dreamshark

It's a Biria Easy 7 "Easy Boarding" bike, from a German company specializing in easy-use urban bikes. This is their flagship product (or it was, in 2014). Its signature characteristic is an unbelievably low step-through frame that is only 6" off the ground! It's basically a "comfort bike" with no front gear set and heavy, comfortable accessories like fenders, kick-stand and luggage rack.

We bought it in 2014 for Richard, but sadly he only used it for one season before his arthritis got too bad for biking. So it has been sitting in our bike shed for 11 years, and I have finally accepted the fact that nobody in this house will ever use it. It needs a home. It cost $550 new, and the same model is still available today for about $700, so it is actually worth more money than most of the stuff I am trying to declutter. I'd give it away to a friend, but if nobody I know can use it I would like to sell it. I'm just not sure how.

If you or someone you know could use a bike like this, please let me know. Alternatively, if you have any experience selling things on Facebook Marketplace or NextDoor or Craigslist (does anybody use that anymore?) please give me some tips.

Well, this helps. Couldn’t find a usable eye patch at the drug store, but Amazon to the rescue!

What's wrong with my right eye? Well, nothing really, except for advancing cataracts. The problem is that the two eyes aren't working well together. They haven't for some years now, but the horizontal double vision was fixed by a prism correction in my glasses in 2021. But last Friday, the image in my right eye suddenly slipped down a fraction of an inch, giving me a complex mish-mash of double vision that was no longer correctible by my existing glasses.

After a dismal weekend wondering if I was about to go blind, I got an appointment Tuesday morning with Dr. Marcie, my regular optometrist. A friendly technician checked my eye pressures, and they were both perfectly normal, so at least it wasn't glaucoma. I then spent a full hour with Marcie, who checked my retinas and so on (healthy except for advancing cataracts). She quickly found a new prism correction that fixes the problem. However, it will take 2 weeks to get the new lenses made, and the vision I have right now is ... problematic. I can see acceptably out of either eye, just not both of them together. I added an ersatz eyeshade made out of black paper to my computer glasses, and was then able to use my computer monitor again. But these clever slip-on glasses shades work even better.

The cataracts are not causing this problem, but I have to wait until this new issue stabilizes (at least 90 days) before I move forward with the cataract question. Which gives me time to look around, and maybe even schedule an appointment with Park Nicollet Eye Care (which takes MONTHS). I'm working on that now. I can always cancel that appointment if I decide to go somewhere else.

We didn't really like the practice that performed Richard's surgery in 2023. As far as we know the surgeon was competent, but the overall experience with the office was not pleasant. Somehow they managed to both over-communicate and under-communicate simultaneously. There was an endless barrage of text messages that communicated nothing useful (appointment reminders that did not give the date of the appointment, for instance). There were 10 appointments (not counting follow-ups with our usual optometrist and visits to primary care physician for presurgical forms) and we never saw the same person twice. Never talked to the actual surgeon until right before the surgery in a brief video call. There are a surprising number of options for different types of lens, and they seemed to be pushing a particular brand that was long on glossy pamphlets and short on technical information. Anyway, I wouldn't go there again.

Since cataract surgery is something you usually do only once it is hard to have a basis for comparison. Maybe the process always takes 3 months from start to finish and involves endless appointments with interchangeable technicians with niche specialties. Maybe there aren't so many tedious video visits when you aren't in the midst of a pandemic. Maybe you always feel like you are on a protracted medical assembly line. But if you have had a better experience with cataract surgery and would like to recommend your provider (or just share your experience) please comment.

I started out looking for the 2-cup Pyrex food storage containers which had all gone missing and ended up cleaning out my cupboards. Never did find them but realized that much as I love Pyrex I don’t need this much of it. Google Lens says these are “vintage Pyrex mixing bowls.” Don’t have that much mixing to do? Use them as a classy set of serving bowls!

I'm in spring cleaning mode, starting by doing a Deep Vacuum of the room I call my jewelry room (although in some ways it's more of a very large walk-in closet). I moved things around and vacuumed up years worth of dust from behind the furniture, which brought me face to face with several large storage containers full of way more beads and jewelry fittings than I could ever use. I don't want to get rid of everything, but I'm sorting a lot of it into little ziplock bags that I hope to donate to ArtStart.

But that brings me to the piles and piles of jewelry that I just don't wear any more. Nothing valuable, but mostly quality materials: glass, stone, ceramic and the like. This kind of thing (just a random sample). What do I do with it? I put out some of the heavier pieces of glass and stone at a Minnstf meeting last year and a lot of people did take them. I can do that again if anyone might be interested.

But what I'm really looking for is a recommendation for a thrift shop of the type that displays nice costume jewelry in a case at the front rather than just tossing it all onto a shelf to get tangled up. I probably got some of these pieces at that kind of shop in the first place, but I don't remember where.

Anybody have any ideas?

Thank you, Etsy!

Specifically the DSA wing. For fuck's sake, people, GET A GRIP!!

The Minneapolis City Council devolved into chaos Thursday during a debate over whether it should spend time weighing in on global politics, like the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

The news feeds on my phone keep talking about the ongoing blizzard in the midwest "including Wisconsin and Minnesota." Maybe out west somewhere? In Minneapolis today (Monday) it is a beautiful winter day of the sort we have had way too few of this year. The sky is blue, the air is still, and sunlight is glinting off pure white snow.

But at least half of the snow that fell on Saturday and Sunday is gone already, which is odd considering that the temps are in the teens. The snowplows had already cleared our side of the street by the time I got up. I re-shoveled the carriage way to the street that the snowplow had filled up and moved the car back to the even side. Then I went out back and finished shoveling the back stairs and a path to the parking pad where we'd put the van. There was only about 5" of snow on top, and most of the snow had already melted off the windows on the south side. The alley is already plowed, so we could actually take the van out if we wanted to. But the streets still have a treacherous bed of ice under the snow, so I'd rather not.
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My darling daughter gave me one of those "memoir in a box" gifts for Christmas (the digital kind). Answer a question a day and it will generate and print a book of your life to leave to your family. You get 50 questions clearly generated by AI, ranging from obvious ("Can you tell us about your parents and what they were like when you were growing up?") to inane ("If your life were a book what would the title be?") Although they imply that there are human editors involved it is obvious that the entire thing is done by AI, and not very good AI at that. But since Amber paid for it already I am doing my best to generate something that the family might enjoy before the initial 90 day "subscription" rolls over to auto-renew and charges itself to her credit card again.

You can't add your own topics or even edit the cringey AI-generated chapter titles, but I am trying to work with what's available to produce something that might interest Amber and the kids. It turns out that Lena isn't much interested in my actual life history but likes the more inane questions ("Describe your life in 3 words"). So I decided to cram a bunch more of meme-type questions into one chapter with a generic title.

Google AI found me a few that I don't mind answering, although they are not particularly compelling

"What's the furthest that you have ever been from another human being?"
"What is a specific type of weather that triggers a memory you can't quite place?"
"What non-essential item would you bring to a deserted island?"
Who is a complete stranger you met once for less than five minutes but still think about years later?
What's the dumbest thing you believed as a child?

Can you suggest more? Aren't there whole lists of them that circulate as popular Internet memes every couple of years? Typically called something like, "10 things you don't know about me."

Thanks to a tip from Nico I finally connected with the 40th and Lyndale group. I've seen them now and then when I drive by, but was unable to discern the pattern for when they appear. Turns out is pretty obvious if you are paying attention - they come out every Monday 4:30-5:30 pm. I stopped on my way home from the gym and joined in for the last 20 minutes. It's a sedate and convivial group organized by Judson Baptist. Some very beautiful signs and even a couple of Portland-style inflatables. Now that I know the drill I might go back next Monday.

What should I listen to? I'm not likely to keep it, but it gives me a chance to sample some new music and see what I like.
Of course not having the most adventurous tastes in music, my first inclination is to listen to some Dylan albums I never got around to buying and that kind of thing.

I really don't like most music, so just random selections aren't going to work. I mostly like folk music (esp but not exclusively trad), old rock and roll, and some country (upbeat and/or clever, not the slow whiny kind). Where should I start? Or should I just stick to old Dylan tracks?

The AirPod charging case is the usual elegant Apple design, gleaming and smooth with a nice heft and rounded edges everywhere. It looks great and feels good in your hand. But a flat bottom would have been more practical, so it could sit upright for ease of use. So I rummaged around in my Box of Tiny Boxes and found one that fit perfectly. Cut some cardboard off the flap of a middle-sized box to add a supportive infrastructure, and... voila! Now I can easily plunk the AirPods in and out without having to pick up the case and open the top.

The moral? Don't ever throw anything away.

I guess it started with that free iPad Shuffle that I got at a company meeting my first week at QLogic (2005). I downloaded iTunes so I could use the Shuffle and it was all downhill from there. Several Shuffle generations later I graduated to an iTouch in 2009, but still resisted the full smartphone experience until 2011. Got an Apple Watch almost by accident because Apple Pay combined with my credit card hobby to make it free. Along the way I gradually went from one of those people who had a cell phone but never noticed when it rang to the modern citizen of the future with the cell phone always in my pocket or hand. Yesterday I completed the trifecta with a set of Air Pods - the world's most expensive earbuds.

I ordered them for two reasons. (1) I'm in one of those January back-to-the-gym phases, and I think I would be more motivated to go if I had some way of listening to music that didn't involve being tangled up in tiny white cables and earbuds falling out of my ears. (2) I am contemplating hearing aids, and learned that the latest generation of AirPod has a built-in hearing aid mode. It doesn't seem practical as a permanent hearing aid solution, but it would let me try out hearing augmentation and see if it improved my life at all.

So far I'm impressed with them. To start with... THEY STAY IN MY EARS. I have NEVER found an earbud, wired or wireless, that did that before. And they sound really good.

But the big revelation was how seamlessly my 3 Apple devices work together. Unsurprisingly, the pods can be controlled in multiple ways: manually by fiddling with the little stems, from Phone, or from Watch. What I hadn't expected was that the pods can play music FROM THE WATCH without needing the phone at all! The pods can also do all sorts of unexpected things like measuring heart rate (conferring with Watch to make the reading more accurate) and even serving as a remote control for the iPhone camera. And of course if I want to I can turn now turn myself into one of those annoying people that walk down the street apparently talking to themselves. If I had a more advanced iPhone with Apple Intelligence I could even configure the pods as babelfish to do simultaneous translation in my ear!

The Hearing Aid mode exceeded my (low) expectations, although it remains to be seen whether I will use it much. First it ran a 5-minute hearing test that produced a couple of numbers and a graph that are remarkably similar to the clinical hearing test I had 18 months ago (mild to moderate hearing loss, both ears similar in the lower ranges but left ear takes a deep dive in the upper frequencies). The hearing aid function works surprisingly well at amplifying someone talking to me from another room, but was not particularly helpful in a party setting.

.... by buying a new scale. The one on the right. OMG when did balance beam scales get so HUGE???

So of course instead of tackling the backlog of Important Projects waiting for my attention, I spent a happy hour or two with Google AI trying to answer that question, and figure out just how old that little scale really is.

Well, about 50 years old, it turns out. Not only are these cute little "waist-high" models no longer made, this one is EXTRA SPECIAL! The classy orange-on-black numbers identify it as the premier "High-Visibility" version of Health-O-Meter model 230 (1975-1982). And that funny little bubble-level is actually a high-end feature making the reading more accurate than the usual swinging pointer in the modern one. Well, originally, anyway. It's not terribly accurate now, which is why I bought that ungainly replacement.

But it's a rare Vintage Collectible, G-AI enthused! Sure it weighs 5-6 pounds high, but "to a collector, a 5lb error is just a 'mechanical adjustment' needed. They will love the exterior aesthetics much more than the internal accuracy." So if anybody knows a collector of vintage scales who might like this, please let me know. Or if you want to try fiddling with the innards or rebalancing the arm with a couple of small magnets, it's yours.

G-AI volunteered the following "Adoption Bio" if I want to try listing it on Nextdoor or something:

This is the rare, compact 3-foot "Professional Home" Hi-Visibility model featuring the iconic orange-on-black numbers and a built-in bubble level for perfect floor adjustment. It’s an all-metal tank in great cosmetic shape for its age, though it currently weighs consistently 5–6 lbs heavy (likely due to internal "character" and 50 years of service). Perfect as a stylish vintage gym piece, a theater prop, or for a tinkerer who wants to "zero it out" with a few taped nickels!

I’ve been putting a gallon of water in my Instapot, heating it up, and then leaving it on simmer all day in an effort to warm up my very cold kitchen a little bit and get some moisture into the air. It’s still bone dry and cold, but it would probably be even worse without that extra 3 or 4 quarts of warm water vapor

When even the (relatively) conservative business columnist for the Star Tribune writes things like this, I have a little hope.

Operation Metro Surge, in which more than 2,000 federal agents have arrested undocumented immigrants in Minnesota over the last seven weeks, has become a political disaster for the Trump administration.

The Jan. 7 slaying of Renee Good by an ICE agent was the turning point, of course. And if Republicans lose statewide races this fall as now seems likely, they will look back on that day with the agony they have so far failed to express over her death.

National polls since have shown plummeting support for ICE and for President Donald Trump’s entire approach to immigration. Last week, an Economist/YouGov poll found a sudden surge of support for abolishing ICE. And 61% of respondents in a New York Times/Siena Poll published Friday said ICE tactics had gone too far.

Two shopping bags full of food just appeared on our doorstep with no note or explanation. One is a very large shopping bag filled with carefully labeled Glad storage containers, each containing what looks like a homemade meal for 2 or 3 people. The other, smaller bag looks like it was prepared by someone different. It contains large ziplock bags full of homemade party snacks.

I assume that this generous gift was intended for someone else... but who? What should we do with it? Does anyone know a family in hiding from ICE that could use it?

My loosely organized neighborhood block club set up a Signal group, so I joined it. It took me a while to even figure out how to do that, as the invitation was sent by email and I read email on my computer, not my phone. Let's just say that it required multiple (non-obvious) steps. But I don't understand how to use it. I saw one announcement of some kind come through on my phone, but I didn't read it carefully and now it has apparently disappeared forever. WTF?

I find so many supposedly intuitive user interfaces to be incomprehensible.

On the plus side, Richard and I (especially Richard) were tickled to see that the neighbor had named the group "Halloween Hallway".

Democrats in Congress don't have a lot of options for fighting the ongoing authoritarian makeover of the US Government, but for the next two weeks there is an opportunity to fight back, be it ever so tenuous. Congress is currently trying to pass a series of funding bills to avert government shutdown with a deadline of Jan 31. After last week's horrifying events in Minneapolis they managed to get enough Republican support to pull Homeland Security funding out of its "minibus" bill so it could be debated separately. Actually Defunding Homeland Security isn't likely to happen, but the Democrats hope to attach policy riders that restrict the behavior of federal agents in American cities. Or insist on the right of local governments to prosecute ICE agents for murder. Or ban masked agents and require body cameras. Something, anything.

Anyway, it's pretty easy to message your Congressional delegation, so I did that. They all have comment forms on their websites. I actually did use "Defund Homeland Security" as my subject line, but did a little quick research on how to word the text of my comment so that it was specific and coherent. Here's what I came up with.

I am a constituent, and I am writing to instruct Representative ..... to vote NO on the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 4213) unless it includes specific policy riders that mandate body cameras and behavioral oversight for ICE and Border Patrol agents. This may be our only chance to reign in the unconstitutional and illegal behavior of these Federal agents. DO NOT BACK DOWN! This is very important to me!

In the case of senators the action on the table doesn't have a name yet, so I was instructed to refer to the FY2026 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. But either way, I imagine the intent is clear.

Yes, we still subscribe to the paper copy of our local city paper, the Star Tribune. It's not perfect, but I very much want to keep what's left of local journalism alive. And Richard doesn't use electronic media, so he actually reads the whole thing.

But last weekend it just stopped being delivered. Curiously, that means that two different carriers just stopped showing up: the weekend one and the weekday one. When I reported it I got a canned response and credit for the missed papers. But there probably isn't much they can do about it. The paper carriers are probably in hiding from ICE.

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dreamshark

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Recent Entries

Who wants this beautiful bike?

Aaarrrr!

Looking for recommendation for cataract surgery

Anybody want some Pyrex?

What do I do?

Flying the Rebel Loon!

Why I hate my city council.

Blizzard? What blizzard?

Need more Internet memes

Local protest

Oh look. Free Apple Music for 3 months

And the moral is... [unfortunately]

I've gone full Apple Cyborg

I lost 6 pounds in 5 minutes!

A tiny life hack for this frigid weather

Here's hoping he's right

WTF?

I joined a Signal group

Defund Homeland Security! Something you can do (time sensitive)

Our paper has stopped coming

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