I <3 cars when they aren't on the roads, Wreck-Free Sunday

I was up past midnight watching the Sprint All-Star Race last night. I was slightly disappointed in who won as I am most emphatically NOT a Jimmy Johnson fan, but I really liked the way the race ran. There were very few wrecks, which is a testimony to the skills of the drivers involved when running for a first prize of over $1M. There was the comment made during the race that under the special rules for the race NASCAR would run as many green-white-checkers as it took to get a winner under green, or until they ran out of cars, but it didn’t get anywhere near that heated between drivers this year. The new car is very racy, but also very easy to race without running into the other driver and taking both out. Count me as happy with the new Cup car.

I was mentioning the discussion Mrs. the Poet and I were having about getting a car vs making a car. I’m on the side of the fence that you I get a better car for your my purposes if I build my own, Mrs. the Poet prefers to go to a dealer and plunk down some $$ and drive away, but she has already said that she isn’t driving no matter what kind of car we get. Also she has this fixed belief that cars “have” to have a roof and windshield. I’m not so fixated on creature comforts, but I do agree that you need to be able to bring everyone home from the grocery store with all the groceries, which the Speedway ’27 T Roadster can’t quite do. So I have been pondering a redesign of the back end of the body to provide more trunk space and also reduce the amount of lift and drag. Basically the redesign would raise the trunk lid and make the run from the opening of the cockpit to the back of the car making the back end a box with slightly rounded corners and then adding what is called a shovel spoiler to kill the lift. This also has the slight benefit of a tiny bit lower drag compared to the 1927 T turtledeck, so it’s all good, except for the additional work on the back of the body.

I currently have the Australian V8 Supercars on the tube from Austin, another highly enjoyable form of motor sport.

And my allergy pill just kicked in and I’m having tons of trouble keeping my eyes open. I’m going to stop here and take a nap…

PSA, Opus

Loaded with swag after doing the bike to work station, and the Feed

I got up early to visit the Bike to Work Commuter Energizer Station for a bite and a bit of conversation. Because it was a trifle foggy out I decided to run with my headlights on, and I was glad I did because they both died from discharged batteries during the ride. Since I have to go somewhere tonight I have three battery chargers going at the moment, one for the 4 AA NiMH batteries in the primary headlight, one for the 2 AAA NiMH batteries in my secondary headlight that is aimed to spot street signs, and a third to keep the Chromebook running. And I mentioned swag in the headline, let me recount the swag: 3 water bottles and it would have been 4 if I hadn’t shooed the nice lady away from my bike when she started loading the buckets, a clip-on blinky light, a T-shirt, and tons of literature from DART on taking my bike on the bus including a map to bike racks, coffee, Clif bars, and a banana. And Bike Friendly Garland sticker which was what I actually came for.

Up first an update on a fatal hit-and-run in GA in a town I used to live in (in case you haven’t noticed I have lived in lots of towns). Police say hit-and-run suspect tried to repaint truck I think additional charges of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence should be tacked on to the hit-and-run and vehicular manslaughter charges. If you are new to my blog you probably don’t know what is about to be posted next, for those of you who have read more than 2 weeks this will be old hat: Chain the guy to the steering wheel and recycle his truck into bicycle parts, the process of melting the truck down will allow the contaminants to be skimmed off the top.

A MO wreck that appears to be a sidewalk cyclist getting cut off at a stop sign. Bike rider hurt in collision with pickup From the picture of the damage on the bike and the position of the debris, assuming medical responders didn’t move anything, the truck and the cyclist were both moving at a fair clip, given the damages to the bike and the place where the cyclist’s shoes ended up. Since the bike had flat pedals with toe clips and not clipless pedals I don’t see any reason for medical personnel to remove the cyclist’s shoes and then leave them at the scene so they must have come off in the wreck. Also the physical evidence shows the cyclist was riding salmon which meant the driver was looking away from him when he pulled out into the street. Lots of blame to go around in this wreck between the salmon cyclist and a driver not looking where he was going. Intersection protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

More on the IL cyclist killed at an intersection scheduled for a bike overpass in just under a month. Husband mourns Busse Woods bicyclist killed crossing Higgins Road Everything I read about this wreck blames the intersection and drivers that don’t look for cyclists when they turn their vehicles across bike lanes. I don’t know what a cyclist could do in the face of that kind of failure in both drivers and infrastructure. Intersection protocols seem so inadequate when confronted with drivers that face so little in the way of consequences compared to cyclists and who can blame the infrastructure when they can’t blame the cyclists.

