Happy Easter to my Christian readers on a Wreck-Free Sunday

I’m not going to make the jokes about Zombie Jesus or Vampire Jesus, because there are already too many of those out there, and I’m not in the mood today. I’m not even going to make the jokes about the confused rabbit laying chocolate eggs. I’m just not in a joking mood today because my face hasn’t felt this bad since the wreck. I had one of the broken teeth develop an abscess before, but it never got this bad. I can barely open my mouth and I had to pass off the service today to my stand-in. That I passed the service for Hilaria over to someone else to perform gives you an idea of how bad I’m feeling, but feeling bad wasn’t the only reason I passed it on. I can’t open my mouth enough to articulate well, and given the quarter calls I wrote for the service bad pronunciation will cause problems that I don’t want to cause. The quarter calls are based on the WWE wrestler introductions and includes 18 to 45 seconds of theme music for each element. The theme for Earth was “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain, the theme for Air was “They Call the Wind Mariah”, the theme for Fire was “Fire” from the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and the theme for Water was the chorus from “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid” with wrestler-style over-the-top introductions for each element. Had I been physically able to do it it would have been really funny… >sigh<

On the physical condition of the blogger front, well you already know I can't get my mouth open far enough to speak clearly, and I'm in a lot of pain. Also physical activity makes the pain worse by making my BP go up and increasing my heart rate, so no bike riding except as needed to get me someplace I absolutely have to go. I wouldn't drive in this condition either, so don't go making it out that I have finally found something that makes cycling for transportation "worse" than driving. Another thing is not being ale to open my mouth very far mans there isn't a whole lot I can eat here. I haven't even opened the cookies I got on Friday, and I am a cookie monster. I have been looking for soft foods that don't require opening my mouth up very far, like the pancakes from this morning that I cut into little tiny bites. I think I will have some of that rice porridge I made to eat for breakfast as lunch because getting a sandwich in my mouth is an exercise in pain. And I don't do exercise…

I think it might be time to change the rear derailer cable on Blue, as shifting has been getting a little imprecise in the last couple of months. Considering that I have put more than 5K miles on the bike with hundreds of thousands of shifts over the years I think I did pretty good with this one. and they aren't that hard to replace. So next trip to the LBS will be a new rear shifter cable, and then lots of pictures to document removing and replacing the cable on an upcoming Wreck-Free Sunday Post. That means you don't get the total "impact" of what working on a bike is like for me because I do a lot of swearing under my breath when I wrench… 😉

Now I'm starting to not feel so good again, so I'm going to wrap this up and go have a lie-down with another pain pill to try to get some rest as I had about 3 hours of awake time during the night as the pain pill I took before bed wore off and allowed me to wake back up and the next pain pill took a while to get to work.

PSA, Opus

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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

About to go work some more, and the Feed

Two things about this post. First this is the first post I’m making on my new laptop, and I’m working in the dining room instead of my office. Second I have to rush because I’m supposed to help Mrs. the Poet clean an apartment this morning and unlike my desktop computer I can’t suspend this box with the windows still open and resume from where I left off.

A young NH cyclist is being blamed for a driver not watching where they were going while backing into a driveway. 7-year-old cyclist injured after being struck by car The kid was riding on the sidewalk when the driver backed into the driveway. All traffic on the sidewalk has right of way over all motor vehicles, that’s the law. Any bets on the law being enforced in this case? Segregated infrastructure would not have helped prevent this wreck as it was in an area that has to mingle motor vehicles and all other modes of traffic.

A CA cyclist dies from a hit-and-run wreck. 18-Year-Old Cyclist Injured In Savage Hit-and-Run Has Died The kid was walking his bike in the crosswalk when an older male in an Mercedes SUV ran the red light and hit him so hard that the bumper cover was torn off the vehicle. This would make the vehicle easy to find if the LAPD could actually be arsed into doing their jobs and solving crimes. This is not a wreck that could be prevented with either protocols or infrastructure as the weapon vehicle operator ignored laws and existing infrastructure when he hit the cyclist. And as always in hit-and-run cases where the victim dies, I hope the driver watches his vehicle recycled into bicycles, chained to the steering wheel.

