Bike Lanes, Cross Walks, Courtesy

Yesterday I was running some errands by bicycle and stuck with the local bike path for most of the trip. While I was out I decided to go pick up a geocache that was recently added in the neighborhood and had to cross Tangerine, a four to six lane road by the house. I entered the roadway to cross north and then got back on the bike path. I signed off on the cache and then headed back on the path. Since I had to go to the post office, I decided to stay with the path and cross at the crosswalk where I would then have a very short ride to the post office via the sidewalk. Just before the light changed a large pickup came into the turn lane and fully blocked the crosswalk. I know I've been guilty of that myself, but I was clearly visible at the corner waiting to cross in that crosswalk.

I didn't rant and rave or anything, but as I crossed (having to veer out of the crosswalk into the intersection to clear the truck) I used my arm to indicate the path of the crosswalk and then made a "What's up?" kind of gesture. As I went by I heard someone yell something--it involved the word sorry, but I couldn't make out anything else. I didn't acknowledge the call out, just went on my way.

In this town it wouldn't surprise me if the person yelled something about being sorry they entered the crosswalk before I was in the way! People in this town, for all of its "bike friendly" status, are often rude and resentful of cyclists, even those of us who try to follow the rules of the road pretty consistently (it actually ticks me off to see cyclists blatantly breaking the law and or doing things that give the rest of us a bad reputation--motorists make most of their judgements regarding cyclists based on the bad examples they see).

As I finished up in the post office I passed a woman and she said to me, "I'm sorry about blocking that bike path."

I looked up and kind of smiled and said, "Oh, was that you?"

As I was packing up my stuff and putting away my lock and whatnot, I thought about how surprising that was--she actually seemed to mean it and went out of her way to make sure to let me know it. She could have just as easily not said a thing, hoping I would recognize her. What a strange change of pace that is for a cyclist on the road these days! I kind of puttered and took my time in hopes of her quick exit from the post office. She came out soon after and so I said, "You know, most people would have actually yelled at me for wanting to use the crosswalk rather than apologize. Thank you very much for that."

She expressed again that she was sorry about it, saying it was "an accident." After all that, I was really glad I hadn't turned my head back while I was crossing that intersection to yell some nasty bit of driving advice. I'm going to try and make sure I take the high road when it comes to these encounters in the future. I know there's going to be some arse who will make me break that promise, but I hope to take more care in my own reactions and try to remember that sometimes when I'm in the car I find myself creeping a bit too far into the crosswalk when I want to turn or any number of things that would annoy a cyclist in my path. But let me be clear: I try very hard to be aware of cyclists on the road and take extra precautions not to interfere with them with my own bad driving habits. I wish all drivers would do that but unfortunately, most don't.

Either way, I think we all should shut our mouths and just take a second before we fly off the handle when a stranger does something to annoy us, even if they are in the wrong. And we should all try just a bit harder not to do those same annoying things to others! Consideration for others outside of our own "sphere of existence" is a trait we could all benefit from developing. I'm going to try it.

Public Option for Health Care Reform

I fully support a public option for health care reform. I would wholly endorse a single-payer system if it came to a public vote. We need to insure all Americans at a fair cost. This morning I stumbled across a medical group (of anesthesiologists) that was encouraging its members to write their Senators to oppose the public option (it might hurt their wallets, patients' needs and care be damned). They even provided a nifty little tool to send their Senators a form letter. Well, I used their nifty little tool but replaced their text with my own! Here's what I sent:

I am writing to express my grave concerns that you will oppose a public option in health care reform. Such an option is necessary to provide insurance for the millions of people who cannot afford health insurance.

With Congress moving forward with comprehensive health system reform, I would like to provide my perspective as your constituent. An overhaul of the health care system involves tremendous opportunities to better serve America’s patients. It is essential that reform options be created to ensure that all Americans are insured.

Contrary to what many "health care providers" are trying to imply, a public option would actually create the kind of competition that is needed to drive costs down and to provide better services at reasonable cost--if private companies want to compete, they'll actually have to serve their customers rather than their own pockets (and the pockets of Government Representatives!).

Please don't let your special interest ties and campaign contributions from the insurance lobbies color your responsibility to your constituents and Americans in general. Please support America and ensure the inclusion of a public option in any health care reform legislation.

