Another Day: Complaining About The Weather

I heard everyone complaining--again--about the cold.  

Today, though, it was in a different place.  No, I wasn't in Montreal.  Les Quebecois would probably laugh at anyone who complained about the weather I experienced today.  So, for that matter, would any French person who doesn't live in the Alps, Pyrenees or Vosges.  For that matter, anyone who would think of today's weather was "cold" lives well south of here.

So where am I?  Here's one clue:

Water covers 70 percent of the Earth's surface. (It's one of the few things I still remember from my eighth-grade Earth Science class.)  So we've eliminated 30 percent of all possible sites.  It's a start, I guess.

OK, here's another clue:

Pink chairs, eh?  I'm not sure of how much they narrow down the possible choices. There are, however, some places where one simply never would find them.

Colors are often useful clues:

 

This looks like the Southwestern US--or, at least, someone's imaginings of it.  Whether or not it's sagebrush verite, it's incongruent with most seaside locales in the United States or Canada.

Just down the road, we can see similar colors in this building:

 
Believe it or not, public toilets are inside that building.  It's in a state park.

Now, if you need more clues, take a look at these, just a couple of miles apart on a road I cycled today:

The road is Route A1A, specifically the segment that connects Painter's Hill, Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach before continuing to Daytona Beach.

I am indeed in Florida.

A rather brisk wind blew in from the north, which held the temperature to around 15C (60F) and made it seem even cooler.  Still, it's nearly tropical in comparison with today's conditions in New York, where it was -13C (8F) early this morning.  That may not seem very cold to some of you, but last week the Big Apple recorded its first subfreezing temperature since late last March.

Even though the weather is milder than it is in New York, it's not the reason I'm here.  I am visiting my parents--and, of course, I plan to ride some more!


 
 

Who's Complaining About The Weather

So the temperature dropped to subfreezing levels yesterday-- for the second time!

"Oooh!  It's so cold.  I heard that a lot yesterday.  One would think the people who are complaining about the weather had just gotten off the plane from the Caribbean.  Truth is, we should've had a few more subfreezing days by now.  And, after a Christmas Eve on which the temperature climbed to 21C (72F) and nearing that level the following day and week, we were spoiled, really.

So far, we haven't even come close to experiencing anything like this

From TheCityFix

or this

From 360 Niesko

or this

From Sensuous Amberville

What if all of the complainers were Nuvanit instead of New York?

Where Are The Most Skilled Bicycle Mechanics?

Someone once told me, only half in jest, that the best auto mechanics are in Cuba.  "After all," he explained, "anyone who can keep a car running when replacement parts haven't been made for it in fifty years must be very skilled--and creative".

I don't have any way of refuting his assertion, so I'll accept it.  Any mechanic, anywhere in the world, who can keep, say, an Edsel running is almost certainly better than most.

Perhaps a similar principle applies to bike mechanics.  It's really not that difficult to repair or maintain a well-maintained late-model machine that's been used mainly for recreational cycling.  On the other hand, people whose bikes are used for transportation or other utilitarian purposes are more likely to be riding older bikes.  Think of all of those English three-speeds and European city bikes people rode to work every day, and for an occasional weekend jaunt in the park, for decades.  To my knowledge, no one is making replacement parts for Sturmey-Archer three-speed hubs that were made in England or cottered cranksets.  Still, many such bikes are still in use in their home countries and all over the world.

Mechanics in places where the bike is still what one rides because gasoline and car ownership are expensive, I imagine, have developed some interesting work-arounds. Somehow I think mechanics' tricks are even better-developed in places where people depend on bikes, and are poor--say, India, where this photo was taken: