Originally Posted by
banerjek
Nothing really gets to me -- seriously.
There's nothing more futile than struggling against inevitability, in this case the cycling environment. Bad drivers, morons, difficult conditions, etc. are all part of that. Gotta find a way to embrace it.
To do otherwise is like taking up mountaineering and being unhappy because it's too much work, too dangerous, and too cold.
I feel ya. Stupid people are gonna do stupid things. Like swiping me with a moving truck, running me off the road, passing and then suddenly turning in front of me without signalling, throwing drinks out of their window... It just comes with the territory. Watching the front wheels of surrounding vehicles gives me a little more time to react, and I've managed to not get hurt.
Sometimes people do things on purpose because they think it's funny. Occasionally, their plans don't quite work out and I get to return the favor.
A couple weeks ago, I was waiting to make a left turn and there was a van behind me. When we started to take off, a teenage girl stuck her head out the passenger window and screamed at me while her friends laughed. I watched the van go down the road, and about a block later, they turned into a gas station. When I caught up to them, she had just pulled the fuel hose off of the pump. So I made a close pass and screamed back at the girl, who dropped the fuel hose as she flailed into the air screaming. And then I rode off into the adjacent grocery store parking lot cackling like an a-hole. Gotta embrace the BS, but you also have to take the small victories, because sometimes two wrongs do make a right.
