Natural Causes

RANT: My angst with the world is completely natural. As I mentioned in an edit of yesterday's post the xB was the victim of a hit and run last evening. I heard nothing, and saw nothing. Wifey came home from visiting her Dad with B-Man and says "what happened to your car??" I had no idea what she was talking about. Yada, yada, yada, my car got hit for the second time in a few years and for the second time I have no idea who did it. Because we now live in a society of low life's who refuse to own up to their mistakes.

Confederate flag sticker, tater tots, baby not in car seat,
and chocolate stained stretch pants not included.

So I have a car that's not even a year old and has a smashed front panel and I'm out $500 in insurance deductibles. Sure I have the savings to cover it, and we have insurance and yes, it at least it wasn't a "real" accident where someone could have got hurt, but it still chaps my ass. Do you have ANY idea how far from earning $500 I am with my current job?? Pretty f*cking far!!

So the Saturday night that I thought was going to be a night of chilling with my Unit was spent calling insurance companies, filing police reports, and arguing with Wifey over my distaste for the human race (I'm very at ease with painting U.S. society with super broad, double dipped in suck brush strokes) and her defending of said society. Before you knew it, my Saturday turned into a day I'd just as soon forget, and bed time solo came very early.

OK, thanks for letting me vent a bit about my distaste for society and a bunch of non bike related bull shit. The sleep did a pretty darn good, not bad job at getting me sorted, but I am not pleased that the weather looks to improve in the coming days and I will be without a car to haul my bike to the trail heads. Grrrrr. RANT OFF.

Do you remember my post from Thursday where I rehashed my DVT that I had this time last year. Well have you seen the news (as in the real news, as in the cycling news) lately? Roadie Frank Vandenbroucke is dead. Dude was a cheat, and had a world of issues that many of us can and can't relate to. BUT he did die from natural causes. The natural cause in question according to VeloNews?

"The rider suffered a "double pulmonary embolism as well as having an existing heart problem", Salobe Ngingie, the public prosecutor for the Thies region overseeing the probe, told Het Nieuwsblad. A pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches, usually caused by a blood clot."

Damn. Dead at 34 years old. A confirmed cheat and a depressive with blood clots. Jesus, I guess If I want to (to paraphrase the t shirts) "Be JUST like Frank" all I need to start is shooting some EPO.

All black humor and sarcasm aside, this is sad. Sure he (as we all are) was faced with choices every day to do the right or wrong thing. On more than one occasion FVDB made the WRONG decision. He paid for it. Sadly in the end he paid with his life. When folks die the term "at least they're at peace now" gets bandied about quite often. Truth be told not one of us knows for sure. But in this is a case, as with many troubled folks, I hope that phrase is true. I hope he is at peace.

Reading the stuff about FVDB also make things like $500 insurance deductibles look pretty small when compared to life, a loving wife, the best kid ever, and a thimble full of talent to produce stuff that can motivate someone to ride, to laugh or to day dream about their next epic adventure.

You can't get this sort of weighty dark shit on other blogs. For today, I'm gonna go have the beer and the meal that the hit and run goof deprived me of last night.

Later.