On Fri, 27 Jul 2018 07:25:05 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-07-26 18:43, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2018 16:27:45 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-07-25 16:41, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jul 2018 13:38:57 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-07-24 19:53, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 24 Jul 2018 07:41:08 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-07-23 18:27, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2018 15:13:21 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-07-22 21:44, John B. Slocomb wrote:

[...]


If the bicycles are for work, what are the cars for?


Have you ever tried to haul half a ton of wood pellets, firewood,
construction lumber and whatnot on a bicycle, uphill? With uphill I mean
some serious hills.

Why ever not? Small loads and many trips, just as you would if you
were walking. The argument, "OH! It is too big for my bike", is just
that an argument for using the car.


Obviously you have never hauled four cords of firewood from a location
that is 1400ft lower than where you live. That's eight tons.


Quite the opposite. I spent much of my second career transporting
stuff through jungles, up and down hills and through swamps. I'm quite
aware of the effort of moving tons of machinery and equipment up and
down hills.


On a bicycle. Through the jungle. Right.

Well, not on a bicycle but certainly through the jungle. I might add
that in some places, usually swamps, we carried the cargo on our
heads, arms, back, any way we could get it there.

The sysmic crews, who admitedly didn't work for me, were strictly
human powered. Every thing that they did was powered by hand. Cut a
path through the jungle - by hand. Drill the shot holes - by hand.
Carry everything through the jungle - by hand. Build a camp - by hand.


When cost is not an issue or the government pays the tab that's
feasible. When cost is an issue and its for a house it is an issue. It
doesn't work.


I might point out that my father built two houses (2 bedroom and 3
bedroom) while working as a postal clerk by doing all of the work
himself. Granted it does take a long time but it is both possible and
economically feasible.


And how did the lumber, cladding and all that get there? On a bicycle?
On foot?


've got to qualify that by adding "with the building codes of the
period" as modern building codes have, in my opinion, gone far past
the reasonable and appear to have become simply job protection for
those in the trade.


To some extent yes. Electrical code, no, that is mostly there to prevent
fires and electrocution.

Really? In New Hampshire "Metal Clad" electrical cable is approved for
use in wiring houses. In California it is not approved. Do you think
that electrical shorts are different in one state or the other.

California, at least when I was there, would not allow an electrician
to work unless he had a California license. No electricity in the
other states?




Yeah, some dreamers can go back to the no-car world. Then when little
Joey gets acute appendicitis he can't be transported fast enough and
dies from it. Like in the "good old" days.

[...]

If little Joey has adequate medical attention his appendicitis will
never become acute.


Nope. Appendicitis happens out of the blue and it can go fast. A
neighbor was transported to a hospital, fast, and the doc said after the
surgery that the appendix literally exploded in his hand when he
operated. Without a motor vehicle available he would have very likely
died from something that is rather simple to fix these days. Same for
many other illnesses, including non-preventable ones such as rattlesnake
bites.


I think that you watch too much TV. Given that my brother had an
impending "acute appendix" and was simply driven to the hospital where
they operated and another bloke after I was in the A.F. that we took
to the hospital with a swollen stomach and pains, that was labeled
"acute" I doubt very much that acute is necessarily "ready to
explode".