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Congestive Failure

Travels

This article caught my eye:

A Cotswolds village dubbed ‘the most beautiful in the world’ has seen a 2,000 per cent rise in parking fines – as locals complain the area has become overrun by tourists.

Residents in Bibury, famous for its 14th-century honey-coloured stone cottages, are reporting ‘major problems’, with figures showing parking wardens dished out 651 notices in the village last year – up from 28 in 2019.  This compares to the 28 fines given in 2019 generating £1,900.

Community representative Craig Chapman said many visitors showed ‘very little regard for villagers’ – parking wherever they can, even if this meant blocking pavements or stopping on double yellow lines.

I can see why.  I’ve been to Bibury, and it’s as beautiful as it’s painted:

However, if you turn around and face in the other direction:

I had a similar experience when I went to Cheddar, in Somerset:

And that’s just the approach to the village.  Inside Cheddar itself, it was pandemonium — no parking anywhere to be found, the sidewalks dense with people, and I left very quickly.

Here’s the dirty little secret about touring the U.K.

Most of the places you find in the tourist guides are exactly like the above:  overcrowded, and worst of all, no parking.  The average commuter train station on Chicago’s Northwest Line has twice as much parking as an entire town in Britishland.

Even Marlborough — one of my favorite towns Over There — barely manages to get by, and that only by creating a car park in the town square during the week.

If there’s a market taking place, the center parking lot is taken up by stalls, and you end up parking at least two miles away, having to risk your life along one of those notorious “two-lane” (actually, one and a half lanes) with no room for pedestrians.  (A narrow grassy verge, often sloped, with a dense hedge on one side and cars whizzing by on the other, is the rule.)

My advice is to skip any of the so-called scenic places you might find advertised, and just drive along random country roads until you happen upon somewhere like Burton:


(not Burton-On-Trent, which while beautiful, is best accessed by parachute).

And if it’s at all possible, try to avoid visiting Britishland during summer, because the entire country’s population (and millions of furriners) choose that period to tour the tiny country, with results as at the top.

I’ve been Over There on many occasions, during every season, and take it from me, autumn — chilly, rainy and kinda bleak in late October through early December — is the best time to go.

Here’s Thirsk, up in t’north during October:

Mostly, it’s just locals and not too many of those.

I can’t wait to get back.

Flock Off

Surveillance Society, Technology

And then we have this little collection of reindeer games:

A quiet battle is happening across the US right between towns working to adopt Flock Safety systems and those trying to ban them entirely. From major cities like Los Angeles canceling its Flock contract to towns wrapping Flock AI cams in plastic bags because Flock won’t take them down, it’s a wild time for surveillance and questions about government accountability.

But what happens when you start seeing Flock’s now-recognizable solar panels and AI cameras going up in your neighborhood? What happens when they start to recognize your car or even individual people?

I don’t want to say what I really feel, at this point, because I may get into trouble.  Still, being who I am, I can’t help thinking of this kind of solution:

Then, purely in the spirit of scientific inquiry, I’m wondering if this might work:

Curious, that’s me.  But if you’re going to test the stuff, you may want to get some soon before it mysteriously starts to vanish off the shelves at Home Depot, or from Amazon’s warehouses.

News Summary

Bad News


...one would have thought...


...dangerous for whom?  Asking for a friend.


...I’m taking bets that most if not all of the 400 aren’t native-born Frogs.  What, nobody wants to take a bet?


...in which we play our popular “Guess The Race” game.


...and one more time...


...I hope it crashes with lots of Irish politicians on board.  Would serve them right, the anti-Semitic assholes.


...just wasn’t his day, was it?


....ummmm if her body is covered, she’s not “completely” nude, is she?  Nevertheless, here’s the proof:

I report, you opine.

Car Treatment

Drive Time

From Reader GT3Ted:

  1. How many miles do you drive a year? — less than 100 miles per week, about 4,000 per annum.  Some weeks I don’t go out at all, other than a quick trip to the grocery store (about half a mile from the house).
  2. Primary trip type ? I’m assuming you don’t have a daily 30 mile comment to the city in stop & go heavy traffic 5 days a week — my only “regular” commute is to the range (4 miles), and that only once or twice / week.
  3. Short forays into the Texas Heat? Or more weekly 100 mile adventures? — the furthest I ever drive, and that maybe once a month, is to visit the Son&Heir or the Sooper-Seekrit Mailbox place, a 40-mile round trip.  Longer trips, maybe once a year.
  4. How religious are you about fluid changes? Not just occasional trips to Jiffy-lubes. When if ever did you have the transmission oil flushed and renewed. Engine coolant flushed and renewed? — I do a major fluid change every 25,000 miles, oil changed and fluids checked every 3,500 miles.  My transmission belt(s) will be due a change at the next major service (150,000 miles), which is going to cost me quite a bit.

I take car maintenance seriously, ever since my dad (an engineer) once said, “Look after a car engine properly, and it will last just about indefinitely.”

And I drive a car gently (nowadays;  not as a youngin of course, because hormones/testosterone):  no heavy acceleration, no speeding, none of that stuff.