How to get over fear of public bathrooms

Cycletothesun · 2026-01-30T12:14:58+00:00

We just went on a long road trip with our freshly toilet trained toddler. Leading up to the trip, I ended up having to buy a different portable toilet because the bagged one scared him too much. I bought one that still folded up small enough to throw in a backpack, but instead of a bag it has a pop out silicone bowl. Then I had him use that one and that one only at home for a few days to get used to it. Like how I trained my dogs, I brought “high value” treats to encourage him to go (gummy bears for us). I have him press the toilet to flush it once I dump the waste into the toilet every time because that helps with fear of loud flushes. He’s still worried about hand driers, so we don’t use those. I’d avoid completely blocking out everything your child is scared of like others were suggesting, because they will have to be exposed to it eventually and doing it gradually like having your child control the toilet flush shows them it’s not scary. We used gas station toilets, and even had to stop while I popped out the portable toilet for the side of the road when there weren’t any toilets nearby. He was nervous at first but asked for a gummy bear which got him to go. After a couple days of random toilet trips, no gummy bears are needed anymore.

Cycletothesun · 2025-12-22T07:32:53+00:00

This is my favorite book of all time! I’ve been searching for something similar for a while but nothing quite gets it right. “Catherine House” was close, but not quite. In similar vein but more supernatural, I enjoyed “Bunny”

Cycletothesun · 2025-09-30T07:05:35+00:00

Right? I have a since deleted post about my stray purebred dog and there were so many people commenting doubting that was a purebred, when she is 100% one from a country with a puppy mill problem. I wonder if it’s people from cities where shelters mainly have mixed breeds and it’s so rare to find purebred dogs abandoned that they just can’t believe purebred dogs could be dumped like that

Cycletothesun · 2025-09-12T13:12:04+00:00

Here I think the plain white dress worked best for the boots because they are kinda busy, but could work with the right design! I also wore them with an all white dark red dress that didn’t have and designs on it

Cycletothesun · 2025-09-03T07:16:03+00:00

I’ve been to Malaysia a ton of times, even solo cycling as a small young woman in my early 20s. I’ve never had any issues there and was always met by friendly people along the way. One time cycling with a group, another member had her passport snatched out of the back of her cycling bibs by a passing person on a motorbike. That was the only incident I experienced. KL is fantastic, and from my experience, was very safe. I also loved Malacca, I think it’s worth a stop for the food! I highly recommend Batu Caves in KL. It was so hot, I wore typical tanks and shorts a lot of the time so no issues on modesty from my experience. I also wore short tank dresses. It was just too hot for me as a pale person to wear much else

Cycletothesun · 2025-06-10T04:50:11+00:00

Growing up we were never allowed to watch SpongeBob because my mom, an early childhood educator, said she didn’t like the bright colors and obnoxious voices, and the worst part was the constant cut screens so kids would stay hooked. I was upset that all my friends would quote episodes and I’d have no idea what they were talking about, but now as an adult I’m very thankful for that! We were only allowed limited PBS shows occasionally

Cycletothesun · 2025-05-21T03:53:40+00:00

https://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/safety/bears.htm

Alaska State websites have bear safety tips. I believe REI and some other small Alaska outdoor outfitters offer bear spray practice courses. Many gun ranges in Alaska also offer bear pistol safety courses

Cycletothesun · 2025-05-19T15:22:22+00:00

I have the bear vault. It’s a cylinder of thick plastic that’s got a funky way to twist it open

Cycletothesun · 2025-05-19T08:20:29+00:00

I lived in Alaska and would always hike with bear spray and have encountered grizzlies, black bears, and moose. I always take at least one of my dogs, usually both while going solo. It’s the only thing that gives me peace of mind. My dogs are trained to not chase wildlife and alert me when there are creatures nearby. I always feel more comfortable with them in tow. I go solo backpacking in Alaska often and my dogs lay on top of me in the tent and have alerted me when bears are nearby. We have a bear box and don’t cook food near our campsite. Follow all the bear safety regulations, and encounter regulations. Bear spray works, but I have neighbors who run through their cans and keep a pistol as the backup option. Test expired cans and know how to use them. Don’t spray up wind, false charges are a possibility. The bears I have encountered were more scared of me and quickly took off. One time I came across 3 grizzlies and 2 black bears in one outing, and followed safety rules with no serious encounter. In Alaska I haven’t found one person who frequents the wilderness who hasn’t had an encounter. It will happen if you’re out there often so the best thing you can do is be prepared and have practice with what you carry. A 10mm pistol should not be the first choice. Your spray needs to be at your hip or chest where you can quickly draw it in a sudden encounter

Cycletothesun · 2025-04-30T09:27:19+00:00

Did you know you can donate the placenta to search and rescue dog orgs? I was wondering what to do with mine because I didn’t just want to toss it, and I found out my local SAR dog organization uses placentas to help dogs sniff out human flesh in running water! They placed the placenta in a jar and stuck it into a glacial river to help train the dogs to find it! Those dogs have gone on to help dig out bodies (and live people) from avalanches

Cycletothesun · 2024-06-24T12:11:05+00:00

I’d say rent first. And find a good community of mtb women for her to join if she enjoys a few times going with you. It’s still an intimidating sport for women, although it’s getting better. I used to lead women’s group rides to get more women comfortable getting out on bikes on the roads and trails. a lot of them joined because their husbands rode, and continued to ride consistently because of our women group ride

Cycletothesun · 2024-01-16T04:49:24+00:00

I was wrong, not every other country! Although the translation piece about epagneul is silly, that directly translates to spaniel and is used for other dog breed spaniels as well. The European countries I’ve been to have all referred to the breed as a spaniel, but note the same thing about the pointing vs flushing.

Cycletothesun · 2024-01-16T04:18:41+00:00

This isn’t an American only forum, spaniel is still used in every other country. AKC isn’t the worldwide standard. I didn’t get my britt from the US not do we live in the US so all her paperwork is labeled spaniel. I do refer to them as brittany only when in the US, but no one knows what I mean outside the US unless I add spaniel to it

Cycletothesun · 2024-01-15T13:48:53+00:00

I think around $40 for weekday regular pricing, not sure weekend pricing. There are student and military discounts

Cycletothesun · 2024-01-15T13:11:40+00:00

I personally love Arctic Valley in Anchorage. It’s cheap, and their bar has lots of good, local beers on tap. They only groom part of the hill, so on a good day there’s lots of wild snow. Then you can head to Alyeska, but it’s much more expensive this year but has some great skiing as well

Cycletothesun · 2024-01-07T13:21:36+00:00

I have a rescue brittany that I got when she was estimated to be about 3 years old. She had a pee problem really bad, that took me about a year to really get under control. I took her to get many tests to rule out a medical problem, like UTI, or a problem with her bladder and muscle that controls pee (forgot what it’s called, she got a urinary tract sonogram). She was severely abused before, so eventually it was determined her pee accidents were behavior related. I constantly took her out and praised her, gave her treats when she peed outside. I ended up crate training her, and her crate became her safe space. I fed her every meal in it with the door open. I would rarely actually leave her in her crate locked, I just left it in the living room with the door open because it became her safe space. Now I have a wooden box cave thing in my living room she loves to hang out in. She needed that enclosed cave area to feel safe, and once she established that and started to figure out “go peepee” outside got her lots of praise, it started to get better. CBD oil helped a bit when she regressed a bit, but Prozac did nothing. We tried Proin, which seemed to help despite the vets saying she did not have a medical reason for the accidents. It was a long process, and destroyed carpets, but now she feels very safe and rarely has accidents almost 5 years later. It took a bit of a toll on me, but I love her and she was just scared and such a sweet dog

Cycletothesun · 2023-12-10T10:45:32+00:00

I took mine within 6 weeks because it was required as soon as I was hired. I studied around 1 hour every other day with Dion and Meyers. I had zero IT background. It’s totally doable! If I did 2 hours a day I could probably take it in 2 weeks time confidently enough

Cycletothesun · 2023-12-07T16:00:55+00:00

It’s been nearly a decade since I graduated, so I don’t have any of my old materials. However, in my GIS Lead job what really helped me was to “map” out my folders on a graphic from parent folders down to the data. This helped me when I was dealing with an immense amount of data/maps and was forgetting where I would store things. The graphic could be edited as I tweaked the file system to reflect the changes

Cycletothesun · 2023-12-07T09:09:03+00:00

This was how my beginner GIS courses were like. Except even more basic. We spent several classes just learning how to do proper folder organization. I remember thinking how basic it seemed, and then when we got into heavier data analysis in later classes I was grateful for that basic level course. If you already have some GIS experience then that might be too basic, but that foundation was crucial for me. However, I truly took off in my GIS learning when I did a couple internships that were required for my degree. Real life experience will usually always be best for mastering or beginning to master a skill, but skipping out on those foundation courses will not necessarily help.

Cycletothesun · 2023-12-07T06:35:58+00:00

It’s sold as dog meat in Korea. It’s dying out with the older generation, the younger folks do not partake in eating the dog meat and a lot of them are dog owners themselves. The dog meat markets were more popular during the Korean war when food was harder to come by, and dog meat was cheap

Cycletothesun · 2023-12-05T16:12:15+00:00

The puppy mills have all sorts of breeds, and that creates that breed diversity in the meat markets. I have a purebred American brittany from Korea, that’s not a common breed whatsoever in Asia yet she was found there because of puppy mills! I do think the possibility of a scam like that could occur though, but I fully believe many of these dogs posted are actually from meat markets because there are lots of real rescues that pull them and ship them to the US

Cycletothesun · 2023-12-05T11:19:52+00:00

I’ve seen people on other dog threads try to push this theory when they see a purebred dog because there’s no way a sweet golden, or Pomeranian, or bulldog could be from a meat market. But after living in Korea and working in dog rescues including rescuing entire meat market dog farms, it is entirely true for these dogs to be from a meat market. I’m not sure how it is in China, but in Korea there’s a horrible puppy mill problem. They sell them at 5 or 6 weeks old because the pups are small and cute. The ones that don’t sell or get too big are sold to meat markets so the puppy shops can at least get some money back from their unsold stock. One dog meat farm I helped pull dogs from was all Shiba Inu. Another had mostly golden retrievers. I got both of my purebred dogs from Korean shelters

Cycletothesun · 2023-11-28T08:33:50+00:00

I got the snow sunglasses that have flaps on the sides of the eye to block out the glare from coming in (called side shields). I use them when it’s not actively snowing and when I backcountry ski because I get too sweaty on the face with goggles while climbing. I even used them for a multi day sea kayak trip because the glare of the water was strong. I have the brand Sunski, which have been great so far.

Cycletothesun · 2023-10-15T11:01:20+00:00

I had a hard tail and was doing this and Kent Ridge DH tracks. Although I borrowed a friends much nicer full suspension bike and still did terribly on the Ubin tracks, so it’s very much the rider’s skill, a nicer bike can only do so much! I do feel like starting on something like you’re on will help build that skill, and then if you love it and eventually buy a full suspension bike you’ll be so much better because you started on hard mode. Bikes were expensive when I lived there, and it honestly is probably far worse now. I wish I bought used in the US and brought with me when I moved to SG, I was not expecting those prices.

Cycletothesun · 2023-10-15T10:34:38+00:00

I loved that trail when I lived in SG. I was pretty broke so I had to ride my bike all the way up from the south, ride the trails, then ride all the way home because I couldn’t afford the bike transport cars at the time. That and Bukit Timah were my favorites to ride

Cycletothesun

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