Friday, December 14, 2007

back in the cold

Finals are over and I am back in Bend. I have been here three days now and today is the first I have ridden (my wife's converted mountain bike). I have been driving her car around for a few days and noticed a few things.

First, it is nice not having law finals hanging over my head. I had five stretching over two weeks and a third Monday. Nothing like getting my money's worth.

B, drivers in Bend are much more agro than the drivers in Salem. Forget about drivers around bikers, I am simply talking about drivers around other drivers. It is not like I did not know about Bend like this. As much as it wants to keep it, the small town charm is gone and appears to be replaced with...not necessarily a bunch of bastards, but close. Maybe it is because people in Salem accept their fate; they live in Salem. Maybe people in Bend cannot accept that it is OK not to get through the intersection first.

Third, my daughter's grade school rocks. The principal is out in the halls greeting parents, in the parking lot directing traffic and knows the names of all of his kids...900 of them. The only time I saw my grade school principal was for disciplinary reasons. I saw my Principal's office quite a bit. We were on a first name basis. In high school, my relationship with the dean of discipline deepened to one of great emotional attachment. His day was not complete without a visit from me.

Next, riding in the Bend weather is awesome...no sweat. It is way too cold to sweat in the morning chill.

I am chilling with my coffee at Thump, awaiting an old friend to see if we can find anything to catch up on.

Lamentably, another cyclist was killed in Oregon yesterday. http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_121307_news_pedestrian_struck_powell_.110101f0.html

That is another one too many in this state. Every time something like this happens, my awareness ramps up, no matter what town I am in.

Enough for an early morning post. School starts on the 7th of Jan.