I’ll start this by saying I had a chip on my shoulder this morning the size of Cleveland, owing to a bad night of sleep, but I still think this morning’s commute was a weird one.
I should also add that I usually bike to work (10 minute ride!) and now that it’s cool out, I’ve broken out my bright gold cycling jacket with the reflective patches on it. Hard to miss me in something that bright, especially in full sunlight like there was this morning.
First, I get out onto the cul-de-sac, dodge a car idling in the middle of the road, ride 20 feet, and an old woman on another bike wobbles out of her driveway, heading in the same direction I was, and proceeds to ride 3/4 of the way across the lane to the left. I kind of gave her back a look and proceeded to ride gently past her on her left. She then yells at me (!!) that she ‘wouldn’t know I was there if I didn’t say something!’ I admit I yelled back, telling her to look before she rode out into the road (see “chip” above).
Second, got to the stop light at the end of the cul-de-sac, red light, so I stopped and waited for the green to go across. Couple walking down the street walks up to the corner, looks up at the cross-walk light as it turns into a red hand (i.e., “don’t cross”) and then they proceeded to walk in front of me. I went behind them and yelled, “Thanks for following the cross walk light!” (see “chip” above).
Third, I get across the intersection into another cul-de-sac, where at the end I’ll pop across a driveway and down onto the road on the other side. Get to the end of the cul-de-sac, watch a truck pull out directly in front of me, then stop right in front of the driveway I needed to ride up. Had enough room, barely, to get by without hitting his car, but once again yelled, no expletives (miraculously), but I think it was something to the effect of ‘look where you’re going!’
Morons.
Rest of the commute was blessedly quiet, but this was definitely a weird morning.