A cyclist is hit and killed in Enn Zed. Cyclist killed near Temuka named As of composing this post the mode of wreck has not been determined, not even the exact location of the wreck has been released, so the best I can say is use intersection protocols to avoid, and there probably should be some bicycle infrastructure to keep drivers in a hurry to get to/from work away from soft and squishy human riding bicycles.

And given the sever time crunch I’m operating under today, those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Still sore from yesterday’s exertions, and the Feed

Well I spent more than 6 hours packing and moving books yesterday, about a ton of them, and all told we managed to pack out less than 2 bookcases. This looks like it will be a really long gig, but the good part is the person I’m working for has to be there, and can only be there on days off from her regular job. That means normally I would get a break between workouts, but not this week as she has several days off because of weird scheduling. I may not be able to get the post done before I have to go move books again. The good part is I get paid at the end of the day.

Up first is a wreck in KS. Man riding bike critically injured after being hit by car Looking at the Street View of the crime scene there was a two-way stop for the cyclist and the weapon vehicle had a through street but there might have been restricted sight lines for the cyclist depending on the level of vegetation at the corner. Intersection wreck, use the protocols to avoid and as that was a residential area with an arterial running through it this would be a boundary zone that would require segregated infrastructure to allow the cyclist to bypass the arterial to prevent the wreck.

An Infrastructure! article from the other end of the state from the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. If the roads aren’t safe for cyclists, they aren’t safe People just don’t “get” that they are using what are essentially WMD as a mode of transportation, that their vehicle is more deadly than a machine gun.

More Infrastructure news from NYC. Speed Cameras Die In Albany And Bloomberg Wants Blood I agree with Bloomie on this one, people that are hit by speeding cars, and their surviving loved ones for the ones killed by speeding cars, need to call these law(not)makers in the middle of the night and ask why they voted against speed cameras.

And last link, sometimes “satire” comes a little too close to “truth” for comfort as this link from The Onion shows. Report: It Pretty Incredible That Americans Entrusted With Driving Cars “Americans make millions of mind-boggling, idiotic mistakes every day, and when taking into consideration the sheer amount of lives that could be lost due to just the slightest human error while driving, it’s actually pretty goddamn shocking that we let citizens operate 4,000-pound machines capable of going 200 mph” Amen. I should be reading The Onion more often.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today. But you should really click that link in The Onion to the guy testifying in favor of DOMA in front of the SCOTUS…

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Doing another day imitating that chicken, and the Feed

I had a gig this morning that extended into a full day of work, but when I filtered what was in the Feed this morning there wasn’t anything that pertained to this blog. Now that I have a few minutes I can filter the afternoon links and post any that are germane to this blog…

A dead CA cyclist will be remembered. Memorial For Bicyclist Killed on San Tomas Expressway is Wednesday A little late to attend, as this link was posted in my search folder @1515 with the service @1530, so I’m sorry but even if I hadn’t been working by the time I knew about the service the service was starting. This was “an accident” so the driver that left the road to hit him faces no charges.

The Big Story is a cyclist struck and killed in Enn Zed> Cyclist killed in crash named and Second cyclist killed in Christchurch also Cyclist killed in Christchurch crash more Cyclist killed in Christchurch crash named not done yet Cyclist killed in crash named still more Second cyclist killed in three days are you kidding me Cyclist killed in Christchurch crash named AFAIK the cyclist was waiting her turn at an intersection when a vehicle turned left and went wide into her lane (same as a vehicle making wide right in the US) and ran her over. This is not the kind of wreck a human cyclist can avoid, and there are only 2 things that can prevent it: stricter licensing requirements and segregated infrastructure. The Street View of the scene shows a traffic light and a well-marked bike lane where the cyclist supposedly was hit. I might change my assessment if I get other information about the wreck, but from what I know now, this is 100% the fault of the driver…

And that’s all I got today(tonight).

