A little story from Jim T in Mt View

Good morning, Maynard

Began night classes @ Foothill and discovered that riding a bicycle to campus saves me at least $2 a night AND parking is within 100 feet of the classroom. Of course it gets a bit chilly on the return trek but at least it's 100 percent downhill.

Thank goodness for REALLY bright lights. Reviewing the Explorer MaxxD and am very impressed, so far. Is it a Lupine? Nope but it's about 1/3 the price.

The best part is the itty bitty tail light that throws out 80 lumens and will fry your evil brain. Combined with the DiNotte 140 set on flash it's enough to scare almost anyone. Now if I could just get one in blue . . . . . . .

Yesterday, riding to downtown Los Altos, as I moved left into the "go straight" lane on Cuesta (which crosses San Antonio and becomes 1st street) I got a vicious honking from behind and lights flashing. I pulled over and waited. The car just STOPPED about 100 feet back . . . so after about 20 seconds I continued into my spot in light (behind two cars waiting for the green).

A little gold Honda Civic pulled up next to me, window down and a very, very angry driver (male, about 60 years of age, more or less) starts chastising me for changing lanes without signaling. Now this car was never within 100 yards of me when I did change lanes and Cuesta is only about 2.5 lanes wide . . . total . . . at that point. Residential neighborhood. 25 mph. I was probably going between 15 and 18 mph.

"Hey Buddy, you were weaving all over the road and changing lanes without signaling. Are you insane?"

I stared at him meekly. "Sorry Sir," I responded.

"It's dangerous out here. You need to follow the basic rules of the road!" he continued.

"Man, I have GOT to stop drinking," I muttered, looking down at the ground like a beaten dog.

"Yeah, lay off the booze buddy," he snapped, rolling up his window and driving up to light, slowing and making a right turn WITHOUT signaling OR stopping.

I thought about that for awhile and thought that perhaps I should have enjoyed a quart of whiskey before leaving home.

Of course, I probably couldn't have found Peet's :-0

ciao and best

jim

PS: Do Fixies and Drinking make a good combination? Perhaps!