BillyD

WhyFi

Our annual State Fair trip is tomorrow. Hoo boy. I should probably look through some of the new food items, because most of the standards just haven't been too appealing to me the last couple years. I know that I need to visit one place that's serving blueberry key lime pies, but other than that, I'm at a loss.

indyfabz

A pie with an identify crisis, but it sounds good.

When I rode across the country I went to a county fair outside of Bowling Green, OH. Somewhere at home I have a photo of two rather large folks standing in front of the Pork-a-Lean shack. I also have a photo of two teens riding in high in a convertible during a parade. The girl is gushing and waving to the crowd like she's the queen of the fair. The guy is looking straight at the camera with a face that says "Please get me out of here."

WhyFi

Yesterday, as we were pulling out of our alley, I saw an obese person rolling out their driver's side door, having just parked, Big Gulp in hand. It made me physically recoil. We've been making my son walk a lot more in the last couple weeks, in anticipation of the Fair, and this made me think that I had better see to some mental preparation of my own.

"I see dead obese people..."



To be clear, it's not the obesity, in and of itself, that's the problem, but rather the obvious overindulgence coupled with a lack of culpability.

indyfabz

I hear you. During my MT/ID tour back in June I saw a lot of it. Ate dinner out one night. The only other people in the pace were a large couple. The husband was woofing down what appeared to be a large plate of chicken fried steak with biscuits and sausage gravy. There I was trying to find something not overloaded with calories after riding 55 miles that included two rail-trail mountain passes, with three passes on the schedule for the next day.

Near the end of the trip I spent a night in Whitefish, MT, which is a prosperous part of the state that sees a lot of tourism because of its proximity to Glacier N.P. Went grocery shopping at a large Safeway and immediately noticed how much more fit people were.

seedsbelize 

Are there still lots of free yardsticks?

seedsbelize 

Too late to ride already. I might name September as 'ride in the evening' month. Yes, it's hotter starting out, but always cooler on the return. It's that sunset time that's scary. Need to be riding in the north/south axis during that half hour.

WhyFi

My son grabbed one last year. Drove me nuts with it - if he has anything in his hands, he'll fidget and wave it around, not a good idea when it's wall-to-wall people at one of the largest State Fairs in the country (by attendance).

WhyFi

Interesting. A new update brings radar (for detecting approaching cars, not for weather ) compatibility to Wahoo Element/Bolt/Roam - https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/08/...nectivity.html

I might have to keep an eye out for discounts on the Varia or new units from other makers.

MoAlpha

Opportunity to bloviate!

As a behavioral neuroscientist, I am hesitant to judge individuals too harshly. I agree that personal responsibility is paramount and without it, we are sick or sub-human, but we also are at the mercy of very powerful forces. I think the main ones are 1) deeply hard-wired preferences for sweet, starchy, and fatty foods and a food industry founded on exploiting them, 2) society and all the interpersonal and commercial messaging encouraging us to eat and eat junk, and 3) increasingly stressful environments and loss of opportunities to achieve on our own, which cause us, through cognitive and biological processes, to devalue long-term rewards and settle for immediate pleasures. I am also suspicious that there are unknown signals in the postindustrial environment that are pushing metabolism in the direction of fat storage as some sort of group-level preparation for catastrophe.

I feel the same way about environmental spoliation. We are clearly on our way to making large and, in some cases, heavily populated, areas of the earth uninhabitable, but making people trade motor vehicles and quarterly reports for rewards which they will not reap in their lifetimes seems very difficult from where I sit.

2manybikes

They say it will handle 120 lbs.

datlas 

Doooo eeeeet!!

I have several friends who have the Varia and all of them like it. If I did mostly solo rides I would probably get one. Since 95% of my miles are with a group I find it less necessary.

WhyFi

You obviously make some good points, but there's also the immediate and clear message that our bodies send us, such as, "holy **** - I can't walk more the 3 minutes without getting winded!" I get that it doesn't happen overnight, and that the long slide has a way of normalizing some of these effects, but when you walk around a sea of people, tens of thousands of them obese (not an exaggeration in the slightest), it's all a bit much.

WhyFi

If it doubles as a good light, it makes the pill easier to swallow. If I can grab something in the $120 region on a Black Friday sale, I think that I'd be happy with that. And yeah, I'm riding with a group more often these days, but most of my miles are still solo.

datlas 

My friend who lives (and commutes) in DC has one and for that type of city driving it's almost a necessity.

Good luck finding the $120 price, unless you troll scambay or CL for a gently used one, I believe MSRP is $200 and you are unlikely to find it for less than 180....that said, if you DO find it on the cheap please let me know about it!

rpenmanparker 

There is a banana key lime pie here in Houston that is wonderful. The old fashioned, unbaked, sweetened condensed milk variety, just thickened by the condensed milk and the egg yolks reacting with the acid in the lime juice. It is hard to find that recipe anywhere these days. Certainly not on any bottle of lime juice (not that I would use such a thing) or can of condensed milk. The egg police have erased such a thing from our knowledge base.

datlas 

Hey @WhyFi, not trying to spend your money, but if you have insurance though a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, you can get 35% off Garmin products. I just checked and you can get the varia for $129.99 free shipping.

datlas 

Holy carp. I can get a Garmin Vector pedal power meter for $389 with my fancy discount.

LesterOfPuppets

As a kid I loved Key Lime Pie. I've disliked it since I was twenty something. I'm not sure what happened but I doubt blueberries or bananas would make me change my mind.

Maybe I'm missing the raw eggs of ye olde days. I know I crave Orange Julius far less now that there's no raw egg option.

ksryder

Thanks for the heads up. I very well may buy one now.

Living ~30 miles from Garmin's HQ means I have several cycling friends who work there. Employee discount ftw!

WhyFi

Oh, that's interesting, indeed.

Yeah, my $120 figure was with deep door-buster discount in mind or that of a future competitor. Until the DCR article, I didn't know that it was an existing protocol.

seedsbelize 

And in the poorer parts of the world obesity is a sign of relative wealth. I also am a studier of human behavior; I just don't have the paperwork that you have.

indyfabz

If I take off my foil hat will I suddenly have a craving for chicken fried steak with biscuits and sausage gravy, which is something I ate two years in a row in the middle of century rides? A behavior I strongly caution against.

seedsbelize 

In lieu of riding I did some yard clean-up, and topped it off by mixing cement the Mexican way. With a flat shovel on the floor of the carport. It's rewarding to realize I can still do it. And.....It was easier this time than the last time I did it. I got a better workout than if I was riding, and it was equally enjoyable. And I'm less worn out.

seedsbelize 

Better leave the hat on.