and so catches will be disappointing, giving each species of commercial fish a chance to make a real comeback. This means tuna and herring and cod and sardines will make a big return to their natural numbers. The central California coast used to be teeming with sardines. Picture catching those with sailing vessels instead of big diesels dragging nets. Very macho. 

This is our future. These jobs have a future. As our "information economy" evaporates into the smoke and dreams it always was, we'll be left with the above. What are you going to pick? 

Election Map Economics

This is how divided America is today. Note that this is by district, rather than population.

The Republican Party lost the election last week. Its been reviewed heavily, by conservative press and fingers have been pointed at the causes. I admit that the Republican Party needs to try proper Centrism. I was ashamed at how they rose to the bait over Abortion when the majority of the party prefers it left as it is. They allowed the Far Right Zealots to get Trolled on that issue, let them speak out their Crazy and it cost them the swing voter women, thus the election.

The Republican Party should have been talking about the Economy and the Unemployment rate, which is what really bothers everyone the most. Real unemployment is somewhere around 22% when you count people working PT, people working well below their abilities for a lot less money, people taking one (1) class in night school, all of these are considered "fully employed" or "student" since Clinton changed the rules back in the 1990's. This is where the Republican party was supposed to be strong, and they didn't use it. I can only conclude that they didn't want to win.

What do you have that defines Red vs Blue? Rich vs poor? No. The map is of mostly POOR counties in Red. See? The elites are mostly in blue districts, with the exception of racial voting patterns and the handout-driven districts (Navajo in NE AZ and Northern NM, farmers along the Southern Mississippi river lowlands). Some of these places are barely surviving as it is. Take away the govt handouts and they'd empty like ghost towns in Nebraska. The big cities are Blue because the govt money flows to them. Rural areas? Your govt dollar is in the roads and the postal service and maybe the fire department, but that's about it. Its pretty much the same as it was in the 1920's. How can you get behind higher taxes when you're living proof of the generations of poverty?

The big money investors have been offshoring jobs because its more profitable to work with China than try and untangle all the permits and Environmental Impact Reports and deal with Unions and patent disputes to do domestic manufacturing. If its too much work you lose all your profits. Why bother investing if you're just going to break even or lose money? Ergo, the jobs go elsewhere. This is hurting America, and this disconnect between investing money and domestic jobs is the REAL issue of the election, one ignored by both candidates. Neither one had real plans to return jobs to America. They don't have that power. Congress imposes trade tariffs, and they won't do it.

The world is switching from Dollars to Yuan for its world reserve currency, and Gold to back that up. This isn't a great idea, being that the Yuan is a Communist currency so its value is decided by fiat, but with Bernanke printing billions of US Dollars through Quantitative Easing, we don't have much right to complain about the difference. There have been a number of deals allowing direct exchange between OPEC nations and China using Yuan instead of Dollars. I see that as proof that the Dollar is a Bubble. I expect its value to fall quite a bit more. I predict that eventually, the Dollar will settle around 20-25% of its value in 2006, right before the Housing Bubble burst. When people gush about housing values rising, I think "Inflation". Not "recovery".

Wages remain low, however, and one of the few upsides to the Socialists winning the election is there will be serious traction for a hike in Minimum Wage, seeing as that's the real wage in the real world. It will just keep pace with inflation if they raise it to $10/hr nationally. This is what the Democratic party can do to win a little respect from the Red States. That's not very much however.

For the rest of us, expand your cooking repertory, go for a bicycle ride every time the weather is clear, do that maintenance so it keeps working properly. Maybe get a second bike for goofy fun rides or serious distance, the one you don't park anywhere it can be stolen. The bike equivalent of a sports car. I still want the experience of a Recumbent bike, but I'd be satisfied with a rental. I think I would enjoy an aluminum framed road bike, or a full-suspension mountain bike. That would offer more riding options.

Look ma, no pedals!

