The Bike Nazi

 Satisfaction ... and Frustration

Ten months into 2021.  I'm a survivor - you're a survivor!  I'm also about 30 months into retirement... and I can confidently say it's underrated!

Of course, more than half of those months have been with the Covid-19 shadow looming.  But even that is only a minor quibble for me, since as my T-shirt says, "I WAS SOCIALLY-DISTANT BEFORE IT WAS COOL!"  Some family and friends have been impacted much more than me... but none in a serious or permanent way.

Satisfaction?

I'm still bicycling every day that I'm in town.  Seriously!  For probably the last then years, the only days I've missed have been the out-of-town days when a bicycle wasn't available.  (Of course, some of those days it's only a quick ride around the park across the street, or some other "stat ride," to keep the streak going.)

For a few months I entertained the notion of trying to reach 200,000 cumulative miles on February 22 next year - you know, 2/22/22.  (Cool, huh?)  It's not going to happen; I'm still a little over 2000 miles away.  If we were coming into summer... and if I was going to be in town the whole time... it would be realistic.  But over the winter, 200 or 300 miles in a month is pretty good.  And... I'm going to be out of town for perhaps two weeks, this month.  I s'pose I could do the "Snowbird" thing - head to Arizona and bicycle 25 miles a day for a couple months.  Nah... not worth it.

Frustration?

I've grown accustomed to the Facebook.  With a slight degree of guilt.  I've really enjoyed connecting with old friends and acquaintances from across my entire life!  (The main draw was to see if there was information about the Boise High Class of '71 reunion.  There was!  Unfortunately, the honchos decided to postpone it due to the Pandemic.  Ironically, the Class of '70 delayed theirs for a year, as well... they went ahead and did it a month or so ago.)  I am (or was) a participating member of the "Boise Bike Lanes" local bicycle advocacy group.

I feel guilty about Facebook because: 1) it has become increasingly obvious that they are filtering and promoting "information" to slant things to their progressive/liberal viewpoint, and I resent that, and 2) I often waste time just reading the stuff that's presented to me.  But I've enjoyed sharing my viewpoint and seeing the viewpoint of others.  You don't learn anything if you're just "preaching to the choir," right?

I'm frustrated because a month or so ago, Facebook "forgot" me!  I cleared my browser history, and when I logged back on, I was told that Facebook didn't recognize my device... and that I'd chosen two-factor authentication.  (Okay... I'm getting a little technical here... sorry.)  The second "factor," after the password, is a random number... that apparently they "text" to me.  But my Facebook account doesn't have a "smart phone" (quote/unquote) associated with it... so I have a "Catch-22" situation.  The only work-around is to submit a photo ID, which they say they'll confirm, and fix it within 48 hours.  Well... I've probably submitted the photo ID a dozen times, and no response so far.  My paranoid conclusion is that they don't want me back, because I'm not "woke" to the Party Line.  But in any case, I've missed the whole social media experience since mid-September... on the bright side, I've not been spending an hour or so every day "Facebooking."  I s'pose I'll keep submitting the ID... maybe someday somebody will get back to me.  (There's no email or telephone, to get Facebook support.  It seems unfathomable  that of their billion-plus users, I'm the only one having trouble getting connected!  If you read this and can help me... PLEASE!  My email address is 43bikeboy@gmail.com.  I just delete spam.)

Well... enough psychobabble and self-pity.  I'm 4500 bicycle miles into the year... expect it to be another 5000-plus mile year, when all is said and done.  RIDE ON, friends!