Traps set, prey escapes!

I'm going to try to shorten up my log entries. The work of reading a long entry shouldn't offset the enjoyment of the reading. I am afraid I've had diarrhea of the keyboard. There's just so much to share.

Today has been a day of hazards. The really disgusting thing is that the very first one was of my own doing. When I push the bike out we make a turn so we are facing sideways to the house on the sidewalk. When we leave we have to make a sharp left turn out of the driveway onto the street. This puts us facing the opposite direction from where we started. Today I must have had a big brain fart because I suddenly realized that I had let the handlebars go full lock left as I was making the turn. Crap!!!!! Totally un-cool to dump my bike in front of my own house. My head and eyes snapped up, I gave it a little throttle to pull it out, and the crisis was over. Thank God for training and curse my inattentiveness.

Speaking or curses, there was no little red Geo today. Whew!

The rain has temporarily let up. The streets are still wet but it is not actually raining. All the rivers are still dealing with the water volume, though. The Willamette hasn't crested, yet. Hwy 34 is closed just East of Corvallis. This highway is the one I use to make the Eastbound run for the Interstate. There are several bedroom communities further East. These folks work in Corvallis which is a college town of about 50,000. With Hwy 34 being closed it has caused chaos on other routes. The good news is that I go in the opposite direction but today I had to dodge crazy drivers who saw the sign and pulled frantic u-turns in front of oncoming traffic.

Once on the Interstate I thought I was ok. Wrong. One thing I hate to see is a long line of big trucks. There can be 8 trucks in line and number 7 will decide they have to pass the whole line. This can take MILES! Today I got up to about number 4 and was just past the rear axle of the trailer. Suddenly I saw a single flash of a turn signal while at the same time the truck came over into my lane quickly. Hey, I'm here, you dope!!! Rode the shoulder a minute or two. I turned around and glared at the driver. Well, as much as possible in a full-face helmet.

I still wasn't done. At one of the intersections in town near the office there are two four lane streets that come together. The one I approach on has two left turn lanes. I am in the right hand of the two lanes and an older gentleman in a Toyota is in the far left inside lane with a left turn signal blinking. The light turns green and this gentleman proceeds to cut right in front of me to the RIGHT!! I avoided harm but I still wonder if he even knew where he was. Interestingly, my mood was still ok. Today was noteworthy in that so many things happened but I accept that there are dangers to face on the roads. Would some of the things that happened not done so if I was in a car? Maybe, maybe not. As drivers seem to lose more abilities and attention span it will get worse no matter what your conveyance. I will not let them rob me of my joy.

The ride home was quiet. It was raining, again, but not with the ferocity of the last few days. The farther North I got the harder it came down. It gets dark about 15 minutes into the commute. Thursdays seem to be the "You can't get there from here" days. Traffic is really heavy and there are about three times as many trucks as normal. There are so many people who drive slowly in the fast lane and just live there. Perhaps they are waiting for their mail to be forwarded to them. Even in the dark and rain, I saw one guy in a maroon colored sedan with his dome light on and a magazine propped up on the steering wheel. Sheesh!

Stopped to fuel up the bike at my usual place. The young guy who has worked there a long time saw me pull up in the rain. He said "What are you doing out riding in the rain with flooding everywhere?" It wasn't the usual "you must be crazy" thing. More like gentle teasing with a little bit of "I still can't believe you do this". Believe it.

Didn't do too well at keeping this short did I? I'm sorry, but I'm just having too much fun doing this.