Water tune-up, part II

As with any big event, preparation is important. As noted previously, I am an on-water volunteer for the Ironman(tm) event scheduled for next weekend. At some point, I decided that I would haul my boat to the river with my Bikes at Work trailer rather than depend on my aging truck. I tested the system today--well, one could call it an excuse for a bike ride, I suppose--and had only very minor tweaks to make along the way.

Before I could haul the boat, though, I had to reconfigure the trailer a bit. In my usual configuration, the trailer axle is in the fourth of six possible positions (with some of those positions requiring that the trailer only be one of the three modules). The axle module is usually the middle of the three modules, and the axle is aft of center by a foot or so. Since the boat is a bit over twelve feet long and the trailer only eight feet long, this was not going to work--the center of gravity was too far aft of the axle for safe transport. I broke down the modules and set the axle at its rearmost position.

I then loaded the boat to the trailer, securing it with a quartet of elastic straps (two bungee cords that came with the trailer section I ordered from Bikes at Work, and two straps made with old inner tubes and It-Clips--see prior entries or this link for It-Clip information).

Mindful that the way to Waterfront Park is mostly down hill from home, I rode what seemed the most direct route--Frankfort Avenue to River Road.

For Sunday's Ironman event, I am to meet the other boaters at the UofL Rowing Center parking lot, just west of the River Road intersection with Frankfort Avenue. For the Saturday practice swim, I'm to meet the other boaters near Joe's Crab Shack, a bit further down-river. I wanted to time my trip, so that I wouldn't be late. I found that I can get there in forty-five minutes or so, and plan on giving myself an hour so that I have time to unload and lock up before needing to be ready to hit the water.

Since I was at the river, I took the opportunity to do a little paddling. I stopped in the parking lot for the amphitheater between the Tumbleweed restaurant and the Rowing Center, and encountered a police officer arriving for his shift as a river patrolman. We had a cordial conversation (he's clearly been chosen in part for his willingness to be a good PR guy for the LMPD), during which he offered that I can use the LMPD slips for launching my kayak AND lock my bike and trailer by the LMPD river station for better security than I would have leaving my rig in the Yellow Parking Lot. I took him up on the offer, and had an enjoyable time on the river in my boat.

When I got back to the slip and prepared to get out of my boat, my phone was ringing. I realized that I still had it AND my small camera in my shorts pocket (good thing I didn't go for an intentional or unintentional swim!) instead of it my dry bag!

After the phone conversation, I got out of the boat and reloaded it on my trailer. A couple of passers-by commented quite favorably on my rig, then moved on to look at the police boats (the aforementioned officer seemed quite happy to discuss things with them, further supporting my assertion that he's a good PR guy).

Astute observers will recognize that the bike pulling the trailer is my Globe instead of the Big Dummy. Both bikes are equipped with Bikes at Work hitches, of course. The Globe has the dyno-powered headlight, though, and that will be important come Sunday morning! The boat is heavier than I would like, but not terrible given what I paid for it when I bought it ten years ago. I didn't need the little chainring getting up the steepest part of Frankfort Avenue during the return trip, so I figure this bike is fine for pulling loads like this (I've pulled a 250# load using this bike in the past, before I bought the Dummy, so the weight was not a concern anyway).

water tune up

 I spent my morning paddling my kayak on the Ohio River, in support of the open water swim put on by North Oldham County. Many of those participating in the event use it as a tune-up for their Ironman effort (Ironman Louisville returns for its sixth year in two weeks). Kayakers are no exception to this--we (at least I) learn from every time we are on the water doing this sort of thing.

I've been on the water for two Ironman Louisville events--my third is coming up in two weeks. I paddle my kayak to watch for swimmers who are having trouble, or who get off course, or who just need to hang on to the bow of my boat for a moment to catch a breather.

People who volunteer for such events speak of all manner of reasons. Some talk of how inspiring the athletes are as they complete various stages of the event. Some speak of the camaraderie working with other volunteers. I recognize those motivations. There are others, too.

All of us, though, are a bit selfish. We do it for the pleasure of making a difference. We do it for our own unrelated-to-the-event reasons, as well. One of my such reasons for being on the river is that, for the Ironman swim, I am on the river before the race, and it's quiet (save for car/truck noise on the I-65 bridge), and very peaceful for the Ohio. It's a chance to enjoy the river in a way not often possible in this day of frequent barge traffic. We see and hear herons and other waterfowl. The water sometimes emits a light fog. It's almost ethereal to be on the water that early on a quiet morning.