White House Defends DOMA

The White House recently upheld its support of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) using, of all things, the economy(!) to do so. They said they wouldn't consider forcing same sex marriages to be recognized in states that don't support same sex marriage because it would then have to extend federal benefits to same sex marriages (instead of only state benefits being awarded in those states that have gay marriage). They can't strike against bigotry and discrimination and uphold equal rights for all people because they want to save money/!?!?! Is Bush still in the Whitehouse?

Al I have to say is I'm a straight, white, middle-aged, middle-class American male and I completely recognize the unfairness and discriminatory nature of not only DOMA but any barrier to same sex "gay" marriage (shouldn't all marriages be "gay"?). This sentiment extends to "don't ask don't tell" as well. It is unfortunate that the hope we all had for this administration is being whittled away piece by piece by the discriminatory practices of the past.

Disney Pixar Cars

Joan and I drove up to Vegas with our friends Ken and Marie (they actually drove) and we stopped in Kingman, Arizona, there and back. On the way back we went to the Route 66 Historical Museum in Kingman. It's a nice little museum. I was able to watch part of the film they show and they feature Seligman, AZ, as pretty much the source of Arizona's decision to list Route 66 in Arizona as a historical route. So I was just surfing around the net for info because I've never been to Seligman (that I know of). Turns out that, according to one site, Disney Pixar's movie Cars was inspired by Seligman's struggles and gives credit to the town in the closing credits.

I have a long history of not being a Disney fan (even though I grew up on a steady diet of Disney movies and have taken my kids to Disney World). I think Disney is the Devil. So imagine how conflicted I am now that I think I will have to find Cars and watch it. Well, the grandkids should like it, right?

Let 'em hang! Hang 'em high! Hang 'em Out to Dry!

You get the idea. Hopefully you get the point. Hanging your clothes on a line (or other drying device, like a rack or even a shower rod) saves money, energy, resources, and, even better, your clothes.

I live in a "neighborhood" in Tucson, Arizona. The neighborhood has a Home Owners' Association (HOA), which I signed onto when we built the house (yes, I know, but that's another issue altogether). One of the edicts of the HOA is the banning of clotheslines.

There are lots of "reasons" for banning clotheslines, though none of them are really based on anything resembling reason. Clotheslines began to go out of vogue with the urban growth of the post-war years when appliances became a status symbol. If you could afford a washer and dryer, why would you hang your clothes outside? You're obviously poor and dragging down our neighborhood and our property values! So there's now a social stigma attached to the clothesline along with a very real belief by a good number of people that a clothesline reduces property values.

See an excellent Doonesbury cartoon series here! As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, my mother always hung our clothes. We had a dryer (at least at some points--I do remember a wringer dryer when I was really young), but most things were on the line, even in winter. Plenty of action figures used the clothesline as a zip line, too. Hanging clothes and rushing out to bring the laundry in before the rain hits seemed perfectly normal.

So here I am living in Tucson and I'm trying to be a good little greenie and I figure one of the easiest things to do is hang my clothes to dry. Joan thinks I'm going to get busted by the HOA, but hey, if I get busted I guess it'll be time to attend those HOA meetings.

I don't think it'll happen, though. I'm pretty discreet about it, I think. I have mounted some hooks under the patio and hang some dowels from them when it is time to dry my clothes. I don't have big poles with crossbars and three or four cables running the length of my yard or anything like that. But I sometimes, with my three four foot dowels, have barely enough room to hang my laundry. I might have to add another one to the line up (pun intended).

Here in Tucson it is often hot enough, dry enough, and just breezy enough for my laundry to dry very, very quickly. There are times when it clearly dries faster than it would in the dryer and it comes in the house every bit as warm as the clothes from the dryer. I encourage you to figure out your own system and try to dry at least some of your clothing outside. I admittedly don't dry all of mine. For one, Joan doesn't dry her clothes outside, citing allergens and dust. She won't allow me to dry the towels or the sheets, either. But that's fine. Almost all of my own clothing, however, dries on the line and I like it just fine. I haven't noticed any issues with allergens, either. Maybe it's just luck. Who knows? Either way, I say dry away, dry away, dry away.

Vegas Trip, Day 01

Thursday, June 4, 2009

What a seemingly productive day; perhaps not in an industrious way, but we certainly got a lot done, it seems. Joan was up at her usual "before God wakes" time, and I crawled out of bed at the early hour of six a.m. I went about the usual tasks of watering the garden and filling the bird feeder and that sort of thing. I made a smoothie and then an omelet with tomato and spinach and a heavy dose of cheese. Then I set about filling the cooler with beer for when we arrived in our room at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. Of course, being me, I managed to knock a beer from the fridge to the floor and it shattered and spilled all over the kitchen. Out with the mop!

Showered and dressed, we finished the dishes and last minute prep and were mostly ready when Ken and Marie arrived. We loaded up the Expedition and hit the road for our trip to Vegas. The trip was uneventful and seemed to go by quickly between conversations and reading and route discussions. Our first stop was in Kingman, Arizona, where he had lunch at DJz--a Route 66 diner that sits across from the Route 66 Museum, which, unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore because we wanted to get to the Hoover Dam for a dam tour, dammit. We passed a few gas stations looking for cheap gas, picked the Flying J, and got back on the road just in time to pass several stations selling gas for at least a whopping $.04 cheaper! If it had been a dime less Ken would have been thrown in a funk, but four cents he could handle.

Coming up on the Boulder Dam, you can't help but be impressed. It's massive and the traffic is heavy. We planned on doing the Dam tour (and you can bet that the Hoover Dam staff makes full use of the double entendre) so we opted for crossing the dam to the Nevada side where a large parking structure was built along with the gift shop, cafe, etc. It's quite a facility.

One of the first things I noticed is the water level in the river. It's at a sixty-three year low and there is a wide band of whitened rock that makes the high water level mark obvious. There's a lot of water not flowing in the Colorado these days. Given current climate change indicators, this will only worsen. A long time "dam hater," I must try to accept that if current populations supplied water by the Colorado are to be maintained, there are likely to be more dams in the future. It's estimated that the flow of the Colorado could be diminished by up to thirty percent in the not-too-distant future and dams and reservoirs will likely be the solution.

I found it interesting that the Hoover Dam was not intended to supply power. That was more of an afterthought. The original intent was merely flood control and harnessing the Colorado and to provide drinking water and irrigation to the affected states. California came up with the idea of the generators and worked up some kind of deal (the details of which you'll have to look up--I can't recall them accurately at the moment). There are now seventeen generators producing energy that is sold as cost--as a federal facility they can't sell at a profit. Most of the electricity finds its way to California, Arizona, and a bit to Nevada. Supposedly zero percent of the electricity is used to operate casinos--it's part of the regulation, apparently.

It's a good tour. I recommend it if you're out that way. There's a whole lot of glossy public relations going on while you're there. You will hear absolutely nothing about any of the negative aspects of the dam, only the good. And it's touted as being "environmentally conscious" and whatnot. There's a lot of foolishness behind that claim, but what are you going to do? I can't say I was surprised that there was absolutely no mention of the unintentional environmental fallout generated by the building of the dam.

One interesting note: The dam is entirely self-funded and powered. In addition to the seventeen power generators there are two small generators (one on each side) that were part of the original design that are used to supply one hundred percent of the power used by the dam and it's associated facilities.

From the dam it is a fairly short drive into Vegas. We stayed at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street, downtown, old town, whatever you want to call it--not The Strip. We were there because my friend Ken was participating in a bowling tournament at the Cashman Center. We got a smoking deal on rooms because of it--$39 the first night, $59 for the following two. Considering the price of the rooms, I was very impressed. The room was spacious, clean, and set up nicely. My one complaint was our ninth floor shower--not much pressure, a faulty shower head, and a slow draining tub. If not for that, I would have been ecstatic over the quality/value ratio.

Checking in was a hoot. There was a back-up of cars trying to check in to the hotel. We unloaded all of our bags to a bell cart and got a claim ticket and headed for the front desk while Marie self-parked the car. Joan and I got checked in and headed to our room--good thing because almost as soon as we closed the door the bellman was there with the bags. The only problem was all the bags were on the cart and our rooms were on different floors (we were on nine, Ken and Marie on four). We offloaded ours while trying to connect with Ken--his cell phone kept cutting out, probably because he was in the parking garage. I tried to tell him to head down to his room to meet the bellman, but they showed up at ours a moment later. Fortunately we had detained the bellman (who was friendly, funny, and accomodating). We ended up taking Ken and Marie's coolers from the cart and stashing them in our room and sent the ballman on his way--Ken and Marie stayed with us so we could get started on our "cocktails."

