It seems the spells between posts get longer.
Since my last post here, I've had opportunity to visit my grandmother (how many men can say that at 52?). She is doing pretty well, considering that she's ninety-seven. She lives in the home she and my grandfather bought in the late 1940s. My father lives there most of the time to be sure she gets her needs met. As a result, I have to interact with him to visit her. This is awkward, as I have no real interest in having him in my life, for reasons I don't need to discuss here.
Anyway, my sister, my wife, and I drove over for a short visit, which seems to be better than long visits for my grandmother. We were driving through West Virginia during the big chemical spill hooplah, and had to be very careful where we got water.
I think it criminal that a company can allow a leak like that, declare bankruptcy, and let its assets be taken over by another company run by the same people created for the specific purpose of shielding the mismanagers from their responsibility.
On other fronts, I recently learned that the Cycling Savvy "Truth and Techniques" class material is undergoing a major update. I'm looking forward to the results, and holding off further preparations for my own presentation until I see the new materials. We hope to hold our first Louisville classes in either late March or early April--most likely early April.
Tonight there is a celebration of the Roe v Wade decision, that holds that any abortion discussions between a woman and her doctor are private matters, and that the government cannot prevent those discussions nor any procedures decided upon in those discussions.
There are too many who insist on butting into those decision-making processes, usually in the name of some deity or other. They refuse to accept that it's none of their business, so they "counsel" (read: harass, harangue, and bully) clients, their companions, and even those who are there to simply allow the clients space to exercise their own choices. In some states, there are buffer zones around clinics, which help enormously. In Louisville, however, the clinic door is very close to a public sidewalk, so a client must navigate a gauntlet of self-sanctified bullies who spew all manner of misinformation and vitriol their way (and have the nerve to call it "counseling").
I've stood at the door of the clinic a few times, and it's amazing to me how people can think that yelling at women for taking care of themselves the best way they can is somehow a positive thing. Some of the "antis" stand in front of the waiting room window and preach--loudly--as if they might change the minds of at least one client. I really think they are yelling to themselves more than anything else--they get to watch their own reflections in the window as they pontificate. Some of their claims are so absurd as to be laughable, and I cannot help but laugh as it is my only way to keep from challenging them on their nonsense (and challenging them leads to escalation, which is a bad thing--it doesn't help the clients one bit, and the clients are why escorts are there).
It should be noted that there have been almost exactly zero times when an American pro-choice person has pushed hard for an anti-choice person to have an abortion. We basically feel that if a person doesn't want to have an abortion, it's that person's choice.
Boulder, Louisville, and press coverage of crashes
16 years ago
