Today on the way to work I almost killed a cyclist. He ran a stop sign turning right, and swung wide into my lane without looking back. I engaged the anti-lock part of my brake range, and slide to a halt a foot away from his wheel. Then he flipped me off.
Yesterday, three cyclists in bright yellow jersey spandex regalia were holding traffic at 10mph as they formed a peloton of slow yuppie sweaty conceit. When I was finally able to pass, I was flipped off.
Yesterday morning, a single cyclist riding in the bike lane ran a red light and caused a large pickup truck to slide sideways through the intersection to avoid killing the cyclist. The cyclist got off her bike and screamed at the truck.
Every single day, I see a bicyclist doing something that is illegal, immoral, or downright stupid. Traffic laws are not optional. Stop signs and intersections have laws that a good portion of the cycling community should at least be familiar with.
If they then choose to break those laws, they put themselves squarely into a new equation.
I'll still do my best to avoid crushing the cyclists who flaunt the traffic laws, because I am not inhuman, but if you hear of me killing a cyclist, don't take it personally. It's because everyone suddenly thinks they are Lance, and they have closed roads to freely roam. But they don't, and physics can be a harsh motherfucker. Next cyclist that runs me off the road may get a physics lesson.
Know what else really gets my blood up? Seemingly reasonable people who have allowed some sort of jaded, quiet, cynical thing to consume their ability to be motivated by emotion. People who don't have emotion, and who also do not have autism, are supremely annoying. At least as annoying as hysterical Fox news pundits. At least as annoying as frothing-at-the-mouth Rage Against the Machine types. People who don't allow emotion to guide them were long ago lost to humanity. I know that it is trite, but your anger is a gift. It is like pain, or love, or any other decent motivational emotion. It is perfectly OK to be irrational. It is perfectly OK to be angry.
People, some of them, seem to have developed a mentality that says, hey, this person needs to be talked off a ledge. I need to calm You down. I feel that You're too worked up.
It's for your own good. Getting all angry, you get all...you know...angry. Unhealthy! Irrational! Emotional! Un-civil!
Fuck that, I say. Fuck the whole proper lot of it. Anger is good.
On the flip side, love is also good. And these same people who don't want you to be angry, they also don't want you to be happy.
They want....normalcy. Control. Quiet, cynical, jaded, powerless, emotionless control.
Clean. No extra parts, no wasted motion. Precise and unfulfilling. Empty, dry, written well and properly catagorized.
I can ignore them most days. Some days. OK, I can't ignore them. We are human. Animals with clothes and money and tools and magic. Imprecise, feeling, and completely, totally irrational.
Finally, here's my bread recipe. I make a loaf or two a week, and use it for breakfast and lunch. It is your basic wheat sandwich bread.
1 cup King Arthur organic white all purpose flour
2 cups King Arthur organic "white whole wheat"
2.5 tsp vital wheat gluten
2.5 tblsp ground flax seed
1 cup plus 1 tblsp warm water, roughly 105 degrees F
1.5 tblsp honey (raw)
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 packet Red Star quick rise yeast or equiv.
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork.
In your breadmachine, set for a whole wheat cycle, quick rise. Add water, salt, oil and honey. Pour the dry ingredients in, form a well in the top and add the yeast.
Press GO.
In 2.5hours, enjoy fresh organic whole wheat bread. I've noticed that my bread's protein content is fairly high, the oil involved is all good for you, and the sugar is a complex natural source with local pollen built in (if you get the raw, un-processed variety, like goodflowhoney.com)
There ya go. I'm not all negative energy...I'm also making bread!
Yesterday, three cyclists in bright yellow jersey spandex regalia were holding traffic at 10mph as they formed a peloton of slow yuppie sweaty conceit. When I was finally able to pass, I was flipped off.
Yesterday morning, a single cyclist riding in the bike lane ran a red light and caused a large pickup truck to slide sideways through the intersection to avoid killing the cyclist. The cyclist got off her bike and screamed at the truck.
Every single day, I see a bicyclist doing something that is illegal, immoral, or downright stupid. Traffic laws are not optional. Stop signs and intersections have laws that a good portion of the cycling community should at least be familiar with.
If they then choose to break those laws, they put themselves squarely into a new equation.
I'll still do my best to avoid crushing the cyclists who flaunt the traffic laws, because I am not inhuman, but if you hear of me killing a cyclist, don't take it personally. It's because everyone suddenly thinks they are Lance, and they have closed roads to freely roam. But they don't, and physics can be a harsh motherfucker. Next cyclist that runs me off the road may get a physics lesson.
Know what else really gets my blood up? Seemingly reasonable people who have allowed some sort of jaded, quiet, cynical thing to consume their ability to be motivated by emotion. People who don't have emotion, and who also do not have autism, are supremely annoying. At least as annoying as hysterical Fox news pundits. At least as annoying as frothing-at-the-mouth Rage Against the Machine types. People who don't allow emotion to guide them were long ago lost to humanity. I know that it is trite, but your anger is a gift. It is like pain, or love, or any other decent motivational emotion. It is perfectly OK to be irrational. It is perfectly OK to be angry.
People, some of them, seem to have developed a mentality that says, hey, this person needs to be talked off a ledge. I need to calm You down. I feel that You're too worked up.
It's for your own good. Getting all angry, you get all...you know...angry. Unhealthy! Irrational! Emotional! Un-civil!
Fuck that, I say. Fuck the whole proper lot of it. Anger is good.
On the flip side, love is also good. And these same people who don't want you to be angry, they also don't want you to be happy.
They want....normalcy. Control. Quiet, cynical, jaded, powerless, emotionless control.
Clean. No extra parts, no wasted motion. Precise and unfulfilling. Empty, dry, written well and properly catagorized.
I can ignore them most days. Some days. OK, I can't ignore them. We are human. Animals with clothes and money and tools and magic. Imprecise, feeling, and completely, totally irrational.
Finally, here's my bread recipe. I make a loaf or two a week, and use it for breakfast and lunch. It is your basic wheat sandwich bread.
1 cup King Arthur organic white all purpose flour
2 cups King Arthur organic "white whole wheat"
2.5 tsp vital wheat gluten
2.5 tblsp ground flax seed
1 cup plus 1 tblsp warm water, roughly 105 degrees F
1.5 tblsp honey (raw)
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 packet Red Star quick rise yeast or equiv.
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork.
In your breadmachine, set for a whole wheat cycle, quick rise. Add water, salt, oil and honey. Pour the dry ingredients in, form a well in the top and add the yeast.
Press GO.
In 2.5hours, enjoy fresh organic whole wheat bread. I've noticed that my bread's protein content is fairly high, the oil involved is all good for you, and the sugar is a complex natural source with local pollen built in (if you get the raw, un-processed variety, like goodflowhoney.com)
There ya go. I'm not all negative energy...I'm also making bread!
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