I had just wrapped up a really nice commute home, and after checking the fridge, decided to head back out to the little Mom-n-Pop store four blocks away. My house is the third from the corner on a dead-end street, and my street spills into a 25mph two-lane road that's somewhat heavily used (for a suburb in Eugene, that is).

So I poke my front wheel out of the driveway, look up the street, and here comes my neighbor--a nice guy--in an SUV. He's maybe fifty yards upstreet of me. Plenty of time for me to launch from my driveway, turn right, and make it to the stop sign before him, right? And even to turn onto the main road and get into the bike lane.

But no! He guns it! He must've been doing forty or fifty! I mean, he really, honest-to-jeebus floored it and raced to the stop sign--still got there just after me, but then he pulled up next to me and lurched to a stop, and then stabbed it again to nose in front of me and to my right, and then he hooked in front of me.

And the whole time he was next to me he was smiling at me!

I still can't believe it. I told my husband when he got home--the guy is a customer of his--and he said that the guy is a real menace on the road, even though he's kind of a nerdy, soft-spoken guy when he's not behind the wheel.

I know this is nothing new for you experienced folks, but I'm just floored. Just...wow. Un-freakin-believable.