Impatient Driver

Although our mid-day temperatures have remained fairly high, the mornings lately have been really nice around here. Since I'd gotten a bit more than my usual five hours of sleep last night, I was on the bike a few minutes early today, so I allowed myself the luxury of an easy spin out to the levee in the cool morning air. The Wednesday group started out pretty small, but we picked up a lot of people along the way, easily doubling in size. As things started to pick up, I finally pulled off the front and dropped all the way back to the end of the line, latching onto Bob Perrin's wheel as we cruised up the river at a nice 23 mph. Bob then started letting the other riders, who were coming back from taking pulls at the front, ahead of him. Ordinarily, I would have gone around him to keep myself in the rotation, but this morning I just moved over out of his draft every now and then and basically took my pulls at the back. After the turnaround, things got a little bit faster despite the wind, and taking a pull at the front began to resemble actual exercise, which was, of course, a good thing. At some point we picked up Lenny, who I hadn't seen on a bike in quite a while. When we were still out near the turnaround and the pace was easy he told me that he'd just gotten engaged. Richard was alongside at the time and immediately came back with "when's her due date?" Those lawyers sure are quick!

So on the way back I took a few upside-down shots of our little paceline since it was such a nice day and also to document seeing Lenny in his Brooklyn jersey on his bike! That long shadow in the first one is mine.

We were almost all the way back when my cellphone rang. I sat up and fished it out of its plastic bag as the group rolled off into the distance. It was the sister-in-law letting me know she'd dropped her cat off at my house because the house-raising folks were going to move her FEMA trailer this morning so they could get started, finally, with the job of restoring her home. So I rode the last couple of miles alone.

After releasing the visiting cat from his crate (he ran straight to the relative safety of the dark space underneath the living room couch) and scarfing down some breakfast I hopped on the old commuter bike for the trip to work. It's not quite cool enough yet for me to ride in to work with my dress shirt on, but it's getting close. As it was, though, it was quite pleasant as I made my way quietly down Fontainbleau, and I was feeling very sedate and relaxed when a car pulled up alongside. As it passed, the woman who was driving screamed something unintelligible at me through the open window and past the somewhat embarassed man sitting in the passenger seat. I looked over as she passed and said "What??" So she hits the brake, and as I come alongside again screams at me that she almost hit me because I didn't give her enough room. I'm sure it was at the spot where I have to navigate around a pile of crushed rocks left by our city's infamous "pothole killer" truck, which comes just before a bunch of un-killed potholes that I also have to avoid, but of course I'd still left plenty of room for a car - at least one with a normal driver - to pass on this residential street with its 25 mph speed limit. All of this was still kind of sinking in as the woman hit the gas again and I was left wondering what her problem was, at least until I saw the license plate ... Texas. No further explanation necessary.