My Green Thumb << Mom's Green Thumb

A few weeks back Mom and Dad were in town. They are great. My Mom is really into the whole garden in Healdsburg, but she was sort of stepping on my mojo. I have 2 decent sized raised beds that are set up with drip irrigation. She carried a set of Bean Seeds from Colorado and announced she would plant some beans for me.

This was a bit disconcerting to me. I had just purchased a couple of cucumber and zucchini starts - given that I had killed the cucumber starts I had planted and the snails took out my zucchini. She laid down three rows of bean seeds, taking up half of one of my precious raised beds as I watched in horror. With one of the beds half gone due to a gigantic lavender plant this meant I was down half of my beds before i even started. (I have attempted to rip out the Lavender but my wife protests - we have 16 lavender plants in another section of the yard!). There are two tomato plants in the raised beds and they take up a lot of space, and cast shade on anything near them. I found some place to slap the zucchini in, and later just put the cucumber next to the bean seeds.

Thing is, beans shouldn't grow in the heat we get in Healdsburg. She planted them too close together. And I had sowed direct seed into the beds trying to get dill, cliantro, basil, you name it and the snails all got the tiny plants. These beans weren't going anywhere.



Either that or they were going to go completely nuts. This picture taken *after* I thinned them back a bit.

At least I do have the first tomato setting on the plants.



The garden had a special guest too!

Gavin Newsom Quote of the Day.

Regarding new bus shelter, from Streetsblog

"I'm looking forward to seeing this shelter looking like this four, five, ten years from now. I'll be driving by--and riding by, because little do you know I take Muni in spite of some of those who wish I didn't so they'd have another reason to criticize me."

This guy has the thinnest skin on the planet.

Apparently he doesn't take the bus on Sundays however, since he is so opposed to Sunday meter enforcement.

Then again, why would he park at a meter anyway.

Consider me one of the critics Mayor Newsom.

Cyclist Pedestrian interaction

This morning, riding to Caltrain. Turning right off of Bryant onto Division. There was a red light, which turns green. As I approach the intersection I see that several pedestrians are crossing Division. Division in this spot has 2 Eastbound lanes. The pedestrians are still in the first lane, so I whip by them and turn right into the farther lane, probably going 15 MPH or so.

Pedestrian shouts "Whoa!"

I motored on but this got me to thinking. I probably gave them 2 yards or so of space. That's 6 feet, "not even close" in my parlance - I mean, it's hard to get various states to institutionalize THREE feet be given to cyclists being passed by multiple ton vehicles going 65 MPH. Of course, a pedestrian in that spot is not expecting *anything* to be whipping into the further travel lane and is sure to be startled. Nobody wants their stroll to be interrupted with a heart attack.

Karmically speaking, should I have slowed, let them get across, and turned right into the rightmost lane behind the pedestrians? Or was there plenty of room and they should grow a pair?

I don't want to get into the whole "engendering relationships with pedestrians" thing - they entered the crosswalk at the exit of a parking lot, and it's doubtful they were spotting me 3 feet when they were behind the wheel of their car 2 minutes earlier...

The drivers of Mill Valley vis-a-vis cyclists - part 2

Claire Diepenbrock, 26, was sideswiped and knocked down at 5 p.m. on Shoreline Highway near Tennessee Avenue by a northbound driver who may have been intoxicated on painkillers, police said. Diepenbrock was struck by another driver shortly after the first accident.

First reaction includes "Don't ride Shoreline". Shoreline up from Tam Valley blows. But that does not mean you should not be able to ride it, and ride it safely. Just because I choose roads that are safer doesn't mean I think it's correct to cede them.

Nonetheless, if headed up to Tam, go through Downtown Mill Valley. Of course, if you are not headed up Tam, but headed to visit someone who lives on Shoreline, what's the option?

The roadway should be improved, and lacking that drivers should take a chill pill. And by that I don't mean getting "intoxicated on painkillers?" What is with these people.

Update: From an anonymous source - it will be a long road to hoe, but Claire will see another day and another bike ride if she chooses. No brain damage, but plenty of structural damage - that will heal over time.

Update2: from the Marin IJ.

Drinking and Driving, the American Way

Disclaimers in the body of the text don't excuse a stupid subject line. Like the subject of this dumbass post on SFist

"Remember to Buckle Up, Take Muni, Cab if Drinking This Weekend"

This is of course, because it is Memorial Day Weekend and you might get busted because there will be checkpoints. Nevermind that if you drive drunk anytime, you might kill several people including yourself. Just don't get a DUI ticket, that would really suck.

I don't get it - even my Mother is not immune to the contradictions, driving back from Healdsburg she saw two cyclists roll a stop sign and said "They're not following the rules". Of course their behavior is many orders of magnitude less dangerous than drinking and driving, yet there is still amazingly little societal backlash against it.

Reminds me of another blog topic I had on the back burner. I saw an story on the news about drivers getting information on their car GPS devices that tell them where the red light cameras are. So let me get this straight, there is all this backlash about a cyclist rolling a stop sign - because clearly that is a bad thing. If they are so high and mighty, why are they investing money into devices that warn them "Don't run the red light - ticket ahead!", after they just got done pontificating about how bad it is to break the traffic laws.

And without opening the "great helmet debate" up, you are supposed to buckle your seatbelt if "driving".

Ray LaHood rules? Yes, Ray LaHood rules!

From Streetsblog

Asked if his emphasis on livable communities was, as Will's column argued, a veiled effort to "make driving more torturous" and "coerce people out of their cars," LaHood was unbowed.

"It is a way to coerce people out of their cars," he said, observing that few people enjoy spending an hour behind the wheel to travel to work or run an errand. While every community cannot be redesigned to coax more residents onto transit or bikes, he added, the encouragement of those opportunities is important.

"The only person I've heard object to this is George Will," LaHood said. Pressed again to answer conservative critics who see the hand of Big Government in his agenda, the former Republican congressman quipped: "About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives."

Wow. Just wow.

Caltrain Bombardier with expanded Bike Capacity

Behold.



Two racks on one end (Southernmost) of the cab car. They removed one bench and slid the original rack southward to fit them both in. You can see that people are using the bench facing the racks, unlike the first gallery cars that had benches facing the racks, these protect the rider from the bikes via the cage on the rack, and there's actually pretty decent legroom - better than in the other seats. One more rack on the North end for 24 total slots.

And they said it could not be done. Over, and over, and over.