I get that there is always going to be someone in the world that is annoyed by me, I get that not everyone will like me and I get that I will not like everyone I meet. I don't waste my energy on worrying about that. What I don't get is the idea that people will scream out their car windows at me (while my small child is on the back of my bike) while I ride down the street.
Case in point, Saturday we jumped on the bikes and did a mini tour of Arvada. Breakfast in Olde Town, the army navy surplus store and the a jaunt to Echter's Nursery. It's less than 1/2 a mile from our house to the nursery--riding our bikes there makes sense. The street leading to the garden center is Garrison. Garrison has a wide parking lane on either side. I would like to assure the boy driving the SUV that I would have ridden in that lane given the opportunity. Alas, he needed to get to the hospital or get to a fire so he could save kittens or something heroic along those lines and had to gun his engine, lean over to the passenger side and scream at Lily and I, "Get OVER!" as he flew by. (He had already yelled at Chris and Boone as he went by them). I'd like to think about 10 seconds after he did that he was shaming himself, but I doubt it.
I understand that sometimes people get in a hurry and need to be on their way. I'm probably not the first obstacle he encountered that morning, but I'm not sure what we were doing that was so horrendous as to deserve his vocal rants and raves. I don't understand the possibility of endangering the life of a complete stranger, not matter how upset I am.
Not all people on bikes follow the rules. I hope that because I am a respectful and responsible person, I reflect positively to the noncycling community. I would like to think we can just all get along, if they only see that I'm not out to annoy them purposefully, nor am I riding recklessly. I, in turn, promise not to assume all drivers are like the boy in the SUV.
He was a jerk. I was praying for a sudden, swift train to come along at that point so I could have "chatted" with him at the crossing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's one of those scale situations. Scale as in size, not weight. See, his penis is so small that when normal-sized things get near it, it looks even smaller. I mean, come on--the diameter of the bike's structural bars, the breadth of the handlebars--it's all just too much for him. So, he feels the maternal instinctive need to protect his own 'structural bar' from ridicule and pointing-and-laughing.
ReplyDeleteLots of jerks, lots of unaware drivers not dialed into the their surroundings while on the road.
ReplyDelete