I was busy yesterday

I went and did stuff yesterday in the heat. By Texas standards it was a bit on the warm side as we hit 101°F while I was out walking around. I did some banking for Mrs. the Poet, got a haircut from someone who knows how to do a flat top, and then got a good massage from a little slip of a woman.

Anyway, I got started on doing stuff about 1530 and got home about 1930. Now part of that is because it takes time to get places even if you go by Lyft, and part of that is because it takes time to do things. Banking took a while because I had to deposit a paper check, get cash, and check balances. That took a bit of time, because it just does.

The next thing I did was walk to the barbershop in the 101° heat, as one does in TX. That was a few minutes to walk the 0.85 miles to the barbershop because I was too cheap to pay a Lyft and didn’t feel like waiting for the bus that may or might not stop at the bus stop. The closest stop to the bank is right in front of the Community College and for some reason the bus route I needed tends to go right by that stop. Anywho after walking most of a mile in 100+° heat I was hot and thirsty when I got to the barbershop and needed to take a break before I got covered by the barber’s apron. So after I cooled off enough I got the haircut, which included an eyebrow trim, all the way down my nose. I think I mentioned I have a monobrow that goes all the way down my nose and ends right above the tip, and also my eyebrows above my eyes were bushy and needed a trim.

Next part of the trip was via Lyft to the massage place. I found a new place closer to home and only a couple of miles from the barbershop, which was too far to walk, and the Lyft driver was initially sent to the wrong side of the strip mall that went in next to the barber’s, and it took a few minutes to guide him to the place to pick me up. Then it took a few minutes to find the massage place in another strip mall. Strip malls appear to be this guy’s Achilles heel, especially if they go around a corner like both of the ones at either end of this trip. The massage tech at this place was a slip of a woman who looked like a tween girl, but was actually a full-grown woman and managed to give a decent massage despite her minimal mass. My hips haven’t felt this good in ages. Usually a massage doesn’t last long in the hip area because of the nature of what the muscles do, but this one has managed to feel good-ish for almost than 24 hours and still feels not-bad.

I got a summary of my expenditures for Lyft for the day and it came out just under $30, which is a big chunk of my transportation budget. But $30 for 3 trips is not too bad, and I wouldn’t have even been able to do it on the bus because of the uncertainty of having a trip home. DART is so short of drivers that if someone gets sick their bus doesn’t go. And they don’t put out a notification that the bus isn’t running on their app. That’s what really annoys me, they have an app to take fares and alert riders, and they don’t alert riders when a bus isn’t running because of a sick driver. They give notices when the bus isn’t running because of no AC, or other mechanical issue, but staffing issues that shut a bus down don’t get notices on the app. This is stupid, and DART needs to fix it. Anything that interrupts bus service needs to be shown on the app. They don’t need to say why a bus is out of service, but they do need to let people know a bus is out of service. Especially if it’s a route that is last mile on the return to home. Transportation rant over.

AC is back again because the humidity is back down, so at least Casa de El Poeta is comfortable.

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Massage finally achieved, bank balances fixed, new tea cup broken

The beginning of the new year was mixed for me. Yesterday I made a 6+ hour journey to pay the mobile bill, deposit checks to multiple accounts, and get a massage. Most of that was waiting for and getting the massage, because there were already people getting a massage tying up the massage techs, and I got a 90 minute massage that concentrated on my neck and glutes (both of which were a disaster), but there were also long waits for the next bus and my unwillingness to pay for a ride share service. Let’s face it even with no wait taking the bus is twice as long as ride share or just driving, when you factor in waiting for the bus to get there between doing things and transfers you take what would have been maybe 2 1/2 hours and make it over 6. I left home before 1500 and got home after 2100. 💩 I do have to say the massage got all the kinks out of my neck for the rest of the day, it’s just that it took so long to get the rest of the day was like just a couple of hours. 😭

Now on the bank balances, while I was depositing the checks via the ATM I also checked the balances of the accounts I could access via the ATM, and some of them were way off. I had set up an automatic transfer from the checking account to the savings account, and there was almost nothing in the savings account when there should have been the $300 I had transferred from the checking account, and there was way too much money in Mrs. the Poet’s checking account. Her account was fine, it was just that our combined stimulus check had gone to her account and we had to have my $600 transferred to my account. My accounts for some reason the automatic transfer didn’t transfer automatically on 1/1/2021, so we had to go in and manually transfer the money that should have gone to the Tax Payment account and the Big Ticket Item savings account. The bank guy had no idea why the money didn’t go where it should have, because the transfer notice was right there on the accounts, but for some reason it didn’t happen.

 Now as for my new teacup, Mrs. the Poet was putting away the dishes and jostled the cup rack trying to get a clean cup on the rack, and my Cossie Rallycar cup fell off. As you can see it’s repairable, but not in a way it could be used for drinking tea from.

The break goes right across the bottom of the cup which basically means my Cossie Cup will no longer hold hot liquids, like tea. That chip in the rim was the impact point and is just dust where the cup hit the stove. And I just checked and there are no more Cossie Cups available, the last one was sold last month. Mrs. the Poet is why we can’t have nice things. I will say I have a cup that was a gift from one of my customers at the convenience store/gas station I worked the fall of the year Mrs. the Poet earned her MRS degree that we still have. Seriously, I got this stupid Starsign cup over 40 years ago, and I still have tea from it sometimes, but my Cossie Cup I paid the big bucks for didn’t last 2 months 😭

And the new composing software won’t let me resize the pictures like the old one did. I could specify 500 pixels wide on the old software, but I’m stuck with what WP gives me with the new… Anyway, I hope y’all have a good 2021.

Nasty thing I wanted to say to Trump followers deleted, you are welcome.

I have achieved massage

Finally I have gotten a decent massage. I managed to catch the bus outside the house (around the corner on the end of the block, but “outside”) and the connecting bus was only a little late. I had to wait a while for the tech to finish up a client, but the room I was assigned had a space heater so I was nice and warm, but not hot while I waited. This tech used an appropriate amount of pressure on most of my body, except for the back of my left thigh that caused me some kneecap pain, but she had no way of knowing about that. It was one of those “keep the lights low so the client will relax” places, and the one dim light was on the opposite side of my body from most of my scars and the scars on my knee were facing away from the tech, so how was she supposed to know about my damaged kneecap?

Anyway, I got a good massage and my neck felt a bunch better, and my legs and neck were working almost up to spec when she got done. I have been out of tolerances for so long that “almost spec” felt like heaven. There were some pops and creaks as things were pushed back sorta where they go, with minor jolts to my psychic equilibrium as they assumed spec position. When things have been not where they are supposed to be, and then all of a sudden they are, for a second or two after it takes some mental realigning to go along with the physical realigning. It’s like you have to change your mental image of how your body is and where everything is supposed to be, from “broken but still somewhat functional” to “back in spec”.

While I was waiting on the table I had time to think about the Sprint-T, and how to get more progress on the build. I have come to the conclusion that I should just start making the frame, building it up and ignoring where the engine goes until I get an engine and transmission. I should mount the steering in front of the axle and the radiator with the minimum clearance to avoid interfering with the axle’s travels so as to allow almost any engine to fit, even V-10 truck engines. Now the current situation is I’m going to use a junkyard 5.3l LS architecture engine, but I have entered drawings for Ford and FCA V-10 truck crate engines and gen 3, 4, and 5 GM small block, as well as Gen1 SBC and small block Fords of various displacements including 347 and 427 Cu. in. displacements (there were a lot of contests announced in November that were giving away performance engine builds after the first of the year). So I’m letting my Boy Scout handle this by being prepared to win any of them, or nothing. Seriously the 5.3l Gen 5 small block in stock form is just about perfect for the Sprint-T. I would have killed to have an engine like this in a T-Bucket back when I first got my license back in 1976. I’m trying to find the Richard Holdener video where he compares the various 327/5.3l small blocks, but I’m coming up empty so far. Hang on, I found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNhZXFEjkII&ab_channel=RichardHoldener

As you can see, the later engine without mods makes more power than the 60s engine with all the good stuff from the factory, and the later engine is a truck engine. It would run like that all day on pump gas and never even stutter. That would be the perfect NA engine for the Sprint-T, so if you know a truck that has one maybe find a way to send out here to the Suburbs of Hell so I can stuff it in my bucket?😇

This has been a week

Like seriously. 

Monday I went to go get a massage from this one place because they will work on glutes and my limp is causing pain in the lower part of my right glutes. Like serious aching pains that need deep tissue massage, and the place that does deep tissue work will NOT do glutes and act insulted if you ask. Well the place that does glutes does them like they are the bestest doggy, not like you need a massage for making things work. In fact the whole massage was like that, rubbing like I just needed the muscles to know they were part of the world and part of me.

Getting to the massage was a fustercluck. The bus I was going to catch the first time was a couple of minutes early, the next bus never came and two schedules after the bus I left the house to catch I finally got on a bus. Then I got to the transit center for my part of town, and the bus I was going to transfer to also didn’t show up. I mean I got there 9 minutes before the scheduled departure, but no bus, until the schedule after the bus I should have been on. So I was over an hour behind when I should have been there for my massage, and I only had a 30 minute window for my massage, which I previously described.

Then I had to go pay my phone bill. Since there were two routes serving the place where I got my massage I actually didn’t have to wait too long for a bus to show up, because both of them were late for the previous schedules that should have been there while I was getting my massage. Things had actually worked out in my favor for a change. Then I caught the bus towards the house which was also the bus to the phone store, and I paid the phone bill and also bought a Coke Zero, and lottery tickets and got money out to pay the guy who mows the lawn. Then I got to wait for the next bus home instead of walking the 0.8 mile home, which was late again. There should have been two buses running that route to cover the rush schedules, but there was only the one that I saw covering every other schedule, so it was very late by the time I got home, almost 2000 instead of 1915 or thereabouts. Mrs. the Poet had already eaten her dinner while mine waited for me in the microwave, so I had to wait until everything got warm and it was almost 2030 by the time I got around to getting things done, and I was, not starved but peckish doesn’t describe it either. More than ready for solid food after missing lunch  is the best descriptor I can place on it.

Anyway, had the buses been on the right schedules, I would have finished running around by 1830 or even 1800, instead of 2015. I would have gotten a good massage instead of getting stuffed into the recovery window from my scheduled massage before the next appointment, and getting a crappy one because of that.

And that was just Monday, and everything was about that good for the rest of the week. Flat sodas, things in my sandwiches that hurt my mouth, salty snacks that weren’t as much as I thought they were by volume, just that kinda thing. I mean there was something in my PB&J that hurt my mouth, what could there be in a PB&J to hurt my mouth? Creamy peanut butter, bread, and jelly, what is there that is hard or sharp to bite down on? But there was. Apparently there were seeds of some description in the bread I didn’t know about. And then when I was catching up on the e-mails I missed out on because I was away from the house all day Monday I timeshifted myself again to Vampire hours and basically slept through Friday, which put me behind on e-mails again today, so I’m timeshifting back from a nocturnal schedule to diurnal tonight/today. I got my 8 hours of sleep in by 1800 ignoring the interruptions because I was in bed by 0800 and my sleep was interrupted several times.

To add to the turmoil and frustrations of the week I got a text notice I had a package out for delivery Thursday that also never showed up that day, but did arrive some time during the day on Friday. This was a special cup and pair of colorful socks from Hoonigan Industries basically just a little something for me to feel good for myself, AKA retail therapy.

Waiting for the call from Social Security

As I’m composing this I am literally waiting for Social Security to call about starting my checks, because I will be 62 in 11 days. This will nearly double our before-tax income here at Casa de El Poeta. The plan is to figure out our big single-chunk payments and put that money into the firewalled account at the credit union every month. Whatever is left over is my spending money for things like meds, massages, clothing, and books and food.

Notice I put books and food in the same phrase. There is a reason for that, I consider them both as essential to maintaining my life. I don’t think I need to explain why I need to eat, but I also need to have mental stimulation on the regular. Usually I get that from the Web these days, but there are times when I want to unplug, literally, and read a dead tree. I have magazine subscriptions but there is just something about holding a book and turning the pages that makes that a completely different experience from reading on the web, or from my Kindle app. Also we sometimes lose power and internet (and phone too, but that’s not pertinent to reading) so I need something that doesn’t require anything more than a light source to read. Books and magazines cover that need nicely.

One thing I’m looking forward to is having the funds to get a weekly massage. Now I don’t absolutely need to get a massage every week, but things would work much better if I did. As previously reported, I have a bunch of old injuries that massage is good for relieving the pain and stiffness without resorting to chemical enhancements. And massage is a good adjunct to those chemicals, making them work better at making me move. Plus massage is good for other needs that are theraputic, but not for my body. Massage is also good for my skin hunger needs, my physical need to be touched by another human being. I have found through bitter experience that bad things happen if I don’t tend to things like skin hunger properly. But that won’t be a problem now that I have the money to get frequent and regular massage.

OK just got done with the call from SS, and I’m getting my first check the fourth Wednesday of November, Woo!! I get paid for October in November because I don’t get paid until the first of the month after I qualify, and the check is sent the fourth Wednesday because my birthday is the 22nd, which is technically the first day of the fourth week. So I have to wait 2 months for my first check because reasons. Ah, well, we have survived this long without it, another 2 months ain’t going to kill us.

Now this isn’t enough money to build the Sprint-T, at least not all at once. But it does expand the budget a bit. Not by much, but enough that there is a possibility I will be able to drive it when it’s finished.

Speaking of the Sprint-T I mentioned building a carbon fiber intake manifold earlier, so I think I should explain that in a bit of detail. The fabricated aluminum manifold I mentioned way back requires use of forming bucks to provide a shape to beat the aluminum around. Thing is those can also be used as molds for laying woven fibers saturated with resin around and trimming to size after curing, instead of beating aluminum into shape and trimming to size after forming. The thing is the CF is much lighter than aluminum, making for a manifold that weighs a few pounds, like 3 or 4, instead of one that weighs more than 10-15 pounds. This is not a lot, but it is about 10 pounds plus or minus, and 10 pounds is a significant percentage of the race weight, about half of the fuel in the race tank.

This is one reason why I agonize over the weight of wheels and tires, because they are weight that is part of the total, and more importantly because they are unspring weight that hampers ride and handling. Unsprung weight and rotating weight are the two types of weight that have the most negative impact on performance, and tire and wheels are both of those. Hence the figurative hair pulling when making decisions about them on a build like the Sprint-T that has so little total weight the unsprung-to-sprung weight ratio is going to be bad pretty much no matter what I do. I mean the weight of the car and driver with a full race tank of fuel is pushing 1800 pounds (818 Kg), that is light by almost any standards.

And this looks like a good spot to put this post to bed before I go off on a tangent. To summarise, I will have a stable source of income for the first time in over a decade, things are good.

Sleep schedule totally borked

After doing the stay up to deal with daywalkers routine and take care of that job, I went to bed about 1500 yesterday because I hurt so much I had to have a little lie-down. I woke up again about 2000, took my “sleep with little pain” meds and was back asleep by 2130. I woke up again at 0330.

I was expecting to be awake early-ish but not this early. I was planning on running up to taking the bus to the massage place I can get to with one bus, and stopping by the Lowe’s on the way back to get something to mount the pedals that connect to the steering wheel controller so that when I go for the brakes the brake pedal is still in the same place it was the last time I used the brakes also I need to get some other screws to connect the nose sides to the mock-up radiator, and probably some washers to fit under the heads of the screws so they don’t pull through the nose sides and mess things up. But it will be many hours until the massage place is even open, so I have much time to murder until then. So having time and something to write about, here we are.

I have also been thinking about mocking up a footwell similar to what I will have in the Sprint-T but I’m still planning that out, trying to see where I will put things to clear what will be on the other side of the firewall, or maybe run the master cylinders under the driver’s seat so they don’t run into the back of the engine and also so I don’t have to crawl on my back inside the car to fill the brake fluid. Brake fluid is nasty stuff that can strip paint and burn skin, so as coordinated as I am these days I probably don’t want to be crawling on my back pouring brake fluid inside the car, raising my hands over my head and pouring while trying to look where my neck won’t let my head point. There is a remote pedal master cylinder mount that separates the master cylinders from the pedal allowing them to be mounted almost anywhere that is structurally stiff enough to not flex from the pressures placed on the pedal and the geometric leverage forces transmitted.

Well it is getting close to the time I have to take a shower before I go to the massage place and do all the other things, so this is probably a good time to stop and hit publish,

Not much interesting going on

Still fighting to get my sleep schedule diurnal, but I managed to time shift enough to get a massage yesterday morning. The tech spent the entire session working on my back, neck and glutes, but I was able to turn my head most of the way to the right when she finished.

The interesting part happened on the way home when an Asian couple offered me water at the bus stop, and also to the other person waiting there in a wheelchair. I already had two small bottles of water from the massage place because I get a really dry throat during a massage, especially if I spend a full hour laying face-down.

When I got home I had a bite, then did the grocery list on my phone with my loyalty app, trying to not fall asleep and not having much success at it. About 1700 I finally gave in and toddled off to bed and woke up at about 2230, which is almost like sleeping at night, right?

I thought I might have an engine for the A-MOD car yesterday, but I wasn’t able to arrange transport for the donor vehicle, so I was forced to pass it up. It was a 250cc V-Twin with DOHC and 4 valves per cylinder, what used to be considered pretty racy stuff back in the day but is just a puttin’ around engine on a city bike today. It was rated at 28 HP, which was also a pretty racy number back in the day, being more than 100 HP per liter normally aspirated, coming in at 112 BHP/liter. But since I didn’t have any way to get it home, I ain’t got it.

Well I have to be awake this afternoon when we go grocery shopping, so this is a good spot to wrap this puppy up and put it to bed, woof.

I need to take better care of myself

I mean things like getting haircuts, getting massages, buying new shoes when the old ones start falling apart, and getting enough sleep. I’m pretty good about eating and taking showers, not so much on other things. Especially on things that cost money, my poverty reflexes seem to kick in when I try to buy things that wear out. I just bought two hats to replace the sun hat that is falling to pieces on my head, and clicking that Buy button felt like I was carrying a 50 pound (22 Kg) weight on my hand. Paying for a new HVAC was terrible, but you can’t live in TX without AC in a house not built for cross-ventilation. It will literally kill you.

Anyway, I’m going to get shoes and a massage now, y’all peace out.

Not doing much but I did do something

Yesterday was nothing special, but I did manage to get some things done. I got a massage, finally, and my leg feels great because of it. I also dropped by the local Harbor Freight and got a couple of things I needed to get, including a 12 pack of microfiber wash cloths, the big ones we can use in the shower. The ones I got over the summer are more like face cloths and are just a touch too small for use in the shower, but these are 4″ larger on either dimension so we can stretch them behind our backs and over the shoulders for cleaning where we can’t touch directly. I also picked up some super glue for repairing the Hummels the cat knocked off the shelf, and what is called a flap disk for prepping metal for welding, that fits in the angle grinder. I have a project for my camping friends that requires welding on a steel drum covered in what appears to be powdercoat that will require a lot of mechanical cleaning. This is not a secret project, I’m just repairing the smoker/grill that has a rusted out firebox, so we can have smoked brisket again.

On the Sprint-T front, I have discovered a local source of Subaru JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) take-out engines, cheap. As in complete engines with everything except the ECU for <$1000. I will have to find a flywheel and clutch to use a manual transmission, but really this is a great deal. Now if I only had the $1k and a means of getting it home. And from the same vendor they have the same model engine except for a manual transmission, complete with the Subaru manual transmission all ready to go into another AWD Subaru for <$1600. I contemplated using the OE Subaru to have AWD on the hotrod, but that would require stranding the straight tube front axle and all the money I dropped into prepping it. And TBH while it would probably be faster I'm not copacetic on how legal it would be for Goodguys autocross. I think it would be legal for SCCA Solo racing in A-Mod or E-Mod with ballast, which I would have to use for balance anyway because I can't move the powertrain right to balance the driver. And speaking of balance the front-to-rear balance would be off because the engine would be hanging in front of the front axle, ahead of where I would normally mount the radiator. That's a whole bunch of weight moved way forward of where it would be with the RWD setup, plus a lot of ballast to get to class weight that I could probably set right in front of the rear axle to get the weight back without increasing the polar moment too much but still because I would have to add about 1200 pounds of ballast to make class weight. There is a penalty for both super or turbocharging, and a penalty for AWD, and the weight penalties stack, plus a minimum weight for the class that I will be drastically under anyway. So, all things considered I will probably not install the unit as AWD and probably convert it to RWD by welding the center differential or replacing it with a spool and removing the front drive components. This will probably end up being the cheapest and quickest to build option I have, along with the most reliable and repairable, as all the repair parts are available at my local Subaru dealer.

The fun part comes with buying a standalone ECU to control all the performance functions on the engine. The engine has variable valve timing on both intake and exhaust that can be either bang-bang controlled or PWM controlled to get smooth transition between the available timing settings as RPM increases. Bang-bang control gets the same end performance benefit with a hard transition between modes at a set RPM that can vary depending on if the RPM is increasing or decreasing and is simpler to implement at the controller and for some ECU bang-bang is the only available mode. The downside is the abrupt change in engine power as the valve timing is changed. PWM uses the same engine hardware as bang-bang, but changes the control from either all the way off or all the way on to a little on that gets more on as RPM increases and less on as RPM decreases and gives more power than bang-bang control during the transition. The PWM control starts at a much lower RPM than bang-bang and usually doesn't get fully engaged until a higher RPM than the bang-bang control because the RPM parameters for bang-bang are chosen for the best average power, resulting in too much timing or too little depending on which side of the bang point you're looking at. So PWM gets more power than bang-bang during the transition, which is important for Autocross and SCCA Solo Racing. So I have to look for a controller that has PWM on the output channels that would be used for what Subaru calls AVCS. The fun part is ECU that have PWM valve timing control start at ~$900 and just keep going up from there . The Microsquirt controller is cheap ($314) and has bang-bang control but is a major pain to set up especially for the valve timing control. But for the price I could live with it especially compared to the Holley ECU. About the only thing the Holley could do that the Microsquirt can’t is PWM control over the variable valve timing, things it can do better are pretty much all related to the number of outputs the Holley ECU has that the Microsquirt doesn’t, like individual control of each injector and ignition coil because where the Ms has control of two injector drivers and two ignition drivers for 4 cylinders, meaning they have to be batch fire and waste fire respectively for a 4 cylinder engine, the Holley has 12 of each, meaning there will be at least 16 useless connections on the Holley, but better control over ignition and fuel. Also the Ms controller requires a software upgrade of about $100 on the laptop side and $209 in additional hardware to set the variable valve timing control and a few other variables where the Holley comes with all the software needed to control all the things (and at that price it better come with all the bells and whistles). Either one is going to need harness modifications to connect to all the things that require connections.

And of course whichever one I get will require dynotuning for anything more than just getting it to run, especially the engine speed to change the cam timing, so add a few hundred $ for that for both ECU.

It took a while but I got my neck rubbed, and the Feed

I got up early this morning to go to my massage appointment a few miles west of Casa de El Poeta, about an hour by bus. I could get there faster if I could ride my bike there, but if I could ride my bike there I wouldn’t need to go. Anywho, I get there and the office is locked and nobody is answering the phone. a few minutes later the other therapist gets there and says my therapist isn’t in (duh!) and she’s booked solid for the whole day, and BTW the price of the hour session I have been getting has gone from $60 to $100, no haggling. I barely have the budget to pay for the original price, the 67% increase is just not gonna work. The place where I get my toes done has a neck and shoulder massage for $30, but it ignores most of my muscles to concentrate on “Arthur, Arthur Dent” and supporting muscles. It is leaps and bounds better than nothing, but about the same distance away from the benefits of a full massage. I will have to see if I can get massage at a better location/price before next week.

Up first because of proximity and number of links initially during filtering is this wreck. SANTA FE POLICE RECOVER PICKUP BELIEVED TO HAVE FATALLY STRUCK TEEN ON BICYCLE That link was completely different when I was doing the filtering, and another link from the same source turned into this link after filtering. Teen bike rider struck, killed by hit-and-run driver Two things to note here: First is even though this was late at night LEO are not making an issue about the cyclist’s visibility, or helmet, second is there was a witness that reported the driver left the road to hit the cyclist before driving off. This was not a wreck that a cyclist could avoid, in fact the victim in this wreck had done everything in his power to not be in the wreck, other than not being there. And as he was returning from his girlfriend’s home to his there wasn’t anything he could have done to “not be there”.

More on another possible case of “affluenza” in AK. Anchorage teen who hit, killed cyclist in court Friday and Sentencing for killer of bicyclist begins in Anchorage This was the princess who “celebrated” getting out of drug rehab by throwing a party with alcohol, pot, “molly”, and cocaine. She was still drunk and high according to toxicology results of a blood draw taken almost 3 hours after the 1000 wreck.

Another link to that brutal hit-and-run a few hours west of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Bicyclist killed by hit-and-run driver in Haltom City Again, the bike in this wreck was so mangled by the driver driving away with it trapped under her vehicle that I can’t determine any useful information from it.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Reflections on crappy cyclist, sailor charged in fatal hit-and-run, and more Mobility madness

Another nighttime hit-and-run where cyclist visibility was not mentioned. Bicyclist killed in Phoenix hit-run crash In fact about the only thing known for sure in this wreck was the driver left the scene and left enough bits and pieces around that they were able to find the weapon vehicle in short order.

Another Upstate NY cyclist is killed. Cyclist Killed In Accident Identified and Update: No Charges in Hammond Bike Death Given the narrative I’m shocked! (not shocked) that there were no charges in this wreck. It’s as if nobody in this burg had ever heard about the oldest traffic law on the books, not to drive any faster than you could stop in the distance you could see clearly.

Update on the psychopath who has been assaulting Mpls cyclists with thrown objects, usually chunks of concrete, thrown from either a Ford Bronco or a short-bed pickup truck with a bed capper and one rear window replaced with plywood. Police reveal new clues in hunt for driver hitting Mpls. bicyclists with concrete and as People magazine discovers the story Spree of Attacks on Bicyclists in Minneapolis

Hey they caught the guy that killed the kid in NJ. Arrest Made in Hit-Run That Killed Teen Riding Bicycle in New Jersey It is no surprise that the killer did not have a valid license when he left the scene. Maybe this time they will take his vehicle instead of the license that he does not have.

I’m not the only one to notice that SFPD has different standards for people on bicycles and people in cars. The SFPD’s campaign against biking There have been 2 deaths caused by cyclists hitting pedestrians this century (or in the records of the SFPD going back to the big quake), but obviously the problem is bikes, not cars.

Just weeks before the World Cycling Championships, motor vehicle mayhem in Richmond VA. Cyclist injured after being hit by oncoming car The only witness never mentions seeing a weapon vehicle just the aftermath, so I’m going to say this was probably a hit-and-run, and since the bike was hit from the side at the back of the bike I’m thinking the driver of the weapon vehicle failed to obey a traffic control or they would have stayed at the scene.

Just because an idiot driver almost kills you and then jumps out of the weapon vehicle to make it personal doesn’t mean you should keep hitting him until he stops trying to hit back. Corte Madera man sues cyclist over road-rage beating in Mill Valley It gets even better, the driver of the truck that hit the cyclist was drinking the day he hit the cyclist.

Well, at least this GA cyclist gets a little compensation for her pain and disfigurement. Injured Athens cyclist lawsuit settled for $850,000 I wonder what my lawsuit would be worth, had they ever caught the driver tht almost killed me?

There may be some infrastructure changes coming for Beantown. After Fatal Bike Crash, One Expert On How To Make Boston Safer For Cyclists and Plans Underway to Revamp Boston’s Seaport Traffic If I make a small suggestion, severely restrict semis with long trailers, they seem to be over-represented in the death statistics. I would go with the bicycle outriders mentioned in earlier posts about the cyclist hit by the deadheading semi towing the flatbed trailer as the best compromise over an outright ban. Also this would lead to higher employment for people who can ride a bike fast.

While we are discussing infrastructure, here’s a shitty “deal” offered Portland by ODOT. State’s proposal to improve bike crossings of Powell: Remove bike lane from 26th

And thanks to helicopter parents the child death rate on bicycles has gone down. Report: Bicyclist Death Rates Fell for Kids, Rose for Men

Drivers in West Canuckistan forget they are supposed to be “nice” Canadians. Cyclist hit on Lower Springbank Road shows clashes are continuing with drivers Combine this with the several earlier reports of deliberate assault with motor vehicles, and things look grim.

Things are getting nasty over on the Emerald Isle, too. Experts warn 100 people could be killed on our roads before end of year If that seems like a rather low number remember that Ireland is about 3/5 the size of Arkansas (32,595 sq mi compared to 53,179 sq mi) and 100 deaths would be … not very much for Arkansas .

Are cyclists treated differently by the courts in Oz? Canberra cyclist appeals against order to pay fellow rider $1.7 million for crash Let me get this straight, a cyclist hits some road trash and wrecks out and takes a second cyclist with him and the second cyclist is hit by a car, and the first cyclist is out $1.7 MILLION?!? How much did the driver of the car have to pay?

An art installation/bicycle repair station honors a fallen CO cyclist. Duggan: Trail-side sculpture honors man gone too soon

And I’m outta links finally. Sleep now, Opus tired at 0346

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet