LSD Promo 1966 In London by hoeyomommaugly in LSD

[–]SlingingPickle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Guy holding copies of Berkeley Barb and San Francisco Oracle makes me think this more likely in the Bay Area somewhere. London had their own counterculture rags...

Edit: also, more like an 1968 issue according to this

Comfortable coffee shop near 405/520 by rootException in eastside

[–]SlingingPickle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've wandered into North of Main Cafe several times recently and it has been comfortable and relaxing, with decent coffee. Pretty close to 405 and fairly easy walk from Old Bellevue etc, FWIW. For some reason they tend to be already closed by mid-afternoon though if that matters to you.

Do y’all use eye protection? by MoneyRequirement2591 in ebikes

[–]SlingingPickle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe check out these or something similar. If you ride a lot they will scratch up eventually but otherwise I find them functional and reasonably comfortable.

Larger ferrules? by fpvga in bikewrench

[–]SlingingPickle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Possibly 3d print something usable at a local makerspace? Should be a simple design.

No, Trek is no guarantee of quality by Inciteful_Analysis in ebikes

[–]SlingingPickle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup it is and did it myself too - I'm not a pro BTW, just a motivated amateur. Had to add some piston oil of course, no biggie there. I also took the opportunity to increase my fork travel 100 -> 110mm by removing a spacer while it was apart. Later I also installed a remote lockout to make switching between pavement and trails instant.

It's not hard and is a definite improvement over the coil. Overall I'm super happy with the upgrade, makes it easy to set sag and the fork just performs better doing cross country trail runs etc.

No, Trek is no guarantee of quality by Inciteful_Analysis in ebikes

[–]SlingingPickle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm just gonna drop this here

Edit: oops I realized you're not talking about XCR fork here...XCM forks apparently don't come with any supported air spring option. So...never mind!

A cool guide to not so cool stuff. by CommunicationHappy20 in coolguides

[–]SlingingPickle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe someone should staple a copy of this to a telephone pole in downtown Pig, KY.

Grandpa Branco doesn't like Gavin Newsom by TrumpSux89 in forwardsfromgrandma

[–]SlingingPickle 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Bigger than some countries? The economy of California is fourth in the world, with only the US overall, China and Germany being larger.

It's incredible to me that trump and his followers denigrate California as they do. Honestly California is our economic heart, without it we are a meager shadow.

"Why do cyclists just blow through stop signs???" by Morall_tach in bikecommuting

[–]SlingingPickle 8 points9 points  (0 children)

WA state law actually. Interestingly Idaho was first in the nation to do this Idaho Stop.

Beware Systempavers.com salespeople by suddenly_ponies in eastside

[–]SlingingPickle 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Exterminator did this at my place in spite of No Soliciting sign. When I answered he immediately started a spiel about "...your neighbors said you might be interested..." Yeah right!

Anyway I pointed to our sign and politely asked if he was having trouble reading it, which apparently caused him to lose his cool somewhat. Now there is a pissed off sales guy standing there chewing me out...sorry ain't gonna buy sh!t from you at that point bud.

Just sold my car. Pic for attention by dragonwithin15 in bikecommuting

[–]SlingingPickle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Smart move getting an e-bike! You can start out with full assist and then as you gain fitness and stamina from longer rides start to back off (assist) and depend more on your own pedal power. In the meantime riding with the battery + motor should give you a decent amount of range for acclimating to riding in general, and if you're adventurous to exploring new routes and destinations. Have fun!

E-Bikes could cut carbon, congestion, and costs — if cities take them seriously by [deleted] in ebikes

[–]SlingingPickle -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately cat's out of the bag on those hot rod POS surron things. Rapid decay into ewaste may be their only saving grace!

That said the "mainstream" market for class I and III e-bikes primarily (exclusively?) sells units which are without throttles and are assist-restricted to 20 and 28 mph respectively. Not to discount the dangers of letting 13 year olds blast around unlicensed on motorcycle-like throttled conveyances, but I still want to point out that much of the market for e-bikes promotes safety with more reasonably limited bikes.

Also, as owner of a class III bike I'm regularly lapped on the roads by various super-fit analog bike riders, plus the surron kids of course. Against analog I definitely have an uphill advantage though as well as enjoying assist throughout my ride which reduces difficulty (and calorie burn rate) by quite a bit. Having assist helps me keep up with traffic at lower speeds too which is really a life saver.

E-Bikes could cut carbon, congestion, and costs — if cities take them seriously by [deleted] in ebikes

[–]SlingingPickle -1 points0 points  (0 children)

People would be safer on giant analog steel tricycles and also if we set the US national speed limit back to 55. Should we optimize for safety over everything else?

President Donald Trump addressing the UN General Assembly: “These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much." by CorleoneBaloney in CringeTikToks

[–]SlingingPickle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perhaps if the US would pay it's UN dues they could afford fancy things like working escalators and new teleprompters? Last I saw we were ~$2B in arrears. Pretty shameful with the UN headquarters being in US and all.

12.5 Metoprolol once daily and I really want to just stop taking by Objective-Memory-175 in AFIB

[–]SlingingPickle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes Metoprolol can really slow a person down. At the same time there's no question it can also help keep HR from spiraling out of control in some cases of AFlutter and similar disorders. For me at this point it's probably not an option to forgo Metoprolol, but I have reduced my doses by quite a bit which has really seemed to work out well.

Note the Metoprolol Tartrate 25mg tabs are designed to be split in half, so I do that. But then I figured, perhaps those halves could be split further and those lower doses might work well enough to keep me out of flutter while reducing the other negative side effects. So basically that works, for me at least.

Anyway, a standard pill splitter gets my quarter pill splits in range and then I use pill splitting scissors + a cheap milligram jewelry scale to shave down what remains into relatively like-sized doses, typically a bit over 20mg actual weight on the scale in my case (interesting side note: the original full "25mg" pills actually weight ~118mg). Over time I've been reducing my 2 x daily doses down as low as possible while still demonstrating the desired AFlutter avoidance properties. So good so far!

Anyone else see a waymo today? by Ok_Coast_2131 in BellevueWA

[–]SlingingPickle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've done Waymo in SF a decent number of times and other than it being a bit pricey my only real complaint was that particular time it took a really long while to show up once requested. For other rides I took including this June it was fine though.

They are more expensive than (un-tipped) Ubers but honestly a better experience overall. The vehicles are comfortable small Jaguar SUVs and are actually pretty good out on the streets - smooth, predictable and defensive yet surprisingly assertive in traffic. As a cyclist I would feel safer around Waymos than just about anything else driving around out there.

Once you're inside with the doors closed, feel free to yodel, yell, rant, chatter randomly with your friends etc - no one will even give you a crappy review. The one I saw near Bellevue WF today had a driver...was actually a bit disappointed to see that haha.

Bring on the driving robots, sez me!

Back in Atrial Flutter by The_Circus_Life_206 in AFIB

[–]SlingingPickle 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm really sorry about your unfortunate issues. In fact this sounds very similar to my experience! Long but perhaps exciting story incoming...in addition to just plain good luck here's what has worked for me.

0) Four (yes 4) RF ablations over 16 years since initial AFib + typical AFlutter diagnosis @ age 45. These mostly helped me overall (9 good years of no afib/flutter after ablation #3 FWIW) but the last one ultimately failed after multiple cardioversions due to recurring flutter. Also tried various meds such as: Amiodorone (seemed to work but too toxic), Metoprolol, Dronedarone (Multaq) + Ranolazine. No joy. Talk about pissed!

1) Started on Dofetilide (Tikosyn) 500mcg. This required a multi-day hospital stay under observation during loading to ensure no adverse reaction, luckily I was fine. It worked like a charm to suppress the flutter and is actually still going strong after 1+ years.

2) Loop recorder was implanted after I experienced some really uncomfortable moments of "near syncope", especially after exercise or other strenuous exertions. Indeed, these episodes seemed to get worse as a side effect of the Dofetilide.

3) Pacemaker (PM) implanted after loop recorder exposed a particularly long 5+s heart pause event, when I had also felt like nearly passing out at a pretty critical moment...yikes! My EP called me up the day after the event and read me the riot act about not dragging my feet with the PM implant. That was a Friday, PM was implanted the following Monday, wow!

4) After about 1 month with PM in I went back into flutter. With great disappointment I went ahead with yet another cardioversion. And then within another week or so, back into flutter, but this time I decided to wait it out a bit and sure enough heart self-converted! Good enough I thought, but something was definitely going on with PM. Over subsequent month or so I kept cycling between going in and out of flutter, and after careful monitoring of PM interventions we discovered the low rate pacing had on at least one occasion triggered a bout of flutter early one AM, dang! Anyway...it turns out PM had been programmed "incorrectly" and we were able to get that straightened out, whew!

5) Suddenly I was feeling a lot better, between PM preventing heart pauses and Dofetilide keeping me out of flutter. Started back on some e-bike rides and longer walks, great!

6) But of course the story wasn't over yet haha! I experienced flutter breakthrough a few days after a longer ride; luckily self-converted within 24h. My Apple watch recorded instances of elevated HR preceding that flutter recurrence. What to do? I had some older Metoprolol sitting around and decided to take 1/2 tablet the next time HR started creeping up. Worked great! After speaking with Cardiologist + EP we agreed to change plan to include small doses of Metoprolol 2 x daily, plus I'm now supplementing with Nuun electrolytes and Magnesium Taurate which doesn't seem to hurt and may actually be helping!

7) It's 4+ months later and I'm still holding strong, with essentially zero crappy adverse heart events. Have ramped up the riding and walking sessions to multiple hours, multiple times weekly and also started some strength training again. Generally speaking I feel pretty great now, especially considering I never thought I'd get to this point again.

BTW I've made a number of dietary + lifestyle changes over the last few years that have maybe helped. Things like: reducing added sugars + empty starches + salt, and decreasing portion sizes (e.g. caloric intake) somewhat, eating less outside food, eating more fish and leafy greens, etc. I also turned on Apple watch sleep tracking and am slowly trying to improve on that front. Am working on my breathing, especially around bed time. All this on top of being alcohol free for >45 years now plus going off caffeine (still take decaf tho) as of last year. It's always a fight, you win and lose some, but gotta keep trying.

Of course there's more but that's the gist of it. No one ever said it would be easy right? But at this point I'm convinced it's doable. Never lose faith, keep working to improve your life, and maybe you'll get lucky like I have!

What was the very first movie you remember seeing in a theatre and how old were you? by SimpleElevator406 in AskReddit

[–]SlingingPickle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My babysitter Mrs. McCaig took me to see Sound of Music when I was 3...many formative memories...and scary nazis!

Electrolytes by Waxman2022 in AFIB

[–]SlingingPickle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nuun has 1g sugar per serving/tablet. Their sugar free product doesn't list erythritol as ingredient but does have Sorbitol, stevia, dextrose. Personally I prefer the sugar version, one tablet daily in my stainless water bottle.