We wanted to save some money and the easiest way to do that is on alcohol. We brought some vodka, soda, beer, fruity beer, etc., and, of course, our giant plastic tumblers. The tumblers were a hit. We filled them with drinks and then wandered around, making occasional forays up to the room for refills. It worked out pretty well. There was a lot of foolishness involved and I'm not sure Ken was quite up to it that first night.

After we were well on our way, we decided we should eat dinner. Turns out it was almost eleven p.m. when we hit on that insight. We ate at The Grotto, an Italian restaurant that's in the Golden Nugget. It was excellent--and not just because we were a few drinks past our prime. The food and service were top notch and, if I remember correctly, not too outrageously priced.
After dinner we checked out the pool area (where we had actually spent a little time in our earlier forays). It's a nice pool with a huge aquarium at its center housing sharks and fish such as jacks, grouper, red fish, etc. Right through the middle of the aquarium runs a water slide. I can tell you from a later experience that you simply can't see a thing when you're going through that slide. It's yellow, yellow, blue, yel--sploosh.

The actual pool closes at some ridiculous hour like eight o'clock. You can still be in there and use the hot tub and drink and play blackjack, you just can't go in the pool. Above the aquarium there are two levels of cabanas--those close when the pool closes. We wanted to check them out and so we sucked up to a security guard and he told us we could go take a look. They're nice--flat screen t.v., comfy furniture, the whole nine yards--for $175 a day. Yes. That's right. For $175 a day you can use a cabana from ten in the morning until eight at night. What is that? $17.50 an hour? For that it should come with free food and drinks! That's more than our entire stay cost!

The weather in Vegas was weird. It was cool. We expected blistering temps but it was windy and often a little on the cloudy side. In other words, it got a bit chilly at night and that was the case that first evening. As such, we didn't stay at the pool long and called it a night. It was a good first day. The drive was uneventful, seemed to pass quickly, and we all had a good time. And not a dime was spent gambling!

Thoughts on Grilled Cheese

Thoughts On Grilled Cheese

What makes a good grilled cheese? Not even a great grilled cheese, just a good grilled cheese. One thing I can say for certain is that it would involve real cheese and not Kraft American Singles or some similar "cheese food product." I've had my share of such sandwiches growing up. My parents had one of two cheese varieties in the house on a regular basis: American cheese food slices, of whatever brand or variety, and Government nondescript yellow cheese. I admit the government cheese didn't make a bad grilled cheese. It may not have been a great grilled cheese, but it was passable. The cheese slices? Not so much.

Over the years I developed some personal preferences when it comes to a grilled cheese sandwich. I like mine with either sharp cheddar or a good swiss--maybe even both. Now, Velveeta and your "cheese food" slices might melt in an exceptional manner; that's what they are made to do. But they don't taste good (though Velveeta makes a good cheese dip when melted with your favorite salsa). I like real bread, real cheese, a slice or two of tomato, and an even heat source. I usually bake mine in the oven on a stone if I have the time. Beyond that you're getting into experimental territory.

On our way to Las Vegas we stopped in Kingman, Arizona. We had lunch at a Route 66 Diner called Mr. D'z. All in all, it was a good diner. The fries weren't too flaccid, the onion rings tasted beer battered, so on and so forth. There wasn't much on the menu in the way of vegetarian options so I opted for a grilled cheese. I asked for tomato on it and it sounded like that would be no big deal. And it wasn't. Not really.

The sandwich was made with generic "American" cheese food product slices and standard bread. There were tomato slices on the sandwich and it had been toasted to some degree. But the cheese wasn't really melted and the tomato was still cold. But what are you going to do? Of course I ate it and I didn't say anything about it. I will go on record now, however, with the determination that this was a crappy sandwich. Here's what I think an ideal restaurant grilled cheese sandwich would be like: Artisan bread, not too crusty but one with substance. Real cheese of your choice (provolone, cheddar, jack, swiss, you know, actual cheese varieties). Meaty tomato slices and maybe some spinach leaves. I like baking a sandwich, as I said, but if it's done on a grill, that's fine too--either way, the cheese has to be thoroughly melted, the tomato warmed through, and the bread toasted brown but not burned. It's not rocket science. It's an American classic and one of those basic things you learn to make as a child. It simply amazes me when a restaurant bothers to put it on the menu but can't actually make one, especially a "classic" diner.