You are a glass bottle, cars are rocks.

On a bicycle you are a glass bottle, cars are rocks.
If you hit a glass bottle against a rock, the glass bottle breaks.
If you hit a glass bottle with a rock, the glass bottle breaks.
Either way the bottle is broken.
Don't be a broken bottle.
Ride safe, ride smart, don't hit cars, don't get in the way of cars so they might hit you.

The only safe place to be in an accident, is not in it, but away from it watching it. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will be in the accident and not watching it.

Think safe, think, "I am a glass bottle, that car is a rock."

I highly recommend the web site on Bike Safety by Michael Bluejay, "Bicycle Safety: How not to get hit by a car."

I already use all his safety suggestions, except I ride on the sidewalk along all busy roads. Many of our roads in Lee County and Ft. Myers do not have bike lanes. And with cars being operated over the speed limits there is no safety margin for drivers to respond to bicyclists at the right hand side of the road way.

BUT when on the sidewalk with my bike I always remind myself, I am a pedestrian, I must stop at any intersection or driveway to allow cars to move freely.....I am a glass bottle....I am a glass bottle....I am glass....

Back on the Bike!

May 18, 2010 will be a day I remember the rest of my life. It was a day when my life took many turns, some bad, some good.

There is a scripture quote that says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done." (Gen. 5:20) Though referencing the events of Joseph's and his brother's lives and decisions they made regarding Joseph. I think it also shows a principle of how God can take an event that seems evil to us at the time and brings out something good from it.

Another quote is, "All things together for the good of them who love God are are the called according to his purpose." I don't want to get into the theology of this verse, just to say that it supports the idea that sometimes what seems evil, God can take and make something good out of it. In other words, when life throws lemons at you, God takes them and makes the best lemonade for you to enjoy.

On that fateful morning on that day in May, I was traveling home from my night job. I stopped in a medium turn area of a parkway intersection to wait for a car to pass me. Next thing I knew I was laying on my aching back on the asphalt looking at the sky. The car on the other side of the intersection had hit me in the medium. The driver later reported that "He came out of nowhere." Her inattention to me, caused me to hit the asphalt and my scooter to be destroyed beyond use.

My safety record of almost fourteen months of accident less travel on my 750W electric powered scooter ended that day.

After a few days of recovery and with a still sprained left ankle, road rash and bruised lower left back and minor contusions, I took back to bicycling to commute to work and do my errands on. I was back to a car less existence.

Well actually I had been car less for about three years at this point. My last car, a small pick up truck, I had to sell to be able to pay a few months of rent. I was one of the many workers caught in the changing economy. I had been out of work with a torn rotator cuff, that I could not afford to go to a surgeon to have repaired. Four months laid up, unable to use my arm, waking two to three times a night from the pain. After recovering the use of my arm, there were no jobs to be had.

I did finally find one job and purchased a recumbent bike, a Sun EZ-1 Tour Racer to commute to work on. It was a thirteen mile ride one way, but was better and often faster than taking the county bus. But that job did not work out. It was not a good fit for me or them. So back to unemployment.

Fourteen months later and living with friends who rescued me from being homeless, I found another job that I was suited for. Two months on that job I found a listing for the scooter I was to ride for about fourteen months. It was cheaper than a car, did not require the expense of insurance and operating totally on electric, I didn't have the expense of spending $30 to $50 a week on fuel to operate it. All together it was a perfect commuter vehicle.

Then the accident. Boom. Life was all changed that day for me. Through the pain, I got back on my bike and made myself work through the pain. With allot of help from the medication the doctor prescribed for me. I made it.

The first week back on the bike was hard. I had to walk my bike the last 100 yards up the bridge, I just couldn't make it peddling.

Almost two months later, most of the pain is gone. I don't need medication to make it through my days and nights. The bridge is more of a minor inconvenience than a major obstacle. And the bike ride is becoming a joy.

My intentions here is to continue to write about my experiences of living car less and using a bike for my main transportation in my area, Lee County, Florida, in the cities of Cape Coral and Ft. Myers. I'll write about the roads, my fellow drivers, other cyclists, and the thoughts and ruminations I have while spending two hours a day on bike.

Hopefully I can encourage others to see that there are alternatives to driving oil burners that serve to support a dying industry.

A slogan I came across many years ago that I think is a good one. "Think globally, ride bike locally."

If we all rode bikes to the corner store, and anywhere within five miles from home, we could save barrels of oil a day. Our buying less oil/gasoline, would make for less a demand for foreign oil. Buying less foreign oil would put less money in those foreign oil producing nations bank accounts and less in the hands of those Muslims who fund terrorists from this same oil money.

So underfund a terrorist today, ride your bike and buy less gas..