Who Links Here
In my mailbox today?
Cool! It came back to me!
This does suck for another reason — wanting to have Six Feet Under to watch this weekend, I put Disc 3 back on my queue, and it’s currently in the mail to me as we speak. So now I’ll have two disc 3s and one disc four. Eh, I won’t get that far into it this weekend anyway.
I don’t mind sharing the road with bicyclists, walkers, horses, and farm equipment.
Working at the Franchise, in mile after mile of farm land and McMansion developments, an area larger than Baltimore City with three gas stations, six traffic lights, and a dozen one-lane bridges, where every road is one lane in each direction and every other truck is either a pool-refill tanker or a sceptic cleaner, one quickly learns that when the weather turns to warmness, the road will be used by more than just automobiles.
It isn’t uncommon to get stuck behind a farm tractor, or behind some giant farm machine that looks like it belongs at the LaFarge Quary in Cockeysville. There’s one farm vehicle that’s like a tractor with four long legs holding it high enough off the ground someone could drive a fucking lifted SUV under it with plenty of road clearance. In to the crazy farm vehicles, this time of year brings out the bikers — and not just the ones on motorbikes, but the ones on actual bicycles — dozens of them, often in brightly colored jackets and helmets, some of ‘em fat slobs trying to lose weight, moving slow and breathing hard up curving hills. On some of the more remote roads, a mother and daughter, in pink riding helmets, atop massive brown steeds who they manuever onto fields as I come up to pass. Last week, I even saw a couple on a two-seat bicycle.
I’m very concientous when passing any of these road-sharers. The delivery area’s geography leaves it with a large number of roads where straight-aways with long lines of sight are few and far between. Unlike many other of my fellow drivers, I find it irresponsible in the extreme to pass anyone when I can’t see oncoming traffic, yet nearly every day I witness someone doing exactly this.
The folks on horses make me the most nervous. Unlike operating a vehicle — motorized or otherwise — the horse is, to my mind, completely unpredictable. I slow, and try to get as far from the animal as possible. I don’t want to spook the horse, and thankfully most riders I’ve encountered are aware of approaching traffic and move the animal away from or off the road altogether.
It really sucks when you’re coming around a turn and you find a vehicle in your lane coming right at you. You’re forced to slam on your brakes, because the only other option is for the other vehicle to swerve back over into its own lane and quite probably smear the bicyclist into the trees.
I do have one basic expectation about anyone I’m sharing the road with, be they driving an automobile, riding a horse, or driving a tractor. That expectation is that they obey the rules of the road. Y’know. Stop at stop signs. Signal their intentions.
My apartment complex is located across Padonia Road from a small block of townhomes. Yesterday afternoon, on my way to work, I made a left hand turn out of my apartment complex, and as I approached the western entrance to this complex, some yahoo in a bicycle shot out of the residential “u” shaped street and onto Padonia Road. I slammed on my brakes as he made a turn and began heading east in the westbound lane. He gave me a dirty look as he had to manuever over to the far (from his perspective) left side of the street to pass me.
Okay, here’s some basic “share the street” courtesies he decided he doesn’t need to respect: He didn’t stop at his stop sign, nor did he bother to look for oncoming traffic before entering Padonia Road. In addition, he’s bicycling on the wrong side of the street, and failing to at least offer a “whoops! my bad!” wave for his reckless bicycling.
Thankfully, most of the folks who share the streets that I encounter (and who aren’t automobiling) are much more concientious of traffic and generally haven’t — to my knowledge — ever made such a boneheaded move. I can understand some dick in a truck running a stop. I hit him, oh boo, I drive a Celica, and his insurance’ll cover any damage. But bonehead on a bicycle? Heck, my tiny little Japanese car would put him into the hospital for a few months (and he’d probably sue me for being unable to mind-read his complete lack of a working brain).
As built by Jim Garrett.
(At 253 bricks tall, the David Stott Building is over 20% taller than my Hogwarts model).
Seen Thursday evening, approximately 6:10pm, at the intersection of Hess Road and Park Road, roughly halfway between Jarrettsville Pike and Fallston Road.
I was heading east, to make a right hand turn on Park. Westbound on Hess, a small coupe was waiting to make a left hand turn onto Park.
The assclown in the black SUV coming up behind the coupe decided he couldn’t wait the ten seconds for the coup to make its turn.
So, he jumped the curve and drove over someone’s lawn to get around.
Seriously, and people say I have an anger problem? How can I not when I see something like this? Wish I’d had the presence of mind to get the dipfuck’s license plate number. I’d've called the police and maybe he’d've gotten a citation for destruction of property or something.
How fucking inconsiderate.
I wish I’d been the owner of that property and gotten his license plate number and found a greedy lawyer and sued him for the damage. That’d be awesome!