kay_gmd | Recent Entries

So wiser folks than I have weighed in on many of the local election candidates.
But I haven't seen much on our district 5 city council election.

I've done a little hunting.

Rochelle Swanson - Candidate Statement (PDF)
Joshua Chapman - Candidate Statement (PDF)
Connor Gorman - Candidate Statement (PDF)
Kelsey Fortune - Candidate Statement (PDF)

These are the candidates, and looking at their statements I was leaning towards Gorman or Fortune. Swanson and Chapman seemed to have vague statements and a small business focus. While Gorman and Fortune had more of a social justice focus.

Then I watched this amazing helpful video by the amazing Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections or YC-DIE

https://www.facebook.com/YCDIEdavis/videos/2743623855956385/?vh=e&extid=mdKqq3UsW8m84ier

Both Swanson and Chapman came off better than I expected. They seemed to have plans related to diversity.
As a side note Chapman's son has been in Joshua's class and she says that Joshua Chapman is nice, and shares my name. It is possible that her evaluation is primarily approval of his bushy beard.

Gorman and Fortune also sounded good, and fit better with what I'm looking for. This forum was clearly focused on race and Fortune primarily shifted to feminism in a couple of places which is vital, but wasn't the key point to the questions she was addressing. She does seem to have the most thought out plan for defunding the police which I thought would be workable.

I'm still pondering on this vote, but thought I'd get my thoughts out there.

Please let me know what you think. I generally find folks more convincing with reasons but since I know most of you even just I like so and so will be a useful data point.

So I posted this on FB on the 29th, after Gilroy. Since then there have been 6 shootings resulting in deaths, so many deaths. This needs to stop.

Yesterday there was yet another shooting. Yet another white man who decided being angry was a good enough reason to kill other people.

All over the world there are people who are angry, and may even commit violence, but only in the United States do we get the numbers of victims that are stacking up because only in the United States do we consider gun makers profit more important than people's lives.

I know that our proud state has better gun laws than most, and it would a legitimate step that we could celebrate to get those spread to the rest of the country.

I'm proposing a new step. I want to see a 1 cent tax per 10,000 rounds of ammunition. I'm specifically looking for it to start at a minuscule level. This is to increase by 1 cent for every shooting that results in a death. When (and sadly I don't anticipate anything other than when) this tax gets to more than 10 cents per 10,000 rounds I want those funds to pay for, and require a sign at every location that sells ammunition that states "Your ammunition price is increased by $X.XX because of the deadly shootings." This sign is to as big at least as big as the biggest sign related to gun or ammunition sales, and be updated no less frequently than once a month. Should there be revenue beyond the cost of the signs that can go to whatever will get this passed. I grew up before Columbine. So I got to miss the active shooter drills, but today I have an 8 year old. Active shooter drills are so normal to her that she talks cheerfully about what room she prefers to be in for the drill based on where it's more fun to hide. She's been lucky. So far it's only ever been a drill. The little boy who died in the Gilroy shooting looked like some of her classmates did a couple of years ago. We need to stop this carnage.

For a shooting tally https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting?fbclid=IwAR2axkKCM5InW_YcQPGKISUtyCWhFwu1p2vpGvmGVvT8LECuxu3LFuudSuU

Take 2:
So far everyone who has responded to my emails has been supportive. The first one was sent to people who represent me. This time I emailed every Methodist Bishop with a listed email.FYI There are really a lot of Bishops in the Methodist church.

Good morning,

I apologize for sending this only in English, I don't have the language skills to provide it in any other language.

Normally I'd stick with my local bishop and pastor, but the global church is effecting my life, and I trust that my bishop is doing what she can to help, so I'm reaching out to all of you.

My name is Sarah I am active in Davis United Methodist Church (near Sacramento California) and as a bisexual who has grown up in the church I have grown up knowing that I am only partially welcomed by the church.

But a few weeks ago I was the storyteller in my daughter’s room as I told the story of the Good Samaritan I encouraged my brilliant excitable transgender daughter and several other 5-8 year olds to wonder about who was the neighbor not only to the person who was robbed, but also to each of the other characters.

Now if the church chooses the traditional option it seems that the church is choosing to be the high priest who walks to the other side of the road to avoid interacting with the robbed person at least if the robbed person is LGBT.

