Danger

Bike riding is dangerous! This I've learned in the past two weeks while riding to work because David takes the car to get up to his job. (Need i mention how excited that i am that we'll be commuting together starting next week? No? Ok didn't think so)

Well riding is very scary. Between trying to avoid pedestrians who are oblivious to you and vehicles that are oblivious to you it's a pretty involved process. Usually things don't go too bad but it seems like when it rains it pours with the bad drivers. Don't get me wrong i don't think they are intentionally trying to kill me or run me off the road but that's the result of their obliviousness. A couple examples from yesterday:

I'm waiting at an intersection while the light is red. There is a car sitting next to me that will be turning right. The light turns, she (yes it was a woman driver) rushes to turn the corner right as I'm starting to ride through the crosswalk. She didn't even notice as i stopped abruptly and shook my head at her because she was so involved in her cell phone conversation that she apparently forgot to check for pedestrians before almost killing them.

Further down the street there are a lot of driveways of businesses so people go in and out pretty frequently. I'm riding down the sidewalk and someone is pulled completely over the sidewalk waiting to turn. Never looked my direction, i had to completely stop while they turned, still without looking in my direction.

So I'm not a big fan of bike riding because it seems that i have to be ultra aware and pre-judge how everything will play out. I'm getting more and more cautious, both biking and driving, i don't want to be one of the people who nearly hits a biker or pedestrian because i was oblivious.









Another thing that made me happy this morning: Jimmy Carter and his idea that racism might play some part in the opposition that Obama faces. Thanks to him for being the one to put it out there. Don't get me wrong, i think that people oppose his ideas because they don't agree with them. I'm not saying that if he wasn't Black then everyone would be gung ho about health care etc. I'm not. But i do think that racism plays into HOW he is opposed. He is taking on many of the same issues that Bill Clinton took on, in a similar way, but he is getting a much more disrespectful response than Clinton did. No one interrupted Bill during his speech to congress. No one protested and took their kids out of school when Reagan and Bush talked to the kids. There are just some things that aren't quite right about how we're reacting to the man we (collectively) have chosen to lead our country. I know not everyone voted for him but it's still our duty to at least respect him as a person, no matter how much or little we agree with his politics. Thanks Jimmy you're one of my new favorites.