Freaky Stuff

I came in from play this evening with an IM flashing on my screen from a good friend of mine in Seattle:

"just got hit by a car"

That's it.

He's not answering his cell phone. But he's not a big cell phone answerer. I'm sure he's fine, but I wish I knew for sure.

My neighbor apparently busted his nose on a bicycle fall tonight too. He was noodling around the trails down on the bluff. Sounds like he went over his bars, was knocked cold for a bit and woke up with a busted nose. Egad.

Some 7 year old kid in Spokane is in "serious but stable condition" today after he got hit by an SUV yesterday as he rode his bike. All we know is that "he rode his bike between two parked cars and an SUV hit him." Yeah. kids will do that. Kinda hard to see those little dudes when your way up there in your 2-ton SUV, but whatever. Damn kids.

What's going on here?

Here's some mundane, non-freaky stuff:

The stop lights downtown are totally screwed from the freeway work. The usually wonderful glide into downtown via Bernard/Grove/Washington is totally broken up and lame now. The lights on 3rd, 2nd, and Sprague are optimized for east/west traffic. Bring a book if you are going to attempt to cross those arterials. The lights take a long long time to change.

If you were able to make it through this epic post, then it may interest you to know that that chunky sound I heard in Ryan's hub was his broken axle. Liza discovered that one. We started to salvage and build up another rear wheel out of an old 6 speed wheel from an ancient mountain bike. We were in the process of waiting for some bolts when I spied an old 24"-wheeled Specialized Rockhopper at a garage sale. I got it for $12. Problem solved. I feel sort of vindicated.

There was an article in the Spokesman Review (no link -- they make you sign up) about the BAB Commuter Route Project. I picked up three more commuters today. I'll follow them in the next couple weeks.

I hope my buddy is ok.