I'd much rather own a scooter for a commute over 2 miles or over a hill(s), like I've got here. The scooter is the next step up from a bike and has the benefit of not leaving you out of breath and sweaty when you arrive at work. I wish CARB (California Air Resources Board) were run by rational people who were willing to help solve the PRK's fuel issues by authorizing more vehicles, but that's not their deal. They have to follow the Law, and the Law is a long way from right and wrong. With the kinds of wages we're going to see in the near future we will probably ONLY be able to afford fuel for scooters soon enough.

Picture this in NYC.

Ah, scootering in snow flurries and heavy rain. I can't say I'd show up for work in those conditions. "Sorry: its snowing. Only have two wheels. Route calls to my number, I'll work from home." I expect many other people will feel the same way. What is the impact on the economy then?

Weather causing absenteeism. Unapologetic absenteeism. Its not like Saigon, where the million scooters and bicycles are ridden in rain the temperature of blood so nobody gets hypothermia. Same with the Florida Keys or San Tropez in the summertime. Great places to ride a scooter. I really expect to see a serious number of scooters on the road, provided they're legal and cheap. We just don't have any choice anymore. We made our choice last week. Now we get to choose between risking pneumonia on a scooter in the snow or losing the only job we can get, one that pays minimum wage. This was our choice. We get to live with the consequences.

Total chick magnet.

If we're very fortunate we can buy a Geo Metro and add lightness so it hypermiles. Then do a really good job maintaining the engine so the high revs won't destroy the engine every 6 months. It's NOT a pretty car, but it gets good MPG and keeps the rain off. Switch back to the scooter during the dry months and double or triple the MPG. Is that our future? Probably not the whole thing. At some point we'll be so poor that we won't have access to fossil fuels at all, though maybe Fracking will help. Even that will run out, eventually. Fossil fuels deplete. In the longer term we'll be paying for very expensive renewable biodiesel or pedaling once more. What can you do?

Why Recumbent Bicycles Aren't Common

Bicycles are mature technology. They've been around since just after the Civil War. The Penny Farthing (giant front wheel, small rear) is one of the more famously extreme designs that requires a particularly brave and reckless athlete to operate, and note I'm not putting "safely" next to the word operate.

Brave, brave men.

Over time, it became painfully obvious that the right answer to a bicycle's design is same sized wheels, front and rear, largely upright or slightly forward leaning posture, handlebars at front, pedals beneath you, with alternating strokes to power a chain. Not a belt or gear or shaft but a chain. The other variations exist. You can buy them if you really want to. They cost about the same, but getting replacement parts 10 years from now might prove a little harder. Chains are popular and enduring for a reason. A shaft drive is probably fun, maybe even a really good choice where there's lots of rust-producing salt on the road, or sand. Or where it rains all the time (Portland) but people insist on bicycling regardless of weather.

Someone is always reinventing the bicycle. It's a better mousetrap kind of appeal. That's because bicycling is so much fun. I love leaning into the turns. It's so primal. I doubt I would enjoy a non-leaning tricycle design. Those exist. There's leading delta and trailing delta, upright and recumbent. But the most popular and enduring design is the one you see everywhere.

There's good reason that bicycles have a manual gear shift rather than a cintrepedal shifter that does it automatically for you. Sometimes you just don't want to be pedaling continuously, which is how those kind work. But you can buy a bicycle with that if that's what you want.

Or you can get a bicycle with only one gear so you never have to worry about it at all. They're called Fixies, as in Fixed Gear. One speed. Allegedly, training on a fixie will make you much stronger when you use multiple gear bikes in races. I can't be arsed. I live around hills. I need my gears.

I like handbrakes. I like coasting and freewheeling. Some people would rather use pedal (coaster) brakes, because they're simple push the pedals slightly backwards, you slow down. No hands. They still sell those for people who want them.

Coaster Brakes. So old school.

You can get a perfectly nice, pretty fixie or 3 speed at the local big box store for a hundred bucks, a basic cruiser complete with brown saddle and fenders and whitewall tires. A good bike for a date with a pretty girl who doesn't have the fitness or inclination to chase you at speed. I saw many of those my last bike trip up the Truckee River to Tahoe City, Lake Tahoe. As date material goes, it wouldn't be an offensive choice. A bike that goes with any tennis/trainer shoe, and costs about the same. Get her the matching Chick version and she'll be all cuddly. Or furious at the presumption. Nobody who says they understand women is trustworthy. Remember that. For a little bit more you can get an 8 speed which looks almost the same but gives you more ability to climb hills, and thus more places to ride.

Very Typical Recumbent Bike.

The picture above is from Linear Recumbent Bikes.
I also saw a few recumbent bicycles at Tahoe. With their handlebars under their ass, the front wheel smaller than the rear, the bike with a flag above the seat catching on overhanging tree limbs and yet lacking the visibility to see or be seen over the hoods of cars pulling on and off the highway, well, you'd think these would be great fun but the riders mostly looked uncomfortable. The trikes look better to me, and they're a lot cheaper too. Can't fall over at a stoplight. I can't see they'd be much fun pedaling up a hill, however. Also: staring past your legs to try and see the glass on the road you're hoping to miss so you won't get a flat... that's gonna be annoying after a while. Remember what I said about the common bike being conventional for a reason? Yeah, visibility and balance are best in the standard upright setup.

When I first saw Recumbent bikes on TV I totally wanted one. I think its because it was a cross between a big boy bike and my big wheel trike I'd killed, like everyone does, flat-spotting a hole through the front wheel by skidding it too hard. Those are great, but they all die the same way. I figure everyone riding a VW trike is actually fantasizing the Big Wheel experience with the money to go 70 mph. I think we'll keep seeing people buy trikes for the Big Wheel experience. Good for them. They aren't as practical as a motorcycle is, but they have their devoted following.

When push comes to shove, a bicycle is either a toy for "WHEE!" factor or transportation. Sometimes those cross over with serious exercise device too. I encourage all my readers to own and ride a bicycle. Even if the gasoline still reaches the local station for the next 5 years, its still a good idea to own and ride a bike, at least once every couple weeks, because its good for you and its fun and there is, after all, "WHEE!" factor. Don't you wanna go "WHEE!"?

Defiance Eggs

So, eggs are cheap protein. We need protein to stay alive. Eggs are not that tasty served the American Way. We boil them, which is nasty. We scramble them but leave them runny. We cook them sunnyside up but not quite long enough for the yolk to go solid, or too long so its hard. I don't like those ways.

When I cook eggs sunnyside up, I use a splash of water and cook 4 minutes on lower heat with a lid to contain the steam. This makes the yolk soft but solid, not runny. Much better tasting.

As for scrambled eggs, I hate runny. Hate it. Runny eggs just scream salmonella poisoning to me, plus they taste like snot. Cook them a few minutes longer, and start the pan hotter to avoid this problem in the first place.

A trick I've learned from the Japanese to make eggs extra tasty involves a splash of Soy Sauce when you mix them in the bowl. Cook till the runny is all gone starting with a hot pan with oil, then turned down after a minute or two. When they're done cooking, sprinkle them with Parmesan cheese. NOT BEFORE! For some reason, eggs stop cooking the moment you put cheese on them, so if they're runny when you put cheese on, they will remain runny forever. I always keep some Parmesan in my fridge for things like this. Parmesan goes with many things. And makes them taste better.

Boiled eggs are not something I eat if I can help it. Sliced, disguised, mashed up in potato salad is okay. Its a good way to hide protein in carbs. Eggs are good in breads and muffins and pancakes and waffles and cookies. That's hiding protein in food, so you won't die so easily in this American Economy. That's what you people voted for. Try and survive your choices. 

Cargo Bicycles

Some months ago I found this really interesting post on cargo bicycles on Gizmodo. Take a look, then come back here and ponder my comments.

First, I disagree about the value of a cargo bicycle except in certain circumstances, namely city with significant traffic to dodge or a dedicated vehicle for frequent cargo duties. These are the places where a trailer attached to a decent bicycle doesn't make as much sense due to the agility requirements of a cargo bike. Or if what you're carrying is really long, since that doesn't work with a trailer either. Trailers are great for groceries though, which is what most people want. They'd work well for a keg, though really if you've gotten to the point your drinking is by keg? You might be an alcoholic. If you own a bar or restaurant then you can probably afford proper delivery vehicles.

I've researched tons of different bicycle trailers, most of which attach at either the seat post or the rear hub, and most cost around $200+ despite being a rack with wheels and a tube connecting to the bike. Ergo, lots of homebuilts. Most trailers can deal with dirt and gravel as well as a bicycle can, particularly the kind that balance on one wheel. 

Regarding Downieville: its a good place for both road biking and for downhill mountain biking. There are companies that will take you up to the Sierra Buttes at Sardine Lakes and you can take many different paths over them and down the fun trails on the Western side back to Downieville. That's the kind of trail where a full suspension is a good idea. The Buttes are at the crest of that section of the Sierras, so you get a nice view both ways and some fun glacial lakes to peruse.

On flatland in densely populated places I can see the value of cargo bikes. In the hills of San Francisco and Portland? Those are for masochists if you're going more than a few blocks. Despite that, I have seen them in use in Portland, hauling stuff. If those had electric assists to help you get up the hills? That would make more sense. If they had motors then you'd just have a Tuktuk and stop pretending.

You know this would be fun.

I recall reading the story of some guy in New York City who'd ponied up the $4K it cost to buy a Dutch cargo bike, then took his kids to the movies. He used the internal frame lock, rather than chain it to something solid. When he came back, someone had picked it up and stolen it. First day he owned it. I don't feel sorry for someone paying that kind of fool tax.

Steal Me!

Nice bikes and weird bikes are the kind that get stolen. Cheap bikes are what you want. Ones that look either nasty or are so easy to replace its not a big deal. A nice bike is something you can never park anywhere, or leave on your bike rack while you go inside the gas station to pee. You can't go to the movies with a carbon fiber bikes parked outside. It takes only 2 minutes to cut through the toughest lock you can buy, thanks to modern tools. It won't be there when you get back. A nice bicycle is a motive for jealousy and an object for theft the moment your ass is off the seat, not real transportation you can run errands with. The Post Peak Oil world is one where you need to run errands without using much or any fuel, and avoid being stranded if possible.

This is decent advice, and my own bike is outfitted like that.

As for cargo, my own bicycle has a standard rack on the back, one fitted with sliding rails to hold a basket or a rear bike bag. Really, it was a waste of money. I should have just bought one of those springloaded kind or one of the expanding Wald baskets that carry two bags of groceries. At the time, I was SURE that Peak Oil was going to cause fuel rationing SOON and I was planning to give my ration to my wife so she could get to work. Of course there was no rationing, other than the price going up another dollar a gallon. I would like to say that I've learned my lesson and I never make predictions but that would be a lie. After all, its going to snow today.

When we shift from car-groceries to pedal power, you can see an abrupt end to soda pop. Its too much weight. Same with fruit juices. We'll be shifting down to mixes where you add water, iced tea in particular, Kool Aid, stuff based on concentrated syrups or dried powders because it's lighter weight and less bulky too. Canned foods are really heavy on a bicycle. You feel every ounce. More likely to arrive intact than frozen, however. Considering how bumpy the roads are, I'd hate to try and get eggs home up these roads. You'd see them all broken by the time you got home. You'd start weighing the value of buying the fragile stuff closer to home, even though it costs more, because it might survive the trip intact. You never worry about that when you shop with a car. I am certain that bicycle trailers, just for market day shopping, will become popular if there's no gas.

No A/C, but you don't have to pedal.

Grocery run!

If there is a little gasoline, you can switch from SUVs to Tuktuks (or mini trucks which are safer) and you can keep drinking beer, soda pop, gallons of milk, eggs, canned food, and all those other heavy things. The suspension won't be great, but it will be better than a cargo bicycle or a trailer. When someone invents a good electric battery so common nobody bothers to steal them anymore, then you can have an electric bike or an electric car or an electric tuktuk to haul your lazy butt around.

I think we're all gonna get skinny well before that. After all, the biggest problem with trams and rail transit is you have to put good quality steel on the ground, and do we really have enough to share for every city, suburb, town, and connecting road compared to the tiny fraction needed for bicycles for everyone who isn't going to just up and die of heart failure? The rest of us are going to get wiry and tough. Start prepping for that so you live through this next step down. America has voted for the continued failure. Be prepared for the consequences. The international Markets are responding by dumping US stocks. Some say this is correction from the failed hopes of a pro-business president position. Others that this is the beginning of the end of the US Dollar as a reserve currency. Time will tell.

So what are you going to do? Get a cargo bike or get a trailer for your regular bicycle? Both will haul groceries and bags of cement and roofing shingles. Both require no gasoline to operate. Both are worth stealing once people get desperate enough.

Election Day

Go Vote! 

In America (United States of) we don't vote with rifles or bombs. We vote with votes at our polling places. We do this despite a history of villains trying to keep us from voting freely and to our own satisfaction, once apiece for what we care about. This is the primary means to prevent violent revolution like you see everywhere else run by thugs or despots. That would be Africa, Central and South America, and some of those European and most Southeast Asian countries. I won't even START on how the Middle East is run. Voting is a civilized response to political change, one that requires no ammunition or calls for the ambulance. We vote.

Go vote. Your country needs you to vote.

Clear, Sunny, Fall Day

Today it is 49'F at sunrise. The sun is warm but the shadows feel icy. The breeze coming off high mountain passes is freezing and smells of snow. It is supposed to reach 75'F today. A good day for a bicycle ride. Would be an excellent day for a drive in the country with a convertible and a woman in a good mood.

It would also be a good day for a ride on a motorcycle or scooter, one with a few stops along the way for pictures or pie. I would really enjoy doing that.

I live in a place where the average vehicle is a Subaru wagon. Where the work truck is always covered in a steel contractor rack for carrying lumber. Where the population that commutes to work in Sacramento is slowly going bankrupt and moving out, so the folks staying here are either Rich Retirees or the people serving them, mostly at Minimum Wage jobs. If you want a happy lifestyle, you have to accept living within those confines. Bikes that cost more than $8K are probably for the rich people alone, and at retirement age, they don't get ridden long or hard.

4 cylinders of smooth running acceleration.

For the poor servant class, folks like me, those sub-$5K bikes are probably more our speed. The more experienced will rescue a basket-case bike and restore it. Something with wire wheels and 4 cylinders so when its done it will purr like a kitten and give a lot of reliable miles of riding. I've read that people use toothpaste to polish rust spots out of the chrome. Most of the really serious restoration guys will strip the whole thing down to the frame, strip that and reweld or repaint any imperfections so it's strong as it needs to be. During the rebuild they test and replace any electrics needing help, as well as a spare for when it burns out, and hunt E-Bay for more parts. All of this takes months of weekend labor, often in a freezing garage while the weather comes down, wrapped in long underwear and a filthy gray sweatshirt. That's LOVE right there.

When the oil runs out, we're each going to face that day of reckoning where we see the empty fuel gauge on our commuter car and know its not enough to get where we need to go and back. We'll have seen the news about the gas stations being empty for some international (arab) reason beyond our control. We'll stop and stare at our bicycle, take a deep breath, and have to decide, each of us, if it's worth going to work under our own power. Many, due to their long distance commute or inclement weather or both, are going to say "hell no". And that will be the moment that the Rat Race dies.

When the car goes from the daily instrument of the economy to something a lot more like a lawnmover: used seasonally, awkwardly, with uncertain quality gasoline and not much care, with a strange and peculiar feeling about it all. Someday we'll be staring at the rusting metal carapace in our driveway and wondering how much we can get for it from the scrap yard, and what they charge back for the pickup, or if it should be shoved off to the side, seats ripped out and replaced with plywood, windows with mesh, and turned into a nice chicken coop? Or maybe the not-very-welcome-guest bedroom. This is the real future for the SUV. When they're hauled away, we'll get a few dozen bicycles out of each, and probably some slow electric car.

Since a motorcycle runs on a small fraction of the fuel needed to run a car, in exchange for safety and comfort, it is likely they'll be the primary transportation for jobs too far for bicycling. Most dedicated specialists who love their jobs above all else will find a way to move close so they can keep the job. Most people love where they live more, and the job is merely convenient, so they'll find something else close to their homes and avoid disrupting their kids lives. Their kids will learn to ride bicycles.

When I was a lad the cool kids had BMX bikes. One speed, a hand brake, a low seat and knobby tires. Goes anywhere. Kids were tough back then. We didn't know about ADD, or have Ritalin. Spazzy kids just spent more time outdoors exercising. We didn't even have Nintendo yet. Race around on your bike, doing tricks and jumps and riding up a mountain for a 10 minute view, then racing back down again like a fool. Nobody ever died like that, which is odd. A Separate God for Drunks and Children, indeed. One with a sense of mercy.

I never had the patience for healing all the wounds to be that good an athlete with a BMX bike, but I do watch Danny McAskill with wonder and respect. He's amazing.

I wonder how slow the world will need to become for things like the 10 mph Segway to become transportation? These things are toys with motors for people too lazy to just WALK. My bicycle, which costs a couple hundred when new, goes 20 mph without too much effort, and needs no batteries, no computers, and the replacement parts are everywhere. The Segway costs thousands, requires smooth level streets to work right, and is more computer than transportation. They're also too slow for streets and too fast for sidewalks. Not to say they aren't still trying to beat that dead horse.

The Segway PUMA really is just a wheelchair with a rain cover. Needs some bright colors, safety equipment, and not operating on a busy street with taxis whizzing by. Considering how unsafe it is, it deserves some of those rotating orange lights on the roof.

Why is it they won't allow TukTuks in America but they'll play with the Segway? If your plumber or locksmith showed up with a Tuktuk and his tools you'd be okay with that. Your pizza could arrive that way too. Three wheels, 275ccs, plastic/canvas rain covers with velcro to hold it together, and a motorcycle steering wheel. What more could you ask? Other than a 4th wheel. These things are cheap because if you hit the brakes too hard in a corner, you may flip over. And get hurled out into the street. Safety is imaginary.

People like the Tuktuk because its so damned simple: a motorized tricycle. No rack and pinion steering, no pedals. The engine, small as it is, does that for you. Who wouldn't be thrilled to have the fastest tricycle in the world? Who didn't dream of that very thing behind the handlebars of their Big-Wheel(tm) from Mattel? The grown up version goes 30-45 mph, depending on gearing and if there's a tailwind. And wouldn't that be a way to put a grin on your face in the morning commute?

 Now that oil is running out, and the prior incompetent president did nothing at all about it but talk, I expect the next one will ask states to lower speed limits from 65-70 down to 55 again. This reduces air drag, thus improving fuel economy and reducing the need for foreign oil. Its simple physics. Lowered speeds also lowers head-on crash energies, meaning vehicles won't need as much engineered crumple zone which is dead weight until a crash happens. Thus we might see a slight loosening of safety standards to allow those little Japanese trucks we all remember from the 1980's again.

Rather than an open canvas box balanced on a small central wheel of a Tuktuk, we might see the return of the tiny Datsun pickup with a 3/4 scale bed that will contort if you put more than 500 pounds in it. The seats don't move back because they've got nowhere to go. They've got doors, roll down windows, lights, and safety belts though, so you'd probably survive a rollover, and that extra 4th wheel is a lifesaver. Not as light as a Rickshaw/Tuktuk, but they'll do. The tiny Japanese truck is very basic, and these used to be everywhere before safety standards and upsizing lunch became typical. When Americans got fat in the late 90's, we couldn't fit behind the wheel of a mini truck anymore. We needed BIG trucks to compensate for our own anxieties and performance issues. We should have taken up bicycling to stay slim instead. Might have saved some marriages too. Pity. You don't get the Baywatch body from eating burgers and fries.

Yesterday was lovely. Today is shaping up to be lovely too. Hop on your bicycle if the weather allows, take your camera and enjoy the day. It will be cold and rainy soon enough.