Not hitting on all cylinders, and the Feed

well, I tried. I set the alarm and tried to get up to go to the bank before the bad weather hit. I even dreamed that I did get up and made myself a nice hot breakfast, but what really happened was I hit silence on the alarm without ever fully awakening, and slept another 2 hours. How I did that is another mystery because I use my cell phone as my alarm clock, because I have trained myself to sleep through the alarm from the alarm clock after working 2nd and 3rd shifts while Mrs. the Poet got up at 0400 to go take the flavor out of children’s lunches. The thing is there is no button to turn off the alarm on the cell phone, just a red area on the screen that moves around depending on how you hold the phone so you have to look at the phone to figure out where the red button is before tapping that area of the screen. Somehow I managed to do that without ever coming fully awake from the dream I was having and just incorporated all of that into the dream. Anyhow, long story short I didn’t get to the bank to get money to buy coffee, so now I have to make do with other caffeine sources until tomorrow.

Up first is Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: The bi-coastal bikelash goes on, and good news on the medical and track racing fronts

Still in CA. Woman Riding Bicycle Struck, Killed by Car in Santee The narrative on this one screams SWSS. I mean “ she suddenly veered left across both northbound lanes,” is kinda the stereotypical “Suicidal Swerve”. Now assuming the narrative is correct and the cyclist did suddenly go from the curb to the inside lane in the blink of an eye, don’t do that, Seriously start making your lane change way early just so you don’t get caught out like this person.

Moving a little closer to home (but closer to Ted than to WoaB in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell). Boy riding bike injured in crash The narrative is believable on this one, the kid went through the intersection without looking for cross traffic.

Remembering a MS cyclist. Kevser Ermin Tragedy Serves as Humble Reminder to Area Cyclists All that about how the victim was riding exactly as required by the law and the driver was 100% at fault, and the first hint about bike safety they give is to ride with traffic. SMH.

Our first link from WI for the day. Police: Man riding bike struck, killed in Milwaukee This is why you shouldn’t weave in and out of parked cars and should ride to the left of them instead, avoiding the door zone.

Another link about the infrastructure in WI. Traffic deaths in 2016 are up about 32% compared with last year Yay! more people getting killed with cars.

Update on a NM bike wreck victim’s recovery. Teen cyclist hit in South Valley says he doesn’t remember crash I remember everything up to the impact, them waking up after coming back to life and asking to be moved gently because I had broken the upper end of my femur. About the only thing I don’t remember was getting hit and then flying through the air and landing. This kid was spared even the little I went through.

More on the AZ wreck that killed NM cyclists. Ken’s Monday Ride honors two cyclist killed on Northwest side and Steller: Tucson’s obligation — to protect visiting cyclists

Looking very hard at the infrastructure in AZ. UA grad student seeks public opinion on cycling, pedestrian safety So, what changes would you make in your local infrastructure? For the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell I would like about a 15 MPH blanket reduction in the speed limits.

Another SWSS wreck in FL. Coral Springs bicyclist struck, killed in Parkland accident There are conflicting reports that put the wreck in the bike lane, or in the adjacent travel lane. Unfortunately the people relating the other reports did not provide links.

I get this as a straight male, I can’t even imagine how bad it would be for a woman. A Biker’s Guide to Dealing With Street Harassment

Infrastructure in Chicago. Curb-protected bike lanes rolled out in Chicago Still way shy of CROW Manual standards, but pushing the AASHTO Manual right against the wall and squeezing as hard as it can.

Another wounded veteran ride with a twist. Ft. Hood shooting survivor joins injured vets on biking journey The twist is that the guy who is the focus of the article was injured just about a day’s ride south of WoaB World HQ.

An example of how cyclists are considered in Oz. Woman falsely confessed to hitting cyclist to scare a man

And what that low regard can cause. Laws a win for cyclists everywhere That’s right, he actually thinks $400 fines for rolling a stop sign or red light on a bicycle and $300 for not wearing a helmet are a Good Thing. Stockholm syndrome cyclist.

And I was sent several variations of this, but since they all say the same thing I’m just including the first link in my inbox. Ostrich Goes Full ‘Road Runner’ To Chase Down Cyclists Seeing as almost the entire video showed the backside of the ostrich in front of the camera bike, yeah I’m not buying the “chase” scenario.

And I’m all outta links, Maybe I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. Nahhh.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

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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

Easy day today, and the Feed

I’m almost done filtering today and there are very few links that have made the cut so far. I’m also still pondering the service I have to do on 7/12 about Hephaestus. What I have been able to find other than what drew me to jim initially has been a Harry Potter fanfic from 2011, and the information that specific rituals were handed down as oral tradition from a master smith to his apprentices. So, I’m going to go with what I know, and then in the fine tradition of modern-day Paganism, I’m going to make something up for the actual ritual. Ordinarily I would blame Christians from the Middle Ages for the lack of information but in this case I don’t think I can do that. There is no information because the followers of Hephaestus made sure there was no information except what was written in the myths of the rest of the gods of Olympus. What we know of Hephaestus we know from people who were not specifically his followers, which means what we know is incomplete but not as self-serving for Heph as it would be if Hephaestus’ followers were writing the stories. So perhaps what we have is the most honest presentation we could get for a deity.

In other news Mrs. the Poet reports that “Arthur, Arthur Dent” is “less denty” or less concave and the incision site is looking less like a baseball and more like something you would find on a human being. She says this is “better”. I will take her word on it because she can’t manage to take a picture without blurring it by moving the camera when she trips the shutter so I haven’t seen the back of my neck clearly since the operation.

Up first we have another double dose of Daily Ted. Morning Links: Businesses benefit by trading parking for bike lanes, and new upscale spinning studio in DTLA That’s the good one. Bike rider run over and killed in Stanton hit-and-run after falling in the street That’s the not-so-good one.

And another act of terrorism against UK cyclists. Sussex cyclist breaks collarbone after hitting tripwire in third such incident in a fortnight And I’m not the only one who sees it that way Ian Walker, @ianwalker

Still in not-so-Jolly Olde, more on the cyclist crushed by an HGV making a left turn across the bike lane. Friends of physio killed while cycling in London call for safer roads

Why are they talking about transportational cyclists getting injured or killed, but leading with a picture of the TdF peloton riding under Big Ben? Number of cyclists injured on west London roads rises A similar juxtaposition would be to talk about traffic deaths in Ft. Worth with a picture of the Sprint Cup race at Texas Speedway.

More on that Toronto hit-and-run death. 19-year-old to appear in court after cyclist killed in hit-and-run Comments are still being made that the delay was an attempt to destroy evidence to make prosecution for higher crimes more difficult or impossible, IOW “obstructing justice”.

Still on the other side of the border, a Canuckistani wife says “It’s been a year, what have you done to prevent another death?” A year after cyclist’s death, his widow urges city to make Pembina safe I understand that realistically one year is not enough time to make any significant changes in the infrastructure, but I also understand the frustration of the widow. There should be contracts being let for dirt to fly next summer, since they already have a ready-made template available in the form of the CROW manual that has been available for years for €90 ($101.20 at current exchange rates) plus VAT (no VAT for sales outside of Europe).

Still in Canuckistan and still on the state of their infrastructure, more evidence that reductions in motor vehicle fatalities are the result of making cars more resistant to wrecks than changes in the infrastructure or any improvement in drivers. Edmonton fatal collisions down in 2014 Fatal collisions are down, but cyclist and pedestrian fatalities are up and cyclist injury wrecks are likewise up. Fewer than 1 in 4 wrecks were the fault of the cyclist even judged by car-head LEO, which means that 3 out of 4 wrecks were caused by or the fault of drivers of motor vehicles. That means that 101 out of 144 wrecks were because a driver screwed up so bad that there was no way to deny it.

And I’m all out of links and ready to kick back and have some fun.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet (at current exchange rates that’s still pretty much $0.02)

It took a long time to get in “Writing Head Space” and the Feed

You know how things get sometimes? When you are the only one who has to work and everyone else has the day off and wants to play? That was my situation this morning as I was trying to get my head into that metaphorical “space” where I can write. My daughter is visiting from Scotland, and had not made her appearance at Casa de El Poeta yet. But that did not prevent Mrs. the Poet from intruding on my preparations for composing this post pretty much constantly. I understand her point that I need to interact with my family, but I have to work, too. Especially after yesterday’s sloth-fest of more than 18 hours of uninterrupted TV motorsports, if I don’t get back to writing right away I will get lazy and just stop doing the blog. Then one more anchor I used to maintain my sanity will be down the tubes, or more precisely untied and abandoned. And I kinda like having this particular level of sanity, being attached to the “real” world and doing what I can to make a difference. I think this is just sane enough, and at the same time just crazy enough to think I can actually make a difference. I’m in the “sanity sweet spot” here.

The Big Story today is a driver charged with murder in the death of a cyclist in KY. Police: Driver charged with murder after hitting, killing bicyclist and Cyclist killed after being hit by vehicle also Authorities say Kentucky man killed after being hit by vehicle during cycling event and even Cyclist killed after being hit by vehicle and this Bicyclist hit by drunk driver during race, dies this also Cyclists remember man hit and killed during Georgetown’s Horsey Hundred I’m wondering if the driver in this case might have said to the LEO that stopped him or posted something publicly to the effect that he was going to deliberately run into a cyclist or group of cyclists. If either is true given the speed he was charged I would say that he probably admitted he was targeting the cyclists to the LEO that stopped him.

This CA woman still can’t bear to see where her husband and partner died. She can’t visit the ghost bike, not yet I understand this. I still have a problem with driving or riding past the site of my wreck, and that was 14 years ago. I can do it, I just would rather not. And her husband’s death was a heck of a lot more recent than 14 years.

Update on a cyclist injured in Portland. Schwinn, nurse help injured cyclist to get back This was the cyclist who lost a leg in a left-cross wreck a few weeks ago.

From NYC a child is severely injured going to get ice cream because “FU, Cars are more important”… 7-Yr-Old Getting Ice Cream Struck By Hit-And-Run Driver In The Bronx I mean seriously, you stopped and then you ran the kid over again? You deserve to spend the rest of your days listening to kids crying on an endless loop. Over and over again with no relief. I can see giving the driver some leeway if she had just stayed at the scene and helped with the first aid, but running the victim over a second time? Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Yankee Oscar Uniform with barbed wire.

I keep telling these people there is a simple way to do this, and the technical parameters are available for €90 translated to English. Greensboro officials, cyclists seek safer roads (VIDEO) Seriously dudes, the CROW manual is like 40 years of what works and more importantly didn’t work, distilled into one volume. They didn’t stop motor vehicles so much as tamed them and put them at lower priority.

This is one of the reasons I keep writing about sidewalks not being bicycle infrastructure even when designated as such. Pavement cyclist faces charges and media backlash after hitting toddler in incident caught on CCTV I also agree with the comment about now will we hear the same thing about people driving on the sidewalks? Because since this cyclist hit the little girl and skinned her face slightly 2 people were killed by someone driving on the “pavements”.

And something for your irony-poor blood. Cambridgeshire schoolgirl injured in crash during cycle route protest The kid was injured by a cyclist while protesting the non-existence of non-existent bicycle infrastructure…

Fund raising ride for a wounded soldier ride. Portman to bike in ‘Honor Ride’

And I’m not real sure of the point of this ride in Canada. Injured Workers Kick-Off 600 km Bike Ride in Ottawa to Draw Attention to a Compensation System Being Dismantled by the Liberal Government and Bike-riding injured workers to make stop in Cornwall Are they trying to say that the system that the government is trying to destroy allowed them to recover from their injuries to the point that riding 600 km is only slightly harder than it would have been before they got injured? Because I can see someone saying that if they can ride 600 km they must not be too injured and should not have gotten benefits.

And I think I have run out of links for today. Yep, nothing left in the other window.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

It pays to develop a relationship with your LBS, and the Feed

I just got back from the trip to Plano Cycle to price out the repair parts for Blue. as I stated in the headline it is a good idea to develop a good relationship with your LBS, because by doing so I can save about $50 in shipping costs by ordering parts through them and picking up at the store. I’m still paying retail either way, but this way my LBS gets a cut, a piece of the action as it were. So I’m looking at $255 with tax in parts this way as opposed to the $300-310 with shipping and the tax man looking for me. That assumes the seat cover that is being sold as a replacement part will fit the seat that I have, otherwise add $108.25 to that total for a new seat assembly that includes a new seat pan, tilting bracket, seat post (custom made for a crank-forward bike to prevent the seat post from rotating in the tube as I pedal) and various bits of hardware to install the assembly to the bike. This total does not include replacing various nuts and bolts that had been removed from the bike and either left off or replaced with non-stainless steel, and which are in danger of corroding to the frame.

Up first today is Our Daily Ted. (Late) Morning Links: LASD changes deputy distracted driving policy, CicLAvia is coming, and we’re #9 Why does it take a death and over a year to realize that cops are no better at driving distracted than us “ordinary mortals”.

Still in CA more rubbish arguing from bad information on the proposed all-ages helmet law. We all have skin in the game in bicycle helmet bill Still using the falsified “90% killed had no helmet” data from the Governors’ whatchacallit report that added “no helmet” to “helmet use unknown” where there was a helmet present but it wasn’t on the rider’s head when it came time to make the report. There is enough evidence that the vast majority of these cases the cyclist’s helmet was removed by forces of the wreck or so severely damaged that there was no way for the helmet to stay with the head. Especially in the latter set of cases the cyclist would have died from head injury regardless of helmet usage. And in every place where a mandatory helmet law has been enacted cyclists lose, mode share, safety, and personal freedom as LEO use the helmet law as a pretext for illegal searches.

And this came in after I did most of my filtering from Ted. Breaking news: OC lawyer guilty in 2013 DUI death of cyclist Eric Billings I hardly ever see a driver not plead down so this one must have been a drop dead shot.

The metro area where my brother lives is seeing an increase in vulnerable road user deaths. Winter’s bike, pedestrian fatalities underscore importance of infrastructure, safety and awareness They have a terribly long way to go, but at least they have a reliable template in the form of the CROW manual. It only took about 10 years to get the Netherlands 90% of the way they are now with trial and error, I expect it to take a lot less time with the manual and in a lot smaller area.

More boring statistics from Streetsblog as the death toll rises ever higher in NYC. NYPD: Drivers Killed 7 Pedestrians and Cyclists in January, and Injured 1,017 I wonder how NYPD would be dealing with this if those dead pedestrians and cyclists were all NYPD?

I think this has a massive effect on why LEO “don’t care” about dead pedestrians. Pedestrians Dying at Disproportionate Rates in America’s Poorer Neighborhoods

A pedestrian in Jolly Olde was hit-and-run by a cyclist. Six-year-old boy left with broken leg by hit-and-run cyclist in Darlington DON’T HIT THE PEDESTRIANS! And if you do hit a pedestrian, stick around to leave your details.

A hit-and-run driver is convicted in Oz. P-plater who left cyclist for dead after collision pleads guilty Now a stiff sentence with a lifetime ban on driving…

Still in Oz, a multi-bike pileup seriously injures a cyclist. Beach Road cyclist left with fractured skull in wake of “Hell Ride” Somebody didn’t hold their line in the pack and 8 people suffered for it.

A massive infrastructure campaign covers the entire EU. ‘See Me Save Me’ campaign for Eilidh Cairns heard in House of Lords That HGV are even allowed on the roads with massive frontal blind spots as deadly as they can be even in incidental contact is just insane.

More infrastructure news from Oz over the cyclist that “won the door prize”. Thousands ride in moving tribute to cyclist killed on Sydney Rd, Brunswick It might have been a “tribute” but it was also a protest against crap infrastructure. More Cyclist groups push for safety awareness campaigns after dooring death in Melbourne

This is really “lifestyle” as an injured soldier regains mobility and a sense of self-worth. Injured Mansfield soldier to hand cycle 400 miles

And I really wish I had the money to do this trip. The Tour de France on Recumbent bike Not a race, but a 2600 km (1600 Mile) trip around the flatter parts of the country with camping instead of hotels at overnights.

And that’s all I got tonight.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

I’m exhausted and sore, and now I have a full day’s work to do on the blog post, and the Feed

Remember that paying gig I mentioned in passing yesterday? It came through. Unfortunately it came through for about 7 hours right in the middle of opening up the Feed folder in my e-mail. About 7 hours of work putting together an adult tricycle for someone I had previously offered to build a recumbent or crank-forward bike, but who decided that a more traditional adult tricycle was more to her tastes and riding style, so she bought one in a big box from a big box store. That meant she would need someone who could take it out of the box, inventory the parts etc. until a working adult tricycle was sitting on the ground with her on it. I estimated that would take about 2 hours, told the customer it would take “probably” 3, and more than 6 hours later the trike was finished. Since I had promised this nice lady a trike as a gift I “accepted” a Powerball ticket and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs for Mrs. the Poet’s Valentine’s Day present. Speaking of that Powerball ticket the first payout of the 30 annual payments comes to $5,415,892.62 after taxes and 10% to the church, while the cash payout for the Texas Lottery drawing the same day is $5,620,000 before taxes and any charitable contributions made as a bribe for deity favor towards winning.

What to put up first was a hard decision tonight, but I think these links to this major story might be the winner. NYC Adding Truck Side Guards to Protect Pedestrians, Cyclists and NYC Adding Safety Guards To 240 City Trucks In 2015 Somebody was looking at the numbers, and just like in London, big trucks are disproportionate in their representation in fatality statistics. So one kind of fatal wreck that is particular to big trucks is cyclists, pedestrians, and small cars getting run over by the back tires when the truck turns or changes lanes and the pedestrian, cyclist, or small car is in one of the many huge blind spots alongside the truck. Since apparently eliminating the blind spot is an intractable engineering problem an interim solution is something that will shove the pedestrian, cyclist, or small car away from the rear wheels. This seems to have a higher success rate than trying to eliminate the blind spots.

These stickers are pretty useless here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, but I might buy some anyway. Passive Aggressive Sticker Campaign Targets Bike Lane Blockers Yep in order to have bike lane blockers you first need a bike lane to block, something that is sadly lacking here.

Ted Rogers was busy this weekend, unfortunately. Palm Desert bike rider killed in early morning collision; DUI suspected and Weekend Links: OC hit-and-run driver charged in death of PCH cyclist; fund set to help injured bike rider also Bike rider dies after January hit-and-run in West Covina; third bike rider killed in SoCal this year even Morning Links: Waking the sleeping giant in LA and Pasadena, and a gut-wrenching Colorado hit-and-run Dude, I feel for you today. This is like one of my worst days back when I was covering wrecks, because you know the wreck locations personally.

Meanwhile in FL, the victim of a drunk driver and the other cyclist that barely survived the wreck were remembered at the event they had been training for. More Than A Thousand Kick-Off The Dolphins Cycling Challenge and Cyclist killed near Key Biscayne remembered at tri-county race

What is more important people’s lives or a few parking places? Hold on a second, there are opposing opinions on this question. Will the SFMTA Board Demand Complete Protected Bike Lanes on Polk Street? I have a simple solution, go to the merchants responsible and ask outright how many cyclist and pedestrian deaths and serious injuries are “their” parking spots worth, then charge them that in taxes every time someone is killed or injured on their block because of a failure in the infrastructure to protect them. I think after maybe the second pedestrian death or seriously injured cyclist (my wreck cost more than a quarter of a million dollars just for the first two hospital stays, and I went back 3 more times).

Seattle’s Second Ave. is seriously sub-standard by the CROW manual, but when your choices are “sub-standard” and “constantly terrifying and frequently fatal” sub-standard looks pretty good. Seattle’s Second Ave. should inspire Comm. Ave. plans Seriously, this is amazing bicycle infrastructure by US and UK standards, but criminal by the CROW manual. But, baby steps are better than no steps at all.

Speaking if UK “infrastructure”… Things are improving for cyclists, but painfully slowly And by “painfully” she means with many deaths, broken bones, much road rash, and other assorted injuries.