Then, of course, we get to experience the spectacle of over two thousand swimmers coming down the river. There will be the first couple of leaders, then a few more folks, eventually a steady stream of swimmers, then a thousand folks all at once, all arms and breathing and kicking and splashing and making a hell of a lot of racket. Once the huge tide passes, the numbers dwindle bit by bit, until there are only a few swimmers. By that time, each swimmer will have his or her own kayak paddler as an escort. We cheer them on, encouraging them to finish within the allotted time (if they are not out of the water by a specified time, they are removed from the event).

It's amazing to be part of this.

Today has gone to the dogs

I spoke of how I will miss Cisco a while ago.

There is never a "good" time for euthanasia of a pet. This time was no different. However, there ARE often complications in the timing. As noted before, my stepdaughters are out of town with their grandparents for a week, and we didn't want them to be dreading a coming euthanasia during their trip, or worrying about him, or dreading coming home to find he is no longer here. Letting him go before they left town seemed the lesser of the two evils.

Anyway, so that we are not lonesome for dog company, Jenn suggested that we dog sit for her parents while they are out of town. Dixie has spent time with us before, although not recently due to Cisco's advancing age and various infirmities. She is another sweet dog, so we'll have some fun with her during the week. She is far more energetic than Cisco has been, which will have some benefits as well.

Maybe I'll get some pictures of her up soon.

Requiem for a faithful dog

Cisco came into my life as part of the family I gained when Jenn and I started dating. At the time, he was eight years old or so.

Since I'm a pets person, I couldn't help but like him. He was a sweet dog--gentle, friendly with people and other dogs. He wasn't a fetch dog; indeed, let him off his leash and he would run away, eventually make a new friend or two, and let them find the tag on his collar so that he could be reunited with his people (and show off his new friend).

When Jenn and her daughters adopted Cisco from the Humane Society, they also adopted a second dog, Lilu. Lilu and Cisco were great friends, but Lilu got loose one time and was hit by a car. I never met her. I mention her as background--in many families, each pet "belongs" to one member of the family more than the others. Cisco was Rachel's dog (Lilu was Sarah's).

With Rachel away at college for much of the last four years, she was not around to do daily care for Cisco. I assumed most of the "make sure the dog gets fed/gets his meds/gets his walks" duties. I didn't mind, really. I enjoyed being out walking with him, in part just seeing him enjoy checking his "p-mail" forums and making his contributions to the "discussions" around the various shrubs, fire hydrants, mailbox posts, and so on. He helped me meet many of our neighbors, too. I feel that neighbors walking dogs helps a neighborhood be a neighborhood. It's almost a block-watch group.

Cisco had been having a rougher time over the last couple of years. One thing we found as we moved into this house was that he was doing poorly at remembering that his bathroom was outside. Our Veterinarian helped us with a canine senility drug. Eventually, the pill became a couple of pills, as liver troubles came into the picture last year. With two or sometimes three pills, we moved to putting the pills in a glob of peanut butter to make things easier for all of us. I have it on good authority that dogs like peanut butter--at least every dog I've seen express an opinion has been fond of it.

The days of lolling in his bed came to and end at some point. He apparently found it hard to get on or off it. Or the floor felt better because it was cooler. Or something. He wasn't the most vocal dog I've known.

Toward the end, though, it was clear he was suffering a bit. He was on pain medication, but at times the pain was more than the medication could control for him. He wasn't having a good time being a dog. None of us could make him suffer any more. His last treats were the dried sweet potato things we found at Feeder's. He would do anything he was able to do for one of those.

I'll miss seeing his joy at knowing he was about to get one.

bike lane rant

As some folks know, I am not generally in favor of bike lanes as they have been painted here in town. I have been getting some push back from some engineers on this, based on some vague perception that bike lanes are safer and that studies show this, or that studies show that bike lanes lead to more bike usage. Or something. There is much belief in magic paint.

I've been saying that bike lanes are a detriment to safety. Yeah, I get that folks who don't know any better think they make things safer--they don't. Just like wider lanes with huge zones of no solid obstacles don't make for safer traffic (such places encourage speeding, for example, as opposed to narrower lanes with trees closer to the roadway that tend to slow motorists and make them pay closer attention to their surroundings), bike lanes that take cyclists out of motorists' consciousness diminish safety.

I've been reminded of the Lusk study recently, as supposed proof that bike lanes are a good idea. It has some VERY big holes in the methodology that a first-term statistics student would recognize, with a horribly biased result.

I'm also reminded of all the bike infrastructure in Copenhagen or Amsterdam--two cities in countries that, by law, assume any car-vs-bike crash to be the motorist's fault unless some fairly strong contrary evidence is presented, with the result that motorists have been socialized over a long time to keep their heads out of their rectal canals. I would also offer this video of how things are perceived by a tourist in Holland. It isn't all rosy, there, for certain.

Statistics can be useful, but correlation does not imply causality: a textbook example of this is the correlation between ice cream sales and boating emergencies. When ice cream sales are high, more folks drown. Should we then ban ice cream sales? Ban boating as a way to reduce ice cream sales? The Lusk study has other, larger, problems than the correlation/causality issue, of course. It also ignores the problems created by bike lanes, as shown in analysis of this crash (ironically, this crash was in Montreal, where the Lusk research--such as it was--was done).

Anyway, here's a list of studies that supposedly prove that bike lanes are a good idea, with annotations regarding the poor statistical analyses.

I know that one big concern in Public Works is pedestrian safety. I understand that improving our numbers (reducing pedestrian injuries and deaths) is hoped to have the additional benefit of reducing car crashes in general, and car-vs-bike crashes in proportion to reducing car-vs-pedestrian incidents. I'm in favor of that goal, of course (who wouldn't be?).

I would prefer, however, that we put more emphasis on addressing the cause of the perceived danger--poor operation of those big hunks of metal--rather than making the rest of us pay by reducing our mobility. I've too often gotten the "stay in the effing bike lane" motorist harassment when the bike lane is not usable for any of several reasons, and paying money for poorly-designed bike lanes that less-confident cyclists than I will feel compelled to use despite that they put those same cyclists in greater danger is a bad thing.

 

Them's the brakes!

About a month ago, my stepdaughter borrowed my truck to help a friend of hers move some furniture into storage. The next day, she reported that the brake pedal was going very low and that the truck wasn't stopping well. I declared the truck out of service until such time as I could get around to fixing it.

Of course, being able to bicycle to jobs meant that I was not in a big hurry to fix it. Over the course of a couple weeks, I tinkered with it, and found that a brake line had rusted to the point that it had a pinhole. Of course, it was the longest line in the system, going from the distribution block under the master cylinder to the rear axle (or at least the fitting where the flex hose to the rear axle attaches). That brake line is installed to the frame rail before the wire loom and fuel tank are added to the chassis, so it doesn't come out. A replacement line is routed differently as well.

I bought ten feet of replacement brake line, a junction to connect the two segments, and an adapter to connect this line to the distribution block. Of course, replacing brake lines leads to bleeding the air from the system. In strict accordance with Murphy's Law, both rear bleed screws sheared off when I tried to open them. Next trip to the parts house was for a rear wheel cylinder, to enable bleeding the rear system.

A neighbor arrived at his home about the time I was ready to bleed the brakes, so he helped me do that. The brake pedal never seemed to build pressure, however, so I let him go home and poked around a bit more. Sure enough, the union fittings were not quite tight enough--there was a small ring of brake fluid on the driveway. That wasn't the larger problem, though: there was a much bigger puddle of brake fluid by the right front wheel!

There is a flex hose that connects at the frame and at the brake caliper. It had sprung a leak, and a fairly bad one, judging from the amount of fluid on the underside of the car and on the driveway. No wonder the brake pedal wasn't giving any feedback. I had the hose, having bought it when I put new brakes on the truck a few years ago. I dug around in the garage for a few minutes and found it, then set to installing it. The frame-end fitting was in an awkward enough place that it took a while to change out, but it eventually went back together. By this time, of course, I had to go get more brake fluid...

After a number of trips to the parts supplier, a couple of trips to a different store for brake fluid (the parts house is only open until 7:00), and a fair bit of cussing and fussing, I now have brakes! The truck is more-or-less drivable once again.

Oh, except for that when I got the report about the brakes, I also got a report that a rock had hit the windshield, causing a crack. Once I'm confident that the truck is indeed operational, I'll call the insurance company and arrange to have a new windshield installed.

...and people wonder why I prefer to ride a bicycle!