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Old December 7th 16, 05:16 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
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Default AG: Dead for a runny nose

On Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 8:49:39 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 12/3/2016 11:03 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

I'll try to lay the blame on the Crazy Egg Cafe: I ordered tea with
my lunch, as is my habit when I have to skip my nap. They brought me
a pint mug of delicious spiced tea, but about halfway down the mug, I
checked the tag and discovered that it was "herbal", which usually
means that they've left out the herbs that have caffeine.

I'm still trying to work my way up to being capable of riding the
thirty miles to Spring Creek and back. Between the early curfew in
December and the slick roads in January and February, I'll probably be
starting from scratch in March, as has been my custom for the last few
years.

At the moment, the biggest barrier is that I'm out of places to go.
For today, I as able to exploit a back door into the Crazy Egg that
turned a trip of six point eight miles into eleven point two. It's a
pleasant route, but alas the only dish on the menu that looked
suitable for a little old lady who was about to engage in vigorous
exercise was the half order of biscuits and gravy. This was an entire
English muffin (they were out of biscuits; I had arrived a little
after one and the kitchen closes at two.) and at least half a pint of
bits of meat (seemed to be mostly ham) stuck together with white
sauce. This was tasty, but if I don't want the same again, I'll have
to tackle something like a three-egg omelet. I never ate more than
one egg at a sitting when I was young and skinny!

I'm sure that they box one's left-overs, but boxes don't fit at all
well in panniers if you want to stop at a supermarket too, and few
breakfast dishes travel well in sandwich bags.

From there I took 350 W to 200 N, came back by Fox Farm and the
roundabout, sat for a while at Lake Street Plaza, went south on West
Street to Fort Wayne, went to Owen's Market by way of the Beyer Farm
Trail, and came home by McKinley (crossing Center on Cleveland, which
has a light, but I didn't bother Google Maps with that detail.) 10.1
miles, a total of twenty-one point three.

All this time, the temperature wasn't much above freezing. I lost
count of the number of paper towels and napkins that I saturated; I
disposed of a handfull every time I passed a trash can.

By the time I got to Owen's, fishing a piece of paper out of my
pocket, blowing my nose, and putting the paper away wasn't something
that I paid a lot of attention to.

Now I'm always telling you guys that parking lots are more dangerous
than the open road. DO I READ MY OWN COLUMNS?

As I mounted up after packing my panniers with fruit and vegetables, I
reflected that I was tired and ought to be extra careful. DID I
LISTEN TO MYSELF?

I proceeded west in front of the store, going into the oncoming lane
of the aisle so that I could see into the prescription-pickup aisle
behind the stop sign. Then I coasted along the continuation of that
aisle, planning to turn left but entirely unaware that I was
approaching an intersection, let alone remembering that the other guy
had the right of way.

My nose was already clogged with tears, so I pulled a piece of dinner
napkin out of my back pocket and raised it to my nose -- and then
realized that I was about to coast into the path of a car. With all
my monkey ancestors screaming "Don't let go of what you are holding!
You'll fall a hundred feet!" and no time to boot up my cortext, I
couldn't brake. I swerved into a triangle painted "not for parking or
driving", and -- still controlling the bike with only one hand, I
nearly fell off while stopping. I sure hope the driver isn't
acquainted with "The only problem is that cars are bigger than bikes
so we need long skinny parks" Kip Shuter.

As it happened, all I paid was deep embarrassment and a salutatory
lack of confidence during the remaining mile and a half of my ride,
but I could have died of a runny nose.


Yep, parking lots are chaotic. The geometries are often weird, rules
are rarely enforced, blind spots are common, people are distracted.
(See below.)

Yep, being tired adds to the potential for error. Heck, even my
shifting gets a bit more erratic when I'm really tired - at least, on my
friction-shifting bikes.

But the big thing in your case was the distraction. Any time something
takes our minds away from operating the vehicle, the potential for
problems skyrockets. I've seen a terrible crash when a guy dropped his
water bottle and tried to see where it went. I've tripped and toppled
off my motionless bike while trying to mount and simultaneously stuff my
jacket into a bike bag.

I don't think it means we shouldn't blow our noses or drink from a
bottle while riding. But if we combine riding with... well, almost
anything, we need a little angel on our shoulder telling us "This could
be tricky; pay attention!"

--
- Frank Krygowski


What are you doing here Frank? Tired of being called names for expressing opinions elsewhere? You know I can argue with you without holding any animosity. And hopefully without calling names where they don't belong in our disagreements. Whenever you and I argue about something please remember that I have complete respect for you. Dummy.

As far as riding on sidewalks. There are plenty of places where riding on the sidewalk is both safer and makes better sense. Pedestrians may have the right-of-way but that doesn't mean that they have the right to the entire sidewalk as I often see with groups covering the sidewalk so that they can talk with one another.

There is a section of sidewalk that bypasses a one way opposite street on my way up to the ride meeting place that I often take. The only pedestrian that I've ever seen there was an Asian man who collected the plastic bottles thrown out of cars as they leave the freeway there. But with the economy of California so red-hot these days no one is throwing plastic bottles out - they are keeping them for the deposit. So I haven't seen any plastic bottles nor the collector for two years.

I disapprove of making right turns on a stop light and then making a u-turn to turn right again to avoid stopping at a stop light. And I also disapprove of cutting up onto a sidewalk in order to get a crosswalk that stops other traffic because invariably some nutjob will make a "free right turn" despite NO RIGHT TURN ON RED signs being posted everywhere.
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