Tough Times and Tasty Trees

First, let me say how sorry I am for being rather absent lately. I have slowed down many times over the last couple of years, but never like this. I really really like writing stuff for this blog, yet I have found that lately it has been quite impossible. Nothing bad has befallen me or my family, so that's not the reason. Work and Life have yet again just taken priority.

That said, some bloggy things are just too vitally important to forgo. I am of course speaking of the Second Annual Rantwick Autumn Tree Smackdown!

I have been blown off my my usual riding routines by the winds of annoying work-related bull***t and thus have not photographed the King of Autumn yet, but I most certainly will in time to make my own entry.

If any of you are still with me, please find that smokin' good Autumn tree, because this year there will be just one prize for the big winner. The prize will be some kick-butt maple syrup again, but it will be in greater quantity and the same top-notch stuff offered last year. If you know any other Foliage Freaks, well c'mon, send them this way!

The voting for the best tree will be by an unbiased panel of judges to be revealed a little later on... you'll just have to tune in to find out who.

Sticking with last year's format, please send me your pictures of Autumn trees giving us a show. I would prefer shots of one or just a few trees, since even The King can't reasonably defeat a whole mountainside of fall colour. Pictures must also be of this (2011's) season of leafy goodness, since I hope to do this annually until I don't want to any more. That said, all pictures of fall foliage are welcome. Submissions will be accepted until Dec 15, 2011. I'll post the pictures here as they come in, and then the voting by my mysterious panel of judges will occur. Winner to be announced early in the new year.

For those of you who thought you might escape the wrath of the King of Autumn, it is definitely ON. Let's rock.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - For anyone who doesn't know what the hell I'm on about, click here for the 2010 FARATS posts.

I Love E-Scooters!

The introduction of e-bikes has been interesting to watch. The first ones I heard about were very much based on modifying an existing bicycle or were purpose-built using a "normal" bicycle frame. You know, something like this:

pic source

I haven't seen too many of this style of e-bike. It is possible I haven't noticed them precisely because they look like bikes. What I have seen are tons of these:

pic source

Although these things have pedals, they of course are not bicycles. They do, however, qualify as a "Power Assisted Bicycle" under Ontario law. Also by law, they are not capable of going faster than 32km/h (or 20 MPH for my American friends). Riders of such vehicles don't require licenses and must abide by the same laws as bicyclists. For more on Ontario laws regarding E-Scooters, this page is pretty good.

It seems to me that the riders of these things abide by the laws about as well as cyclists do, which is pretty poorly in many cases... you see some on the sidewalk, some salmoning in the bike lane, some on the multi-use pathways (I don't know what our local laws say about that), some on the street and only very rarely have I seen somebody taking the lane on one except to turn left and sometimes not even then. I have seen a great many hugging the gutter like crazy. One reason for this may be how slow some of them are, which is really really slow when their batteries are running low. I know that for myself, the slower I'm going, the greater my feeling (misguided or not) that I must get out of the way, particularly on 2-lane streets.

I love E-Scooters because motorists seem to hate them even more than they hate me on my good old Rantwick-assisted bicycle. Normally my conversations with other people about cycling with cars go pretty well. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree. Not any longer! Now when those conversations get even a little contentious my motoring counterpart will usually say, "you know what I really hate though? Those little electric scooter things!" Whether the e-scooter craze will continue is an unknown, so I intend to enjoy this vacation from top spot in the annoying-to-motorists category while I can. Thank you, e-scooterers! Whir On, baby. Whir on.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K