Number two: Always have an escape route.

Number three: Learn basic bike handling skills.

Number four: Obey traffic laws.

Numbers 1 and 3 might be the most daunting, but they are easily overcome with some practice. This post is largely about number 1: Be alert.

People can and will kill you if you do something stupid on a bike, and sometimes even when you’re doing nothing stupid at all. The best way to counteract this is to be alert.

Being alert is a mindset that is cultivated. It is experience constantly speaking about potential threats. At its core is hypervigilance, and it’s something that is always being learned (consequentially, never fully learned).

Fortunately, learning to be alert isn’t that hard. It takes a little bit of discipline at first, but in time it becomes natural.

The key to being alert is to constantly ask yourself what could happen, given your current surroundings.

Is there a driveway? What might happen? A car might come out very quickly, or a car might pull in very quickly. Be alert: cars may attempt to enter the driveway from the oncoming lane (Left Hook) or from behind (Right Hook). Look out for pedestrians and other bicyclists as well. Always have an escape route.

Are there parked cars on the right? What might happen? They can pull out or open doors suddenly. There will likely be cars approaching from behind. You may need to take the lane so that you have space to react to sudden, unexpected movements. Always have an escape route.

Approaching an intersection? Is there a right turn lane? Prepare for the “right hook”: a car will overtake from your left very quickly, pull in front, smash the brakes, and make the right hand turn in front of you. Worse, they might not see you and simply run into you.

Have an escape route, and know where reaction time is thin: You won’t have time to react to a car’s sudden brake† or sideswipe. Lane-splitting and good bike handling are crucial skills here.

Approaching an intersection? Avoid the “suicide slot.” This is the narrow column of space to the right of cars who have the option to turn right. Cars in this situation behave erratically, and attempting to pass on the right invites disaster:  there’s no way out of the slot unless there is a curb and you can hop it without killing a pedestrian.

Avoid the suicide slot: take the lane behind a car. If you can split lanes safely, split away from a lane with a suicide slot. Always have an escape route.

The suicide slot is most common at intersections, but can present itself at other times. You’ll learn to recognize it. Always be wary of being on the right hand side of any vehicle, especially large trucks, and always have an escape route.

Staying alert means listening to what you hear. The sense of hearing is extremely important, perhaps more so than sight. Car tires have a very distinct sound on pavement. It may seem natural to listen for engines, but tires are a far better indicator of speed and distance.  A trained ear is a great asset for evaluating threats that aren’t yet visible.

On the other hand, being alert means questioning your senses at all times. Eyes and ears can play tricks, so confirm any suspicions before making any sudden movement in traffic.

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* This post subject to change. It’s a work in progress.

†Car brakes are more effective than bicycle brakes.

Republicans want less jobs because higher profit means better industry, better standard of living, and bigger power. And somehow more jobs. Corruption ensues.

Both want power. The other constant? Corruption ensues.

There has to be a better left side of the equation before we can fix the right side. And vice versa.

Marriage is, and always was, a business proposition. It’s a legislative concept, nothing more.

If your religion defines it differently, fine by me. That’s what’s great about this country. Your religion can marry whomever it chooses, and can deny marriage to couples that it does not recognize. I accept that. In fact, I support that, because this is a free country and we’re free to exercise religion.

But if we’re going to legally recognize a partnership, let’s at least give equal rights to all parties involved.

Sadly, Civil Unions do not give equal rights. It’s a flat-out travesty: what once was a legal concept has been perverted by churches to whatever they define it as. And that’s just downright un-American.

Sadly, he has not been able to count on Congress for much of anything.

Obama had to put everything on hold because of the financial crisis. He was hamstrung during the first half of his Presidency, and only now are we seeing glimpses of a recovery.

His legacy to America can’t possibly be known until he serves a second term, with the support of Congress. I, for one, would be sad not to see that legacy.

If I never see it happen, I wouldn’t blame Obama. That blame falls squarely on Congress.

The increasing popularity of the Alpine Challenge necessitated the move to Viejas. Previously to Viejas, the Challenge staged in a nice little park in the heart of Alpine. I liked the park setting, and while the larger Viejas location serves its purpose well, it doesn’t have any of the small town charm of the park setting. I was pleasantly surprised by Summers Past Farm: the grounds are beautifully maintained and there is a small nursery pocketed within a showcase of flora that even includes a small topiary maze. Of course, I can’t allow independent nurseries to go unsupported and came home with a couple of new plants for the yard.

I felt confident coming into this year’s Challenge and started out with guns blazing. The beginning of the ride features mostly downhill stretches that allowed me to accelerate to 50 mph, the fastest I’ve ever gone and a goal I’ve wanted to reach for many years. These downhills are soon replaced with a 20 or so mile stretch of almost constant uphill grade. I passed a lot of folks going up this stretch which added to my confidence, but soon I had passed all of the low-hanging fruit and those in front were in as good, or better, shape than I. Some of those that I had passed would overtake me as the youthful zeal in my legs succumbed to the inevitable buildup of lactic acid and the increasing wind from the East.

Coming back from Pine Valley, I was passed by a couple of guys and I got on their wheel for a little while, but ended up abandoning because I couldn’t see ahead and hit some pretty nasty potholes on the downhills, one of which robbed me of a water bottle. Had I known at the time, I would have gone back to pick it up but it wasn’t until a few miles later that I realized it was gone.

This was the first year that I didn’t stop at any of the SAG support stops. The last 10 miles were pretty rough, as my legs and posterior were ready to be off the machine. However, the East wind was now at my back and even the few uphill ticks weren’t too tough.

All in all, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t keep the guns blazing throughout the entire ride, but at the same time there were very few times when I drafted other riders, so I’m proud to say that most of the ride was done under my own power.

We were blessed with perfect weather: mild and not too windy. The scenery is gorgeous, especially after our wet winter. Every year I am reminded why I believe this is San Diego’s best organized ride. The challenge lives up to its name, the support is excellent, the entry fee is cheap and goes to a great cause, and includes a shirt, medal, goodie bag, a beer, and a hamburger.

Stats:

The creationist’s world is measured in thousands of years, somewhere in the ballpark of 5,000.

The scientist’s world is 4 billion years old.

During that time, processes have occurred over the course of hundreds of millions of years. One such process is the gradual terraforming of Earth by plant life: Through photosynthesis, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is stored in plant growth while oxygen is released back to the atmosphere.

Carbon-rich organic material left from millions of years of compacted vegetation is pressed by time and pressure into rocky coal and liquid oil within Earth’s crust.

While these deposits fuel modern technology, the act of burning fossil fuels releases the entombed carbon gas back into the atmosphere where it stores the sun’s heat, slowly warming the planet.

The science for rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere coincident with the Industrial Revolution is not just compelling, it forms an empirically proven theory.

The argument that current climate change is attributable to natural cycles is countered: While it is true that the earth is in a warming period following an ice age, the precipitous increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is unprecedented, given the scale of mere hundreds of years.

Taken within the context and coincidence of the short period of industrialization, the data is fairly alarming.

The creationist’s faith in their belief negates their ability to comprehend the processes that formed the lives we now enjoy. It is impossible to sway their opinion with scientifically accepted data simply because the creationist will never agree that the world is old enough to support the terraforming processes of the last 4 billion years.

One thing I don’t like about Chrome is its default startup behavior. I have it set to display a new browser tab. I like this option, but the default text in the url bar sometimes loads after I’ve started typing the URL where I really want to go, replacing what I’ve typed.

For similar reasons, I don’t like the about:blank behavior on Chrome either.

So I thought, why not create my own homepage to load on startup? Write simple, fast-loading html, display links to all of my bookmarks, and pretty much do what’s probably already been done many times over.

I thought that maybe I could use javascript to retrieve my bookmarks rather than expclitly write them out.

Yeah, probably not such a good idea.

“… the answer is ‘no, that would be a horrific invasion of privacy and security risk’.”

And this:

…This is completely impossible…
…And thank heavens that it is…

Yeah, I think I’ll just write the links myself.

I sort of have a history with rubber chickens. My friend in high school wanted one, and when he made that confession I was suddenly aware that I needed one too, and that I always had but just didn’t know it.

The chicken on my bike helmet is from a novelty lollipop I bought many years ago. When I saw it in the store I knew that lollipop needed my home. The delicious candy long gone, I couldn’t let the chicken go. For many years, it rested upon my CRT computer monitor and later sadly relegated to a crap bin.

When I built my commuter bike in 2010, I happened across the crap bin and found the rubber chicken. Instantly, I knew that it belonged on the top of my helmet. So I strapped him on with a plastic zip tie:

I have contemplated why I have this chicken on my helmet, because it’s bound to get me noticed by at least a few keen folks on the streets. When my wife asked me why I had it, I sort of dismissed it as a Zen thing or something. I hadn’t fully assembled the Why of the Chicken, but now I’m ready to tell my secret:

I hope that those who see the chicken will recognize me as a fellow human being. I have a wife and a special needs son who very much depend on me, and whom I love dearly. I realize that cycling is a dangerous sport, but I love it so much that I can’t live happily without it, and I want people on the streets to recognize cyclists as fellow humans.

There is a flip side. As I ride, I often glance down and see the shadow of my helmet on the street, and the chicken gloriously perched in eternal joy atop my helmet, and it reminds me that all of you folks in cars are people too, with families and hopes and dreams and everything else that comes with being human.

Beyond humor, the chicken serves two purposes: to remind others that I’m human, and to remind me that everyone else is human too. And maybe it might make a few people laugh in the process.