Experimenting with CWT Vulcan

Experimenting with CWT Vulcan

Byrichard

Recently a CWT Vulcan system was installed on a pipe in the building where I live and the calcar that I had watched being deposited in a kettle stopped depositing, and even started to disintegrate. Within a week, or less the calcar almost vanished.


To over-simplify it, you wrap a coil around a pipe, with an electronic ciruit board and it uses electric currents, through electrophoresis to take calcium and magnesium from complex to simple structures. In the process calcar no longer builds up. It goes a step further and cleans the calcar, as was shown by the kettle example. You can read more about the process from this source. If that’s not technical enough you can read this paper.


According to a sheet of paper the system needs two watts of power. Once it is installed you can leave it to do its work. The difference is noticeable very quickly. One test was to boil water five times in a sauce pot, so I did. I could barely see any calcium build up and when I wiped it with a cloth the small traces wiped away.


I am used to filling a kettle with water, boiling it, and making tea or coffee. I played with Moka pots to make coffee and with kettles and moka pots I saw a build up of Calcar. With water treated by the CWT Vulcan system the kettle and Moka pot clean themselves thanks to the treated water.


When you use Brita filters you need to shake them in water, and then you need to flush water through them twice, and then you can use them for a month, before repeating the process. With CWT Vulcan devices, once it’s installed you’re done, and you get softer water.


When you’re washing dishes, or rinsing glasses water drips from the glass or other container and leaves traces. With the Vulcan treated water there is no deposit left behind. Before the Vulcan water treatment system leaving a drop of water to evaporate would leave a trace of rust coloured calcar behind. I’m convinced of the value of this system within two or three tests and the company suggests six tests.


One of the tests is the rusty nail test. The problem is that I don’t know where I can find a rusty nail. The closest I come to a rusty nail is a rusty double edge shaving blade. Upon consideration I could test it with a wok that is several decades old by now. It has traces of rust, when you forget to oil it before storage.


And Finally


What I appreciate with this system is that it requires two watts of power and it does what it’s designed to do. You don’t need to replace filters every few weeks, or months and there is little to no waste. I love gadgets so I’m convinced by this solution. Originally I thought it was moronic to spend thousands of francs on a system that would then require thousands of francs per decade to keep running. With this system once it’s installed there are no, or fewer costs.

A Walking Decline in the US Since 2019
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A Walking Decline in the US Since 2019

Byrichard

According to streetlight data walking in the US has declined over the past three or four years. The decline was by up to thirty six percent from 2019-2022. The clearest reason for this is that 2019 and 2020 were walking honeymoon periods. By this I mean that for the duration of lock down and “work from home” people had more time to walk since they spent less time commuting, but also because the natural habit of getting into a car to do something had declined., thanks to the pandemic.


The Return of Driving Post lock down


As pandemic lock downs came to an end so the nightmare of people using cars revived. When people are free to range further, out of lock down, they drive to do things, like shop, go to cinemas and go to indoor gyms, rather than enjoy the outdoor world. Imagine if, during the pandemic, you went for a one hour walk because the indoor gym was closed. Imagine if you walked locally, because it made sense not to drive far from personal toilets, and other conveniences.


The Pandemic Walking Options


I am not in the US, so my experience is irrelevant to the US situation. In my experience I walked up to three hours per day, and enjoyed my walks, until the habit of driving became a problem once again. Plenty of walks that were probably pleasant due to lock downs and fewer people driving, were destroyed by the return of cars and their drivers.


For two or three years I would walk down towards the lake and along farm roads that were narrow. During the honeymoon these roads were quiet. They were a pleasure to walk along. With the return of normal life people started to drive along these narrow lanes again, without being considerate of pedestrians.


The Loss of Safe Walking Paths


I went from having three hour walking loops that were empty of cars, and a pleasure to walk along, to paths that became a nightmare. When you have a car going at 50 to 80 kilometres per hour half a meter from you, every few minutes, every day, for years, you get fatigued.


That fatigue results in people, including me, choosing to walk less, and even to consider not walking at all, and getting into the accursed cars.


Attention On Cars Rather than Walking


No one addresses the elephant in the room. We have made a landscape where walking between villages on foot, or cycling, have become dangerous. If it’s dangerous to walk along pandemic walking paths, due to the return of people in their cars, then it makes sense that there would be a 39 percent decline in walking habits in the US. Why would you walk, when to walk is to expose yourself to dangerous drivers?


The Need for Rural Walking Paths Between Villages and Towns


That’s why I argue so often that instead of making towns and cities pedestrian friendly we must make it safe to walk between villages, and from villages to towns, and from villages to cities. Why would people walk along dangerous roads, rather than take a bus, or car?


Awful for Walking


I see that efforts are being made to make towns and cities more walker friendly but in my opinion it makes more sense to connect villages with walking loops. I want to be able to walk from Crans to Céligny to Crassier to La Rippe to Borex to La Rippe and plenty of other villages without having to walk along busy car roads. I want to be able to walk on walking paths where cars are banned. There are plenty of agricultural roads but villages like Eysins are scary. There is a bridge from Crans to Eysins where cars drive fast, playing chicken with each other despite pedestrians crossing. On another road people speed along at 80 or more kilometres per hour, without showing consideration for pedestrians. On a road between Arnex sur Nyon and Crans there are agricultural roads where drivers speed, without being considerate of pedestrians.


