I went to get my bike this morning and the car was gone!
My brother had risen before me and driven away in the dawn.
I’ve got a check in my fanny pack that I gotta get in the bank.
Can’t think of a last line to rhyme – I’ve got sleep deprivation to thank.

Hoping for a moonlight ride this evening but the skies may not cooperate. (I heard the moon will decide not to be blue and full. )

tarry, tarry day!

… I hear S. Race Street is hot and tarry and soiling clothing and bicycles. Bleeccchh! I don’t know if the cyclist in question had fenders…

And starry, starry night I hope tomorrow for a full moon ride!

I encountered a grumpy one this morning – the kind that would consider buying that cafepress stuff. Aside: the images have been taken down, too, with comments from the cafepress personnel referring to them as “harmless fun” and questioning people making a “federal case” out of it. Hmmmm….. perhaps (really reaching here!) the idea that people really *would* harm cyclists is so “out there” that it must be funny… I don’t think so.
Back from the side… I’m waiting longer than usual at Prospect and ah! car behind me. I scoot over so he can get by… look back for the wave nad smile… and he’s scowling and muttering disparaging things, and they do seem to be loosely directed at me. I suppose my existence is his bane, and I should have moved my shadow more quickly. FLashed him a peace sign to complete being my stereotypic self (I ductaped the one back on the backside of the Xtra this morning) and went on my way. Hope something mellows his mood before long… a blessing on him and anyone he endangers this day.
Construction is still very yucky at Bradley. Will they really have the entrance open next week?
Car title made itself manifest at 1:22 a.m. after finding several cycling gloves (two of ‘em even matched and weren’t together), my birth certificate, pictures of an old SO, some humorous scraps that I won’t incriminate myself about, and that touching farewell composite of my face in assorted movie shots (done in 1980’s technology: school copy machine). WIsh I could say things were tidier – but I can find the top of that big desk!
Now to get that “seven day driveaway sticker” … and sell the litle car.

No commute today – it’s a holiday. I muse upon my little unicorn ring from my old sweetheart buried in Arlington Cemetery, and all the rest of people in their various roles in the military culture. In the words of Amy Lowell, What are patterns for?

Not daunted by menacing radar and cloingy fog, I ventured out to that show and go and five folks assembled and we took off for a really nice ride out to Sadorus and Ivesdale. Alas, favorite people *were* dissuaded by radar. I might have been had I seen it… but it also didn’t feel like it was going to rain and that’s always worked before.

Sometimes it really stinks being half Vulcan. One never knows if it helps or hinders.

From the League of American Bicyclists (via bikejournal, once the Great Moderators figured out how to post information without making it distasteful to their sensibilities):

CafePress Crosses the Line on Cycling Products

“What on earth would possess someone to promote and sell promotional materials that makes light of – even legitimizes – hitting and verbally abusing cyclists? Ask the folks at CafePress, because I’m not sure I can answer that for them. They are an on-line store that has loads of other products that are clever, humorous, ironic, pointed, self-deprecating, off-the-wall.

“And then they have artwork that shows a cyclist getting hit by a motorist, with an accompanying explicit epithet that anyone that’s ridden a bike in the last 24 hours will likely have heard, along the lines of “excuse me, but I think you are in my way.” They have it for bumper stickers, mugs, T-shirts.

“I wonder if they also have klever klan merchandise encouraging folks to break race laws. Perhaps snappy graphics showing people being persecuted for their sexual orientation or religious beliefs of other lifestyle choices. Is there a line in humorous “I support torture” stickers that flout international law as well as domestic laws and good taste?

“So why would they think it is OK to glorify violence against cyclists? Free speech – to promote behavior that kills and injures people every single day of the year already? We’ll be waiting to hear from them.”

What galls me is that CafePress does, I do believe, have the usual standards that you can’t post things that promote terrorism or violent crime (don’t know about, say, smokin’ stuff) – and clearly they don’t think this is in that category, though I do suppose it could have slipped in under the radar. Let’s just see how long it takes them to respond.

Our Ride of Silence. (People still don’t want to commute by bike because of the ‘traffic.’)

Zooming in on conspicuous consumption:

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=?view=XXX_09NNN/

How about bringing your own? Google ‘reusable bags” or:
http://www.bringyourown.org/
http://www.pristineplanet.com/default.asp
http://store.greenfeet.com/items.asp?Cc=REUSE_SHOP_BAG

Oh, heavens. Clarence, the traffic-calming Sasquatch. I am IN LOVE. (I know, that’s nothing new. New flavors are nice, though!)

From CYcle-icious.

Snapshot of the future?

This a.m. I looked out the door and a cyclist was going by; picked up the helmet and walked out the door and an older couple on cycles was going by the other way. Hopped on my bike and eased down the driveway and an electric car was scooting up the street. (No traditional automobiles were moving.)

Wake up, C-U… the future is here!

And… another case against sidewalk riding, with apologies to that van driver. I was heading towards the Parkland entrance on the Bradley sidewalk (believe it or not, I really do forget “take the Southern route to miss the construction these two weeks”) and thought I had it timed. The guy on Clayton wouldn’t get to turn right until the line of traffic coming towards me was through, and there were two cars left just as I go there… welp, except I couldn’t see their traffic light at all (the E and W lights are separate) and it had gone red and those two cars stopped as I blithely road right in front of the guy on Clayton, who had already eased off the brake (but not started anywhere). I would like to think that the light hadn’t actually **changed,** but I can’t say for sure. It was another reminder that important little things like traffic lights aren’t placed so that you can easily see ‘em if you’re not on the road. I’ll be on the road tomorrow…

Another argument against bike paths: in L.A., they’ve got “absolute immunity” as far as being designed so badly that people injure themselves using them. “Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu granted summary judgment, citing Farnham v. City of Los Angeles, (1998) 68 Cal.App.4th 1097. The court there held that a class I bikeway, as defined in Streets and Highways Code Sec. 890.4, is a “trail” within the meaning of Sec. 831.4(b).

The latter section grants public entities absolute immunity from liability for injuries resulting from a dangerous condition on a “trail used for” certain purposes, “including…all types of vehicular riding,” or on an unpaved road that provides access to such activities. ”

Welp, it’s pretty clear. It’s not a road, it’s a trail. They don’t have to make it useful or safe. Heavens, why would they want to be responsible for that ?!?