More on the bicycle-hating drunk that killed a cyclist driving the wrong direction in a bike lane. Driver in crash that killed cyclist in Lyons expressed growing frustration with bicyclists The driver is still in jail over the wreck. I would hide in jail if I were him, too. More Patrick Ward made anti-bicycling statements before crash that killed cyclist

Another report on the cyclist killed by a man fleeing a shooting that he is alleged to have also committed. Bicyclist Killed By Suspect Fleeing From Shooting I’m getting backchannel reports the weapon vehicle was airborne when it hit the cyclist. As I posted yesterday the cyclist had no chance of avoiding this wreck as he was already in the intersection when the driver ran the stop sign at a high rate of speed.

A RI cyclist is killed. North Providence student killed in bike-car crash At this point all I know is it was an intersection wreck so maybe intersection protocols would have reduced the amount of damage to non-fatal levels. I’m not sure infrastructure would have helped either as the Street View of the site shows a dense residential neighborhood, that would be a shared space with limited motor vehicle access and an 18 MPH speed limit under the Dutch model.

More Ride of Silence links. Locals honor fallen cyclists in silent ride and Memorial Ride Honors Bike Victims also Silent Ride: Remembering Victims of Bicycle Accidents and this Ride of Silence honors cyclist hit and killed on Route 434 don’t forget this link Fort Collins cyclists remember riders hurt or killed with silent ride or this one ‘Ride of Silence’ honors cyclist killed in Davidson County not done yet Cyclists Raise Awareness for Safety on the Roads

Emerging Artist Killed in 2011 Bicycle Crash Gets Posthumous New York Solo Show

Last link 3000 cyclists are expected to descend on the Scottish Parliament to protest lax sentencing for drivers that kill cyclists. Family of Audrey Fyfe to lead 3,000-strong ‘Pedal on Parliament’ I think we might get 30 or 40 cyclists to “descend” on the TX legislature if they had to ride in on bikes.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

When you don’t have an actual job you never get a day off, and the Feed

You would think that not having what my elder daughter called a “jobby job” I wouldn’t be busy, but truth be told I don’t think I have ever been busier since I started doing this blog instead of actual working. I will be voting this morning, then going to meet with the people of Occupy Dallas about establishing a bike co-op this afternoon, doing Mother’s Day a day early with the kids still living on this side of the pond during early evening, then if I’m lucky I’ll be able to catch the end of RPG day as my warlock(6) goes undercover as a courier to thwart gangs that have been stealing the information from their message bags without breaking their (non-magical) seals. For a guy that hasn’t had a daily job since 2006 that’s a lot of running around.

A NE cyclist gets hit just after making a turn. Woman injured in car-bike crash Looking at the scene there were two lanes of travel in each direction, and the wreck was a distance away from the intersection. It looked like the cyclist expected the driver to make a lane change instead of panicking and locking the brakes and running her over. That is why you need to assume that every driver has the traffic savvy of a roadkill squirrel to avoid wrecks like this, basically a slight modification of the hit-from-behind protocol. Obviously getting the infrastructure right to prevent 40 MPH cars from mixing with bike traffic would prevent a similar wreck in the future.

An Upstate NY cyclist is killed by a drunk driver. Wayland teen killed riding his bike near his home Thursday found Friday; Man charged with DWI Have I mentioned lately how much I hate drunk drivers, and hit-and-run? And how much I especially hate drunk drivers that hit-and-run and leave dead cyclists in their wake? Recycle the car with the driver still in it and let then skim the scum off the top of the kiln.

Updates on the AL 6YO killed riding a bike in a residential area. Boy killed while riding bike and Cullman PD: 6-year-old hit and killed while riding his bike I “love” how the one report said it was a “perfect storm” because the kid couldn’t see the truck and the truck “couldn’t stop” (because he was driving too fast in a residential area). But because the driver was within the speed limit fatal mistakes are not “his fault” but the kid’s that died.

