Rainy day crazy

Having gotten one day of wet riding under my belt (and what a wet pair of pants that belt was holding up at the end!), i've not been feeling quite so apprehensive about riding to work in the generous spate of rain we've been having, despite still not having any wet weather gear.

But if anything reinforces the reality that my safety is not 100% within my control, it was what happened this morning.

Having left extra early, i had the road pretty much all to myself. As the first vehicle at a set of red lights, i saw a rusty old panel van coming up behind me in my mirrors.

However, rather than stop as it came up the hill towards where i was stopped, it started accelerating.

It came straight for me, swerved into the turning lane but roared in a straight line through the still-red lights. Luckily, given the time of the morning, there wasn't much traffic, so it went through the intersection without incident.

But the bastard missed me by about 2 feet. Which doesn't allow for a huge margin of error, no matter what your local superhero says.

Christ.

When the lights turned green i took off down the road to get the guy's registration, and discovered why he'd run the red light, at the next intersection. That old banger was in such bad shape it stalled the moment it lost motion, and its owner, in about as bad shape as the vehicle, was pushing it up the curb with some colorful abuse.

I hope he had a long walk home in the miserable wet. Serve him bloody right.