The slightly messy roads have the Native Texans in the RPG group quaking in their cowboy boots (that have never seen mud, much less an actual horse) so I get to spend the entire day with Mrs. the Poet. After I get done with the blog post, that is.
And just to clarify from yesterday’s blog post, the live oak did not survive the ice storm. The weight that accumulated on the leaves caused the trunk to fail sometime after I checked it the first time around noon. I noticed it when I had to get the hammer to let me throw out the garbage because the lid to the garbage can was sealed in about an inch of ice. Anyway the side of the live oak facing away from the house has been shredded away by all the ice. I’m going to donate the remains to my church for use as firewood. Better than letting it go into the local landfill.
Up first is the kind of wreck that is totally avoidable, but somehow people still keep having them. Bike rider killed in Pacoima train collision; eighth SoCal train victim this year and Man fatally struck by Metrolink train in Pacoima This is just a sobering reminder of how limited the reach of this blog really is, because I say this every time someone gets hit by a train: Trains are easy to avoid, they can only be found on train tracks, and they make a lot of noise (particularly when there is someone on the track in front of them). Also even if you’re deaf they are quite large and usually colorful and tend to stand out against a background. So to avoid getting hit by a train avoid train tracks when you can, and when you have to be on a train track for whatever reason use your eyes to not be there when the train is there.
Update on an arrest in a CT hit-and-run of a cyclist. Warrant details crash that killed cyclist The utter depravity of this driver who didn’t even stop to see what kind of damage he did is just appalling. Left cross wreck means intersection protocols to avoid or to mitigate damages, and get the infrastructure right to prevent.
Infrastructure! news from the UK as they try to put a “sticking plaster” on a sucking chest wound. Cyclists could get head start at traffic lights to cut deaths “Sticking plaster” is British for Band-Aid. What’s needed for this intersection is a bicycle flyover to physically segregate cyclists from being on the outside lane from turning trucks, just like what they did for the through motor vehicle traffic.
And last link when a corporation uses a generic place name as a brand for a prestige product, being right won’t protect you from getting sued when you use the same name for a different product. War veteran forced to change bike shop’s name after threat from U.S bike giant Specialized I guess that’s the last time I buy a Specialized branded product with the swhooshy “S” logo.
And those were all the links about bicycles that gave me fits today.
Billed @€0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 