audience participation

Riding home from work down 2nd avenue, around 50th or so, I was in the far right (bus) lane, cabbie swerves sharply into my lane, I cut around him to the left, he starts coming back into the lane he just left. I yell 'yo' (seems to be what always comes out of my mouth) and he looks at me and keeps coming over, so i move over a little, traffic slows, I flip him off and keep going. Move back to the right, all of a sudden there is all this honking and he's yelling at me through the open window on the passenger side, over a woman sitting in the passenger seat looking all freaked out. Then he speeds off, I chase him, and am happy to see he gets stopped at the light. Pull up next to him, signal him to roll down the window and ask him what he's yelling at me about. He says "you were in my lane". I ask him which one, the one he pulled into without signaling, making me go around him, or the one he then tried to shove me out of? he says "you were in my lane". over and over, we do this, I stupidly become fixated on the no turn signal and asked him if it would kill him to signal. A woman on the corner listening says "maybe he's from South Carolina, " the guy next to her says "no, probably Ohio", somebody else says "or Pennsylvania". I think everyone thinks their home state has the worst drivers.

Come Rain or Come Shine

This beautiful standard was stuck in my head on the ride in to work and I decided it was appropriate, that it serves as an homage to my

 commute:

I'm gonna love you, like nobody's loved you
Come rain or come shine
High as a mountain, deep as a river
Come rain or come shine
I guess when you met me
It was just one of those things
But don't you ever bet me
'Cause I'm gonna be true if you let me
You're gonna love me, like nobody's loved me
Come rain or come shine
We'll be happy together, unhappy together
Now won't that be just fine
The days may be cloudy or sunny
We're in or out of the money
But I'm with you always
I'm with you rain or shine

It shouldn't surprise me that it was stuck in my head since I've been ob

sessed with it lately, playing many versions over and over, transcribing Grant Green's solo on the great Stanley Turrentine album Up at Minton's, and generally driving my wife bonkers with it.  

A few favorite versions are 

1) Art Blakey - Moanin'....Lee Morgan just kills me, actually makes me laugh out loud. 

2) Sarah Vaughan

3) Frank Sinatra

mouthful of ???

Maybe Bike Snob is more powerful than I thought.  The mere mention of disagreement over the importance of fenders and what happens, torrential downpour.  Not that I believe fenders would have helped me at all, I was fucked, the victim of terrible timing.  So I tried to be zen and go with it, which failed quickly, so I resorted to screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs, which got me through about 5 miles or so.  I was doing alright until, in another moment of poor timing, a car passed going the opposite direction and splashed an amazing amount of water all over my front, and, much to my horror, revealed to me that I ride with my mouth open.  That's right, and the swallow reflex kicked in.  Arguably still better than the subway.

The morning commute

My commute this morning featured chilly rain, amazing traffic on Flatbush, a man pouring salad oil in the new bike lane at Allen St, and being behind a cop who blew through 5 red lights, no siren, to arrive safely at, yes, I kid you not, Dunkin Donuts.  Not to mention about every offensive driving move you can think of.  People are in midseason form!

The salad oil was certainly the high point.  Perhaps we was confused by the green color of the lane?

daily commute

Beautiful weather today.  Unfortunately I had to wait for a plumber for 3 hours this morning, which ended up costing way too much money as well.  And then the fun started.  Was almost to work, at the usual trouble spot around the NYU hospital, avoiding the myriad minivans and town cars dive-bombing toward the hospital drop off, grabbed a line to avoid ConEd van and cones when a minivan taxi (license 2d90) on my left came over in my lane, inches away and layed on his horn.  I had no room as there was a big construction gully just barely to the right of my wheel.  I had no choice but to hop into it, and fortunately was fine.  Chased after him, which I never do, I hate the thought of creating even more anger toward cyclists.   I caught up to him a few blocks later at a stop sign, stopped right by 2 police officers who were chatting.  I asked him to roll down his window and he sped through the stop sign, almost hitting a pedestrian.  I asked the 2 officers if they saw that and they shrugged.  He turned right off 1st ave. I was late to work but at this point was furious so I chased him down, he was stopped at the next light.  I asked him to roll his window down and asked him basically what the hell he thought he was doing, etc etc.  He never said anything other than a very sincere "I'm sorry, sir" over and over, even if I asked him yes/no questions.  

Off to Mass. for a wedding, have a great weekend, good luck to all who are racing. 

L'Etape.....

I don't know if it was being inspired by "that bike race" or just the nice warm weather, but near record time this morning, kept it in the big ring the entire time and stayed in the drops for most of it.  Now the trick will be replicating that this afternoon to make it on time to "the bike race" at our little beloved abandoned runway, Floyd Bennett Field.

the daily commute

This morning was the kind of commute that makes me love biking to work.  I like it a bit hot, really makes my muscles feel nice and loose, and the traffic flow felt perfect, even Flatbush was moving.  Over the Manhattan bridge, I was happily late enough to not have much traffic on the bridge either.  Got the light at 1st Ave and a nice string of greens until 23rd.  All was going well until I reached the area around NYU Hospital on 1st Ave around 34th Stree.  This always a cluster(&(^, but the bet hedger occupies two lanes with a signal on, but not turning.  I suppose I should be thankful for the signal.  Nobody likes someone hedging their bets.  This role is often inhabited by the cyclist's nemesis, the Access a Ride.  BSNYC has already skewered, and I won't even try to compete with him as he is far funnier and smarter and it would just be similar to the weekly park races with me being spit out of the back.  The role of the Access a Ride was in this case played by a Hasidic gentleman in a minivan.

Hoping to go to Rockleigh to race after work, see how the weather holds up.  So far, it is the same forecast as always, strong storms starting around 3 PM, but every day that seems to get pushed back later and later as the day goes on, and last night I don't think it ended up raining at all.

update:  after getting distracted by having to move around a bunch of nitrogen canisters, I log on to gothamist and am horrified to see this:

 Meanwhile, Miss Manhattan herself, Sarah Jessica Parker might be moving to Brooklyn! Rumor has it that her and the family may have purchased Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany's double-wide, 9-bedroom townhouse at 17 Prospect Park West (pictured)