Getting Excited
Beth was just talking away to her, and the
more she did, the more Kirstin got excited.
Cute.

So today is Beth’s birthday. She’s gone to bed now, so by the time she reads this, it’ll be the day after her birthday. Funny how logic like that works. Time, it’s really strange in that it keeps passing.

Beth and I took the opportunity to go out for supper on her birthday. Good times. In many ways it’s nice to be away from home (and Kirstin) for a while, but I know we were both getting toward the ‘awfully tired’ phase by the time we got home. So that last hour before Kirstin went to bed tonight was fun, because we were all just hanging around like normal.

On my way home from work today, I encountered a really strange thing. Even though I drive a state highway most of my way home (aside from that last mile-and-a-half), the stretch I drive isn’t exactly in top shape. Furthermore, it’s quite devoid of roomy shoulder space. To be specific, there’s about a foot (if you’re lucky) of asphalt between the white line and the edge of the pavement. Then a drop to gravel base and another foot or so to the drop off of the ditch face.

Now that I’ve provided the background, I encountered a situation tonight where a fellow was riding his bike to work (facing traffic, I might add), steering by balance (without his hands on the bars), and in that foot or so of [paved] shoulder space. So, I’m heading more or less directly toward this kid, except I’m in the predicament that due to traffic conditions (this is a rural road; I make it sound like rush hour traffic) — namely the fact there were two slow moving vehicles in the opposing lane virtually at the same location in the road as the bicyclist — I am completely unable to move into the opposite lane to give him more room to do his thing (the bike).

Two things really bothered me about this situation. One is that he was riding the bike in an extremely unsafe manner (given the ‘congestion’) without his hands on the handlebars. The other is that due to said congestion, he didn’t stop or try to make his presence any less dangerous (e.g. stop bike, move off to gravel surface for a moment). I’m not saying that he needed to do this, but it was a little nerve-wracking (even though I slowed down considerably during the exchange) to come across this particular situation.

He had a McDonald’s uniform on, so presumably that’s where he was headed (he had about two miles to go upon my encounter). I applaud him for doing the bicycle thing, but hopefully he’s working his way towards purchasing some sort of McCar, which presumably will ease the danger in this commute. After all, this is the land of McOpportunity. If he doesn’t, I’d highly recommend finding a less dangerous route to travel in the future. Eesh.

So anyway, enough of that business. Returning to the more important subject at hand — Beth, happy birthday once again — from the entire menagerie (myself included). We all love you!

So until next time, I leave you with this quote:

“If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?”
– Seymour Cray (1925-1996), father of supercomputing

–MZ