Tuesday, 15 April 2025
As I was crossing Center Street on Monday morning (ye cats,
that seems years ago), I reflected that part of what I'd
read in the night was a thorough debunking of the myth that
it's safer to dismount and walk through intersections.
(It seems to me that the out-of-it reading took place later
than that. -- no, the third trip, I didn't read Cyclecraft
at all, but dipped into snippets of a Hitchcock magazine.)
My point here is that good advice doesn't always apply. I
was leaving a parking lot, and would have needed to mount up
to cross the street on the bike. Also, on foot I could start
off promptly when matching holes appeared, and move in a
predictable manner.
There's an intersection where I always get off and use the
crosswalk. When leaving the fairgrounds, I walk up the hill
because it's steepest precisely where I have to stop for the
sign, and I couldn't possibly start up again. (And I'd be
quite certain to cripple myself if I tried.)
Hmmm. . . that's another case of already walking,
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
At that point the fourth trip began, so we'll never know
what was going to follow the comma.
This time to Parkview, because Lutherin had released him
with the problem unresolved, and they shipped him to Fort
Wayne, where there is a urologist.
I just got back from my fourth trip, thanks to Dave's nephew
who drove me, but Dave is still on his third.
I'm too tired to say . . . no, it wil get too long, but I'll
wait to post it until it makes sense.
Ah, after the comma, "but I would have riden up the hill if
I hadn't needed to get off at the top."
Or something like that. The farmers markets (one at the
fairgroun) open again in two weeks.
Thursday, 24 April 2025
I'll find time to 'splain all this Real Soon Now, but I'm
five minutes overdue to go to bed now.
Color me confused!
Saturday, 3 May 2025
Still no time to transcribe notes, but I learned something
today.
For twenty-four years I've been bugged by the transverse
cracks on Park Avenue, which are bumpy enough to be annoying
in a car. I suspect that the tarvia was laid on top of
cracked concrete and the cracks propagate up through the
asphalt.
If I don't rise out of the saddle at every crack, the bike
takes a bolt-loosening jolt, if I do rise out of the saddle,
I lose speed just where it's very important to keep up with
the motor traffic, and the cracks are close enough together
to exhaust me quickly if I try to pedal while out of the
saddle.
Duh.
Today, I stayed out of the saddle for the full length of the
Avenue, coasting and pedalling with no regard for the
location of the cracks.
When I'm already out of the saddle, beginning to pedal
doesn't take herculean effort.
On 5/3/25 10:04 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
Saturday, 3 May 2025
Still no time to transcribe notes, but I learned something
today.
For twenty-four years I've been bugged by the transverse
cracks on Park Avenue, which are bumpy enough to be annoying
in a car. I suspect that the tarvia was laid on top of
cracked concrete and the cracks propagate up through the
asphalt.
If I don't rise out of the saddle at every crack, the bike
takes a bolt-loosening jolt, if I do rise out of the saddle,
I lose speed just where it's very important to keep up with
the motor traffic, and the cracks are close enough together
to exhaust me quickly if I try to pedal while out of the
saddle.
Duh.
Today, I stayed out of the saddle for the full length of the
Avenue, coasting and pedalling with no regard for the
location of the cracks.
When I'm already out of the saddle, beginning to pedal
doesn't take herculean effort.
During a cross country ride many years ago, crossing Michigan was a real chore. The road I was on was concrete and had cracks in the pavement at
very regular intervals. Much of the cracking was simple expansion
joints built into the road but many others were just wear and tear.
A good part of the ride across the state was ka-klump, ka-klump, ad infinitum. Very hard on my hands and very exhausting riding. I was
glad to get across the border into Canada.
Tuesday, 13 May
A few appoinments ago I read the chapter on country roads.
Here it is very apparrent that the book was translatede from
British. He expends many words and much detail on how to
deal with roads that were ancient when they led to
Doggerland.
Well, even if you assume that nobody south of the Rio Grande
would be interested in a book written in English, North
America is a very large place. There must be such roads
somewhere.
On 5/13/2025 12:02 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
Tuesday, 13 May
A few appoinments ago I read the chapter on country roads.
Here it is very apparrent that the book was translatede from
British. He expends many words and much detail on how to
deal with roads that were ancient when they led to
Doggerland.
Well, even if you assume that nobody south of the Rio Grande
would be interested in a book written in English, North
America is a very large place. There must be such roads
somewhere.
I'm on vacation right now so I can't remind myself about what sort of
roads you might be referring to.
I do think John Franklin's book is valuable. I read the British
edition and was one of the people who suggested he do an American
edition. But I remember thinking that much of the advice was
hyper-detailed. For a reader already familiar with ordinary traffic
rules and interactions, I think it could have been greatly
condensed. Remember "Reader's Digest Condensed Editions"?
OTOH, I'm in an area with lots of bicyclists and bike lanes. Today I
saw at least 3 people riding facing traffic.
Frank Krygowski <[email protected]> writes:
On 5/13/2025 12:02 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
Tuesday, 13 May
A few appoinments ago I read the chapter on country roads.
