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The War on Bathrooms
I am in Klamath Falls, OR, 1,068 miles into my drive to Albany, OR. It has been a great trip, except for a curious aspect, the government’s war on bathrooms. Outside of Kirkwood, CA, I stopped to use a facility in the National Forest only to find the doors locked by my bureaucratic betters due to COVID-19, presumably to discourage travel by the hoi polloi like myself. My first instinct was to pee on the locked door but sanity returned and I parked by the side of the road a few miles later.
A few weeks ago, I stopped to admire the expansion of the Roosevelt Dam at the junction of AZ 88 and AZ 188. There was a bathroom that was locked to discourage people from traveling. At least this sign pleaded with people to not urinate against the building.
I stopped by Starbucks to order some food. Their bathrooms were closed to the public. I asked why. “Due to COVID-19” was the answer. “What, COVID-19 prevents people from needing to pee?” was my retort.
Hey, I don’t like the masks but wear mine religiously when I leave my car. However, this war on bathrooms is a step too far.
Patrick Henry famously exclaimed, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!” Perhaps my fellow Ricochetti can think of a pithy exclamation.
Published in General
XY XX 1.5 X 0.5 Y spotted at O’Hare
Or try truck stops if you’re on the interstate. Most are now well-run clean chains like Love’s, Petro, Pilot, TA.
I haphazardly follow some reports by long distance truck drivers, and they have been complaining a lot about the lack of bathrooms and non-availability of food since mid-March. Many states closed the bathrooms in their state-run roadside rest areas. Though some states put up portable toilets without any explanation of why a portable toilet is less risky to virus hygiene than is a plumbed bathroom.
Large supermarkets, Walmart, Target, Lowe’s (hardware), and Home Depot also generally have restrooms available.
First off, the Department of Ag is controlled by Democrats I am sure.
Second, I said it is the sort of nonsense Democrats want more of.
And Biden won’t make it worse…
Don’t worry, President Biden will make it all better.
He’ll issue an EO saying Depends are an entitlement that should be available to all travelers.
Hey, guys, this is the first post in which we haven’t mentioned the T-person once. This is about a wonderful road trip. Why not keep it that way.
No, THIS post:
http://ricochet.com/773640/road-trip-2/
is about a wonderful road trip.
THIS CURRENT post is about BAD parts of that road trip.
Yes, okay. Dagnamn Democrats!
Even if there is nothing else on Ricochet we can all agree on, I believe that we can all agree on this.
I’ve been wondering about that. It would be nice to get away for a junket by bicycle. Or even for a series of long day rides from home. I can take lunch with me, but what about filling up my water bottles and emptying my bladder along the way. Buying water at gas station convenience stores isn’t likely to be a problem, but what if their restrooms are closed?
When I bought lawnmower gas today I had to go inside to get my receipt, and neglected to check the restroom situation.
Most of my riding is on country roads, but you might be surprised how hard it is to find an out-of-sight place to pee along the way.
It may be OK to pee on the streets of San Francisco, but it might draw unwanted attention around here.
Yikes!
Guys are so much luckier than the ladies in this department. Still, when I was in farm land, I searched for a gas station to make a pit stop.
The T-person? I am sorry, I don’t know who you are talking about.
So when governors try to determine what is and is not essential, toilets didn’t make the cut? And bathrooms also have sinks where people can wash their hands. Hand washing is a good way to lessen your chances of catching a disease. At least there are still plenty of roadside bushes.
Proposed slogan: “Don’t Piss Me Off”.
I think that it’s a reference to the number on that bathroom wall, which you weren’t able to read. 867-5309. The T-person is Tommy Tutone.
Bryan, this is so tiresome.
I believe Gary has said that he believes in personal liberty and the stated aims of conservatism. You are in absolutely no position not to take him at his word. If he believes that having a democrat in office will do less harm for the next 4 years than having Trump in office, you can disagree all you want, but if you continue to make the claim that he doesn’t want what he very clearly states he wants, you are being deliberately obtuse. It is beyond stupid.
Let’s put it another way – you work as a counselor of some sort, no? Let us say that you have a client who desires to be wealthy but continues to lose all of his money gambling. Do you chastise him by saying that no, he really wants to be poor, or do you attempt to convince him that his strategy for getting rich will more likely make him poor? Do you think that insulting him and calling him a liar is going to persuade him to adopt your preferred behavior? What if he argues that the guy at the machine next to him last week hit jackpot and is now wealthy? Do you suggest that that guy also seeking poverty?
Aggressiveness is not persuasive, Bryan. It shows that you feel strongly about what you’re arguing, and that you wear your emotions on your sleeve, but it is not persuasive.
Well, and also, this was intended to just be a kind of silly and light-hearted thread.
Gary is tiresome with his constant attacks on Trump and Trump supporters.
Gary offers no grace to us, having used the term “cult” and “Trumpism”. Sorry, but if someone acts as if my reasoning cannot be rational, then I will not afford that person anything different.
As we have been told not to attack Gary as a lawyer, I will be interested to see if that rule also applies to my profession. I suspect not.
Since governors said that travel is prohibited, then toilets for travelers become irrelevant since no one would be out of range of their home toilets. The governors forgot about truckers and others responsible for delivering essential goods and providing essential services, as dictators making dictates usually miss many things.
Some of the toilet closures are likely decisions by store management, not pursuant to government dictate. Keeping a commercial setting toilet clean is challenging in normal times. Trying to keep one clean when people expect everything to be sanitized after every user becomes quite difficult. Easier to just keep the toilet closed.
An infectious disease specialist with my local Cape Cod Hospital has written a helpful article about using public restrooms:
https://www.capecodhealth.org/medical-services/infectious-disease/how-to-use-a-public-bathroom-in-the-time-of-covid-19/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NEWSFEED-6-30-20&utm_content=NEWSFEED-6-30-20+Version+B+CID_bb562907189a8d794b3001e2fd3f499c&utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_term=Learn%20more
Who told you not to attack Gary as a lawyer?
Mods
Well, you’ve got the 12. We’ll just have to see about Jon. And we all know Lileks is a lose canon. 😉
Yes. A thousand times yes!
Wow. I guess I can see that.
Are we allowed to mention his only moderate-sized bladder, and his penchant for public micturition? Even once is too much! (Sorry, Gary, but, I had to “go there”: silence is violence.)
At least the constipated ones . . .
However it does seem destined for the Member Piss of the Week!
I remember the highly-abbreviated stall doors on the Illinois Toll Road of many years ago. The way we were.