OK now I’m pissed, and the Feed

I just got off the phone with the CSR at Lowe’s trying to find out what happened to my AC that I bought Wednesday for Thursday delivery, only to find out Thursday was 9/19! The receipt plainly says “Next Day Delivery”, and I was told I would get my AC between 1800 and 2000 yesterday at the cash register. This after I had to traipse all over town because I was paying with actual cash because they couldn’t figure out how to manage the money. Hellooo! It’s all the same company, figure it out, do a store-to-store transfer or something, but don’t make a cash customer have to spend hours in the heat going from one store to the other because nobody has the foggiest notion of what to do with pictures of dead presidents on green pieces of paper (well peach now for the $20 bill). And just how upset I am can be divined by the fact that I named names for the company involved. Lowe’s you really dropped the ball on this one.

Up first is the gentle slap on the wrist given to an habitual traffic offender that killed a cyclist in the most deadliest sate in the US to walk or ride a bicycle. Key Biscayne musician gets 12 years in prison for cyclist’s death and Brother Of Man Who Killed Cyclist Breaks Down And Refuses To Testify At Sentencing Hearing also Judge Gives Driver Who Killed Cyclist 12 Years In Prison not done yet Carlos Bertonatti Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison For DUI Hit-And-Run On Rickenbacker Causeway more Judge Sentences Carlos Bertonatti to 12 Years in Prison in Fatal DUI Hit-And-Run Crash With Cyclist and last link Man who struck, killed cyclist sentenced to 12 years Why couldn’t someone “feel threatened” by this guy before the hearing and save the state of FL the costs of feeding him for the next 12 years?

Another cycling injury in the most deadliest stat in the US… Boy riding bike hit by car in New Smyrna Intersection wreck, use the protocols to avoid or to mitigate damages, and get the infrastructure right to prevent. The Street View of the scene shows a quiet residential street that would be a 20 km/hr speed limit under the Dutch infrastructure rules (notice the Dead End sign on the street the cyclist came from), but was 35 MPH (or about 70% fatal to cyclists and pedestrians) as you can see from the speed limit sign.

The Bertonatti story should make this guy feel lucky. Driver sentenced for striking bicyclist in Lawrenceville This was the guy that rammed the cyclist from behind and crushed him against a parked car or 3 before trying to drive off with the bike caught in the weapon vehicle’s bodywork, while DUI for the fifth time.

Hit-and-run in AL. Person Injured Riding Bike on the Circle Mid-block wreck location, maybe hit-from-behind? Protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. And as part of that confiscate and shred all weapon vehicles involved in hit-and-run.

A serious wreck in IL and there seems to be an “I” missing from the driver description in the headline. IDOT Truck Driver Injured Pregnant Divvy Rider on Augusta Last Week Yeah, bad pun, no cookie. This is another case of a cyclist caught by a stale green and a driver failing to pay attention to what was in the street in front of him. Infrastructure! And you have to able to depend on drivers not running you over as soon as the light changes.

Drunk operation of a vehicle seems to be today’s theme, as a CA cyclist has charges dismissed for DUI in the death of a pedestrian. Woman who fatally struck man with bicycle won’t face charges From what little I can get out of CA on this the cyclist tested below the legal limit for DUI, and the pedestrian may have caused the collision. Still, don’t drink and bike, and DON’T HIT THE PEDESTRIANS!

More on the CARnage wreaked in far West Canuckistan over the weekend. Two dead on Vancouver roads Still next to nothing on the bike wreck but now we know the cyclist was “pinned”. And the crime scene picture shows the bike apparently stuck in the side of the truck as it made a right turn, so possible right hook? It will probably end up as another “I didn’t see him” wreck blamed on the huge blind spot to the right and front of the conventional cab tractor.

Truck drivers in the UK are starting to take heat for the fact that so many dead cyclists are the result of getting hit from behind by semis. RHA out to improve cyclist/haulier relations Less than 4% of the vehicles caused 27% of the fatal wrecks, with the percentage in London about 70%. Yep there’s something wrong all right, and it isn’t always the cyclist’s fault, especially the hit-from-behind wrecks.

Infrastructure! news from the Windy City. Cyclist killed in Old Town could get honorary street

And I got a phone call as I was composing the post that the AC would be here by 1600. Yay!

Those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

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A post about music, not bicycles

Yep, I’m staying up late with a bad backache listening to full albums on YouTube, and what I have been listening to lately has been Gorillaz. While the best stuff is from the second album Demon Days, the best album musically is their most recent studio release, The Fall. No hits, just a steady sonic wall of awesome. And a narrative of sorts as the songs track a journey that meanders across the United States, starting with a phone call to Arizona from somewhere in the hills and moraines of Michigan, that tracks through Detroit, Chicago, Joplin MO, Southern OK and far North TX into Dallas, then back northwest to Amarillo and then on to the Speak It Mountains and a quiet glade of Aspens. From there they meet up with Bobby in Phoenix, slide on over to California, then up the coast to Seattle. Nothing that screams “hit single” like “Clint Eastwood” or “Kids With Guns”, but just a mellow trip with smooth sounds. All together it sounds like a trip through the late 1960s and early ’70s country blues rock. I wouldn’t buy any song from the album as a stand-alone, but as a sonic unity I like it. I would buy the album if I could find the CD.

Now having said that about The Fall, the album that has the best songs is Demon Days, but those are all just songs, not a sonic unity. My particular choice from that album is a tossup between “Dirty Harry”, “Kids With Guns” and “DARE”. I mean none of the songs are clinkers, they are all pretty decent pieces of music, but those are the 3 that top my list. “Dirty Harry” particularly sounds like something that was rejected from the soundtrack to a Mad Max side story for being too good compared to the rest of the story (and now someone is going to make that movie in some alternate universe because I wrote about it here). “Kids With Guns” has one of the better bass lines ever, what else can I say? I mean there is the socially relevant lyrics, and a decently catchy tune, but that bass line >shiver<. And something that foreshadows The Fall is the pair of tracks "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" that tracks right into "Don't Get Lost in Heaven". The thematic thread that runs through Demon Days is a bass-heavy mix with the bass line carrying the melody in several of the songs. That is to be expected with a front man (Murdoc) that is the bass player for the virtual band. I know the front for the real band is Damon Albarn, the voice of 2D in the virtual band and singer for the group Blur when he's not a Gorillaz.

Now my vote for "worst" Gorillaz album is Plastic Beach which just goes to show that with a good songwriting team and good musicians even the "worst" is pretty good. It just doesn't have the sonic unity of The Fall, or the consistent single quality of Demon Days. The best tracks on that one are "Stylo" and "Melancholy Hill", with the one I like the least is "Superfast Jellyfish". That song sounds like a 3 minute commercial. Ugh!

Well I’m not a music guy, so I’m going to let this one end here.

PSA, Opus