The Idaho Stop, Legalized Cannabis and More

The cyclists you see rolling through stop signs in Minnesota are now doing so legally. A new law that went into effect on Tuesday, commonly referred to as the "Idaho Stop", allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs. We can also proceed through a red light after stopping, provided it's safe to do so. I generally like to model good behavior when I'm riding by coming to a stop at stop signs but there are times when nobody is around (or when I'm riding with a group of cyclists) and I'll slow and roll through them. It was a nice feeling on Tuesday to finally be doing so legally. 

Also as of Tuesday, recreational marijuana is now legal in Minnesota. I've never been much of a fan of smoking weed (out of concern for damaging my lungs) but I do enjoy edibles and cannabis-infused drinks. My nightly glass of red wine or a pour of whisky to sip has mostly been replaced by cannabis products. For those who may be harboring a negative stigma about marijuana, please reconsider. It's not a substance that's going to make a person more aggressive and it's not something that you can overdose from. The same can't be said for alcohol. Plus, many people are receiving health benefits from it for conditions where pharmaceuticals fall short.

And please, don't drive impaired!

We have another set of triplets in our neighborhood. This is the 3rd time in the last 4-5 years that we've had a set of triplet deer living among us. I've accepted that our flower beds are our small sacrifice to have them around. They're adorable!

The trishaw rides that Tammy and I have been giving at Trinity have been going really well. We had a funny encounter with one of the memory care residents a couple Mondays ago. It was Curt's first ride with us and while I was walking him out to the bike I asked him his age. "About a hundred" he replied. I smiled because I didn't think he could be that old—he looked like he was maybe mid to late 80s. During the ride, Tammy asked him what year he was born. Without hesitation, he said "1922". Hmm...that math works out to "about a hundred" years old! When we returned to the facility I walked Curt back to the chair he likes to sit in and that's when I noticed a sign above his chair wishing him a happy 100th birthday. He wasn't kidding!

Rachel has discovered the fun of golfing. She began playing last year with a beat-up set of clubs that were randomly acquired from garage sales. They didn't fit her and the grips were in need of being replaced. We saw her enthusiasm for the game so I suggested to Tammy that we get her a gift certificate for lessons with a teaching pro near where she lives. We also bought her some nice golf clubs because golf can be a frustrating game to learn and I want to see her succeed at it. Having a set of clubs that fit her is important to that end. I'm excited for her. She regularly takes her clubs with her and seeks out driving ranges or courses in whatever city her work sends her to so she can work on her game in her off time. I did not see this coming and it makes me happy to know that we'll be golfing together in the years to come. 

We made a trip up north last weekend to see Cindy, Tammy's sister, living in Babbit. While they took in the Blueberry Festival on Saturday in Ely, I got on my road bike. I've been itching to ride the Mesabi Trail and this was the perfect opportunity to do that. The trail extends 162 miles (260 km) through the heart of the Iron Range. It's a beautiful way to see the area from the seat of a bike and not have to deal with highway traffic. I didn't get to ride as much of the trail as I would've liked but I thoroughly enjoyed every mile of my ride. I've added a video from the ride to the end of this blog post.

For my cycling friends; I've been using the Windfield app for my Garmin Edge 830. I like the app a lot and I think you may as well. I'm using the $15 per year version which updates the data every 5 minutes. The main field is current wind data. I sort of like that kind of data when I'm out on the road—not that I can do anything about the winds–I just like to know what the actual wind is. I also like that it gives me the actual temperature and relative humidity. There's a free version but it only updates once each hour.

I don't mean to make this post political but I have some things I need to make note of below.

Trump was arraigned in federal court yesterday for his role in the events on January 6th, 2021 that led to an insurrection at our nation's Capitol. It should be clear to anyone who looks at his actions—especially the part where he sat gleefully watching the events unfold on that day for more than 3 hours and did absolutely nothing to stop it—that he was attempting the undermine the will of the voters and steal the election from Biden. But if your source of news is conservative media, there's no telling what fanciful storyline you've bought into. I do make an attempt to watch FOX News to see how they're portraying what's happening but it's more frustration than I care to subject myself to for more than a few minutes at a time. I implore my conservative friends to tune into a competing channel and see what they're saying without all the bluster that is commonly found on conservative sites. I know there's a strong kneejerk reaction to dismiss a competing network as fake news but is it possible that you've been conditioned to believe that? I promise it will prove to be eye-opening for you. But if you're content to remain loyal to a network that continually pivots to talk of Hunter Biden and his alleged corruption while never once mentioning the $640 million that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump made while working in the White House or the $2 billion Jared received from the Saudis after leaving the White House, you're engaging in willful ignorance. I guarantee that you've never heard Fox talk about any of this. Please, be better. 

Because there's no reasonable or believable defense that Trump can counter with, my biggest worry is that conservative media will soon begin a steady drumbeat of encouraging just one juror to never, under any circumstance, agree to find him guilty. They will make this holdout juror into a folk hero because they had the temerity to stand up to the "deep state" or to Biden's DOJ or to the liberal media or blah blah blah. I hope I'm wrong but conservative media has shown itself to be powerful in their ability to propagandize their viewers and get them to disbelieve what their eyes have shown them to be true. It's the world we live in now and it's not going away. If anything, it's getting worse.

For my conservative friends. Please watch.

That's all I've got.