merry Xmas!

OK as I write this the identity of the driver of the Berlin Murder Truck is still unknown, but German authorities are still refusing to harden public gatherings against motor vehicle attack even so. I think this is a ridiculous attitude. Motor vehicles are ubiquitous, easier to get than guns and cheaper than bombs of equal destructive power. I mean you can just steal one off the street like they did in the Berlin market attack, how much cheaper can you get?

And I’m wondering, are the Germans going to count these deaths in their highway fatalities score or keep them in the terrorist attacks score, or both?

Anyway Christmas stuff minus the blood and broken bones. I’m thinking I’m probably going to convert my grandson’s Cozy Coupe into a roadster and hang a cheap tiny gas engine on it to make it a go-kart hot rod. I kinda need the welding practice, and I have been wanting to do something like this for ages. I could also repurpose the electric scooter motor I have in my stash instead of a gas engine as that would be much easier to speed restrict than the gas engine, not to mention cheaper. And because the Cozy Coupe is so top-heavy and easy to turn over the whole shebang is getting lowered to 1″ of ground clearance.

Mrs. the Poet has been annoying me constantly that she needs a new mop and broom as she has worn out the ones I got her last year, so guess what she’s getting. Not a diamond ring.

The cats aren’t getting anything this year, they’re losing something.😈😆 They get to keep the claws they haven’t lost yet, but they are getting “fixed” before they get any more broken. Clint has a bad bite on his tail from a fight with a local squirrel, and Clyde has had run-ins with either other cats or local wildlife, and getting them fixed and chipped would reduce the chances of that happening again.

The “kids” are getting gift cards again this year, mainly because the stuff we really want to give them is just too hard to haul home on the bus especially with the 0.4 mile walk from the bus stop. I mean have you ever tried walking 0.4 miles with anything heavy or bulky without a carry strap? Yeah, that’s why people are getting gift cards. There are some things that are easier with a car, shopping for bulky or heavy stuff it is much easier to have a mechanical donkey toting a huge basket than to carry stuff by yourself.

Merry Christmas, Opus the Unkillable Badass

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My fingers are freezing, and the Feed

I don’t know why, but for some reason my fingers are painfully cold. The rest of me is quite comfortable but my fingers feel like I have been swimming in ice water.

I took the ham bone from the Thanksgiving feast home and used it to make a pot of beans today, and they were pretty good beans if I do say so myself. This one was a “thrown together” meal with a little of this and a little of that and a dab of something else. The ham had enough salt so that I didn’t need to add any to the pot. Throw some garlic powder in and add some cayenne pepper and a tiny touch of black pepper to get the flavor going and voila! Dinner.

Up first let’s go to LA for Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Curmudgeonly SaMo writers, LABAC meets tonight, and giving on Giving Tuesday

Also in CA. Beloved Trader Joe’s Parking Lot Attendant Badly Injured After Bike Crash Dude survived but will face years of rehab recovering from the spinal injury. Good luck and good health!

Still in CA we revisit an assault on a cyclist with a knife. Video: Man Stabs Cyclist Who Made A Simple Request, Police Say

Not out of CA yet a scooter rider gets hit in the bike lane. LAKE ELSINORE: Scooter rider injured after being struck by van They don’t say if this was a moped scooter or a mobility scooter, but the narrative suggests a mobility scooter since the vehicle was being riden ninja at night. I include this because the visibility and speed and location are exactly what a bike would have had.

Going from sunny SoCal to the Great White North. Cyclist injured in collision with truck on Quinpool Road The location was given as an intersection, and the bike shows impact from the right front so my SWAG pn this wreck would include a stale green and a driver looking at the light and not the street. That would also include the witness description of the driver reaction to the wreck.

