Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
A response to "A Pavlovian Experiment"
In regards to Biking Brady's post, the title of this post says it all.
Between the "MS150 Tractor Crash" and the "Ding Ding" incident I think I should give up cycling or better yet give up being the cycling shepherd.
I have said the "bad word" with regards to the "Ding Ding" story many times today.
In regards to Biking Brady's post, the title of this post says it all.
Between the "MS150 Tractor Crash" and the "Ding Ding" incident I think I should give up cycling or better yet give up being the cycling shepherd.
I have said the "bad word" with regards to the "Ding Ding" story many times today.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The End of the World
If you listen to the Revelationists, the reactionary Climatologists or the cycling media you may believe "The End is Near'!
FYI, Revelations was written about Nero Cesar and Rome, the arctic and antarctic have temperate fossils indicating change is the only constant and doping was 'killing' the tour and the riders during the 50's & 60's.
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6023
Rumors of everything's demise are highly exaggerated.
BTW, Wikipedia lists Eddy Merckx as testing positive, twice.
FYI, Revelations was written about Nero Cesar and Rome, the arctic and antarctic have temperate fossils indicating change is the only constant and doping was 'killing' the tour and the riders during the 50's & 60's.
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6023
Rumors of everything's demise are highly exaggerated.
BTW, Wikipedia lists Eddy Merckx as testing positive, twice.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Cyclists & Dogs
Lately there has been a lot of hullabaloo about all the vicious dogs biting and chasing cyclists in the area and it is my opinion cyclists should do something about it.
Problems
1. There is no leash law outside of town so the out-of-town dogs are often going to be off leash. (I have been told there is a dog leash law out-of-town.)
2. Dogs are not human, they don't think like humans or act like humans so don't treat them like humans.
3. Dogs are not "vicious" unless trained to be. I believe none of the dogs on any of the routes I have ridden are vicious although some of them are getting annoying and are unaware that I own the road and they are required to leave me alone.
4. Cyclists can lead dogs to act "vicious" by giving them something fun to chase and by acting afraid.
Solutions
1. Don’t let the dog chase you.
2. Stop and confront the dog and make it to go home.
3. Buy some pepper spray for a little moral/psychological support so you feel in control when you stop and confront the dog and have every intention of using it if necessary.
4. Make the dog/cyclist interaction not a fun game for the dog.
Benefits
1. No bitten cyclists.
2. No crashed bikes.
3. No sheriff.
4. No euthanized dogs.
5. No lawsuits.
The Reality
1. As long as it is not your problem it is not a problem.
2. Shepherding dogs away from cyclists is no longer my concern.
3. Cyclists who aren't victims won't be victimized by dogs.
Problems
1. There is no leash law outside of town so the out-of-town dogs are often going to be off leash. (I have been told there is a dog leash law out-of-town.)
2. Dogs are not human, they don't think like humans or act like humans so don't treat them like humans.
3. Dogs are not "vicious" unless trained to be. I believe none of the dogs on any of the routes I have ridden are vicious although some of them are getting annoying and are unaware that I own the road and they are required to leave me alone.
4. Cyclists can lead dogs to act "vicious" by giving them something fun to chase and by acting afraid.
Solutions
1. Don’t let the dog chase you.
2. Stop and confront the dog and make it to go home.
3. Buy some pepper spray for a little moral/psychological support so you feel in control when you stop and confront the dog and have every intention of using it if necessary.
4. Make the dog/cyclist interaction not a fun game for the dog.
Benefits
1. No bitten cyclists.
2. No crashed bikes.
3. No sheriff.
4. No euthanized dogs.
5. No lawsuits.
The Reality
1. As long as it is not your problem it is not a problem.
2. Shepherding dogs away from cyclists is no longer my concern.
3. Cyclists who aren't victims won't be victimized by dogs.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Naming of Cactus Eyed Joe - Part Two
So picture me attempting me to shape a spindly under watered mulberry tree a year before BRAN 24. I had harvested the mulberry from somewhere it had been happily growing after a bird deposited its seed in the soil. I transferred it to a cute little square ceramic bonsai pot. The tree had survived a winter indoors with me which is no small feat. I had just moved all my house plants outside on my old trailer's porch and was sitting clipping off some small branches with a clipper. I finished clipping, turned sat down the clippers down behind me. I put the tree and pot back in its place on the porch started packing up my tools. For some reason when I was finished cleaning up I went back to look at the mulberry. I bent over and reached down to get the tree and the pot. There was a branch that was pointing in a way that I was unable to see because it poked me right in the eye. It was one of the branches that I had just trimmed so the point was nice and sharp.
The Naming of Cactus Eyed Joe - Part One
The story begins with my layman's interest in plants and in particular bonsai. I have attempted to bonsai just about every tree-ish houseplant and tree that grows wild in my area. Most of my attempts don't survive very long or look very interesting. This isn't surprising considering a good specimen takes years to mature and most wild trees don't survive well as houseplants during the winter. The plant species that seems to survive in spite of my ministrations are jade trees. Just in case you think I am crazy, jade trees are used as bonsai specimens. I also attempt to grow cactus (another plant with less di-hydrogen monoxide dependant properties) and I think my name comes from Biking Brady's confusion between my jade trees and my cactus. Although when I pointed this out during BRAN 2004 (Bike Ride Across Nebraska) where the naming occurred we both agreed that the name Jade Eyed Joe didn't quite have the same ring to it.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
2004 MS 150 Excitement
Recently Biking Brady posted his perspective of the
incident. I thought I would add a little to the story since I was mentioned and had a front row perspective.
It was a day with a stiff head wind coming out of the south that was a little gusty and irregular. It was a good strength and stamina sapping wind. Travis and Kevin were the leading riders of a double pace line. We had started with at least eight riders and had been "gathering" riders who gladly latched on to our group to get a break from the wind. By the time we reached the draft of the tractor we were tightly packed group at the front trying to maximize the draft off each other.
The quickest part of Kevin's story seemed to take forever for me. I'll pick up the story from Kevin’s line "I no more grabbed it and my wheel wobbled and the rest is a blur of looking at the ground, sky, ground, sky, etc" and describe what happened during each of his clockwise Kevin over bike tumbles during the incident.
When Kevin went down I was right behind him trying to stay off his back wheel. I was between his back wheel and the white line on the edge of the road. As Kevin went down he and his bike rolled clockwise down to the pavement just like he hit a sheet of ice. Kevin's back tire blocked me from moving toward the center of the road.
I couldn't hit my brakes for fear of taking out the rider behind me so I just moved a little closer toward the white line. This ended the first blur of ground to sky Kevin quickly described in one sentence.
I thought pulling over and using my brakes again but I didn't remember the position of the front tire of the rider behind me. It had been a while since I had checked. The gusty conditions made it hard to feel safe enough to glance under my arm to check and I sure could not take a look now. If I could have moved over toward the middle of the road, I would risk bumping the rider next to me in the other line. Right behind the rider next to me (Eric?) was a rider (John?) who was an offensive lineman in college. Not the person I wanted on top of me in a pile up on pavement. Thus ended Kevin's second blur of ground to sky.
To avoid Kevin's new wheel position I moved onto the white line. He was slowing down faster than I was and I would have had to brake really hard to get out of the way of his tire. I hadn't gone down yet and I was hoping that the person behind me wasn't about to take out my back tire. I still couldn't use my brakes and had now where to go except toward the ditch. Thus ended Kevin's third blur of ground to sky.
As I rode my bike into the ditch Kevin rolled into the ditch. Thus ended Kevin's fourth blur of ground to sky.
I wanted to be free of my bike and control my roll into the ditch so threw my bike into the ditch toward the fence while throwing my body forward. Luckily my feet came out of my pedals. Kevin came free from his bike at just about the same time and popped up like a carnival target. He ended up kneeling in mid air in front of me as I went flying free from my bike. My right knee smacked him square in the helmet.
Kneeing Kevin in the head slowed me down while keeping my legs under me and I hit the ground running (literally). I survived without any injuries. My bike didn't fare as well. My handlebars were knocked out of true. My seat post luggage rack was push way out of proper alignment. My Polar power monitor didn't want to work right for the rest of the day.
The most depressing site was my fellow riders riding up and over the hill in front of me and out of sight. When I finally got back on the bike I rode 25 mph trying to catch the group until the adrenalin rush wore off. I never caught the group on the road. I was dog tired by the time I got to Centerville. I limped my way to Dalesburg and crawled my way to Vermillion.
There are too many "morals of the story" to cover considering I did my best not to cause anyone else to crash and we were on a ride raising money for people with MS. But the important moral I am left with is to remember to include more time trial interval training into my training program so that one hard push doesn't leave me dog tired on the road.
It was a day with a stiff head wind coming out of the south that was a little gusty and irregular. It was a good strength and stamina sapping wind. Travis and Kevin were the leading riders of a double pace line. We had started with at least eight riders and had been "gathering" riders who gladly latched on to our group to get a break from the wind. By the time we reached the draft of the tractor we were tightly packed group at the front trying to maximize the draft off each other.
The quickest part of Kevin's story seemed to take forever for me. I'll pick up the story from Kevin’s line "I no more grabbed it and my wheel wobbled and the rest is a blur of looking at the ground, sky, ground, sky, etc" and describe what happened during each of his clockwise Kevin over bike tumbles during the incident.
When Kevin went down I was right behind him trying to stay off his back wheel. I was between his back wheel and the white line on the edge of the road. As Kevin went down he and his bike rolled clockwise down to the pavement just like he hit a sheet of ice. Kevin's back tire blocked me from moving toward the center of the road.
I couldn't hit my brakes for fear of taking out the rider behind me so I just moved a little closer toward the white line. This ended the first blur of ground to sky Kevin quickly described in one sentence.
I thought pulling over and using my brakes again but I didn't remember the position of the front tire of the rider behind me. It had been a while since I had checked. The gusty conditions made it hard to feel safe enough to glance under my arm to check and I sure could not take a look now. If I could have moved over toward the middle of the road, I would risk bumping the rider next to me in the other line. Right behind the rider next to me (Eric?) was a rider (John?) who was an offensive lineman in college. Not the person I wanted on top of me in a pile up on pavement. Thus ended Kevin's second blur of ground to sky.
To avoid Kevin's new wheel position I moved onto the white line. He was slowing down faster than I was and I would have had to brake really hard to get out of the way of his tire. I hadn't gone down yet and I was hoping that the person behind me wasn't about to take out my back tire. I still couldn't use my brakes and had now where to go except toward the ditch. Thus ended Kevin's third blur of ground to sky.
As I rode my bike into the ditch Kevin rolled into the ditch. Thus ended Kevin's fourth blur of ground to sky.
I wanted to be free of my bike and control my roll into the ditch so threw my bike into the ditch toward the fence while throwing my body forward. Luckily my feet came out of my pedals. Kevin came free from his bike at just about the same time and popped up like a carnival target. He ended up kneeling in mid air in front of me as I went flying free from my bike. My right knee smacked him square in the helmet.
Kneeing Kevin in the head slowed me down while keeping my legs under me and I hit the ground running (literally). I survived without any injuries. My bike didn't fare as well. My handlebars were knocked out of true. My seat post luggage rack was push way out of proper alignment. My Polar power monitor didn't want to work right for the rest of the day.
The most depressing site was my fellow riders riding up and over the hill in front of me and out of sight. When I finally got back on the bike I rode 25 mph trying to catch the group until the adrenalin rush wore off. I never caught the group on the road. I was dog tired by the time I got to Centerville. I limped my way to Dalesburg and crawled my way to Vermillion.
There are too many "morals of the story" to cover considering I did my best not to cause anyone else to crash and we were on a ride raising money for people with MS. But the important moral I am left with is to remember to include more time trial interval training into my training program so that one hard push doesn't leave me dog tired on the road.
Friday, February 22, 2008
First time not cycling to work in a very long time!
I took my commuter bike to Bike Plus to fix the spoke that broke last Monday. So for the first time in a long time I walked home. Once I get my bike back I will have to start the count over. By the way, if I was keeping track I would be ahead of Biking Brady since he hitched a ride during the 2006 winter on a very cold day.
I will not get my commuter back until next Tuesday. :((
So if you see the crazy guy with the huge blue backpack walking instead of riding, don't worry I'll be on two wheels soon.
I will not get my commuter back until next Tuesday. :((
So if you see the crazy guy with the huge blue backpack walking instead of riding, don't worry I'll be on two wheels soon.
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