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Taking care of a bunch of things, and the Feed

Things are a mite chaotic around Casa de El Poeta today as I have been doing my imitation of a decapitated chicken trying to get things taken care of, plus I’m supposed to be ready to take a phone interview for a possible long-term (more than 2 weeks) computer job, and all the rest of the things that need to be taken care of just for day-to-day living. So I have been busy, and if things work out I will be busier still. But I will be making considerably more money than I have been doing 1-2 day gigs every once in a while. So financial stability vs free time, decisions decisions…

Up first a CA cyclist was hit by a school bus. Cyclist hit, killed by school bus in Palmdale and 18-Year-Old Bicyclist Hit, Killed By School Bus more Bicyclist Struck, Killed by School Bus — Chris Wolfe Reports another one Teen struck and killed by school bus in Palmdale last link Teen Struck, Killed by School Bus in Palmdale – Jennifer Gould Reports OK I took a look at the scene of the crime via Street View, and it doesn’t make sense. There were 2 lanes of travel and a left turn lane, then a right turn only lane for the opposite direction of travel for the bus, and the bus hit the cyclist in the left turn lane for the opposite side of the street. This reads more like the driver swerved at the cyclist than tried to avoid him. There was an unconfirmed report that there was a third vehicle at the scene that had stopped to give the cyclist a clear crossing and the bus swerved around that vehicle. At any rate the bus was in the wrong lane when it hit the cyclist, and the cyclist had cleared the bus’s lane of travel when he was hit. Intersection protocols might have prevented this wreck but it’s not likely, but getting the infrastructure right including not having a 50 MPH highway running through residential areas and a park would have prevented it.

And an interesting link from the UK. Cambridge drivers warned car doors can be a menace to cyclists The only wreck mode that is 100% the fault of drivers by law, and there are still people that try to blame it on cyclists…

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

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Another Bean Day, and another Feed

Even though Mrs, the Poet is not cleaning the church today she will be out and about doing things that need to be done so I’m making the beans again today. Yay, cooking! Actually if the “cooking” was any easier it would just about make itself so I’m not complaining, and this is the only way to get one of my favorite foods. I couldn’t get it before precisely because it takes so long to cook if it’s done right, which is perfect for me in this situation, where I work from the house and can stay with the slow cooker to tend the beans until they are nearly done, then season and add rice that also takes nigh onto forever to cook. I mean seriously the brown rice takes right at 2 hours to reach edible consistency after the beans reach a state that will allow adding the rice. Total cooking time is right at 6 hours with brown rice, just under 5 hours with white rice. For some reason (I’m sure Alton Brown could tell me) the beans seem to stop cooking when I add the brown rice, as I pull a bowl for the picky housemate that doesn’t like rice cooked with the beans and those beans don’t seem any different in “doneness” compared to the ones that have sat in the pot an extra 2 hours with the brown rice. Like I said, I’m not sure what is going on with this particular part of the process, I just know that it works. The rice gets cooked, the beans don’t get over-cooked, and I have a tasty meal.

I had my first bowl of the rice porridge for breakfast today, and wow. I backed off everything from the Vegan Rice “Pudding” recipe, less sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla, but a touch more salt, and a cup more water for the cooking, then into a covered dish for refrigerator storage until time to eat then microwave a bowl. The stuff sets like concrete in the fridge but returns to a smooth consistency after reaching eating temperature. In fact I think that’s what I’m going to look for when I nuke it in the future, when it gets soft and squishy it’s warm and ready to eat. The taste is less overwhelming than the pudding version, a little more of the nuttiness of the brown rice comes through, and again is something I could eat regularly for a fairly long time, which is good because nobody else will and a post makes about 8 servings for a normal American, 12 servings for people in the rest of the world, or 4 servings for a daily bike rider… And that’s 500 words about food with this being a bike blog, something’s a bit off here. Well I have seen pages and pages about alternative fuels for performance in Hot Rod Magazine, and food is fuel for the cyclist. I’m just writing about alternative fuels for people that ride bikes?

From the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike, a driver treats a cyclist like something stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Driver Dragged Cyclist Under SUV, Killing Him, Before Fleeing Scene: Miami-Dade Police The driver hit the cyclist from behind, then swerved from side to side to dislodge the cyclist from under the vehicle before fleeing the scene. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent, particularly in the department of driver licensing which should have caught the sociopathic tendencies of this driver before allowing him access to a weapon of mass destruction. The driver should be prosecuted for murder if he gets caught, but given who’s on the case I doubt he will get caught. This is the real Miami PD, not CSI: Miami.