It’s fine and dandy for Nyon, Geneva, Lausanne and other towns to say that they want to increase walking, cycling and other forms of movement, but they won’t increase those means of transport if you can’t walk from villages around Nyon, into Nyon, or cycle from Nyon to Geneva without being thrown into parkings or onto busy roads where car drivers park in cycling lanes in summer.


I often walked to Crans and Céligny, until I grew tired of walking along agricultural roads with cars that were driven too fast and too close to me. I don’t want to stop every time a car is close to me. I want cars to slow down and overtake at slightly more than walking speed. That’s what I do when I am driving a car. I want cars to respect pedestrians.


Discouraging Cars Without Providing Alternatives


When Geneva changed traffic systems to discourage drivers, I stopped going to Geneva, and when Nyon made the same mistake I stopped going to Nyon. When I lived in London I once drove from Switzerland to London, saw the price of petrol and left it parked. If public transport is good, from villages to towns, and from towns to cities, then people will not use cars. The problem with Switzerland is that the policy makers live in towns and only see the journeys between towns, rather than villages. It used to take 45 minutes to drive from work home, and one and a half hours by public transport. You encourage people to walk, cycle, and take public transport when trains or buses are every five minutes, as with the London underground.


Walking Rather than Driving


If it was pleasant to walk from Arnex sur Nyon to Nyon, or from Borex to Nyon, or from Signy to Nyon people would have the opportunity to leave the car, and enjoy a pleasant walk instead. The problem that I see, every single time I go for a walk, is that whilst towns and villages try to discourage driving within them, they do nothing to encourage walking and cycling from outside.


I have a really healthy walking habit, but when I am made to fear for my safety on every single walk I seriously consider getting into the car, to walk somewhere, where I feel safer to walk. The paradox is that I would drive far, to walk a smaller distance. I would be part of the problem, by getting into a car, to go for a walk.


Think of that paradox. I have to get into a car to go for a walk, because the local walks are too dangerous because cars do not slow down enough, on roads that are meant for agriculture, not cars.


And Finally


During the pandemic honeymoon, especially during lock downs, I got to experience the great potential of walking locally. During the honeymoon of lock downs I could walk from Nyon to Founey, and from Founex to Crassier, and from Crassier to Tranche-Pied, and from Tranche Pied to Gingins, without fearing cars. I could even walk along the motorway because it was quiet and pleasant.


So many efforts are being made to discourage the use from within towns and cities, but they forget that the place from which people are most likely to drive, is villages. If people can walk between villages safely, then the need for cars is diminished. It is futile to make towns and cities pedestrian friendly, and more village like, if villages require people to use cars.


For me there is no mystery. People walk less because it’s more dangerous to do so, now that roads are filled with cars again. Global society should bring back the habit of people walking between villages, safely. Cycling suffers from the same issue. If it is dangerous for children to cycle, things need to improve.

Running Through Ankle Deep Water
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Running Through Ankle Deep Water

Byrichard

Yesterday I went for a run, despite the rain being heavy. I wore a proper rain coat and waterproof trousers. I should have also worn waterproof shoes. I didn’t so I ended up soaked once again. What made this run special is that the rain was heavy from the start.


The rain was so heavy that water running from fields and hills was creating deep rivers that ran downhill along roads, filled with muddy water. Normal people would postpone their run for the following day, especially since we knew yesterday that the weather would be good for several days to come.


I got into the habit of walking and running in all weathers so the weather doesn’t affect whether I will go out or not. If it’s raining dog walkers and normal people are usually not out, so the paths we walk and run are free for us to enjoy.


I ran uphill for the first part and it felt hard. It always feel hard to run uphill but there isn’t much choice. If I run downhill I run along the roads where drivers have no respect for pedestrians. I walk and run uphill because that’s where I feel that the roads are safer from cars.


In this day and age everyone is trying to make towns and cities pedestrian friendly but when I lived in London, when I walked in Paris, London, Florence, Geneva and plenty of other cities I never felt bothered by cars. It’s in between villages and towns that cars behave cruelly towards pedestrians and cyclists. To me roads should be dedicated to cycling, running and walking, and there should be a requirement for dogs to be on leads.


I run up the hill because I know that where I am exposed to traffic the roads are wide and I have space to move away from the sadistic drivers speeding by pedestrians. I also walk along those roads because they’re wide enough for cars to avoid us, when no other cars are coming the other way. Where agricultural roads are used by normal cars, where they are wide enough for a car but not two, drivers drive too fast.


If I was driving I would slow down to walking speed as I pass pedestrians and cyclists. They don’t. They almost never slow down.


Yesterday, in the heavy rain I could have gone downhill and stayed dry. I didn’t. Every single time I walk along those roads I yell abuse at cars being driven too fast, too close to me. Words about wanting people to walk rather than drive are empty when you make it impossible to walk between villages and towns safely.


That’s why I went uphill. That’s why I went to the farm roads that flood when it rains. The fields get saturated in water and that water runs downhill, onto the road, and when it hits the road it runs down the road. Yesterday it rained so heavily, for so long, after several days that the roads were now deep rivers. The rivers were now ankle deep. I put my foot down, and the top of my shoes was underwater for a few steps.


I went to the side, I went to avoid the deep water, but I couldn’t avoid it all the time, so I ran through the river running down the road. My shoes and my socks got wet, and it wicked upwards, onto my trousers, up to my t-shirt. I was soaked from the shoes upwards.


I didn’t feel cold. I wasn’t bothered. It’s only rain and muddy water. I ran for 37 minutes in this rain, before I walked the rest of the way home. When I got home I put my shoes on an empty cardboard box, and hung the socks on the same box, to dry. If the box gets wet I don’t mind. It will be recycled anyway. So will the shoes I used.


A few months ago, or last year I frequently said that I was impatient for rainy weather, to have a rest day. Recently I have found that I will go out in all weather, whether we’re in a heat wave heavy rain or other. The time when I really would think twice about going out is on a cold and windy day. I find that rain is fine. It’s the cold wind that is unpleasant.


In circumstances like yesterday’s there are two choices. The first is to wear quick drying shoes, like I did, or to wear hiking boots, that reach above the ankles. The drawback to such shoes is that they are not good for running. Quick drying shoes, in yesterday’s situation were the best option. Feet get wet but we just change socks when we get home.

The Daily Struggle to Find Something to Write About – CloudNeo Shoes

The Daily Struggle to Find Something to Write About – CloudNeo Shoes

Byrichard

For three hundred and sixty two days I have struggled to find a topic to write about. In that time I have, more than once, felt, during my walk, that I had a great idea for the next day, only to deflate the next morning.


On CloudNeo


Yesterday as I was running I considered writing about the On CloudNeo Shoes. They’re shoes that you pay for, monthly, rather than weekly, and you can get them replaced every 90 days. If you browse to the site you will see a count down for when to get them replaced.


They started being so clean and white that I didn’t like having such obviously new shoes on my feet. I don’t like when clothes are so obviously new. I prefer them to have a little more character.


Or maybe I just prefer darker colours on my feet. Light grey shoes are fine. The thing about white shoes, in rainy weather, is that they quickly get caked in mud. Once they’re muddy the’re less obviously new, so they’re more comfortable to run in.


Cost Spread Over Time


The CloudNeo are interesting for two reasons. The first is that they enable you to get running shoes at a monthly cost, and the faster you wear them out, the better the deal you get. The other advantage is that running shoes are often 200-300 francs per pair. That’s a lot to pay for shoes, that, in the end you don’t find comfortable.


Years ago I bought expensive hiking shoes, and I used them in the arctic circle, at first, before using them for hikes, via ferrata and climbing for years to come. That’s right, years. I then bought another pair of hiking boots and they lasted days, or weeks. It’s not the boots that failed. It’s that they were too tight around my ankles and I felt as if my ankles would break if I continued to wear them.


I then bought a cheap pair from Decathlon and these are nice and comfortable. The point is that expensive shoes can just as easily be fantastic, as cheap shoes, so it’s worth trying cheap shoes first.


The Experience


When you get the Cloud Neo shoes they come in a white bag with velcro. You open the velcro, pull out the shoes, and wear them indoors for a bit, to see how they feel. This is because you have 30 days to test these shoes before you’re commited for six months. If you try them outdoors and find they’re uncomfortable then they’ll be dirty and will be recycled, rather than sent to someone else.


When I determined that they were comfortable, walking around indoors, I tried running with them, and they felt okay so I kept them. I’ve been with them for several runs now and they’re fine. My knees don’t hurt as I run with them.


I did notice with normal shoes, after wearing barefoot shoes, that my ankles tend to roll more, especially on rough surfaces. I don’t know whether it’s because the shoes are not stable, or because I lost the habit of wearing normal shoes. In either case I have had to relearn to run, in normal shoes, on uneven surfaces.


I like a little more rigidity in the back. I often find that my heel folds the back of the shoe as I put them on. Other than that I like the shoe laces and I like that they’re light. They’re not weatherproof but they’re so light that if they do get wet it doesn’t matter because they dry without any concious effort.


Minimal Grip So Mud Removal is Quick


The base of the shoes has very basic grip, so if the ground is slippery you’ll know. Some people might see that as a drawback but I see this as an advantage. If you go running through mud, for any reason it takes seconds to clear mud away from the shoes, rather than minutes. Last year I regularly spent 10-20 minutes after every walk clearing the mud from my shoes. With these shoes I don’t need to.


They are aimed at road runners and dry trail running, not muddy or uneven surface running. It’s on roads that you want good padding so they’re well suited to various types of road running.


After 90 days, or when you’ve worn them through, within six months, you can get them replaced and get brand new recycled shoes and start again.


These shoes are made from bio-based resources and the expectation is that you will recycle them every three to six months. They say “You don’t own these shoes, you just use them for a bit, and then return them.


When you get the shoes they come in a white bag with a velcro fastening. Within this bag you have the shoes, but you also have the return address for the shoes. You can send the shoes back, and a new pair will be sent to you.


Recycling Shoes


With conventional shoes you wear them, and once they’re worn out you attempt to get them recycled but they’re counted as bulky recycling so I don’t know what happens to them. With these shoes they’re sent back to their home, they are shredded, cleaned, and then turned into new shoes.


