It's A Gas!

  

With the current petrochemical energy issues the planet is experiencing, the mass-media chirpings about the price of gasoline are currently omnipresent. What those chirpings seem to exclude every time the price of gas rises in this fashion is how a bicycle can save many from this perceived financial "disaster". Individual citizens have once again slurped up the media fool-aid and taken their "fight" to the interwebsz antisocial media with the usual virtual fist-shaking and blame games. This always makes me ponder just how many of these fist-shakers turn the key to an internal combustion powered conveyance to complete the simplest transportation tasks via any alternative, but especially with a bicycle. This parade of self-inflicted victicrats seems endless, though it's all very entertaining to those of us who already know and practice the easiest answer to their transportation woes. As such, I'd like to dedicate this next number to those who are unknowingly (due to their own ignorance) a gas:

It's A Gas!

What Condition My Condition Is In

 

I just dropped in to see.

Traffic scofflaws are getting exponentially worse and more bold worse here in Longmont, CO.  In a previous post about motor vehicle operators not stopping at stop signs, I displayed disdain towards both hypocritical drivers and clueless local politicians.  Nobody seems to want to hear the truth or about any proposed common sense solutions to the escalating traffic problems here, especially the Enforcement angle. There has been a recent exception in that someone in the city's staff has at least seen the light that is Education of both drivers and at risk road users.  Yes, both need education and as soon as it warmed up this Summer another annual season began with the permeation of Sidewalk Salmon bicycle riders, who are a danger to themselves mostly, but can be to others.  With uneducated and/or careless road use getting worse, it's only a matter of time before we experience the deaths that always accompany this form of selfishness.

The rest of Colorado's Front Range seems to be experiencing the same road pains.  In this case, the selfishness of a driver was compounded by alcohol and methamphetamine inpairment when he took the life of a cyclist: 

https://gazette.com/denver-gazette/family-friends-in-shock-after-cyclists-death/article_dc704f86-b837-11eb-9dd4-7b994da45d35.html  

I "knew" Mike Inglis from social media before I exited it a couple of years ago, friended up through mutual USAF Special Tactics friends.  That particular community is small and tight, with almost automatic respect.  Adding in that Mike rides bicycles and does so at a level that is akin to the levels we achieved in being USAF Special Tactics Airmen, I followed the two wheeled escapades of he and his wife.  When I read the above article a week or so after the incident, I told myself that I should find a way to contact Mike and at the very least offer condolences.  The opportunity arose at the Colorado Rockies Home Opener V2.0 when I saw him in passing at the ballpark.  I introduced myself and offered my condolences  He was very gracious and lit up when I ended our chance meeting by letting him know how fortunate he is to have a bicycle fabrication genius for a brother.  Rest Easy, Gwen

Dark Times

In the night time...

You're Going The Wrong Way

Somehow I felt akin to Billy Hayes in "Midnight Express", when he happened to switch directions while walking circles with the other loons in the Turkish prison mental ward. Again, the notion of normalcy and those who practice it have revealed themselves to be just the bigoted and programmed automatons that the string-pullers desire. They always seem to do this more frequently, as I recede further from their idea of normalcy. Amusement Ensues