A Sign of Fall

Today I was checking the weather forecast and I saw the "feels like" temperature at 91° when the actual temperature was 92°! Whoa.

Our Moral Code is Out of Date

Found this article on CNN.com. I probably could have guessed that it was written by someone in some way affiliated with Ayn Rand's philosophy. Anyhow, it frames familiar arguments in a new light to make them support an idea that I haven't seen advanced before.

Tri the Rez Custom Orders

I've got a sample of the custom Polar water bottle coming early next week. I saw mock-ups of the bottle and the race T-shirts and they look AWESOME. Sponsor logos on water bottle are full-color and look much like the post below (except with the logo for Enterprise Rent-a-Car added in). Maybe soon I'll figure out how to post a pic of the shirts. 111 people registered as of right now.

Tri the Rez Sponsors

I made this all by myself in Photoshop Elements. Not too bad. Not like it's a difficult project, but if it's gotta get done and nobody else will do it, then it comes down to me.

Know Your Rights

I went to a know your rights workshop last week and learned a couple things about dealing with the cops.

1. Never consent to a search. Not of your car, your house, nor your person. Tell them that you do not consent to any searches. They'll make shit up about how you'll get in trouble, but cops are allowed to bullshit you. You aren't allowed to lie to them, but they can lie to you all they want. Most people get in trouble because they let the cops search something that they had a constitutional right to keep private (is this where all those 4th Amendment jokes come from, TBW?).

2. Say you're pulled over and asked to step out of the car. You can ask if you are free to go or if you are being detained. They normally aren't allowed to detain you.

3. When pulled over, ask the officer why you were pulled over. I made this mistake when pulled over in Mississippi and waited about 10 minutes before the officer told me why he pulled me over.

4. Shut the fuck up. I talk too much. They'll try to turn your words against you. An example of this is a "compound question" such as: You don't mind if I search your car; you don't have any drugs in there, right? If you answer no, then you don't mind if they search your car, even if you meant that you don't have any drugs. If you answer yes like you mind if they search then you sort of just got trapped into admitting that you have drugs in your car and that allows them to search by giving probable cause.

Pick #207

Sleeping Spiders - "Strawberries" from Rock and Roll Master Plan

I think they sound better live than the recordings on the website.

Accident on the Uno

I'm OK.

On the way home from the rock gym tonight, I was riding north on Macomb and a car slowed down with his right blinker on. I thought he was waiting for me to pass, but wanted to make sure. I slowed down and was going to ask if I could go because his window was down. I took my eyes off the road and ran into a pipe that was laying in the bike lane. The pipe was angled into the road (does that make sense to my readers? It went from the curb out into the car lane as I rode up on it). I got thrown into the car lane and there was nothing I could do about it. Not being super used to my fixed gear, I didn't react great when the pedals kept turning. I was able to get my left foot out of the Power Grips on my pedals and kind of kicked the car away, but my left bullhorn caught the side view mirror of the car and smashed the mirror and broke off the plastic piece. My left hand got cut up a little bit and is a little swollen from where I hit the car. I managed to keep the bike upright.

The driver pulled over into an adjacent parking lot. I picked up a piece of his plastic piece from the side view along with the pipe that caused the accident. I apologized for running into this guy's car. If he had been an inconsiderate driver, then his car wouldn't have been there in the first place. I felt like it was my fault. The driver didn't do anything to deserve a crashing-into. He said that he is a fellow cyclist and not to worry about it. I offered him a couple dollars for damages and he again declined saying that he know's what it's like to ride.

The bike's handlebars were askew, a bar end plug popped out (I picked it out of the road too), and some of the grip tape on the left side of the handlebars is torn. I had my multitool with me so I fixed the handlebar angle and rode to Erin's. I was a little bit shaken up, but I think I needed to get right back on the bike.

Now I see that there were a few positive things about the accident:

1. It was a very nice motorist who didn't mind me breaking his car

2. It was me and not some inexperienced cyclist who might have gone down or got really hurt and maybe been discouraged from riding

3. I didn't get very hurt, nor did my bike

4. There wasn't traffic coming up too fast from behind...in which case I could have been rear-ended and that would have been b-a-d bad.