This choice will mean that I'm even less welcome than I have been for the past 20 years since I came out, but more importantly it will be a clear sign that the church is not going to become my neighbor. Until now I have trusted in John Wesley's instruction to constantly strive towards perfection to bring the church to a more welcoming point, and now it seems that the church is not striving towards that perfection.

But I wrote this to ask about my daughter. She is brilliant and inquisitive, and deeply involved in her faith. Right now she wants to be an astronaut, an engineer (on a train), a scientist, and a writer, and I want all of that for her if that's what she wants when the time comes. But I know that as we grow up our career goals shift, and looking at the way she thinks about her faith, I would not be surprised if she wants to be a pastor.

Regardless of her career choices I imagine she will want to be married in the church, I don't even know how the church under the Traditional choice would address marriage of transgender people.

I love our church, there are many of the people there with whom we are close like family, but if the church will not be my daughter's neighbor I wouldn't be a responsible parent if I kept her here.

So I'm asking where do I take my daughter where the church will be my daughter's neighbor?

Blessings and Prayers,

Kay

So I've fallen off writing Christian leaders who are connected with people not acting in a Christian way, but I felt like I need to write my leaders. For those who don't follow the intricacies of Methodist politics this year we're looking at options in relation to how we deal with LGBTQ people especially related to clergy and marriage. Here's a quick look at options:

https://files.constantcontact.com/847e91ea001/3edf8546-01d8-4a61-8fa6-e8effc7fef59.pdf

I'm an active member of Davis United Methodist Church, I've been a Methodist for as long as I can remember. I was married at Davis UMC, and am happily raising my almost 8 year old daughter in the church. I enjoy participating in finance, and Godly Play as well as weekly worship.

I want you to know that I'm praying for you, and grateful for your service. I know it must be a lot of work, and I imagine it has involved a good many late nights either in discussion or prayer. I hope for you it has been a spiritual experience.

I'm asking you to do what you can to promote the One Church Plan. I've been part of churches that have been blessed by amazing LGBTQ+ clergy. I would love an option that means that our LGBTQ+ clergy can serve just like straight clergy, but I understand the need to compromise, and the one laid out seems fair to me.

I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I'm bisexual. I came out in college about 20 years ago when I did a lot of my friends were coming out to. We talked about many things, but one of them was whether we had to leave the church. My friends weren't all Methodist, and for many of them it was the right decision. On the other hand I grew up in a reconciling congregation (Sunny Hills UMC). I knew my church would still welcome me, and the church mostly has. I am aware that this is in part because I've never been called to be clergy, and because I have been selective about the churches I choose to participate in.

Now I look at my amazing transgender daughter who is loved and supported by our church. I don't doubt that our church will continue to love and support her, but I worry about keeping her in the United Methodist Church in general if we move towards either of the other options. She knows that some churches won't welcome her, but her experience has been one of love and support. I know she will go out in the world and seek out churches other than Davis UMC. I remember having to make the choice of going to a church that wasn't reconciling (where I would have to hide who I was), or not going to church because those were the options locally. As I read it that's still possible under the One Church Plan, but it looks like it will be the most gentle possible option for her.

Please do what you can,

Prayers and Blessings,

On the Importance and Effectiveness of Preaching

Jesus did tell the Disciples to go out and preach, and if they hadn’t Christianity would not have spread as far as it has. His instructions were to take almost nothing but ourselves and a staff, and walk to surrounding areas and preach.
This was effective in part, (where it was Jesus had specific instructions to leave alone those places where it wasn’t) because the Disciples shared culture, language and customs with the people reached in this matter.

After Pentecost this was expanded to include travel by boat. This was possible and relatively safe because this travel was happening during the Pax Romana. The Pax Romana allowed for cultural exchange and communication over a large area of land and sea.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana

This was especially helpful for Paul because his Roman citizenship meant that rather than being killed when unwelcome he was tried and put in prison.

While the Disciples used the fastest means of travel commonly available they did not, to the best of my knowledge, travel outside of the Roman Empire.

Today with effort one can travel all over the world. Thus it is potential possible to preach to all the world as Jesus instructed.

However, the examples where Christians have preached in places where they did not have a shared culture have generally involved the Christians being mostly ignored (this seems to be the optimal situation in which no one gets killed, and some people get exposed to the faith), the missionaries get killed, or the Christians kill a lot of people (this has brought Christianity to a number of populations, but I can’t imagine it was what God intended). There are also missionaries who bring concrete aid like food education or shelter (this has a higher conversion rate than those who are ignored, and seems like a good option as long as the aid is culturally aware).

In general while I prefer caring for the needy as a way to follow my faith it is also a way lend weight to one’s preaching, or show that what one preaches is worth listening to. In cases where there is not a shared culture it is even more vital because it is the only thing the populace being preached to has to judge the preaching on. In general in this time where prominent “Christians“ are seen publicly with mansions and riches but not help for those hurt by natural disasters, or promoting national arms deals, starting with caring for the needy would do better as far as spreading the Christian message here too.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/30/houston-megachurch-shut-out-flood-victims-twitter-storm

https://thehill.com/policy/international/411949-evangelical-leader-going-after-saudi-arabia-for-disappearance-of

This came up in relation to the preacher in the news who broke the law to attempt to preach to an isolated community, and that community saw him as the threat that he was and killed him.

I said that he was ignorant and arrogant. I stand by that.

He was ignorant because he did not consider the danger the germs he carries were to the community, although he does appear less ignorant than I’d assumed as he does seem to have left a diary and family pushing that there be no consequences to the community if they kill him. I’d say that it was ignorant to expect that to work, but as yet there seems to be no consequence to the community except a greater public knowledge that they exist. This may easily mean more people try, and if they continue to be repelled this way eventual outcry, but that is yet to be seen.

He was arrogant in thinking that he would be accepted by the community (especially since he clearly knew that they would likely shoot him) and get the chance to preach, and in passing up all the people that he could have communicated with, and preached to who shared enough culture that he might have reached them.

Jesus said that is the Disciples message was not received they should shake the dust from their sandals and not return to that place.

I pray to God that the people inclined to preach to this community take this as the sign to shake the dust from their sandals and not return, because otherwise I don’t see how this ends except with more loss of life for future preachers and most likely this community.

My Vote
With the election coming up, and my vote shipped off I thought I’d post my vote. Please feel free to just fill out your ballot like this if you’re not sure how to vote. Please also feel free to discuss. My vote is mailed this time but discussion could effect other people’s votes and my future votes. Full disclosure I’m left wing socialist leaning feminist queer person trying to be social aware.

Governor- Gavin Newsom
Lt. Governor - Elemis Kounalakis (honestly both candidates look good on this one, but I like Kounalakis slightly better)
Secretary of State - Alex Padilla
Controller - Betty T Yee
Treasure - Fiona Ma
Attorney General - Xavier Becerra
Insurance Commissioner - Steve Poizner
Board of Equalization - Malia Cohen
US Senator - Kevin De Leon
US Representative - John Garamendi
State Assembly - Cecilia Aguilar-Curry
Judicial
Carol Corrigan - no
Leondra Kruger - yes
Louis Mauro - yes
Cole Blease - yes
School Superintendents of Public Instruction - Tony Thurmond
Prop 1 - $4 billion housing bond - yes
Prop 2 - Expanding housing bond for individuals with mental ill - yes
Prop 3 - Water Bond -no (this is really high, but doesn’t look big enough to solve the problem. In general I like incremental steps, but because this is so big I suspect we wouldn’t pass the next necessary step because of the cost of this one. )
Prop 4 - Hospital and healthcare bond - yes
Prop 5 - Home Owner tax and regulation change - no
Prop 6 - Gas tax repeal - no
Prop 7 - daylight savings time - yes (I don’t care which one we pick, but I’m excited to stop having to change clocks)
Prop 8 - Regulates kidney dialysis costs - yes
Prop 9 was removed
Prop 10 - Expands local government authority related to rent control - yes
Prop 11 - ambulance employee treatment - no
Prop 12 - Farm animals - yes

Measure M -Facilities Bond for Schools - yes
Measure L - Senior Housing - yes

Seriously it’s great to do your own research, figure out the votes that are right for you, and vote.

It’s not the only way we can effect the government, but it is the first vital step. Also when you call or write your reps it seems more impactful if you can say you voted for them. if I were going to say I’d voted against someone I’d want to be able to say I might consider voting for them in the future.

I want to say I'm still loving my bike commute (although the weather is not making me happy about the ride home I'm still doing it).

The bike is still a good investment for me.

However I have come to the conclusion that I need to specify that this bike does require a surprising amount of maintenance.

This is okay for me because Groblek is a tinker gnome who has significant skill points in bike repair. He has been amazing in repairing various things as I go huh, my bike is acting funny. Honestly his biggest complaint about this is that I don't always mention an issue promptly.

Many of these repairs may be related to the assembly of the bike (Amazon offered free assembly through a local bike shop, and the one closest to us did the assembly. It was in Sac, and I wasn't familiar with them).

But this week a part of the left brake lever broke.

I will say warranty service is quickly sending us a replacement, but this is the tipping point where I say if you don't have a live in bike repair person, or the desire to learn how to do it it is probably less expensive to go for a more expensive bike.

I'm still enjoying my ride, and I don't regret it, but I don't know that I can suggest it to others as much as I originally did.

For those who missed it here is my original review:

https://kay-gmd.dreamwidth.org/204386.html

1) As I mentioned on fb, at 41 I have a lower tolerance for some rides. I still seem to be good for things like the scrambler, and several others.

2) I learned this because of a $100 boot revelation. Kosh loves rides, so this is not the first time we've gotten her a wristband for unlimited rides. This is absolutely worth it. she could have spent the entire 12 hours we were at the fair on rides it was easy to see that the wristband was the way to go for her. ( I absolutely recognize that this in itself is a $100 boot choice, but it wasn't the one I was thinking of) In the past we've picked up some tickets so that one of us could take Kosh on the rides she couldn't do on her own. This year I realized that an armband for one of us might be a good investment. Tickets have the advantage of letting us trade off, but would only cover about 7-9 rides That could cover the ones Kosh wanted once, but would be limiting. So Groblek agreed, and I got an armband. I'm not sure it paid for itself on rides where Kosh needed an adult, or buddy, to ride, but we certainly did well over 9 rides together. One of them was my $100 boot revelation.

(for those unfamiliar the concept is that you can get a pair of boots for $10 that will last a month or 2 and start leaking early in that time, or a $100 boots that will last 2 years keep your feet dry, and this is used as an example of how being poor is expensive, because a poor person gets the cheap $10 boots because they can't put together the $100)

One of the last rides we rode was one of those airplane rides where you go around in a circle (not particularly quickly) and there's a control stick to go up and down. Kosh has been able to ride these on her own for years, and without an arm band I most certainly would not have gone on it. Kosh asked me to ride along, and I agreed to go. She rode in the front, with the control stick, and I rode in the back.We had a blast with her diving making it look like we were going to stay low, and then surprising me with a sudden climb. It gave her such a kick I started hamming it up. It was (in my opinion) the best ride of the day. We got to share it because we weren't counting how many rides either of us did. It was a benefit of being able to get the $100 boots.

3) On the less positive side is the non financial reason I hesitated on the airplane ride. I know that I'm not a thin person, but there were several of the rides, especially those that are focused on kids, but not only, I found many of them did not fit me well. (the airplane actually did quite well, but I wasn't confident about it so I sent Kosh on it on her own, and while she was riding I saw several larger adults who seemed comfortable) It more than 7 hours in airplanes emphasized that size accommodation is not what it could be.

I wanted to clarify that I have a lot of bike stuff. That's mostly because I've had several runs at doing the bike commute, and haven't gotten rid of anything. The last attempt ended when I got pregnant enough that I had to stop.

I don't think I need all the stuff I'm using, and will probably streamline, but I may let it all linger since I have it. Like right now I have 2 bags, and I absolutely don't need that much carrying capacity, but they stay on better with both on.

This time of year I like being able to change into shorts because the afternoons are hot.

When I get in to work I mix up a protein drink (I have skipped this, and I tend to end up eating a lot more if I don't). I'm both not picky, and lazy, so this is a scoop of the protein powder that was cheap at Costco mixed with my current drink (usually this is coffee (I love Kosh's coffee making habit), but can be water with or without flavoring. I've had some trouble if the drink is fresh out of the water heater, but if it's cool enough that I'm willing to drink it I can get a good mix.

Then I sit in front of my computer with occasional walking to meetings, or the printer.

