Earthquake

Firts thing I thought was a tree landed on the house.  Then I thought something exploded at the Univeristy.  Then I thought I should probably leave the house because this is an earthquake.  Sure signs you have never been in an earthquake that moves enough you can feel it.

Move in Day

So last weekend was move in day for all the college students.  It was a little nuts around here with all the moving vans and all the parents and all the shopping at Walmart and Target.  While it was cool to feel the energy of the new students and students returning with that comes a general cluelessness.  There are the parents trying to turn the wrong way down a one way street.  Students wandering around not knowing where they should be.  There are the students walking down the middle of the bike path with there MP3 players so loud you cant say or do anything(short of hitting them) to get them to move.  So goes the change of Seasons in Happy Valley....2 weeks to the first home football game.  Now that should be interesting.

Bikes and stop signs and Tickets

The other day Kari was riding to work on her bicycle and got yelled at by a police man for not stopping at a 3 way stop sign where Kari was on the top of the T intersection and there were no cars coming.  This and the fact that someone(a biker) at her work scolded her and told her she should stop at all stop signs touched a nerve with me and I decided I needed to rant.

Now I get it.  The law is she has to stop.  I am not arguing that.  She didn't get a ticket but if the police man wanted to give her a ticket they could have.  Here are some issues I have with this.  First is the laws need to be updated.  Why is it that a bike is treated as a car?  A pedestrian doesn't follow the same laws as a car?  A person on a horse doesn't?  There are so many different laws for different ways of commuting that why is it a bicycle is treated as a car.  I don't think they are very similar vehicles.  It be like treating a sailboat like a motor boat.  Of course they don't do this they always give the sailboat the right away.  Bikes have been around way longer than cars.  I think you will find that most laws for driving came about because of cars and how much more dangerous they are then bikes  So argument one is that the laws need to be updated such that a bike is not treated like a car.  I don't know exactly what that entails but I am sure some smart people can come up with some good ideas.

Second argument:  When you drive your car you speed, you roll through stops, etc etc.  I do the same when I bike..ok well I speed when I can on my bike but the point is that I don't always follow the laws whether it be in a car or a bike.  When you break the law in a bike you are so much less likely to do any harm to someone else besides yourself.  I know this sounds like some republican personal responsibility statement but.....  If you break the law in a car you could do serious harm if not kill many people.  I think that some states have actually lowered the fine for DUI on a bike as compared to a car because they realize that being on a bike is better than being in a car when drunk.  Now its not perfect but its less harmful.  Now I know there is the odd case where someone might swerve to avoid a crazy cyclist and get in an accident but that is so rare.  Just look at what they driver did in the Tour de France this year.  Choice between getting in an accident or hitting some cyclists...the driver chose the cyclists.  

Third Argument:  This is kind of a combination of the first two arguments.  This can be called the lack of respect argument or the cars are out to get me argument.  I call this The Immortal Class argument.  Anyone who wants to read an interesting book about biking should pick that one up.  Its a quick read.  The basic principal of the book is that everything in a car is controlled solely by the driver.  They can control the temperature(weather), the radio, the seat, the steering wheel, speed, etc etc.  So when they loose control of something it makes them angry(and in extreme cases lead to road rage).  When a biker is in front of them making them loose control of there speed it frustrates them and makes them angry.  They think WTF that biker should be on the shoulder or on the sidewalk.  Who let this stupid biker on the road anyway?  I'm going to squeeze right by this biker and get back to being in control.  So that leads to bikers being seen as a negative or an unequal.  Hence the lack of respect.

Fourth argument:  This is the holy than though argument.  I don't always subscribe to this argument but I am going to lay it out just so its there.  By biking to work one is doing a lot of good.  They are becoming healthier saving everyone money in health care in the long term.  By biking one is not burning fossil fuels and hence making the city and the environment a nicer place to be.  They are one less car on the road(but one more biker)  So the argument goes that if one is doing all this good shouldn't they be given a little extra rights.  They have HOV lanes for carpooling.  Why don't bikers have HOV lanes as they are doing even more good.  They have bike lanes but not everywhere.  I don't always subscribe to this argument but it does go back to the argument that a bike should have different rules to follow than a car.

There are tons of great car drivers and cyclists who are idiots.  Hell Ive been an idiot on both before.  I just don't think it makes sense that police are wasting there time with cyclists and that cyclists are treated like cars.  I've been treated so differently because I'm biking than I ever have as a driver.  Ive been yelled at.  I've had cigarettes, beer cans, and whatever else someone can find thrown at me for biking in the bike lane.  Ive been hit by school buses while biking in the bike lane.  There needs to be more education and enforcement of bs like that.  On the opposite side I have had people yell and scream at me when Ive driving my bike like a car.  So I can't win.  Ride in the bike lane get yelled at.  Ride in the street get yelled at.  Something has to change. 

Ok I'm done ranting.  If you want to watch something funny about the general subject check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ&feature=player_embedded

East Coast Wimps

Schools delayed 2 hours today for this..

Seriously? Is this some type of joke?  No ice and literally 1/8" of snow.  It is possible that this could make me move.  Absolutely ridiculous.

We think there for it is

One thing that is hard to get used to here is the amount of school delays/closings.  I think in 2 1/2 years of Isaac going to daycare in Minneapolis we had 1 maybe 2 days where it was closed.  Already since we have been here we have had five 2 hour delays and 1 day closed.  A few of the days have been a little ridiculous.  The other day school was delayed 2 hours for no joke 1/2 inch of snow.  Now I know it is hilly here and is a little difficult to drive but in all school closing cases if one of the teachers has mentioned school might be closed or delayed tomorrow then it is.  I believe these teachers should start giving Nostradamus a run for his money.

Warm Weather

Not to be one of those who constantly remind you about how great the weather is where they live but.  With high is int 20's every day and lows around 15 this weather is great.  Of course most people here think it is the end of the world its sooo cold.

On a side note I also found out just how hilly it is here.  I decided to go pick up Isaac and Nora from Daycare using the Bike trailer.  Of note the bike trailer is not really made for 2 kids in winter gear even though it says it fits 2 kids.  Anyway Pulling an extra 50 lbs plus the bike trailer up sone of these hills was interesting.  I was standing and pedaling as absolutely hard as I could and barely made it up a few hills.  It was great excercise but tough work....

TV

My ancient 29" Tube TV did not make the move.  Part of me was a little sad to see it go only because the energy was spent to actually move it that it would be nice if it would work.  I have since purchased a new TV which Koogs thins is of course way too big.   In any case I realized I know very little about current technology and paying a cable bill sucks even if I get part of it paid by work. 

Now..

when talking about Come Feel the Illinoise I think its ok to pronouce the S...

Some sweet threads for Nora.

The Silent S

We made it to State College(I guess I need to change the header on this blog some how).  It was pretty un-eventful trip.  Kids traveled great, of course they were with grandma and grandpa the entire time.  We were missing the snow as none was on the ground until tonight.  We figure we had the snowiest December on record in Minneapolis and maybe we can have the snowiest January on record here.

We have had a few issues with our house.  Go figure.  Everyone we have had come do work has been really nice and done really great work at a lot cheaper then Minneapolis.  Tonight however we had to have our sewer pipe cleaned out.  As one can imagine sewer pipe cleaners are not typically rocket scientists.  Now I will preface this entire thing with the fact that they people doing work here were nice and did good work.  They arrived a little earlier then they were supposed to and we were just arriving back from running some errands.  So we get by the first little bit of chit chat and he asks me that he noticed my cell phone was a 612 number and where that was from.  I said oh Minneapolis.  About 5 minutes later as we are talking he asks.  Where is Minneapolis.  I said oh in Minnesota.  About 5 minutes later he asks where is Minnesota.  Is it out near Illinois(no silent S).  I say well a little north and west of there.  Then he goes on to ask me if it is cold there.   While this conversation is unfolding in my head I started to think holy crap after all this time giving Minnesotans hard times about there inferiority complex and the like that maybe there is a reason for it.  Oh and the fact that I wanted to grab him by the scruff of his neck and scream the S is silent in Illinois.