Dr. Fauci on Face the Nation:

“But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well people can recognize that there’s a person there, so it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science.“

There is science behind the vaccine. The FDA has the data and documents used to get the Covid vaccines approved in 108 days. But they want to keep them under wraps for a little longer…

(Reuters) – Freedom of Information Act requests are rarely speedy, but when a group of scientists asked the federal government to share the data it relied upon in licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, the response went beyond typical bureaucratic foot-dragging.
As in 55 years beyond.

Those scientists/plaintiffs do not seem to be a group of lunatic anti vaxers either:

The plaintiffs, a group of more than 30 professors and scientists from universities including Yale, Harvard, UCLA and Brown, filed suit in September in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, seeking expedited access to the records. They say that releasing the information could help reassure vaccine skeptics that the shot is indeed “safe and effective and, thus, increase confidence in the Pfizer vaccine.”

The article goes on to state that FDA cannot just press ‘send’ and release all hundreds of thousands of pages of vaccine related documents. Trade secrets and personal information about subjects in the trials must be redacted. Fair enough. But 55 years does seem like a bit of a stretch.

Every day on the radio I hear multiple commercials from various government health agencies assuring me that vaccines are safe and effective. The PSA’s are mostly upbeat with a kind of undertone of ‘we’re all in this together’ so get a jab for yourself and the ones you love. All well and good. I have done so, as soon as I could according to “My Turn, California”.

But shouldn’t these same officials want to get that ‘science’ and the data behind it out in the open as quickly as possible so people would have confidence that getting vaccinated is a good decision? The reticence to release makes me wonder what is really in the numbers. I don’t know. Even if the numbers are released I’m not competent to interpret them. But there are scientists and physicians who are. Let them have a look!

Dr. Fauci claims he represents science. If so he should get on a crusade to let everyone see the ‘science’ and not take 55 years to do it.

I was riding along with a few of my cycling friends doing the Tuesday club ride. We were headed back to Lockeford in foggy, dreary and frigid conditions. I felt a bump from my rear wheel and wondered what I could have hit on a smooth and pothole free road.

I didn’t hit anything: one of the spokes on my rear wheel decided it had been under tension long enough and and went ‘ping!’

The bicycle wheel is an amazing piece of engineering. The spokes and rim look small and flimsy, but they are very strong. Even with the lightest wheel set problems are rare.

I started riding significant miles back in 1999, and I’ve done at least 130,000 miles over those two plus decades. And I only remember breaking a spoke 3 times, with last Tuesday being #3. That seems quite amazing, especially since I have some very light wheels not specifically built up as bulletproof.

I should mention that the wheel that caused the problem is from my oldest set of HED Ardennes, dating back at least 12 years. I don’t know if my Master Mechanic Mark ‘optimized’ them, but if he did it was over a decade ago and he certainly cannot be held responsible, especially since I know others have adjusted those spokes since then.

When you break a spoke the wheel immediately goes ‘out of true’, which means the rim wobbles side to side like a hula dancer. The rim rubs against the brake levers and the tire may rub against the chain stays.

If you are a talented mechanic and carry a spoke wrench, you can use it to adjust the remaining spokes and take most of the wobble out of the rim. I don’t carry a spoke wrench since I don’t have the slightest idea how to use it. So I loosened the brake cable to provide maximum clearance, but the tire kept rubbing against the frame.

I was going to wrap the broken spoke around a neighboring one and try to ride, wobble and all. My friend Steve carries a piece of duct tape in his saddle bag, which worked much better than bending and tying off the broken spoke. Self take note, add duct tape to the emergency supplies.

And for some reason, when I got on the bike and started to ride, the rim ran a little truer and the tire didn’t rub against the stays. So I was able to limp back to my car without calling Stoker for assistance or begging one of my fellow riders to come back and pick me up. It would have been cold and miserable waiting for a ride.

I have replacement spokes for the Ardennes. Since I travel with these wheels (including Idaho last June) I want to be prepared. I took the wheel and spokes to Lodi Cyclery for repair. These wheels may be near the end of their life or they may go many miles yet. But I think they have done their last trip.

When I was a little kid I remember hating to get a haircut from Alvin the barber who had a shop in Victor. But if I was good and sat still in the chair I would get a Tootsie Roll Pop when it was over.

But this takes incentives for ‘good’ behavior to a whole new level:

A brothel in Austria is offering incentives for unvaccinated residents in the European country, granting free entry and private sessions for those who get the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, FunPalast, a brothel located in Vienna, “offers clients a 30-minute session in the sexual ‘sauna club’ with the ‘lady of their choice’ if they get the vaccine at the on-site clinic.”

Gotta love the establishment’s name FunPalast! Who knew Vienna was such a swinging place? I think of cathedrals and opera and Mozart and strudel, not red light districts.

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But aren’t the Viennese being a little narrow minded limiting the post shot treat to the ‘lady’ of their choice? What if a fellow swings the other way? Or what if a gal came in seeking a shot and a stud? Or what about the other 50 genders who want to choose their personal pronouns from an ever expanding list? Are they shut out of the ‘sauna club’ because the FunPalast services are discriminatory? Somebody call the Austrian Equity Police!

I wonder if masks are required at FunPalast? We are pretty sheltered here on Brumby Road, but even I know that masks have a role in fun and games time. But at some point they have to come off if the client is going to get his/her money’s worth. Even for a post vax freebie.

I got my booster shot yesterday at 4 pm. I had a restless night of trying to sleep, which I will not blame of the shot because it happens fairly regularly. I got up at 4 am and drank my coffee and gave Luke his 40 minute walk around 8 AM. But things were deteriorating quickly.

At 10 am I spent an hour in my garage using my torque wrenches to help a friend correct a shop mis-adjustment on his beautiful new frameset. When he left he said I looked tired. That wasn’t all.

I quickly developed a moderate headache. I have moderate aches and shooting pains. My back hurts. My eyelids are hot and heavy feeling. Of course I have two sore arms, since I followed CDC guidance and got both jabs at the same time. I have a low but noticeable fever.

I bedded down on the couch in my study at noon, piled on a couple of blankets and was quickly joined by Luke the Dog, who knows a soft warm place when he sees one. I fell asleep for a two hour nap.

Waking from the nap, I felt even worse. A planned date with Stoker will have to be postponed, although after so many years together I suppose a missed assignation is not such a big deal. I feel like I’m suffering from a hangover but without the fun part.

Now I know that the vaxocates (cut me some slack, it is hard to be funny when you feel poorly) will tell me this just means the vaccine is working. They might also tell me to quit complaining, since there are far worse conditions of suffering out there and this one is nothing. Having multiple dental implants, I would agree.

But the way I feel now has completely eliminated any trace of joie de vivre here on Brumby Road. If I felt like this all the time I might agree with Keats:

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
         I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
         To take into the air my quiet breath;
                Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
         To cease upon the midnight with no pain…

Things aren’t quite to that stage yet. But Pfizer certainly wins Round 3 by a Knockout.

Maybe this will help:

Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;

…so jab on MacDuff. And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’

Six months have passed since I became fully vaccinated, and since I am 65 years of age I am eligible for the Pfizer booster. My appointment is this afternoon.

I have some friends who think I am making a mistake. I am being a lab rat for an experimental vaccine that uses new Messenger RNA technology that has unknown long term effects. The vaccine’s efficacy is questionable. With the number of high profile so called ‘breakthrough cases’ among fully vaccinated celebrities and politicians and sports stars, they have a point. And I’m trusting the government’s advice which may or may not be in my best interest. Given the proven efficiency of how government works in general (EDD’s fraudulent Covid payouts are at $22 billion and counting) I can see how someone might not be in a hurry to take the government’s advice.

Other friends applaud my decision as being best for me personally and for society. They maintain the vaccine is safe and effective and will either keep me from getting sick altogether or insure that any Covid I contract will be a mild case. I am doing my part to protect the vulnerable because vaccinated people are far less likely to spread the virus even if they get Covid or are asymptomatic carriers.

I’m not going to argue either way. I’m going to get the shot because of the three best ways to control people and get them to act a certain way: Fear, Guilt and Reward. Some religions and governments are masters of using these in combination to keep the rabble in line.

Here is how the big three are working for me.

Fear: I don’t want to get sick and wind up in a hospital dying while hooked up to a respirator. Anything I can do to make that less likely is worth trying. Supposedly getting vaccinated makes hospitalization and/or death from Covid almost impossible.

Guilt: If I don’t get the shot, I MIGHT be more likely to spread the virus to someone I care about deeply. If Stoker got sick because I gave it to her I would feel awful. If she got seriously sick and I could have prevented it by getting vaccinated I couldn’t live with myself. Ditto my parents. And it is easy to extend this guilt trip to strangers; no civilized person wants to cause harm to another (although there are some politicians I wouldn’t mind spraying a few virus laced water droplets at with a big, mask free sneeze).

Reward: This one isn’t working as well as I had hoped. Being vaccinated did get me to France and its hotels and restaurants, but it didn’t free me from having to take a Covid test to fly home. And if doesn’t seem to allow me to go mask free everywhere, despite the CDC initially saying fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear them. Many places require masks or pressure you to put them on whether you are vaccinated or not.

Stoker got her Moderna booster two weeks ago. Here is what she texted to me the day after while I was at work counting nuts: “Hot, red, painful swollen arm, headache, intense fatigue. The booster is a lot worse than the initial jabs. Oh and a backache”. It took her about 36 hours to feel better and her arm was sore much longer.

So I’m expecting Friday to be kind of miserable. Especially since I am again trusting the CDC, which says it is perfectly OK to get my Senior Dose Flu Vaccine at the same time. Two shots, with who knows what interactions. Jab on MacDuff!

…and starting from near zero.

I began my seasonal occupation ‘counting nuts’ back on September 22. For the next 31 days I spent most of the hours between 6 am and 5 pm at Avanti. I had Sundays off. My ‘contract’ said that this year I wouldn’t work on Sunday NO MATTER WHAT, and Avanti kept up their end. But in the middle of the busiest two week receiving period everyone else was going to come in on the Sabbath, so I did too. I’m a team player when the crush is on.

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I spent two of those ‘day off’ Sundays moving furniture. We got some very nice plank vinyl flooring (looks just like wood) to replace the 38 year old carpet in our bedrooms and hallway. I hired a strong college kid to provide some muscle and he and I managed to get everything out and put everything back a week later without breaking anything. But it did mean I missed all the club rides for a little over a month.

During my work month I did 4 road rides, all from home and completely flat, for a grand total of 101 miles. I also did eight 30 minute indoor cycling workouts. I hoped that this would keep my fitness at something close to normal. Hope may spring eternal, but it doesn’t give you good legs.

Yesterday I spent a beautiful Saturday doing the Stockton Bicycle Club ride from Ione to Volcano. 45 miles and 3600 feet of uphill. I hadn’t done that much climbing since August in the Pyrenees. And I suffered, especially on the 14 mile slog along Sutter Creek to Volcano. I got so far behind the others that they were well into the coffee break by the time I arrived.

Most of the riders headed up Ram’s Horn Grade after the break. Usually I would too, but today adding a 1000 foot climb to the ride seemed like a very bad choice. So Brian and I both headed back the easy way, which wasn’t easy for me on this day.

It is astonishing how quickly cycling form goes away. I was a little upset and thinking I was never going to feel strong on the bike again. But I tried to keep reminding myself that in August I did a big week in the Pyrenees and rode pretty well, and I came back with tremendous fitness. So this current state of under performance isn’t permanent. At least I hope not.

The ‘I’ is for Indoor, as in Indoor Cycling, and my attitude about it is expressed in the title. And ok, it is also a kind of tortured word play on a form employers must have on file for each employee to prove they are eligible to work in the U.S. Cut me some slack, I’ve been so busy working my writing skills have gone into hibernation.

The nuts are almost all counted, but with today’s storm neither nut counting or cycling outside is possible. So for the eighth time this walnut season, I resorted to spending 30 minutes of self inflicted misery on my indoor trainer set up. Which is usually not ‘set up’. I only mounted the Sampson to the trainer at the beginning of the season, and I’ll be taking her (all my bikes choose female pronouns) off as soon as we finish.

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On the left you can see the effect of walnut counting on my cycling. In a typical non-walnut counting month I do around 600 miles and spend at least 40 hours in the saddle. For the last month I have done only 4 road rides, all from home and completely flat except for the occasional freeway overpass. And I supplemented this with those aforementioned eight 30 minute trainer workouts. I give myself credit for 9 miles for each effort, since I am working hard enough that if I did the same thing outside I’d be doing about 18 mph.

I have heard that if one stops doing cardio workouts altogether it only takes two weeks to start losing a lot of fitness. I’m not sure if that is true, but I don’t want to test the theory by taking all of walnut season off. So I got up really early and hit the garage around 5 am for 30 minutes of fun. I think I did enough this year so that my heart will remember what it is supposed to do when I get back on the road.

San Francisco’s Mayor has plenty of both.

“My drink was sitting at the table. I got up and started dancing because I was feeling the spirit and I wasn’t thinking about a mask,” Breed explained. “I was thinking about having a good time and in the process I was following the health orders.”

San Francisco’s mask ordinance states “Everyone, including people who are fully vaccinated, must wear a well-fitted mask in indoor public settings at all times,” and adds, “people may remove their well-fitted mask while actively eating or drinking.”

Dancing and singing are not “actively eating or drinking”. But the mayor goes on to clarity how much she believes in her own mandate.

Breed added, she and fellow club-goers “don’t need the fun police to come in and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing.”

The mayor of one of the most heavily regulated panicdemic municipalities in the nation says she and her fellow party-goers don’t need to be ‘micromanaged’! She sounds like the Governor of Texas!

Good, now we are clear. San Francisco will not enforce its own order with ‘fun police’. I hope every church in The City will tell its parishioners that they can remove their masks to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You have the mayors permission, as long as you ‘feel the spirit!’

Stoker and I consume wine, and since we have ridden many tandem miles on the ‘Route Touristique des Cotes du Rhone’ we have an affinity for bottles from this region. And our local Raley’s in Morada has quite a selection. But their inventory is no match for our moderate, but daily, consumption.

So I went to the Raley’s in Lodi and found many our our favorites in stock, but after a few trips I cleaned out that store too.

Yesterday I went to Elk Grove for an abdominal ultrasound. I do this every six months, and someday I may write a blog as to why. The results were normal, as they have been for the last decade.

On the drive home I decided to stop at the Raley’s in Galt, and sure enough the shelf of Cote du Rhone vin rouge was well stocked. I bought a couple of cases to take home.

Now I suppose you could call me both a ‘mask denier’ and a ‘mask complier’. I don’t think that the cloth masks or light paper masks that most of us wear are very effective at doing anything but making us uncomfortable and irritated. The University of Waterloo in England found that the paper masks you purchase in drug stores only block 12% of virus particles, and cloth masks are even worse at 10%. N95 medical masks are better at something over 60%. That is what the study found; don’t blame me.

But I am also a mask complier. I follow the rules without argument and without much complaint. And certainly without any confrontations. Mask up for 22 hours in airports and on flights to get to France? Ok! It is so nice you allow me to remove it to enjoy the wonderful food and beverage service in Air France Business Class. Americans eat their meals way too fast for good digestion, and the ‘masks allowed off while dining’ rule is a real incentive to rectify that.

The sign outside the Raley’s stores in both Morada and Lodi says “Masks are optional for fully vaccinated individuals”. That would be me, so I go around shopping maskless.

But the Raley’s in Galt has a sign saying “Masks required for all shoppers while inside the store”. So I put mine on without complaint. Yesterday compliance was pretty high, but there were about 10% of shoppers who were bare faced. I was irritated by this. Why do I have to follow the rules and not them? Why doesn’t someone from the store enforce the mandate?

It is about 15 miles from the Raley’s in Galt to the ones in Lodi and Morada. Why is the policy different? I know the answer, different counties and jurisdictions. But is there any logic to the difference? Especially in light of that aforementioned study.

Our politicians like to make rules for us, but they are not so good at following them. Here is the latest:

San Francisco’s mask mandate states, “Everyone, including people who are fully vaccinated, must wear a well-fitted mask in indoor public settings at all times,” and adds, “people may remove their well-fitted mask while actively eating or drinking.”

Mayor London Breed was seen partying and singing maskless in a nightclub with a Black Lives Matter co-founder, breaking her city’s mask mandate.

Pelosi, Newsom, Breed, the list of unmasked hypocrite dictators is long. They don’t seem to be worried about being unmasked. Are they not ‘following the science’? Or are masks only for the unwashed masses, not the political and economic elite?

Why can we just admit that masks don’t work, and if you want to wear one to ‘protect’ yourself, go ahead. I don’t understand why I have to wear one to protect someone who is afraid of unmasked people. If vaccines work, and if you think masks work, then get vaccinated and cover your face and you will be fine, whatever I do. If they don’t work, then why are we being pressured to do both?

And before you start to argue with me about being a Trump supporting anti vax-er, remember I got my shots as soon as I could, thinking I would need them to get to travel to France. I was right about that. And I’m following the silly mask rules because I don’t want to be seen as anti social or irresponsible or get into any unnecessary confrontations. So I’m a complying denier, or a denying complier.

The erosion of freedoms and watching the executive branch of government assume powers it does not constitutionally have certainly concern me. But I think the right to purchase and consume Cote du Rhone vin rouge will still be around, for a while at least. When that goes, I’ll join the revolution.

I have had some wonderful experiences with bike shops and their mechanics. I have also had some horrendous experiences with bike shops and their mechanics. The absolute worst was when a mechanic replaced the FSA bottom brackets on our tandem with a low end Shimano version. Not only were they cheap but they were the wrong size, which the ‘mechanic’ solved by simply eliminating the wave spring (an integral part of the FSA system) and jamming the crank directly against the bearings under way too much pressure. Not only did this result in more difficult pedaling, but it put stress on the bearings and after about a year they were worn out again.

I think it was Joe Artozqui who introduced me to Optimized Cycling Solutions. He showed me the website and said this might be something I was interested in. Joe was right, I was intrigued.

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OCS was a bicycle studio located in El Dorado Hills and the proprietor/entrepreneur/mechanic/perfectionist was named Mark Stemmey.

I took my LOOK 586 to Mark for his signature service which he terms an “optimization’. Every part of the bike is cleaned, disassembled if appropriate, inspected closely, and adjusted for maximum efficiency and safety. He provides an extensive evaluation (with photos) of the bicycle’s condition and possible areas of concern for the present and down the road. I liked the results so much that I later took my Sampson there for a ‘major tune up’ and the CoMotion was treated to a full optimization. The results, especially for the tandem, were significant. My bikes all worked better than ever and I was really happy.

I followed Mark and OCS from El Dorado Hills to a nice space near downtown Sacramento, which was much more convenient. But after a couple of years he closed. I know his business concept was a difficult one to execute. He charged more for services than a local shop, but he also paid far more attention to little details. But not everyone is willing to pay for the difference.

While I was in the Pyrenees, Diane got a phone call, and when she said “Hello'”she was kind of surprised to hear the voice on the other end say “Is this Stoker?” It was Mark. He was calling to tell me he was back in business, this time as a mobile mechanic who comes to you. When I got home I contacted him and decided that my S Works Tarmac with the HED Ardennes wheels could use a little OCS TLC. The bike seemed to be working fine but I wanted Mark to do the wheel optimization and give the rest of the bike an extensive tune up.

He came to my house and picked up the HED’s, which he took home to do the wheel service. He came back about a week later and spent over 4 hours cleaning and inspecting and adjusting. Adding the time he took to do the wheels, the Tarmac received well over 5 hours of expert attention.

When I took the bike on the club ride out of Wallace there were a couple of things I noticed right away. The headset had been way too tight. After Mark adjusted it the bike was easier to steer climbing at slow speed. And before he worked on the rear wheel, I would occasionally hear a kind of pinging noise, especially when I was pedaling hard or climbing. I thought it might be the spokes, but the wheel seemed true. But Mark found the spoke tension was very uneven, and he adjusted them until they were much more uniform. On Thursday the intermittent slight noise from the rear wheel was gone.

I’m not the only fan of Mark’s wheel service. Years ago I recommended Mark to a friend who took a set of Zipp wheels to him for the same ‘optimization’. This friend moved out of the area, but I saw him a couple of years later on a European trip, and he told me that the wheels were still perfect and he hadn’t touched them since the service. He was impressed.

I hope Mark keeps doing this kind of thing. I know if he does and I ever get another nice set of wheels, I’m going have him ‘optimize’ them.