An added bonus to having shoes that are made from “bio-based resources” is that as they get worn down through use, their remains are not harmful to the environment. Mine will, in theory, be ready for recycling in over 65 days from now.


Estimated Cost


If you replace these shoes every three months then they come to about 105 CHF. If you replace them after six months they come to 210 CHF. The faster you wear through a pair of shoes, the more affordable the plan is, but conversely, the worse your habit is for the environment, since shoes require energy to be recycled and reused.


Although they are sold as running shoes I wear them for running and walking. I usually run for a set distance and once I have finished the run I walk. These shoes are okay for both but I don’t like these shoes like I like the Merrel trail glove 7 shoes. If I had this deal for Merrel Trail Glove 7 then I would be very happy. I have been using Merrel shoes for years and I like them, especially since some of them are so cheap, but I wear them out too fast. With a subscription model I wouldn’t worry about how fast I wear them out because I would get a new pair when I needed it.


Children and Shoe Rental


As I write this I believe that a good niche market for this would be children, because children grow out of shoes, before they even wear them out. By renting children shoes you would ensure that children always get new shoes when required.


Side of the Road Walking


The moment when I don’t like these shoes is when I am walking in the grass to avoid being run over by a car driver who doesn’t slow down or take precautions when seeing pedestrians by the side of the road. I feel my feet and ankles twisting at unsafe angles. That’s why I walk on agricultural roads where I know there are very few cars.


And Finally


Running shoes are usually expensive, so paying monthly to spread the cost makes sense, especially if they are replaced every three months. If they’re replaced every six months then they’re much more expensive and the deal is less interesting. You have one month, tho choose to keep the shoes, and then you’re committed for six months, before you can terminate the contract. There is a huge “cancel plan” button, should you decide to cancel the plan.


These shoes fill a niche. They fill the niche of the person who runs 600 kilometres every three to six months and wants their shoes to be recycled, and turned into new shoes. It fills the niche of the person who wears through shoes at a rapid rate. I do, so such a deal is interesting for me, especially if I burn through 600km per three months.


At a rate of 8km per day it would take 75 days to walk/run 600km. This puts me comfortably within the 90 day recycling window.

NaNoWriMo and Blogging

NaNoWriMo and Blogging

Byrichard

November is the month when a group of people try to write 1667 words per day for a month. they have write-in events, word sprints and many other gimmicks to encourage them to break the challenge into less daunting challenges. I didn’t even consider participating this year for a simple reason. This is my 360th day in a row of writing a daily blog post.


The Daily Blog Challenge


My challenge was less ambitious. My goal was to write at least three hundred words per day, every day, without taking days off. I didn’t allow myself to count a photo as a blog post because that would be too easy. I wanted to give myself a productive challenge.


I chose to write a blog post every single day for two reasons. The first is that I grew tired of seeing ads and posts I didn’t care about on Facebook. I grew tired that the time that Facebook was wasting was benefiting them, without benefiting them. By writing a blog post daily I would “waste” an hour or two every single day. Eventually though, that waste of time would benefit me. The first benefit is that every single day for 360 days I have had to stop, think, and write.


Some days I would sit in front of the computer looking for inspiration for an hour or two and find none. This didn’t matter. I always think of something to write. Every day i have a blog post to show for that two or three hours of focus.


NaNoWriMo is 1667 Words Per Day For A month


If you try the NaNoWriMo challenge you have to write 1667 words per day, and you need to try to create a novel, if possible. It is the National Novel Writing Month after all. I like the idea of writing every day, but I hate the idea of writing fiction at the rate of 1667 words per day. It’s my inner censor, that I am not good at controlling. My inner censor, when it comes to fiction writing tells me that it’s crap, and that I should stop wasting my time.


Achieved Once


Quite a few years ago I achieved NaNoWriMo. I reached the daily word count. I enjoyed the writing process but I never had the strength of character to re-read and edit what I wrote, so it lay dormant. Every subsequent time I tried to write a NaNoWriMo challenge my inner censor got me to give up. I don’t have the confidence to participate and achieve this challenge.


If I want to catch up with the NaNoWriMo challenge I would need to write a further 10,000 words today, and that is what I don’t like about the challenge. When you’re working towards such a high word count you waste words and effort. You write, in three hundred words, what you could write in ten.


Imagine going from micro blogging to NaNoWriMo. The contrast is huge.


Fighting the Inner Censor


When you write 1667 words per day you don’t need every word to be kept. The aim is to be verbose so that a week or two down the line you have something to edit, re-write, and re-work. The aim is to let go of the thought that you’re writing crap, and to get ideas on paper. The aim is to spend the next eleven months re-editing everything that you have written, into something that is more interesting, and more worthwhile.


According to WordPress.com I have written 322 posts this year, containing 167,000 words. I achieved this by writing at least three hundred words per day, every single day of this year so far. I like having this daily goal, and habit, and the beauty of this is that it’s a year long project, rather than a one month goal. The habit is part of my daily routine, for several seasons now.


The community is built around a website but events also take place in the physical world, so if you participate you can meet people in person, and write at the same time as they write. This is a challenge where you can expand your social network. A few years ago I went to events but not recently.


