Dear So and So

[Crankin]

Dear Neighbor with Dog,
I know you see no need to put your dog on a leash when you are standing in your driveway, talking to the DPW workers cleaning up the debris in the street. And wildly yelling "Warning, dog is on the street," or some inane thing when I am going down the hill at 20 when your dog runs out to chase me doesn't help.
At first I thought your dog wasn't going to chase me, but it did. Right when I was starting a little uphill. No way could I beat your dog. I almost rammed the cr*p out of your little darling, but I feared the damage to my bike.
Please, after 3 incidents with us on our bikes and your dog, can you get the message?

[laura*]

Dear motorists:

When the school bus's lights are flashing red, and the little stop sign unfolds from the side of the bus, you are supposed to STOP!

Dear school bus operators:

Perhaps you'd have better compliance by motorists if you stopped in middle of the traffic lane, got rid of the stupid yellow flashing lights, and instead started your red flashing lights a long way before the stop - like school buses did when I was growing up.

Instead you pull so far off the road that two cars could parallel park between the road and your bus, you run the flashing yellow warning lights so long everyone looses interest in watching them, and you switch to the red lights so briefly that each bulb probably blinks on only three times. I bet that the folding stop arm never even stops moving - that it starts retracting the instant it reaches full extension!


(I happened to be out on my bike at just the right time for a rare for me (about once a year) sighting of school buses in action.)

[Owlie]

Dear self--
As pretty as it is, you do not need another jersey--especially one that is green and therefore is not suitable road wear. You also cannot afford another jersey, especially not one that is relatively limited use.
--Me, who doesn't look good in green anyway.
PS--NO, that doesn't mean you can have the blue one instead.

[emily_in_nc]

Dear Neighbor with Dog,
I know you see no need to put your dog on a leash when you are standing in your driveway, talking to the DPW workers cleaning up the debris in the street. And wildly yelling "Warning, dog is on the street," or some inane thing when I am going down the hill at 20 when your dog runs out to chase me doesn't help.
At first I thought your dog wasn't going to chase me, but it did. Right when I was starting a little uphill. No way could I beat your dog. I almost rammed the cr*p out of your little darling, but I feared the damage to my bike.
Please, after 3 incidents with us on our bikes and your dog, can you get the message?

Is there a leash law in your county or town? If so, I'd call and report them. It's not safe for dogs to be running loose anywhere near the road. As you know, I fractured my pelvis when two loose dogs ran out at me in the road in 2005. There was a leash law, so my out-of-pocket expenses were paid by the dog owners' homeowners' insurance. But that was a drop in the bucket compared to the after-effects of the fracture that limits my cycling ability and causes pain to this day. You could also seriously hurt or kill the dog, which would be no walk in the park either.

[snapdragen]

Dear body -- OK, they puffy bloat stuff can go away now. Gall bladder is gone, incisions are healing, now if I could only button my jeans.......


snap "destined to live in panda pajamas forever" dragen

[Owlie]

More healing and recovery vibes for you, Snap!

Dear university--
Your website is supremely unhelpful. There are no links to ANYTHING I might find useful, and there is no option to forward your mail to something I can actually easily access without jumping through hoops and waiting for your ridiculously slow system to actually do something. There's a reason why my undergrad institution abandoned this years ago...

Dear mother--
No, I'm not going to sell my bike. I'm not sure you get it. It is my major source of stress relief, and I'm going to need that for grad school. If I sell it, I get about $150 for it, max. Yes, it's a tiny bit of a money pit (new saddle, tubes, tires), but it's less a money pit than the car and house you keep insisting that I need. (I'm not there yet. Nowhere near there yet.) Also a heck of a lot cheaper than therapy, alcohol or a gym membership. And a new saddle is a heck of a lot cheaper than treatment for anything I might end up with because I didn't buy a new saddle.

[Crankin]

Emily, there is a leash law, but one with no teeth, as they say.
They have been much better about this, but still.
Oh well, am on vacation now, sitting on the terrace of the B and B, looking at the ocean, in between the bougainvilla.
I forgot what that smelled like.

Oh, and I won't be posting in the what did you eat today thread until I get back.

[Biciclista]

Ah, poor Owlie, you want us to talk to your mother?

[marni]

dear Wind Gods,

Please oh please could you let it drop down to below 15-20 mph for just a couple of days. I can deal with the 95 degree heat, especially since the humidity is , for a rare and bizarre change, in the 20-30% range instead of 80-90%, but I am so sick and tired of the wind blowing in my face, no matter which way I ride.

Dear People at the Hospital Lab, doing my preadmission work,

Would it have killed you to check the fax machine more than once in an hour and a half for the orders from the Dr.s office, especially when after the first half hour, I asked if the fax had come in" and again a half hour later? And was told both times that it hadn't come in yet.

I know the Dr.s office is only two floors up and I happen to know that the fax actually came in after 15 minutes after I called upstairs and requested it?

And as for the blood draw- Come on guys, it's a hospital isn't there anyone there who knows how to do a blood draw. 6 stabs and two black and blue arms don't speak well for your supposed !00% rating for patient care. And as for the wait for the chest ex ray, don't even go there. Why does a routine pre-addmittance procedure have to take three hours, in spite of having an appointment? And why do I once again feel like I feel like I've been handled like a piece of meat? Don't tell me "oh the fax just came in" when I know I have been waiting an hour and a half and don't tell me to " lighten up, it will all happen in good time" or ask me where in my sense of humor and where are my manners"

Lets us have you sitting and fretting about lab tests while worrying about whether or not you will make it home in time to get lunch for your 90 year old diabetic resident FIL.

ARGHHHH.

sincerely