22 November 2012

observations on life (not triathlon related)

what's that you say?  you don't remember me ever blogging about anything other than my workouts?  i mean, it has been YEARS since the last time i blogged about something other than working out.  i might have forgotten how to do it.  but i'll try.

i have been carrying my notebook around with me (mostly for writing down workouts, but i digress) and noticing some things that happen.  or thoughts.  or musings.  here are some things i thought about that i wanted to write down.

NO SMOKING ON CAMPUS
so, OSU has a no smoking campus.  they told us for the last year that this year they would implement a smoke free campus.  and i would say for the most part, people are pretty good about it.  but then it always catches me off guard when i see someone on campus, casually smoking on the corner outside a building or walking past my building with a cigarette in their hand.  and i really, really want to say, "excuse me, did you know that campus is smoke free now?"  but i have never been into confrontation and wouldn't know what to say if they came back at me with, "shut the f**k up" or "mind your own business" or whatever.  or maybe i'm a little afraid they would throw the lit cigarette at me, or maybe they would want to fight.  i don't know what i'm really afraid of, but clearly i am afraid since i have now seen 3 people smoking on campus and have never said a word, other than to myself under my breath as i bike swiftly away.

PAY ATTENTION!
i am growing increasingly annoyed with people's shortening attention spans.  or maybe, their complete immersion in themselves and their personal electronic devices, so much so that they can't even look up when they cross the street, or walk into a crosswalk where there is clearly crossing traffic.  or even when they're just on the sidewalk, swerving and weaving around.  as a pedestrian and a cyclist, i find this very difficult to deal with.  there's a certain amount of attention that has to occur for people to all safely exist in this world.  i can do so much defensive walking/driving, but if you're not even trying, that almost feels like it's your fault.  would it be wrong of me to prove a point by crashing into people who aren't paying attention?

this topic also reminds me of people in cars not seeing people on bikes.  i was clearly in the bike lane on a clearly not raining day, and this person in their car almost didn't stop at their stop sign (i did not have a stop sign) and creeped uncomfortably into the road where i was biking, causing me to swerve.  i guess they looked up at the last second to see me, but there was no way i could have safely stopped if they had pulled out.

when did checking your phone every minute become so important?  are you really getting such important messages from afar that you MUST know what those messages are THIS INSTANT?  how has the human race survived for so long without this?  i wonder if tech-involved people ever ask themselves this question.

ADJUST YOUR SPEED
related to the electronic device conversation, i feel irritated by people who do not even attempt to make things easier for anyone but themselves.  and what i mean here is when people cross the street and they are looking, they can see that a car or bike is coming along at a certain speed from a certain distance and they can attempt to adjust their speed of crossing so that everyone gets where they are going and no one has to slam on their brakes.  if a car or bike is far away and not traveling very fast, they you have ample time to saunter across the street.  but if they are coming fast and they are close, it's not as ideal to just step casually in front of them, since you are putting everyone in danger by doing that.  and if you aren't paying attention to the speed / distance of others at all, you are REALLY making things scary.  my time is just as valuable as yours.  

DON'T CROWD MY LANE
this is another bike related observation.  there are times when i'm biking along and i clearly have a bike lane marked on the road, and yet cars insist on stopping at a stop sign IN the bike lane, as if beginning to make their turn is the most important thing.  they just went past me in their car, did they not see me there? where would they like me to go if they are sitting in my lane?  again, it comes down to they think their time is more important than mine, and they are clearly in a bigger hurry than i am.  this was especially irritating when i lived on witham hill.  and then someone had the gall to call the cops and have cyclists pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at the bottom of that crazy hill. maybe they'd be more considerate if they realized that bikes don't even upset the flow of traffic if they come down the hill in their lane and turn right.  start ticketing the people who crowd the bike lane!  SHARE THE ROAD!  sheesh.

WHAT'S WITH THE WEATHER?
we have been having some serious storms lately, where the rain just comes down in buckets.  it is really not that much fun biking in this weather but maybe this is the weather gods saying, "hey get used to it!"  however, the pouring heavy drops of rain make it very uncomfortable to bike / walk around without getting all duded up in raingear all the time, which i don't mind at all except that it takes extra time to go anywhere, due to all the getting dressed/undressed.  and then when you get where you're going, you have all this wet clothing and what do you do with it?  anyway, i have gotten used to the sort of drizzly rain of oregon, but these heavy storms are really not that much fun.  aside from the splashing in them while wearing big ol' boots.

...to be continued...

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