Well, I had a growing up moment today. I realized police officers aren’t necessarily right. Such as, they might not know the state law regarding a particular situation. They may in fact, use their PA system to tell you to give up your rights. They may tell you to ride your bike on the sidewalk, endangering pedestrians, instead of allowing you to continue to ride on the road.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal to some of you. That’s because you’ve never seen our sidewalks. If there are sidewalks at all, they are cracked and collapsed. Or they are smooth and straight but have telephone poles in the middle of them. Or they randomly end in people’s front yards. Or in parking lots separated by curbs. Or they combine all these wonderful attributes at once.
State law says that bicyclist can ride no more than two abreast on roads and are considered vehicles. But we got told by a cop today to get on the sidewalk. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
I can deal with motorists honking and cutting me off and “racing” me from stop lights. I can deal with the “F*** you!”’s and the fingers and the “Get on the sidewalk!”’s from uninformed rednecks. I can not deal with it from a city police officer. The second city police car we’ve seen the entire time we’ve lived here. We’ve never seen a motorist pulled over either. I guess we know what side their bread is buttered on.
Anyway, I’m pissed about it. Oh, and I forgot to mention the falling down 6 foot chainlink fence with barbed wire hanging at about eye level and top poles pointing at your head which borders a stretch of especially fine sidewalk.
Other than this minor irritation, we had a great ride to the mall today. We ate lunch in the food court, bought some perfume at Bath and Body Works (I could spend so much money there…), and a new nose ring at Clair’s. Rode home, got PA’ed by a cop, rode around the neighboorhood for a while and then…oh yeah, daughter fell asleep in trailer, we watched “Who killed the Electic Car?”…great movie but it made me cry. Hubby mowed the yard while I swept and picked up, we ate supper, went out for ice cream and then proceeded to screw around for the rest of the night. All in all a great Sunday.
It really was. Riding brings me so much joy. As we walked around the mall today, still a bit sweaty from the ride (crappy Walmart bike with huge tires, crappy Walmart trailer never meant to go over 10 mph, 35 pound child, and 3 speeds makes for one sweaty mom), I felt such overwhelming happiness. Bursting with happiness one might say. I always feel that way after a ride. I love my husband so much in those moments. I am so glad to be his wife, to be a part of his life. We’ve grown and changed so much since we met.
I remember when we were first together, we got into a bit of a disagreement regarding suspension of one’s driver’s license. I felt it was a reasonable punishment when warranted and he felt it was never acceptable. A car is a necessity in America, he would say. I used to drive five blocks to work. Five whole blocks. And now I ride usually at least 2 miles a day, often 6 or more. And we are trying to find away to get rid of our car and yet still be able to evacuate if need be. Nothing’s springing to mind so far so we still have our P.O.S. but we’re thinking. We want to be able to evacuate if they tell us to, as we make much more money that way.
Anyway…I like riding a bike. It’s fun. It’s freeing. It’s liberating. It really pisses people off. What’s not to like?
