Today is one of those days when it isn’t that I’m not feeling creative, it’s that I have so many concepts running around in the ruins of my brain that I can’t grab one to tie it down and make a headline and from there a cogent opening paragraph about it. I know I put too much blame for my current status on the brain damage, but there is just so much I can’t do anymore that I used to do, that was so simple to do before the wreck, and other stuff that wasn’t exactly simple but not that hard really, like cutting the toenails on my left foot. Seriously, cutting the toenails on my left foot used to be a matter of grabbing the toenail clippers and bending over and cutting my toenails, just like it still is for the foot on the leg that wasn’t ruined in the wreck. But now I have to place my left foot on something that elevates the toes from the floor so I can get under them with the clippers because the toes will not go up by themselves when I bend over to clip the toenails. I know that makes little sense for people who are not impaired in some way, but sometimes the small adjustments you need to make grate on you after a while, like always having to put pants on left leg first because I can’t aim the foot into the leg and have to move the target into contact with the projectile (foot). That is normally such a tiny thing I barely notice if I notice at all, and sometimes it just aggravates me so bad I want to scream and beat on somebody, because I can’t get my body to do what I want it to do. I normally have about as little trouble writing as I do cutting the toenails on my right foot, but today is more like a left-foot toenail cutting day of writing.
The Feed today was about 1/3 full of links to the MotoGP rider that died yesterday after failing to separate from the motorcycle following a low-side and getting hit by 2 following riders. For those not informed about single-track vehicle wrecks, a low-side is where the bike slides out from underneath the rider, and is normally the most benign way to crash a motorcycle (bicycles do this too, but much less often than motorcycles). The impact sites for a low-side are known and a rider’s leathers are reinforced on those areas and frequently a hard shell is placed under the sliding surface to prevent road irregularities from injuring the rider as he slides over the road surface. The normal outcome of a low-side is the rider slides to a stop, picks up the bike and if nothing got knocked out of place he gets back on and continues the race. Simoncelli (the rider who died yesterday) stayed with the bike and that arced him in front of the following riders who could not change lines to avoid him and ran him over.
Up first is a wreck from AZ that has knowledgeable cyclists puzzled as to what happened. 59-year-old cyclist killed in crash on Grant Road The mechanics of the wreck are simple, the cyclist ran a stop sign and into heavy traffic. The puzzle comes from the fact that the cyclist was going straight through a right turn only intersection. There was a break in the median for the main street to turn left into the side street, but no way for traffic from the direction the cyclist was riding to go straight through the intersection. Some of the commenters think there might have been a medical incident for the cyclist as he got to the intersection that caused him to go straight through instead of stopping and turning right. If there was it would be nearly undetectable in the rest of the damage from the wreck.
An apparent gutter-bunny right-hook wreck in NM. Police investigate collision that injured bicyclist Since direction of travel for the cyclist was not stated I have to make assumptions, but assuming that the cyclist was hugging the curb and got caught in the right-turn lane makes sense. It could be equally likely that the cyclist was riding salmon and was hit by the truck as it was making a right turn without looking. Either way could account for the reported damages and injuries. Actually the salmon scenario would better account for the damages and injuries, but something like that is usually mentioned right off the bat, so I have to go with the gutter-bunny. To avoid would be simple, just ride 5 feet or so from the curb and move to the left of right-turn lanes. In other words make yourself visible to drivers and stay in the through lanes unless you are planning to turn.
Another report on the cyclist hit-and-run in Canuckistan Friday. Elderly cyclist critically injured in hit and run Nothing more to add to the report, another hit-from-behind hit-and-run (HYPHEN OVERDOSE!) with debris that may be matched to the weapon vehicle.
The driver that was drunk and stoned on both illegal and prescription drugs when he hit a cyclist is sentenced in Israel. Court hands down 12-year sentence to killer of judge’s son Better than most, still not good enough to act as a deterrent to other drivers…
More on the life of the cyclist killed last week in NYC. Dead Williamsburg cyclist was a major art figure It is a tragedy any time a cyclist is killed, no matter what he was in life, but this is a loss on so many levels.
In closing I got some strange mail at the church over the weekend, someone sent me a lawnmower. I don’t recall mentioning that I needed a lawnmower in this blog, I do remember posting that I was trying to turn the mower we used before the mower we have now into a riding mower run by human power. It’s all good because the church is having lawnmower issues (and a number of people assigned community service coming to the church to push that new mower around). BTW I’m still working on the HP riding lawnmower, and it is turning out awesome. The plan now is a FWD tadpole trike with rear steering like the Sidewinder, only much shorter with wider wheels and tires. The drive to the mower part is still kicking my butt as I try to make the two drives independent of each other, turning the reel without driving the wheels and vice-versa, but I will get that solved eventually, or just ignore it to make everything turn all the time. But eventually I will get that particular piece of equipment up and functional.
And that’s all the news that gives me fits today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 