On the way home it always takes a little longer. Part of this is heat, and general wind trends, but a significant part of this is that I have more traffic interaction in the beginning, which makes it feel like I'm not going as fast, and that makes it harder to get excited about speed. I'm hoping recognizing this trend will help me get over that bit.

I'm still working on getting up my speed (or really dropping the time it takes) I'm at 50-55 minute on the seat plus 5-10 minute getting the bike and me going, and parking. I'd like to drop 10-15 minutes off that. I need to tweak my routine to get going, but I'd also like to get up to 30 kph I'm at about 24 kph, so it may be more than is reasonable, but I'm going to ship at it for a while.

So I get a lot of questions about biking.

My ride is about 50 minutes in and 55 home per day. I can punt to the bus if needed.

I bike in wearing sunglasses, baseball type cap, helmet, bike gloves, tee-shirt, jeans, and day glow yellow windbreaker.

I just this week got back to using my bike bags, which means no backpack for me. I leave them on or at home with my bike, and have a cloth bag that goes into one of the bags to bring to my desk and in the house.

In the bag is breakfast, lunch, work shirt (undershirt if appropriate), non-sunglasses.wallet, keys, iPad, bike shorts for the ride home.

I have a bike basket that is primarily for holding my drink (coffee in the morning, water in the evening) usually I don't drink a lot on the ride, although as it gets warmer the evening ride gets more drinking.

The bike bag has most of what I need for changing a tire, first aid kit, (when I'm riding) bike lock back up gear, and snacks.

I also have a mount for my phone.

I unplug my bike, swing it down from the storage hook, start my podcasts on my headphones, attach bags and basket, start track my ride, and start riding.

I catch the bike path at the off ramp from Mace West bound, and follow that to the frontage road to the separated bike path along the cause, take that to West Capital, follow West Capital all the way to where it Tees into the road that takes us over the tower bridge.

Once I lock up my bike in the building at work. I take my bag, and go straight to my desk. I boot up the computer and start email. My body takes a while to realize I've stopped exercising, so it takes a while to stop sweating. So I stay in what I rode in for at least 10 minutes (frequently more) before going to the bathroom and changing.

I just got back to using clip in shoes, I have nicer shoes at my desk when it's important, but they're designed for walking and biking, so some days I just leave them on.

In the how do you keep doing that area. I made it my default. I assume I'm riding, and it takes mental effort not to. Once that's done, for me, I'm much less likely to even consider not biking.

I do have weather gear for rain, but I don't think much about that now.

So I went on a rant in FB comments, and thought I'd put it somewhere more findable:

For context Sessions and Sanders are using Romans 13 to defend taking children from their families at the border.

Sigh, sometimes I wish we could kick Paul out of the Bible.

Romans 13 isn't one that's come up as a problem for me before (although I absolutely see how it would regularly for many), but I suspect it's self-serving. When Paul would have been writing Christians were a castigated, but growing minority. Governments were either oppressing them or looking at them as a threat (or both). Having something in the holy writings that said look see we want to be a law abiding part of the country might have been seen as helpful, especially to Paul who used his Roman citizenship to get out of several sticky situations.

It's also not relevant in this situation. Sessions and Sanders are absolutely welcome to follow the law. The law does not require separation of children from their parents. Families have been legally held together in relation to border crossing for some time.

One could argue (mostly wrongly) that the families are not following the law, and then this quote might mean that they want to pray or talk to their religious leader about the action.

But you know what, in the United States of America we have a thing called Freedom of Religion the families are not required to practice a faith based on Romans 13! (or even if they do they are not required to follow it in any particular way)

Yes they are required to fit within our legal system. If what they are doing is illegal there may be consequences, but they do not lose their humanity because they are facing these consequences.

However, if an individual is using Romans 13 to defend their actions (which sounds an awful lot like we were just following orders when it comes from people who aren't writing/interpreting the law) they should know that it means they will be judged on how they follow the rest of at least Romans 13 and reasonably more of the Bible. They might want to consider Romans 13:8-10:

Love Fulfills the Law
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

For the sake of Sessions, Sanders, and all the people involved in immigration enforcement I hope that they have strong religious or moral leaders who can help them reconcile, and possibly change their actions, so that they are secure in their moral standing. A crisis of faith or morals is a hard thing to deal with, and I do not wish it on anyone.

