The kiddo wasn't texting. Ed Barsotti talked to the officer and the kid offered his phone and calls happened afterward. He saw Grover... then decided the volume needed to be adjusted on the radio... and swerved.

So, yea, it's really not about the phone. It's about realizing that a car is a (potential) death machine, period. I hope those folks at Google figure out the whole self-driving thing in a hurry. In the meantime, I'll have tos et up my basement to design my car-killing rays...

And I'm in shopping mode -- the Bike In Question was just abotu worn out, with abotu 15,000 miles on that drive train... my body is 12 years older ... I've never liked the road bike posture (there are back muscles I don't have -- so I get **really** cranky when I feel out of balance trying to compensate, as I discovered with that Schwinn I tried and certain yoga sitting poses), but I like light and fast. I'm not sure I want to go for carbon, simply because ... it just costs too much for the generic sloshy abuse I tend to give any bicycle... (but there is my infamous song about 'em...)

I have, in the past, left my bike out overnight a time or two, and/or left the garage door open and I did rehearse the feeling of walking out and that wrenching "It's not here!!! I can't believe it's not here!!!" -- which didn't happen when the bike was actually gone... I think because it really didn't change my lifestyle. I had two fully working bikes ready to ride, one in teh shop getting huge, major work done, and another 4 adult and 12 kids' bikes in the garage... I'm in no danger of not being able to*get* where I need to go, and I guess I really have gotten to a "detachment from things" state. (Still, I think the odds of seeing it around are reasonably good -- but if you see my friend Nina riding a 7500FX that's hers )

And besides, this year was a totally off year for me... a slothful sabbatical as I spent more time behind a computer than on my bike. Could just be that a New Fast Bike would enable me to get out and start racking up miles... another 8,000 mile year or ... even 10K ???? Trying to psych myself up for the new year (I *do* get attached to numbers )

Quote Originally Posted by Melalvai View Post
I am trying to prepare myself for the future theft of my bike by a) having enough money in the bank to replace it should anything happen to it and b) imagine that scenario, the shock of it missing and the life going on afterwards. Plus the fun of buying a new bike.

I just read "The Antidote" which is about the power of negative thinking and it recommends we spend some time every day contemplating future loss. It sounds depressing but it helps us appreciate what we have now and it prepares us for the eventuality if we do lose it one day. The author was talking about death of loved ones, but I thought I'd start out small with something like loss of my bike!

I'm so silly--more than once I've biked down the street to the other building on our campus, then as I was coming back I automatically looked at the bike rack where my bike lives when I'm in the office, and for a moment I'm like "Where the heck is my bike?? Oh, I'm sitting on it." I do that with my phone too. I'm talking on it, and I reach in my pocket so I can look at it to see what time it is, and think I've lost my phone for a moment.

Then there have been moments when I thought I left my bike in one place, and it's not there, and either I left it in a different place or didn't realize it's behind something. Then I really do have a rush of adrenaline.