A cyclist is injured in MD. Cyclist seriously injured in accident This seems to be a popular route for cyclists as it is mostly residential, and the Google Street View even has what appears to be a cyclist on the road. 8280 WB&A Road, Severn MD There was nothing given about the wreck for either party’s lane position or direction of travel. Actually the fact that there was another vehicle is just barely mentioned, that he was hit and that’s the last of the other vehicle in the article.

Update on the blind driver that hit a cyclist in CA. Authorities identify Bay Area cyclist killed in Clearlake Oaks Still focusing on the lack of reflective clothing rather than the fact the driver apparently could not see out the windshield to avoid the cyclist…

Another low-information article, this one from the Great White North. Cyclist injured in collision with SUV Serious enough injuries, but no information about location, direction of travel or anything I can use to give cogent advice on how to prevent this other than “Infrastructure!”.

A far-West Canuckistan cyclist is hit from behind by a minivan. Cyclist struck by van at Bay and Blanshard streets in Victoria dies Intersection wreck, use the protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent. That trailer was just flattened when the van ran it over, which caused the cyclist to lose control over the bike and caused him to sustain head injuries too severe even for the helmet he was wearing to protect him. And then they just let the person in control of the deadly weapon drive off with the weapon vehicle. I’m sorry, but there is just too much of this going on, where people driving motor vehicles get to blame the victims with no other evidence that the victim did anything wrong and LEO take that at face value and let the driver go without consequences from the legal system.

An odd wreck in Enn Zed. Young cyclist dies in hospital The cyclist crossed the centerline and hit the motor vehicle head on and then the motor vehicle went off the side of the road and hit a power pole, really? That would be the ultimate in SWSS wrecks to have the cyclist cross the centerline… To decide on the veracity of the driver’s report I would need to know which side of the street she hit the power pole on, if it was the left side for her direction of travel that would tend to back up her claim as that would have been the reflexive avoidance maneuver for a person driving on the left side of the road. More Cyclist critically injured in crash and Cyclist hit by car in Christchurch also Cyclist hit and killed by car named

Lifestyle from Enn Zed. Wheels raised in tribute

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

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Not much time at home today, Wreck-Free Sunday

I haven’t had much time actually at the house today. I had morning services of course, then I had to go scope out a gig to see if I could do it and wanted to do it (yes to both), then transportation back from the interview/job description, then writing the blog post and eating lunch, than evening services and finally dinner. And the riding the bike part was encased in several layers because it turned freaking cold out there in The Beautiful Suburbs of Hell again. And since I shaved my head 2 weeks ago my ears are really feeling the cold.

There’s a Cup race going on but I don’t even have the TV on. Actually there is a plethora of choices in motorsport today, the Cup race in Fontana CA, there’s the Indycar race in St. Petersburg FL, and the F1 race in Malaysia, and that’s just off the top of my head. There are multiple motorcycle races and I’m sure I could find an off-road race today also, I just have other things to do today and can’t afford the distraction or I’ll never get the blog post done.

Getting back to the gig, it’s in two parts. One is supervising a move out of more than 40K books, plus comic books CDs DVDs, and video tapes. Roughly 4 tons or so of paper and stuff that has to be removed from a house and placed in storage, plus other things that have to be moved once the books etc. are out of the way. It looks like a job that will run several days, complicated by the fact that the workers can only get together for maybe 4 hours a day, one or two days a week, so maybe a month or two until completion.

Second part of the gig is refurbing some abandoned bikes, mostly new tubes and a tire or two, plus lubrication or replacing of chains and adjusting brakes, so that the person upon whom the bikes had been abandoned can get some money out of them, except for one that she will keep as a camp bike for riding to and from the showers that are a quarter of a mile from the camp site we have. Now this gig is going to be paid for by the exchange of another abandoned bike, an old Nishiki Sport from the ’80s that have been going for anywhere from $200 for a ratty one to $2k for a perfect restoration on the local markets. Ridable refurbishments have been running $400 and up, which is what I’m going to price this one at because aside from the rubber parts and the chain it’s in pretty good shape with the original bits intact.

Also there may be an additional long-term gig, as there is a data-entry job that is about to lose a worker who had an accident (not at work) and won’t be able to continue working at data entry any more. That one may cause problems in getting this blog posted on a regular basis as it will be 5 days a week, 4 or so hours a day with transportation to and from the job eating a bit of time. I might be able to do part to most of the job with the new laptop that’s coming in next week, if I can figure out a way to get the links downloaded to the computer and then filter and post them off-line and upload the post to this WordPress site when I get back to a Wi Fi connection.

Speaking of the new laptop, I’m getting really hyper about it while I’m waiting for it to show up at the store. This will be the first new computer I have bought from a computer store since the LinSpire desktop I bought in 2005, with the previous new computer being the one that replaced my 486dx2 when it turned out to not be Y2K compliant. The Y2K replacement had more system memory than the 486 had storage, and the 2005 computer was a similar jump up, again with almost as much system memory as the previous box’s storage, and now the new laptop will have 2GB of system memory with 320GB of storage and cost less than the 2005 LinSpire desktop box without a display. I have checked the display on the new laptop and it was freaking awesome on the demo model, at least an order of magnitude better than the CRT I’m using with this box, the CRT I bought back in 2000 to go with the Y2K replacement. Given that this is now more than 12 years of frequent use, with daily 8-12 hour sessions doing this blog (counting reading links, filtering, reading web comics to not go insane from the horrors in the links I was reading, and the actual couple of hours I spent writing and editing the post) since 2006, I would say I got my money’s worth from this CRT. But now I get an easy-on-the-eyes flat screen display with scads more pixels than this CRT can display and much sharper focus to boot. So, yeah, I’m happy about this purchase and I haven’t even gotten the carton with the new computer home yet.

Also, a programming alert. I’m going on a camping trip next month where there ain’t no such thing as Internets. Remember I was saying there was a quarter of a mile to the showers which is why the lady wanted a camp bike? That’s where I’m going camping for four days next month. I will be leaving on a Thursday, and not getting back until late Sunday evening with mad scrambles to get things packed on the Wednesday before departure. The computer and maybe the cell phone are staying in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell while I go commune with nature and dance naked around a fire doing the Happy Naked Pagan Dance… The last time I went to this campout I rode the Stratus for 2 days, causing great pain as I wore the skin off over my tailbone where I broke it in college and it grew back “funny”. I discovered that the seat on a 1983 Stratus was not built for riding 250 miles in 2 days in 90°F heat, particularly if the longest ride you had made that season was less than 50 miles (but not by much!). I made it there under my own power, I did not leave that way. And I never was able to get the blood stains out of those shorts. 😛 I know TMI again.

And that’s all I got for you today, fun eh?

PSA, Opus

This post may be interrupted, and the Feed

Mrs. the Poet has decided that I am an asset for her part-time job as I can bend over to reach things she can’t and I’m taller to reach things she can’t, so she drags me with her and shares some of the money. Since this has to be done during the day I may have to suspend writing this post while I go help my wife. Yay! employment.

Up first, a cyclist is hit-and-run but LEO find the weapon vehicle with the engine still warm and arrest the driver. Valencia Woman Arrested After Newhall Hit-And-Run Investigation Intersection wreck, intersection protocols to avoid the wreck, fix the infrastructure to prevent, and kudos to the local LEO in this case for taking the assault with a deadly weapon seriously even though the cyclist may have run the stop sign.

Another blind driver hits and kills a cyclist. Cyclist hit by pickup, killed on Highway 20 Notice that the report did not say the cyclist was riding without lights or reflectors, just that he wasn’t wearing reflective clothing, IOW the cyclist is guilty because he wasn’t wearing the glow-in-the-dark clown costume the LEO or the reporter thought he should have been wearing. Hit-from-behind protocol to avoid, and enforcement of the law to not run into vehicles that are in front of you to prevent. More Thursday night crash claims bicyclist’s life

I’m not sure how to classify this article, it’s about the legal infrastructure but it’s more about attitudes towards vulnerable users than anything else. Anyway a ride in NYC to protest “No Criminality Suspected”. Cyclists draw a line; Demand accountability in car accidents The assumption of innocence should only start in the courtroom, until then investigate assuming a crime has been committed.

And it’s Saturday, so there must be a link about e-assist bikes in the folder. And here it is. Juiced Riders ODK Electric Cargo Bike Review I personally think the best use of e-assist on flat terrain is with cargo bikes, also the best use when the road slants up.

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

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Things that I don’t understand, and the Feed

Here at Casa De El Poeta we have taken in roomers to help make ends meet. One is our son, the other is an elderly woman who may not have both oars in the water, has come slightly unclipped from one pedal, not playing with a full deck, and nine other euphemisms for not entirely sane. I have discovered a recipe for a rice porridge that makes a wonderful breakfast (a less sweet version of the vegan rice “pudding” I made a few weeks back) so I bought a full bag of brown rice to make sure I had the ingredients to make the recipe (2 cups of brown rice, 8 cups of water, 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon, nutmeg, and a tiny dash of ground cloves and a little salt) so that there would be no “issues” with the recipe (which makes enough to feed me about 4 breakfasts). So I have all the ingredients, and go to get the slow cooker, and there’s a brand-new in the box fondue set where the crock pot is supposed to be. I tear the kitchen apart looking for the crock pot and it’s nowhere to be found. So here I am ready to cook, and the device I need to cook with is MIA/AWOL. In its place is a fondue set, which is lovely but in no way substitutes for a slow cooker. My son has no notion of what happened to the slow cooker, and claims this was the first time he had seen the fondue set. As he has demonstrated no previous desire to “do” fondue in the thirty-mumble years I have known him. I believe him. This leaves one other person to mess with the slow cooker and leave a fondue set, the crazy lady in the other bedroom. I know Mrs. the Poet would not substitute a fondue set for a slow cooker as 1) this would require spending money she does not have, and 2) she has no more desire to consume fondue than my son. So by process of elimination we have only one suspect left… and I still don’t get to make my rice porridge.

LA cyclists have been dealing with a minor spate of attempted murder on the roads. Second cyclist struck by hit-and-run driver in Ascension The know the second vehicle was a white F-150 pickup from debris left behind while the first vehicle remains unknown because of a lack of debris from the wreck. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and prevent homicidal maniacs from having access to weapons of mass destruction to prevent. Also some decent inter-urban bicycle infrastructure would be of great help, both in keeping the WMD away from the vulnerable road users, and in giving the homicidal maniacs some other way of getting around after they get out of prison/the nut-house.

One of the drawbacks of aftermarket lighting for bicycles, they don’t stay put in a wreck. Bicyclist injured on Milledge Avenue The GA cyclist was hit head on by a vehicle turning into his lane from another street, and they are more upset the cyclist can’t locate his headlight after the wreck than the fact the driver was in the wrong lane? TANJ! Intersection protocols to avoid and get the idiots off the road that can’t see a cyclist until he’s sprawled across the windshield to prevent. And make headlight brackets strong enough to survive a wreck that was survivable by the rider, I can’t tell you how many headlights I went through back when I was working the convenience store down the street (that was very bumpy and full of pot holes), but I averaged about one per week until I bought a full-suspension MTB. This was in the days of halogen bulbs as the state of the art in bike lighting and getting more than a few hours out of a set of batteries meant you bought really expensive batteries, and the (cheap) batteries were lasting longer than the lights I put them in. I postulate that a similar situation befell this cyclist, either the light fell off just before the impact, or did not survive the impact and investigators were unable to locate the remains of the light in the dark.

A cyclist in Oz is involved in a similar wreck to the GA wreck listed above. Teen cyclist injured in crash at Foxground The cyclist in this wreck fared much worse than the GA cyclist as he had to be transported with serious multiple injuries after the wreck. As of the moment the cyclist was not accused of riding salmon so we have to assume the driver crossed the centerline of the road for some reason.

What a dead cyclist “means” in Enn Zed. The impact of a cyclist’s death I can see the video but not hear it, so I don’t know what the people are saying on it, but as this includes the funeral of a woman killed by a truck that passed too closely, I’m assuming it is at least somewhat positive.

And a cyclist that died in Thailand will have to be identified from DNA records as he was hit so many times not enough pieces of him (?) were left intact to identify him. Horrific death for cyclist (pix) hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and get the idiots off the roads to prevent. I mean seriously hit guy was hit so hard that tiny shreds are all that is left, even though the bike was almost undamaged. This implies a buzz job at an immense speed for the initial impact, something well in excess of 100 MPH (160Km/hr).

And those are all the live links that gave me fits today, that last link in particular >shudder<.

Billed @$0.02, Opus