A year ago, that Spouse o' Mine told me that he was planning to go to an agricultural meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. Did I want to come along?
Well, hell yeah, I wanted to come along. I made plans. I budgeted for my air fare. I studied Turkey, world history, and more importantly, Istanbul.
Then , through the past year, the Syrian war and ISIS and other programs have caused a whole lot of turmoil in Turkey - mainly in the southern border. (Google it, PLEASE?)
Because of this, about eight weeks before our trip, I opted out of my dream trip with that Spouse o' Mine. Too much unknown? He would be in meetings, and I, who loves to explore on my lonesome, would perhaps be in the perilous parts of Istanbul.
And then, only three weeks before our departure, there was a suicide bomber in a "tourist market" area of Istanbul, which killed a lot of people.
That Spouse o' Mine is in Istanbul as I type, for almost one more week. He calls me each day. I have admonished him NOT to go to any "tourist" market or other. Go to meetings and then back to the hotel. (I don't think he is following my directives, but at least he is not telling me such.)
And that is my April, 2016.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Almost a Month Later!
It's not been writer's cramp. It's been...just...life.
I read a blog today which made me sad. A cyber-friend accidentally hit a cyclist who ran a red light. Her fault. Not his fault. Her fault. This made me sad.
One of the comments to this blog post gave the opinion "...cyclists seem to believe themselves to be above traffic laws, maybe because they are saving the environment, after all. Good lesson/reminder that they are not above physics laws, but sorry *** had to be the teacher."
We have bulls out in our neighbors' ranch, and they excrete lots of manure. This person's comment was perhaps to allay my cyber-friend's emotions, post-accident. But reading her comment had the same effect on me that our eau de neighbors' bulls on a southwind day does: BULLSHIT.
A) A "good lesson reminder" ??!!! Does this person comment on all sad incidences this way? What a tool.
B) Again, "... believe themselves to be above traffic laws"...does this person comment on other traffic accidents, injury or death-related, with such judgmental vitriol?
To lump a population of cyclists together and give them a bad name is not at all right.
I am a cyclist. So is that Spouse o' Mine. As are our adult son, two adult daughters, and our son-in-law. We use vehicles just as everyone uses vehicles. Some of ours have two wheels (bicycles). Some of our vehicles have four wheels. (Automobiles.) We pay taxes for the usage of roads, whether or not a day calls for a car or a bicycle. We follow the rules. We all wear helmets! We have lights on our bikes! We wear bright colors! Most of our cyclist friends follow the rules, the laws. If we see a cyclist NOT following the rules and laws, we all are vocal to them: we call them out.
I witnessed a cyclist getting hit by a car, right in front of our house. He was not injured. (Although pretty sore the following days.) It was not his error, it was the automobile driver's error. Her car sustained some dents and a cracked windshield, where he, our college-student acquaintance hit first her hood and then her windshield.
Two years ago we, that Spouse o' Mine and I, went to the funeral of a cyclist friend of ours. He had been hit from behind by an automobile driver who was typing on his GPS while driving. That driver had so many feet, SO MANY INCHES, to be away from our friend Mark. And yet, he was typing away while driving, and he hit Mark. Mark was killed instantly. We had only ridden our bikes with Mark a few days earlier.
We all carry opinions about drivers, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, motorcycles, and such. Unless you are Gandolf the Genius or have all the wisdom in the world, KEEP YOUR INSIDIOUS, UNCARING WORDS TO YOURSELF.
And that's all I have to say today. Oh - except for this: Tom, I am very sorry for your accident. VERY SORRY. I know it must have been horrible.
I read a blog today which made me sad. A cyber-friend accidentally hit a cyclist who ran a red light. Her fault. Not his fault. Her fault. This made me sad.
One of the comments to this blog post gave the opinion "...cyclists seem to believe themselves to be above traffic laws, maybe because they are saving the environment, after all. Good lesson/reminder that they are not above physics laws, but sorry *** had to be the teacher."
We have bulls out in our neighbors' ranch, and they excrete lots of manure. This person's comment was perhaps to allay my cyber-friend's emotions, post-accident. But reading her comment had the same effect on me that our eau de neighbors' bulls on a southwind day does: BULLSHIT.
A) A "good lesson reminder" ??!!! Does this person comment on all sad incidences this way? What a tool.
B) Again, "... believe themselves to be above traffic laws"...does this person comment on other traffic accidents, injury or death-related, with such judgmental vitriol?
To lump a population of cyclists together and give them a bad name is not at all right.
I am a cyclist. So is that Spouse o' Mine. As are our adult son, two adult daughters, and our son-in-law. We use vehicles just as everyone uses vehicles. Some of ours have two wheels (bicycles). Some of our vehicles have four wheels. (Automobiles.) We pay taxes for the usage of roads, whether or not a day calls for a car or a bicycle. We follow the rules. We all wear helmets! We have lights on our bikes! We wear bright colors! Most of our cyclist friends follow the rules, the laws. If we see a cyclist NOT following the rules and laws, we all are vocal to them: we call them out.
I witnessed a cyclist getting hit by a car, right in front of our house. He was not injured. (Although pretty sore the following days.) It was not his error, it was the automobile driver's error. Her car sustained some dents and a cracked windshield, where he, our college-student acquaintance hit first her hood and then her windshield.
Two years ago we, that Spouse o' Mine and I, went to the funeral of a cyclist friend of ours. He had been hit from behind by an automobile driver who was typing on his GPS while driving. That driver had so many feet, SO MANY INCHES, to be away from our friend Mark. And yet, he was typing away while driving, and he hit Mark. Mark was killed instantly. We had only ridden our bikes with Mark a few days earlier.
We all carry opinions about drivers, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, motorcycles, and such. Unless you are Gandolf the Genius or have all the wisdom in the world, KEEP YOUR INSIDIOUS, UNCARING WORDS TO YOURSELF.
And that's all I have to say today. Oh - except for this: Tom, I am very sorry for your accident. VERY SORRY. I know it must have been horrible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
