Blockheads

C.R.S. § 18-9-107 (Obstructing a Highway or Other Passageway): Makes it an offense to intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly block a place used for the passage of persons, vehicles, or conveyances, rendering passage unreasonably inconvenient or hazardous.

 Yesterday I encountered an elderly male hiker on the trail while ascending. He was surprised that I had yielded the trail to him and stated that it was the first time this Summer that anyone astride a cycle had yielded the trail to him, including the one person on a bicycle and another riding illegally upon the trail today with their ecycle (Poachers, a subject for another day) who I saw toodling down the trail before stopping for the hiker. While chatting with the hiker, I noticed a fresh scrape on his noggin and asked if he was alright or needed any assistance. He said he was okay and would be good in getting back to the trailhead. Then I asked how that had happened.

 Apparently the person on the bicycle was experiencing a  mechanical issue, effectively blocking the trail while attending to it. They had noticed the hiker approaching, yet failed to render the trail to the hiker. As the hiker left the trail bed to go around, he stumbled on the terrain and fell, injuring himself. He picked himself and his hiking staff back up and continued on, without any words or actions from the errant bicyclist. I'm not sure what kind of home training the bicyclist had as a child, but it was either severely lacking or they are a perennial dim-bulb. In the civilized world, one offers and/or renders assistance to injured parties. The lack of social ethics displayed by that cretinous individual should be astounding to me, but it's not.

 Before parting ways, I asked the hiker once again if they would like any help. They politely declined and added, "Well it was my fault that I stumbled and fell." to which I replied that it was not their fault and in fact the person blocking the trail was doing so contrary to state law. This incident is *why* there is a law against blocking a public passageway. To think that common sense and courtesy in an instance such as this must be made law makes the whole occurrence unsurprising.

Riders Come and Go, Kooks Accumulate

Before, During, After

1996 Dyno Nitro 24 BMX Restoration

Before:

During:

After: 

 This rusty and crusty 'ol girl was dropped off a little while back and has been the "get at it here and there" kind of project. The frame was first in line because of the dents and further inspection items I like to begin with. Totally worth the time and effort, she's a roller now!

The only sad bikes are the ones that don't get ridden.

Fifteen Minutes

 In the modern quest for "fame", those seeking their Warholian fifteen minutes astride a mountain bike are a strange lot to me. The air of desperation emanates from many who seem to be seeking this kind of attention, whether they are wedging their way into obtaining status as the big fish in a little pond, or simply sandbagging amateur races. The reek is real and painfully obvious to anyone even remotely paying attention. Yeah, that shit stinks, even if it is sadly amusing. 

 To me, fifteen minutes is how long a normally twenty minute descent went this morning, as indicated by my analog timepiece. Warhol may have gotten it right for those who earn their way or stumble into fame, however Bowie got it right for the desperate with, "Fame (fame) puts you there where things are hollow." Hollow is no way to go through life, kiddies.

Riders Come and Go, Kooks Accumulate

PS I rode the aforementioned trail section in ten minutes flat yesterday evening. No hikers to yield to and perfect conditions. Could I ride it faster? Most likely yes, but not being able to stop in time for a hiker around a blind turn is not cool, or even fast for that matter.

Revolutionary

 Ever since I read "1984" for a book report at the continuation school I was sent to for truancy in my senior year of high school, Orwell's words have been Gold to me. I needed to make up two semesters of English credits to obtain my diploma and when offered the option of book reports on how to do so, I chose his prophetic dystopian novel to begin the process. When submitted at the beginning of a class a day after finishing the book, the teacher read the report and called me to their desk to discuss what I had written. "What are you doing here, writing something like this?" I told them that when the standard curriculum in the first semester dictated I read Shakespeare, I told that teacher I would not read that shit and was advised I'd not pass the class. I stopped going, hence the truancy issue. After being told that I would be done with obtaining credit to graduate by writing a number of similar reports, I scratched them out rapidly from books I'd already digested. I was done with high school a couple of months before my peers, thanks to Orwell, Stephen King, Joseph Wambaugh, Ken Kesey, Ken Follett, and a few others.

 When I first spotted the above meme a few years ago, it was saved for a few reasons beyond being more Orwell Gold. While it's seemingly more germaine today than it was when Orwell was still attached to his mortal coil, the truth of those words have rung throughout the (de)evolution of humankind. The acceleration of misinformation and other truth-dodging matter in this day and age of accessible information is undoubtedly increasing. If the truth is not spoken, the future seems rather bleak and I don't do bleak very well.

 The association with cycling in this light contains many facets. Though some of my posts based on simple etiquette subjects are most definitely of a ranty nature, the unfiltered observations are truthful. Ignorance in this age of information is self-imposed, especially when so many have a virtual Encyclopedia in their hand. How do mountain biking people not know how to yield the trail properly on a singletrack when searching "The Fruita Lean" online takes less than a second? When AI knows something like this and a trail user doesn't, it speaks volumes about that user's contribution to the Idiocracy, most likely omnipresent in all aspects of their puny lives that further contribute to the degradation of civilized society. Yeah, turn on your apphole craphole, but don't bother with how to recreate without destroying the environment you choose to degrade with self-imposed ignorance. The Idiocracy is real and furthered by the self-indulgent.

 Do I consider myself a revolutionary? No, and as far as I'm concerned the truth should not be considered as such. Orwell's words seem to me as an observation about mainstream public perception. The "mainstream" has been buried under a quagmire of bullshit for centuries, heaping up at an accelerated pace. My own experiences of living outside the proverbial box lessens that quagmire in my life and as such, is where I reside comfortably as just some dude on a bike.

Riders Come and Go, Kooks Accumulate