And the legal infrastructure in Jolly Olde ain’t that great either. Report into road death investigations makes scathing findings about training, processes and victim support Yep UK prosecution of drivers that hit cyclists is rife with bias even against cyclists dressed like glow-in-the-dark clowns and lighted like Christmas trees for “not being visible enough”.

Last link is about lifestyle. Lexington man biking across country in memory of woman killed in Scott County There are far too many memorial rides, mainly because there are far too many reasons to have memorial rides.

And that’s all I have tonight, and I desperately want to have a lie down so my back with stop hurting.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet (still an unkillable badass, but nobody ever said that was painless)

Sanity level approaching 1, and the Feed

OK some explanation for the headline. One of the games I play in has a Sanity stat for both the character and the encounter. Levels of Sanity are 0-2 with 1 being “Normal” and levels less than .5 or greater than 1.5 being “Insane”. Interestingly enough when characters of 0.5 or below have an encounter of 1.5 or above, to the outside observer everything looks quite calm and collected. Yes it’s one of Those games, where half the combat takes place in the characters’ minds. And it’s a great deal of fun to play, although I imagine actually living in that reality would be a close approximation of Dante’s Inferno. As this applies to my home though since certain people went back to work the levels of hostility have plummeted because the main combatant is simply not there to antagonize people. Interestingly enough this is also one way to cause Sanity to return to 1 in the game play, by simply removing one of the combatants from play. Let’s see how this works out long term, because this experiment will end 2015/4/30 as we shut down the shared housing for Mrs. the Poet’s sanity (non-capitalized).

Up first a story we have been following for several months here at WoaB. Injured cyclist walks months after being hit by a truck I’m wishing this cyclist the very best and a speedy recovery.

A BOLO for my OR readers. Witness photographs hit-and-run driver fleeing The driver was a male caucasian 20-30 YO with a slim build (caution, excessive levels of snark may be present) driving a dark penis-extender with 4 wheels. There seemed to be some kind of decal adorning the back window that is common among penis-extender drivers. This driver is assumed armed with a WMD, approach with caution if required to verify identity.

For some drivers, being in control of a WMD isn’t enough to threaten cyclists. SUV nearly hits five cyclists, driver pulls out gun Cheesus, you are already using a WMD to threaten and harass cyclists, you have superior speed to escape with, and you still feel the need to pull a pistol out? [insert slightly homophobic/misogynist comparison here]

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: A bike riding Bono goes boom in Central Park; your kid’s next bike could be made from carpet

Better late than never department has a report: Focus for FDOT is reducing bicyclist, pedestrian deaths Maybe they could start by blaming bad infrastructure that leaves no safe place to ride or walk and puts miles between crosswalks (marked or otherwise).

NC has a similar problem as FL (and as the other 38 states and DC) but people are still getting killed unnecessarily. Wilmington, NC Car Accident Attorney Richard Flexner Weighs in on Bicyclist Fatality Report Highlighting Dangers in North Carolina

For evidence-based investigations of bicycle wrecks there is nothing that beats video. Rideye: Like a plane ‘black box’ for your bike, providing evidence against dangerous drivers The technology to do this was not widely available when I was hit, but the record would have been worth the camera’s weight in gold, platinum, iridium, and silver. And a few other precious metals as well. I figure my losses are around $1 million since the wreck if you count just the direct medical costs and my lost income for the last 13 years.

Another band-aid on the sucking chest wound. Cambridge cyclist and engineers experiments with helmet lighting to support cycle visibility campaign The UK version of that would be “a sticking plaster on a sucking chest wound”. Still the same level of effectiveness.

A chance to own a piece of cycling history. Grivko to auction off Tour de France bike in aid of injured Ukrainian soldiers

The next two links are presented without comment, my version of a moment of silence.

Bicyclist memorialized with 4-mile ride in Beaver County

‘Ghost Bike’ shrine to cyclist Daniel Squire killed in A258 accident at Ringwould

For those not wishing to reinvent the wheel, a reminder of what is available. Design manual for bicycle traffic Yes, this is the official English translation of the CROW Manual.

And those were all the links I could find today that did not contribute to my angst level.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet