 |
| You all remember what to do when anyone says the Secret Word, right? |
This morning started out with witnessing another vehicle on the trail behind my employer's building. Pretty fast too, the shot is blurry. Me: not stunned.
I'd arrived early in the hopes of getting over to Bloomfield to pick up a tag in the Tag-O-Rama game. Then, I set a new tag at Kindred Cycles. I forget how awesome the "Wheeeeee!" is coming back down Liberty.
On the way there, I noticed a towhee that had stunned itself by flying into the glass windows at the casino. You don't often get opportunities to hold wild birds, so I picked him up and placed him closer to the river, off the walkway to recover from his concussion. I learned towhees have stunningly gorgeous red eyes with my close inspection of him.
I really need to stop giving motorists enough room to squeeze into my lane. Here, I'm trying to be courteous and give the minivan behind me a chance to pass before we're funneled into a construction chute where they aren't able to pass. There's room to change lanes to pass and no oncoming traffic, so I ride further to the right. Instead of changing lanes, the minivan SQUEEZES in the lane with me! I make a gesture with my left arm to let them know they're going to pass way too close and I see my fingers are just a few inches from touching the minivan. WOW.
I shouldn't be continually stunned by this, but I am.
I'm becoming less and less concerned about letting motorists pass me to I can give the appearance of being courteous. I'd rather be alive then courteous.
Later on my lunch hour, I went to the library. This happened as I turned onto Smithfield.
 |
| She looks rather stunned, no? |
That's a wonderful thing you did with that towhee. I have a special place for them, as they root around our yard and vex our cats through the window. I think of clueless. inattentive motorists, as well as shocked/stunned/distracted pedestrians, much like concussed towhees that just flew into window glass, and just need a hand to get down to their river quiet running waters to rest and recover. True, motorists would be stunned, concussed towhees that could kill you and me in a split-second, which makes compassion toward them a bit of a two-edged sword. But I believe we become something better when we break our routines to pick up concussed towhees to take them somewhere they might recover. That might be a crazy thought. Every time someone does it, though, it seems a little less crazy.
ReplyDeleteSome people can't seem to grasp that their eyes should point in the direction of their movement. Nothing short of mandatory neck braces is going to fix this. :D
ReplyDeleteYou can clearly see this problem in your video, the pedestrian is literally looking the wrong way. Not towards traffic and not in front of them. It's a good thing you weren't a car or there'd be pedestrian bits to clean up everywhere.
Last year I was going over a cycling/pedestrian bridge with my wife. We were on hybrids and kept our speed low due to pedestrians. Of course some woman walks backwards in front of me and almost causes a collision. Despite narrowly avoiding it she also managed to walk in front of my wife too.