Hard to beat that.

I don't know if this is the worst thing. I tend to not think in those terms, but I did have a fairly interesting "relationship" with a crazy crappy mini-van driving mom on my commute a few years ago. The woman must have absolutely hated bikes, and been what I think is clinically referred to as "bat-shiite crazy."

Her house was at the bottom of a small hill right after a sweeping left corner. Twice over the course of a year she pulled into her drive right in front of me, slapped the rusty old Dodge Caravan into reverse, and backed right out into the street again. Laid my bike down the first time to avoid a collision, but I was ready for her the second time.

At the top of this small hill was a stoplight. I take the full road at these things, zip across on green, and fade back right on the other side. If she was on the other side making a left turn, she would just come on through cyclist be damned. As before, I kind of accounted for this behavior after the first near miss and gave her just enough room to act like an ass. The last time she did it, she was flipping me off from the front seat with a cig hanging from her lips. Her three young kids were waving at me from car seats in the back seat. Surprising, they looked like sweet happy kids.

I probably should have reported her... but this is Anchorage, and the cops and the mayor, and quite possibly a few other elected representatives as well as the daily rag would have likely come by to give her a medal. I decided to just kind of laugh about it and watch out for her. At least I knew where she stood, and she was predictable. To be honest, she was one ugly bag who obviously had some issues, so I felt a bit sorry for her.