Here it is very apparrent that the book was translatede from
British. He expends many words and much detail on how to
deal with roads that were ancient when they led to
Doggerland.
Well, even if you assume that nobody south of the Rio Grande
would be interested in a book written in English, North
America is a very large place. There must be such roads
somewhere.
I'm on vacation right now so I can't remind myself about what sort of
roads you might be referring to.
I do think John Franklin's book is valuable. I read the British
edition and was one of the people who suggested he do an American
edition. But I remember thinking that much of the advice was
hyper-detailed. For a reader already familiar with ordinary traffic
rules and interactions, I think it could have been greatly
condensed. Remember "Reader's Digest Condensed Editions"?
OTOH, I'm in an area with lots of bicyclists and bike lanes. Today I
saw at least 3 people riding facing traffic.
Perhaps they made the mistake of relying on the British edition.
On 5/15/2025 3:51 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
Frank Krygowski <[email protected]> writes::-) Could be! But they didn't look like folks who read a lot.
On 5/13/2025 12:02 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:Perhaps they made the mistake of relying on the British edition.
Tuesday, 13 May
A few appoinments ago I read the chapter on country roads.
Here it is very apparrent that the book was translatede from
British. He expends many words and much detail on how to
deal with roads that were ancient when they led to
Doggerland.
Well, even if you assume that nobody south of the Rio Grande
would be interested in a book written in English, North
America is a very large place. There must be such roads
somewhere.
I'm on vacation right now so I can't remind myself about what sort of
roads you might be referring to.
I do think John Franklin's book is valuable. I read the British
edition and was one of the people who suggested he do an American
edition. But I remember thinking that much of the advice was
hyper-detailed. For a reader already familiar with ordinary traffic
rules and interactions, I think it could have been greatly
condensed. Remember "Reader's Digest Condensed Editions"?
OTOH, I'm in an area with lots of bicyclists and bike lanes. Today I
saw at least 3 people riding facing traffic.
Thursday, 24 April 2025
I'll find time to 'splain all this Real Soon Now, but I'm
five minutes overdue to go to bed now.
On Thu, 24 Apr 2025 22:37:02 -0400, Joy Beeson
<[email protected]d> wrote:
Thursday, 24 April 2025
I'll find time to 'splain all this Real Soon Now, but I'm
five minutes overdue to go to bed now.
Now I'm sleeping at the hospital. (The bench unfolds into a
bed, and they gave me a sheet, two pillows, and a blanket.)
On the way home this morning, while driving down Ninth
Street, I remembered that Franklin reccommends dragging the
brakes on a hill. When I lived at the foot of the eastern
cliffs of the Helderbergs, the rule was "Coast until going a
little too fast. Brake firmly until going a little too
slow. Stop every mile or two and feel the rims."
The staircase Ninth Street used to be still exists, but the
top flight and ramp were recently torn out by a cable
company, and replaced by more steps and a level walk.
Wait...what....hospital?? Did you take a fall?
On Mon, 7 Jul 2025 06:40:12 -0000 (UTC), pH
<[email protected]> wrote:
Wait...what....hospital?? Did you take a fall?Spouse did, but that was incidental to passing out; still
has Tegaderm on his head, but two spots of shallow road rash
were the only injury.
He's been in and out of hospitals ever since the twentieth
of May, at least twice getting there by ambulance. The
latest 911, after the fall, was spectacular: first the
nearest policeman, then the ambulance, then a team of
firemen. I never did find out what the firemen were about.
We're hoping that this time we'll get to keep the follow-up
appointment. It's a new doctor in our family doctor's
practice. Dr. Darr is really, really good -- but everybody
knows it, and he's booked way out.
The latest trip, yesterday, I drove him to the ER. We left
about three and he was home in time for supper. They didn't
find out why he felt lousy, but he got over it and they sent
us home. With orders to see Dr. Darr as soon as possible.
He's quite chipper now, and pleased to exercise the
transport chair that his nephew brought over today. When we
told him that we were going to get a wheelchair prescribed
at the follow-up, he told us that he had a wheeled chair
that belonged to his late parents. (time out to nag him
about his eight-o'clock pills)
He's asleep in his lift chair. I set a timer for ten
minutes. [he was awake, and took the pills]
The root cause is a foley catheter. If you have a catheter,
you have a urinary tract infection. If it gets out of hand,
you have septic shock and pneumonia. Too much time in bed
and you spend a couple of weeks in rehab.
Parkview has window seats in patient rooms that unfold into
cots, and the nurse supplies pillows, a sheet, and blankets.
The first time, she made the bed up for me.
So I've had plenty of spare time, but no access to the Web,
Usenet, or DosBox. If the resident engineer stays home for
a few days, I must have him arrange a keyboard for my phone
so I can take notes that don't have to be transcribed. I
keep a four-page chapbook* in the front of the book I'm
reading, but haven't transcribed many of the notes.
*half a sheet of pink typing paper, folded in half
sent without editing
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