2: How many bikes do you own?
3: Have you ever bought a bike for someone else?
4: Is there a "bike-sharing" or are there short term bike rentals available where you live?
5: What can we do to encourage more people to ride bikes?
My Answers:
1: Have you ever ridden a bicycle? Yes, thousands of miles starting when I was about 8 years old.
2: How many bikes do you own? Three
3: Have you ever bought a bike for someone else? I bought one for my nephews when they were growing up.
4: Is there a "bike-sharing" or are there short term bike rentals available where you live? Capital Bikeshare, I used the bikes for several years as part of my daily commute.
5: What can we do to encourage more people to ride bikes? Build more protected bike lanes and ticket drivers who endanger cyclists.
Please share your answers in the comments.
Caution: This is an attempt at Humor.
There is no guarantee of success.
While in Southampton, we witnessed a rare and exotic phenomena, something rarely witnessed outside of Oxfordshire, the miracle of birth of an exotic species. Our timing was pure luck, we had no idea when our ship moored that the delivery would happen just across the street and was imminent, let alone that it would go on for hours.
The reproductive process starts vast distances away. Elves in Hollow Trees forge and finish parts. Gnomes quietly form body parts in the dark of night, with squirrels and ravens hiding them away before the light of day. Some internal organs come from abroad, places Englishmen find foreign and exotic. The mating takes place in private, behind closed doors, in a location near lots of highly educated professors and students hoping to lead the free world someday. Gestation takes time, hours, weeks, months no one knows for sure. They enter the birth canal and move slowly through it. Hundreds even thousands of them inching along.
Then it happens, one by one, one right after another, they emerge, like piglets from a sow. It is an awesome sight, new life beginning. Their coats shining and reflecting the light of day for the first time, their headlights flashing like eyes seeing sunlight for the first time, their flashers flashing signs of life. Some go right, some go left, some make a sharp U-turn, others straight ahead. All will need to feed soon, or die. Some will spend their lives near where they are hatched, others will immediately board ships and venture far from the land of their birth for exotic lives in places like Chicago, and Phoenix.
I don't, I watch for a minute or so and if nothing is happening I move on. My brain thinks there is nothing to see here, nothing has happened, so nothing is going to happen, let's go in search of something worth seeing. And I move on. I am often a couple of steps ahead of the action happening behind me, or far ahead of me.
There is a Facebook Page for Huntley Meadows, and photographers post amazing photos of Herons moments after they catch a fish. The payoff for the long wait. I envy those photos, and it would be easy to think, the photographer has a better camera or a longer lens, and that may be true, though this one was not that far away. What those photographers have that I lack, is patience. They stand there quietly as long as it takes, minutes, hours, days. They are there today, tomorrow, and next week if that is what it takes to be there at the the moment the magic happens.
I should learn from the Heron, just as the bird waits for the right moment, so should I.
What have I been up to in the kitchen? Ham and cheesy scalloped potatoes, swiss steak, and fish pies.
What is in a fish pie? I started by peeling and boiling potatoes to make cheesy mashed potatoes. The fish was halibut filets and frozen shrimp. The halibut was simply baked with a little Old Bay seasoning, 12 minutes at 375 (f). The shrimp was sauteed with butter and herbs. When the potatoes are cooked mash them with lots of shredded cheese. Make a simple bechamel sauce - butter and flour and milk, make it nice and thick. When the fish and shrimp are cooked, mix in the with bechamel. Assemble the pie (I used individual souffle style ramekins) place the fish mixture in the bottom, top with the cheesy mashed potatoes. Bake in a hot over (425F) for about 20-25 minutes, until the potato top "crust" browns nicely. Allow to cool about 10 minutes, and serve. The flavors are wonderful. The browning of the cheese in the potatoes brings an extra dimension of flavor.
Why? Inspired by something I had in the oldest licensed pub in London. Try it, you might like it.
Who have I talked with this week? Sweet Bear, the water aerobics gang, the board at my former office, Emily, Martin, Karen,
Weird thoughts of the week? How have I survived to this ripening old age? There are so many things that could have killed me over the years. And yet, here I am, blogging away.
What made me smile and evil smile this week? The sparse turn out for the military parade, while the counter protests drew tens of thousands.
What else? In the elevator Saturday morning there was a young couple, probably late teens early 20's, he had long hair, a scraggly beard, both were wearing counter cultural black and had visible tattoos. I smiled to myself, and thought there is hope for youth, being wonderfully non-conformist - reminded me of me when I was that age - but they looked happier. In fact that had that smile on their faces like a young couple who had just discovered sex for the first time.
Who seems to hate me this week? Rumba, I snatached him out from under my desk and physically removed him from my room the other day. He seems to be holding a grudge. When we set this one up, it asked if we wanted to connect it to Alexa, and I said NO, that is how it all starts, "Hal open the pod bay doors," "I sorry Dave I am afraid I can't do that."
Who have I been watching on YouTube?
- Angelo is a recent art school graduate in Italy, young, talented, attractive, and a good content creator. https://www.youtube.com/@angelomansour
- Norm is from British Columbia, and has lived and worked in Japan for years, this is a second channel for him. https://www.youtube.com/@TokyoLensExplore
This shore excursion was easy to get to, walk along the pier to the end of the ship, turn right and the it was there waiting for us to board. It was about a 90 minute ride on a 75 foot boat, around the point, and to a nearby reef and sunken ship. The reefs in Bermuda are loosely formed, with somewhat healthy corals. The sunken ship, is not a shipwreck. It was a British navy ship, a cast iron clad wooden ship. The ship was corroding badly, and it was determined that it was not feasible to return it to England for repairs. There was a deep chanel that allowed access to the port, that the Navy really wanted to close off. So they stripped the ship, packed it with explosives, towed it out and sunk it. They used too many explosives and split the ship in half, driving the bow up onto the shallows, where it still sticks out of the water.
