R.I.P. Blinky L.E.D.

It's a sad morning.

Aah, poor Blinky LED, we knew ye well. You kept us safe from approaching cars for a long time, but now we must lay you to rest.

I was cruising the "short route" to work this morning. Part of the ride is along a street that's still under construction. The main part of the construction zone is (now) very smooth new asphalt, but the end of the zone is very, very rough, as they haven't done the transition work from new to old yet.

Anyway, as I bounced through the rough spot (at speed!), my rear blinky light came unclipped and flew off my (new!) seat bag's blinky loop. It smashed to the pavement and popped apart into a half dozen pieces. This wouldn't have been so bad, but as I was stopping to go back and pick them up, a pickup truck ran over the red lens part, shattering it into a hundred pieces. I was able to rescure the rest of the light, but without the lens, it's pretty useless, except as spare parts.

I think I have an old blinky at home I can use as a backup, but I really liked this one. It was simple, easy on the batteries, and very, very bright. A VistaLight VL300, I think. I'll have to go shopping for a new one now. Any suggestions? Favorites?

On a good note, the predicted rain didn't come on schedule, so I had a dry and partly sunny ride. Plus, I noticed that a restaurant in one of the "less economically developed" areas I ride through has had a bit of a makeover. It's nice to see some investment going on in that area.