What didn't happen on the way to work today

What didn't happen today:

I didn't forget my lunch. I didn't forget to fill my water bottle
before I left. I didn't leave the house late.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky. It wasn't too cold or too hot, being
in the lower 60s (F). with a light breeze. It wasn't raining, but in
fact was sunny and pleasant. In the one very open spot of the ride to
work, on the Floating Bridge, there was no headwind. Because there
wasn't a lot of smog or haze, I had a nice view of Mt. Rainier.

When I passed dogs, all the dogs were behind a fence or on a leash.
The one dog that showed a vague interest in chasing me was immediately
reined in by its owner.

When I signaled for a left turn on to 172nd from NE 8th, the driver
coming the other direction did not unnecessarily give up the right of
way, but made eye contact and continued down the hill, allowing me to
execute my turn in a safe and lawful manner.

Everyone, including me, took his/her proper turn at the four way stop
at Lake Hills Blvd and 156th in accordance with the law.

At the intersection of Lake Hills Blvd and 148th, three cars made a
right next to me while I was waiting at the intersection. The cars
we a female driver in her 30s with a minivan filled with screaming
kids; an elderly man driving a Cadillac; a man in his 40s in an SUV
talking on his cell phone. Each car signaled, and then made the right
turn without endangering me in the slightest.

When I was going close to the speed limit on Kamber Road, the vehicle
behind me did not attempt to pass, but allowed me to remain in my lane
as I descended the hill.

The commercial white van at the bottom of the hill looking to turn on
to Kamber did not leap out in front of me, but properly judged my
speed, and waited until I passed by.

When there was broken glass in the bike lane on Richard's Road, I
looked and signaled a lane change into the all-vehicle lane. The
silver Vibe that was behind a ways had no difficulties in passing me,
and did not force me back into the glass-strewn lane.

The black sports car at the off-ramp in Factoria made eye contact with
me when I called out, "bicycle!" and did not attempt a right turn
while I crossed the street.

Also, please note, my bike triggered all the lights that it needed to
at every signalized intersection.

The pedestrians on the multi-use path who were walking three and four
abreast, when I politely let them know that a bicycle was behind them,
moved to one side, allowing me to pass safely and easily.

Generally, all the other cyclists who I passed – probably at least
two-dozen on this sunny morning – all smiled, or nodded at me. A cute
guy with a soul patch even said "hi". The few who didn't were
obviously concentrating on the road, and probably in their individual
situations it's just as well they didn't look up. All cyclists were
operating their bicycles in a safe, courteous, and lawful manner, with
one exception – an older guy was riding without a helmet, not a
capital offence in my book.

No one entered the traffic circle too fast on Hiawatha. No one made a
sudden or unsignalized right turn into Chinatown from Dearborn.
Everyone allowed me to change three lanes over on busy 4th Avenue so I
can veer left on to Prefontaine. I had no conflicts with buses either
on Prefontaine or on 3rd Avenue. I easily executed my left turn on to
Madison, and there was no one blocking the entrance to the parking
garage. There was space at the bike rack for me to park my bike.

I probably waited no more than 3 seconds for the elevator to appear to
take me up to my office. There was plenty of hot water for the shower.
I had sufficient undergarments in my file cabinet to change into after
my shower.

In fact, really, not a lot happened on the way into work today.

Warm Regards,


Claire Petersky )
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Singing with you at: http://www.tiferet.net/
Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky

In article ,
says...

....

In fact, really, not a lot happened on the way into work today.

And that's the way it should be!

.....

--
David Kerber
An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good
Lord, it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

In article , Claire Petersky wrote:

Generally, all the other cyclists who I passed – probably at least
two-dozen on this sunny morning – all smiled, or nodded at me. A cute
guy with a soul patch even said "hi".

Strangely, after my very annoying 3 jerks in 3 minutes day on Monday,
yesterday's commute in was marked by waves and smiles from no less
than five other people.

Nice to hear about the occasional uneventful day.

-- Dan

--
Dan Cosley * http://www.cs.umn.edu/~cosley/)
GroupLens Research Lab, Univ of MN (http://movielens.umn.edu/ * 612.624.8372)
*** Just a foot soldier in the Army of Truth ***

Thu, 14 Aug 2003 13:14:37 -0700, T4S_a.14$kP.8@fed1read03,
Bill Davidson wrote:

Claire Petersky wrote:
What didn't happen today:
[..]
In fact, really, not a lot happened on the way into work today.

Freaky.

Not entirely. I think the point is that most rides are uneventful.

The majority of drivers are polite even if they're incompetent and
generally there's never any problems worthy of consternation. If we
ride focused on the bad things then we tend to notice more of them.
When we learn to expect the occasional asswipe it's easier to ignore
their brand of idiocy while skillfully circumventing its worst outcome
without ever registering it as a significant event.

What happens in here is the inevitable encounters with idiots are rare
enough to be taken as events and reported as such thereby distorting
the overall picture.

Just as motorists tend not to notice the cyclists that aren't breaking
laws, we quickly forget the drivers that don't directly endanger us.
--
zk

Zoot Katz wrote:
Not entirely. I think the point is that most rides are uneventful.

I knew I should have added smiley's for the humor impaired ;-)

--Bill Davidson
--
Please remove ".nospam" from my address for email replies.

I'm a 17 year veteran of usenet -- you'd think I'd be over it by now

In article ,
(Claire Petersky) writes:

In fact, really, not a lot happened on the way into work today.

I wonder what's happening for folks out east, with the big power
outage going on over there?

I took a brief break from working, flicked on the TV and
saw the big breaking news. My first impression on seeing the
streets of Toronto was that people actually seemed /relieved/
to be rid of electical power. Maybe the situation is inducing
them to prioritize their stresses & annoyances, with a new-found
perspective? I dunno, but it's quite an interesting scene. I
hope everybody affected by the power outage will be all right
over there.

Well, I've gotta get back to transcribing about the wild
horses of the Chilcotin.


cheers,
Tom


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Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 17:14:01 -0700, Tom Keats wrote:
I wonder what's happening for folks out east, with the big power
outage going on over there?

I just came back from watching coverage on tv, and
they just said that people are starting to come out
on their bicycles, which they didn't do earlier
during the outage.

What does a power outage have to do with bicycles?

I suppose that their cars could be out of gas, and
the gas pumps aren't working. Or maybe the crowded
streets make driving difficult.

cheers,
Tom
--
Rick Onanian

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 01:02:23 GMT, MisNomer wrote:
and when exactly does a person call out "bicycle" ?

As quoted below, when it's necessary to get
somebody's attention and alert them to the
fact that yes, you do exist, and that you
expect a conflict between your trajectory
and their possible trajectory.

take care
Liz

The black sports car at the off-ramp in Factoria made eye contact with
me when I called out, "bicycle!" and did not attempt a right turn
while I crossed the street.
--
Rick Onanian

"MisNomer" wrote in message
...
Its sounds like you were "in tune with the universe"! Nice post... but a
couple
of questions

what is a "soul patch"?

Since Rick took the other question (when OK to yell "bicycle!"), allow me to
take a stab at this one.

A soul patch is a small area of whiskers underneath the lower lip and above
the chin, usually squared off in a neatly trimmed manner.

Bill "not gonna mention its other nickname" S.

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 01:32:53 GMT, Sorni wrote:
what is a "soul patch"?
A soul patch is a small area of whiskers underneath the lower lip and
above the chin, usually squared off in a neatly trimmed manner.

Like this? : http://www.garthworld.de/gbpics/gaines.jpg

Bill "not gonna mention its other nickname" S.
--
Rick Onanian