But I can think of no way that any faith I know, much less the one that includes Romans 13 in its holy writings, requires anyone to be cruel to families and children in the way they are being.

Even if that nursing baby technically is breaking the law I'm pretty sure it's not their doing. The teens may have supported the idea of crossing the border, but they weren't the deciding force. If you are right with the your soul in punishing the parents we can argue about that, but the children are the ones you're hurting here, and that is cruel, and unusual. The law has something to say about that. The Bible does too.

Slimy was clearly nervous, but she was trying to meditate while hiding behind Cera. PJB stepped forward and made introductions. “I’m PJB from past the meadows and across the swamp. This is Swampy the alligator, Snowflake, Cute, Sticky and Slimy...”

The pterodactyl interrupted here. “Slimy looks uncomfortable. Is something wrong?”

“Slimy gets nervous easily and when she’s nervous she sometimes flings slime. She’s trying to avoid that. “ Slimy had noticed that she was the center of attention, and started to shake.

The pterodactyl looked down and smiled, which did not help nearly as much as you might think. “I have a friend who flings out her wings when nervous, almost broke my beak once, don’t worry we can help you clean up if you need to. “

Slimy looked up startled and already calmer. “Thanks!”

PJB knew she should not leave out the rest of her friends. “That’s Cera the triceratops next to Slimy, Happy is the one you can see through, and Solar Flare is the fiery flower

I know I have more typed up, but this is the end of the file I've been working on. It may take me a bit to hunt up and type up as we move forward, the rest.

Happy noticed smoke coming from around a large rock, as PJB found a third nest which had only a mommy pterodactyl. She squawked at them! “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

PJB, who had no fear, walked up to her and bravely said, “We wanted to mee...l

“HIDE! THE DRAGON IS ACTIVE!”
She herded them all into a tunnel behind her nest.

“Sorry,” she said in a much less terrifying voice, “we don’t know why, but the dragons just became active a few weeks ago. Now who are you?”

Sorry I fell off posting. This is a slightly longer bit.

Cute flew one end of a rope bridge to the other side, and anchored it, then the group crossed one at a time.

While Snowflake was crossing the wind picked up. The bridge swung wildly and Snowflake froze. The bridge swung back and forth, and jiggled up and down. Happy flew over to Snowflake and started to talk. She reminded Snowflake of how they met, and how Snowflake tried to catch her, and talked about the quest to find King Leaf’s favorite food, about slumber parties and food fights, and before they knew it they were back on solid ground and well away from the ravine. Slimy and Sticky retrieved the rope bridge and they continued on their way.

Shortly after that they came to the edge of the trees. They used the rope to connect themselves together and put on their climbing gear. Carefully they continued up the mountain. Wind battered them; pebbles, and bigger rocks skittered past them; they had to double back three times trying to find their way, but eventually they made their way to the craggy pterodactyl nesting ground.

Here they rested in hopes of making a good impression.

The first nest found by Princess Chompy had clearly been abandoned, another had eggs but no adults. Everyone knew it would be a bad idea to be found nosing around the eggs when the ‘rents got back.

The smaller members of the group climbed onto Snowflake and Swampy, and they headed out.

Swampy guided them on the most direct way through the swamp, and Solar Flare kept them from upsetting the flower people in the meadows, and Cute introduced them to the bat colony, Sticky and Slimy meditated for an hour before the introduction to make sure there wasn’t another slime incident (Snowflake was happy to keep the ride as smooth as possible for this).

Then they got to the mountains.
They wound around trees and boulders, always climbing, and they came to a deep long ravine. Cute hadn’t noticed because she was flying. Slimy went to the right no way around. Chompy went to the left no way around. They had to go across. They had a plan, but it made Snowflake nervous. You might expect Cera to worry too, but she just wasn’t worried; she’d been tagging along with PJB for longer.

A few days later, after Cute returned, PJB finished the Harriet books, and the group got supplies for the adventure they were almost ready to leave when Queen Bookreader poked a head over.

PJB was just about jumping out of her skin with eagerness to head out, but she loved her mom. “Hi mom, we’re just about to go visit the pterodactyls.”

“Great, that should be a good diplomatic mission, this may help you.” The Queen handed PJB a battered book, and headed back to her work.

