Saturday 24 March 2012

another blog about peeing

hello again! so if you were reading along last year as i was training you'll know that i has some issues around peeing. the issue not being that i wet myself (although i came close), or that i didn't pee, but that i had to pee alot. like every 1/2 hour. and as lovely as guelph is there are not so many areas that one can sneak discretely off to water a tree, if you catch my drift. lots of open feilds, and well in town, not really an option. i found this on the rally last year too. i'd bike by the lucky individuals who are pulled off to the side of the road, neatly tucked into the fenceline, peeing to thier hearts delight. while i, with floating back teeth, pray for a mcdonalds to come up soon. if you havn't figured it out i'm not one of those who can pee while standing.
so this year i thought i'd see how i could fix or improve my "situation". luckily some genius folks have come up with these amazing little devices. STPs they're called. or stand to pee. unfortunatly these same awesome folks have decided that the only incedibally descrete colours they should be available purple, hot pink, bright blue, green (why i don't know), orange etc. and they're not exactly small either. the makers of diva cup just came out with one called the "pstyle" (awesome name). you can buy a pouch that clips on your belt to store it in. things gatta be 8 inches long. oh but i do recommend the video. the girl is really cute  the "go girl" available in (pink or camo!?) fits into a film canister. not bad. another is a "shewee" (where do they come up with the names) which comes in colours like "desert sand" and "nato green". and of all the companies i mentioned only the pstyle actually mentions trans folks on thier site.  so i just ordered one of these  puppies (not it's not actually a puppy) it's called a sne-kee. again not a fan of the name but better than shewee for sure. made in canada, folds flat and small, more descrete colours. and relativly inexpensive. hey if it means i can pee when i need to rather than where it's possible that's worth it. so should arrive in the mail in a few days and we'll see how it goes from there. ok now i really think i've reached the to much information point yes? yes.

in other news i just got my bike back from it's spring tune up. and after going for a hike tomorrow might go for a wee spin. see how 40km feels.

and thank you all for your donations. you are my heros.
happy biking! wear your helmet!

Saturday 17 March 2012

Helmets, and why they are amazing

So spring has sprung, and people are thinking "hey i could get out my bike!" which is awesome. i just wish at the same time they were thinking "hey now where is my helmet?" On my bike up to work the other day i passed a number of cyclists, only one other person was wearing a helmet. why?
while it's not manditory to wear a bike helmet if you're an adult in canada, and some "interesting" debate around if it were made manditory is out there. for example such gems as "making helmets manditory will decrease bike ridership and overall decrease the health benefits of biking blah de blah"   *cough* bullsh!t. if someone gets hit by a car and gets a brain injury how is that a health benefit? or "if cyclists start wearing helmets they'll be less cautious on the road and get into MORE accidents" seriously! seriously?  or even this "i could get hit by a car while walking, should i be wearing a helmet then too? how about we wear helmets all the time!"  or this, " it's a violation of my freedoms to make me wear a bike helmet" oh i wish i was making this up.
so why arn't people wearing helmets? they don't cost alot, 20 bucks gets you an incredibally functional (and somewaht stylish) helmet, and that's way less than it would cost to mamage a brain injury. or is people don't want to take the time (5 seconds) to put a hemet on before they get on thier bike, "i'm sooooo buzy!".  or maybe vanity? "it'll mess up my hair", " i'll look like a dweeb", "i love how the wind feels blowing through my louschous locks of golden hair". this is crap y'all. most stats i could find stated that over 90% of the cyclists killed in collisions with cars were not wearing helmets. ya gatta face it folks. in the bicycle versus car game on the road, the bicycle rarely wins.
 ya see your head carries around this really amazing thing in your body, your brain. the brain does all sorts of cool things for us but is generally a pretty fragile thing  (from someone who has had a number of concussions). i'd say if you have the chance to protect it, even in a small way, by wearing a helmet, please do.  brains are way cooler than haircuts. and brain injuries are not a whole lot of fun. so please protect your melon.