Comments rosalux has made

  • if you're in San Francisco

    I've already said Minneapolis has combined sewers and storms cause untreated outflows.

    Looks like San Francisco has the same issue. I know it's a common problem for other cities, including Chicago and New York. It can also be an issue for small towns that can't afford to upgrade their treatment systems.

    This article http://www.museumca.org/creeks/1690-OBSFSewers.html is really good, and has a diagram of the storm/sewage water system. It mentions the benefits of combined sewers because runoff water is also treated.

    But it also says:  "The current system is designed such that overflows to the bay or ocean now occur on average one to ten times per year, depending on the rainfall and the watershed."

    One to ten is a wide range, but it's something to think about.On A review of non-clay cat litters posted 1 year, 1 month ago 32 Responses

  • exactly

    It depends completely on where you are. Our sewers are old and sometimes overflow (something I didn't know until I looked into it to answer this exact same question.)

    But our trash is incinerated, so it doesn't go into a landfill at all. This is a good reason to keep plastic out of it as much as possible.

    This is like energy generation questions - every place is different, so each situation has different appropriate technologies.On A review of non-clay cat litters posted 1 year, 1 month ago 32 Responses

  • flushing

    pynnacle, treatment plants don't get all the water in most places. There are still combined sewer/storm drain outflows in lots of cities - Minneapolis has a few, and when we get a big storm they put untreated sewage directly into the Mississippi. Despite long-term efforts to eliminate these drains, there just hasn't been the money to change all of them.

    Plus, even in a perfect system, the more solids in the sewage, the more chemical & energy needed to treat it. Not to mention the extraneous water use and the chance in an older building of plugging up the plumbing - I've signed leases that specified no flushing cat litter, I assume because the landlord has experienced problems with it.

    All that said, Allie's Answers has directions for making cat litter out of old newspaper at home, and it's a fun kid project (I got the link from fakeplasticfish.com) http://alliesanswers.com/tip-of-the-day/tip-of-the-day-ma ...On A review of non-clay cat litters posted 1 year, 1 month ago 32 Responses

  • thunderstorms

    Waxghost...duck into an underpass? It really depends on your route - my route now is a rails-to-trails trail that goes under a lot of bridges. When I lived in Iowa, my commute took me past a lot of places like grocery stores and ATM lobbies where I could duck in for a minute.

    Truthfully, though, the chances of a big storm at the moment you are biking is not huge, even on a stormy day. I decided last fall to bike unless it was actually raining when I leave home, and I've only even gotten seriously wet four times in the 8 bike-commuting months since (that is, July-September minus the six months of snow when I don't ride) - three of the four were in one week last fall, and I could have avoided all three by working an extra hour and going home after it cleared.On How to commute by bike posted 1 year, 2 months ago 6 Responses

  • biking in a skirt

    I bike to work through our 6-7 nonsnowy months, in a skirt and flats half the time. I second the idea that anyone who's not willing to sacrifice their clothes to the bike gets a lot of bad attitude at bike shops - and that is ridiculous, especially from anyone who wants to reduce the number of cars on the road. For instance, I keep the flat plastic pedals because they don't snag my tights - and I have walked out on (commissioned) salespeople who spend more time telling me to change how I dress/commute than finding me a bike that fits my specs.

    The basic answer is to sit on the back of your skirt solidly, so it can't fly completely up, and have a rack on the back (which you have anyway for hauling things, right?) to protect your skirt from the back wheel. And ignore sexual comments - the spandex-wearing SuperBikers show a lot more of their bodies, they just don't look as girly so people don't bother them.

    I had a Breezer U-frame and had to give it up. The little clips that hold the brake cable to the frame gave out in less than one summer, letting the cable wrap around a pedal and try to kill me in traffic. I also learned that the 7-speed u-frame has lower gearing than the standard 7 speed, which was the source of my irritating inability to gain real speed on straightaways on it.

    Right now I have a Trek Cypress step through. I like it, but I was told it wasn't possible to get a chain guard for it, because a chain guard would interfere with the derailler. I just stick with skirts no longer than just below my knees, and that's been fine. A standard frame actually keeps a long skirt out of the chain better, but the stepthrough is easier on my hips & lower back.On Umbra on biking in a skirt posted 1 year, 6 months ago 22 Responses

  • John, thank you for the link

    I just was reading through the Minneapolis portion of that site and wanted to make a quick note; the writer says he doesn't review trails because they're not plowed.

    The city may not plow the mixed-use trails (I don't know if they do, they're out of my way) but they do plow the commuter trails, including the new-since-2002 Greenway and the ped/bike trail along the light rail route. They are actually better plowed than many residential streets.On Expect bicycle deaths in Seattle to climb posted 2 years, 1 month ago 15 Responses

  • center lanes in minneapolis

    Are terrifying. I hate them.

    To be fair, the only center lane I ride on is on a very busy street and it's between the car and bus lanes. But it's very narrow and very hard to get out of - you have to turn across the car or bus traffic in both directions. The only thing that is easier is making left turns on a green light, and that's only easier because usually it's such a PITA on busy streets.

    One thing I would like to see is to just not allow right turns on red. Especially on streets where there is a angled cut (I don't know what this is called; the street looks like this at intersections ||| * / where the * is a little island for the stoplight and the / is an extra lane with just a yield sign) they are just about impossible to cross safely, whether you're walking or on a bike, because you can't trust the cars to yield. But even at regular 4 way intersections with lights, cars often turn without seeing pedestrians walking across the street.On Expect bicycle deaths in Seattle to climb posted 2 years, 1 month ago 15 Responses

  • "You can't spend other people's money"

    I put the kibosh on (most) unwanted gifts early by asserting my right to decide what does or does not stay in my house. Now that my family knows that I ruthlessly regift and donate unwanted items, they either abide by my request that they not give us things (which is hardly spending other people'e money) or they stick with things they know we will use instead of buying whatever random crap strikes their fancy.

    Plus, most people ask what kind of gifts they should bring (my boyfriend's family demands very specific lists). It's not rude to answer.On Umbra on kids' birthday parties posted 2 years, 2 months ago 15 Responses

  • you can't win the war

    You can win individual battles, though. Some of them.

    You can't win the goody bag battle, I don't think. You can mostly win the "no i won't buy that" argument. I say mostly because your kid has a line on some other adult. Possibly your own mother, who taught you to say "No I will not buy that ridiculous thing" in exactly that tone of voice. I actually heard a kid in a store say to grandma "No, mom won't let us have a Bratz doll. She'd just take it away." They bought a Barbie instead. I'm not sure that's a win.

    I have not managed to win the "don't let my kid drink sugary drinks" battle - his powers of cuteness win out against all adults and half the older kids in the neighborhood, if I'm not watching.

    I have managed to convince most family members to only give us random crap if it's pre-owned. I have made both grandmothers admit that they buy toys for their own pleasure, not the grandkids. They have electronics-laden giant plastic things that stay at Grandma's house and we visit. And my stepfather's need to buy beach toys, which I couldn't do anything about, I did manage to limit - my son got the beach toys as a random gift at the beach, and then months later he also got them for his birthday. Same toys. He was happy anyway.

    I haven't managed to stop random family friends from buying things for my son. I don't think that one is winnable, either - right now I winnow it down as soon as they're out of the house, but in a few years he'll tattle on me, and I'll lose that battle completely.

    And most importantly, I haven't managed to stop my own crap-buying. I limit it by only buying things at garage sales and thrift stores. But it was me who wanted the Sit N Spin. It was me who wanted the toy chainsaw. It was me who "needed" a Playschool pirate ship. He enjoys all those things, but he never asked for them, and they are all made out of plastic. Pre-owned plastic, but plastic. On Can a crusade against crap toys ever succeed? posted 2 years, 2 months ago 5 Responses