I Love This Photograph

This photograph comes from flickr user jonnyfixedgear and it makes me wish for spring and bike weather. Isn't it neat? I love it.

Good Job

via Treehugger

You, Holly Highfield, Are All Class

From News4Jax:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --

Police recently arrested a woman they said deliberately hit a bike rider and crashed two separate cars, and then ran off naked.Holly Highfield faces DUI and several other charges after witnesses said she intentionally struck a bicyclist, took off her clothes and ran around the crash scene, then drove off the road while attempting to leave the scene in someone else's vehicle.Police said the incident occurred Sunday evening while Highfield, 34, was driving three children, ages 10 to 14.

Just after 8 p.m., officers were called to a report of an accident involving a pedestrian and a naked woman at the intersection of San Pablo Road and Pirate Court.The children in Highfield's car told police that she was driving north when she turned to them and said: "Do you think this biker is going to get hit? Do you have faith? Are you afraid?" They said she then steered her SUV across San Pablo and struck 55-year-old Cathy Giury riding a bicycle.

When a couple in a van stopped to see if the bicyclist needed help, Highfield allegedly got out of her vehicle, jumped into the van yelling that she was going to jail, ordering the man behind the wheel to drive her away. Police were told than when the driver refused, she got out, took off her clothes and began running around.

According to the police report, when the bystander got out to help the bicyclist, Highfield yelled at the passenger in the van to get out, then attempted to drive off, but left the road and struck a fence.When police arrived, Highfield was placed in the back of the patrol car. Officers said she became increasingly violent. When a female officer attempted to cover Highfield with a sheet, she was kicked.The arrest report indicates Highfield "appeared to be under the influence of some type of drug." It said she also urinated in the back of the patrol car.

Ack. The crazies, they are everywhere.


via Slog

Lucky Me

I had a good day today. I had an nice, albeit somewhat awkward, 4 mile-long bike ride today. I'm sitting in the grass blogging and listening to the crickets; I'm thinking about P, E, B and K coming for dinner tonight and I'm trying not to think (too much) about Jesse's interview next week. I'm feeling content.

My next thought?

I'm so glad I don't have to deal with gross dead bodies in the middle of the night anymore.

As of yet, I remain unclear why it took me 3 1/2 years to get out of the grasp of those exploitive autocrats but its done and things at the J and L house are going well and karma is a boomerang, bitches!

I Will Tell You 9 Things. I Will Not Disclose the 10th Thing.

• I'm happy because the rain is here, albeit 12 or so hours late.
• I want popcorn with nutritional yeast. I want it now. I'm sure getting it done will wake Jesse. Ack!!
  
• I'm kind of avoiding my therapist.
• A week from today, Jesse will be in CT for an interview. I'll be chauffeuring.
• Perhaps if I pop my popcorn on the landing, it won't wake Jesse.
• I am thoroughly and excessively caffeinated. Damn you, Starbucks and your bribes.
  
• I had an awful day on Monday. For some reason, I felt better after I fell of my bike.
  
• Is there an outlet in the common hallway? Maybe I can pop corn there.
• Tuesday was much better than Monday. I'm sure its mostly due to caffeine and partly due to the fact that I forced myself to emerge from my cave.
  

Things are Going Poorly

Not with the biking. Biking is going well. My life, however, not so much.....

I Wish I was Cooler by the Lake

Tovah mentioned me and my effort to learn to ride a bike in her blog, Cooler by the Lake. Tovah is my beloved besty and although we are 700 miles (11 hours and 19 minutes) apart, we try to see each other and talk to each other as much as possible.

We have been friends for nearly 10 years and have lived far apart for all but five months. She is so supportive and loving, very attentive and conscientious. Tovah will always take some time to calm me down if I call when I am upset; she's helped me get untangled more times than I can count. She loves Jesse and always asks how he is doing and if there are any new job prospects. She's advised me on a myriad of relationship issues and she's got me hooked on kombucha. Some of my fondest memories are of me and Toves curled up together reading or doing homework. She's terrific company when I'm interested in an adventure and she's also great company when all I want to do is putz.

Ride Your Bike to Work...

Get shot in the face.

From Columbia Dispatch:

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Toledo police say a man was shot and killed while bicycling to work for the first time to save on gas.

Police Capt. Ray Carroll says 46-year-old David Babcock was seen on a street having a heated argument with another man before he was shot around 5:30 Tuesday morning. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The coroner says Babcock took a bullet to the face that caused massive bleeding and hampered his breathing.

No arrests have been made. Authorities don't know the motive for the shooting.

Babcock survived surgery to remove a brain tumor 13 years ago. His fiance, Rene Long, says Babcock had put lights on his bike and wore a reflective vest so he would be safe on his inaugural, 8-mile ride to his job at Fresh Products Inc., a maker of air fresheners.

via Slog

Random Police Violence at July 25 NYC Critical Mass

New York's finest. Word is that:

the cyclist in this video was arrested, held for 26 hours, and charged with attempted assault and resisting arrest. One other cyclist was ticketed Friday night for riding outside the bike lane, which is not actually illegal and often necessary, considering how popular bike lanes are for double parking.

via Slog

July 25 Critical Mass Melee: What He Said

In the interest of providing access to both sides of the story, the full account of the incident from the driver's point of view is available here. And now an excerpt:

While a some cyclists I’ve spoken with have written Mark off as another indignant road-hog, Mark says he actually used to be a bike commuter when he lived in Seattle a few years ago. “I sympathize with [cyclists’] cause. I ride bikes too. I’m a liberal hippie democrat,” he says, adding “I’m gay, the person with me was a lesbian and we were a attacked by eco-terrorists. It’s the most Seattle thing that could have happened.

Do you have any thoughts or experience with Critical Mass? What opinions do you have?

My consideration on this issue continues.

July 25 Critical Mass Melee

Critical Mass is a simple gathering of bike lovers who organize a regular monthly ride through city streets to assert their right to the roads. Critical Mass is not a formal organization or group although groups within individual cities decide to be as formal or as informal about their particular city's endeavor; instead, it is more of a concept meant to bring bike lovers together to celebrate their common interest in both their past time and their desire for safety and road space.

I'm certainly not exhaustively familiar with Critical Mass; you know any Critical Mass rides in my future will be many hours of bike riding down the road, literally and figuratively. I do know that I am upset about the melee during Seattle's most recent ride.

From KING 5:

A demonstration turned violent Friday night after a group of cyclists taking part in the Critical Mass demonstration got into an argument with a driver on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

Critical Mass is a group of cyclists that takes to the streets the last Friday of every month to promote cyclists’ right to the road.

It’s wasn’t clear what sparked the confrontation at 15th and Aloha, but witnesses say they saw about a dozen cyclists surround a white Subaru, blocking in the driver.

Apparently, the driver felt intimidated and tried to back up to get away, but he backed into at least two cyclists.

He then tried to take off, but cyclists chased after him, bashed in his car window and assaulted the driver. The driver was taken to an area hospital.

From an actual eyewitness (a bystander):

I was just looking up news information about an event that I witnessed tonight and found a frighteningly misinformed article on the event on the King 5 news website. Their “Bicycle demonstration turns violent” article paints a picture of cyclist brutality committed on a vehicle, injuring the driver and scaring the passenger, who they describe as a pregnant woman. While there is no denying that the cyclists circled the car and trashed it, this was all an attempt to stop the car and driver from possibly hurting anyone else, as the scene they describe in their newscast takes place about 200 ft from the scene where the motorist accelerated from 0 to 40 THROUGH a standing line of cyclists at Aloha and 14th, luckily only injuring two of them as his car was pointed at a group of six.

I was standing about 20 feet from the scene and saw the entire altercation. I honestly cannot believe what I saw. Originally, the vehicle was trying to inch (westward on Aloha) into an oncoming mass of cyclists on a narrow road, where he had to pull into the oncoming traffic lane in order to get around the cars parked in his lane. About 6 cyclists peeled off to park themselves in front of the vehicle, explaining that he needed to wait and they would all be out of his way in a minute. The driver, however, remained agitated and expressed that they were “in a rush” and “would be late”. When the cyclists asked what they were going to be late for, the driver responded, “We have reservations!”, which left the group largely speechless until one of the cyclists again explained that he would save a lot of time and trouble if he just waited another 30 seconds for the rest of the cyclists to pass. At that moment, the driver suddenly put his car in reverse and backed up—5 feet into the sidewalk (now the car is parallel to Aloha—thank goodness there were no pedestrians behind him!)—and stopped. This strange behavior panicked everyone and no one moved except to shout “Stop.” This is when his passenger started yelling for him to “Calm down and stop” as well. After staying put for about 10 seconds, the driver then said “fuck this” and accelerated into the line of standing cyclists. When he hit the first ones, he continued to accelerate, but steered into the larger mass of cyclists before turning the wheel and tearing off in the opposite direction (east on Aloha) with one of the hit cyclists still on the roof of his car.

The driver sped down Aloha with a mess of bicycles and cyclists in his wake, a cyclist on his roof, and everyone, including his pregnant passenger, yelling for him to “Just stop!” At the bottom of the hill, the driver stopped at a stop sign and the cyclists swarmed the car, slashing his tires and breaking the windows in order to make sure that he did not continue operating his vehicle through the city like a madman. His door was opened, the driver got out of the car in tears and walked, unmolested back up to where the cyclists were splayed out in the street apologizing to everyone. His passenger was relatively calm, also walked up the street unmolested, and explained that her friend had made a mistake and that she had been yelling for him to calm down and stop the car. While there was a little hysterical yelling by the freightened (sic) bicyclists, there was absolutely no physical confrontation.

The reason that I am writing you is that it seems alarmingly irresponsible that such a biased story would be printed and broadcast when King 5 admits that “It’s wasn’t clear what sparked the confrontation”. Not that this is surprising by any means, which is unfortunate. I guess I just want to make sure that the real story is put out there before this damning misinterpretation gains any steam.

I am very distressed about this, both as a new bike rider (if you can call my current ability "riding") and as someone who absolutely acquiesces with this celebration and expression. I certainly plan to incorporate Critical Mass rides into my bike-riding (and hopefully bike-loving) future.


image from actual incident via Slog
via Slog

I Really Should Have Learned This about 23 Years Ago: The Photographic Evidence

I'm so sore and very bruised. I invite you to view the large version and observe my expression. If you like this, you should see my concentrating face (requests to see the concentrating face will be considered on a case by case basis).

I Really Should Have Learned This about 23 Years Ago: The Update

So, remember when I told you I can't ride a bike? Last Friday, Jesse and I went to the bike shop and picked out bikes. I got a Trek Navigator 2.0 and Jesse's is a Trek 7200. I'll skip the part about me being frustrated with Jesse and discouraged about my dumb idea to try to learn to ride a bike and jump right to the good stuff:

Today, I coasted around by myself for a while. I was worried about not having Jesse around if I needed him but it turned out to be really good idea. I didn't have to worry about feeling like he was pressuring me or making fun of my ineptitude. And I got my first bike-related injury. Its the worst bike-related injury I have ever had.
After my very serious injury, I continued to coast around the parking lot and down a few inclines over and over again until I was feeling pretty comfortable about my balancing ability. Then I crashed my bike into a parked car; but by the time Jesse got home, I was riding my bike around the parking lot! I'm really wobbly and can't turn but I'm making progress! More updates to come....

Too Tired to Blog

Last night I was in bed and passed out before midnight. Typically, I'm up until 2 or 3 a.m listening to podcasts and blogging; My most prolific blogging happens during the early morning. Yesterday I was so so tired and half-asleep on the couch around 11 p.m. I think it was because of my inordinately busy day (busy for me; not busy most people). Some of my activities included a 9 a.m. appointment, an hour at the bike shop (bike purchase is imminent!), and a trip to the book store to pick up David Sedaris' newest book, When You are Engulfed in Flames, and the new issue of Good Magazine. Then I donated blood before coming home to make dinner. Whew. What a busy day!

p.s. I can't wait to tell you all about the new book!

I Really Should Have Learned This about 23 Years Ago

I don't know how to ride a bike. I know. I'm in the probably minuscule group of nearly 30-somethings who never learned to ride a bike. Lately I have had a bee in my bonnet about learning and there's a bunch of reasons to try:

1. its about time, already
2. its green
3. it is something Jesse and I can do together
   
4. it will be great when we move to a big city
   
5. it can be my new project
6. eHow seems to think I can do it
7. its good exercise and exercise is good
8. I want to be able to teach my offspring
9. I'll be really proud if I can do it

But its embarrassing and I'm self-conscious and if I get discouraged I might give up. I don't want to go to the bike shop and tell them how snr I am and then have to take Bike101. Plus, maybe I can't do it. Do you think I can do it?


image via Real World: Freshman Year

Tell Google That You Want to "Bike There"

Sign a petition telling Google how important it is for them to add a "Bike There" option to Google Maps. "Drive There" and "Take Public Transit There" options exist already. I'm number 38251.

Read more here and here.