Shallow Thoughts

Mythical Creatures

(A Toastmasters speech on Jul 14, 2025.)

Humans have told stories of mythical creatures for as long as there have been humans.

Creatures like mermaids, or unicorns, or fire-breathing dragons. But of course, today we know that mythical creatures don't really exist.

Or do they?

Let me tell you a couple stories of mythical creatures I've seen -- or not seen.

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Review of the Specialized Turbo Levo SL Kids Ebike (for an Adult)

We had a lovely ebike trail ride this morning, getting out early to beat the heat, and it reminded me that I've had a partially written review of my current ebike that I needed to finish.

I've written about my first ebike, the Lectric XP. Not only was it fun to ride and practical for errand-running, but it also got Dave and me back into regular cycling after we'd fallen out of the habit.

Ironically, that's the reason I found myself riding the Lectric less and less: as I got back into better shape, I wanted to spend more time on the lighter and more nimble "acoustic" bike and do more of my own pedaling. At 65 lbs, the Lectric felt heavy and klunky compared to the regular bike, and it wasn't as much fun off-road. After four years with the Lectric, I found myself wishing for something lighter.

Dave, who's always keeping an eye on the e-bike market, had been pondering an unusual choice: the Specialized Turbo Levo SL Kids. Yes, kids: this is an ebike made for kids,

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Using Census Population Data

A couple of us in the local League of Women Voters chapter have been talking about how our county's school board is elected. There are five school districts, to go with the five elementary schools ... but when it comes time to vote for the school board, the voting districts aren't the same as the school districts. For example, a parent whose kid goes to Barranca might be voting for the school board rep from the Aspen district. This confuses pretty much everybody.

Apparently the reason it's set up this way is that the voting districts need to have roughly equal population, which the actual school districts don't. That made us curious about how the populations of the actual school districts compared. But it turns out if you ask that question, no one has those numbers, or at least, we couldn't find anyone who would release them.

"No problem!" I chirped. "I can get population data from the Census website, and combine that with the GIS for the school districts!"

Little did I know, when I promised that, what a soul-sucking pit of despair the Census website is, and how difficult it is to get data out of it.

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Holes of Invermere

It was 2001, and Dave and I were off on a road trip to see the Canadian Rockies. My first time in another country! (Not counting an hour or two in Tijuana as a kid, and a day trip to New Brunswick as a college student.)

Our plan was to drive up through Portland, then follow the Columbia River through eastern Oregon, Washington and Idaho — places I'd always wanted to see. We'd make our way into Canada, up to Banff and Jasper, then make a loop coming back down through Glacier. Beyond that we didn't have any specific plans.

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How Many Searches Do You Do in a Month?

Michael Kennedy asked whether people are using search engines less because of AI chatbots.

I haven't really gotten into using AI chatbots as coding assistants, so I'm not one to say. But it did make me wonder how many searches I do. Michael saw a stat that people average fewer than 300 searches per month; he thought that was absurdly low until he checked his own stats and found he'd only made 211 searches so far in March. (Of course, March isn't over yet. He didn't give a search number for a complete month.)

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Fun on the White Rock Path

One of my regular routes to the grocery store and library takes me along the paved pedestrian/bike path that follows NM highway 4. I also take the southern section of the path at the end of most mountain bike rides on the DOE trails south of town.

A few days ago, a very clever art piece appeared on that southern section. Someone had noticed that some of the copious crack filling seams were shaped like a grand piano, and had added a keyboard and the words MAKE MUSIC.

But it turns out the piano was just the tip of the iceberg.

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Construction Sites Covered with Plastic

Periodically in Los Alamos county we try to pass an ordinance to make retailers charge for #plastic bags, so people use fewer of them and we don't end up with plastic bag litter floating around all over the county.

But plastic bags are a nonissue compared to the new practice of covering whole buildings with plastic wrap during construction.

I've noticed it before, late last year when there was some sort of construction going on on the guard tower that stands near the east edge of town on NM 502. The entire tower was covered with plastic for months.

But between wind and the fierce UV at over 6000' elevation, plastic doesn't last long outdoors. So on the guard tower, the plastic shredded in just a few days, and they had to replace it several times a week. I'm sure the same will be true of the new plastic wrap on Piñon school.

Surely there must be a better way?

Knitted a Camelbak Hose Insulator

This week's group hike was at the always beautiful Las Conchas trail, up in the Jemez mountains. Originally planned as a snowshoe/ski hike, we discovered there wasn't enough show to justify either one, so we all opted for Yak Trax or other forms of shoe-mounted spikes. As it turned out, there wasn't much ice so we probably didn't even need that. (One of Dave's spike sets fell off early in the hike, and he continued for miles before he noticed one foot was unspiked. Fortunately, he was ahead of the group and someone else spotted the lost spikes.)

It was beautiful, and the 27°F temperature didn't feel so bad once we were moving. But it did cause one problem: my Camelbak hose froze up, so I had to resort to eating snow when I wanted a drink of water until lunchtime when I managed to clear out the ice.

Not the first time that's happened. I've long wanted to get some sort of hose insulator that would keep the hose from freezing, but I haven't been able to find one.

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