We have sneaux in the Suburbs of Hell

If you follow weather news you might have heard we got some Sneaux in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Well by the standards Mrs. the Poet and I grew up with we got a light dusting. But considering the last time we had snow visible on the ground I had a flip phone, this is a LOT of snow for around here.

The temperature has never gotten above 20°F today with wind chills hovering around and below zero°. Like I wrote earlier the last time it snowed I was using a flip phone for pictures.

We have about 2″ accumulation as I post this, with more on the way.

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Still batching it, and the Feed

I’m still alive and feeding myself (and using up some leftovers). I’m building the other engines I got from VCG Resins (the LS7 and the Ford Coyote) so that I don’t spend much time thinking about not being with Mrs. the Poet and doing my own cooking. Something I noticed is the LS7 engine is almost identical to the SBC, while the Coyote is slightly shorter but much wider than the SBC. I can foresee much wailing and gnashing of teeth trying to get that in the same chassis and especially under the same hood as the SBC. I mean the hood barely fits over the SBC when everything is above the bottom of the lower frame rail and the body sits on top of that 1.5″ square lower frame rail. And I just measured the thickness of the transmission pan and the thickness of the temp floor in the bucket and if I use the temp adhesive to glue the transmission to the inside of the floor without the pan it raises the engine to exactly the height it would be if the bottom of the body was sitting on top of a scale 1.5″ square rod. This makes mocking up much easier, and I will be able to take a picture showing almost exactly what I would see from the driver’s seat of the 1:1 Sprint-T.

Up first is Our Daily Ted for no particular reason (except I want to avoid the Big Story for a few more minutes). Morning Links: LACBC & SaMo Spoke up for national honors, CHP looks for driver in East LA bike hit-and-run

Still in CA. 2 Suspects Sought in Shooting Death of Man Riding Bicycle in San Bernardino Talk about stupid, if they had run the guy over and stayed at the scene and cried a bit how they never saw the guy until they hit him, there would have been no big deal over the dead guy and LEO probably wouldn’t have even put any points on the driver’s license. But because they shot the cyclist now there is a big manhunt going on and probably both are going to get charged with murder and conspiracy to commit.

OK, now that Big Story, more on the drunk driver that hit a group of 10 cyclists waiting in a bike lane for a red light in AZ. 2 bicyclists killed, 2 injured on Tucson’s NW side and Santa Fe bicyclist killed in Arizona; truck driver arrested also 2 bike riders dead as pickup hits New Mexico group in Tucson this too Santa Fe cyclists among those killed, injured by impaired driver in Arizona Again, there were 10 bikes in the group, 4 cyclists were injured enough to not be able to walk from the wreck site, one was pronounced dead at the scene, one died after reaching the hospital, one remains in critical condition, and one may already be out by the time I hit the “publish” button on the composing page. There was some speculation that the driver may have been distracted in addition to being drunk, which would make his loss of driving skills drunk². Actually I don’t know that is true, I’m extrapolating from the MythBusters episode where they compared driving with a cell phone (hand-held and hands-free) to driving with a BAC of 0.08% and found cell phone driving to be slightly worse than drunk driving, so combining the two would be either 2drunk or drunk². It all depends on if it is a linear or exponential relationship. And I just went full nerd on you, sorry.

It took FL LEO long enough to charge this guy. Driver charged in death of Weston bicyclist I mean he only killed the guy back in July, the victim died at the scene so they were not waiting on tox screens or anything.

Bad news about infrastructure from OR. Negligent driving bill won’t pass this session This comment encapsulates things perfectly.
“Anne Hawley March 3, 2016 at 1:57 pm
“In their mind,” Rhoades continued, “this bill just criminalizes distracted driving.”
That was the whole damn point.”

More infrastructure news from America’s Copenhagen. Mayoral candidates make cycling part of green policies at environmental debate Everybody put bicycles as a major component of their environmental policies.

And what will be good news to some in the Power Assist Yahoo Group, and bad news to other members. Shop Visit: Pedego Electric Bikes now open in downtown Portland The guy that owns the Pedego company used to be quite active on Power Assist, but not so much any more, maybe because his little empire is expanding.

A distinctly NYC hazard. SUV Driver Shot In The Head, Crashes Into Utility Pole In Astoria Don’t know that any cyclists were involved, it might have been an Uber or Lyft that someone attempted to hijack and everything went to crap.

How do you hit-and-run a building? Knucklehead Cops Allegedly Fled After One Plowed A Car Into A Hair Salon Oh, you get shitfaced celebrating your cop promotion.

An important part of WI infrastructure. Teaching Safe Bicycling Couse Misspelled word is a cut-and-paste from the headline, I know where to put the “r” in “course”. It does slightly worry me that such a major typo got through.

Ranking cities by bicycle safety and Dallas doesn’t even crack the top 20. D.C., Boston Tie for Cycling, Pedestrian Commuting Rates and Safety But, a city I used to live in when LBJ was president did well in the medium city category.

Want to know how much walking and cycling really mean to your city? Snow and the Walkable, Bikeable, Accessible City Look what happens when it snows.

Scary video from Jolly Olde. Glasgow cyclist shows why you shouldn’t always ride in a bike lane Yep another door-zone bike lane.

Another link to the man convicted of careless driving for killing a cyclist while driving drunk. Seven years behind bars for West Molesey man who killed a cyclist Once again I say this was a case of serious under-charging when they called driving drunk “careless”. Seriously, drinking and driving is a deliberate act, not “careless”.

This is one thing about UK jurisprudence I really like. Cyclist won payout from TfL after hitting gaping manhole on cycle superhighway ‘that hadn’t been fixed’ Here in TX government has “Sovereign Immunity” from being sued over sub-par infrastructure even when it was deliberately done that way.

More infrastructure news from Jolly Olde. Commuters want better cycling infrastructure – even if it creates delays I guess people weighed 5 minutes from their day against permanent injury or death for someone else, and decided their 5 minutes were not worth someone else’s life.

Last link looks at the connection between bicycles and early feminism. First The Bicycle, Next The Vote: The Story Of Bicycles And Feminism

Now it’s time to put this to bed in time for Gigi to review it.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Paying my taxes was a nightmare, and the Feed

Yep, I was out paying taxes today. About $3k gone in a whoosh. Several hours spent waiting in lines. I don’t mind taxes, because that’s how I pay for things like schools and libraries and bicycle infrastructure. Then I went and paid off some bills, which was mostly a case of waiting on the next bus, sometimes for over an hour because of broken busses on the route meant that the next schedule was there before the replacement bus.

Let’s open with this lovely item from NYC. Hope You’re Not Planning On Biking Anywhere Today A big part of the problem is snow removal changes depending on the chunk of infrastructure covered in snow.

Hmm. Maybe if I made a recumbent version I could get some base miles in and still post the blog? Portland software company rigs up a way to publish its blog posts by bike I need to do something, we are coming up on a year since I rode any distance over a block on a bike.

Sorta local, I think these guys play basketball. JaVale and J.J. take tandem bike ride on the Santa Monica Pier (Photo) Pro hint, don’t call a tagalong a tandem.

Our Daily Ted, part 1. Morning Links: LA chosen Vision Zero Focus City, another Glendale cyclist threatened, and a special bike offer

And Ted Part 2. Bicyclist killed Tuesday in Ojai Valley

Still in CA. Law firm says settlement is reached in cyclist’s death, but Newport says nothing is final Doncha just hate it when your settlement can be derailed by people not even involved with the negotiations?

I think this is the same highway where a cyclist was killed back in 2011. Cyclist killed after hit-and-run, 2nd strike Again they blame the victim for not wearing the GITDCS instead of the driver not driving at a speed they could see to stop in the distance that could be seen clearly.

Back to America’s Copenhagen for more infrastructure. Gap Week: 82nd Avenue and Burnside

Another link on that cyclist hit from behind in PA. Bicyclist killed in Wilkinsburg identified

National infrastructure news for US readers. These U.S. Reps Want to Redefine Bike-Share Ideally bike-share would be run by transit agencies and be colocated with transit centers as well as areas of high transfer from bus to walking and destinations to serve as last-mile gap fillers.

Infrastructure news from far West Canuckistan. Cycling sign impedes bikes Windshield bias heavily in evidence in the comments section.

Remember that Mythbusters episode where they compared drowsy driving to drunk driving? Ultra-Cyclist Dies While Training on Rio-Santos Road in São Paulo

This UK story deserves a Triple Facepalm! Banned driver spared jail after ‘foolish’ car chase through Nunsthorpe estate About the only good thing to say about this was the driver was sober. Having said that, Holy Crap he drove like that sober!

Also from Jolly Olde. These Moving Photos Show The Moments Before Cyclists Were Killed By Cars Long exposures with flat light and a bright headlight leave a ghostly impression.

A pedestrian dies after getting hit walking on the sidewalk, must be NYC, right? Elderly woman dies after crash in Greenacre, another pedestrian injured Nope, it was in Oz. The driver was weaving on and off the sidewalk, and was taken from the scene by ambulance. I’m assuming DUI or medical emergency, with a strong bet on the medical emergency.

And last link is a bit of uplifting news from Enn Zed. Almost killed by bee sting; now legally blind mountainbiker aims to conquer epic bike race

And I’m outta links and ready to crash, into my bed…

Billed @$0.02, Opus