The Tip

The trails were filled with newbies today. People without helmets, parents without helmets, even kids without helmets out on single track. Am I wrong to be so worried and scared by this? To me it's not much difference from Michael Jackson holding his kid over the railing! Just to make it easier for you to send a story suggestion, next time you have your computer or phone on (humor in an attempt to move you to action), here is their email address: NEWS@KVUE.com

Take the head to Home Depot and see what fits. This is a picture I sent to Fiskars. They sent me a box of saws. I broke those too. Now I have repaired a couple with bolted on metal straps to put the broken pieces together. This solution has worked so far.

What is the defining thing? Where's the line? What if you had the munchies and needed food? What if you wanted to go pick up your buddy? What if you needed another six pack at home? There's a point, whatever the consequences, that you will take the risk for the desired thing. That is what this unanswerable debate is about. When is the unknown risk worth the known reward.

Have you been drinking today?

I think that is a good analogy. "If it would save just one life...." is just wrong in a lot of ways. Yes we could save 50,000 lives a year if we all gave up driving. But at what cost? At what cost? (he repeated dramatically) But the decision making problem, and the arguments one way or the other, are complicated by the fact that there are no facts about what we are saving in lives. The models have already been proven wrong. Then they come out with new models. And those were wrong.

"None of those things are communicable. " You missed the point of my post entirely. Even quoting Sweden's COVID STATISTICS vs their neighbor's misses the point of my post. How many in Sweden are NOT dying from the shut down related things I listed? The point is that the big picture needs to be taken into consideration. This is not just about preventing the virus spreading versus people's economic needs. A big consideration of course. But that is an apple's to oranges thing in a way. Much harder to debate as opinions vary. I am trying to compare apples to apples. That being deaths. Deaths by virus or deaths by other shut down related reasons. Edited to say after reading ATXZJ's post, I have discovered that people's opinion on the shut down varies in correlation with their financial situation. Those receiving regular paychecks seem to favor continued shut down. Those that haven't a clue how they are going to pay for groceries are much more willing to take a chance on opening things up. Funny how that works!

The debate always seems to center on "look how many lives we are saving." This statement is wrong though. It really needs to state, "Look how many lives we are saving FROM COVID Virus." I say that to put that number in play. Now, compare that number to lives being lost due to the shut down. And there are many. Heart disease kills 850,000 a year. Stress causes heart problems. Because of the shut down could deaths increase by 10%? 85,000. Suicide claims about 50,000 a year. Could that double to 50,000 more because of all this? Alcohol related deaths (not driving) are 90,000 a year. 20% increase possible? Saw on the news last night that people are putting off non-emergency medical care. The story was focused on cancer screening. The doctor was saying this was a bad situation that was going to cost lives because people will be too far along to be saved. How many other important health issues are not being addressed? Could we actually lose more people to shut down related causes than to the COVID virus? Sweden is still functioning. Yes, their COVID rates are higher, but not dramatically so. That herd immunity concept might be working. I don't think history will look kindly on this shut down solution. Not to say it hasn't help prevent the spread of flu illness and more flu deaths. That fact cannot be argued. But at what cost? Get things going. But wear masks. Wash hands. Have hospital capacity adequate. Accept that people get sick and sometimes die. Sad but true.

I've come to realize that this debate, "Stay closed for health's sake vs take a chance and open for the economy's sake" is about as likely to be resolved as the pro-life vs pro choice debates. Three men of different religions were asked the important question, "When does life begin?" Catholic guy says, "Life begins at conception." Protestant guy says, "Life begins at birth." Jewish guy says, "Life begins when the kids finally move out of the house."

I disagree. It will definitely make a difference in traffic...during the 15 years of construction!

Rode across it today. Very interesting that they open it when they still have lots of work to do on it. So different from other road projects where they won't open until everything, including paint, signage, and lighting, are totally complete. I asked a supervisor on a job one time why they wouldn't open the road that looked totally complete. "It has to be 100% for contractual and insurance reasons." Also strange that the most popular option, going north on Mopac, is not open. But as a biker that is no concern to us.

Holy crap. That is as misleading a headline and story as a meme I saw:

I agree. Just like on a golf course too. So annoying messing with my out in nature experience. But on my ride the other day, with all the blind turns, I actually thought about this. I decided that I would much prefer tolerating the "cow bell" effect of the radio than smacking into an oblivious ear bud wearer.

ATX Bikes is selling off their Giant Advanced Pro 29 demo fleet. 5K bike for 3.5. Really good deal

I can't even watch them anymore. Colbert and Kimmel's frothing at the mouth hatred of Trump is too hard to watch. I like to laugh at Trumpisms too but their observations are just too mean spirited now to be funny.

I rode past it yesterday. There is no way that it will open today. But they are making progress. You could definitely ride over it now if there weren't any workers around.

I sent the following email to KVUE a few days ago. I have not heard back. I'm posting it here as an example and encouraging y'all to send a similar email to news outlets. If they receive several emails about the "problem" then perhaps they will realize it really is one. What else do you have to do anyway? And it's better than shaking your fist at the sky in frustration about these things! I could have mentioned dogs on leash but forgot about that one. Your call. I am an avid mountain biker that uses the single track trail that is abundant in Austin. There has been much discussion among our community about how trail usage has greatly increased lately with home bound folks getting outdoors. Both obviously new bikers and lots of hikers and hikers with families. A story to educate the multitudes of new trail users as to proper trail use would be very helpful in insuring safety for everyone. Some of the problems we are seeing: -Not wearing helmets! Just crazy. But worse are the parents not wearing helmets sending a terrible message to their children riding with them. Worse even yet is some kids (under 17) we have seen violating city law by not wearing helmets at all. -Use of head phones that isolated the hiker or biker from their surroundings. Use pass through sound or just one ear phone so you can safely hear oncoming riders or riders behind you trying to pass. "excuse me...Excuse Me...EXCUSE MEEEE!!" -Don't stop in the middle of the trail to use your phone. Blind corners make this practice particularly dangerous. We mountain bikers, that mostly built them, love sharing these great trails with other groups. But some simple practices will make it safe for everyone. It would be a good visual story too. Taped on a beautiful trail somewhere with active bikers and hikers walking by.

...at least that's the rumor I'm attempting to start here. If the rumor becomes pervasive enough perhaps these idiots will think twice before riding trail with both ears stuffed with sound. I was thinking about this as I was riding the, twisty-turny-lots of blind corner, 45 stuff today. On blind corners I go "ding ding" to hopefully alert oncoming riders. I thought it would be just my luck to run into some doofus that couldn't hear me. Just a thought. I did have to navigate lots of people on the trail today. They all heard me thankfully.

Sure, that's a way to do it and it sounds good. But just try it once: Fish. Smoke. Perfect.

I tell everyone that will listen that salmon is the best thing you can smoke. Not only is it wonderful tasting but it's hard to screw up too. It's also the only thing I smoke that has nothing on it. Just doesn't need anything but the smoke. I'm with you about maybe over using the smoker these days. If the Covid doesn't get me, the cancer from all the smoked meat will. Small price to pay though!

You and millions of others. I saw that the car repair places have been open. But now nobody's car is breaking because they haven't even tried to start it. So the car repair places are laying off people. And the gas isn't getting sold. I read they've run out of storage for oil. Oil not getting sold is not good for Texas. But on the bright side the insurance companies are giving rebates back on car policies because their claims have dropped like 90% or something like that.

If you want to be amused, look at the radar from the last few hours. A huge line of thunderstorms aiming at south Austin, but like a 10 commandments miracle, parting as it goes on either side of us. We got very little rain. The trails were okay yesterday. With the wind and sun forecast for today we should be near perfect quickly. The Valero Loop and anything south of LaCrosse should be "legal" too. I saw rangers on Beckett at the Entrance to Dick Nichols, so it looks like they are making an effort to enforce this park ban. That means the Veloway stuff and Circle C won't be the best idea perhaps.

That is not ALWAYS the case:

Please no! "No" that is if it's about which way to park your car there or which pocket your handkerchief hangs from...or anything related to that. I still can't get the "a large amount of pink silly putty bouncing uglies " imagery out of my head! 😄