Over in Jolly Olde we get a blatant example of anti-bike bias when a cyclist is hit and injured. Woman driver who hit cyclist is filmed telling injured man: ‘I’m pregnant and I wear glasses’ If she had been wearing her glasses she might have seen the cyclist… Also Video: Driver left hooks cyclist on upgraded Cycle Superhighway

Some cyclists get a little “testy” after fighting with cars all day long for road space. Video: Moped rider crashes on bike path as cyclist slaps him I do not in any way condone physical assault on other road users.

Meanwhile in Oz. Call for bike safety fix after woman is fined $1000 in death-dooring case and Mother fined for cyclist’s ‘car-door’ death

This would be so cool. Bono Auctioning Off Bike Ride In Central Park For AIDS Charity

And these two links say so much about cars. Bad Street Design Kills People and Earth’s Car Problem Needs a Strong Mix of Bike Activism and City Hall Cars dominate the landscape and the transportation and the mode of death.

And I’m all outta links, and I’m ready to get outta these clothes because I spilled some sardine sauce on the shirt yesterday and the smell did not come out in the wash. So I have been smelling fish all day. This has made me super popular with the kittens, as you can imagine. But eventually they lost interest in me as they discovered there was nothing they could chew on and went to find better laps to sit on.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Yay! food again and the Feed

Yep, time to buy groceries again. Still trying to figure out how to stop doing this “eating” thing so we don’t have to keep dipping into savings to pay bills. Eventually savings will run out. I may have to start taking the laptop to the library and using the free WiFi and drop cable, phone, and Internet at the house. That would be a drag, but workable as I seldom watch anything except racing, and not much of that lately. Mrs. the Poet would probably have a harder time of it than I would, but once she got over her Pat Sajak and Vanna White withdrawal she would live over it.

Up first is massive schadenfreude unrelated to bicycles or infrastructure. Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Taken Into Custody She can be held up to 30 days after the expiration of her term if she does not allow her staff to issue marriage licences. I’m reminded of a Fleetwood Mac lyric, the second verse to “Oh Well”. I will leave looking up that lyric to the reader as I have already devoted too much space to this waste of skin.

The first bike story isn’t all that big and seems to be the same report from two different outlets of the same media company. Cyclist hurt in Southborough crash Yep, exact same report, just a different URL. So, no second link.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Avoiding bike/car collisions, too much bike theft news, and new bike coffee shop in DTLA

More on the trio of cyclists hit by a distracted driver in AL. Cyclist urges everyone to share the road after recent death of fellow rider in Blount County Back channel says serious criminal charges are pending against the driver in that wreck, if they can get past the grand jury.

More on the VA pair hit at twilight with no lights on their bikes. Fairfax police identify man killed after he was hit while riding a bike Unfortunately LEO never enforce the Basic Speed Law.

Portland doesn’t know how lucky they have things. Lane blockage on SW Stark presents a different kind of bike commute ‘challenge’ Here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell we don’t have people parking in bike lanes that aren’t there.

Bike wreck in MN. Montgomery Remembers 8-year-old Killed Following Sunday Bike Accident Single bike wreck that a helmet may have made non-fatal had the victim been wearing one.

Hit-from-behind in MI. Man killed after being struck on bicycle Nothing on anything about this wreck except they haven’t charged the operator of the weapon vehicle yet.

We can’t get the mayor out of his car here, but that’s a different story. Here’s what happened when Mayor Hales biked to work for the first time I seriously think that every elected local official should have to interact with all of the infrastructure they are responsible for using the mode that infrastructure was intended for and then a mode that it wasn’t intended for but that has to use that infrastructure anyway, like crossing a busy street without marked crosswalk, or riding an arterial street with no bike lanes.

Now we segue to NYC traffic idiocy. SUV Driver Runs Over 4-Year-Old Girl In Brooklyn, No Charges Filed “No criminality suspected.”

Another cyclist is killed just a few blocks and few days away from another high-profile fatal bike wreck. Bicyclist struck, killed in west Modesto Salmon cyclist hit by a blind driver, we are talking about wrong² in this wreck. Obviously don’t ride salmon and get out in the lane where you can be seen to avoid a similar wreck.

A little UK infrastructure news. Calls for London’s safer lorries scheme to be applied nationwide It is appalling that death machines are allowed such free rein on the streets of the UK.

Infrastructure news from Oz. The tab heading is better than the headline. Our cities need to future-proof infrastructure to cater for those using alternative forms of transport Cyclists are awesome and this is why we need bike paths

Maybe we don’t really need Google Car. Adjustments in Already Available Auto Technology Could Reduce Frequency of Auto Bike Collisions I have a slight quibble with people who start suggesting “adjustments” that are complete reworks of the code used to run the hardware and require major research and development to get the new code right. When the only similarities between the two systems are one sensor and the CPU.

I have been debating for at least 10 minutes which order these last two links should go. I tossed a coin. Brompton CEO Will Butler-Adams on why the future of the foldable bike is electric A folding bike would probably be a good option on this train when the racks are full. Rolling onto Amtrak’s Capitol Limited Note that this paragraph would be equally intelligible no matter which link was first.

And I’m done, and I want to lay down and let the kinks unwind.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Having allergy problems again, and the Feed

I’m having allergy problems again (deja vu!) with my legs this time. I have an itchy rash around my ankles and slight swelling of the right leg with the left one looking like I’m smuggling oranges in my calf. When I take a diphenhydramine the swelling and the rash mostly go away, but I get a little sleepy and slightly loopy until the pill wears off, which happens in about 3 hours. The the rash and swelling come back. Yay! consistency.

Up first is yet another link to that heinous murder of a cyclist just a few miles away from WoaB World HQ. Cyclist dies after being stuck in windshield as driver fled The author of this piece remembered the killer nurse who left a man stuck in her windshield also, there is a link to that wreck in the article. Not the same as my link, though.

This story is a little further away and somewhat of a palate cleanser after that last link. Waco cyclist, cancer survivor overcomes obstacles to set world record The bad thing about melanoma is it can kill you quickly, the good thing is it can be easily treated without impairing your ability to function as a human being after treatment. As demonstrated in this story.

And I immediately take you back down again with this link from the same area, ain’t I a stinker? Bicycle rider robbed at gunpoint This is kinda inevitable, really. I mean they attack people inside cars and rob them or steal the cars, which are like mini armored vehicles now. All cyclists have are wits and situational awareness, and sometimes that just isn’t enough. With the M.O. used in this robbery there is no amount of situational awareness that could protect you. Once crooks started identifying cyclists as having enough money and “stuff” on them to be worth robbing, they started robbing us.

An internal debate made public at StreetsblogLA. Man is Shot and Killed by the Officers He Called to Help Search for Stolen Bike. Is it a Livable Streets Issue? When does police racism and brutality become a livable streets issue? IMHO when people are in fear of LEO, then streets are no longer livable. When people are in fear of anything when they are out on the street, that area is no longer “livable”.

Since we need some good news to balance the previous link and paragraph, people raised a ton of money for the survivors of the victims of a hit-and-run in CA. Nearly $80K Raised For Family Of Afghan Immigrant Killed While Riding Bike If you give people half a chance they can and usually do good.

And this looks like a good place to put Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Scofflaw drivers and bike riders break laws at the same rate; too much news from Tour de France

A cyclist hit in MT has been transferred to Seattle to treat her injuries. Cyclist injured in downtown Missoula stable in Seattle hospital And for those whose geography is a little weak Seattle ia almost 500 miles from Missoula, and you’re basically crossing 2 and ¹/₃ states to get there. That’s roughly equivalent of transferring a patient from Belfast to London for my UK readers, or Antwerp to Paris for readers on The Continent. Stop and think for a moment what this says about the level of treatment available in Missoula…

A cyclist is almost “taken out” on a charity ride. Braden Tucker: Bicyclist critically injured in hit-skip during VeloSano ‘Bike To Cure’ event and UPDATE: Injured VeloSano rider in fair condition There is no way the driver that hit this cyclist does not know he hit someone especially looking at the level of destruction of the bike in this wreck. The rear wheel was ripped out of the dropouts during the wreck, that kind of impact is going to make a lot of noise.

