Family Bikes Shop Ride tomorrow AM, leaving at 7:30. A little bit more about it here. Couple hours, fixie friendly (e.g. rolling terrain), coffee in the middle or at the end or both.
See you there.
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Meanwhile, I went to the doctor's office this morning and found out that I have an upper respiratory infection, coupled with really bad asthma. (And for this, I need a doctor? Oy, vey.) So I got some antibiotics and some lung drugs, including a new asthma inhaler for $40. They tell me that the old one that costs $7 is still available, but it's crueler to Mother Earth. Same drugs, different propellant. None of that dread freon, but it's powered with the farts of vegan voles that only eat soy products or something.
No offense to Mother Earth, but I ain't payin' $33 a month to save her butt while I save mine. You really think an inhaler with a couple grams of stuff in it is pushing Ma Earth off the cliff? Yeah, I know, if a million of us save three micrograms of pollution then together we'll have put $33 million more in Big Pharma's pocket and will have saved Mother Earth the pain of absorbing 3 grams of CO2 or something... Please. Gimme the $7 inhaler, thanks very much. How 'bout Mother Earth quits jumping up and trying to knock me off the mountain bike every time I ride, and in return, I'll get some compact flourescent lights for the washroom, and we call it even?
I take a back seat to no man in efforts to conserve resources, but it would be easier to take the environmental 'movement' more seriously and view it in a less partisan light if "Green" wasn't so often aligned with things and people I find odious - gouging big businesses (e.g. my asthma inhaler), government regulators and advocacy groups who seem to be itching to control every sphere of life, and a lot of people who have comfortable homes, nice jobs and sweet cars but who swear they want to replace our wicking lycra shirts with vests made of hair and sackcloth - all for our own good of course. Yes, I'm saying a lot of scoundrels paint themselves green. I mean come on, outlawing non-flourescent lights? Who in the flourescent light industry was responsible for that sickly-hued legislation? C'mon, even a lot of the most expensive compacts have an awful tone and give me a headache.
If people spent more time trying to figure out how to make environmentally sound products and lifestyles attractive, and less time trying to sell us on doing some "green" penance to make up for Mother Earth's suffering, this stuff would be a much easier sell. I'm not saying saving the Earth is a bad thing, just that many of the people allegedly doing the saving (and I've been one of them, BTW) seem to equate suffering with doing good. $33? How 'bout I pay $33 a month more for a hybrid, that gets better gas mileage? Mother Earth wins and I win. But the inhaler? Please. It's suffering for the sake of suffering. It doesn't have to be that way. Do you honestly think a tiny incremental saving on pollution in an asthma inhaler is worth $33 a month? Not unless you own stock in Phizer, you don't.
3 comments:
Agreed
Jim, where is "the shop"?
Family Bikes, Crofton. Route 3, behind the Dunkin Donuts & Exxon Station.
Details you didn't ask for - we get up to 20 or 25 at times depending on the weather & season - down to a core group of mostly road & dirt racers, maybe 5 to a dozen over the colder part of the winter. Usually on the road, sometimes on dirt, especially over the winter if it's real cold or the weather has been dry. Drop me a line on the Gmail if you're interested in riding. Moderate pace now, picking up harder going into the season, downright hot when the right combination of riders shows up.
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