Dumb Domino's pizza driver

Once in a while, I get reminded that some folks just don't think. Such was the case last night, as Bob and I rode through Crestwood toward Pewee Valley--I on my way home from work, Bob out to spin the pedals for a few minutes before family responsibilities yanked him back into that wonderful maelstrom of being a dad.

We were on KY146, that being the only good way to get from Crestwood to Pewee Valley by bike, unless one wants to go some several miles out of one's way, only to have to cross it at some point, anyway. About half-way between Crestwood and Pewee Valley there is a greenhouse operation. As we passed that greenhouse complex, there was a line of cars behind us--in part because oncoming traffic prevented safe passing by the truck at the front of the line. I could hear an impatient-sounding horn behind the truck, but could not tell how many cars were back there. The truck driver found opportunity to pass, and did so, immediately followed by a white Volkswagen sedan with a Domino's Pizza sign magnetically attached to its roof. The driver of this car was wearing a Domino's uniform shirt, suggesting that he was on duty at the time. He had a couple windows down, and yelled something as he pointed to the side of the road (unintelligible ululations being a favorite form of expression for angry motorists). No big deal, except that he then "jinked" toward us a bit, then got back in the oncoming lane long enough to make the pass a bit more safely.

That "jink," to me, constitutes an active threat, as if to say, "Get off the road or I'll push you off."

I had a chat with a woman who identified herself as the delivery manager for that location. She thanked me for informing her of the incident, and at least made the right noises as far as recognizing that safety of all road users trumped the perceived convenience of a pizza arriving a few seconds earlier. She closed the conversation by saying that no driver from her store would ever harass a cyclist again if she had any say in the matter.

We'll see. Sometimes, strident measures from bosses lead to retaliatory actions by drivers. Of course, she'd hear about any such nonsense, should anyone I know experience problems from a Domino's driver near Crestwood.

I would have threatened boycotting them, but I haven't eaten a Domino's pizza in years. I find them even worse than Papa John's pizza (and John Schnatter is a Mitt Romney fan, making it even more certain I wouldn't patronize his chain). Hopefully, the manager who spoke with me gets it, without having to use such threats.

I drove to work today.

I keep hearing that other bike shops are bustling along this time of year. The one where I work is not. I'm sure that part of what's causing it is that word is out that the store is for sale and/or closing. Folks don't want to do business with a store that won't be there a month or two from now. A few folks haven't yet gotten the word--indeed, some of the repair traffic is folks who are just now noticing us. There isn't much traffic, though. It's pretty demoralizing.

I have a couple of potential customers lined up to get a handyman business started--have even done some such work recently. I figure that while being self-employed has a number of drawbacks, it is something I'm able to do, I can often get to job sites by bicycle (even if I'm hauling a couple hundred pounds of materials--part of why I got the Bikes at Work trailer!), and, as I found out recently, just being out on a job site can bring business my way (a neighbor of the folks for whom I was building some deck stairs came by to get a rough estimate on a replacement for his current deck).

I was never in good practice at estimating the variety of jobs I anticipate doing, but have done some estimates as part of other work I did (I was a Home Repair Coordinator for New Directions Housing Corporation before I started this blog, and part of my tasking was estimating roof replacement costs). I know what I need to learn, just haven't developed the sense of material costs. It will take time.

I haven't been crowing about mileages this year, figuring that a) I won't be topping last year's numbers this year, and b) it's not really about the numbers as much this year. Still, it's nice to look at my logs, and see that of the 2100 miles I've recorded so far, all but 44 are utility miles. Friday's trip home from work brought the commuting total to 1600 miles.

Bike Month is coming, too. Because I don't know when/if the store will close, it's hard for me to plan for "bike to work day." The celebration day is May 18th this year, and there will be some excitement in Louisville on that day and in the weeks prior. There is a utility cycling contest, in which I can have several relative neophyte commuters join me in logging trips taken by bike instead of by car, with a chance at some cool prizes. Bike month is not about folks like me. I already ride a lot instead of driving--at least by average American person standards. It's about helping folks who are interested but unsure of themselves, or who would like to ride but need help figuring out how to deal with the various challenges in being different than the statistical norm.

We can help.

More trailer fun

Bearing in mind that 2012 is, among other things, the year in which I want to finish moving into my house, AND that I have this nifty Bikes at Work trailer just begging to be used, I put the trailer (and my leg muscles) to use on Friday.

Jenn and I had a stack of old computer towers, a couple monitors, a printer or two, a few keyboards, and such that had accumulated over the last dozen years. It was occupying too much space in the garage, and needed to go away. I put it in an assortment of bins on my trailer, and pedaled to the recycling place to get rid of it.

I had a stop near Frankfort Avenue, to drop off some spokes I had cut for Barry. I parked my bike at the curb rather than mess with getting in and out of the driveway. This was not the best move, as it was recycling day on his street, and the city recycling guy got to wondering what my bike was doing there. He even went to lift it, but I started calling out that I was simply parked there and he put it back down.

Note to self: don't park too close to a recycling bin--some folks will be confused.

I had been discussing my planned route with Barry up until then, but decided to go in via Lexington Road to Barret Avenue, then west on Broadway to somewhere near Smoketown, where I would start heading south. Traffic was such that I opted to turn north briefly, then make a u-turn to reorient southward. While just north of Broadway, I encountered my friend James Rockhold, and had a brief chat.

Bluegrass E-Cycle is in a small industrial park off Seventh Street, a bit north of Algonquin Parkway. It's about twelve miles from my house, by the route I took. I managed to avoid big hills, but still had a few smaller ones to climb--the biggest descent was on Lexington Road by Cherokee Park, and I managed to keep it slowed to twenty-five or so to keep from letting the load get out of hand.

The loaded trailer tracked quite well, I'm glad to say. Part of that was that I kept the load balanced just about right, I'm sure. I never had to use my small chainring, but I did become much more familiar with my largest rear cog than I have been.

After dropping off the computer stuff, I stopped at UofL to pick up some Louisville Bicycle Club schedules for the store (the Club has them printed at UofL's print shop), then worked my way to the Highlands. My next planned stop was to be in Hikes Point, and it's tough to get there from the other side of Old Louisville unless one gets closer to downtown first--any way I would go, I'd have to cross the Watterson "Distressway" at least once, if not three times. I skirted Cherokee Park on its western edge for a bit, then went across the southern boundary by using neighborhood streets. I used Kings Highway to get outside Bowman Field, then Taylorsville Road to get outside the Watterson, Furman Boulevard to get closer to Hikes Lane, and again neighborhood streets to avoid some of Hikes Lane.

The entire ride was mostly uneventful. The biggest asshole motorist of the day award would go to the guy who, deciding I was going far too slow for him, used the right turn only lane to pass me in an intersection, blew through a stop sign, and turned left from that right turn only lane. Had a conscientious police officer seen him, he would have gotten enough points against his license to keep him from driving legally for a couple years (disregarding TCD, left turn from compulsory RTO lane, passing in an intersection, passing on the right, and probably reckless driving from the amalgam of the rest, each worth at least three points, and twelve gets the ticket pulled). It's happened to me before at that intersection, so I wasn't really surprised. I was, of course, prepared for it, being semi-alert all the time when on a bike. Just because he got away with it doesn't mean it's a wise course of action.

Total for the day was something like 32 miles.

Then I got to work on John's FAW+.

He and I encountered each other on that social networking site some months ago, when he expressed home that he'd make it to a Car-Free Happy Hour with his velomobile. That was not to be at the time, alas. However, he's been enjoying it a bit since he built it (from a kit), although his enjoyment of it had been hampered by some directional stability problems. I looked at it a few weeks ago, and we found that the front end alignment was way off. We found time to work together on it on Friday, and apparently my efforts have succeeded in improving things. Once he got a chance to test-ride it, he gave me a chance to ride it. It's a gas. I still want one, even though I think I'm a bit wide in the torso to be comfortable for long days in the seat (my arms rub the insides of the cockpit walls a bit more than I'd like).

All in all, a great day to be on bikes, working on bikes (and bike-like contraptions). I even got to ride a different bike to dinner with Jenn, her daughter Rachel, and Rachel's friend, Steve.

Normal vs. the law

Mighk Wilson, of Cycling Savvy (among other fine sites), put this on Facebook this week: 

An idea for discussing lane control with non-cyclists (and perhaps even cyclists): I've tried this a couple times and it certainly gets people thinking.

I either show them an image or video of a lane-controlling cyclist on a high-speed arterial, or just describe it, then ask: "If you saw that, what would you think?"

Of course, the usual answer includes terms like "crazy" and/or "dangerous."

Then I ask: "What if you saw this once a month?"
"Once a week?"
"Once a day?"
"Every hour?"
"Every ten minutes?" (pause and let them think/answer after each)

It gets them to realize that perhaps their perception of what is PROPER is based on what they believe is NORMAL, and not based on the law, data or reasoning.

Read that last sentence again. Many motorists don't know the finer points of the law, so they follow what they imagine the law should be based on what they see as "normal." They were taught to stay out of the way of cars when they rode bicycles as small children (insert digression about their maturity here if you like), so they think normal is "bikes stay out of the way of cars."

Never mind that there is exactly nothing about the car that gives it any priority over any other road user (unless that car happens to be equipped with "first responder" lights and siren). Never mind that it is quite dangerous for me to hug the fog line (that white line at the edge of the road), because it puts me out of sight of the overtaking road user and/or invites that road user to squeeze past me in MY LANE rather than change lanes, as is the legal standard.

Of course, most motorists that fuss at me are not interested in dialog. They want to get past me because they are late for that cup of caffe latte mochachino or something, and just want to vent their frustration over their own tardiness and lack of time-management skills at me as they rush past.

Nice day for some utility cycling

I decided I wanted a plywood floor/deck for my recently-acquired Bikes at Work trailer, so I asked my stepfather if he had any scraps in his workshop that I could use. He had most of a sheet we could rip to size, so I pulled the empty trailer to work this morning, then stopped at my mother and stepfather's house to get that plywood.

Having done that, I had a couple errands in Middletown, so I went that way. I lived with my folks for a while in 1999, and rode to my job in Middletown quite often. It felt good to be able to ride those roads again, although traffic out that way has gotten even more impatient with the passing years.

On the way home from Middletown, I decided to pick up some mulch for a yard project Jenn and I had been discussing. I got three bags at three cubic feet each, partly to see how far they would go on the project and partially because I figured that load would give me a feel for how much more I could haul if necessary.

After using all three bags, I estimated that six more bags would finish this portion, and felt that I could haul that load easily enough. I went back to Lowe's on Hurstbourne Parkway and got the additional mulch.

I suppose I could have used the pickup truck, but I had fun imagining the thoughts going through motorists' minds when seeing me with my payload.

Once home, I finished spreading the mulch, but not before Jenn brought out a bathroom scale so we could estimate the weight of my trailer load. Each of the two bags we weighed was roughly thirty pounds of mulch, meaning I'd hauled a hundred eighty pounds my second trip. I felt like I could have hauled all nine bags at once, given the fairly flat terrain involved.

I'm going to have fun with this trailer. I can see myself looking for ways to use it, now that I have it. I'd better think carefully about whether to get that Big Dummy...