Speaking of large group rides, we have our first drunk driver hitting someone in RAGBRAI on the first day of the ride. Hudson couple on bike injured by drunk driver Can’t say for sure, but there is no way the driver did not know there were a lot of bicycles on the roads that day, so it might be a case of drunken road rage.

Speaking of RAGBRAI, did you know that an ambulance company started to provide coverage to the ride went on to become a state-wide provider? I didn’t. Local ambulance service keeps RAGBRAI riders safe How about that?

The wheels of justice grind very slowly, and sometimes you think there isn’t anybody at the controls. Woman arrested for cyclist’s death Is that a bike flag stuck in the front bumper of the weapon vehicle? The crime scene pictures don’t show very good sight lines for the cyclist, who may (probably) thought the way was clear when he started crossing the road. The degree of damage makes me think the drunk and distracted driver may have been speeding at the time of the wreck, further reducing the cyclist’s clear crossing window. Drunk drivers who kill need to be handcuffed to the steering wheel of their cars while the cars are run through a metal shredder. On fire.

Continuing on the drivers that need to be fed through a metal shredder topic… Suspected drunk driver hits, kills prominent Albuquerque homebuilder This cyclist was hit riding on the sidewalk inside a gated community. If there is any place safe to ride a bike in ABQ that should be it.

On the other side of the country we have another one. Atlanta police searching for driver who hit, killed cyclist And by “another one” I mean a cyclist hit riding on the sidewalk by an out of control driver. This guy died because the driver decided to do some doughnuts in the middle of the street when he lost control and went over the curb and ran down the cyclist.

FL puts another notch in the gun. Bicyclist critically injured in crash with car and Weston man, 51, struck and killed while riding bicycle The cyclist was hit with the driver’s side of the car, but the cyclist ended up on the right-hand sidewalk after clearing a hedge. Either the bike was moved after the wreck, or there are some strange physics going on here.

This link is not for the squeamish. Bicyclist impales neck on fence after pothole crash in Queens The cyclist did not impale himself during the wreck but as an aftermath to the wreck, staggering around after picking himself up off the sidewalk. That is going to hurt, long term, but since it looks like critical blood vessels were not hit or the cervical spine damaged he should live a fairly normal life after the initial recovery.

This ‘hood is too dangerous for kids to be kids. Girl on bike injured after collision with car in Lowell The damage visible on the weapon vehicle shows it was traveling too fast for a residential neighborhood, but still people blame the victim for not wearing a helmet when her arm was injured. SMH The damage to the bike and the weapon vehicle are much too severe for the claimed “25 MPH” impact with a “little” 13 YO girl. I will say this in the driver’s favor, the apparent geometry for this wreck did not allow any reaction time to stop or even slow down.

How do you keep people in cars from hitting people on bikes? Turn down the volume. We must change the car vs. bike culture we have created Part of the problem is the Culture of Speed we have developed. People in cars expect a road clear of slow-moving vehicles, not to have to move around a bicycle in “their” lane.

What can you do about drivers backing blindly across the bike lane when leaving parking? My Turn: Downtown parking not good for cyclists How about reconfiguring the stripes so the driver is looking the direction traffic is coming from? Simple in concept but getting drivers to change the way they have done things for decades will not be easy. Why change the way you’ve done things for decades just because you kill nearly 100 people a day every day doing it like that?

A sad update from West Canuckistan. Injured cyclist passes The injuries were too severe for the cyclist to recover from her door prize. Helmets are just not built to survive that kind of concentrated force.

Well one way to prevent HGV from killing any more London cyclists would be to ban them when the concentration of cyclists is highest. PM To Consider Banning Rush Hour Lorries After Cyclist Death

Gee, maybe it has something to do with a poor state of driver licensing? Growing numbers of cyclists being killed or seriously injured on Welsh roads Perhaps raising the standard of cereal they hand them out from as premiums will improve that somewhat. Something more adult with less sugar in/on it

How stupid do you have to be to get out of a car and chase someone down with a knife? Family of ‘road rage’ victim Don Lock pay tearful tribute to him

People sitting in the bus saw the cyclist, why didn’t the driver with a much better view out the front? ‘Shattered’ bus driver admits causing cyclist’s death That’s all I have to say about that.

And I think I have run out of links. [checks] Yep, all done.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet @opusthepoet

i’m surrounded by distractions, and the Feed

That Muslim thing that went down a couple of miles away Sunday continues to be a distraction and disruption. It is even disrupting the local bus service. I’m just going to stay home today and not go out. And there is stuff going on at Casa de El Poeta that is also distracting, but when it’s done I will be able to work in peace and quiet for a long time. It’s the getting there that is the hassle.

Up first is Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Ride SaMo’s Breeze bikes, Seth says thumbs down to PCH bike lanes, & an 8 y.o. hit-and-run perp

I refuse to believe this was an “accident”, the driver left because there was no way he was not going to get charged for assault for hitting 3 lighted and reflectorized cyclists riding in the middle of the lane as they prepared to make a left turn. Engine sounds, then 3 ‘thunks’: Bicyclist describes frightening Nicholson Drive crash, and how the driver who caused it just drove away If this had just been a single cyclist I might buy the excuse of “not seeing” a tiny bit, but this was 3 cyclists lighted and reflectorized like Mardi Gras floats riding in the middle of the lane where they couldn’t have been more visible. this was an assault with a deadly weapon, nothing less.

A cyclist in GA succumbs to injury after the wreck. Cyclist Dies From Injuries Following Crash This is another article about the smirking man who couldn’t wait for a truck to make a right turn so he passed in a no-passing zone and hit 2 cycoists head on.

Still in GA, another wreck with another (almost) drunk driver in a pickup truck. Gainesville man arrested after bicyclist killed I had to compare names of the drivers to tell these apart. Well before reading the charges anyway as the driver in this wreck “was charged with first-degree homicide, driving under the influence-less safe (meaning he had less alcohol than the legal limit), open container, leaving the scene of an accident with a death, following too closely, failure to leave sufficient distance for bicycle and operating a vehicle with improperly transferred license plate.” And littering, don’t forget littering. And I think driving on the shoulder is also illegal in GA, so they left that one off, too.

Another AK teen is convicted for killing a cyclist. Anchorage teen pleads guilty in hit-and-run death of cyclist Didn’t we have a 16 YO pleading guilty to Hit-and-Run just a few months ago? And now a 17 YO with a DUI/Hit-and-Run? Is there something in the water, or what?

Remembering a cyclist killed in Canuckistan. Cyclist killed near Okotoks was married father, avid member of cycling community I just can’t be angry enough about this

Over in Jolly Olde we get another blind driver killing another cyclist on a straight and level road with outstanding visibility. Motorist who killed cyclist told police he thought he hit a wheelie bin Ah, not blind, hallucinating. Lifetime ban on driving then?

Maybe this driver needs to talk to the driver in the previous paragraph. Cyclist pushed along Grays road by ‘hit-and-run’ van driver They found the van burned out a few miles from the scene… The cyclist was riding on the housing access road next to the main road.

The cyclist hit a pedestrian on a 60 MPH speed limit road, remember that. Cyclist killed pensioner by crashing into him while doing 25mph along narrow country lane on dark and rainy night I think the reason the victim died was because “Mr Jones was taken to hospital but had to wait 50 minutes to be admitted” with a skull fracture and broken ribs.

I’m sure you have been reading about the huge number of cyclists hit and killed in the last 2 weeks by drunk drivers in Thailand. Tragic cyclist deaths prompt drink driving crackdown in Thailand They have not just been hitting single cyclists, but entire tour groups with HiViz and blinky lights and killing multiple riders in a single wreck. I have gotten so many reports I can no longer keep them all straight. And really, they have to tell police to NOT accept bribes? How about they take the bribe, charge them with the drunk driving anyway and then add bribing a police officer to the charges?

In some countries there are more things to worry about than just the other vehicles on the road. When cyclists and animals collide – videos Ouch! And ouch again.

A little NYC infrastructure. First Avenue Bike Lane Will Get Much-Needed Expansion One shared lane gone, replaced by a buffered and parking protected bike track.

More NYC infrastructure. Cartoon Shows How East River Bridge Tolls Could Save NYC

And last link is a competitor to the ELF. Combo Cycle Lives Life in the Bike Lane This is actually more “car” than most people need, pity it isn’t legal in all states.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

My lump has a name now, and the Feed

I got a suggestion in the e-mail for a name for my lump, which I have been comparing to a GOP presidential candidate. The suggested moniker is “Chris Christie”. Whaddya think? Now as to why there was no post yesterday I just could not muster up anything to say. I wanted to write, but just could not come up with anything I wanted to share. Sorry if I disappointed anyone.

And before I forget, I hope you had a happy Star Wars Day (May the 4^th).

Up first is Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Photographic proof of bikes in Hollywood, ride LA with Phil Gaimon, and transvestites on bikes

The Big Story today is someone has been disrupting travel on Oz by putting tacks in the bike lane. Stop the tacks: Kew Boulevard cyclists say enough is enough and Angry cyclists fed up with tack attack on Yarra Boulevard Why has this not been treated as a terrorist’s attack on infrastructure? And the culprit(s) have been busy, re-tacking the route between the 11PM sweeping and the start of the protest ride against the tacks. The expense of all those tacks means that if there is a single suspect he probably has access to a lot of money, or he lives very simply to afford the endless mounds of tacks he spreads on the streets. And why call a blowout an “explosive decompression”?

It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since a bicycle tourist was stabbed to death in a random attack. Festival honors cyclist killed on ride to Florida last year and Festival honors cyclist killed on ride to Florida last year Same headline from two different stories. Apparently the killer was off his meds or something because there was just no provocation for the attack, he just walked up to the victim while he was talking on a cell phone and stabbed him.

Another Southern killer of cyclists faces court in AL. Parker pleads not guilty in criminally neglect homicide case He hit 3 cyclists, if it wasn’t “criminal neglect” it was on purpose and he was undercharged. If this case was in TX he would have been charged with Felony DUI and since there was a death the prosecutor could seek the death penalty.

Riding season starts in Upstate NY after a very bad winter for the roads. Potholes or not, Rockland bicycle season hits high gear This sounds like fun.

Getting the word out on NYC’s pedestrian right of way law. Families For Safe Streets Demands Accountability From Bus Drivers Look before you turn.

Trying to get NYC drivers to slow down is a never-ending struggle. Jarring New Vision Zero Ad Tries To Make Drivers Less Sociopathic

Sometimes it feels like a war out there, and I’m not the only one who noticed. Bikes vs Cars: why it’s war between cyclists and drivers on city streets They have: light armored vehicles that would be classified as WMD if they were deployed against soldiers in wartime. We have: cameras and styrofoam hats. I don’t like this war…

Lifestyle in MI. ‘Ghost bike’ removed by city, replaced by activists

Lifestyle in IN. Mayor’s Ride kicks off National Bike Month events

More lifestyle this time from NE. Blood Drive Honors Former Millard Educator Killed While Biking Put some of that good cyclist’s blood in circulation.

There is something I want to say very badly about this link, but I will take the high road and not do it. President Bush’s 2015 W100K bike ride: Healing the invisible wounds of war

And those were all the links I had to share today…

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet.