Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Joys and Sorrows of Cycling

I rode my bike for the first time in several weeks since opening the pharmacy. In the early part of my ride, this woman yells out "Damn, you have nice legs!" from the passenger seat of a car. That made me feel good since most of the time people are yelling obscenities at me or honking at me or just trying to run me over.

Things started getting worse when I started my route back home. Some fugly fat Hispanic grandma in an SUV kept honking at me for no reason. I was going down a 2 lane road. One lane for going south and one for going north. There was plenty of space for the angry granny to pass me. Instead she just kept honking her horn at me as if trying to say that I should get off the road. I actually went down 5 miles south before I saw her again. After that I just left her in the dust. I guess people are frustrated when they are stuck behind traffic and stop lights. It's still no reason to take it out on bikes. I always watch out for bikes and pedestrians when I drive without getting mad at them even though they aren't obeying the traffic laws. Some people are so rude.

Later on when I was biking back home, this guy sitting in the front passenger seat of a green taxi opens the door right in front of me trying to knock me down. Fortunately, my spidey sense was tingling and I had a precognitive moment where I thought that a car door might open up. The green taxi cab was stopped at a signal behind a few other cars. The taxi just passed by me earlier. As I approached the taxi, some stupid middle eastern guy just opens the door as fast as he could trying to time the door swing so that I would get hit. I slammed on my brakes and started skidding. I tried to steer my bike as close to the right as possible. Fortunately, there was some extra space on the right for me to pass without hitting the car door. If there was less space between the car door and the curb, I might have ended up in the hospital. He screams something at me and I yell back, "You frackin' @$$hole!" I should have stopped and taken some pictures of him and the taxi's license plates. I was kind of in shock and plus my adrenaline was pumping. I made excellent time on my way home so I guess I didn't want to stop or didn't think about stopping. I didn't want a jerkoff to ruin my day. Actually, he did since he committed assault by intentionally trying to make me crash into the car door. He might have been mad since I kept passing him on my bike at several intersections. Still, he had no right to try and kill me.

The taxi passed me again and I caught up to him at the light, but the light turned green before I could get the license plate. I got the taxi cab phone number, but decided not to call since I didn't have the license plate.

Despite the idiots and a-holes on the road, I wouldn't trade cycling for the world. If I make it back home in one piece and I had fun and exercise most of the time, then it's a good day.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry you ran into all that trouble.

How's Sarah's business going? Is business good?

David Kim said...

Yeah, those are the trade offs involved when cycling. You have to deal with idiot drivers. The pros of biking totally outweigh the cons though. Cycling is still so much fun that I could put up with not so pleasant people.

Sarah's business is very very slow right now. I wish it would do better right away, but I guess it takes time for people to come in when you start a new business.

Portia said...

I'm glad you got some positive feedback on a bike ride:) I can hardly believe the amount of abuse you have to put up with just to ride your bike around the city. I know there are rude people out there, but it's still alarming.

"A leaf that is destined to grow large is full of grooves and wrinkles at the start. Now if one has no patience and wants it smooth offhand like a willow leaf, there is trouble ahead."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Forbes Book of Business Quotations.
Now please don't think I'm calling you impatient! I'm not! I'm very excited for you guys and just thought it might be somewhat inspiring.

David Kim said...

Portia,

Thanks for sharing the words of wisdom!