Ok, so we have this guy up here that my son and I call "Darwin"... As in, it's just a matter or time before he becomes an "award winner"... If ya know what I mean.
The reason for this is that he rides very erradicaly, with no helmet, and wearing those old fashioned headphone things that cover the entire ear. I have been witness more than once to him blowing through stop signs, veering into traffic, and just basically not paying attention. He is very obviously oblivious to his surroundings. And now your prolly thinking this guy is a hack on an old huffy. Oh no..... He's sporting a sweet Trek Madone. Guess that just goes to show you that having a nice bike doesn't mean you have a clue.
So today when I was heading down the hill I passed him going down in the same direction. "hmm" I said to myself "Darwin is going for a long ride". Usually I see him just around our hood, which is kinda isolated and a good 10 mile ride to anything. I also took note that he appeared to have no fluid with him despite the fact that it was in the high 80's today. And don't froget- this is AZ. It's dry!
I just shook my head...
So after doing my errands I was riding up the hill and saw him coming back up. I always change lanes if I can to give cyclists a wide berth, but there was a plumbing truck beside me, so I couldn't. So just as I'm coming up on Darwin he makes an abrupt swerve into my lane and I basically almost ran him over. It scared the crapola out of me. I slammed on the brakes and kind of swerved to the left almost hitting the plumber. He then honked his horn which got Darwins attention. Darwin gave us a dirty look- totally unaware that he almost caused his own demise! ARGH! I wanted to stop my car in the middle of the street and give it to him.... Just like those other drivers do.. But this time *I* was right!! arrghhhhhh!! And the best part is he just kept riding along...
At the stop sign I got stopped in some traffic and he came up next to me again. He gave me a dirty look and I motioned to him to take the headphones off. He flipped me off!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: So I rolled down the window cause now I wanted to let him know that *I* am also a cyclist, but that he almost killed himself by not LOOKING where he was going... But he just took off....
So now I'm trying to decide what I should do next time I see him when I'm out riding. I really want to stop him and say "hey dude, personally I think your stupid for not only NOT wearing a lid, but wearing those headphones which obviously keep you from hearing cars around you... Cause the other day you almost went under my front right tire when you veered into my lane without looking"... And I drive a volvo- he would have lost... But I don't want to start a confrontation in case the guy is a whack job.. You never know.. ugh!! So I'll prolly just ride on by thinking "oh there goes mr. magoo again... stumbling through life somehow averting his demise at every turn, despite his incredible stupidity"... :cool:
