One last day of batching it, and the Feed

Yes, Mrs. the Poet returns from her leaf-peeping expedition mid-day tomorrow, so I can quit with the frozen pizza and Ramen (not on the same days) for dinner. I’m making a pot of beans and rice for tonight so that there will be food available for dinner tomorrow that Mrs. the Poet doesn’t have to cook, and she likes my beans.

Up first more on the cyclist hit from behind riding on the shoulder, apparently by a drunk driver. Bicyclist from Orange struck and killed on Highway 12, alcohol suspected as a factor and ORANGE MAN KILLED IN BICYCLE/AUTO CRASH I don’t think I need to expound on how much I hate drunk drivers, I think drunks that kill need to be chained to the steering wheel of their car as the car gets run through a car shredder.

A cyclist is hit in MD. 82-year-old cyclist critically injured after hit by vehicle Part of the problem is mis-assigned priority between the bike facility and the road. The bike path feels like a limited-access highway for bikes, and riders expect the same kind of accommodations as limited-access highways get, not stopping at every side-street and back alley. That said until such changes are made, stop at the stop signs.

Justice delayed for a cyclist killed by a drunk driver in GA. Two years later, family still seeking justice for cyclist’s death Give him a fair trial and a decent hanging, or in his case put him back behind the wheel of that Mustang for one last ride through the car shredder.

Our Daily Ted part 1. Morning Links: gofundme for HB bike victim, bike lane and salmon cyclist signs in Santa Ana, and more CicLAvia

And Daily Ted part 2. Breaking News: Bike rider dies following wrong way collision in Boyle Heights last week

Another cyclist killed in America’s Paradise. Lahaina Man Succumbs to Injuries in Deadly “eBike” Crash Wrecks like this are one of the reasons why cyclists need to get out of the gutter and take the lane, where they belong as vehicles, and where drivers can see them and not run into them. This kind of wreck is unusual, but not unforeseen.

The DIY DOT is out in force in NYC. Will These Flowers & Cones Keep Brooklyn Cyclists Safe? You know what will absolutely keep cyclists and pedestrians safe in NYC? Mandatory confiscation of any vehicle that hits a cyclist or pedestrian until it can be checked for mechanical defects. Put one mechanic on the job, without any help, and forbid him to work more than a 40 hour week, which will result in a backlog of vehicles needing to be checked meaning people will have to wait for weeks or even months to get their vehicles back, and drivers will stop hitting cyclists and pedestrians, I guarantee it.

And I seriously can’t believe this guy. Man with sleep disorder who killed cyclist ‘shouldn’t have been on road’ and North Shields cyclist ‘hit and killed by sleep apnoea sufferer who had been warned not to drive’ This is kinda like the taxi driver who had an epileptic seizure and killed 4 people in NYC. If you know you have a medical condition that could cause you to no longer be in control of your vehicle without warning, don’t fucking drive! As far as I am concerned this was murder, pure and simple.

Not bicycles in this wreck, but cyclists played a part in the aftermath as one started first aid and another directed traffic around the wreck victim and the motorcycles. Moment passers-by rush to help injured motorcyclist after two ‘speeding’ motorbikes crash in south London Notice how the woman wearing the orange jersey secures her bike and then goes to work controlling the victim’s bleeding?

Some infrastructure news from Jolly Olde. Andrew Gilligan: detractors of cycling programme will be embarrassed once they see benefits Motor vehicles are already slightly in the minority because of economic pressures, so why continue to give them priority when it comes time to hand out the infrastructure funding?

Someone needs to tell The Age that stringing a rope across a trail isn’t a “prank”, it is an act of terrorism against trail users. Boy has neck slashed by rope while riding his bicycle

Notice that the onus is on cyclists being “visible” not on drivers looking out the windshield and not hitting cyclists? How cyclists and drivers can share the road safely Blinking lights and reflectors are of no use if the operator of the murder machine is not looking out to see where said murder machine is going.

You can improve your transportation and urban design vocabulary the way I did by reading thousands of articles on the subject (boooo-rrrring!) or you could play this game a few times. How a Not-Entirely-Polite Card Game Is Changing Urban Planning

Are you buying what you think you’re buying? BUY ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE AND SAFETY! CAMPAGNOLO AGAINST FORGERY IN DEFENSE OF SAFETY How to spot forged Campy products.

And last links, there is a pretty good (power and reliability and cheap) fuel-cell powered e-bike available. We Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Hydrogen Fuel — The H2 Electric Bike Is Proof and Linde AG: Linde’s hydrogen-powered bike shows new way towards electro-mobility (news with additional features) The biggest advantage of this system is the 5-6 minute refuel from empty, the biggest drawback to date is the total lack of hydrogen refueling stations in the US.

And I’m done for today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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Home maintenance and hot rod engineering on a Wreck-Free Sunday

I just got done replacing the doorknobs on every entry door in the house as we had 2 out of 3 fail and become unlockable this week. So I had a gift card to Lowe’s from one of my non-writing gigs sitting around, that I used to buy 3 mid-level security locks on Friday, then spend about 40 minutes on the first lock and another 40 total on the next two swapping out the locks. That means Mrs. the Poet won’t be able to get in the house when she gets home unless I leave the door unlocked except for the deadbolt. As for what caused the lock failure, I’m thinking it might be that they are the original locks installed when the house was built back in 1985, and they are worn out. I mean seriously the individual parts work just fine separately but put them together in the door and you get a latch that jams and doesn’t latch. Well I spent $55 of my gift card to buy new locks and just over an hour installing them in the doors.

I’m currently working on the design for the brake bracket for the front because the rear bracket is a buy and bolt on but this is a unique application for the front brakes. The Wide 5 hub and the four-piston caliper on the early Ford spindle axle are very uncommon, and always done with custom parts. I can think of only 3 cars running this combination since I started reading hot rod and custom car magazines back in the late 1960s, and none with the size disc I will be running on the Sprint T. I will be putting a 12.19″ disc inside a 15″ wheel which will just fit with the caliper I chose, the AFCO F88 for a .810″ thick rotor. So I have been using a rear axle bracket for the caliper with a known center distance (for welding the bracket to a 3″ diameter rear axle tube with a 11.75″ disc) and extrapolating from there for the 12.19″ disc and the larger (5.5″) flange on the early Ford spindle. And this is what I do to relax from writing about bicycles.

Yesterday’s D&D session was held in my living room, and was the “kinky” game, the one where sex is a weapon for social interaction and we have pages of special rules for sex. Basically this is what you would get if you crossed D&D with a porn movie. Since I try to keep sexual things out of the blog I can’t report much about what I did except that my character leveled up again because of the CR of the enemies we went up against this session. I mean seriously this could have been another TPK and reset to the previous save point that’s how dangerous and numerous the monsters were in this session.

And I have managed to feed myself again this week, not that I’m any kind of chef or anything. I just managed to not give myself food poisoning so far. 😛 Today was easy because we had potluck for lunch and dinner at the church, to which I brought my famous-at-the-church beans and rice. I have been keeping a sink with soapy water sitting waiting for dirty dishes and so far I have been keeping ahead of the dishes without running water every time I had a dish that needed cleaning. Even with everybody from the D&D game having a clean glass for their beverage of choice I still managed to keep ahead of the dirty dishes.

Just as I was finishing the post the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma finished, with “gimpy” Kyle Busch winning the race. I used quotes because Kyle had that horrific wreck in Daytona at the beginning of the season where he broke his leg and the ankle on the other leg and had to spend weeks in the hospital and more time getting rehab to restore strength and range of motion in his legs and here he is at the end of the first half of the season winning a road course race, the kind of race that is the hardest on a driver’s legs on the Sprint Cup circuit.

And it’s almost time for evening services, so I’m cutting this off.

PSA, Opus the Poet