The post office sent me this yesterday:
I don’t know if everyone got one, or just dog owners.
I know that my mutts love UPS because they carry around milkbones. They alert to the distinctive engine of the UPS trucks, and will literally run to any UPS person and beg for treats. I used to tease the UPS person that if they ever got out, I’d just come find the truck, and they’d be following it around. Turns out that wasn’t a joke – that actually happened. The gardener left the gate open. I got a call. They were on the UPS truck. She brought them home for me. Thanks, Jeannine! I called her supervisor to put in a good word. He thought it was great. UPS loves dogs[1]!
That’s a funny story.
The USPS guy on the other hand would have called the dog police. That would not have been so funny. Fines and dog jail at best. Mace and/or shot dogs at worst.
So why doesn’t the USPS carry around milkbones? Having the local dogs love you seems better than carrying around mace because you are afraid of them.
Of course there are still problem dogs that aren’t going to be bribed with a milkbone. The postal worker goes to every house every day. UPS just shows up when there’s a package. There’s a difference of scale.
Still, a difference of attitude.
[1] I’m not linking to the UPS dog page on that social network, but it’s there.
Smokers are assholes. I don’t know why, except I guess that if you feel it’s fine to pollute your lungs, the air, and everyone’s lungs around you, then it’s NBD to throw your butts anywhere, and everywhere. So you do.
Perhaps there’s some mythical smoker somewhere who gets rid of butts properly, but as long as I keep finding butts everywhere smokers congregate, and in random strange places, I just assume anyone who smokes is an asshole. I’m right so far.
Just like anyone who rides a loudass Harley in a residential neighborhood at 6 am. Asshole.
I can’t decide if vaping is worse. Try following one of those down a street. Holy cow, the smoke clouds. It’s like a WWI battleship making full steam to catch the Bismarck. You literally have to cross the street to get away from it. You’re an asshole.
But there’s no butts, so there’s that.
Continuing in the vein of positivity and not just bitching [1]
[1] Don’t worry I’ve got those coming up. Cf healthcare, driving, gray cars driving in the rain without lights, US shitty driving habits, ugly modern cars…
[2] Do not mix up.
[3] Well, I did. Pictures. I got it to show photos, when the first Retina display came out. It’s a wonderful portable portfolio device.
[4] Also no more people striking up conversations about the book I’m reading, or meeting people in bookstores…
[5] With the exception of skiing and climbing. I’ve had my fingerprints go away enough doing both that the screen wouldn’t swipe up.
[6] Which is why I don’t use the traveler apps from the US Gov’t, or sign up for Global or TSA Pre [7].
[7] Also because I get them greater than 50% of the time anyway, so why bother. Perhaps when I don’t have status anymore, but then I presumably won’t be flying that much anymore so…
[8] I’m not a libertarian, but the incentives are all wrong for anyone but Apple. Sad but true.
Adding to list:
I got a new bike. Not really because I wanted to1, but because it’s basically impossible to get replacement parts for the groupset on the old bike2, and replacing the groupset would require new wheels, and… for want of a nail, etc. At some point maybe it’s just better to put that money into a new rig. So the G&T said anyway late one night when I was surfing the intertubes and came across almost3 the bike I wanted for 20% off.
It’s a nice bike! I really enjoy riding it. Disk brakes are pretty awesome. As is a suspension on my old butt.
But the old bike is faster! I looked down today and saw that I was cranking up the hill at 90 rpm and 18.5 mph. Which is pretty fast for me and that hill. Usually I only hit 17 on a good day4. This is consistent. Me on old bike faster than me on new bike. It’s not double-blind but mostly I’m concentrating on not getting killed, and only marginally on how fast I’m going. Of course I’m always shooting for a new PR. But those are few and far between – it’s hard to beat that since it depends on traffic and lights.
I thought it was because the new bike with the big tires and the big wheels and the disk brakes and the monster wide frame5 are heavier. But data says the old bike is 8.13 kg. New bike is 8.30 kg. Not that much! Same amount of crap appended to both for the daily driver. The old bike has better wheels than stock, and a carbon seat post and drops, so maybe it’s a pound less than spec. The new bike sure feels heavier in the hand. But I guess I’ll have to find a different reason why the old bike feels faster. Maybe is faster, except Garmin has decided to stop updating the old Mac app and now I gotta go to the cloud to compare data. Fuck that.
I mean, the old bike was a Nice Bike, BITD. Maybe only one level down equivalent from the new bike, which is a Really Nice Bike, but not the Nicest6. But even only Kinda Nice Bikes these days are the equivalent of the old bike. Bikes are one of those things that have gotten way better.
Tagged 5200, bike, Domane, Trek, weight
Borked
Thinking about it, if it’s not the weight, it could be:
Addressing points the latter though, I notice the speed difference powering up the hills mostly, where these have less effect. Though I also notice that I don’t hit speeds greater than 30 that much going down the hills, so maybe there’s something to it.
It’s pretty damn impressive that this big burly bike with a much stouter frame, disc brakes, etc., weighs the same as the old bike though.
Tagged bike, rantComment Comments Off on Borked Permalink