In Which A Tree Blooms and I Contemplate Mortality

On a cool spring morning, on C Avenue, I pause on morning bike ride to make image of flowering tree.

My morning paper, The Gazette, has had some reminders of mortality lately. I read about a famous Chicago architect, dead at age 81 after he was hit by two vehicles while on a bicycle ride. (I can't find the wire story The Gazette ran, but here is a Chicago Tribune account).

Closer to home, a bicycle rider in Coralville was killed last month by a teen driver who was both using social media on a cell phone and speeding at the time. The Gazette story.

I don’t aspire to expire in the saddle, and if I’m still rolling at age 81, I hope to die in my sleep rather than on the road. But I have had a few reminders on my bike rides lately that the world is a dangerous place. Today, on the way home, a right-turning car at the corner of C Avenue and Collins Road was ready to rev and turn in front of me, despite me making eye contact and having the right of way in the walkway (with a walk light on). He paused and I passed on, but luckily I didn’t also pass on.

The day before I had a rever ecounter, not exactly a reaver, but not pleasant. A rever is a BUT driver who gratuitously revs just as they pass. Sir, if I had a Big Ugly Truck, I would do a better job of having a functioning muffler.

Anyway, despite reminders of mortality, this dry spring is turning into a wonderful time for a bicycle commuter. I don’t much need lights anymore. My hybrid bike still needs to go into the shop to have it’s chronic back flat problem attended to, and I still haven’t had the road bike serviced.

Yet the Fancy Beast abides. I’ve noticed my speed on it has picked up a bit lately—I sometimes finish my half-hour commute in 25 minutes. I have no theory why, except maybe the luck that some days have not been windy. I've also been enjoying the new spring growth--along C Avenue, several of the new trees planted there are in bloom.

So, despite the right-turn danger demons and the noisy BUT drivers, I’ll still keep rolling through the 'verse. Stay safe out there.