From the UK a semi driver admits he’s a git driving defective equipment when he hit a cyclist. A18 lorry driver admits causing cyclist’s death The crime he plead guilty to has a minimum sentence of 36 weeks in jail, but somehow I don’t see that ever happening. I predict a suspended sentence and some community service. What I would like to see is something like 1440 hours of community service if the sentence is suspended. I know, I’m a dreamer “but I’m not the only ooo-one” (John Lennon)

Less than a week out we have our second Ride of Silence link. Cyclists’ Ride of Silence on Wed From Nyack to Piermont

Infrastructure! news from the UK as a barrier is installed on an alleyway to let cyclists know that there is an actual road at the end instead of another alley. Trafford Centre installs safety barrier after young cyclist is killed

Legal infrastructure from the UK. Father of lorry crash victim Ellie Carey wants law on cab cameras The problem is the big trucks have blind spots you could hide the entire TdF peloton in making these vehicles killing machines on wheels. I have seen (staged?) video of a Mini getting run over in the blind spot of a semi, so finding a single cyclist back there would be impossible. Personally I say that no vehicle that has blind spots that large should be allowed on the roads, much less congested urban areas, and this father agrees.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today, actually last night when I did the pre-filter.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Another Mule Day, and another Feed

Mule day duties look to be light again today as we are still coasting along from that massive buy a few weeks ago and just replacing perishables now; milk, bread, eggs, produce, and yogurt. The weather is looking a bit “iffy” so I have my waterproof ALICE pack and one of the kitty litter buckets has the lid back on it. Stuff that won’t be affected by rain will go in the other bucket. So rain or not we’re cool on the weather.

On the pollen front the allergy meds I took last night eventually did their job and I was able to sleep comfortably sometime around 2 AM, which was a great improvement over the previous 4 AM. I also awoke with considerably less gunk in my eyes and as I could breathe through my nose I also didn’t wake up feeling like the 101^st Airborne had marched through my mouth with bare feet. That alone was a great improvement over the previous two nights.

A far West Canuckistan cyclist is right crossed and then blamed for the wreck. Cyclist hits truck on Gordon Drive, winds up in Kelowna General Hospital The cyclist was hit almost head on when the motor vehicle operator made a wide right turn while driving blind, but somehow it was the cyclist’s fault for running into the motor vehicle. This is a difficult wreck to avoid as standard intersection protocols are not designed for vehicles that are not in the correct lane for their direction of travel. Infrastructure might have prevented this if the infrastructure was barrier protected.

News from the UK that motor vehicle operators are most at fault in bike-vs-motor vehicle wrecks. Two thirds of cyclist injuries following collisions with motor vehicle due to driver, says City of Westminster I also liked the part where they point out the behavior that annoys pedestrians the most is one of the least likely reasons why pedestrians are hit, cyclists proceeding through a pedestrian crossing against the signal. What people don’t realize and that most cyclists have internalized is that when cyclists run into or are run into by motor vehicles, the cyclist will get hurt no matter who is at fault, when cyclists run into or are run into by pedestrians the cyclist will get hurt. Cyclists are for the most part actively looking to not get hurt in spite of what it appears to non-cyclists.

A possible hit-and-run in Oz. Cyclist found injured on Haydon Drive While the cyclist’s injuries could have come from either a bad get-off or a hit-and-run, there is the old saying that when one hears hoofbeats in the western US one should not immediately assume zebras. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

Still in Oz, a cyclist is seriously injured by an RV. Cyclist hit by car near Huskisson At the time I posted this the mode of the wreck had not been released, so other than making the remark that a bicycle helmet is not much protection against having your chest crushed by an RV, I have nothing I can say.

LifeStyle in Seattle as a memorial ride makes the news. Riders honor cyclist killed in semi-truck accident

New legal infrastructure from Houston. New ordinance aims to protect bicyclists, pedestrians This ordinance (what I can read of it) seems to be a direct copy of the law that Gov. Goodhair vetoed in 2009, so it’s a good ordinance if somewhat lacking in teeth by being local rather than statewide and unable to place violators in confinement for longer that 1 year.

And if you think I’m having a bad day, take a look at this link. N.Y. tow company waits word on disposing 30 dead horses from Shippensburg You can imagine what that is starting to smell like.

Last link, a Summer project you can enjoy all winter. Build A Massive Snowmobile Tank Bike Massive is right, there are at least 3 bikes worth of steel in the machine plus trying to turn a single track when it has any kind of grip is going to be “fun”, but overall I see this as an interesting project if somewhat difficult to ride around on.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Not Bean Day, and the Feed

Well, still Bean Day, just not a day I have to cook beans. We still have large quantities of leftover beans that haven’t been (bean?) consumed, so while we are still eating beans all I will be doing today is putting beans in the oven to reheat them. My bean reheating method is to set the oven for 205°F and let the beans sit in the oven in a Pyrex casserole dish until they reach a stable temperature. This kills any bacteria and also restores some of the flavors that faded out during storage while still keeping the “melded” flavors that develop after storing overnight.

Big story today is from my former home state. Cyclist dies in 3 State event on Lookout Mountain, Tenn. and UPDATE: Bicyclist killed in car crash identified As I read the reports today the cyclist lost control in a tight “s” bend and slid under an oncoming car. Weather may have been a factor for many reasons. To avoid moderate your speed in bad weather, I’m not sure how infrastructure could have made a difference without completely destroying the character of the event. More Report: Jacksonville cyclist killed in Tennessee accident and State briefs: Bicyclist killed in collision with car; Memphis officer indicted, suspended; teen suspect in slaying was under DCS supervision also Bicyclist killed in collision with car

Another cyclist is killed by another DUI driver, with a twist. Chambersburg bicyclist dies after hit by vehicle Hit-from-behind wreck, use the protocols to avoid or mitigate the results, get the infrastructure right to prevent (if the infrastructure had been good the drunk might have been riding another bike, so even if he ran into someone he would have caused little to no damage). Did you see the twist in the last paragraph? It makes it almost sound as if the driver was being investigated for something else and the DUI just added to the list. I don’t know if that’s the case or if the writer just truncated too far, but what was there when I read it makes me want to go up there and ask some questions. More Chambersburg man killed while riding bicycle

Dead cyclist in paradise. Maui bicyclist killed in collision with commercial van At this point it is reported the cyclist ran a red light just before he was hit. Intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

An ID child riding a bike is injured when one vehicle stops but not another. 5-year-old severely injured after riding bike into traffic The 5YO was crossing the street riding in the flow of traffic when a second vehicle went around the first on that had stopped and hit the child. The child appears to have been riding in a fairly mature manner, but not the driver of the second vehicle… Given the age of he cyclist I don’t know what could be done to avoid or prevent the wreck, except to issue tickets to people that pass cars stopped at intersections and hit pedestrians or cyclists. The car that stops in front of you most likely stopped for a reason, respect that.

From the Great White North a cyclist is killed while apparently preparing to make a left turn in a legal manner. Police Further Investigating Fatal Collision Involving Cyclist All I know at this point is the cyclist was killed in the left turn lane and was not suspected of riding salmon. Intersection protocols (because at or almost at the intersection) to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

A UK cyclist is run off the road and into a temporary sign. Cyclist seriously injured after collision with road sign in Horsham And the driver that ran him off the road is uninjured… DOYH!

Not-unexpected news from OZ about the truck driver that Jerry Browned a cyclist who ended up tangled in the wheels of the truck. Cement truck driver Luke Stevens found not guilty over death of cyclist Richard Pollett Given what I have seen posted online to Aussie news articles about cycling and the dangers of motor vehicles, I can’t say I was shocked at the outcome, but I am saddened. More Truckie not guilty over cyclist’s death and same headline but different report Truckie not guilty over cyclist’s death

My first RoS link of Bike Month 2013. Slow, silent bike ride in New Orleans honors cyclists killed or injured on public roads

Infrastructure! news from Canuckistan. Cycling accident prompts calls for bike lanes

State-by-state bike rankings. Bicycle Friendly State: 2013 State Rankings Texas ended up middle of the pack in spite of bottom-feeding infrastructure.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today, except the motorcycle wrecks. Those give me fits, too but are not suitable for discussion in this blog.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Pictures of the shearing on a Wreck-Free Sunday

I’m doing this post on the old desktop machine because the new laptop does not have image manipulating software. I got the pictures from the Shearing of the Sheep ritual last month but had to do a lot of brightening up so that they were usable, because while the flash was bright enough to dazzle me it wasn’t bright enough to get a good picture. There was some blurring of some of the pictures because of laughing as everybody was feeling a bit giddy about the ritual (since it was announced that the cutting part would be as goofy as possible).

First we had to figure out how to keep the hair where the birds could get it and not down my shirt.

And a few minutes later it’s easier to see we re-purposed a garbage bag as a barber’s apron.

Moving outside to the chair under the parking lot light.

And here is where the Mohawk starts.

And a pause to “admire” the handiwork.

Both ears showing now.

I looked so distinguished with just the tuft on the chin.

And the finished project.

As I said the focus for the camera was adversely affected because the photographer was laughing so hard. I hope you enjoyed the pictures of my shedding 4 month’s worth of hair and beard.

PSA Opus

Back from a ride in the rain, and the Feed

Well I’m back from getting checked out for a gig that didn’t work out, which involved a 16 mile round trip with the return in the rain. It wasn’t a bad ride, nor the meeting unpleasant, but the gig just didn’t pan out. The worst part of the ride back was trying to see past the raindrops on my glasses, otherwise I was just damp. The forecast had been for thunderstorms, and when they didn’t appear I chose to ride Blue instead of the bus. The rain that got me never even showed on radar…

Another PA kid gets hit by another SUV. Boy critical after getting struck by SUV while riding bike in Point Breeze The condition of the wrecked bike indicates a hit from the side, the location was a marked (pavement markings) and signed bike route, but the complete location and directions of travel for both the bike and the weapon vehicle are not given. From the tone of the video it seems the SUV driver may have been at fault but not criminally so (shades of NYPD’s “no criminality suspected”). Until I get a better location and directions of travel I can’t say how o avoid this with the built infrastructure, but getting the infrastructure right, including laws that make hitting pedestrians and cyclists crimes rather than “oopsie’s” would prevent.

More on the CA cyclist hit from behind in the bike lane. Name of cyclist killed in bike lane released Still no word on why the car was in the bike lane other than that is unequivocably where the car was when the cyclist was hit. Still not sure if hit-from-behind protocols would have helped the cyclist avoid the wreck, backchannel reports are that the cyclist never had the chance to react to the car moving over, kinda the inverse of the SWSS. I’m still of the opinion that getting the infrastructure right so that the cyclist would not need to be on the highway he was riding to get where he was going would have prevented this wreck.

A cyclist in Paradise falls into a guardrail during a group ride. Koloa cyclist injured by guardrail As this is officially a single vehicle wreck, none of the protocols apply. The only infrastructure changes that would apply would be making guardrails more rounded on top so that no sharp edges are presented on the side of the rail facing cyclists. Aside from that I got plenty of nuttin’.

Three UK links to the same story. Nurse, 67, drunk on three G&Ts mowed down and killed 15-year-old cyclist before throwing his bike out of the way and carrying on to work and Drunk nurse jailed for killing teenage cyclist also Drink-drive nurse, 67, hit and killed teenage cyclist, tossed bike out of the way then drove off The nurse had a BAC of .084, drunk in the US by a hair but well over the legal limit in the UK, and also got one of the more severe sentences I have seen for killing with a motor vehicle in the UK. After recent uproars against killer drivers being sentenced to community service for a few weeks, 5 years and 4 months with 50% to be served before the possibility of parole is astounding. That’s 2 years 8 months for those too busy to do the math.

Infrastructure! news of a different kind from PA (again). Pa. Turnpike to offer electric car charging stations Now if they could do something like that for e-assist bikes…

Continuing coverage from West, TX. West Fertilizer Plant’s Hazards Eluded Regulators For Nearly 30 Years and Obama Dispatches FEMA To Aid In West, Texas Relief Apparently everyone thought this was somebody else’s problem, generating a massive SEP field that rendered the plant invisible to regulators. And while I make this statement mainly in jest as a reference to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide”, the facts of the case point to exactly that. The owners of the plant were woefully uninformed of the regulations and when regulations were brought to their attention they complied with them, the problem was that there was no clearinghouse for the kinds of regulations this plant was subject to, like the DHS regulation that they be informed of any accumulations of AN fertilizer in excess of 400 pounds. One would think that 270 tons of the stuff going to the same address would have waved some red flags somewhere, but apparently it didn’t. So numerous balls were dropped by myriads of people, and now 14 people are dead and 200 pr so injured, like the kid in the video that lost his hearing. And how does this relate to the main subject of this blog, bicycle safety? Only as an illustration of what happens when we become too familiar with something potentially deadly, as we have with motor vehicles. The only difference in this explosion and a big wreck is the amount of property damage and the size the area the injured were spread over. Even a big wreck tends to be a compact crime scene compared the explosion at West. BTW you really need to “czech” out the Czech Stop for kolaches or those little sausage wraps, Exit 353 off I 35 on the east access road, or just south of FM 2114 if you’re coming by bicycle. They are seriously that good. And if it seems like I have a soft spot in my heart for this town, that’s a distinct possibility.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Plans changed due to minor illness, and the Feed

This post was not supposed to be started until I got home from attending the BPAC meeting at the NCTCOG building in Arlington, but I woke up this morning with some mild digestive distress that appears to be allergy-related as I also have a runny nose, watery eyes, and no fever. Aside from the relative discomfort caused by the other symptoms I have no pain or discomfort or fever so this is most likely allergies from all the pollen blowing around the area. Regardless of the cause, I still don’t want to be riding my bike miles from a public toilet with this problem.

Up first are updates to the Upstate NY boy killed by someone driving a motor vehicle. Upstate NY boy, 9, hit, killed while riding bike and 9-year-old struck, killed while riding bike in Gloversville Still nothing about the mode of wreck or even a precise location of which street the kid was riding in when he was hit, or even his name. I find the continuing lack of detail disturbing.

A hit-and-run in SC. SCHP seeking info on hit and run that injured cyclist I love it when the victim gets to be the only one to tell the story of how the wreck went down. Hit-from-behind, use the protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. Oh yeah, if you are a local to the area be looking for the alleged weapon vehicle.

In the Great White North an apparently impaired cyclist crashes his bike trying to get away from LEO. SIU Called To Tillsonburg After Cyclist Injured To avoid don’t ride impaired, to prevent get the infrastructure right and don’t ride impaired.

And those are all the links that gave me fits, less the useless UK links. I figure if I can’t use the links to help people, why bother to expose you to them?

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Just an update on my condition because of pain meds

This morning I had the remains of two teeth pulled, a lasting reminder of the damage I suffered as a result of the wreck I had back in 2001. The teeth broke off beneath the gumline but didn’t fall out for at least a couple of years, leaving the roots behind. The exposed roots eventually became an avenue for infection that blew up into the mess that was my mouth last weekend and this week. after a massive amount of local anesthetic was pumped into my jaw I eventually got numb “enough” to extract the remaining roots. All I can say is it’s a good thing I have a high tolerance for pain Seriously, I have done things that should have caused me to pass out from the pain with just an “Ow, that hurt!” and carry on. I’m just kinda running on a stream-of-semi-consciousness here, because more than 3 hours after I got them, the local anesthetics are just now starting to wear off and feeling is coming back to my face and mouth. The first thing I felt was that some time during the extraction either I bit the side of my tongue or the dentist pinched it with the extraction tools. Either way my tongue seriously hurts now, but in a survivable way.

And now I’m starting to feel… hungry?!? WTF!?! I can’t eat anything right now, I still don’t have good swallow control over my tongue yet. At least I have managed to stop drooling, but this shirt will still need a trip through the laundry shortly. But seriously, I’m hungry now.

Also, I’m starting to feel the empty space where I used to have a tooth. And that empty space is filled with discomfort, bordering on pain, but because I’m hungry it just feels weird. And the hole is still draining so there is this really nasty taste in my mouth from the infection. Fortunately I anticipated this development, and bought bland, pleasant-tasting foods so that I would be not-hungry and also not have a nasty taste in my mouth. So, get me my cherry-vanilla yogurt! Where’s that.. oh that’s right, in this universe I don’t have minions/servants/sex slaves, I have to get my own yogurt by myself. Eating yogurt means I will have to change gauze packs again, but I have ample amounts of gauze to change with.

Since my mind wandered in the direction of food, I should probably use this spot to inform y’all that I lost 12 pounds since the previous Friday. A lot of that is mild dehydration, but I burned enough actual fat off to make it a concern about appearance. I wouldn’t want to look too good at this clothing-optional camping trip I’m about to go on… I already have enough problems there just being a cyclist in halfway decent condition. If my abs start to show at my age, there could be trouble.

OK mail just ran, and so did my attention. I haven’t finished eating yet. man, you should like try these drugs, man… And another sharp pull back to this reality as my mouth decided to send another pain-gram, this one via my right eye socket. Hard to see when that happens. The yogurt is gone now, I must be finished eating?

The good part is this is better than I felt on Sunday evening and Monday morning. The bad part is this is much worse than I felt yesterday afternoon or this morning. And the feeling goofy part is something I do to control the level of pain I feel. There is the pain that I’m actually generating, and then there’s the pain I actually feel, and seldom do I ever allow those two to approach equal, some of that pain energy has to go somewhere, so I make it goofy energy. Much better feeling goofy than to feel pain. Because pain, like hurts really bad…

And I think I need to take a nap, so while I np you guys go find something else to read for a while, shoo!

PSA, Opus

My face feels awful, and the Feed

To be honest I really did not want to do this post today, because I have an abscess in my jaw and my face feels like I did after the wreck. The best thing I have for pain is ibuprofen and ice packs, which only help a little bit. Ora Jel deadens the surface of the infection but doesn’t do anything for the pain caused by the swelling. Also I get watering of my eyes for no apparent reasons except pain. So if the advice about the wrecks in today’s post seems more acerbic than usual, now you know why.

Up first in an update on a CA hit-and-run. Family, Friends Remember Cyclist Killed in Hit-and-Run Again, there was nothing a human cyclist could have done to avoid this wreck, and infrastructure would not have helped the driver not ignore the already-existing infrastructure. When they find the guy I hope they allow him to witness the recycling of the weapon vehicle “up close, and personal”.

Also from CA an update on another wreck… Thousands Of Cyclists Ride To Support Severely Injured Hit-And-Run Victim This was the guy hit by a left turning vehicle that was jumping line in a traffic jam. More Bicyclists Ride in Honor of Hit-and-Run Victims

A MN drunk kills another cyclist. Minneapolis cyclist killed in hit-and-run, driver arrested for DWI Apparent hit-from-behind wreck, use the protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. Google Maps shows a mixed residential and light commercial area which would be served by bike lanes under the Dutch model. So maybe the real prevention would be slower speed limits and fewer drunks on the roads.

Finally appropriate charges in NY for a cyclist killer. Upstate NY man facing murder and other charges for death of cyclist during police chase The cyclist’s body was stuck on the truck during the chase at speeds up to 90 MPH. In my book just the DUI makes this wreck deserving of murder charges. Another driver that should be forced to “watch” his vehicle get recycled chained to the steering wheel.

Enn Zed sees another cyclist fatality. Cyclist killed in crash At the time of the posting there was nothing more known about the wreck except its severity, described as “gut-wrenching”. I’m going to assume that means “really bad”. The wreck was identified as “near” an intersection so perhaps intersection protocols would have made a difference, in a very rural area so infrastructure to keep high-speed traffic away from fragile human beings would have been useful as well.

Volvo introduces a gradual phasing out of human drivers with a car that refuses to run over cyclists… Volvo debuts world’s first cyclist detection system with full auto-brake

Last link is to an awesome Instructible that I thought at first was an early April Fool’s prank. Build a life-sized active volcano Secret lair not ready yet? Well build the volcano first!

And those are all the links I could remain upright enough to copy and paste.

Billed @$0.02, Opus