Books of summer

It's been some time since I wrote anything in this space, so I'll throw something out there.

These are the books I read this summer. It's a little embarrassing that someone with as much spare time as I had this summer could only get through 4 books in 4 months, but I'm not apologizing.



Title: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Author: Naomi Klein
Genre: Anti-capitalist screed
Pages: 672
Summary in one sentence: Milton Friedman has no soul and his disciples are ruining the world.



Title: In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century
Author: Geert Mak
Genre: Historical travelogue
Pages: 837
Summary in one sentence: It's been a violent century in Europe, and Nazis are bad.



Title: Spook Country
Author: William Gibson
Genre: Near future spy fiction
Pages: 373
Summary in one sentence: That guy on the street corner is probably working for some pseudo-communist religious cult, or he's not really there.


Title: Bleak House
Author: Charles Dickens
Genre: Classic literature
Pages: 989
Summary in one sentence: Lawyers will suck you dry, and poor people will die in the meantime.


School is in, but school also includes two weekly blocks of several hours of unused time that could be filled by more reading. Poor Folk may be my next project.

On theft

I've been hit again by Winnipeg's bike thieves. The last time it was a whole bike, this time merely my seat and post, so I suppose I should count myself lucky. In both cases I didn't exactly make it difficult for the thief: my mountain bike that was stolen was unlocked, parked beside a friend's house in Wolseley, and the seat that was stolen had a quick-release.

A bike without a seat looks (and feels) strangely unbalanced.

Still, much like Dostoevsky with his Raskolnikov, I like to explore the pyschology of the perpetrator. Or at the very least, try to understand the logic of stealing a bicycle part that, on its own, has very little value. Let me set the scene:

• The seat, while quite comfortable, probably has little re-sale value, especially at a pawn shop.
• The post is much rusted and the metal itself has many scrapes and gouges. Essentially a throw-away
• If the perp is merely stealing to replace a seat for his own bike, I don't understand why he (excuse my gender stereotyping, but I'll keep using the male pronouns) would have to steal two seats (mine and that of the bike parked next to me).

I can understand crime if it is profitable, but this seems clearly to be the sort of crime that doesn't pay. The Free Press had an article today on the rise in stolen scrap metal, but this is hardly on the same scale.

Lessons:

• Quick release = bad. When I ride to a bike shop (with no seat) and get a new post, I'll also be asking for a traditional bolt to replace the quick release.
• St. Vital = bad. That's right. I've locked my bikes up all over downtown, left it for hours unattended on porches in Osborne Village and the West End, but the two places where I've had incidents were the relatively 'safe' neighbourhoods of St. Vital and Wolseley. (If I go all the way back to my high school years I can include St. James as well). Of course this leads me to believe that it's probably 12 year old punks doing the stealing. I think more experienced thieves or kids in a dodgier neighbourhood wouldn't settle for anything less than a whole bike.
• Look where you park. Perhaps I should have been tipped off by three front wheels, sans bike, still locked to the rack where I had locked up (even the tire had been removed somehow). Or the fact that someone had cut through a 3-inch metal bar on the outside of the rack.
• Riding without a seat isn't fun. You might think that of the various pieces of bike hardware the seat is pretty unimportant, but let me assure you that it isn't. Among other things, without a seat, a slip off the pedals becomes far more dangerous and wet streets are far more inconvenient (read: messy).

It's more of a nuisance than anything else. The $40 or so that I'll have to spend will be equivalent to what I initially paid for the bike, but is a drop in the bucket compared to those who have more expensive rides stolen or vandalized.

Bombers, Borders

It can be a strange experience to emerge from four days cut off from civilization (when 'civilization' signifies electricity, plumbing, news media and the internet). It is stranger still when something important has changed over that time.

During the time that I was canoeing and hiking my way through the Turtle Mountains, Ryan Dinwiddie replaced Kevin Glenn as the starting QB for the Bombers. And, rather amazingly, this time, he's actually good.

Dinwiddie gave a performance that was most un-Dinwiddiesque, and if he continues, I'll be forced to stop using that adjective in a negative way. More importantly, the win means I can end my Bomber embargo, which I never took all that seriously anyway. I watched most of yesterday's game, and only missed the loss to B.C. last Friday because of work.

The Bombers may not have 'it going on', but at least they have a win.

The rally towel must have worked for the fans last night, as Dinwiddie drove the team for a touchdown with less than a minute to go, and it is now rightly resturned to an upright position.

* * * *

What I found particularly interesting in my Turtle Mountain trek this week was a length of trail that follows the border with the United States. I have long heard the phrase "the world's longest undefended border", but haven't actually seen much of the boundary itself other than at highway crossings. The horse trail we hiked that follows the boundary is very much undefended.

The field is American, the trees are Canadian. As you can tell from the angle of the shot, we crossed illegally.

These pillars mark the spot every few kilometres. The four sides read: "Canada", "Treaty of 1908", "U.S.A", and "Border Convention of 1818".


If you squint a little, you should be able to see the two towers which sit on either side of the border at the International Peace Gardens. The Canadian tower is white, the American one black; you can draw your own conclusions.

Football hiatus

It may not be the most edifying or productive passion, but I do get a major kick out of most sports. Soccer is foremost among them, but in terms of local sports teams, the Bombers have always been my favourite.

However, I'm just about ready to give up that relationship. At least for a while.

I attended last Friday's contest (and here I am using the term pretty loosely) between Winnipeg and the B.C. Lions.

How terrible was it? Let me count the ways:

1. After the Bombers fell behind 20-5 after 2 quarters, the halftime show consisting of 2 dispassionate Guitar Hero wizards battling on the big screen was probably the most entertaining moment of the 3 hours.
2. The team's overall performance was so poor that backup quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie's performance, which featured 2 interceptions and several sacks in less than 2 quarters of play against B.C.'s defensive backups, was seen as a bright spot.
3. The fan experience: a drunken loud-mouthed lout sitting in front of us who was far too generous in using his airhorn kind of ruined things, though his tale after halftime of outrunning event security, who were trying to confiscate said airhorn, was mildly amusing.
4. I didn't think it possible, but since last year the stadium has become even more unfriendly to those who bike to games. Unless I missed something somewhere, there are no longer any proper bike racks on the stadium grounds, let alone something like a bike valet, and we ended up locking to a tree. It's bad enough to work one's way through the big box wasteland in the area, and the actual wasteland-cum-parking lot where the old arena used to sit without having to walk around half the stadium looking for a place to park your ride.
   
5. By the third quarter, I had as much interest in the planes landing at YWG as the game itself. You get a great view of the airport from portions of the east side upper deck.
6. The stadium is a miserable dump. When the team is winning I hardly notice, but it is not pretty to look at, comfortable to sit in, and a downright disgusting place to go to the bathroom (although I very much like the water-saving aspect of the troughs). I don't want to get into the stadium debate, other than to say that the proposed Point Douglas location is pretty stupid, but the status quo is not a real option.
   

I was a fan through the miserable Reinebold years, and other rather disappointing seasons, but this was by far the worst performance I've seen in person. I've made a promise to myself not to watch any games or read any CFL-related reporting until the Bombers put one in the win column. Which could mean that I'll have a bit more free time on my hands for the next month or two.

The "Official Rally Towel", pictured upside-down out of protest. Any use this towel got was ironic; the only 'rally' the Bombers mounted was far too late to matter.

* * * *

On a brighter note, I read a good book recently.

Things I like

I haven't posted here in nearly a month, possibly because there hasn't been much to write about. There still isn't, really, but I'm not letting it stop me this time.

Some things that I am enjoying these days:


1. The weather

I don't know if it should come as a big surprise that people enjoy summer, but it seemed for a long time that cool and dry was all we would get for May and June. Not so these days. Of course, the combination of recent rain (including a nice weekend hail-shower) and present heat will unleash a wave of killer mosquitoes, but who am I to complain.

2. Reading


In particular, I've been reading Naomi Klein's excellent Shock Doctrine, and while it's rather heavy, the page-turning factor is practically Korman-esque (his early work, up to, but possibly not including The Toilet Paper Tigers). Reading on the porch is a good way to combine #1 and #2, and also to achieve the ever-popular chest tan/white back look.

3. New music

I don't find myself too much interested in bands that I haven't heard of these days, but I am rather enjoying new releases from 2 favourites.


The Notwist's latest, The Devil, You + Me, is as excellent as I had suspected, and features prominently in the current rotation on my iPod. And Wolf Parade's new album, with the unlikely name At Mount Zoomer, also nails most of the items on my musical checklist. You may have noticed that these two records were featured on back to back days by the purveyors of I'm-smarter-than-you---and-better-at-name-dropping-to-boot music reviews. I can assure you that this did not influence my decisions. I also bought the Wolf Parade album at Walmart, of all places (I was there for work, honest!), which would surely make me a target of scorn for the Pitchfork crowd.

4. A well-running bicycle

I was beginning to get pretty frustrated with all the grinding and clicks I was hearing from most of the moving parts on my Norco steed. But like most problems in life, it was all solved with a squirt here, and some lube there (insert joke). And some new bearings for the rear wheel. I no longer feel the need to ride dangerously (illegally?) by wearing headphones, for the sole purpose of obscuring the cries of pain from my bike.

5. Garage sales

Actually, I don't like garage sales. But work lately has included a weekly Friday round of south Winnipeg garage sales with a client, and occasionally something good turns up. Case in point:


1970s algebra texts are the best because they include lengthy tables for things like trig ratios which can now be done by any dollar store calculator. And the first page of the first chapter includes a rather grandiose and sweeping account of mathematical history:

Through the ages, man has found himself in need of numbers to help him in his daily chores. One of his most basic needs was to determine how many of a certain thing he had. Thus he developed a set of counting numbers, sometimes called natural numbers . . . Later man discovered more sophisticated uses for numbers. Gradually he developed a body of knowledge known as algebra, where many different sets of numbers are used.

That's all, nothing more needs to be said on the matter. And clearly, there was no need at the time to write inclusively of gender, either.

Please don't hit me!

Regular readers of this blog may wonder why I've decided yet again to write about cycling on Winnipeg streets. But most days, these two-wheeling times are among my most enjoyable moments. Also particularly enjoyable is listening to Blue Jays baseball on Morden's country station, but who wants to hear about that? I've put in over 1000 km in '08 on the mean streets of the city, and over 900 in the last two months, so I come by this obsession honestly.

The title is a reference to the message sent by the new 'sharrows' that have begun appearing on Winnipeg streets.

From the article:

New bicycle lanes are being painted on more than a half a dozen busy traffic routes throughout Winnipeg.

The new lines create "sharrows," or narrow lanes demarcated on existing streets; it's hoped they'll help ease tension between cyclists and motorists, who often feel like rivals for space on the roads.

"It's going to increase the awareness of drivers to share the road with cyclists, and … it'll increase the awareness for cyclists, you know, to stay where the sharrows are," said Janice Lukes of the city's active transportation advisory committee.

Since the new lanes are on seven busy streets, most of the people who will use them will be experienced cyclists, Lukes said. She hopes the sharrows lead the city to take more steps to become more cycling-friendly.

"It's an absolutely huge first step, from nothing to this — and then it's only a matter of time where you're going to have more families [who] want separated lanes," she said.

"I do believe that the will of the government is there to where eventually we'll see that, maybe in the next two years. It wouldn't surprise me."

The city set aside $100,000 in the 2008 capital budget for the sharrow initiative.

The lanes, accompanied by signs urging motorists and cyclists to "share the road," will appear on:

• Higgins Avenue.
• Roblin Boulevard.
• Grant Avenue.
• Regent Avenue.
• Plessis Road.
• Dakota Street.
• Dunkirk Drive.

I've been up and down Dunkirk Dr in the past few days where the sharrows have been painted. I take exception to them being described as either 'bike lanes' or 'lines' as the author of the article has done, but generally I welcome any reminder to drivers that cyclists on the road aren't thrill-seekers but in fact have every right to be there.

[Read the lower rated comments attached to the CBC article for some particularly misinformed and misanthropic vitriol from drivers]

Directional arrows offer help to confused cyclists.

I do question the broader implications of sharrows on a select number of routes. The signs and painted images of bicycles on the streets don't confer any new rights or responsibilities on either cyclists or drivers. Whether you are driving or riding on a signed street like Dunkirk or Roblin, or an unsigned one, the fact remains the same: cyclists have a right to the road.

The tone is a bit motherly, but the law requires motorists and cyclists to share every road.

Some drivers, though, might get the impression that the marked streets are somehow different, and that their blatant disregard for the life and limb of cyclists on other roads is justified. The Dunkirk sharrows cover only a 1 km stretch [edit: I went by again and realized the sharrows continue down Dakota to Bishop Grandin and likely past St. Vital mall. Still only in 1 direction], only the southbound portion, as if this was some tiny cycling Valhalla. But it's not: the regular hazards like broken glass, drains and manhole covers occupy the same curbside space.

So far my $5 tires are winning the battle against curbside debris, including the broken glass pictured.

I'm questioning, not complaining. Any attention to cycling issues is welcome, even if it's an article about a ridiculous bike radio backpack (driving with headphones is worse, but still . . .). You'll notice even that story manages to get in some good stuff:

Ravenelle said bike-vehicle accidents will be all too common until cyclist-only lanes are created around the city.

"If downtown Montreal can do it, Winnipeg can do it. We absolutely need bike-only lanes, not bus and bike lanes. It's ridiculous riding with a bus trying to go around you," he said. "There has to be a lot more education and advocacy put into teaching people to coexist on the road. The easiest thing to do is have dedicated bike lanes. Does Main Street really need four lanes?"

I guess what I'm trying to say is that sharrows aren't bike lanes. It's a start, though.