Chilly morning commute for this winter, but the temperatures are actually very close to our long term averages. It's just been such a mild winter that a normal day feels especially cold.

I had a close call due to my own stupidity, which shows that you need to ride smart and vigilant no matter how long you've been doing it. I started to pass some cars along the right shoulder at a red light so I could make a right turn. All of the cars appeared to be going straight and none had their blinkers on. However, just I neared the second car in the row, the driver suddenly decided to turn right and pulled right into my path. Fortunately I was watching, hit my brakes hard and avoided colliding with her. It would have been my fault, despite her rash move, so I chalked it up as another learning experience.

It must have been one of those days because I had a couple of other near misses that were not my fault. At another intersection, a driver cut across the line of traffic to make a left turn in front of me and the cars that were in the correct lane. One of the other drivers blew their horn and the crazy driver acted as if her behavior was perfectly correct. At the very next intersection, as I rounded the corner a cyclist was coming right at me going the wrong direction in the wrong lane.