Today will be a bit of a meander as I just let my mind wander without a leash.
First of all I still haven’t found anything on the person that was hit by the train on Friday night, it’s like the wreck never happened. I keep Googling with a variety of search strings, but apparently nobody covered this wreck because of the other wreck involving a DART train just one station down on the same day. The only report I have found online was the one I made right after I saw the wreck. Since I have no idea of what happened to cause the person to get hit by the train I find this turn of events frustrating to say the least.
I have been using the Clif Mojo bars as a recovery after a ride, and I find them tasty if a bit rough to chew for a guy with no molars. The bars that work for the tooth-impaired of us just taste like an old tire, so I think I will take good flavor and hard to chew over the alternative.
Not much to choose from as the racing seasons are coming to a close what with IndyCar coming to an end a couple of weeks ago, Grand Am ending yesterday, and SCCA winding up their season last week at The Runoffs and most other sanctioning bodies either already finished or down to the last race in a couple of weeks. All I have at the moment is the Sprint Cup race from Dover.
I went to the church RPG meeting last night in a light rain that was cool enough that I could wear rain gear without being wetter with the rain gear than without it. I got some incredulous looks when I rode up, including an “Opus, what are you doing?!” from a couple of people. I think it’s a bit sad really that some people just can’t comprehend not riding in a car when the weather isn’t absolutely perfect. Or even when it is absolutely perfect…
Speaking of the RPG, I got a few licks in with my 5th level warlock but still didn’t make my character very effective, but that was because there were mist spells and Utterly Obscuring Mist spells getting thrown around like candy at a Christmas parade. Of the three spells used, one was a permanent part of the landscape before the party came there, one was a temp spell that was used in the battle, and one was an “Oops!” when a spell cast by a monster we were fighting came up a Natural 1 AKA a Flub, creating a permanent Utterly Obscuring Mist around his character and mine, and I wasn’t even the object of the flubbed spell, just too close to the monster when the spell was flubbed. I still managed to get off a “shot in the dark” so to speak that did significant damage to the monster, and also took some damage when the monster did the same to me.
The contract has been put out for bid for the bike path from Mesquite to Richardson through Garland, that seems to have significant amounts of profit built in to it…
I have been doodling on an “ultimate” car for me. My last car was a Hyundai Excel, this time around I would want something with more range and power, and fewer seats. What I have been thinking about was a LS7 engine (505 HP) and a shortened C6 drive train on a T-bucket with my own particular design constraints. The constraint that causes the oddest appearance is the one that the car still has to be able to roll with no tires on the car, nothing can drag on smooth pavement, and nothing under the bottom of the main frame rail except rims, but the engine has to be right at the bottom of that with maybe a skid plate under it. Obviously the taller the wheels the more room there is to work with inside the car. The C6 has 18″ wheels which gives 9″ from the axle center to the bottom of the frame rail or tub. For this build I would have a cross between a tub and a rail chassis with a small rail to mount the roll cage to at the bottom of the tub and mounting the body to a flange on the top of the tub, making the “tub” a very deep frame rail through the cockpit area and a full monocoque ahead of the firewall and a full space frame behind the cockpit. Now just because I would be using a Corvette drive train doesn’t mean I would be using the C6 suspension geometry. I mean I have a computer, I designed a spreadsheet template back in the AppleII era that would do camber curves and bump steer as long as the pickup points were known, and I have a bit of a renegade in me (really!). Also this car would be lighter and shorter than a C6, so I would need to tweak the geometry in any case. But I would be using the C6 uprights and brakes, because these are sorted components with a known high reliability factor. Of course this assumes a budget with pretty much no restrictions, which is a total fantasy in my current situation. I don’t even have the budget to replace the flush arm on the toilet without dipping into my B-Day money. So this little project is something I do to keep my mind off how little money I actually have. You aren’t poor if you can still dream rich. I’m rich enough that I can dream about using a Corvette to build my “ultimate” car.
I also have a plan for something less expensive using a FWD engine and transmission as a mid-engine like the old Pontiac Fiero or the Toyota MR2 on my T-bucket more Home> T-Bucket
PSA, Opus
Well you read how I ended my evening, and the Feed
If you saw the previous post you read how I ended my evening yesterday. I still haven’t found anything on the wreck online, but I haven’t looked that hard. Wait a second, and I’ll check again. Nope, there were 2 people hit in Garland by trains, and my victim was only covered by moi. There was a woman that ran into the side of a moving train trying to get the door open and get on so she wouldn’t be late to work (and had to go to the hospital so she was really late, like more than 24 hours) but that was 3½ hours earlier than the wreck I saw.
Other stuff, I’m still trying to find something to replace the sound card on this computer, I can see the videos now but still not hear them, which does some good but not much. All I need is something with a stereo out jack since all I have on my computer speakers is a stereo in plug, you know the same plug you get on a set of ear buds for your MP3 player. I have a big fancy computer with a Creative 5.1 system that will eventually replace my stereo system when I get the hard drive for it, but right now I need a simple card that will let me plug my speakers into my computer. Or a USB sound device that does the same thing…
Up first, a girl hit by a car has died in CA. Child Bike Rider Killed Heading Home From School Since it doesn’t say the rider was riding salmon when hit by an SUV going to opposite direction, I’m going to assume this was a left cross wreck. That’s the only thing that makes sense, there being three ways this could happen: cyclist riding salmon, left cross, or the SUV crossing the centerline and hitting the cyclist head on. Since either the first or last would have merited a serious comment from the article, that only leaves the left cross (probably by a “blind driver”). That would make this an intersection wreck, use intersection protocols to avoid and fix the freaking infrastructure to prevent. One thing that has to be fixed as soon as possible is eliminating the “blind driver” defense. The reason drivers “don’t see” cyclists is the complete lack of penalty for failure to see a cyclist. I suggest a lifetime ban on driving with a mandatory prison sentence equal to a felon in possession of a firearm should that ban be broken. More 12-year-old Girl Killed in Novato Bicycle Crash
From the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike 8 years in a row, a cyclist is hit riding to school. Student injured after being hit while riding bike to school The girl was hit from behind while riding on the shoulder of the road, and it wasn’t even mentioned until halfway through the article that this was a hit-and-run where the victim lay in the middle of the outside lane for 5 minutes before anyone came to her aid. A cyclist can’t avoid idiots like this, the only way to prevent or avoid a wreck like this would be major changes to the infrastructure including making hit-and-run a major felony akin to attempted murder or murder if the victim dies.
A cyclist in SLC runs a red light. Cyclist injured after getting hit by car Yeah, don’t run red lights.
Another red light runner in AZ. Man on bike hospitalized after he’s hit by truck Second verse, same as the first.
A mixture of LifeStyle, Infrastructure!, and economic activism. A Cross-Country Crusade Against Pointless Bike Deaths
LifeStyle in AZ. Widow hopes to raise bike safety awareness at event Ain’t it a shame when going to funerals is considered part of the bicycle lifestyle.
More LifeStyle in PA. Bicyclist In Erie Ride to Raise Awareness
And those are all the links that gave me fits today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
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Tagged anti-bike blatherings, cycling life, cyclist injured, cyclist killed, Dead cyclists, Don't read the comments, hit from behind, hit-and-run, infrastructure, Left cross/right hook, red light runner, signs of the apocolypse, Something smells, stupid cyclist, stupid drivers, stupid LEO, stupid politicians, updates, waste of human skin