Wednesday, October 31, 2007

All Hallow's Eve

I had a couple of exciting moments that last two days riding in.  Tuesday's moment wasn't as exciting for me as it was for the dude waiting to cross Hiawatha going eastbound on the Greenway.  We both pulled up to Hiawatha, he going east and me going west, right as the light was changing.  The light changed and we both started into the intersection with the green light.  Unfortunately a driver heading north on Hiawatha didn't realize their light was red and approached the intersection at high speed.  At the last moment the driver slammed on the brakes and screeched to a halt midway through the intersection.  Realizing they were half way through they decided to continue on.  The eastbound biker dude was still one lane over from the car and therefore was not squashed like a bug as he would have been had he been in the car's path.  Had it been me it might have made me crap myself.  As we passed each other in the crosswalk he shrugged and said, "Dialing their cell phone." with one of those "Eh, what are you going to do?" looks.  A cooler customer than I would have been, for sure.
 
Monday's excitement was more exciting.  Monday marked my first crossing of Hiawatha on the new Sabo Bridge.  I know it's not officially open yet, but the signs were pushed to the side and I just couldn't resist.  On first impressions, it's nice.  Not too far out of the way, as some detractors have said, and a nice alternative to dodging cell phone dialing morning commute zombies.  Plus, it's kinda pretty.  There's a grand opening ceremony next Thursday from 4-6 at the western entrance if you enjoy attending such shindigs.  I'm going to try to resist using it until the grand opening.  There are workers out there still, doing last minute stuff and I probably wouldn't bee to pleased if random people kept crusing through my workspace after I'd put up signs asking them not to.  And it's only another week.
 
Date: October 29
Mileage: 16
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
October mileage: 334
Year to date mileage: 3555
 
Date: October 30
Mileage: 26
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Trike
October mileage: 360
Year to date mileage: 3581
 
Date: October 31
Mileage: 26
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Premis
October mileage: 386
Year to date mileage: 3607

3 comments:

rigtenzin said...

This post is proof that you're a nice guy. First, most riders would have called the zombie auto driver a bad name. Second, most cyclists are so thoughtful about riding through construction areas, even ones that benefit them.

I keep getting errors on the word verification. Maybe I should stop dialing my cell phone while typing.

rigtenzin said...

I meant, most cyclists are NOT so thoughtful ...

Jim Thill said...

I'm not that thoughtful. I love riding through construction zones, even when there is no benefit to me to do so.