In the NBC TV drama The West Wing the actor Martin Sheen plays the President of the United States, Jed Bartlet. In the first season ‘President’ Bartlet gives a speech where he quotes then real live Vice President Al Gore, When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler. Except in the West Wing Sheen does not say holler he said ‘bang your fist on the table’ which frankly sounds a lot better to me.
Well something happened to me yesterday, I have the law on my side, I have the facts on my side, so the Beck Taxi drive hollered – a lot of four letter words at me.
I was riding on the bike trail that runs on the north side of Lakeshore Blvd, at Carlaw and Lakeshore there are clearly marked traffic lights for bikes on the bike trail and there is a clearly marked ‘no right on red’ for cars turning onto Lakeshore from Carlaw. I had a green, the Taxi on Carlaw had a red, he started turning anyway. When I yelled at him he had the audacity, and stupidity, to yell back. I pointed out that “right now [he] is breaking the law”, remarkably he shut up at that point. I suspect he finally clued in that I was actually in the right, I was crossing on a green and he was turning illegally. I have to ask the question though, are cab drivers physically incapable of obeying traffic laws unless they are yelled at? Second thought, I want to revise and amend my question, remove the word ‘cab’ from that question.
Although, speaking of being right, the guy who fixed my bike is Maki, Andrew Maki, not Mackey. To be fair, I only heard his name, never saw it spelled out. But Erin is fixed, remarkably nothing had to be replaced, besides the bar tape, total repairs cost under $100. Mind you the back wheel is not perfectly true even now, but it is close enough. Maybe one of these years I’ll get myself a truing stand, although I am such a klutz I’m likely to make a perfectly reasonable wheel a distorted disaster. I wonder, how much a replacement rim would cost, something to think about in several months if they are not too expensive, having distortions in the rim really hurts when I have to hit the brakes.
In other news, this weekend I will be missing the Tour De Creemore, sorry guys, I made a prior commitment. But I will try to make it out for next year. Saturday I am getting my neighbour Frank to come out for a ride with me. He thinks we are just going for a nice gentle 120km (yes I should insert an insane and evil laugh here) in truth my goal is a nice 161km, so probably up to near Lake Simcoe and home. Alright maybe not an evil laugh, but we should push for more than just 75 miles.
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2 comments:
Yes, I believe cabbies are born that way. The other day I was walking home from school, and there is a 4 way stop on one of the back roads I take. A cop was directing traffic because a truck had caused some sort of a scene and one of the streets was no longer able to be driven on. So a van is first in line at the intersection at this stop sign, waiting for the cop to tell him where to go. Behind him is a cab. The cab is honking his horn and yelling at the van, until finally (ha!) he goes around him. He rolls down his window, has his head turned toward the driver of the van to yell at him when BAM, the cop, whom he didn't see, smacked his fist down on the cab's hood before he got hit! It was hilarious. I didn't stay to watch the fallout, but I heard the yelling for ways down the street.
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ps- i didn't vote for a bike brand because the list was incomplete :))))
Argh! Google's survey tool won't let me add to a survey once someone votes. I am going to have to restart the whole damned thing once I figure out how to cast multiple votes (to count people who have already voted).
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