January---feels like May!

Actually, it feels like May ought to feel since last May didn't feel quite as nice as it did yesterday. Can you believe 70 degrees on January 6th? I thought I hung up my two wheels on Christmas day, which in and of itself was fairly indulgent when you live this far North. I've been happily running for the last couple of weeks, but it was too nice a day to pass up an opportunity to go for a bike ride. It was "really" mild. Not just "mild for here". Fingerless gloves, no shoe covers, jersey and bike shorts mild.

Today will be almost 20 degrees cooler...and we're still forecasted for 50 degrees. Word on the street is that "we'll pay for this unseasonably warm weather at some point", but for now, even though the locals are actually wishing for snow, this California girl is making the most of being outside and on her bike! Today ought to be great since it is a Sunday (=less cars) as well as the Patriot's are playing (= even less cars).

I was reading the other day about a guy in San Francisco who was "saving a parking space" for a friend near Golden Gate Park who was killed doing so. They're calling it "Parking Rage" and apparently it is rampant in major metropolitan cities across the USA (Boston, NYC, LA). I so rarely ever drove (or even owned a car) when I lived in San Francisco that I guess the "parking situation" is something I over-looked. But "Parking Rage"? Pathetic.

I will attest to at least appreciating the feeling as I am usually over come with "bicycle-riders-auto-rage". On a mild mannered Saturday I was nearly clipped maybe 4 times by cars trying to speed up passed me to race me to the next red-light, or who had to cut me off and ride into the grass trying to make the freeway on-ramps. Most annoying was the obese (~300lbs at least) smoking woman who threw her "empty" McDonald's bag(s) at me as she yelled at me for making her miss a yellow light. She threw her cigarette butt at me when the light changed as her many chins jiggled with the effort. It felt surreal. It's bad all over though---not just here. I complained about rude motorists' everywhere but Minnesota---(but I lived in rural Minnesota where there just weren't that many motorists' for one thing, and the likelihood that you knew the driver personally was good for another.)

Well---here it is...January 7, 2007 and I am off for another ride outside. I can hardly believe it! Off to seize the Sunny Sunday!