Today's Activities include: it's hot, we bicycled, I met friends without children

As in, I did not have either A. or T. with me when I went to visit A., L. and P. at A. and L.'s house. Fun! Also, A. had baked a lovely, dairy-free coffee cake with lots of fruit and berries. Yum! Lovely conversation. Good iced tea, too.

T. (my son) had a slight meltdown on the way out of pre-school. He recovered okay and we went to ride bikes, but it was so hot he decided he wanted to ride home on the back of the bike, then we took the trailabike out again until I said _I_ was too hot, then we went inside to hide the A/C.

M. came over to hang out with B. and A. during the day (M. brought little D. with her). They attempted the Children's Museum, but the wee ones were asleep in strollers, so that didn't happen. I think they went to Friendly's for lunch.

I kept thinking it was awful hot-feeling for low 80s. Then I realized it wasn't low 80s. It was low 90s. Doh.

And FarmTown appears to be down.

You could not possibly make this shit up

http://www.wyff4.com/news/20187786/detail.html

Firefighter (now on paid administrative leave, and being charged with attempted first degree murder) driving a car shoots at a bicycling man w/ 3 year old on bike seat, accompanied by wife on another bike, riding down the side of the road in the middle of the day. Yes. With a gun. Bullet goes through man's helmet, but misses head entirely.

"Police said the driver, Charles Diez, claimed he was upset that the victim was bike riding with his child on the heavily traveled Tunnel Road."

Because _shooting_ the guy who is keeping the bicycle upright will _definitely_ make life safer and better for the three year old.

If the firefighter _really_ was concerned about the kid's safety, the firefighter could, say, have hauled out a cellphone (_after_ pulling over to the side of the road) and contacted the NC version of child protective services, who would have been happy to inform him that what the man was doing was in no way reprehensible. If that answer had not made him happy, he could have called the non-emergency number of the police department, ditto.

I don't think the firefighter was concerned about safety. I think the firefighter had something else entirely on his mind, like, say, he was afraid he might hit and kill the bicyclist and child, and that fear triggered his anger, and, because he's a fire-fighting (and, let's be honest, potentially a firestarting) kinda guy, he went right to what he was afraid of, because _that's_ what he-men do, right? Confront their fears.

With a gun.

I think we should help him out with his fears. Really.

ETA: h/t BSNYC. That means, hat tip to a much more famous blogger, bikesnobnyc -- he posted a link to this, which is how I found out about it.

ETAYA (edited to add, yet again):

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090727/NEWS01/907270323

Near as I can tell, firefighter got off the interstate, pulled over, yelled at the cyclist, cyclist de-escalated by walking away, and the _firefighter shot him from behind_.

This is so much worse.

There was a video circulating a while ago showing a cyclist bashing a ped in NYC with a bike lock and a lot of debate about whether the cyclist's rage was justified. One perspective was that the cyclist could not walk away from the ped, because the ped was pursuing, and turning his back was not safe. Well, here would be a good example of why people think this way.

picking up and dropping off

I bring T. to and from Acton Public Preschool by bicycle -- the Bianchi + Burley Kazoo. This has led to some fairly entertaining commentary, like, the other pre-k-er who told me I couldn't ride that without a kid on the back. Har de har har. Right up there with the kid who questioned my judgment for riding in the rain.

In any event, depending on how I'm feeling, and what traffic is looking like, I either ride back on the street or on the sidewalk. Today, I hadn't had breakfast yet, because A. slept late and so did I. I was not at my most alert, so I opted for the much slower sidewalk route. I don't like to do this, because there's enough foot traffic that I'll probably have to get off the bike and walk it at some point, and, indeed, there was a pedestrian, but it turned out I didn't have to pass him because he got home before I reached him. The ped (an asian man who I am always charmed by, especially when he's out jogging in a button down shirt, slacks, nice shoes, etc.) stepped on to the grass to let a middle aged, fit man on a regular looking bicycle pass him. That seemed a little odd, and there was something bright blue sticking out past the guy's shoulder, so I figured I'll get off the bike and out of the way and see why this guy is riding on the sidewalk, because normally, the fit middle aged man with the cycling clothes and the regular bike is _not_ on the sidewalk. Just saying.

It was a tandem, and that bright blue was the shoulder of the shirt a young man riding behind him was wearing. By the look of it, they were headed off to the school, too, and I'd bet money this was also a drop-off of a kid receiving some kind of services at the school during summer break. Glad I hopped off; that's the kind of thing we like to encourage.