2020, Food, Gatherings, Stories, Uncategorized

Bikes & Bites

69 Comments

As Guinevere and I were walking along, I heard music behind me.  At first I thought it was a car with an open window but when I turned to look, I saw what looked like a parade of bikes.  But unlike most parades that include bikes, many of the bikers had carts attached to their bikes or they had kid carriers – all filled with toilet paper, paper towels, diapers and other “essentials”.  There were probably about 30 bikers and they were all very friendly.   Guinevere and I stood and watched as they all went by.

It didn’t take long for me to find information on like.  Brian Boyer started Bikes & Bites this summer after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent unrest that followed.  It was clear that supplies were needed in the affected areas, as well as in the homeless camps in the city parks.  So he combined donating essential items with his love of biking.  Initially it was just one or two bikers with a handful of folks purchasing extras when they did their shopping.  Since August, it was clearly expanded to the bike parade that I witnessed. 

This kind of thing keeps a little of glimmer of hope alive for me during this awful year. 

Any new organizations that you’ve seen pop up in 2020?

69 thoughts on “Bikes & Bites”

  1. The organization was probably around before 2020, but I only discovered it this year. Zooniverse solicits participants in crowdsourced scientific and historic projects. That was how I became engaged in transcribing correspondence between nineteenth century abolitionists for a couple of months earlier this year. They also have projects that involve analyzing and tabulating information from photos in areas of etymology, ornithology, astronomy, etc.
    After my abolitionist project ended, I turned to taking some online courses through Coursera and edX and so haven’t taken on any other Zooniverse projects but I likely will in the future, especially when the weather turns cold.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    This is not a 2020 organization, but we are seeing the effects of it in 2020: The New Georgia Project. Stacey Abrams, who lost the Georgia governorship in 2018, has been registering voters in Georgia and providing education about voting. She is not doing this alone. There are other black women involved. They are fighting voter suppression.

    Stacey Abrams is an example of true leadership. When she so focused on solving a problem, she put a solution in place and did the work. She and Pete Buttigieg lead with hard work and by providing an example of behavior to emulate.

    I really view these two as the future.

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  3. I’ve attended a few Zoom meetings hosted by a woman who does what she calls Intentional Doodling. Participants are invited to follow along with their own colored pencils, but there’s no pressure to produce something – you can just watch her.

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      2. Yeah, pretty hard to call that doodling. Those are sketches and paintings. I gotta say, I really dislike networks that use terms like “senior” or “elder.” It seems to offend my vanity. I have avoided joining AARP for this reasons for 17 years.

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        4. I would rather that organizations just serve interest areas, not age and then offer an age-related discount for anyone who needs it. There are many people on fixed incomes—more than just seniors.

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        5. The ARC here in ND was instrumental in liberating developmentally disabled individuals from the horrible Grafton State School in the 1980’s and getting them moved to their own apartments and well-run group homes. The initials stand for Association of Retarded Citizens. The R word is considered pretty reprehensible now, so The ARC just refers to itself as The ARC, and doesn’t spell it out. I don’t know what they would change it to. It is hard to pronounce ADDC.

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        6. I have no objection to either senior or elder, don’t see them as condescending, at all. I think of the term geezer as referring to an old man, and not necessarily one with all of his faculties intact, more like a doddering old fool..

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  4. Husband started volunteering at our local food pantry last summer. It isn’t a new organization. It was started by our church decades ago, and now is a community-run organization. He helps unload the Great Plains Food Bank truck, our food pantry’s major supplier, when it comes through, and on Thursdays fills up carts and boxes for folks who come for food. The Pantry is in a pretty small, old building, but is moving to new digs in our old hospial building next week, which will be really nice for all concerned. He was asked to be on the board of directors a couple of weeks ago. He agreed. It is a good fit for him.

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    2. A reply to the earlier post about Grafton.
      I worked flooring in many of the buildings that were remodeled. Those living conditions must have been awful. The tunnels were disgusting.
      I did have an interesting conversation with a resident named Cliff. We were working on the cafeteria for several weeks and he was always around cleaning tables. We were nearly done when he said,

      “They’re not going to pay you for this.”
      “What?”
      “They’re not going to pay you for this.”
      “We did all this work. Why wouldn’t they pay us”
      Cliff, “I’ve been working here for 25 years and they haven’t paid me yet”

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  5. I think a lot of people are discovering groups and organizations that have been around for years, but under the radar for most of us. One of the positives about this years is their becoming more visible.

    Here in Winona, various groups continue to form ad hoc coalitions – today there is a gathering, one of several “events being organized around the State by a coalition of groups out of the Twin Cities (i.e. The Isaiah Project, Education Minnesota, SEIU MN State Council, the Land Stewardship Project, and other civil rights and social justice groups.” I hope to get to part of it…

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    3. I understand that DT was given the news, on a golf course. That, of course, shouldn’t surprise anyone,nor that he is not conceding. I’m sure we’re in for a rough ride during the final months of his presidency. I wonder what Melania is going to do with the f…ing Christmas decorations this year.

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      1. I hadn’t fully recognized how uptight and worried I have been for a long time. Tonight I feel like a huge burden has been lifted off of my shoulders; I feel a huge sense of relief. I think the spontaneous celebrations that have broken out in the streets all over this country today are an indication that lots of people have felt the same way. It feels incredible to once again be looking forward with something other than dread. I think I’ll rest comfortably and sleep soundly tonight.

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        4. Possibly the strangest impact that man had on American culture is something that can’t be quantified or proven. Shortly after the 2016 election we began to have weird, ugly moments when someone would publicly display hatred or contempt, usually toward a racial minority person. It was like Trump’s becoming president suddenly authorized all the ***holes in our society to stop resisting the impulse to hide their worst side. I am curious to see if this reverses now. Or maybe, having let this stuff out of the bag, maybe there is no going back.

          Liked by 4 people

        6. Steve, I have the same worries. In fact despite hearing the fireworks last night I’m not feeling as celebratory as most because this election was way too close which says to me that way too many people are still supporting 45 and his ugly values. And I just don’t understand why and it makes me feel a little unsafe sometimes.

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  7. q is certainly interesting
    antifa is nothing i’ve studied closely but heard about
    the world is different today than a year or two ago
    groups for good and evil have the ability to blossom and grow
    we are now aware of the divisions out there and i hope the good guys are as ambitious in gatekeeping as the bad guys are in mischief making
    stand ready and stand by are words that haunt intentionally
    little people with big guns and masked by the way protests and unrest are being attacked is concerning
    toilet paper on bicycles is nice
    the bad guys require more than nice

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        2. I thought it was interesting that over the years Q became less obnoxious and in fact in the very end allowed Picard to save humanity by allowing him to go back-and-forth in time and space. I find that this often happens with bad guys on long running shows. Overtime they become less bad and then there has to be a new villain to take their place.

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  8. I think the exact quote was “stand back and stand by.” A chilling message for the president of the US to send to Proud Boys.

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    1. He does indeed. Did you ever attend any of his “star” shows at the Cedar? He’d decorate the whole place with stars, spinning globes, and shiny objects – truly a happening, more like a party than a concert. He’s an interesting character, and speaks Danish reasonably well. Lived in Copenhagen for a while, back in the late sixties or early seventies.

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  13. We should invent comic lawsuits for The Dumpster. Here’s one: some of “those people” breathed garlic onto their ballots which made the counters light headed and the messed up the count.
    Or, the dog ate some of the country voters ballots and they should get to vote now.

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  15. I need to add another story to my Grafton experience.
    Another resident was working in a building we were working. Everything was complete. Myself and Rollin, my workmate, were getting our tools out to the truck. The resident picked up an empty tile box and threw it into the trash. He came to me and said,
    “I helped you. You pay me”
    “Rollin has the money.”
    I went out the back door.
    Rollin told him I had the money and escaped through the front door.
    To this day I wish I had money to give him.

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  16. OT YouTube channel suggestions. I don’t cook these days, but I look at videos on cooking. I covered this topic before, but everyone here likes to eat, so I’ll loop back to it again.

    My earlier recommendations still look good to me now. The American Test Kitchen site is great.

    And I really like Glen and Friends Cooking.

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      1. I have a very simple blender lemon pie that I make every now and then at home. I think of this is a house pie and not something that I would serve to guests but there’s no really good reason for that as it’s perfectly good. You put two lemons (although I do chop them open to make sure there’s no seeds), sugar vanilla, eggs and a little bit of melted butter in the blender (yes the whole lemon, including the rind). Blend it up. I pour it into either a graham cracker shell or a regular shell and then bake it. It’s really good. Prep time…2 minutes!!

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  17. Here are some new recommendations.

    When I looked for the best cooking videos, the name that kept popping up was Gordon Ramsay. I’m put off by his frenetic style, but the cooking tips seem sound.

    Here’s one you probably haven’t heard of. Cowboy Kent Rollins is an old fashioned simple cook who loves cast iron skillets and often cooks outdoors. I find him refreshing.

    Another highly recommended cook is Laura Vitale. I haven’t seen many of her videos. Here’s one that looks good.

    YouTube has a great many cooking videos. Reading a recipe in a book is good, and yet seeing someone prepare it is often helpful.

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  19. Good morning! I have alternated between being really busy and really reclusive in the past year. I honestly haven’t paid attention to new groups. I’ve heard of some that have been mentioned here but I honestly haven’t paid much attention. I have to turn off the tv news and sometimes even political discussions on MPR. I can feel the physical effects the stress of this year has caused. I’ve gained a lot of weight and my blood pressure has been soaring. Every time I see the media paying so much attention to someone who should have been ignored before he became such a big problem, my blood pressure pounds in my core.

    It does feel good to know that at least half of the country is still sane. I felt very happy yesterday and slept great last night for the first time in weeks. Today, I feel cautiously optimistic. A glimmer of hope in a roiling sea of problems. We have been tossed a life preserver. We need to use it well. The seas are going to be rough ahead.

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    1. Don’t blame you Krista. It is too easy to be overwhelmed by the news. It is good to take a break.
      The election stress along with several other things have affected a lot of us. We all have to figure out how to deal with it.

      My dentist told me the other day whiskey was medicinal. Whew! Glad to hear that.

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  20. Something that (surprisingly) comforts me is the vindication of polls. Actually, I don’t like polls. Yet they represent one important way of understanding the present time and predicting the future. Polls were not very accurate before the 2016 election. That meant we all woke up with a hangover and a new reason to be afraid. This year the polls said it would be a close election that Biden would win. Analysts said we’d wait several days before knowing who won. And that was just what happened. I like the fact that our efforts to understand and predict are not totally disabled.

    Everything points to the inevitability of a tantrum of epic proportions. Mary Trump just said he now only has the power to break things, and he surely will. Expect weird pardons and legal maneuvers. He was a terrible winner and will be a worse loser. But I think we can handle what’s coming.

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  21. i don’t know if it will happen in 2020 or 2021 but i found encouragement to get my givcuz fundraising app for helping the cause you care to support supported through your everyday purchases up and rolling
    looking forward to it
    stay tuned

    Liked by 1 person

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