Stuff I can’t put in a headline, and the Feed

We have been under a pollen alert here at the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell since Monday, and yesterday and this morning were especially bad for yr fthfl scrb. As in I sneezed my way through most of the ritual planning session yesterday and woke to whiteout blindness after I managed to pry my eyelids apart (a two-handed pry job at that). We are in what one former church president called “tree bukkake” season as tree pollen is approaching toxic level for some people and several ambulance rides are requested for steroid shots and a couple cases of anaphylactic shock every day. Fun! I just personally call it “plants having sex in my sinuses”. Even more fun is that the only medication I can avail myself of puts me to sleep for almost as long as it relieves my symptoms, but at least I wake up able to open my eyes and see clearly. I try to remember to take an 8 hour dose right before I go to bed, but one of the other symptoms of an allergy attack for me is very fuzzy thinking. That combined with the memory loss I suffered via the brain injury makes taking meds that aren’t on my “habit” list to take every day hard to remember. The best I can do is to drink lots of fluids so that discharges are easily removed and not sight-obscuring. For me personally that means coffee, unsweetened ice tea, and sports drinks.

But other than that things are just fine.

First up is the rather rare report of someone that killed a cyclist facing criminal charges in TX. Man indicted in Austin cyclist’s death The driver was passing cars on the shoulder (a major traffic violation in TX) when he killed the cyclist, and I’m amazed they even got an indictment. Getting charges filed when a vulnerable road user gets killed in TX first has to overcome the “why wasn’t he in a car?” prejudice. Also finding a bike-friendly route in any urban area in TX requires either riding miles out of your way to avoid congested high-speed routes, or limiting oneself to a very small riding territory.

This was the first link that popped up in the Feed today. Michigan Bike Accident Lawyers at Buckfire & Buckfire Celebrate Bicycle Helmet Safety Week Aaand another lawyer posts the “85%” lie without checking on the source.

More on the Seattle rider killed by a semi on his commute. Riders honor cyclist killed in semi-truck accident What I have been finding through back-channels is that the pavement in the bike lane there is so bad that a cyclist needs three sets of eyes to safely navigate the route. One set to watch the road, one set to watch for traffic, and a third set to watch the signals to keep from running a red light.

A cyclist is cut off in the Caymans. Cyclist hit by car The narrative in this wreck makes it quite clear the cyclist had the right of way and the driver cut him off. Intersection protocols to avoid, and fix the infrastructure to prevent.

Since the driver died prior to the trial, this is mostly to find out what happened to this UK cyclist. Crash death cyclist tried to wave down her killer, inquest hears and Cyclist killed by lorry ‘waved at driver to stop him crashing into her’

Still in the UK an appeal is planned for the paltry sentence levied against a killer driver. Appeal considered in Audrey Fyfe case, daughter says allowing motorist to drive again “beyond comprehension” Cyclists are the “New Negro” in the UK, and the US as well. The penalties for killing a cyclist on the roads is similar to the penalties for lynching a Negro during the ’50s and early ’60s in Mississippi. More Disgust at cyclist killer’s sentence

From Oz a rare bike-on-bike wreck with serious injury. Cyclist badly hurt in crash Head-on wreck leaves one cyclist critically injured while the other walks away. Someone had to have been too far over to the other side of the track, or just both riding in the middle of an unmarked path. The solution of course is for cyclists to ride to one side of a wide and well-marked bike path, but lacking the wide and well-marked parts when meeting another rider you should slow down and move over (right i most of the world, left in those places where they drive on the wrong side of the road) More. Cyclist seriously injured in head-on crash

Infrastructure! news from MA. After Cyclist’s Death, Wellesley Struggles with Bike Safety The problem is attitudes and space, and there ain’t no space so attitudes are going to have to change.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today, less the motorcycle wrecks. Those give me fits too, but they just don’t have a place in this blog.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Advertisement