mastodon 4.5.5amateur violinist and nordic skier walking, busing and biking around Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. ### Moved to new instance Dec.2025 ###
@ascentale@sfba.social @streetmeme@cycle.town @bikenite@fedigroups.social A7)
City can institute a fund to pay $1million USD to estate/family of any pedestrian road violence victim at an intersection; the fund is maintained by all businesses on the four adjoining blocks
Suddenly, the stores will want lower speed limits, traffic calming, daylighting & narrow crossings
(*)I'm thinking of Lyn/Lake, the deadliest intersection in Minneapolis
Tiny (power) Desk:
Used a Chromebook tablet to zoom 3 meetings. It is tethered off my phone, both running from a USB battery.
I have a 100 watt solar panel outside charging tomorrow's battery.
#solarPunk
#30daysofbiking Bike.MN hosted a Day Zero kick-off ride around a couple of lakes to get burritos. Chilly (5C at the end) but met a bunch of great people.
Spent the afternoon hanging out with 200,000 of my best friends at No Kings Minnesota. My first time hearing Bernie Sanders speak (he's on the jumbotron).
Like other #NoKings , the Minneapolis Green Line was too full to take-on more passengers before it could even enter Saint Paul.
Like at other protests, my train seatmate had never ridden the LRT before. I wonder how many tens? Of thousands of people got introduced to #MetroTransitMN as a side effect of this protest
I hate climbing the hill next to Hyland Lake ski jump, Bloomington MN , going to Friendship Village senior community
Today I realized I don't have to: there is an old railroad trail parallel to I-394, which was pretty and didn't even need my granny gear... Though there were trees to climb over.
Winter was hard on my ebike battery contacts. Check yours!
#biketooter
26C today.. time to peel the package tape off the bike helmet vents.
Also swapped studded tires for smooth.
And I bought an unusual bike accessory today: a new violin case that will fit in my bike pannier (There is a squishy ball underneath the case as a cushion for when I hit potholes)
My iPhone 5s just installed iOS 12, after 3 years with no updates.
and 13 years after purchase.
I don't use it much, but it is my one apple device to keep my icloud account active.
I can finally see the air tag on my ebike!
On the bus to see #PWHL #MinnesotaFrost and the first other fans I saw get on were at Perennial Cycle, Hennepin Av.
Didn't even need to get downtown Minneapolis to find my transit+PWHL tribe :)
"Brr!
It's Cold in Here!
...Frost forms on surfaces, and *not* in the Atmosphere!"
...or something
I oiled a clock for the first time today. (a 1960s Mauthe W45). I'd let it go until it would just stop running (very bad).
Happy to report that only the 4th wheel pivot showed any wear, and even that was barely perceptible with a 4x magnifier. So, I think I caught it in time, and no need for new bushings.
Minneapolis Police just visited our house, looking for some lost/stolen backpack with AirPods. The owners showed-up, and they all walked around our yard waving phones for about 20 minutes, and finally knocked on a neighbor's door, who I guess had the backpack.
I was lowkey shocked, since we had a Dutch ebike stolen, which quickly appeared forsale on Facebook, and the Police wouldn't even talk to us without a case #... which took them 2 weeks to issue.
1/
Going through my bike kit, I was reminded of Minneapolis' Farmstead Bike Shop, now closed :( .. But another shop is moving there :)
I have a spare rear derailleur hanger taped to the spare tube. I have this set-up for my bikes with hangers, and when I head out, I grab the road kit, plus the spare tube+hanger for that bike.
Two of 8 #MetroTransitMN buses I rode yesterday were brand new :)
No huge differences: the LED sign is a bit orange (vs. red) & *bright*, a bit bigger, and was showing next stops, along with the audio announce. (The visual announce is broken in >50% of the old buses)
Stop buttons replaced pull-cords and are 90 degrees rotated from BRT placement
@enobacon@urbanists.social
Oh! Are you involved with urbanists.social?
I panicked last fall when the admin posted that he didn't check the mailbox anymore.
1/
I once rented a bike to get around Scottsdale AZ. I had a choice of a ful sus MTB or a Trek Evo, so I took the latter.
Trying to ride in Scottsdale was stressful: all the roads were 2 lane in each direction, with near-zero shoulder. I mostly rode in the non-existant shoulder, and got honked at.
At one point, I down-brifted and stomped on the pedal to go up a driveway apron and get out of the way of a truck.. and the rear mech shifted into the wheel.
Why is the price of oil up 60%, but the price of gasoline is up 30%? Does half the cost of gasoline come from refining and distribution?
I'm wondering if gas would be expected to eventually rise by (say) 75% of that 60%, and we're just seeing the time delay between oil price hike and gas.
I just read a post mentioning "UP Express" trains, I suddenly imagined that one of the six daily trains from Chicago to Milwaukee has been extended to Michigan's Upper Peninsula (aka "the UP").
...only to realize "no, of course not."
That happened in the past, too. Then it re-happens every year when enough time has passed to forget.
This is my curse.
Riding through Inver Grove Heights MN today, I was looking for a right turn onto Argenta Trail... but turned too early
..onto Argenta Trail.
Yes, IGH has two streets with the same name, intersecting the same street. But one is a dead-end.
Can anyone recommend an EPub book reader for chromebook tablet?
#Nextcloud security question...
I've been running NC over Wireguard for a couple of years, and now want to let some friends/family go cloud-free. Imagine your mother-in-law's urban garden club. I don't think WG is going to fly.
I think NextCloud is getting K12/gov't use in EU, so I imagine "there are ways" to connect it to the Internet securely?
Minnesota #solar #SolarGarden question about moving...
Has anyone with a Minnesota Solar Garden share moved from a house into an apartment?
What happened when your house-sized solar garden produced more than 120% of your new, lower consumption?