I was five minutes late getting out the door this morning, when I got irritated with the rear brake rubbing, which is a problem I’ve been fretting about for weeks now. I really need to do something about it. I spent another 5 minutes looking at it to see if there was any quick way to adjust it and fix it, but I’ll be damned if I know what to do. They are cantilever brakes. I’ve never seen cantilever brakes of this style so I have no idea how they adjust (only had the bike for two months now). I guess I’m going to have to clean the bike and take it to the bike shop. So I gave up on it, deciding it wasn’t rubbing THAT badly, and took off ten minutes late.
As I approached the stop sign at the end of my residential street, an SUV pulled up behind me just as I was breaking to stop at the stop sign. I needed to turn left on the two lane cross road, and there was a steady stream of cars coming from the right, as the school busing budget cuts are forcing all the parents to drive their kids to distant bus stops. The SUV revealed him/her self to be a complete a-hole, as they had to pass me just 30 feet from the stop sign and then slam on their breaks to stop in front of me. Just as they stop and are impatiently waiting for the steady stream of cars from the right to clear, a fire engine comes screaming down the road from our left, lights flashing blindingly in the darkness. This causes the steady stream approaching from the right to come to a halt to let the fire engine pass. This also makes our impatient SUV driver even more impatient. “OMG I had to pass a F-ing BICYCLE, and now I’ve had to sit at this stop sign for over 20 SECONDS!!!” The fire engine passes, and the freight train of cars from the right begins passing by again, but now they are bumper to bumper. Now the SUV driver is REALLY frustrated. “OMG, NOW I have to wait ANOTHER SIXTY SECONDS!!! What is my world coming too?? I’m going to grow old and die waiting at this stop sign!!!!”
The fire must have been a bad one, because just as the traffic coming from the right started flowing again, along comes a second fire truck from our left, lights flashing and sirens screaming. Now the SUV driver goes into a complete panic, “OMG, ANOTHER FIRE TRUCK, HOLY SH-T! I’m GOING TO BE SITTING AT THIS F-ING STOP SIGN FOR TWO MINUTES BY THE TIME THIS ALL OVER!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” How do I know that was going through this idiot’s mind? Because, as that second fire truck was screaming down the road towards us from the left, and the traffic from the right was now slowing for it, the SUV driver decides he can’t possibly wait ANOTHER 30 seconds, so he goes for it, just as the car approaching from our left comes to a complete stop for the emergency vehicle like every good driver should. This blocks the SUV completely, and now the idiot is parked across the fire trucks lane, completely blocking the road. I shake my head and back my bike up, to give the fire truck some room to swerve into the side street I'm on and get around the blooming idiot in the SUV. Now the fire truck has come to a complete stop and is laying on it’s huge truck horn. The SUV driver is laying on HIS horn too, but it’s completely drowned out by the huge fire truck blasts. The good driver who came to stop is blinded by the flashing lights (it's 6:40 AM and still dark), and has no idea why this fire truck has stopped. It takes about ten seconds of loud horn blasting from all directions before the poor guy looks around to clear up this mysterious behavior from the fire truck, and sees there is an idiot in an SUV parked on his rear bumper and lying across the fire truck’s path. The good driver finally rolls forward tentatively, obviously upset that he’s being force to drive his car right past an emergency vehicle. The SUV finally pulls out of his way, and the fire truck guns his engine and proceeds onward.
Well, the fire must have been a bad one, because as I’m still waiting at the stop sign for the cars now all backed up approaching from the right, a THIRD fire truck comes screaming and flashing down from the left (this time a ladder truck, not a good sign).
By this time, a car has pulled up behind me at the stop sign and reminds me that not all cagers are idiots. This guy patiently waits behind me, without trying to swerve to the left enough to get beside me or anything. We let the third fire truck go by, then we patiently wait another 30 to 40 seconds for the traffic approaching from the right to clear enough that I’m comfortable pulling out. Once I pull out, that car behind me pulls up to the stop sign and STOPS, and WAITS to make sure he’s got a clear shot, then he pulls out. Then the cars that pass me pull to the left and give me my 3 feet of space as required by law, and remind me that not every cager is a complete idiot.
The person driving that SUV probably has high blood pressure and walks around stressed out all the time, wondering why the world is such a frustrating place, all the while speeding towards a heart attack or a stroke which, when it comes, will leave them debilitated and wondering why all this bad sh-t happens to them.