Winter Sucks

[6zfshdb]

Every Homewood Suites and every Hampton Inn offers a free breakfast included. It's not a good breakfast, but these chains are all over the country and in many small towns. Every Embassy Suites offers a free made to order breakfast. My points are with Hilton, but I have stayed at many Marriot properties that offer the same.

I use Choice Privileges points and their free breakfast is barely edible. I usually fix my own in the room before going out to ride. I stay with Choice because their hotels don't restrict bikes or in room charging.
Last season, I tried Hampton hotels and their breakfasts were a bit better. Still not great though. I'd switch to Hilton points but I've heard they have an e-bike ban in many locations.

I guess it's getting tough to both eat and ride well in many places.

 

[6zfshdb]

BTW, the urban crows who share our cities are also HUGE fans of french fries. Nature knows best!
;^}

Around here, it's the sea gulls, Herring Gulls actually, that like the French fries. There is a huge flock that frequents the local McDonalds, where people feed them. They just throw one in the air and watch a gull swoop down and catch it before it hits the ground. Some even hand feed them. Once in awhile someone will toss a large order of fries on the ground in the parking lot, which causes an avian riot!

I know these "Sea Gulls" find their way inland in many locations, but I still find it interesting they reside here year round, hundreds of miles from the ocean, or any major body of water. Around here, they're called McDonald Gulls.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Around here, it's the sea gulls, Herring Gulls actually, that like the French fries. There is a huge flock that frequents the local McDonalds, where people feed them. They just throw one in the air and watch a gull swoop down and catch it before it hits the ground. Some even hand feed them. Once in awhile someone will toss a large order of fries on the ground in the parking lot, which causes an avian riot!

I know these "Sea Gulls" find their way inland in many locations, but I still find it interesting they reside here year round, hundreds of miles from the ocean, or any major body of water. Around here, they're called McDonald Gulls.

Ah yes, the gulls also like their fries. Once on a very crowded day at La Jolla Shores beach, I saw a 20-something jerk weaponize this by tossing handfuls of fries onto occupied beach blankets as he ran by, laughing all the way.

Large groups of gulls following behind would descend on the fries in a frenzy, crapping all over the blankets and the people on them in the process.

Didn't take long for a group of young men, maybe athletes from nearby UCSD, to take him down and give him a pretty thorough lesson on beach etiquette till cops arrived to haul him away.

Everyone in sight cheered. The cops had a chat with his attackers but left without taking any of them in for assault.

Quite a spectacle for normally chill SoCal.

 

[Chargeride]

Its picking up, 13C next ride.

 

[PedalUma]

And that doesn't account for all my homemade pizzas!

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I can no longer eat pastries, pasta, or pizza. I will need to give an explanation to the Sicilian grandmother who makes the best NY style pies. I saw her coming out of a store yesterday and her expression said, 'Where did you go.' I have become gluten intolerant. My limbs become numb, I want to shoot everything out both ends at once, I have tons of mucus, and have bloody noses. All that from one begal! And it would last for two days. I didn't know what was wrong with me. The gods of ironic humor have had their say: I have always been opposed to picky eaters. Now I am one.
These are the same gods who hide my frame pump.

 

[6zfshdb]

I can no longer eat pastries, pasta, or pizza. I will need to give an explanation to the Sicilian grandmother who makes the best NY style pies. I saw her coming out of a store yesterday and her expression said, 'Where did you go.' I have become gluten intolerant. My limbs become numb, I want to shoot everything out both ends at once, I have tons of mucus, and have bloody noses. All that from one begal! And it would last for two days. I didn't know what was wrong with me. The gods of ironic humor have had their say: I have always been opposed to picky eaters. Now I am one.
These are the same gods who hide my frame pump.

You're in luck!

 

[PedalUma]

You're in luck!
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Is it made from gluten free sawdust?

That is a pool of butter inside the pastry. Then I would dip it into a mocha with cinnamon and kosher salt on the rim. No more fresh sourdough to dip in my French mushroom/herb soup with brae melted into it. I am being punished for my indulgences.

I am going through all five stages of grief at once. I keep going back to denial, then it all cascades again. Can I make a deal and bargain a deal with the gods and only eat a thin crust sourdough hand-thrown, fresh garlic, oil, and romano NY pizza once a month? If only I don't have the perfectly paired cheap house burgundy served in a large water glass? I would trade that. But, No. I am SOOL. Is this why Swedes eat salted cod with potatoes and my other side, Scots, eat haggis. Oh, No Gumby. No, No, No. I ate tofu with veggies today with steamed rice. That is how low I have been sent into purgatory.

 

[PedalUma]

I read a book in the fading sun with my toes out for an hour. The crows are going NW and the Gulls SE, normally they side together, thusly, we are in for weird weather.
What is that book about?
It takes place at at about 1152 BCE. It is all or mostly feminine emotions and internal dialogs. Troy fell, Carthage was built, and Rome was about to come. It is about nobility, not the external kind, the internal kind. Leadership from the inside. Love and loss in equal measure. The downside of love is not worth the upside. The upside is wonderful but fleeting. Power is really about trust, listening, and giving. I can't wait to fly kites with a ton of kids with their parents in the wildflowers at a picnic I arranged.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

What is the feeling Uma when you are writing to yourself?

 

[PedalUma]

What is the feeling Uma when you are writing to yourself?

I am willing to break out of ruts to make original content. What does it feel like to be stuck in a rut? I extend myself and take some creative risks. I say things new, fresh, out of the box. It extends some vulnerability, yet not AI, personality, authenticity, and depth. A real person in a real location with real passions and an original POV. Not overly perfect.

The Nor'easter hitting the eastern part of the US will be a doozy. New York will be hard hit. A NY filmmaker is trapped here with his team for a few days because of it. I showed him some local filming locations today. I could show him a dozen more. He loved an alley and the used books downstairs in a shop. I am just a passionate bike mechanic with a point of view.

 

[stompandgo]

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

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Well, you're in for some fun! Hope all goes well.

 

[Gionnirocket]

12 - 18" for us city folk.

. . . and just as the last piles of snow from the last storm were melting with temps today at 45°f

 

[stompandgo]

I was in Brooklyn last week and the sidewalks were a complete disaster.

 

[kevinmccune]

It looks like spring will be arriving here in South Western Ontario in two days.

Maybe I can make another snow angel before it all melts away

that's not to bad for Ontario,I think damp cold is a thing,I can tell if snow is coming even if the temp is in the upper 30sF.

Who says you can't smoke it??

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Vados?

 

[kevinmccune]

deathwish 2026!

 

[kevinmccune]

Ahaha A myth!

@RunForTheHills: you see, I like good things and am not prejudiced. Yes, I'm proud of sausages and cold meats we enjoy in Poland but I also love English sausages, Full English, meat-pies, Ploughman's Sandwich and other inventions of Dear Good Blighty While -- and I'm not gonna lie -- the American food makes me starve when I'm in the United States

I love picked polish sausages,they are hard to find in these parts now.

 

[kevinmccune]

I'm sure these are tasty!

yes and they are of a different caliber then factory eggs,(used to raise eggs) they are so rich they actually hard to digest if you have stomach problems,the albumum has been used as a binder for paint pigment for ages. Free Range" chickens will practically eat anything that doesn't eat the,( small snakes,frog,mice-think mini Tyrannosaurus)

 

[mclewis1]

...

The Nor'easter hitting the eastern part of the US will be a doozy. New York will be hard hit. A NY filmmaker is trapped here with his team for a few days because of it ....

Ooooo, "trapped" in mid Cal while a serious blizzard goes through the NE, I'll bet they're really upset. They'll all likely have some serious "war stories" to tell folks in years to come about that huge storm in Feb 2026. .... and just for the record I rather enjoy your various musings about life outside the shop.

 

[6zfshdb]

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If you get one of these:

One of these:

And one of these:

You'll be all set.