Today’s delayed blog post brought to you by new shorts, and the Feed

I had to go out in the heat again, this time to buy shorts (outerwear) because the ones I have now are well on the way to becoming rags. I have one (1) pair that is not split up the back and only useful for wearing around the house when I don’t want to bother getting dressed, and that pair is developing huge holes where the pockets used to be. The corners of the pockets started to tear away from the then pants, and even though the pockets have been removed the holes continue to grow with every wearing. So I go to the store to buy new shorts I can wear on the bike or just “around”. Back soon, I swear. 😀 OK, I bought 3 pairs of shorts on sale at the Old Navy across the street from the sporting goods store I shopped first and rejected for costing too much, total costs $21.01 including tax. I got one black, one medium grey, and one light green pair in my size on sale for 50% off. So now I don’t have to wear raggedy shorts outside just to have pockets for stuff.

The Big Story continues to be the impaired driver who crossed 4 lanes to hit a sidewalk cyclist head on. Driver charged after cyclist hit and killed in Hickory and Police: Driver charged after cyclist hit, killed in Hickory and this one that was very hard to track down ‘I’ve never seen anything like that’ That last one I had to do an archive search at the paper because the URL and headline had changed. That “nobody would have done something like this on purpose” quote is exactly what makes me think he “done it on purpose”, or as Mrs. the Poet says, “Only someone who did it on purpose would say it that way.”

Remember that woman killed on USBR 36? Charges filed in Alton bicycle death

Someone wanted to show that this death was not an accident. MAN SHOT AND KILLED WHILE RIDING BICYCLE IN WYNNEFIELD Got out of the car to stop the cyclist and shoot him in the face, then got back into the car. That pretty much defines “not an accident” for me.

A cyclist in MA finds that drivers do not pay attention to bikes anywhere. Cyclist injured after colliding with car in Brockton Cyclist negotiating a parking lot and driver not looking for bicycles in the parking lot. And a miraculous transformation took place, “The man was riding a bicycle in the parking lot of the Westgate Mall about 10 a.m. when he turned into a car.” I wish I could turn into a car sometimes. Does anyone remember Turbo Teen?

Commentary on bicycle infrastructure in MN. Thoughts on danger and biking The chances of getting hit are low but non-zero, and the consequences fall mainly on the cyclist because there is little likelihood of prosecution in a wreck. And the article that brought on this article. Hit by a car (again) in Downtown St. Paul, or why we need the bike plan The cyclist was taking the least-awful route between destinations, not the “best”.

And a less local look but still from the same city. Is a safe bike ride too much to ask?

And it isn’t limited to drivers vs. cyclists, either. WATCH: Horrifying video as man is struck by car and thrown into the air in road rage brawl They hit the guy with his own car after failing to hit him with their fists.

I think this might be infrastructure-related, seeing as this was the scene of one of the UK’s worst motor vehicle wrecks before this bike wreck. Cyclist dies after falling from notorious bridge in North Yorkshire Dales The bridge has been in existence at least since 1925 when they had a big wreck there that killed 7, but that is no excuse especially since they had the wreck in 1975.

This door prize was within inches of being fatal. Heart-stopping moment cyclist falls into path of a black cab after swerving to avoid car door Cyclist injured, bike and cab damaged, all because the driver of the weapon vehicle failed to maintain a proper lookout.

And this from the Emerald Isle of my ancestry. High death and injury rates among cyclists alarm road safety campaigners Maybe adopting the CROW manual instead of trying to reinvent the wheel would do the job?

And I’m outta links again. Only 26 more days until my Death Day celebration! I think I want some new dice this year, I don’t have enough d6 for my D&D3.5e Warlock10 that I’m playing, and none of my digital rollers will let me roll damage in one roll either. I have magical devices that give me a total of +13 to hit with Eldritch Blast (ranged touch attack), and a total of 10d6 damage when I hit, which I do anytime I roll a 2 or higher against almost all enemies.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet

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Today’s delayed blog post brought to you by Kinky D&D, and the Feed

I was out of the house again this afternoon as the Kinky D&D group met for a dungeon crawl. The game is loosely based on the Oglaf universe warning very NSFW, and like the comic we get long stretches where nothing remotely sexy is going on for one reason or another. That would include today’s game, where nobody was raped or seduced or otherwise engaged in anything resembling sexual activity, including my nympho bard apprentice NPC. Part of that was caused by the party being under mind control by a race of asexual insectoids with sort of a hive mind (Formeans) for most of the session. We got very little loot from the dungeon crawl, a dagger that was slightly better than one lost during the crawl, and a ring of +2 Charisma for my Warlock. Fortunately none of the characters on the crawl needed to perform marathon sex to charge magic because the Formeans really did not understand the concept of recreational sex used as an energy source for magic spells.

Up first because it is funny and hey, bees. [UPDATED] A Serious Swarm Of Bees Is Devouring A Bike In Midtown There are worse ways to temporarily lose access to your bike than having thousands of bees use it as a rally point while waiting for their new queen.

Next up, the Big Story today has been the cyclist hit head-on by a drunk driver driving on the wrong side of the road. Cyclist Killed in Collision on North Center Street [UPDATED 12 noon] and Hickory Police: Cyclist killed by driver high on drugs Again I see this as a drugged out driver targeting a hated road vermin and because he was impaired he ran into the other vehicles and the power pole. I suggest checking his social media for anti-bike rants or even jokes.

The other Big story today is a hit-and-run caught on tape in NYC. Cops Seek Hit-And-Run Driver Who Ran Over Harlem Cyclist and Police Release Video In Harlem Hit-And-Run That Critically Injured Cyclist The cyclist was waiting to make a legal left turn when hit, and drivers wonder why cyclists don’t wait for the red. Well wrecks like this are a big reason.

How much street can you buy with $150K? 1.3 What does it cost to run the transportation system? Turns out to be not much, one traffic light and a few feet of sidewalk with a curb. Converting from the metric system and Canadian dollars it turns out that one lane of road costs $1 million per mile, +/- a few bucks, not counting the cost of the land underneath it. At $150K/mile for a segregated bike path making everybody ride a bike sounds like sound fiscal policy.

So it is official now, it was the cyclist’s fault for getting hit, not the driver blowing 0.123BAC%. Police: Cyclist at fault in crash that killed him I smell bovine digestive byproduct. I smell BS because none of the cyclist’s belongings have been returned to his family especially the bike.

NOLA has a bicycle infrastructure problem. Bicyclist killed by dump truck at Canal and South Broad; five bicyclists have died in New Orleans this year Part of the problem is cyclists obeying the law are invisible to drivers. more on the specific wreck mentioned in the headline. CYCLIST KILLED IN MID CITY WRECK Bog-standard right hook, incomplete pass followed by a turn, and the innocent cyclist has nowhere to get away from the truck.

The shoulder of the road is not bicycle infrastructure. Cyclist dies after being hit by vehicle on Goodwood Blvd. Assuming the driver’s story is correct, and the remains of the bike seem to back that up, there are many reasons why a cyclist would swerve from the shoulder, including there was suddenly no shoulder there to ride on any more.

More on the FL cyclist killed trying to make a legal left turn. Polk County Sheriff’s Office Identifies Lakeland Man Killed While Riding Bike I’m still waiting to see how they are going to blame the cyclist on this one.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: OC truck driver goes on trial; Montebello hit-and-run reward; Metro bike workshops start tonight

From NYC, those horror movies about goofing off behind the wheel worked so well when we were in High School. City employed drivers forced to take ‘Vision Zero’ safety class What makes people think they will work any better on adults?

More on “pedestrian safety” in NYC. A Brief History Of “Jaywalking” In NYC

What happens when bike riders play by the imaginary rules. This Is What Happened When Bicyclists Obeyed Traffic Laws Along The Wiggle Yesterday Two blocks were all it took to get massive road rage from drivers, and a massive traffic jam from just a few cyclists.

Another deadly wreck in the Great White North. 15-year-old cyclist killed in crash on Highway 7/8 Cyclist riding with traffic hit from behind…

Put the fucking phone down and leave it alone until the vehicle has ceased all motion. Lorry driver killed Plymouth cyclist ‘after reaching for phone’ In the time it took to find the play app, find the sermon, and start playback the driver had been not looking at the road for several seconds, and was totally unaware of the cyclist NOT in the road bu the bike lane adjacent to the road…

I for one welcome our robotic overlords, as long as they learn how to “play nice” in an environment filled with squishy humans. Driverless Car Testing and Big Data Intersect in Simulated City

Cyclists need to learn how to stretch, unlike drivers… Off Your Bike: Four Helpful Stretches for the Bike Commuter

And I seem to have run out of links again.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet