u/nondescriptadjective

I got my NFS Sawyer card today and got to have a 1:1 student/teacher ratio, so I got to learn a lot about working on fire lines.

That shit's impressive.

I knew it was, but I had no grasp of how impressive it is compared to the average. Cutting down burning trees at a rate of several in ten minutes, for weeks on end, is mad impressive. The fitness required, the mental capacity to keep yourself and your swamper alive at the expected pace, it's just so far beyond what I can comprehend.

If any of you are in here, the world doesn't appreciate you enough. Thanks for what you do, you've kept my town from burning down before.

I'm a parks and trails employee, typically on the trails side of things but I kind of float around the department as needed. Today that meant aerating the softball field, and picking those plugs up afterwards. I spent a whole damn day driving this tractor around, and I'll spend a few hours on it tomorrow. So I spent a lot of time today thinking how much work goes into maintaining that one field. It made me thankful we have a lot of native grass zones where we do very little maintenance. We are also switching to a smart irrigation system for everything that is watered, so our water consumption should go down drastically, realistically we hope it will be cut in half. But just knowing how much work goes into our community athletic fields just drives home how much lawns are for losers. I get for many of these people it is a hobby, and if those were the only people with lawns, then whatever, wouldn't be an issue. Everyone else though.... they're losing time, they're losing money, they're losing nature, and so much more by having these damned lawns. Fuck I hate just how insidious capitalism is.

I've not ridden this, but I have ridden most of these roads. The climbs are steady, and the descents are ripping fast. Lot of riding to be done in the area, for all sorts of bike you might be interested in bringing, or friends who might want to tag along.

I had in idea yesterday. There is enough cycling in Colorado that it seems like the state could host a crit series. There are enough towns that are familiar with bike racing, and enough bike companies to sponsor it, it seems it should be possible.

My first pass thought for locations? Littleton, Boulder, Aspen, Breckenridge, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction. These would cover a large bulk of the state, allowing a lot of local entries.

With SRAM, Giant, Stages, and more having offices in Colorado, it seems like it should be easier to come by banner sponsors to help cover the series and provide a prize purse. And even minor sponsors from businesses such as Rōl, Primal, etc, it really seems like there are a lot of CO based brands that could get their name out there by being associated with a summer long crit series.

Looking around my home state, it seems you can come by a Nissan Leaf for fairly inexpensive. I've been thinking about a conversion for a while and am starting the education process to try and move forward with this idea instead of an ICE replacement. I'm hoping that the wagon is old enough that there are fewer comparability issues. Is this plausible?

I'm also debating, because I drive very little, wiring in solar panels. They would fit nicely into the luggage rack that I do not currently use for anything. Most of my trips are short, and this would allow clean energy, leaving only braking and tire dust as my pollutants. I can always plug in when necessary if I fully convert from the Leaf. (I live in an apartment without access to easy plug in charging, which is other reason for solar. Along with driving maybe 3 times a month.)

If there is a compendium of information I can be pointed to, I would appreciate it. My web search skills aren't the greatest, but I am very willing to do the requisite studying. This is a manual transmission automobile, so I'll have to deal with that as well. While I love manual transmissions, they obviously apply a bit less here, and I would probably rather that weight go into battery capacity.