The biker

Have you ever had one of those days when you thought you were going to just hit something? I don't mean punch something or karate chop something I mean hit something, like crash into it on a bicycle. Now, don't get me wrong this is not an aggressive state I was in. It was more like fear. All day, unavoidably people vehicles and parts of buildings have been throwing themselves in front of my bicycle. Mostly this is due to the elderly, who are at any moment prone to stop and radically change directions at speeds that would belie their age. I lost count how many times this happened today, but it was a lot. I will quickly recount the top three. I am riding my bike and old lady in front of me is walking hers. At the exact second that I went to pass her, she performed a maneuver that was similar to something you would expect from a Argentinian bolero mounting his horse, and kicked her basketed bicycle to life. I had no choice but to screech to a grinding halt. The other options were no good. One would have been to crash into the old lady, which I was unprepared to do, and the other would have been to dive head first through a plate glass door, which also seemed undesirable. The second near miss was an old man that, no matter how far I swung out to the right, was determined that he was going to go farther, forcing me to swoop dangerously in front of him at the last second while swearing. Last but not least, on my way home from work I came to an intersection and saw headlights coming, despite the fact that this street requires drivers to stop, I decided to yield my right of way. It was a good decision because just as I came to rest, a city bus came barreling to a stop a good ten feet beyond the line and definitely across my sidewalk pass. I gave the driver a dirty look, and he gave me an apologetic wave, which I appreciated until I realized that this little incident made me miss one of the longest lights in Fukuyama. I try to stay good natured, because this happens frequently, but today was one for the records, and I hope that it stays that way.