As I approached Bradley this a.m. I saw the line was *pretty* long, but… oh, that was because people were peeling off and going right instead of left. Passed by many coworkers and hit the walk button; 20 seconds later they were streaming through. I crossed from where I was and waited out that cycle and hit walk again, and most folks were through. Perhaps enough pedestrians will come by…
I hadn’t called it in, since when I’d circled back it had gone green and quite possibly on its own, but I had confirmed that 333-8911 number that is the dispatch for non-emergency county stuff which this may or may not fall under. That was nice when the young guy with the downed bike holding on to a dog told me the dog had chased him but seemed to be loose, and I could tell him that number would gethim animal control. He thanked me in a “that’s all I needed” tone so I didn’t blather on about animal control saying they really want to be called (but I’ll blather to the reader — sometimes there are whiners about dogs and how threatening they are and… oh, but no, we didn’t *call* anybody).
Usually these forum conversations are male-oriented, so the issues and opportunities are different. Over at the Team Estrogen forum http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=33232 there’s a women’s take on responding to hecklers. It’s rather worth reading through, and even clicking through to the link of the “Oh, don’t I know your mother?” story (and the “Get of the f*ing road” link, which I adore and have linked to before).
… okay, I *didn’t* call 333-8911 to report that the signal at country fair & bradley may be hinky. I know it was when I came by, as it had been once int he summer when the lady at the front informed me taht she’d been sitting there for 10 minutes. I hit the pedestrian button and voila! …
… this time, drivers weren’t waiting for ten minutes (a good thing, to my mind – when The System fails, don’t sit on your tails!) but yea, it was a long line… but, alas, my anticipated Moment In Glory didn’t happen because there was a good 30-second further delay waiting for the yellow after I hit “cross Bradley.”
Then I went across Country Fair (not caring to make a left turn from the right sidewalk) and hit “walk” on that side… and *everybody* got red while the walk light went on. Oops. Rode down to the college entrance and crossed and rode back up and the light had gon egreen again, so mebbe it had gotten back into the swing of things. I hit “walk” on the far side to make sure at least one more group got through and headed back in.
I wonder how often traffic lights lose that sensitivity — hmmm… and how easily it could be disrupted. Could a small-scale civic
Yea, the traffic’s back and I suspect even heavier than usual for cycles and cars… which, alas, possibly means more bad interactions between them and conflict. Yesterday coming back on Old Church I saw a student-aged person on a Cute Commuter Bike with basket… coming down 45 looking like she’d rather be just about anywhere else. I crossed and stopped to turn on my lightage and rather hoped she’d think “oh, bikes go that way, so I will too” but no, she kept going Today I put my bike route maps where I coudl get to them more easily.
Bike Move tomorrow. Might just see if I can get that red and blue blinky to work. Duh! My silly impulse purchase of the arrow sign might get use
Riding home from church I saw across lincoln an assembly of cyclists on the sidewalk. Getting ready to depart for…? Nay, as I went by I saw they were listening attentively to… I stopped and the speaker paused and regarded me, then continued. I eavesdropped unabashedly to her saga about the house they were in front of, which I pass on my daily commute and have watched grow and change. Evidently there were assorted lawsuits regarding the right of the property owner to tear a house down, or perhaps the lack thereof; then legal squabbles about the nature of the house being built and whether it had enough windows on the sides and a nice enough porch on the front. It’s incomplete because there is still squabble about siding; the city doesn’t want vinyl siding, so … nothing’s happening.
It gladdens my heart when people do things on bicycles – as a practical way of getting from point a to point b and c, de, and eee.
In the meantime the City of CHampaign, of course, won’t let the Safe Haven Community stay in tents becasue they can’t allow people to live in tents for “health and safety reasons.” Of course, it’s so much safer for you to be Out Of My SIght, Thank YOu.
School is starting and with it speculation about flu epidemics. Let us all wash our hands of as many things as possible, now
Yea, I took off this a.m. and rode out to Philo in the tailwind. Roads are good; railroad on the road past the slab is very nicely, freshly asphalted for which I am grateful.
Perhaps I should be grateful to Extreme Home Makeover – their presence might have been the impetus for such smooth traveling. I went into PHilo the back way and didn’t see anything – but turns out they’re on the North side of town after all. I was aiming for Casey’s and saw “security,” and since this was an excuse for a ride, not a desire to get fifteen seconds on camera or, I don’t know, snatch a nail as a souvenir (snork, I did that Wednesday but that tire’s fixed now, thank you), I turned around and figured I’d take the next road. Welp, I could see a guy hin high viz on the next block from there, too… but the next road was Da Busy Road (150?). So I turned in and cruised… right on by Mr. Security, who was disinterested enough to not even look at me and wasn’t even facing me, despite my big ol’ high viz jacket and safety flag and… um, yea. I looked almost more like a security patrol than he did.
I had to get back in time for church, against teh wind, so I didn’t take advantage of my disguise. I turned left and went back out past the next security guys who, yes, did look at me with and called out “keep warm!” … so I wonder if they *do* have bicycle messengers on site and, if so, whether they should be encouraged to get Xtracycles and if not, whether they should be enocuaraged to do so? I thought of having four of us gear up and descend on them as the “xtracycle recycling crew” and collect their snack debris (and then maybe gather it all together to impress them with the hazards of disposable containers).
Yea, you can still get Geritol. Good grief, amidst all the other pharmaceutical ads and no Geritol?
So I’m blaming hte sun in my eyes and iron-poor blood for almost running over Champaign Cycle employee tryin’ to get home (missed his predecessors). I apologize – the reason is no excuse.
Several compliments on my “nice folder.” Still I need to fix the Xtracycle tyre, but I”m going to make it an early night. Hey, I’ll do that at the coop tomorrow… which just might remind me to track down the weird hub part I need.
Yes, I rode over a nail on the way home. The big fat Dutch Commuter tyre on the front gave me two miles *after* I stopped to discern that source of the “clunk, clunk, clunk” that I knew was something impaled in the tire (and it’s not knobby enough to grab pebbles for the most part).
This a.m. it was the folding bke. Felt incredibly invisible despite doing all the usual strategies … and driver activity bore that out. Used my words (“HELLO!” was the word) with the guy on McKinley (me on Church) on my left who stopped and then was going to proceed… the one with the huge trailer behind him who also completely failed to see me when until he was also proceeding out to make his right turn just got a look. Both cases they were driving reasonably sanely — “just” not seeing things like full grown women on bicycles out in the middle of the road (you *bet* I was out in the middle for Mr. Right, ’cause I was on my way out of his trajectory entirely).
Didn’t have to use words on the lady who accelerated to run the light on Church and State… saw her slam on the brakes and split-second-speculated taht she decided it was poor form to run lights because of caution, and prepared to give her a “yes, that’s right, I am here and deeply appreciate your permission for my survival” look … but the real reason for her heavy brake job was the Champaign Cop right next to her addressing her through the window.
They’re back!And yes, I want my BIG FLOPPY XTRACYCLE. CCB meeting tonight but we’ll see if I can get it fixed, somehow, anyway, in the meantime.
Going to inquire about what the definition of “dealer order” is for flash flags tod ay… and inquire about hub parts for wheels. Winter is coming and I need the Gazelle operational.
Found the directions *and* had ‘em emailed to me… and it seems the screws are too shrot on the foxfire bike assembly.
So, I’m cruisin’ down country fair and there’s a Guy in a Vest with a flat. He seemed resigned to a long walk… no spare tube…
So then I went up First Street ’cause I wanted to check out the bike detour and this guy went from sidewalk to bike lane… then he was goin’ so slowly that he saw me and went back to the sidewalk and I said “Gotta get air in that tire!” and he said somehting friendly back, but that back tire was rully rully low… and then after doing that cruise thing I heard something going clunk clunk clunk and yea, there was a big fat nail in my tire so I rode pretty fast for the next 2 miles and walked the last .5 when there wasn’t any air left. I gotta say I like the Big Dutch Tires ’cause it really honestly did take that long for the air to go out wkth a big honkin’ nail in there.
Then figured it was time to stick the Foxfire on … oh, the Dahon.
Welp, need to email them. That Brilliant looking Bike Mount… is designed so that the screws can’t get threaded into it. Mebbe I am missing a step. Looks like you should just pop out the screws that hold the magnet on, put ‘em on the other side of the plastic holder that pops right onto the light an dhas two big screw holes right there, but the screw holes have a little thing sticking out just long enough … to keep the screw from getting into the light far enough to hold the two of ‘em together.
So, mirabile dictu, I found the gorilla tape … but that wasn’t going to do it. But the Lock Laces had arrived, so I managed to get something to get the light strapped to the back rack. Looks like tomorrow iwll be a folding day Today I missed the storms ’cause I waited ‘em out (htey were gone by 5:30 — not *far* gone; if I were 50 miles East it’s probly still raining, ’cause I can see the darkness)
Today I put my bike route maps where I coudl get to them more easily.
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