Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Traffic

The sun came out today. I know that doesn't seem like a very bold statement, but after the gloomy weather lately, a little sunshine went a long way today. I was out on my run, waiting to cross at a pretty busy intersection. The cars on my right, were making a left turn from the turn lane onto the street I was waiting to cross. The green arrow turned to yellow, then red. My crosswalk signal turned green, so I went. I knew damn good and well that there was still a car turning - two of them in fact. Because it's a busy intersection, the first of those cars made it just past the crosswalk before traffic in front of it came to a stop, and it had to stop. Thus, the second car had to stop right at the crosswalk. Irritatedly, I put my arms up, as if to say, "Hello? Stoplight's red? Crosswalk? What were ya' thinkin' dude?" I laughed when I heard a car honk as I continued on my way, passing a bicyclist coming from the other direction. Then I promptly heard the cyclist respond to the driver, "Hey! Ya' dummy!" I laughed out loud so hard I had to stop running for a sec and catch my breath. Cyclists rule. I don't think I've ever heard a grown man call another grown man a 'dummy'. Every time I think about it I laugh again.

Then I got another half mile down the sidewalk and these two little toddlers were out with their vehicles. I think one was pushing a plastic lawnmower, the other was on a yellow plastic dumptruck. The first put out his hand to stop me like a traffic cop. He was making sure the sidewalk was safe for his friend to go by. See, so you know they learn all about traffic safetly when they're young, why do they forget it all when they grow up?

12 comments:

Triseverance said...

Your right I have long ago given up Dummy and moved on to idiot.

JustRun said...

I've ran in front of many a car with my hands in the air. A few have offered a "sorry, I'm dumb" gesture but the rest look at me like I'm the one out of line. I'll never get it.

D said...

You are making me miss running outside!

In answer to your question, this knee issue should go away - he doesn't anticipate it being a continuous problem.

D said...

By the way, when is your next marathon?

Joe said...

Hey "dummy"! We're finally going to get a stretch of decent weather in the Pacific Northwest. Woot!

Anne said...

Cyclists are definitely a different breed. Sometimes I guess it is all about the bike. May more sunrays come your way soon.

psbowe said...

That's a good one about the "dummy"!

Thanks for the kind comments too.

Unknown said...

what a cute, cute post.

Robin said...

I hate it when the cars try to play "nudge the pedestrian", I'm afraid I've used worse words than dummy :-)

Danielle said...

Wow, I wish dummy was the only word that would come out of my mouth in situations like that...I'm so uber watchful of runners when I'm in a car, I wish others would be that careful. It's just irritating. There was one time I almost got hit 3 times on a run...drivers not looking both ways before turning...umm...isn't that one of the first things you are taught??

SRR said...

I think I missed learning about that when I was little. hmmmm....

Stephanie said...

what a nice town where people call curse eachother "dummy"...in my town they say whole different words!!!!!!!