Hey, public work is not for me:
BMX Flatland sport court cleaning after winter salting
(funny video 2018)
I meant to make my video mostly funny - the great music of Andrea B. Kiss and István Gál: Public Workers' Hymn, is the proof, I always simper through the whole song, LOL - but I'm writing a bit more serious about the background of it bellow.
What is a good BMX Flatland practice spot like?
To be able to practice my BMX Flatland bicycle tricks as effectively as possible, a clean, smooth concrete (possibly OSB or marble) surface, sports ground or parking space is required. My favorite practice site in my hometown, Miskolc, Hungary is the concrete court of Avas-Hilltop Youth Park. I used to spend about 4 to 6 hours a day practising my BMX tricks in the rain, heat or frost. I'm going up there much less today, but that will change in the future. (Being able tor ide more BMX Flatland is
one of my reasons for selling mushroom coffee online.)
one of my reasons for selling mushroom coffee online.)
Why is it important for a sports court to be clean?
It is important both for aesthetics and appeal as well that the practice site (spot) is clean and tidy. But there is another reason for it, of course. Small pebbles can be distracting when exercising with tricks that demand high-level of concentration. They can kick off the balance, ’throw’ the bicycle, wear out and cut the BMX tires, which, if you want to buy quality, do not cost only 2 cents. (I use Odyssey Frequeny G 1.75 tires, this typed has proven itself to be the best one for me.)
Besides the gravels, it is important not to have glass splinters as well, since besides being able to cause defects, it is not too healthy to have them stick in the palm of your hands, knees or backs if you get off your bike in a unique way.
To have no foreign matter on the track, it's important not just for my favorite sport in BMX Flatland. It's not good to play soccer or basketball when the court is pebbly. I can also be kicking the few pebbles off the court, grumbling, protesting. Fortunately pebbles do not get too often on my spot in larger quantities.
What kind of garbage can end up on a public sport ground?
I've been cleaning lots of things off my sportsground over the long years of my BMX Flatlander career. There was human excrement in the middle of the court, gyros, chocolates, all kinds of food and drinks and their packaging, cigarettes after a concert, at such a level that it was disgusting to go on the court. But if I wanted to do sports, I had to clean it up because, unfortunately, many times the people responslible did not cleanse it. After all these, I thought they could not show me anything new, but I still got surprised.
Why on Earth is a sports court salted in winter?
I was really shocked when the snow was finally melting - the April one, too, which was the toughest in the winter of spring 2018 - and my beautiful court was covered with such a thick layer of salt that it was not possible to drop a dime on it. I said a few ’nice’ things I do not wanna write down right now. I could hardly wait to get out there and ride my Flatland bike, and there it was, salted to the last inch. Just great! L
I'm sure the person who got Avas-Hill sports ground salted was guilty of good intentions. I also understand that it was not possible to solve the cleansing of winter salt, because the first was to clean the roads and sidewalks. In my opinion, if they had thought about it, they would have realized that it is unnecessary to salt a sport track because the snow melts off it as it has been doing so for decades, and after that, people can play sports on a clean spot. There would have been no work for anyone with the court either in winter, when the snow had fallen, or after it had melted. They could have saved several hours of unnecessary work, sweeping and salting, plus the salt, which could have been used better.
Fortunately, most of the salt was sweeped off.
I did not go up right away to sweep my court clean. It's not my business, I told myself. It was salted full at such a level that it would have taken several hours to sweep clean. Cleaning one half of the court after they had swept the most of the salt off took me 1 hour of intense work. In the meantime, I thought that I did not sweep this much at home, and that even in the end I might end up growing a female genital became of doing so much housewife-work, hehe :D. Somehow I felt (and I was hoping) that the salt was going to be cleaned off, because I decided that my expensive and little spare time would not be wasted on this because of other people’ stupidity.
Of course, I was rather punishing myself only, because I did not ride my bicycle, but I had other things to do. I don’t have any time to get bored. Even after the salt had been sweeped off, was the court neither clean nor normal, but it had been visited by children as well then, too. Of course, it almost felt purely clean compared to the salt mass that covered it at the beginning. I knew that the court would have not been cleaned up better than they had done, so I finally got myself to become a public worker for free, in my own interest to be able to ride Flatland again.
And the other half?
So after about 4 months of omission, in the morning of the 21st of April, 2018 my training started with court-sweeping. I only did half of it because I felt right after the first 10 minutes that it was not a 2 minute work and it was quite tiresome too, and, even if I wanted to ride my bike too, half the court was enough because the weather was getting hotter too. Maybe I will find some time to clean the other half as well because of the annoying sight as well, and the bigger place is also necessary for some tricks. Certainly the public work is much more easier to some good ’’mulatós” music, hehe.
(This genre is the mixture of traditional Hungarian folk and gypsy music, usually with funny lyrics.)
(This genre is the mixture of traditional Hungarian folk and gypsy music, usually with funny lyrics.)
