Got to spend the night with the cats, and the Feed

Last night we got to spend the night with the cats inside because of aerial spraying for the mosquito that carries the West Nile virus. I don’t mention non-bike things in this blog very much, but locally we are having a bit of an issue with this particular bug and the bug that spreads it. There was a confirmed death in my neighborhood but no trapped mosquitoes have been found here that have the virus so it isn’t known where the victim was actually bitten. So, because of the large number of deaths from this in all the surrounding area it was decided that using trucks to spray small areas wasn’t working and they needed to cover the entire county to get rid of the insects carrying the virus. As a precaution all pets needed to be moved indoors during the spraying and for at least 3 hours after. We were concerned about how we were going to get our cats inside when we went to look for them and both were sitting outside the door and came in without a fuss. Talk about your serendipity. Then the fun of spending several hours inside the house with 2 cats that only come in to eat and drink began, finally relieved when the word came down that spraying in our area was cancelled because of a rain shower that had moved in about 1 AM. That means we get to do this all over again when they get back to our side of the county.

Also I think I may have a broken hub on Blue. I keep mentioning that I use Blue to haul home groceries and how much they weigh? Well I might have gone past the max GVW between me and the groceries a few times and now the rear wheel is making knocking noises. It quiets down above roughly 5 MPH which makes me think it might be a bad bearing in the rear wheel. I haven’t taken this wheel off the bike except to install the fenders and change the tire so I don’t know if the bearings can be cleaned and repacked or if they are sealed units that have to be replaced.

Up first from CA a cyclist is rear-ended and their bike taken for a 3 block ride. Vallejo bicyclist rear-ended on Georgia Street, receives some injuries As of this posting there is nothing more about the wreck. Hit from behind, so hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent. A big part of that infrastructure has to be making getting a driver’s license harder, with that difficulty being pertinent to actually driving the car not just bureaucratic gobbledygook, and making losing a driver’s license much easier. I mean like 2 speeding tickets in a 12-month period and you’re walking easier…

Another CA wreck, that’s blamed on a teen-age cyclist running a red light. MENIFEE: Teen bicyclist hurt in crash with car Intersection wreck, use the intersection protocols to avoid, including obeying traffic controls where they are working. Get the freaking infrastructure right to prevent including making traffic controls that detect bicycles waiting to use an intersection.

From just west of the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, drivers blame the cyclist for being in the street to get hit. Not the driver that hit him. Readers blame injured cyclist for riding in the street

Another TX wreck with not much information. Cyclist taken to hospital after being hit by SUV All we know at this time was the cyclist was a juvenile hit in an intersection by a Ford Ranger pickup truck. So intersection protocols to (maybe) avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

Report from FL on the only way to get charged if you hit a cyclist and don’t flee the scene. Micanopy woman charged with DUI after crash that injured cyclist Note that this woman may have attempted to flee but wrecked her car by impacting a pole and was forced to remain because the car was disabled. Also note her BAC% was in the realm of toxicity for the non-addicted person, which means she habitually drove under the influence.

Another example of why cyclists need to ride with traffic from VA. Cyclist hits police car When you ride salmon drivers turning right don’t look for you because they are looking for a clear spot in oncoming traffic, not what’s in front of their car. So, both are at fault in this wreck. So ride with traffic and use intersection protocols to avoid, and fix the freaking infrastructure to prevent.

Another intersection wreck in MI. Man injured after riding bike into car Another wreck report without much report. Intersection wreck so use intersection protocols to avoid, especially the ones about obeying traffic controls if they are working and treating them as stop signs if they are not working and waiting until traffic is clear to proceed. Get the infrastructure right so that bicycles and motor vehicles don’t have to share space outside residential areas.

A Canuckistan wreck with a welcome outcome. Small child hit by motorist while bike riding in Prince Rupert, no one injured Because everyone was moving at a slow speed as properly-designed infrastructure will cause there were no serious injuries in this encounter

A bit of PPE for cyclists that doesn’t look too dorky and protects to a much higher impact speed than a conventional bike helmet. Invisible Bike Helmet Keeps Riders Safe, Looking Cool [VIDEO] Yep, the cyclist’s air bag is making another go-’round. Like I wrote, what makes this good from the in-use perspective is it protects to a higher standard in a straight-line impact, like when a cyclist gets hit from behind. What makes it good from a stand-by perspective is it allows other headgear to be used that has a better function for cyclists like keeping sweat out of the eyes or sun off the face and out of the eyes or keeping ears warm in the cold (for all that bike helmets are hot in the summer they do a remarkably poor job of keeping the head warm in the cold of winter). That reminds me I still don’t have a dedicated cold-weather helmet for this winter to replace the old motorcycle helmet that expired a few years back. I’ll place the specifics in a separate post later.

And that’s all the news that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

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