They Didn't Try This At Home

When I came across this image, I thought it was a joke or someone's attempt to create "art." 

Turns out, it had an illustrative purpose.  Apparently, in Baldwin Park, California, it is illegal to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool.

Note that I used the present tense: "it is illegal."  Yes, that law is on the books, though it's (thankfully) not enforced and no one is sure of whether it ever has been.

From what info I've gleaned, the law against riding on or in was passed in the 1970s, when BMX cycling and skateboarding were popular, mainly among adolescent and young adult males.  The real purpose of the law, I think, was not to keep kids from pedaling in their families' backyard swimming pools.  No self-respecting teenaged boy in California (or most other places) would have done such a thing.  Rather, I suspect that the law was passed in response to complaints after those young rebels broke or cut into fences surrounding larger pools.  

But the young and restless weren't looking to turn their bikes into amphibious vehicles or their skateboards into water-skis. Instead, they broke in during the fall and winter, when those pools were drained and became, in effect, rinks. So, as often as not, the owners of the properties didn't discover the "crime" until weeks, or even months, after it was committed.

I strongly suspect that at least some of California's current law-makers and -enforcers broke that law at some time in their youth.  And that is the reason why the law hasn't been repealed:  Part of the fun of being an adolescent is rebelling against something (or, at least, feeling as if you are) and getting away with it.  So, while living in such a mindset, what could be better than breaking a law and knowing that you most likely will get away with it.  And what loving parent wants to deny their kid that pleasure?

I Hope Santa Doesn't Leave Coal In My DeFeet Socks

Am I so influential as a blogger that I now have a curse or jinx?

Or is my internalized Catholic Guilt kicking in?

The other day, I wrote about Anthony Hoyte, a.k.a. the Pedaling Picasso, whose rides have been making images of Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and other Christmas-related motifs on Strava.

Well, Santa and his reindeer aren't bringing good tidings or shiny new bicycles to some folks who work for the company that gave us the app 100 million cyclists, runners and other athletes use to record and share their rides and workouts.  

The company got caught in the crosshairs, if you will.  The COVID-19-induced surge in demand for bicycles, tech products and services and all things related to both has cooled off.  Also, three years after the pandemic began both industries have been plagued with supply-chain issues and some of the sharks have swallowed the guppies--or, as the business media likes to say, there have been "consolidations."

It's not clear as to which forces, specifically, have led Strava to laying off 40 employees, or about 15 percent of its workforce.  But, being both a bike- and tech-related company right now is, I guess, a bit like being a real-estate and finance company in 2008.

If I jinxed or cursed those now-former Strava employees, I am really, really sorry.  I hope Santa doesn't leave coal in my DeFeet wool socks--though, I imagine, it's difficult to leave some of the sustainable energy sources.  I mean, even though I have pretty big feet, a wind turbine--even a teensy weensy one--probably won't fit!

Did They Blow Up The Bike Lane?

Eighty-one years ago today, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor.  

Most histories record it as a "surprise" attack.  That it probably was to most people, though various accounts claim that military intelligence officers, diplomats and, possibly, FDR himself, ignored warning signs.  Whatever the truth is, the attack drew the US into World War II.

On that day, about 2400 military service members died.  I grew up seeing commemorations, some of which included survivors of the attack, in part because one of my uncles was an American Legion post commander.  Until fairly recently, I saw many more observances:  Queens County, where I live, had (and, possibly, still has) one of the largest populations of veterans in the US.  

During the past few years, I've heard little, if anything, about the attack.  There aren't many Pearl Harbor veterans left, and the youngest would be about 98 years old.  And, understandably, those who served in later wars don't have quite the same connection to Pearl harbor or World War II.

I understand that it's possible to cycle to Pearl Harbor on a designated bicycle and pedestrian lane.  If I ever go to Hawaii (something I have never had any inclination to do), I'm sure I'll check it out.  Yelp reviews of the lane are mixed.  More precisely, they seem to range according to whether the reviewer is a resident or tourist.  And they seem to be cyclical:  Sometimes people rave about the ocean views and the fact that it's flat; other times they lament that the path looks and feels as if it subject to the attack 81 years ago--and hasn't been fixed since.