u/DoxTheAardvark

If you call and say you want to cancel enough times, around the one hour mark, they will offer five months entirely free, internet AND mobile (I am not even signed with them currently for mobile) and $65/month thereafter for everything locked in for three years.

And, amusingly, the guy kept saying "No contract. You can cancel any time!" Can I, though? Can I? Let's sign me up for it and cancel right away. Now. Today."

Mathing it out like that makes me realize how truly, deeply people must loathe this company that even an offer of $3,150 hard, cold cash-money to stay is a "hell no."

Also, anyone know the magic words to get them to actually cancel? I have the "Per California Business and Professions Code section 17602(e)(1), once I state my intention to cancel, you are required to promptly process the cancellation and may not obstruct or delay it. I am stating now that I want to cancel. Please process the cancellation without delay" script.

Anything else to do/say?

I had about an hour before the skies opened up on a very hot and ominous Cape May day to play around the granulating pigment set I got (Schmincke - Super Granulation Set, Glacier.) I used sea water to hydrate the pigments, which I think gave it kind of a cool effect, also.

The bird is completely out of scale, of course, giving it a bit of a Hitchcock feel, but the hostess (I left it behind as a gift) is into the darker side of things, so it worked for the hour I had to do it.

https://preview.redd.it/nqg02jnkm5jh1.png?width=449&format=png&auto=webp&s=9262a7e3877d3ee3515b42a630abe6b7533819d4

https://preview.redd.it/ojv6nvv2m5jh1.png?width=449&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff87d66a568eb758a20c723fb817cd018cabf668

I am coming to visit a friend, and she is picking me up at the airport when I fly in, but I don't want to tax her with that drive twice.

What are the options for ground transport? Remember Super Shuttle? I wish they were still around, that kind of thing would be perfect.

I know thereis a bus, but I hear that's pretty long and arduous.

Any other options (including locals groups where people might be looking for/offering rides? I live in a resort area, and we get those kind of asks quite often)?

Also, are there any art/plein air kind of groups, meetups, etc. happening August 1-4? I'm super down with that kind of thing!

I made a post the other day about my pretty unusual levels of "velophobia."

And, wouldn't you know-- I was out on a completely random evening bike ride yesterday (going to meet my daughter at a party to ride home together) and got hit by a drunk/high driver while completely stopped on the side of the road, like 18 inches from the curb in a residential area/completely empty street.

They had been pacing me right off my left shoulder while I was in the bike lane going about 15 MPH on a busier road (speed limit 35.) I kept waving them to pass me. They didn't, so I put on my turn signal and "took the lane," since I needed to turn left.

Turned left and they did, too (which is weird because they later said they were trying to get on the freeway, and that is not how you'd go to get to the freeway, it's a residential road with tons of dogs, kids, etc. and goes right by a fire house and elementary school.)

They continued pacing me-- I was going 15 (25 MPH speed limit on that road). I kept waving them to pass me, they didn't, and the pacing was sparking my anxiety, so I signaled, slowed and pulled over to the right side of the road, about 18 inches from someone's lawn/front yard, put my feet on the ground to wait for them to drive by, and-- Wham. No honking, braking, seemingly anything. Gratefully, since I had been going max 15 MPH, so were they.

They jumped out of the car (m/f couple in their late teens) and started begging me not to call the cops. I considered it for a minute, because, other than some deep lacerations on my leg (went to the ER later and got some stitches and steri strips on other lacs) and some damage to my bike (destroyed headlamp and sideview mirror, cracked/pulled almost off the frame back fender, etc.), it wasn't too, too bad.

Then I got to thinking how my kid was scheduled to ride down that very road 10 minutes later.

Not only were they clearly out of it (high and/or drunk), they had the audacity to come up to me and the homeowner who came out and asked us to dispose of a grocery bag with a 2L glass bottle of Absolute and various Swisher/blunt wrappers and vape cartriges and lord knows what else they'd cleaned out of their car before the cops got there... Like, REALLY?

Cops and fire dept came out. I declined an ambulance. They said I was free to go and my kid had ridden past when the cop cars and fire trucks were there, so I wanted to get home to her, since I knew she'd be stressed by the whole scene. I left just as they were starting to administer field sobriety stuff.

I looked over my bike. Basically just had to true the front wheel, and I had a toolkit on my saddle to do that, and rode home, weirdly, about the least anxious I have ever been on a bike.

Did getting hit by a drunk drive while completely stationary cure me of the velophobia? It might sort of make sense-- like, the worst imaginable thing happening keeping you from panicking over the worst happening?

Not that I would recommend it as a treatment, of course.

Weird update to that one, though.

Ever since picking up a bike as an adult, I have had extreme... what I call... velophobia. Not sure if that's an actual thing, but I have extreme panic attacks when doing all things that are a bit unsturdy and involve inertia—bikes, skateboards, snowboards, etc.

The challenge is that I very much want to live a life that involves, especially, bikes and snowboards. After several years of trying everything I can to work on this, the anxiety is not budging and is, honestly, beyond unsafe.

I have a history of "tonic" (freezing) panic attacks where, when on a bike, it means I often literally can't steer or force myself to lean (gratefully, I CAN hit the brakes, but that's about it). Then the "clonic" part kicks in, where, if I finally CAN move or steer, it's jerky and clumsy, or sometimes my arms or body just twitch to the exact direction I know I do NOT want to go.

Things I've tried, specifically for biking:

- Hired a bike coach (to the tune of at least $3,000 all told)- Including a professional bike fitting and all of that to be sure the bike set-up wasn't playing a role

- Signed up for a couple triathlons expressly to force myself to get over it. (I did completed both, but had to get off the bike at almost any turn and had to stop and wait if a large group of riders were coming through. I think my Garmin had me averaging about 4 MPH on the bike legs.)

- Hypnosis

- Mindfulness meditation (which I've practiced for about two decades), specifically applying it to the whole "if I focus on it, it'll happen" cycle

- Deep breathing, consciously relaxing my muscles (esp my hands and shoulders)

- Riding with friends I don't want to embarrass myself around

- Listening to music, not listening to music. Having a couple beers, resolving not to have a couple beers...

- Trying several types of bikes, most recently an ebike, which does help me feel more sturdy and grounded because of the weight and the added gyroscopic stability of going a bit faster-- but, of course, it also increases the stakes when things go wrong. (And, there are so many situations where the basic ability of an adult to ride a basic bike down a basic street is assumed-- especially since I have kids. I can't tell you how many work offsites, group outings, dates, you name it, I've had to find a way to tap out of because, no, really, I can't ride a bike.)

An example, and what's really having me explore a nuclear option now-- Thursday I was riding fine down a small downhill in my neighbourhood in the bike lane. I heard a car pass me on the left, I went into panic mode, reset my line of sight to the right to make sure I was staying over, but my eyes got caught on a snow pole a couple feet off the shoulder 100 feet in front of me, and I couldn't disconnect from it. I proceeded to ride laser straight, right off the road into the big-ass landscaping rocks on the embankment. I'm still kind of mind-blown there wasn't more damage to the bike or to me other than a broken side mirror and a tweaked wrist.

At this point, I've done all the mental work (The bike coach I hired about 15 years ago, after about a year of working on it myself), and, since what is happening feels very physical. I'm wondering whether beta blockers might be a reasonable thing to try. If I'm understanding them correctly, they seem like they could potentially address exactly what's going on here, and it is so situation-specific, which seems to be a thing blockers are designed to address.

Has anyone tried them for something similar? Any cautions, or other things you'd suggest trying first?