pasadena

The Left Turn

Blog Instead of being asleep at 13:33 on 8 April 2009, kitt created this:

Andy Fisher came over today to work on a site of mine. On our way to lunch, we passed an SUV which had slowed in the right lane as it waited for a biker to ride around a parked car. While the biker was riding around a parked car and using the right lane, the SUV honked at the rider with a long "I'm irritated at you!" honk.

Making me instantly irritated at the driver.

Bikes and their riders are considered full vehicles in California. If they want to ride down the middle of the lane, they are legally allowed to do so. If they're riding slowly, find, move around the bike and pass, but don't honk at them. Good lord, honking is probably just going to startle the biker, possibly leading to an accident. Regardless, idiot driver, you should realize YOU'RE IN A 3 TON VEHICLE. The worst the biker can do to you is dent your fender. YOU CAN KILL THE BIKER.

The event reminded me of another driver being an asshole around a biker, only I was the biker in the other incident. My roommate at the time, Kristi McAdams, and I were waiting at a light to turn left across a fairly big road, at least three lanes going the other directions. When the arrow turned green, we hopped up on our bikes and started biking left.

Apparently we weren't fast enough in our biking, though, because the idiot Asian woman driver pulled between the two of us, nearly hitting both of us on either side of her car before accelerating away down the street. I was immediately stunned. Could someone have really just done that? I was then angry. I knew there were two stop signs and a stop light on the street. I knew she'd have to stop. I took off after her, to the cries of Kristi yelling "No!"

Well, nearly injuring two bikers with her recklessness wasn't enough for the idiot driver. She also ran both stop signs without slowing. She was caught, however, by the red light at the end of the street, which is where I caught her, too.

I rolled around to the front of her car, slammed my hands on her hood and yelled, "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!" I then continued for a short while, yelling at her, accentuating my points with slams on her hood, until my anger exhausted itself. I have no idea if she understood how much of an idiot she was, or if she merely went away thinking, "Wow, bikers are morons. I should run over more of them."

More like home

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 19:26 on 6 June 2008

I had forgotten how comfortable Los Angeles is to me. Driving into town two days ago felt like coming home.

Well, not home per se, but definitely to a well-known, loved spot.

When I moved away 11 years ago, I wasn't expecting really to stay in Northern California for very long. Guy wanted to retire and was looking at Oregon. The plan was to go with him. If I had been ready to retire (no, I have no freakin' clue why I wasn't ready to retire in my 20s - who in her right mind would refuse to retire mid-twenties? I ask you), I would have been gone.

Instead, I have a life in Northern California, where I feel like I'm coming home when I drive back. I wonder if it'll feel that way when I journey to Indiana or even Arizona next week to get Sam.

I guess, really, home is where you make it.

Either that, or where your friends are. Which makes all of these places home for me.

Dates

Blog kitt decided around 12:00 on 6 June 2008 to publish this:

"You won't get any dates."

A dad in the Starbucks used this line on his daughter today. I was standing in line in front of the girl, and didn't hear exactly all of the conversation. That line, however, I heard.

I wanted to turn around and tell ask, "So what? So what if you won't get any dates. Better to be true to yourself and find someone who appreciates that, than to reduce yourself to the lowest common denominator for a date, because society doesn't believe you're whole without a man. Reject the notion you need a date."

I didn't turn around though, because I realized, that, sadly, the lesson wouldn't have meant much. I mean, that dad's line? It would have worked with me, too, when I was that young.

Hello, Southern California

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 23:05 on 5 June 2008

Drove down to Los Angeles today. I'm in town to deal with my condo. I had hoped to leave this morning around 9:00 AM. That was pushed back to 11:00 AM, then to 1:00 PM.

I actually departed at 2:14 PM.

Bob and Suzanne, whom I'm staying with for the next few days, made arrangements for Hester Bell, whom I haven't seen for over a decade, to have dinner with us tonight. Dinner was at 7:00 PM, "so don't be late!" Suzanne let me know. I wouldn't have thought that 4 hours and 46 minutes would be enough time to drive door to door, but, hey, what do you know? 4 hours and 45 minutes is enough!

Go fig.

Last time I drove this stretch of freeway was heading back from the area, after having visited with Mom, as she came through the area, and with Paul, as he graciously let me stay with him. I plan on staying with him and his family on Saturday night, too, before driving back on Sunday morning for the afternoon's practice.

I had talked to Jessica before that drive up. She had made a comment about how she would hate having to make that drive - too much time alone, too much solitude. When I replied that I didn't mind it so much, she pointed out that I've always been better at being by msyelf. I guess a solo 400 mile drive gives one a good chance to be alone.

That drive back had two adventures: a dog, and a lot of honking. The dog happened at some point north of Bakersfield, on the side of the road. The dog looked starved. It also looked pregnant. It was wandering around the side of the road, maybe looking for food, and looked up as I drove past. I was debating stopping to rescue it, when I noticed another car had already stopped, and a person hoofing it back to the dog. I continued driving, hoping that person was rescuing the dog, and not intending to kill it.

The honking part of the honking adventure came from me. I was following a car in the left lane, expecting the car to pass the cars in the right lane. Except, it wasn't. Traffic may have been too heavy to pass effectively. However, that means that traffic was also too heavy to be reading when driving.

The driver in the car in front of me kept looking down, instead of watching the road. Now, I'm assuming he was reading and not looking at some body part that, honestly, you shouldn't be looking at when driving 75 MPH on an interstate road. Every time he looked down, I honked.

The first part of my honks were respectful, a little tap to ask him to keep his eyes on the road.

After ten minutes of looking down, I started laying on the horn.

I was not happy with this guy who thought it was okay to drive in the fast lane, at over 75 MPH, and read at the same time. For goodness' sake, subscribe to podcasts!

Yeah.

Today's drive down was also full of adventures, and continued the trend of fire.

So far, every drive I've taken down to Southern California with Kris has included a fire along the side of the road. Today's fire wasn't even out of the Bay Area. It was along 85 near the (southern-most) 101 merge.

Of course, once you come to expect fires, you'll get a bonus one, too.

The second one actually had a plane flying around dumping fire suppressants on it. If only I had driven slightly slower:

On my drive down, I was using the car's navigation system to let me know both how far I had to drive, as well as how long I had to drive. When I originally hopped in the car (at 2:14 PM), it said I would arrive at 8:19 PM, well past the 7:00 PM dinner start. However, shortly into the drive, I noticed that for every 4-5 miles I drove, the destination time dropped by a minute. By the time I stopped for gas, I was going to be only 30 minutes late.

I arrived 1 minute early.

I'm hoping tomorrow works out better than today did with planning. Of course, that Starbucks is looking good for its wi-fi for work tomorrow.