Bad Hair or Bad Bike Day

Passing a Loading Schoolbus While on WHEELS is Illegal. Passing One as a PEDESTRIAN is Perfectly Fine. Not All Drivers Understand This.
Actually, Probably not all Police Understand This. Fortunately, I Didn't See Any of the Latter Today.

Like a lot of things in life, not every day commuting on a bike is memorably positive. Today was such a day. I got frozen, honked at, yelled at, shorted, and cut. Well, some of these are not nearly so dramatic as they sound. First off, on the way to work, despite the encouraging words of our local weather forecasters, I ran into some "wintry mix." Such might not be notable to my loyal reader north of the Mason Dixon line, but it is cause for motorist madness around North Texas. The wintry mix left motorists that are normally benign a bit snippy. One such honked at me as I was in a left turn lane and the motorist was in the middle lane and not slowed down by me by as much as a single millisecond. I don't have any idea why a honk would have been considered appropriate other than some cyclists behave unpredictably. Hmm, on second thought, I can't imagine why a motorist would think that honking at a cyclist, operating predictably and legally OR OTHERWISE would be helped by such noise. Anyway, on to the yell.

Most of the way to work, I came upon a school bus that I often encounter on my v3 commute. I usually encounter this bus when it stops to pick up a handicapped student. Usually, I'll dismount from my bike, shoulder it, and legally walk past the bus before remounting and continuing on my way. It's an advantage of operating a vehicle that can be carried along. Today, however, I decided to simply stop behind the bus as my motoring companions must do (have YOU ever tried to carry a car on your shoulder?). You see, my goggles had fogged up a bit and I took the opportunity to rearrange everything. Unexpectedly, the bus driver yelled at me. At first, I wondered why until I realized she was trying to tell me to get on past. Erroneously, she thought it was fine for me to go and that I might be endangering myself in some way. After a couple of exchanges, I shrugged, shouldered the bike and walked past. Better to simply avoid conflict than to attempt to make a point that wouldn't be appreciated by anyone present. I think the driver was trying to be nice. Or encouraging. Who knows.

THEN, after this GRUELING morning commute, in contrast to the last week or so of half days and half vacation days, it transpired that I had to work an ENTIRE 8 hour day. I thought my fingers were going to turn into "bony fingers." Life is tough (though tomorrow, I'm taking the commenter advice from my last post and taking a full day off to make up for today). Full days are a situation not to be encouraged, at least when there's still 42 hours of "use it or lose it" vacation left.

Coffee Isn't Quite the Same When Syrup is Shorted

On the way home, as I often do, I stopped for coffee. Unfortunately, they were out of "sugar free mocha," so I was "shorted." THIS was the worst part of today's commute, though it was due to no ill intent by any person or corporation, whether part of the 1% or the 99%. SAD FACE!

To finish things off, I decided I needed a haircut and Buddy and I stopped by the haircut place next door. This is the same place I went with my wife's bike, and they allowed Buddy the same parking place of honor. While there, it occurred to me that "bike people" are less sensitive to prices of things like haircuts than are "car people." Somehow, a couple of extra bucks for a haircut seems a lot less important if you've got an extra half hour ride in the rain to save those couple of bucks than if you're simply burning a tenth of a gallon of gas. Maybe there's still hope for the human race...

Buddy Occupied this Spot Today. With no Kickstand, it Leaned Against the Wall. There was Some Sort of Aggie Propaganda There Today, Too.
For the Moment, Honk at Me if You Want to See the UW Huskies BEAT THE BAYLOR BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!