Stream of consciousness time again for Wreck-Free Sunday

I have absolutely no idea what I should be writing about today. The riots and assaults of Black Friday are vanishing into the mists of memory (but not the stores that stayed open on Thanksgiving), all the leftovers are likewise vanishing, and there are some nice pictures of Black Friday Rides on many community bike blogs like Bike Friendly Richardson . About the only thing interesting to report is Mrs. the Poet decided that she wanted leftovers, too, so we are having a second Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon because we didn’t get any of the leftovers from the dinner with our daughter and her husband, and our grandson. Then tonight we are taking some of those “fresh” leftovers to church for a potluck dinner/evening service. Which reminds me I didn’t write the elemental calls yet. BRB. OK I wrote calls and dismissals appropriate for the service.

Something amusing that happened this week was about one of my favorite web comic artists announcing a get-together over where my other daughter lives in Scotland. I got involved in discussing the gathering and mentioned that it was quite a haul from the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell in Texas, so someone replied that maybe I should add a motor to my bike and I shot back that we would just install a paddle wheel on the bakfiets, and because this person lives someplace where such cargo bikes are commonplace they ran with it and suggested a mast and sail to go with the paddle wheel as a visual pun.

Speaking of visual things, I will be putting the blog logo on the box of the bakfiets and would request some input from my readers. The current blog logo is almost as old as this blog and has a bike that is two bikes behind what is current as part of the logo, plus the whole thing just will not blow up to be intelligible when placed on the side of the box. If I leave the logo small enough that the pictures make sense then the whole thing will be like 3″ tall and not very noticeable, but if I blow up the logo enough to make it stand out against the box the pictures will get pixelated beyond recognition. So the question I ask is should I do a new logo for the blog?

Question for any of my Dutch-speaking readers, what are the singular and plural forms for the bakfiets? I don’t want to look like a rube using the wrong form for my bike.

Also this week I got a kind of dodgy job offer from some guy in Alberta to act as his mail forwarder so that he could have a stable mailing address while he galavanted about on his business. I politely declined the offer. It just seemed too much like the Nigerian Prince scam. Or I would end up forwarding a bunch of contraband someplace and get busted for smuggling.

Thanks to the Pagan Fellowship Night, and Drum Jam at church I now an swimming in bottle caps to make Beer View Mirrors and Shield Amulets, and I found a steady source of the mirror blanks to glue into them. So that source of income is now secure for the moment.

The slipper socks are comfy, but I still need to come up with something to keep my foot on the lifted slipper as I still keep walking out of that one. The straps from the old pair of sandals I’m replacing are not long for this world either, so I’m going to have to find something else to keep my foot in close proximity to my slipper. This isn’t something I could sell, but I could see a group getting together to make them for a nursing home with colorful socks and flip flop soles, because they are quite warm. The flip flop soles keep the cold out of the bottom of the foot, and depending on the choice of sock for the upper part that can be warm also.

I have been terribly frustrated because so many of the web comics I read to decompress after I do the blog post have been on hiatus because of the holiday. I just hope the artists and writers are in good shape after they get back. I’m serious about that, I had one web comic go on break for Christmas a few years back and never resumed and I have no idea what happened to the artist. It was like he fell off the face of the Earth. And speaking of artists that have fallen off the face of the Earth, has anyone heard from the creator of “Venus Envy”?

And the second turkey is done and the sides are starting to come from the oven, so I’m going to end this here and go eat.

PSA, Opus

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Thankful for what I have, and the Feed

While I wait for our ride to my daughter’s house to get off work I’m very thankful for a lot of things. First among those is I have a family that cares for me and sometimes feeds me, I’m very grateful for that. Second my readers are the greatest, especially whoever sent the check to buy the new cargo bike. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all of you, because you’re the reason I do this blog. If nobody read this blog then I wouldn’t have any reason to write it, would I? Third I’m grateful that there are places that place cycling for transportation on an equal basis with driving and walking because I have those good examples to use when I speak to those in power. I have been doing this blog since October of 2006 as a bicycle safety blog, before that it was just a place to write down random thoughts and musings (since March of 2003) and as my blog changed where I had to host the blog changed as well. Minor things I’m grateful for are electrolyte replacement drinks, energy and protein bars in handy single serving packaging, bike gloves with Kevlar palms (haven’t fallen once since I started wearing them 😉 ), my church and the people in it, and peanut butter. Yes peanut butter, I like a good PB&J or PB&H sandwich when I’m in the middle of a long ride.

Not many links today, with most of them being about the same wreck in GA as a 15 YO cyclist is killed crossing a busy street. LaGrange teen struck and killed while riding bike and LHS student struck by vehicle, killed also 15-year-old struck, killed riding bike This was not an intersection wreck and also not a SWCC wreck, the cyclist was trying to get to the right side of the road for his return journey and did not judge the speed of oncoming traffic properly. Infrastructure might make getting home without having to cross a busy street possible, I know it does in the Netherlands, with bi-directional bike paths on both sides of busy streets so that people can get to or from either side without having to cross at other than an intersection, or single direction lanes with frequent crossings that do not require cyclists to actually set wheel on the busy street or road.

From NYC they had a really bad stretch yesterday. Three Pedestrians, One Cyclist Killed In 30 Minute Span The cyclist was right hooked by a hit-and-run driver, but fortunately there were witnesses and LEO have a pretty good idea of the weapon vehicle. Unfortunately that LEO is NYPD, so I don’t hold out much hope in the killer being caught, let alone prosecuted.

The only other link I have is for a mountain biker that crashed off the road before he even got to the trails. Fire crews help rescue injured mountain biker in Oak Park I don’t know if he “veered” off the road or was “helped” off the road by a passing vehicle. So if he was “helped” off the road then hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, but don’t go quite so far off the road that you have a wreck trying to avoid getting hit. And infrastructure to prevent.

And those are all the links that gave me fits (or not) today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus