Ghost bike ceremony

The Pittsburgh bike community memorialized Rui Hui Lin tonight. He was hit and killed by a hit-and-run driver two days ago in Oakland. Today that driver turned himself in, thankfully.

There were 60-70 people at the event, perhaps more. It seemed that most of those in attendance were from the bike and/or college student communities. It was interesting that the Asian/Asian-American community wasn't better represented. I don't know how much was communicated to Rui Hui's family, friends, and workplace about what was happening. Perhaps they are grieving in their own way and this was not helpful to them. Nonetheless I hope they feel the support and inclusion in the greater Pittsburgh community, and that their loss is felt by us all.

My guess is that most people there did not know him. I didn't. It doesn't matter. He was a cyclist. He was a father. He was a friend we didn't know yet. This incident took away the most important thing he could give his 5-year old daughter, his unborn child, and his wife...his presence and his love.

It's been a sad couple of days for me. This could have been me, Bethany, or anyone else that rides a bike, walks on the sidewalk, or whatever. We're soft and prone with no chance against the horsepower, mass, and inertia of a car or truck. We all take our modes of transportation for granted. I'm happy that the 0.5% of our brainpower we use to propel ourselves around in our cars is normally enough to prevent this sort of tragedy. Sadly, none of us pays enough attention and this is the sad consequence. I'm happy to have survived being hit by a car. I happy for my family that I'm still here to be with them and love them. But there is a statistical chance that every time we walk out the door, it'll be for good.

Let's make a deal. I'll pay more attention on the bike and in the car and try to get along better. Can everyone else do the same? We'd all be better because of it.

Biker down

We lost a biker two days ago in a hit and run accident in Oakland. I'm sad for him and his family. He had recently received US citizenship and leaves behind a pregnant wife and 5-year old child.

There is a ghost bike ceremony tonight to memorialize the rider. Urban Velo tells a bit more.

WTAE article about the accident.

*Update: The driver turned himself in today.

Hawk too

On my run this evening I saw this hawk on the pole below a bridge outside of Schenley Park. It was a good day for wild birds in the city. My previous post was about turkeys I saw on my way to work in the AM. This bird was beautiful and my crappy cell phone camera did a poor job of capturing any of its splendor.

Oakland runabout

Silas and I went on a nice hour-long run around Oakland today. We parked by the Cathedral of Learning (on the University of Pittsburgh campus) and ran over to the Allegheny County Soldier's Memorial, also known as the Soldiers and Sailors National Memorial.

There, Silas found the propeller of a WWII torpedo highly fascinating.

Then we ran over the bridge over Panther Hollow and looked at the steam plant and the Carnegie Mellon University building in the background.

From the next bridge, we watched the sun start setting over the city.

We did some loops through Schenley Park and popped back out with a nice evening view of the building at CMU we looked at before, but this time, there is a handsome parking lot in the foreground.

Running behind the Carnegie Museum of Art, we spent a little time in their open-air art courtyard and gawked at the waterfall.


Opposite the waterfall are the stairs from the lobby up to the galleries.


Just after this point, Bethany called and said she was on her way home. We didn't beat her there, nor have dinner ready. That's really my fault for forgetting to buy rice noodles at one of the Asian stores in the Strip District during my lunch break at work. It was a beautiful night for a run and well worth the consequences of eating at Ritter's Diner instead of my home-cooking.

Crappy GM part, but nice run

The brilliant engineers at GM designed the plastic thermostat housing to last past the warranty period and not much longer. I hear it's a known problem with the Aveo.

Guthrie and I were on our way to go running at the park. I know, we were driving the car to go running, so maybe it was a suitable penance. Bethany called in the disabled vehicle to the Better World Club, and Guthrie and I ran the 4 1/2 miles back to the house. The Better World Club has been good for the past 2 or so years we've had it. I'd been a gold member of AAA for 19 years (started under the parents), but they lost my patronage because of their anti-bike positions.

Anyway, the light was nice on the Cathedral of Learning on the Pitt Campus.


The light was nice for viewing the new Children's Hospital towering over Bloomfield and Lawrenceville.


This is the Gully. It was probably once a nice valley with some sort of stream at the bottom. The stream has been replaced with trash and car-fluid runoff from Bloomfield, Oakland, and Polish Hill. A dedicated busway, railway, and a road do use the bottom.

45 minutes in two museums (musea, if your prefer)

Here is the last post from my urban hiking yesterday. Here are a couple of shots from the 45 minutes I spent in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art. They're attached and the entrance fee gets you into both. We have a family membership, so it is easy and painless to go and gawk at art, casts of architectural facades, and long-dead animals for a short amount of time. Above is an adolescent tyrannosaurus rex. Below are a set of plate armor from the 1500's, a sculpture of the Buddha from the 13th century, and a close up of a favorite part of one of the paintings in their collection. The artist escapes me right now, but I'll update this when I remember. Perhaps Bethany knows and will comment before I can update.

St. Paul Cathedral

On my stroll through Oakland yesterday, I checked out St. Paul Cathedral at 5th and Craig. It was opened in 1906. It's a beautiful building that creates a very peaceful atmosphere inside, despite the old stodgy man that went out of his way to brow beat me for taking pictures. I gave the other three people inside a wide berth so as not to get in their sight lines and disturb their thoughts or prayers.

Urban hike to Oakland

As I can't really do much exercise yet because of the surgery and recovery, I went for a nice urban hike. I wandered from Bloomfield into Oakland and back. Total of 4.4 miles, not including inside distance walking inside of the buildings. I stopped into a lot of businesses I'd never been in. I also went inside a big old catholic cathedral. I made it to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History a bit under an hour before closing. I'll post pictures in following posts.

The GPS got pretty confused a couple of times. For instance, on Craig St. below. I promise you that I didn't run around in circles in the middle of the street.

The GPS unit doesn't really like urban areas so much with all the buildings and whatnot. I did go into a few shops here. I perused some great antique books at the Caliban Book Shop and Townsend Booksellers. Both had some wonderful old texts. Caliban has a small corner devoted to music, which they call Desolation Row CDs. Perhaps it's a separate business that rents the little nook. In any case, I got the new Animal Collective and Blitzen Trapper CD's. Jury's still out on both. I've only gotten one quick sort of background listen in. There is a nice little Indian grocery and a Middle Eastern grocery and food counter along the route.

Leaving Bloomfield heading toward Oakland, one must cross 'the Gully.' It's where the water once ran out of the hills toward the rivers before this place was fucked over by having a city put on it. I get really sad sometimes when I imagine how beautiful this area was before it was concreted over with Pittsburgh. It makes for a nice city, but damn it, I'd much prefer the original hills and the spectacular confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers without taming from the dams. I bet the gully was a wonderful wetland and riparian area.


From the second floor of the building that houses Dreaming Ant, the sun paints a nice glow on the buildings of Oakland.

Schenley Park run

A very pleasant 5.1 miles with Guthrie in Schenley Park today. I didn't bring my camera, so the route map (from my GPS) will have to suffice. I had only planned on running 3-3.5 miles, but took a wrong turn and ended up over 5. I guess 'taking a wrong turn' is somewhat misleading in that I was just exploring a trail and had no clue where I was going to come out until it swung back around and met up with my outgoing trail about a mile from the car. I love adventuring, and Guthrie is very supportive, as long as I stop and let him drink from the streams we ran along and crossed.

The run started out on a very comical note, though. Guthrie hates to swim. He won't do it unless he really screws up and falls in. Or times where the water below the canoe is really clear, and he thinks that since he can see the bottom that it's shallow enough to walk. The look of panic on his face as he realizes his feet aren't hitting the bottom, and his head is going under will continue to make me laugh for the rest of my days. Anyway, today, he launched himself into the fish-shaped pond (as seen on the map) not realizing it has a stepped artificial "shore". Full immersion and an astonishingly quick pop back up out onto the shore. I hope he wasn't mad I didn't warn him. I'd prefer him to swim voluntarily.

Ride up into the Hill District

I didn't have much time to ride this weekend. I was able to sneak an hour ride in before breakfast today, though. I rode up into the Hill District to explore and then down into Oakland before picking up bagels for breakfast.

I realize it's a generalization, but I really don't think many people in my neighborhood have ever been up in the Hill District. There are some amazing houses and a lot of them are well taken care of and obviously appreciated. Sometimes, it seems like locals feel that it's all a war zone and falling down. It's not really like that. Sure, there are bombed out parts, as there are in any city, but there is much more. Lots of people living normal, relatively happy lives in completely different circles than those of other neighborhoods.

I found a wonderful park in the Upper Hill District where the water tower is. Google Maps is telling me that it is Herron Hill Park. However, there was another name, a person's name, on a sign at the entrance. I wonder which is the one that people who live nearby use. In any case, the views from the walking trail around the reservoir are amazing. You can bet I'll check back in and see how things change with the seasons. Enjoy some of the views.

Bloomfield Bridge and the new Children's Hospital.

Looking West toward downtown Pittsburgh and beyond.

Looking northeast over Bloomfield and West Penn Hospital. Our house is in that mess somewhere.

Final shot of Pittsburgh's downtown.