NanoWriMo Discounts


Aside from getting into the writing habit, you also get discounts via the website. This means that if you want to use Novlr, Day One, Freewrite, Scrivener or other options you can get a discount. In some cases you get a free year. In others you get a discount.


Complete Freedom


You don’t need to write a novel. You can write e-mails, blog posts, a work of fiction, poetry or anything. In theory you could count anything you write. Writing is writing. Writing daily is writing daily. Fighting the inner censor that says “stop writing junk” is one of the key challenges writers like me had to overcome.


And Finally


One reason for which bloggers should not participate in NaNoWriMo is that the blog post that could have been done in three hundred years gets prolonged and extended, from that quick to read three minutes, to something that takes four and a half minutes to read.

Trail Glove 7 in Autumn

Trail Glove 7 in Autumn

Byrichard

This Autumn is different because I have worn running, shoes, normal shoes, and Trail Glove 7 in the rain. I was very happy with the Trail Glove 7 during the entirety of the heat wave. I had no issues with them but now that we’re moving into winter I feel the need for shoes with greater ground clearance for when I walk through puddles, or streams of water running down roads while the rain falls.


A few days ago I walked in a wet forest on a rainy day with the Trail Glove 7 and although I expected to feel that they were completely inappropriate I didn’t. I found that they felt comfortable when walking through scrub, on the stony path and when they were wet.


These shoes will not protect you from thorns and other spikes. The base of the foot is safe but the top of the shoe is made of soft fabric that could be pierced. Despite this I didn’t feel as uncomfortable as I would have expected. In fact, I felt comfortable. I just had to be slightly more careful than usual, about where the top of my shoes scraped.


Avoiding Deep Puddles


The one unpleasant bit was when I was walking through deep puddles. Once or twice I felt the water rush into my shoes and wet my feet. It’s unpleasant for 20 seconds or so, until the water in contact with my feet warms up, and then it’s comfortable again.


A big fuss is made about the need for shoes to be waterproof, and in the middle of winter it will be essential. but this Autumn I feel fine, so far.


For years I have walked with waterproof shoes so I am in the habit of walking through deep puddles and I often experiment with their failure point and think “oups” as I feel water trickle into the shoes. With normal shoes puddles have to be several centimetres deep for water to run into the shoe. With barefoot shoes they need to be a few millimetres deep.


Waterproof Shoes Collect Mud


Although waterproof shoes are great in the rain they have one disadvantage. Their tread is excellent at collecting mud so although I have two pairs of shoes that are waterproof one is worn out and should be recycled and the other collects mud too easily and I think it’s at the limit of giving me blisters.


If I could walk in the mud I would be less exposed to cars. If I was less exposed to walking by cars I would not have stopped walking two or three of my favourite routes. The most enjoyable walking period was during 2020, when, thanks to lock down, roads were almost empty of cars.


Waterproof Shoes Dry Slower If They Get Wet


The problem with waterproof shoes is that you need to help them dry, if the interior gets wet. With non-waterproof shoes, if they get wet, you wear them until you get home and by the time you take them off, after a short drive, they will be almost dry, and by the next morning they will be fully dry.


I have got three pairs of shoes wet in recent weeks and I haven’t had to worry about drying any of them.


And Finally


I was pleasantly surprised to find that these shoes felt fine walking through the woods on a rainy day. I didn’t worry about the soles of my feet at all. I found that walking through scrub wasn’t more uncomfortable than with normal shoes. When rain falls vertically onto my shoes I don’t mind. It’s when I have to walk to the side of a path rather than straight through a puddle that I see the limitations of my barefoot shoes. In theory I could spend over one hundred and 50 francs to get waterproof barefoot shoes, but I can get normal waterproof shoes for 35 CHF. I have hiking boots for when it’s snowy and I have comfortable shoes for when it’s dry. It’s for Autumn and winter rain that I need to be responsible enough to wear cheap waterproof shoes.


At this time of year, especially on rainy days, when you’re forced to walk in the grass by cars, it makes sense to wear waterproof shoes, to keep feet comfortable and dry. If walking paths existed between villages and towns, rather than walking along the road side, I wouldn’t need waterproof shoes.


I could wear hiking boots but if I wear those, and I drag mud into the apartment building, neighbours will complain. I wear inappropriate shoes for the weather, because if they get muddy I can clean them in seconds, because we live in the age of drivers, and drivers never encounter mud.

Walking In Heavy Rain

Walking In Heavy Rain

Byrichard

A few days ago I saw that heavy rain was announced for that afternoon so I thought that I would not go for a walk. In the end I did go for a walk in the heavy rain. I was wearing a reasonable rain coat so I could have stayed dry if I had also worn rain trousers.


I didn’t wear rain trousers so for at least half the walk I was okay. I wasn’t too wet. Eventually though I started walking into the wind and my trousers started to get wet. Usually when you walk in the rain it’s not that your coat fails you. It’s that the clothing that is not protected from the rain whicks the water upwards, from your trousers, to your t-shirt, to your sweater, to your fleece. In the end you’re soaking wet.


By this point you realise that you need to keep walking fast, to keep warm and to prevent yourself from catching a cold. In Wuthering Heights they speak of “catching her death” and in other films or books they speak of being at risk from pneumonia etc. If I stopped walking I was at serious risk of getting cold.


For the entire summer I enjoyed walking in minimalist shoes, but now that the cold weather has come, and due to the rain I have been wearing On Cloud 5 for walking. They’re expensive by my standards, for shoes but they have one advantage over barefoot shoes. They lift you a centimetre or more off of the ground. When there are rivers running down the road you’re walking along it’s good to have thicker soles.


These are not waterproof shoes so they get wet when it’s raining, or if you walk through wet grass. When watching a video on Youtube one hiker said that sometimes he prefers not to wear Gore Tex shoes, because when Gore Tex shoes get wet they take a while to dry, whereas others dry with ease. The On Cloud 5 dry easily.


Another feature, and with someone like me this is a feature, the base of the foot is easy to clean. There are no nodules to trap mud like with other shoes. If I went for a walk in muddy conditions with the trail gloves I would spend half an hour clearing the mud from between every element of tread, before being able to walk into the building. With the other shoes I’m ready to enter within seconds.


The other reason for wearing thicker shoes is that the road surface will now be getting colder, due to the drop in air temperature. It is worth having thicker soles, to insulate myself from the cold ground. Having said this I wore the shoes that would be least annoying to clear of mud.


Recently I was thinking about why I grew so tired of car traffic. One reason is that I lost the freedom to walk in the mud. I lost the freedom to walk along paths that were safe from cars but muddy. In losing this freedom I found myself exposed to car traffic almost constantly when walking along certain routes. When I could walk in the mud I could avoid a bridge where cars don’t slow down, despite pedestrians crossing.


When you can’t travel the muddy path, you’re stuck with the dangerous path, and that dangerous path is fatiguing. By trying not to get muddy shoes I lost my freedom to enjoy the walks that got my shoes caked in mud. Recently I have brushed my shoes with a brush to remove all traces of dirt.


I am so meticulous about having clean shoes that despite the cleaner just mopping the floor I walked along it with wet, but clean shoes, so I left no trace. A day or two later I walked into the building and I saw that other people had left a mess, not me. I still don’t understand why it’s the parents of young children that get annoyed by mud, when they have young children. I find it absurd.


I find it absurd but my shoes are clean and I no longer drop clumps of mud, even after walking for one and a half hours in heavy rain.


And Finally, when heavy rain is falling it tends to clean shoes, as you walk, so the layer of mud that would form, doesn’t, because it’s waterlogged and washed away by the rain. Next time it rains so heavily I will wear rain trousers but I think that the rain will whick up from my shoes to my socks, from my socks to my trousers, and from my trousers to everything else. I should have been like someone else, and worn shorts.
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Byrichard

According to Apple Health I take an average of 14,553 steps per day, over the last year. It doesn’t stop there. Not only do I take fourteen and a half thousands steps per day on average but I run up, up to fourty five floors per day and I walk at six kilometres per hour, rather than the four kilometres per hour that normal people walk.


Articles like this speak about walking pace, number of steps per day, as well as steps climbed in some cases.


2,500 daily steps is about the point at which the risk of death was significantly reduced (by 8%), when compared to 2,000 daily steps.

2,700 daily steps is about the point at which the risk of both fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease events like heart attack and stroke was significantly reduced (by 11%), when compared to 2,000 daily steps.

7,000 daily steps, roughly, is the optimal number for those looking to reduce their risk of both fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease events (51% reduction).

9,000 daily steps, roughly, is the optimal number for those looking to reduce their risk of death from any cause (60% reduction).

Each 1,000 additional daily steps, or about 10 minutes of walking, will reduce your risk of death to some extent, though not in predictable intervals.

Each additional 500 daily steps, or about five minutes of walking, will improve the health of those with low levels of physical activity.


During yesterday’s run I switched to running for five minutes for the Nike Running club app. Three quarters of the way through that run I noticed something unusual in a field so I turned around. It was a dog. The dog saw me and then started to walk towards me. I retreated and yelled “leave me alone”. I think the dog’s owners heard me and called the dog back. The damage was done. I changed course and walked across a wet field, rather than risk being attacked.


Long Walks to Avoid Dog Walkers


Plenty of people see dogs as lovely animals but I don’t. I see the signs warning of dangerous dogs on properties. I see them bark aggressively at me. I see them charge me, on more than one occasion in recent years, and now I’m fatigued. I’m fatigued that dogs will approach you threateningly in some cases, and curiously in others. After being threatened so many times in recent years I don’t trust dogs at all.


My walks are huge, compared to those of normal people, in part because I choose routes that have the least likelihood of encountering dogs, and if I see a dog I will ever take a longer detour to avoid them, or a shortcut to circumvent them. The only time I didn’t follow the instinct to avoid a dog it was within three strides of biting me.


The benefit of fearing dogs, rather than trapping me at walk, and discouraging my walking habit, does the opposite. By walking routes that dog walkers don’t walk, and by walking routes, where I can see things, well in advance, gives me the opportunity to go for daily walks, without being afraid.


There is a walk by a river that I loved to walk, and I would often get muddy in the process. After encountering dog walkers with their dogs unleashed I eventually gave up that route, because I had nowhere to flee, and I saw these dogs once it was too late to retreat.


People love to say “don’t be afraid, dogs only attack people who are afraid of them”, and that’s the entire source of my fear. If they threaten me, I feel fear, and if I feel fear they want to threaten me all the more.


In yesterday’s incident I don’t think the dog was going to attack me. I think it was curious, but because I was walking by a farm property, with the people out of sight I thought it could suddenly decide to defend the property and bite. I need help to overcome that fear.


Playing with Personal Activity Intelligence


This morning I ran up three floors three or more times as I moved recycling from the apartment to the car. In the process I got a good workout but it didn’t count as active enough for my PAI score to change. Either I wasn’t active for enough minutes in a row, or it’s not trained to recognise that increase in heart beat as a PAI event.


The Pandemic Boosted my Steps


During the pandemic my step count exploded. I went from walking 10,000 to 20,000 or more, daily. I was walking so much because there was little else to do.


Gender Gap


In the article Why Do All the Men in My Life Walk So Fast? the issue of walking pace difference is brought up. Months or years ago I came to the conclusion that I walk fast because I walk alone so I gradually sped up. I walk fast even by London standards. It’s due to playing a game when I was younger. I would stride from one coloured tile to another at school so my stride became longer. The second reason is fitness. The fitter you are the more powerful your stride and pace. It’s not about gender. I know men who walk slowly. I call it undertaker pace.


I love when women walk as fast, or faster than me. I love when I have to keep up with them, rather than the other way around. To me, this signals that we will have the freedom to enjoy pleasant walks together.


Christine Reed, in Alone in Wonderland also wrote about the frustration of others walking faster than her. She wrote about how they made it effortless to move at speed.


One of the reasons for the difference in walking speed is simply that some people walk a lot more than others. The more you walk the higher the speed at which you walk. The reason some people look as if they’re walking fast effortlessly is that they walk enormous amounts. In 2020 I walked five and a half million steps. I would walk from two to four hours a day, every day, to the point of eventually becoming fatigued, and decreasing the distance.


During the pandemic walking was fun because there were no cars, and without cars walking is a pleasure. Cars don’t respect pedestrians by the side of the road. During the pandemic every road was walkable. When the pandemic ended those roads became dangerous again. It’s because of danger fatigue that I stopped walking my favourite routes. It’s why I now have one walk with four variations, that I can do clockwise, or anti-clockwise.


If walking was made safe, along roads, I would have 40-80 kilometres of walk, without ever needing to get in a car. It’s because of dangerous car driving that those routes are not worth the risk, out of lockdowns.


It is for this reason that I argue that we need roads to be dedicated to pedestrians and cycling. We need those routes to be banned to car drivers.


Elena Colgato argued for a world without cars, but the problem is not cars. The problem is how people drive those cars around pedestrians and cyclists, as well as how few routes are safe for pedestrians to walk along.


As a prime example millions are being spent to redo the motorway exit for Nyon, but nothing is being done to make walking between Nyon and Signy safe for pedestrians. If you want people to walk more, you need to make it safe to walk. If you want people to walk faster, you need to make walking a viable option. My biggest frustration is that walking is not safe between villages and towns.


If people want a world with fewer cars, the countryside needs to be safe for walkers, from all villages to all other villages, along most roads.


And Finally


For me, the goal is not to replace cars with buses and trains, because people would still be unfit. For me the ideal situation is to make walking between villages and towns safe, without needing buses or trains. Buses and trains should be so regular that you can go from A to B every fifteen minutes, rather than once an hour.


If you make it safe for people to walk, and cycle, you encourage them to walk and cycle, and if they walk and cycle their walking pace will increase, which in turn will speed up getting from A to B on foot, and negate the need for buses, which would reduce the carbon footprint of getting around.

One Limitation of Electric Cars
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One Limitation of Electric Cars

Byrichard

At the moment I am doing a favour that requires me to drive the electric car over a route that takes 25 percent of the car’s battery. This means that for every time I do the favour I have to charge the car for five hours.


About the Drive


The drive from where I charge the car to home takes eight to ten percent but the drive back to charge the car takes up to 15 percent due to traffic, but also due to the climb. This climb means that for every trip to charge I have three hours of waiting. In total I have five and a half hours of waiting around for the car to charge.


Three Times in a Week


If I was charing the car once per week and waiting five hours it wouldn’t bother me, because it’s once per week. This time It’s three times. That’s fifteen hours of waiting around for the car to charge.


Walking, Running, Cycling, Blogging Etc


Of course there are plenty of things that I can do while waiting for the car to charge, like walking, running, cycling or writing this blog post. I can occupy myself and get things done whilst waiting


The Wait for Petroleum


If I think waiting five hours for a car to recharge is long I should try waiting for petrol to be ready. It takes several million years for petroleum to become what it is, and we burn it within seconds in a car. If I take biomass and wait for it to become petrol then my wait will be several million years. In contrast waiting for a solar panel to charge a car is a number of hours. 


I Still Like Electric Cars


Although it may sound as though I have fallen out of love with electric cars that is not the case. I don’t feel like waiting for another 10hrs for the car to charge, when the task that I need to do takes seconds. On Friday the favour will be over and then I can use the elctric car more economically, doing the 30 percent drive once per week, rather than three or four times per week. As I said, driving to the shops and back takes less than one percent per trip but it’s rounded up to one percent. This means that instead of burning petrol and polluting I am using a tiny amount of electric energy. 


This energy could have come from solar panels, hydroelectric dams or wind power. It’s when you drive up a mountain three times per week, and on the motorway that you deplete the battery. 


And Finally


Petrol cars need to be run every so often and mine hasn’t been run for several weeks. It makes sense to run the engine, recharge the battery and ensure that it doesn’t get depleted before I need to jump start the car. By back and forth I wil refresh the battery and the likelihood of being stranded with a dead battery will be lessened. I still care for the environment. I was even toying with the idea of dropping off the petrol car at home, and cycling back for the electric car at another time. If I do that I will tire myself, and with winter coming I could easily regret it.

The Habit of Walking

The Habit of Walking

Byrichard

This morning I decided to go for a benchmark run for a new Garmin training plan. After I ran the required 5 minutes and four minutes of walking I continued with my walk. I had a route that I wanted to walk but because I saw people, and dogs on the paths that I was thinking of walking down I took a bigger loop once, then again, and then a third time. In the end I walked 12,000 steps this morning. I walked from Nyon to Cheserex to Borex to Arnex and back towards Nyon.

This is more than a five minute walk. Between running, and walking it took me one and a half to two hours. That’s the same time as it would take on the buses. That’s because the bus route is long and winding. I am not hear to discuss buses.

This walk illustrates that if we gather the habit of walking from one place to another, without getting into a car, the area within which we live actually shrinks, rather than grows. That’s because buses, trams, the London Underground and other forms of transport skew our perception of time and distance. What feels like a massive distance on the Roman Metro is actually an easy walk on the surface. It’s the same in London. The centre of London is tiny, once you build a mental map, by walking around.

Endangered by a Dangerous Driver

The same is true of the Swiss countryside. It’s because my scooter was crashed into by a woman staring at her phone, rather than the road in front of her. The scooter and I skidded several meters but I stayed upright, but the rear shock absorber was skewed. I was fine but I still went to the hospital for a checkup, in case of pain later on.

When the scooter was in for repairs I was forced to walk to the scooter place several times to learn about progress. As I did this several times the distance went from feeling long, to feeling short. Over time I expanded my local walking habit until I could walk from where I live to Founex, to Gingins to Crassier, Nyon and beyond.

When I realised that I had so many walking routes that I could appreciate, without getting into a polluting car I kept the habit. We always hear about how we need to make towns pedestrian friendly, and how we need to reduce speed limits. I think this is forking stupid. I think we should focus on making it possible to walk from villages, from the suburbs, to towns, without feeling the need to drive.

The Default Car Habit

Dog walkers, and others, get into a car to do a three or four kilometre walk several driving minutes from home. If pedestrian, and cycling routes were added parallel to roads the need for cars for short journeys would vanish. We need cars, not because we don’t want to walk from A to B, but because there is a busy road that feels to dangerous to walk along.

Recently I decided not to walk towards the lake anymore. I like the road and I like the landscapes but cars drive along these narrow agricultural roads at speed. People wave to thank me for standing a meter or two from the roads, but I stand so far from the road because they drive like homicidal maniacs. It’s not safe to walk near the road.

Dedicated Walking Routes

I will keep repeating myself. We need safe walking roads that are banned to cars, for cycling and walking. It is counterproductive to say “if you drive to this parking, and walk along that loop you will encounter no cars. These cars are dangerous around me, a solitary male, which is normal. What horrifies me is that they behave the same with women walking with prams, couples and more.

It is counterproductive to speak about wanting people to have a walking culture, if to walk, or cycle, is to expose yourself to people speeding by you, too fast and too close. The environment won’t benefit from people like me, for as long as people speed and drive too close to pedestrians.

The Pandemic Honeymoon

During the pandemic I had enormous walking freedom, because the mental illness of driving had vanished for a few weeks, so walking was safe. When the mental illness of driving came back so all the routes I had enjoyed became dangerous and emotionally toxic. I went from having dozens of walking route down to a single circuit now, that I can do clockwise, or anti-clockwise, for diversity.

I had the mental illness of getting into a car to do an 8km walk two hours from home, instead of just walking eight kilometres from home. It frustrates me that so many walking routes that I enjoyed are too dangerous to walk now.

Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg are speaking of 30km/h limits in town, but it’s not in towns that you need to lower the speed. You need to make it enjoyable to walk from villages, into towns, and vice versa. You need to get people to forget about their cars. You need people to feel safe walking from Cheserex to Nyon, from Borex to Grens, and from Céligny to Arnex.

And Finally

When you walk from home, you see more. You see the migration of cows from their fields, to be milked. You see sheep in one field one day, and in another field three days later. You see the crops grow, get harvested and new crops planted. You notice the beehives and the plants that the bees love. You also get to know every single local road. If you look at the heat map I generate by walking and cycling you will see how well I know the local area.

Walking is a pleasure, but too many people are driving like maniacs, because they’re in a rush. If they left the car parked, and walked to where they need to be, they’d be calmer. People need to learn to leave their cars parked, and walk.

I don’t want to see my old habit of driving every day come back. I like that I walk and cycle three to four days in a row, using the car just to shop, and only because of the 15 minute rule. If not for the 15 minute rule I wouldn’t use the car for shopping.