Where I live right now is one of those small cities where no one uses a bicycle, or few enough to say no one. I cannot understand how or why so many cars and trucks go by the house. I’m not on a main highway. Sometimes, this constant barrage of traffic gets to me. I do not like living in a world of noise – but what gets to me the most is that it’s almost 90 degrees out and STILL WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE ON BICYCLES?
Nope, not in this shit hole. Ain’t nothing changing but the demand going up for fuel. 99.9% is a pretty bad statistic, but if you sat by and counted the cars and bicycles going by, you’d have that number.
A young lad skips out of his house, able bodied and strong, with a low watt smile on his face, no thought of responsibility for what he’s about to do. He gets in his car and GOES somewhere. This is the diseased disconnect we have – that we (the collective, self not included) equate GOING somewhere with starting up and operating a massive 4 wheeled power plant with incredibly complicated systems running and regulating it. How did our cities become hot hells of pavement with all these rolling power plants blasting heat and filling the air with toxic fumes?
Yes, youngster – that’s what you’re doing. You’re not only getting your body from your home to your friend’s house, or to the store, or to work – you’re spewing filth into the air. You’re consuming 10.000 times the amount of calories you should be consuming to bring YOU there. Do I have this right? The idea is to get yourself somewhere, and the car being brought along is only a result of that action, right? Because it looks like the idea is to drive around every day.
When I live in boring shitty places full of boring shitty people (I didn’t choose this place, it chose me, and maintenance camp still rages on with more and more to do – the endless gopher pounding game) I start to lose faith in humanity. When I hear the news that China is buying up cars faster than we are replacing them, I get a shudder. Where are we going? Going somewhere? Do they want to become like us – oblivious insensitive people who are defined as CONSUMERS first and foremost, driving to and from work with music blaring, never thinking for one second that this blaring noise may be disturbing someone in the houses you are passing? In a car, people are empowered to disturb the peace like never before – with loud FART exhausts, blaring ‘music’, and horn honks whenever you please. I fell asleep about 12 times and was re-woken up by people driving by after midnight blaring their fucking stereos.
The whole of all the oceans could be covered in oil, and still these people would be gunning it to get home, singing to their blasting radios, in time for a certain TV show and the comfort of self poisoning. If it was one person acting in such a manner, an intervention would be called for – but this mentality is pervasive and fed continually by those agents who wish for us to remain, first and foremost, the CONSUMER, and maybe a person too sometimes.
It’s tough enough being one of the only cyclists in a sea of cars and trucks. It truly sucks when someone yells at me to get on the sidewalk, and then gets through the next green light so I can’t run up and assault this person verbally, because that’s what yelling out of a car is – it’s the most cowardly form of verbal assault – it is a ‘hit and run’ with words. Knowing there is nothing I can do about it, it continues to occasionally happen. This time, the dipshit yelling out of his red cherokee to tell me to get on the sidewalk didn’t realize that indeed I WAS at that time on the sidewalk. Dumb fuck.
“No harm, no foul” is my policy – so if a vehicle doesn’t give me enough clearance and passes a little close, I ignore it, unless it accompanies monkey howling or threats. The horn honking is upsetting – do you assholes who drive cars realize how loud the horn is right beside your car, asshole? Some fuck in a black truck recently blew a fucking TRAIN HORN at me – not only was it a fucked up thing to do, my ears were ringing after that.
Shame is what I feel, but not the shame of one of these losers that rides a bike because he had the license taken away and can’t wait to get it back, or one of these kids that feels ashamed to be on a lowly bicycle and is working towards getting a car so he can finally be _______ because when you get a car your life becomes live-able, according to these people.
I feel shame that my country is under the incessant grip of an omni-demic disease I call car dependency. I feel shame at the land, water, and wildlife that has been laid to waste by the roads we’ve built to allow this disease to progress. I feel quite ashamed that no one wishes to address or recognize this collective condition for the disease that it is, and to take steps to heal from it. I say there should be a ‘school of not driving’ and now I’ve got some screws loose. I say “We should ride bicycles to work” and I must be some east coast liberal fuck coming up here to change things.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason why people aren’t choosing to ride a bicycle and continuing this destructive and expensive activity of taking the 150 hp power plant along is not as complicated as some might make it out to be. PEOPLE HATE EXERCISE. That’s it, that’s the reason. They avoid exercise as much as possible, and therefore they avoid health. They avoid healthy eating along with avoiding the exercise – and in the minds of 99% of people here in Shithole USA, the bicycle is associated NOT with going somewhere but with that dreaded thing exercise.
People aren’t in a ‘learning stance’ to find out this revolutionary concept of riding a bicycle to go somewhere when all they see is other cars being driven, the occasional cyclist, and hear stories of being assaulted and yelled at by those crazy people on bicycles. Because we’re all crazy eco-nazis to them. The message of getting this one ship we are all in to STOP SINKING is lost in a sea of emotional reactions and re-affirmations of fucked up ways of life. If the government cared enough to want a change, they would have funded schools of not driving long ago. This is what we need, philanthropists – we need a SCHOOL to train people to fix a tire, ride a bike, and most of all to BELIEVE in it. Fat chance of that happening. Around the corner from me – a driving school and a funeral home, a McDonald’s and a gas station where not one item inside is locally sourced. Ain’t nothing changing.
The people that hate exercise lay around and fuck more often than those of us, we few, that like to exercise. Therefore, they have more children. Laziness is on the rise, not on the decline. You and I might be making a difference, but the prevalent mindset and behavior set sure is making it hard to survive any other way but theirs.
I see a distinction between the essays (which I generally like very much) and the fighting we’ve had of late in the comment sections. There have been some hurtful things said between several parties. I’m not naming names, or pointing fingers. You know who you are. It’s not much fun to watch people claw each other to pieces over shit ya’ll generally agree about.
Ok, off soapbox. Return to regularly scheduled programing…
What do you guys want some sort of circle jerk, happy thoughts only?
For the most part, trying to use a bicycle as your primary means of transportation in the US is impossible. That is enraging. Trying to NOT have a car in the US, for the most part, is neigh impossible (not you NYC).
That is a drag.
In the US, it has become The Norm for children to expect to be shuttled to/from all sort of Activities in a death trap. They expect it because there is no alternative.
In the US, it has become The Norm for adults to sit (hopefully patiently) on their ever-growing asses in their cars to shuttle themselves to/from their places of employment. They also have no real alternative.
That is enraging.
Those that cycle to work, to shop, to drink, … are on the receiving end of that rage on a daily basis in the form of frustrated, trapped cagers seeing bicyclists as the root of their frustration, all-too-often acting on that misplaced rage by buzzing bikers or quick-stopping them, or out and out running them off the road.
This essay illuminates much of what is wrong with the car-based culture that exists in the US. All of us see it. Why is it so hard to read about? Why the taking sides?
littleJar was..
not yelling at the choir.
not preaching to it.
invigorating the base.
giving words to frustrations that certainly must exist.
I’m not getting it. Why the piling on?
amen.
Redundant. Yawn.
Thanks for trying though, Diamond Dog.
diamond, have you been paying attention for the past couple of months? In general, lj’s posts are pretty good (and I don’t disagree with much of this one…), but the comments have turned into more heated screamfests than we had talking politics a couple of years ago. Even when people have been supporting him, he’s unloaded on them. It’s tiresome. If you need to be angry at the world, fine. There’s lots to be angry about. Just don’t unload on me when I’m on the same side. Heated discussions are fine, but the insults and threats that have been thrown around are out of line. Whoever was saying them. For my part I’m not getting sucked into that again. We can argue, but I will do my best to avoid insults and attacks.
The air in the compressor at the station is likely local
Piling on? Please dude. This community completely supports lj and his posts. The point here is to encourage lj to swing the posts back a bit. Get back on the positive side of shit. What good is it to dwell on the negative? It just breeds hate, contempt and bullshit cat fights.
That’s completely missing the point. We all want provocative things to think about, discuss, ponder, etc. But telling a bunch of cyclists that there’s too much traffic in Washington state? C’mon! Every DC out there has too much traffic in his/her state and sees it on a daily basis. So, what? We should bitch about it and get angry at each other? Yeah, that’s a great fucking idea.
This blog is for us cyclists to get together, drink, learn and discuss new shit. Not to get angry and bitter at each other. Cycling, for me, is a great way to clear my head, get shit straight and just have fun!
Lj should keep contributing absolutely! All I’m saying is that the more positive shit, the urban exploration, the bikes and even the philosophy is way better than the doom and gloom. If I wanted that, I’d just turn on the fucking news.
DiamondDog #52: +1.
When you combine reply #43 and reply #45 and understand that they were written by the same person, well, it’s just really fucking funny. Forty whole minutes, eh? Nice work, Joe!
Extremes. When I’m happy and around someone… ANYONE… that rides a bike, and I can see people on bikes, and not a constant stream of CARS then I might be happy and ready to spew nice poetry again. But now I’ve got a world of shit to swim out of. It’ll swing back, don’t worry too much about that. In the meantime, enjoy other people’s posts.
I’m not preaching to any choir – we’re not in harmony, people. The fire and the gasoline, as D2 put it. At times, I’m happy enough to wave and smile at ignorant fucks that yell at me from a car. At other times, I wish I had a .357
I wish to be expressive and I’m going to be. I’m rocking the boat to draw attention to SHIT THAT IS IMPORTANT. Fuck your comfort level – we have a lot of change to do or someone’s going to direct it for us, like CHINA. You’re tired of negative realities being pointed out and expressed at the word GO, but I’m really really tired of festering apathy and denial-ism. People are going to praise and complain no matter what I write or show.
Littlejar- pack up your shit, load it on your bike…..and move. Move somewhere you like…Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. A place where beautiful women (and in your case, non-driving cyclists) flock like the salmon of Copastrono.
The exchange this round has been wearing, but inspiring. Such passion has convinced me to pull down the OS1 and hit the road 1st thing in the morn. You got at least one more set of spokes spinning LJ! Much thanks to all of you! Just needed a little push.
No it hasn’t, there are several people who I respect that have left this forum because of Little Jars rantings.
That pisses me off.
@mikey #9 “Nowadays, I swear most of the really stupid shit I see out there is perpetrated by females.”
what??? seriously? you know who i have a problem with driving the most these days? old people. yep. those aged 70+ including my own mom.
@judi— Women are supposed to be the sane ones. Why the fuck the passing on the right, slamming on the brakes, talking on the cellie? This is a bad trend.
LittleJar, I note that you’ve ingnored my question, so I’ll repeat it.
how do you support yourself ? you are obviously unemployed, please do not tell me that my tax dollars are paying for you to sprout your shit.
Gnome, if homeboy is up in Mount Vernon again, as someone who has ridden through the town on more than one occasion…it’s not impossible to ride there. It’s quite pretty. My wacko theory is that a negative attitude might in fact have a magnetic effect on asshole drivers.
Mount Vernon is a smallish (~30k people) town that is still largely agrarian. Their biggest export is fucking tulips, for fuck’s sake.
It might actually be okay to have some sympathy for country boys and girls who might not have received much in the way of book-learnin’ or city-fied culturin’, especially if there wasn’t much in the way of familial precedent or opportunity between planting and harvest to wax philosophical about why the things that make a difficult life seem easier might in fact not be the best (cosmically speaking).
Yes, when people yell or swerve at cyclists or throw shit it’s completely unacceptable. The people doing it don’t think so, and sometimes that might just be part of what’s holding those individuals back from making some abstract, positive decisions.
I grew up in a place not unlike, and actually quite close to Mount Vernon. I was a skinny cross country runner in middle and high school who trained awkwardly on the roads around my parents’ house. Yahoos screamed “FAG!” and “RUN FORREST RUN!” and threw beer cans/apples/etc. every now and again. It chaffed me at the time. More than a decade later I just feel sorry for those fucks because they either chose not to pursue, or in fact simply didn’t have the opportunities to get away that I had.
Also, #56: hilarious.
I feel your pain, sadly this problem is not confined to the US of A its also spread over the England like the plague, I have two years left at University and then im off to the Netherlands or Sweden, where there are alternatives to car ownership and where bike usage is not mocked. I know that i will sleep better knowing that my taxes will be spent promoting a cleaner way of living for me and my kids!
@wanderer: Is it really necessary to get that personal. Something lj said sure got under your skin, maybe try and work it out?
Debate. Rigorously, but don’t demean this site with petty personal attacks.
@ sleepy #59-There is no inconsistency between the two posts you mentioned. The first was for all y’all on these boards and was written with heartfelt sincerity. The second was written in response to the story about the moron throwing a Big Gulp, and, truth be told, was also written with tongue firmly in cheek. My kingdom for a fistfull of emoticons.
i’m beginning to get a visual on LJ… white, pasty white, skinny, black rimmed glasses… and of course he’s a faulty hipster. tight ankle jeans, tats, and a chain of some form attached variously to tight jeans. what a fuckhead. a nerd in high school who learned to ride a bike late in life… probably wears a courier bag (full of nothing) high and tight. and of course he’s unemployed. who else has the time to post so many ranting, spewing, angry words… fuck you littlejar.
jarhead – didnt your mommmy ever tell you if you dont have anything nice to say you shouldnt say anything at all?
GOOD MORNING – To address your comments, let’s start with recent #72 – you could not be more wrong about me. Everything you assume is WRONG, except for ‘skinny’ that indeed I am. WANDERER – You want personal information, and ask twice, not figuring that I care not to answer, fuck off. Kid Wonder – if you want to see what Mount Vernon is really like, and how wrong you are about how ‘agrarian’ this city is, please I’d love to show you around. On our bike-ride, we will have to negotiate up to 6 piles of broken glass and will probably get yelled at 1.5 times for being on a bike. I don’t LIVE here, I’m stuck here. Getting out IS the goal – at least to get to the other side of town which is nicer. It is no one else’s fault that I’m here, and I speak of the omni-demic as someone who suffers from it. I hold title to two motor vehicles and am dependent on owning at least one.
To quote, again…. Naughty by nature “…say something positive well positive ain’t where I live.”
I would love nothing else to ‘pack up my shit’ on a bike and go. I’ve got all the gear to go on a 4 bag tour RIGHT NOW. But I have a dog who will not get in a trailer for starts – then there’s the problem of my livelihood depending on about 500 lbs of tools that I own, then there’s having not only one but 5 bicycles right now and a large parts stash. The goal is GET OUT and I’ve been at this for 5 weeks now with NO ONE HELPING ME. No, I have a big van I am going to move out in, and if you want to know what I’ll be doing today… I’ll be dealing with fingertip accessible clips and connectors, re-wiring the whole system, laying on my back with a piece of metal poking my side testing connections and wire brushing stuff, cutting through 35 year old filth and crud etc… with a 4 mile bike ride to get coffee as my break. It’s Sunday, and the traffic will be reduced by about 20% and the loud stereos and fart car drag racing will end at about 11:00PM instead of 1:30AM. Have a nice day! I’ll come back this evening!!
I’m sorry, LJ. I must have been hallucinating the dozens of times I’ve been on the roads in and around Mount Vernon over the past twenty-odd years. The miles of what I mistakenly thought were farmers’ fields must actually be alien devices intended to vigorously and viciously repress helpless malcontents.
Mount Vernon isn’t South Central LA. It isn’t East Orange, NJ (where Naughty by Nature is from…yes, I had to look it up). Hell, Mount Vernon isn’t anything like the dodgy parts of Everett, WA. Get real.
On a lighter but sincere note, I hope you enjoy your coffee ride. It must be exhausting to be so angry all the time.
…“…say something positive – well positive ain’t where I live.”…
…ya, no doubt, littlejar…we got that…
…your pretentious attitude that has you always being the “informed” disseminator of what “we”, the dc masses should know is sad…the term “preaching to the choir” has been used in regard to your constant “offerings” because you never seem to realize you’re on a lot more equal footing within this group of well read posters than you give us credit for, professor know-it-all…
…a truly informed, erudite person, no matter their passion for a subject, takes time to recognize his audience so as to not be redundant or condescending…rather than pay attention to the reality that surrounds you, you just want a venue to dump the thoughts that have built up in your head, with little regard to the intellects that predominate on these pages…
…you’re working on your truck, (how ironic but an honest “good luck” on that) so step out & away when you need a break or peddle out to where you can look beyond the things that always irritate you, take a deep breath, look at a blue sky & stop whining about it…
…we’re all here in want of the same basic livable environment therefore we don’t all need to be subjected to your constant negative viewpoint…you’ve heard it before – “make the best of your situation”, so do it…
Yes, farmer’s fields all over SKAGIT COUNTY. Not MOUNT VERNON CITY. Angry all the time? You don’t have any idea. I’m really suffering and struggling for progress, and progress is positive to my human mind. BGW I don’t even want to read your preaching, it’s worse than mine. Give me a break.
Dearly dear… I sure do wish I could move myself today or even tomorrow out to the county, on someone’s farm, with cute healthy women around, good air and quiet… I’ve been there briefly, I lived that way.
You wouldn’t want to see the list I have to get accomplished before I can move. Over-focused? Perhaps, but I’ve spared you all more than half of the shit I have going on, the stuff that is truly not easy to present in positive bites for you. Let’s just accept this – you know little about me, so quit making assumptions. Quit thinking up some image of the kind of person you love to hate, and thinking I look like that. Who I really am would probably surprise you. My summer has so far been spent in maintenance camp entirely, with only two brief breaks to visit Seattle. My goal – to get some summer, maybe a week? Riding long rides… what a luxury! I don’t have that. Not now I don’t. Mechanics is exhausting. Not a complaint!! OH NO. I’m painting a picture, that represents the best of it, without introducing any antagonists.
May I get a week or three of summer, and may this find me true progress.
…you are a sad little man who’s afraid to look into the can of worms you opened…
…even if you get your truck running like a fucking dream & i honestly hope you do, you’ll have a lousy attitude…
…just sayin’…
Any writers in the group? Show of hands? Well, I’ve just waded through George Orwell, _Politics_and_the_English_Language_. We are all of us lazy and undisciplined. Uneducated, derivative and imprecise. Hell, I can read NEITHER Latin nor Greek. (A fairly precise sentence there, by the way.) I had to take his references to _Ecclesiastes_ at face value— never read it.
More to the point, Orwell argues convincingly that modern political writing is almost wholly crap. Lazy, hackneyed, incorrect, awkward, pretentious, shallow and often just plain wrong. Trends like “talking points” and “sound bites” are so shallow and vague as to be literally worthless as ideas. Probably one reason our political system seems paralyzed lately. And the blogosphere ain’t a whole lot better.
I know how everyone loves my recommended reading, just here to help.
…nothing preachy about what i said…i called you out but i tried to treat you like an adult, littlejar…
…but you talk down to us like we’re 15 year old’s because you think you know more than the rest of us…
…sad, sad, little man…
A can of worms? Would be great. Would love to be fishing now.
Hey BGW – what do you get out of calling people ‘sad’ or ‘little’?
….. oh and why the use of so many ellipses… learn English, will ya?
I am a writer. These unedited long paragraphs are not my best by any means. I know the essay, the opinionated essay, the research paper, the legal brief, fiction, memoir, non-fiction, technical writing, writing to inform, journalistic article writing, and the short story. I’m one of the best WRITERS around here. I’m not the best mechanic, cyclist, fashionable guy, boyfriend, carpenter, lawn mower, sewer, or company man. I walk into an upper level college English class like Schwarzenegger walks into a weight room. I’m at home and in command there. I have been told by people who know the difference that I am a great writer and MUST pursue this or I’m doing the world a great disservice. Well world… where’s my cozy home office and desk? Oh yeah, forgot… I wasn’t dealt that privileged hand.
I am a writer. I just don’t focus my time or effort on writing anymore. All this is off the cuff and unrefined. I am too busy building a home – one that can move and works for me. Right now, I work for it. BGW – I don’t appreciate your belittling and sour comments. There’s more negativity in all that than in my ‘rant’ against car culture. I’ve gotten beyond getting angry at being called things like ‘sad little man’ because sometimes, there I am – that’s me: A sad and small man. Other times, I am greatness. Human; I am so very very limited. Poor and human; even more limited.
By the way – ‘peddle’ is to sell things. The word is PEDAL (insert insult here)
…yep…a sad, pedantic little man…
Littlejar,
A writer, really?
I’m assuming that from past evidence that you’re a “writer” in the same way that you were also a “Marine” and a “Bicycle Mechanic”.
Thank you therefore for your erudite & well composed response to my question, what I take from that is that the short answer is yes.
Therefore I suggest that you should include a footer in all your posts,
“Lilltejar – your tax dollars at work”, (figuratively speaking of course).
…oh, oh, wanderer…you made a spelling mistake…
…that lj ???…he’s a “writer”…you’re about to be admonished, undoubtedly…
Damn, Damn, Damn !!
And here I was trusting Microsoft Word to cover up for my lack of edukasion..
Oh Well, back to the checkout at WalMart..
…what our pedantic little friend doesn’t realize, wanderer, is that i’ve admitted on this site that i have less formal education (i’d honestly bet) than anyone & everyone who posts here…
…& despite lj’s disingenuous little shots in my direction, you’ll note he never addressed my calling him on his needing to play redundant professor know-it-all to a roomful of erudite people…
…but then again, i certainly wasn’t expecting him to…his defensive posturing takes many forms…
bikesgonewild,
Wisdom, as opposed to formal education comes with age & experience, you earn it.
I have several MBAs in my team at work that have no fucking idea.
While you may not have a elaborate piece of paper to wave in front of me I acknowledge & respect your wisdom.
(Please note how I resisted the temptation to call you Yoda)
littlejar, you have seen the movie idiocracy right? I give it about 20 years and we will see it all played out.
…a well resisted temptation, wanderer, although i “laughed out loud” at the yoda thingy…please note: quotations but no abbreviations…’less i make them up myself..
…but thank you for your props…honestly…
…i readily admit to having lapses wherein i suffer from anal / cranial inversion but i try to view what’s in front of me objectively…
…in that vein (vain, bwaha) i’ve even complimented lj numerous times but i’ll never & nor would i want to, be in absolute agreement w/ his agenda so i’m not to be taken seriously by him…& from what i’ve seen, i could give a rat’s ass…
…but i hate to see intelligent & fair minded posters like ‘hurben’ leave the site because they tire of one particular loose cannon, especially on drunkcyclist’s deck full of loose cannons…
…anyway, thanks again…
@LJ #82 Holy crap, I thought you were just an eternal pessimist down on his luck, but now I know you’re batshit crazy! I’ve only got a basic university education but damn, the shit you spout about knowing how to write vs. how you write on here is nuts!
We’ve all got a bunch of ideas in our head, but you have to make them coherent and relatable to achieve anything with them, that’s writing anything worth reading 101 I would have thought. I agree with a lot of your sentiments, but you need to engage your brain further in your delivery of them if you’re going to ‘give service to the world’.
BGW might use excessive punctuation… but he knows how to talk to people and how to engage someone with writing!
@89 “What are you talking about? Brawndo has the electrolytes plants crave!”
CEASE AND DESIST, LITTLE JAR.
Bitches. Tight-assed little bitches.
Holy fucking shit! I rode to down town and then to ACE hardware today and saw THREE other bikes! They must be taking away licenses left and right!
Cease and Desist? Negative sir. “I shall not remove”
Standby……….. positive attitude installation…………. please wait………………………………………………………………
Ahhhhh…. Cars, noise, dieselstink, beep-beep of construction taking over a year…. fuck, I must be in heaven! It couldn’t get any better. Wait – that smell in the air…. cremation of people. Wow, I love it here. Why do I want to get out of this neighborhood?
Guess what people – I will make a new post when I do get out. The truck runs *perfect*. I just have to re-wire everything. Have you ever done that? I’m not crazy, just have an attitude problem, that’s all. I can’t properly relate to people with all these little things challenging my sunny perspective on life. I hope you can be patient.