Update

      I haven't posted in ages. Truth be told, the state of commuter cycling took a turn for the worse, from my perspective, a long time ago.  As a politically aware, lifelong resident of this city, New York, it became clear long ago, that bike lanes were just about creating congestion for motorists.  Actually, that's not the whole story.  Looking at issues merely on the surface, is never useful or informative.  Vision Zero went hand in hand with our now former Mayor Bill De Blasio's housing plan.  I don't affordable housing plan because it was anything but.  He went to the real estate industry and asked them what they wanted and they said, they didn't want to build parking into their projects--it wasn't profitable enough.  He said, "Sure."  He went on to try and remake transportation reality--only not for people, but for real estate developers.  

    Anyway, from a cycling perspective, the streets are much worse today than when I first started riding to work, which I haven't in some time.  Remote work.  I've gotten fat!  I don't enjoy riding without a destination.  Cycling to work was a lovely routine.  More local transportation in Queens is much better served by driving.  Putting that aside however, when I was cycling, bike lanes kept encroaching upon my route.  Let me clarify, because they were always lanes, but the sidewalk adjacent lanes that eliminate parking began encroaching--all along Grand Avenue in Brooklyn!  Transplants likely think it's a great idea and I appreciate these lanes, when I am riding with children or youth that lack sense.  For practical purposes, commuting, they suck.  Why?  Because they are designed for recreation, not efficiency.  

    New York used to be about speed and efficiency without sacrificing quality!  That's why they used to say, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere!"  Under chronically late De Blasio, that went under the bridge.  We didn't do idiot proofing here.  Now we do.  

    Bike lanes along the sidewalk are not just inefficient, they are unsafe.  Why?  See the list below. 

1. They negate the cyclists natural advantage from being closer to the center of the street. A cyclist has no blind spots, they sit higher and further forward than a motorist.  These advantages make it easy for a cyclist to see whether an intersection is clear or not and take it. 
2. Cyclists will take the intersection, run red lights regardless of whether they have the above advantage.  It's human nature.  It puts people in danger.  
3. The lanes adjacent to the sidewalk are littered with more impediments than there ever were double parked cars.  
4. Separate, sidewalk adjacent bike lanes were always problematic because cyclists and bike culture varies and there is no established protocol for cyclist to cyclist interaction.  If we factor in the considerable variation in cyclist ability it gets more unsafe.  It gets much worse though.  Electric bikes and scooters have taken over the bike lanes and to be honest, they are motorized vehicles.  They are heavy, fast, and their operators have no special training or licensing.  

When bike lanes were adjacent to traffic, all non-four wheel users adapted to the road rules, with minor alterations.  This was predictable and much safer, as counter-intuitive as it might seem. 

    I for one, find myself riding outside bike lanes whenever possible. 

Tire Repair

I had a wonderfully productive weekend, from a cycling perspective at least.  The highlight was that I managed to save a tire that I thought was kaput.  I'd had a blow out that detached the sidewall from the wire bead--thankfully I was not moving fast when it happened--and it looked irreparable, which bummed me out because it was a good tire.  I thought to myself, if only I could sew it back on I'd be good.  Naturally, I also told myself, "Nah, that wouldn't work."  Anyway, the part of me that wanted to fix it prompted me to search the internet  for repair ideas and lo and behold, sewing does fit into the repertoire of tire repair.  The key element is the use of dental floss, which apparently is strong (and gentle) enough to do the job. 

Away I went to the dollar store to obtain a large needle and some waxed dental floss--I do floss, but I use floss picks and wife is away and took the floss with her.  I returned and promptly went to work sewing--I've got some rudimentary skills.  It didn't look too bad when I was done.  I added a new inner tube and put both on the wheel, pumped it up and went for a ride--grocery shopping at my local Chinese supermarket.  It has held very well.  I have already put about 17-18 miles on it.  Tonight, after another 7 and half miles or so, I will add some glue to reinforce it. 

I also adjusted my front side-pull brakes better than my LBS did when I sent it in for a tune-up.  I won't be going back.  I had a wonderful, smooth, late Sunday night ride into downtown Manhattan--it was practically serene, by city standards.  This, along with some ukulele playing and repotting an orchid made the day and illustrated for me, what I am generally aiming for: simplicity and connectedness, or better yet, connectedness through simplicity.  I may rename this blog and move it further in that direction. 

Micro-farm update

It's been over a month since I posted regarding my "micro-farm" set-up and I thought it a good idea to show the outcome.  I have since harvested lettuce twice from it.  This harvesting consists entirely of merely trimming the lettuce down to a few inner leaves and eating the trimmings.  This is the beauty of loose leaf lettuce over head lettuce.  It recovers in little over a week and then I trim again.  I got about four or five trimmings before I harvested the entire plant last time I tried this.  This time I'll wait and see how many times I can harvest before it goes to seed. 

I think I packed them a little tight, but it's still working.  I am considering starting another set up with led lights as the exclusive lighting source to grow spinach. 

Bringing the micro-farm back online

   The Winter is definitely here and the time has come for indoor farming.  I never really explained the set up I used when I last mentioned the micro-farm.  I was playing a video game, yes a video game, called Harvest Moon.  The kids were playing it and I was attracted to it because I've always wanted to be a farmer.  Anyways, I got tired of pretending and decided to try as much farming as I could reasonably do in an apartment with three kids and a busy life.  Above you see me sifting through my worm compost to separate the worms from usable compost.  I figured I'd try to keep things as organic as possible. 

   I took a 10 gallon aquarium and taped white copy paper to the sides to use as reflectors.  I then inserted empty, plastic, strawberry and lettuce containers with a mix of compost and soil, and added a sprinkling of lettuce seeds on top.  I added a very light sprinkling of soil on top of that and watered it all well.  What you see above is the result after a little over a week. 

I place the whole assembly by the window and suspend two compact fluorescent bulbs over them for additional light.  The natural light I get is less than ideal.  It a few more weeks I'll have a decent batch of lettuce, which I plan on using for my packed lunches--biggest bang for the effort and the buck. 

Newest Passion

I go to Guitar Center often with my son.  He gravitates towards the electrics and I the acoustics.  Well they have these cute little ukuleles and I thought they'd be good for my youngest son.  Took him to a free beginner's class at Guitar Center one morning--he lost interest, but I was intrigued.  They're fun, cute and easy to play--what's not to like.  I always stop by the ukuleles when I walk in, so I finally broke down and got one.

It's a Lanikai LU-12SGC made specially for Guitar Center from mahogany.  That's a pen next to it for the sake of scale.  It was on sale, a little over thirty bucks, which was an excellent deal.  It's got a nice sound and I can't put it down.  What can be better than that?

Flat Silver Lining

I got a flat on the way to work today--normally a major bummer, but not today.  It was a slow day at work and I've got lots of time accumulated and its not always easy to take off.  I would have been quite late if I had gone in--it took over an hour for me to walk home, though I wasn't rushing.  I enjoyed the opportunity to look in on places I only pedal by rather rapidly, places I'd been meaning to check out more closely.  One of those places is the Juniors Cheesecake Factory (Yes, they actually make the cheesecakes there.) on Grand Street in Queens--yes, in Queens, not Brooklyn.  They have a small store inside, but it is only open when I am at work, so I seized the opportunity, walked and made a purchase.

It's a Brooklyn Crumb Cheesecake and I am looking forward to sharing it with guests.  This is what it looks like inside.

Yumm!!!

My Micro-farm

   I haven't biking much this month.  Took the month off because I had a balance on my Metrocard that needed to be used.  I use the Wageworks system that replaced Transitchek for city employees, except that I give the card to my wife to use.  She works for the NYC Dept. of Education and does not use it in the Summer, so I have extra months that are deducted from my pay that she cannot use.  I saved them for the inclement weather months like February and early March.  I anticipate cycling again this coming Monday.  Meanwhile, I continue cooking and planting, which I consider consistent with bicycle commuting.  In short, a life of simplicity and sustainability.

   My latest effort has been the use of a 10 gallon aquarium as a mini-indoor farm.  Okay it is quite the micro-farm, but I call it such because I am using to grow food--lettuce in particular.  I think the future of farming is not only urban, but indoors.  Rooftops are not enough for viable urban farming, though I do like the idea.  I took the aquarium and taped white computer paper to three sides to serve as reflectors (I lay sheets of paper overhead also to reflect the light downwards as well.).  I place the whole thing by the window to take advantage of whatever light I get, which isn't very much--I face Northwest.  I placed recycled plastic strawberry containers with soil and compost from my worm bin inside and placed two compact fluorescent bulbs overhead.  The are daylight bulbs in the 20W range.  I planted the lettuce seeds and they've grown quite nicely.  I got a very full bowl of salad from my first harvest, which took about three weeks.  I was, I must say, impressed, especially since, while I had hopes, I didn't really know what to expect.