The fireworks and gunshots are over

So we decided it was safe to stick our heads above ground and take a look around. People in TX really like shooting guns and fireworks to celebrate things, and there were many bullets flying last night. It was like a war zone between the fireworks and the gunshots.

It’s supposed to get around 20°F tomorrow morning after getting to 70° this afternoon, which does bad things to people’s health. This is partially the result of our location near the boundary of continental and coastal weather areas, which gets us some rather violent weather, and partially because of climate change which makes these boundary areas more severe. But anyway the temperature has been dropping like a rock off a cliff outside, and went from toasty warm to “I had to put a shirt on” in my office in just a few hours. Seriously I was watching the news with just sweatpants and slippers and the thermostat was reading over 70°, and now the thermometer on my clock is showing 65° and my fingers are freezing and working intermittently. And the emergency resistance heater just kicked in, I can tell because it smells like burned hair in here.

I’m still thinking about the Sprint-T, but as raw material prices are way up and my available budget is way down my completion date is now even more indefinite than before, which makes me even more depressed than before. And like I wrote before I’m not sure I’ll be able to get in and out of the car with my limited range of motion in my hips and shoulders, something else to make me depressed. Like I really needed more things to be depressed about. Between my love life and the Sprint-T, well there just hasn’t been much to get happy over. But then again aside from that things are pretty good. I have a safe place to sleep, more than enough food, and the heat and AC both work, as was proved with both today. Things could be much worse.

And things have been much worse, not that long ago. Being hit by the truck and being dead is like a blink of the eye for me, but then again impossibly long ago. It has been nearly a third of my life since the wreck, but some days it feels like yesterday. That’s just how it is.

And now I’m getting maudlin on you guys, so this feels like a good time to put this one to bed.

Advertisement

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and the Feed

This will be the last post of 2015, and I have to say that I’m slightly surprised at having survived this year as a blog and as a blogger. There were car wrecks and tornadoes, food poisoning, muggings and other mayhem, and none of it actually touched yr fthfl srvnt author. It all kind of swirled around me so that I could see it and report on it, but not have to suffer through it. Another bit of evidence that I’m a character in a story reporting back on what I see and feel as others live the story. I really need a better writer for my sex scenes…

Up first, the driver who killed a MD cyclist was violating two traffic laws to cause the wreck. ‘It’s Just So Unreal’: 19-Year-Old Cyclist Dies After Crash With SUV The two laws? Failing to obey a traffic control, and not stopping for a car stopped in front of a crosswalk. The cyclist had no chance to avoid this wreck as his view of the weapon vehicle was obstructed by the car that was following the law.

A NYS resident doesn’t have to leave the house to get above the legal limit for BAC. NY Woman Beats DWI Charge Because Her Body Is A Brewery This is an actual medical condition that I have been aware of for at least 25 years because I read about it before I moved to TX back in 1989, and again some time during the “Aughties”. So, rare, but not unheard of.

Cop hit cyclist in the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike. Cyclist, Patrol Car Collide In Miami Gardens Cop claimed to have the green light when the cyclist “pulled out in front of him”. The geometry of the wreck indicates the cyclist was in the intersection for several seconds before the patrol car got there, meaning this could have been a stale green crossing where the cyclist had the right of way over the cop car. But since the comments have been closed for the article the only place you will see that is in this blog.

A WV cyclist is blamed for getting right hooked. Keyser man injured in bike/van crash at Memorial Bridge Nothing more I can say about this.

CT LEO are asking the public’s help in finding a cyclist’s killer. Shelton PD Seeks Help Finding Hit-and-Run Driver Who Killed A Cyclist

DiYDoT in action in Portland. Activists use traffic cones to improve safety of bike lane along new Orange Line MAX Yay DiYDoT! Doing what the regular DoT can’t or won’t do to make streets safer.

Lastly, did anyone order a box of kittens?

And that’s it for 2015. Here’s hoping 2016 is at least a little better.

Billed @$0.02, Opus the Poet

I am going to be boring on NYE, and the Feed

Yep, I’m doing an “old folks” NYE tonight. Not even any carbonated apple cider tonight to toast in the New Year. Just watching the TV and kissing Mrs. the Poet at midnight. Yep, that’s real exciting…<yawn> Not many links today but I’m going to get through this as fast as possible so I am not at the computer when 2014 ends and 2015 begins.

Opening up with Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Fat tire biking the Iditarod trail, Aussie ped safety video and best wishes for a happy New Year

An infrastructure related wreck shows why people at the front of a group ride it’s better to alert trailing riders. This one was sent to me on Facebook. Expect the Unexpected on a group ride! It takes a quarter of a second for your average human to see and identify a potential threat and begin to react to it, and you can see that was about the same amount of time the second rider had to see the debris after it came into view around the lead cyclist.

Once again the “justice system” fails to ensure justice in the Great White North. Day parole continues for drunk driver who killed cyclist The driver was sentenced to 6 years and a lifetime driving ban, now I wonder how “lifetime” that ban will be in light of how little time he actually spent in prison. It’s looking like he will be driving about the time he was supposed to be walking out of prison.

To solve a problem you first must define the problem. This is a major step towards defining the problem in DC. Map: Here’s Where Pedestrians and Cyclists Were Struck This Year The standard technique is to look for “clusters” of wrecks and see what the infrastructure looks like, then identifying potential sources of conflict that might lead to wrecks, then systematically removing those sources of conflict. It doesn’t always work that way, because many times there are certain parameters that can’t be violated, usually causing any disturbance in vehicle speed is verboten.

Some fun news from the UK. Worthing chosen to host cycling series Yep putting steeply banked turns facing each other on opposite sides of the street looks like more fun then the law allows.

And another link to the story that bikes make more jobs than cars in Europe. Cycling Is Creating More Jobs in Europe Than Automakers Are in the U.S.

And that’s it, I’m outta links.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet