There was a reference to Bike Index in this video about securing your bicycle:

Cofounded by Seth Herr and Bryan Hance in 2013, Bike Index is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

It is the most widely used and successful bicycle registration service in the world with over 272,000 cataloged bikes, 810 community partners and tens of thousands of daily searches.

Seth built Bike Index when he was a bike mechanic because he wanted to be able to register bikes for his customers. Bryan developed and ran a community driven bicycle recovery service (StolenBikeRegistry.com) that recovered bikes from the first week it was created in 2004.

Merging the two services Seth and Bryan created the universal bike registration service they both dreamed of — a database used and searched by individuals, bike shops, police departments and other apps. A bike registry that gives everyone the ability to register and recover bicycles.

Simple. Efficient. Effective.

I followed through and registered my own bicycle (and in the process learned that my bicycle, like many, has a serial number stamped on the bottom bracket. Who knew!

Remember the Bateman-Atkinson Bicycle Trailer Conversion? Well it’s been serving me well for over a year now, never more so than today.

Today was a complex cycling day that involved a cycle up to the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market with Oliver, and then a trip to the University of PEI for Oliver’s New Student Orientation activities (he left his bike there, and I’ll pick him up later tonight for the cycle home).

Once Oliver was in the capable hands of Blue Team, Squad Two, I dashed down University Avenue to Charlottetown Vet Clinic to get dog food, then over to MacQueen’s to pick up a kick stand for my bicycle and a water bottle holder for Oliver’s. I made a final stop at Leezen to get some soap before cycling home.

The result of all this was a full tub on top of the bike trailer, that held all of this:

Here’s what’s in the photo, from left to right, top to bottom:

• Oliver’s two textbooks for the course ACLC 1080 - Digital Literacy, which starts next Thursday: The Non-Designer’s Design Book and How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck.
• 8 kg of Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Dental Dry Dog Food from Charlottetown Vet Clinic.
• Oliver’s New Student Orientation kitbag.
• 1 lb. of mushrooms from Paul Offer.
• 1 box of seedless green grapes from Elderflower Organic Farm.
• 2 green papers and 2 zucchini from Cranbush Farms.
• Versamount water bottle holder for Oliver’s trike (which doesn’t have a universal mount), from MacQueen’s.
• Evo Pylon 1 kickstand for my bicycle, from MacQueen’s.
• Two bars of peppermint soap from Leezen.
• 1 box of wild blueberries from the, erm, blueberry sellers at the market.
• 1 Proud UPEI Parent mug.
• 1 Blackburn water bottle holder, from MacQueen’s.
• 1 bag of beets from Elderflower Organic Farm.
• 3 fresh tomatoes from Angel.

My old excuse for taking the car to the Farmers’ Market on Saturday was “well, how am I going to get everything home – I need the car for that!”

But this turns out not to be true (and we didn’t even begin to fill the basket on the back of Oliver’s bike!).

– – – – – –

I need to get better at knolling. But I’m pretty happy with the photo, which I took on my Moto G7 Play while standing on a kitchen stepladder over the contents of the bike tub spread out on our driveway. This being Charlottetown, who should cycle by than the selfsame Erin Bateman, she of the ancestral bicycle trailer.

Today is the start of New Student Orientation week at the University of PEI and Oliver is diving in with all feet.

As I write he is off on a campus tour while I chill in the parent lounge and drink coffee from my parent mug.

Thirty-five years ago this week I was in Oliver’s shoes; I told him, as we were cycling up to campus this morning, that I felt nervous, to which his response was “what have you got to be nervous about?!”

I am, indeed, a proud UPEI parent.

Start your Friday by listening to Unwritten by Pomplamoose ft. Malinda.

It’s not every day your primary client is on the front of the local newspaper, so today’s a day to celebrate: the cover of The Guardian this morning was graced by a story, Chilling forecast, about the 2020 edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

My work with The Old Farmer’s Almanac started many years ago when Almanac.com first went online; this is the 23rd year I’ve helped launch the digital companion to the printed book. The team I work with in Dublin, New Hampshire has evolved over the years, but they’ve always been fun to work with, and the work has always been challenging.

Here on Prince Edward Island you can buy your copy of the 2020 edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac at:

• The Bookmark
• Indigo
• Atlantic Superstore
• Home Depot Canada
• Home Hardware
• Lawton Drugs
• Michael’s
• Princess Auto
• Shopper’s Drug Mart
• Sobey’s
• Walmart

When you buy a copy you’re not only getting a venerable yearly companion, but you’re also supporting my little business.

And I will buy your radishes. Thank you.

My year-long effort to change the way I write my lower case g is paying off.

Catherine, who heretofore I’d never seen drink a glass of chocolate milk even once in 28 years, has suddenly gone gangbusters for it. Cancer meds work in mysterious ways.

Fortunately Purity Dairy is but a hop, skip, and jump away. I’ll need more storage on the bicycle if this keeps up though.

The City of Charlottetown recently announced a program to incentivize local businesses to install bicycle racks:

The City of Charlottetown is offering a cost sharing incentive to provide local businesses an opportunity to install a bike rack at their establishment.

The four bike rack costs $425.00 plus HST, which would be cost shared at $212.50 plus HST each. Installation and maintenance costs for the lifetime of the bike rack would be the responsibility of the partner.

The City has capacity for twenty establishments to partner with for the 2019/20 budget year. Interested businesses can learn more or register online at: www.charlottetown.ca/cycling

I’ve been making a determined effort, this cycling season, to replace all my car trips with bicycle trips: where I used to go to the grocery store, pharmacy, hospital, hardware store, and the farmers’ market by car, I now take my bicycle.

As soon as I started to do this in earnest, I started to notice that there are some businesses with great bicycle parking infrastructure (Receiver Coffee Brass Shop, Upstreet, Murphy’s Parkdale Pharmacy, Sobeys) and some businesses with no place to park a bicycle at all.

The large bicycle rack at Sobeys on Allen Street.

The single best way to advocate for better bicycle infrastructure at local businesses is to ask them to take advantage of this program.

As part of the ask, make it clear that you’re doing so as a customer-who-cycles. This turns your request from an environmental decision into a business one: businesses want their customers to be happy, and they want patronage to be convenient. Looked at through that lens, spending $200 on a bicycle rack is a no-brainer.

Let’s get this program fully subscribed before the end of the month.

Although Art in the Open 2019 was a cavalcade of artistic wonders, my favourite part of it was the portable printmaking studio set up on Victoria Row by St. Michael’s Printshop from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

I was trying to explain to someone last night the difference between printmakers and printers, and I suggested that it was kind of like they’re Portuguese and we’re Spanish. To the casual observer we’re easily confused with each other, and, indeed, it’s possible to make yourself understood speaking one language to a native speaker of the other. But we’re different nations with different traditions, different sensibilities, different terminologies.

But, that all said, we’re all Iberians, so to speak, as our alchemy involves ink, paper, form and pressure. And so I loved spending time in their midst.

The portable printshop was setup up to print on anything you might bring along with you, using one of a fleet of woodcuts that they traveled with.

I brought along a piece of scrap canvas, and selected this stunning cut by Newfoundland artist Kim Greeley for my print:

I’m so, so happy with the result. You can come see it on my shop door in St. Paul’s Parish Hall next time you’re near.

The St. Michael’s crew were hard at it for hours last night, a little overwhelmed, I think, by the reception they got to their offer-to-print.

I’ve emerged with a newfound appreciation for my Iberian cousins and a resolve to accelerate my plans, long unfulfilled, to visit Newfoundland and Labrador.

Oliver announced late last week that he planned to participate in the much-vaunted Crow Parade that is the spiritual backbone of Art in the Open every year. As a result, Oliver and Catherine spent much of Friday afternoon crow-costume conjuring.

On Saturday evening, at the appointed hour, I accompanied Oliver to the plaza at Confederation Centre of the Arts for the start of the parade and, when the caw came, I walked along beside him out onto Victoria Row.

As we walked along, I could immediately tell he was agitated. This was something of a feat, as I rely a lot–I realized last night–on Oliver’s facial expressions and body language to tell how he’s feeling, and, as he was dressed like a crow, I didn’t have this to go on.

Using all of my fatherly powers, however, and with Oliver reaching deep into himself to help, he managed to communicate that he was anxious and angry about not having any other crows to walk with (in previous year’s he’d been accompanied by Catherine, or by Derrick both of whom, being more game than I, walked with him in their own full crow regalia; I was not dressed like a crow).

Nearing the intersection of Queen Street, exacerbated by noise and claustrophobia and scads of people taking photos, Oliver tipped over the edge and got really, really frustrated, to the point where I thought we’d need to exit the parade and head home. But Oliver insisted that we forge on, albeit in an angry fugue that I knew wasn’t sustainable.

It was at this point that I spotted crow Tony Reddin walking along beside us.

“Tony, would it be okay if Oliver walked along with you?”, I asked.

“Sure!”, cawed Tony-crow.

And so Oliver left my side, aligned himself with Tony, and happily walked the rest of the parade route at his side.

Here they are making their way along the Victoria Park roadway (Tony in the brightly-coloured feathers, Oliver to his right):

I can’t imagine anyone better to come across in our moment of need than Tony: he is among the kindest and most welcoming people you’ll ever meet, and he welcomed Oliver into his murder as a partner in crime.

Here they are, at the end of the parade, side by side in front of the gathered crows:

Thank you, Tony, for your crowmanity.