ksteinhoff

ksteinhoff

21p

16 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - The State of Biking in... · 0 replies · +1 points

I see riders treating peds as pylons around here, too.

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - The System 163 · 0 replies · +3 points

Hey, life's tough everywhere. We had ice in our birdbath in West Palm Beach, FL, last month:

http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2009/02/05/snow...

The worst place for winter driving has to be Dallas. I was in a training class there when sleet was forecast. The instructor said that they'd be put up in a hotel across the street to make sure that classes would go on.

When I asked if that wasn't a little excessive, he said, "A redneck can pitch an ice cube out his pickup window in July and back up the interstate for 30 miles."

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - Less Blogging · 0 replies · +1 points

I echo the folks who say keep the blog going. I read and enjoy your design and type posts and forward them to family and friends who like that kind of thing.

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - When would you use this? · 1 reply · +1 points

I get the same feeling when I see someone wearing a particularly ugly pair of pants (think golf). It's not so much that the individual would buy them, it was that someone, somewhere, would go to the trouble to MAKE them.

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - The System 137 · 0 replies · +1 points

I’ve dangled, uncomfortably, from a helicopter

Despite the fact that the newspaper had been critical of the Palm Beach County Sheriff buying a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, I managed to convince the right people that I should do a story on the good things that it did.

I spent almost six months flying with the crews, most of it on my own time.

Some of the crewmen didn’t know whether to trust me or not. While we were going through the chicken dance, getting-to-know-you phase, I heard that they were going to do some practice picking up victims in the rescue sling. That sounded like fun, so I volunteered.

The last thing they pointed out before we lifted off was a red switch covered with a safety. “That’s the guillotine switch. If we ever feel that the load we’re lifting is endangering the aircraft, I just pull the safety back, push this red button and a blade cuts the cable: The cable you’re swinging from.”

He wasn’t smiling when he said that. I kind of got the point.

Picture here: http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2008/12/29/i-me...

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - Advertising with Rossc... · 0 replies · +1 points

I've been debating writing an explanation of how advertising works on my site (and encouraging folks to click through when they are making purchases). I was stopping folks at random along the Palm Beach FL Lake Trail to interview them Sunday for a story about their use of the bike/ped/stroller/roller blader multiuse trail. (Shameless plug: http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2009/01/05/was-...) For the first time (and probably because it was Palm Beach), several folks asked me, "What's in it for you?" when I asked if they would mind having their picture taken.

One woman sort of grasped the concept of web advertising, but her daughter knew right away what was going on.

I don't mind the Google ads all that much. I normally pay about as much attention to ads - print, TV and electronic - as I do names in a Russian novel. I just bleep right past them. (No offense to any Russian readers.) Some of the Google ads are on-target and interesting. I did a review of bike taillights last week and clicked on some of the ads that popped up next to it. I was pleasantly surprised to find some vendors I may actually use some time.

My first Google check arrived from them this week: a huge $46.01 for clicks on www.palmbeachbiketours.com. Amazon brought in a little less than $200. Considering that was for about three months, I'm both pleased and disappointed.

Pleased because it's money I didn't have and disappointed because I had hoped to be able to afford a better brand of cat food for my wife and me. I guess she's just going to have to make do with the store brand for a bit longer.

My friend, a former newspaper food editor, and I wrestle with this issue all the time. In our Old World, there was a strict barrier between editorial, advertising and opinion. Since we are, for now, one-man/woman bands, it's a little painful to be a blend of those three entities.

http://www.jannorris.com/has been lucky enough to attract paid local advertising, so she's got a steady stream of income. She has, so far, resisted selling ad space above the banner, though.

I guess, though, that once you take money for it, there's no question about what you are. After that, you're just negotiating for price.

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - The System 122 · 0 replies · +5 points

Old joke: Two couples are having dinner. Husband says, "I had the strangest dream last night. I could see a faint light off in the distance, hear a whirring sound and felt cold air rushing past me. After it was over, I had a great feeling of relief."

"Oh, Bleep," Wife says. "He's peed in the refrigerator again."

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - The System 120 · 0 replies · +6 points

We'll be down here hiding under our bed at midnight. It's amazing how the firepower in our neighborhood has increased over the years. A decade ago, you'd hear pop, pop, pop, pop at midnight.

About five years ago, it became BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

In the last couple of years, its BRATTTTTTTTTTTTTT, BRATTTTTTTTTTT, BRATTTTTTTTT.

I'll admit that the family tradition back in MO was to open the back door and send a shotgun blast winging to the heavens, but we lived in the country.

Don't those folks understand that what goes up has to come down?

Let's hope for a better year next year.

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - Hang Onto Your Butts... · 0 replies · +1 points

Ouch! That's a serious lump of coal in the ole Christmas stocking.

15 years ago @ Rosscott, Inc. - De-Dorked Bike Helmets... · 0 replies · +1 points

My best year was 2,700 miles. My mileage is way down this year because of an Achilles tendon problem, weather and wrapping up stuff so I could retire. I have a new Surly Long Haul Trucker on order, so by the end of the first week in January you should see my mileage go up.

My goal is to do a bunch of two and three-day minitours that I can write up for www.palmbeachbiketours.com. I think the first one is going to be a West Palm Beach, FL, to Key West, FL, run. I get a lot of hits from folks searching for info on that ride and the last time I did it was before a bunch of bike trails were completed.