PJB was familiar with her mom and, her love of books and glanced at the book on the way to putting it in her bag when she saw what it was. It had a map of the surrounding lands, and was titled A Guide to Adventures. PJB took a closer look. It was a guide book to adventuring, and it was heavily hand annotated in Queen Bookreader’s handwriting.

Queen Bookreader helpfully pointed them to the large flying creatures section of the library (specifically not the fire breathing type, no queen or mother encourages interaction with fire breathing animals unless there is a desperate need).

The group dove into research, and Snowflake came up with the idea of pterodactyls. Apparently many of them enjoy carrying people, there was reference to one named Crackers, who carried two kids and a bionic rodent. Pterodactyls were listed as living in the craggy sections of the mountains past the flowered meadows. Swampy pulled out a map, and Cute noticed some bat caves near the mountains most likely to have pterodactyls nearby.

“Those are the caves that my grandmother’s cousin went off to start a new bat colony! I could go visit and scout for pterodactyls,” she squeaked.

So Cute was sent out to scout while the rest of the group prepared for their adventure.

Crackers is from Captain Underpants. Kosh loves Captain Underpants it is one of the series where Kosh will stay up reading if we stop ata 'bad stopping part' with night time reading. I personally could do with less repetition of the books. With that caveat here's Crackers:
http://captainunderpants.wikia.com/wiki/Crackers

Surprising no one, least of all her mother, who was also up later than was wise reading, PJB did not stop at a reasonable time and go to bed. Long after her friends had breakfasted while they were romping in the palace gardens (except for Cute, who was just hanging up in the cellar for a good day’s sleep) PJB struggled awake pulling her face off of the control panel where it landed when nature decided just-one-more-page wasn’t an option.

After breakfast and a quick clean up PJB found her friends. She told them all about Harriet, and her adventures, and mostly about Humphrey the battle quail! PJB was determined to get her own quail.

Cute, who was woken up to consult on flying things, didn’t think it was a good idea. “Princess, it does sound like lots of fun, but quail aren’t that much bigger than me, and I can’t even carry Slimy. You’d totally smush a quail.”

Cera clomped into the conversation, she was fairly sure that when she grew up she was destined to be the Princess’s riding ‘Tops, and much preferred the side kick role, “but we could find something bigger that flies, and could carry a princess! That sounds like an adventure of investigation.” (For the record Cera was never in any danger of becoming a riding ‘Tops unless she wanted to PJB and family would never push that sort of thing, but it happened to Cera’s great aunt, and her family always worries about it.)

I have serious thoughts about serious things, but I could use some silliness, and Kosh recently got us started back up on Princess Juney Bean stories, so here you go:

While I’m waiting at the airport let me write up the latest episode with Princes Juney Bean. There have been several stories since the last one I typed up, and lately we’ve started back up. I may come back later and fill in the missing stories, but for right now I’m just writing out the latest ones.

To bring you up to speed PJB has had many adventures and made several new friends. Friends include (but are not limited to)
Happy, a ghost pony
Solar Flare, a sentient mobile sunflower with fire related powers (from Plants vs Zombies heroes)
Princess Chompy, a tyranasaurousrex princess

As we start our adventure PJB has been getting more and more impatient as Queen Bookreader (her mom) has been patiently, and kindly, helping each of her friends find just the right book and reading space in their luxurious and eclectic library. PJB knows that it’s important to help guests first, but she had a lot of friends over and it was taking forever.

Finally it was her turn.
“Mommy I want my book NOW!” PJB almost stamped, but she managed to stop herself.

The Queen smiled and gathered her into a big hug, “I think you just might be ready for these.” She pulled out a pile of 4 books “They will tell you all about being a princess.”

PJB hesitated, that description fit a dry dusty tome all about what fork to use and where to stand when important people visit, (the purple sparkly cover seemed like a good sign still...) but the Queen saw the concern, and laughed, “Oh no!! These are no books of etiquette. These are about a princess like you, who adventures. These are the tales of Princess Harriet Hamsterbone, and they’re lots of fun. I’m giving you all four, but that’s many hours of reading don’t stay up too late with them.” (Queen Bookreader knew this wouldn’t be listened to, but she had to try.)

“Okay mom,” PJB was already reading, tucked into her spaceship with blanky and stuffy, as she waved to her mom.

If you too would like to enjoy the adventures of Harriet you can find details here:
http://www.redwombatstudio.com/portfolio/writing/books-for-kids/hamster-princess/

If you are likely to run into us we could loan you the first one.

So a few weeks ago I got my electric Bike.

https://www.amazon.com/Vilano-Pulse-Womens-Electric-Commuter/dp/B01DAIOB1M/ref=pd_bxgy_468_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01DAIOB1M&pd_rd_r=6D2A7D91KMPSYTFS8XBQ&pd_rd_w=Vx0cc&pd_rd_wg=yBeuf&psc=1&refRID=6D2A7D91KMPSYTFS8XBQ

I got it for my commute. It's about 13 miles from home to work. On the express bus I give myself 50 minutes to get in, so my goal was to be able to do that by bike. I know that many cyclist can do this without the electric assist, but I'm not one of them. Hopefully this will help me get there. I'm still not quite there, but I'm much closer than I was the last time I was doing this on a purely pedal powered bike.

This is only a pedal assist bike, so if you're not pedaling the motor isn't pushing either. The motor is in the hub, and most of the wiring is inside the frame of the bike.

I've been really enjoying the commute. I've been learning, and getting healthier, and enjoying the alone time.

The bike is a good fit for me.

The good:

It's a comfortable ride. I'm not getting as much saddle soreness as I did on my road bike. It's more upright which makes wearing a backpack more comfortable.
Also on comfort I like the easy step over. I've had to remind myself that I don't have to kick over the back of the bike. It's much more convenient.
I like the bright built in headlight.
The cargo rack is handy, and works with the saddle bag that I already had.
The fenders are really appreciated this time of year.
The controls are simple and easy to operate even with gloves on.
The designers seem to have thought about making sure riders can fix some problems easily.

The less good:

The connection to the headlight has come out twice, it's really easy to reconnect, but it wasn't clear that it was an easy fix on the morning ride in the dark and fog.
This may be the assembler, but the screws that held the battery pack in place all came out (the last 2 Sunday) after less than 2 weeks of riding. On the plus side the cage of the cargo rack it didn't fall of or have to dangle. Groblek had the right screws to replace them, and now I know to check tightness periodically.
It comes with a headlight, but not a taillight. There's a big tail reflector which looked like a light when I was shopping (not a major issue the bike shop that assembled it had a usb rechargeable one that wasn't expensive.
I misunderstood the speed information. It's billed as 20 mph. I'm sure it gets there with a better cyclist than me, but I probably averaged 15 mph today, and that's better than last week. (this includes traffic interactions on bike only straightaways I was between 16 and 17 mph)
The breaks are less responsive than I would like. Even if I pull them all the way back it takes quite a while to stop. This hasn't involved any issues or close calls, but I'd be happier if they stopped a bit faster.

Overall I'm really enjoying the ride. I like the built in exercise of commuting by bike. The pocket book appreciates the cancellation of my gym membership and bus pass (It'll pay for the bike in 8 or 9 months maybe a bit more if I punt to bus too often once February is over). Also it's just a fun ride.

Not really part of the review, but things I've learned:

Things bounce out of the bike basket. I should really set up a cover. (I keep my water bottle in the basket, so I want to be able to get in, but a partial cover could help a lot.
I need a good rain shell. People have also suggested rain pants (Which I actually have), but I'm disinclined to have to change pants/remove a layer of pants when I get to work.
I need to work on my spinning.
My glasses fog up. For many days defogger helps, but when it's really foggy the best solution is to just remove the glasses. I'm lucky enough to be able to do this while seeing well enough.
Bundling for biking is different from bundling for taking the bus.

Current Mood: good

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Living the Happily Ever After

Recent Entries

District 5 City Council Davis

Kay-Rants Guns

Who is My Daughter's Neighbor?

General Conference Thoughts

Kay-rants Preaching

My Vote

Updated Review on my Bike

Ponderings on Carnival Rides

Bike continued

My Bike Routine

Kay Rants Romans 13

PJB and Introductions

PJB and the Upset Pterodactyl!

PJB: Snowflake and the Swinging Bridge

PBJ on the Way to the Mountain

PBJ and the New Book

PBJ and the Team Research

PJB and the Book Hangover

The Return of Princess Juney Bean

Bike Review