
So I’ve been commuting to work on my bike pretty regularly for the past couple of months. Tuesday I finally had the absolute commute from hell. I had to drive in on Wed just to clear my head.
I carry my laptop in a timbuk2 messenger bag. That morning it was exceptionally heavy, so I decided to bungee it to the top of my rack, above my panniers. I guess the extra weight got to the mounting hardware, so about a quarter mile from my office, the nut vibrated off the top bolt and my whole rack, panniers & bag swiveled backward around my wheels dragging me to a stop like an anchor. Luckily I was able to use the bungees from my bag to strap the whole rack back on to the bike.
On the way home I had my first beer can thrown at me by a car while commuting. I hear about this sort of thing all the time but I was still virginal. I guess I offended the car full of young latinos when i blasted by on the shoulder while they were stuck in traffic. As I turned onto Cedar, they screamed something unintelligible and threw a half-empty can at me. I threw a double fingered salute right back. They had horrible aim.
About a mile further at a very busy part of the road, I was trackstanding in the middle of the road waiting to turn left during a break in my lane’s traffic. I managed to knock one of my panniers off in the middle of the road. Had to throw the bike into the shoulder and dart for my bag before it was run over by traffic.
I’m hoping that I got all my negative karma points out of the way on that day. Today’s ride in was uneventful, even enjoyable.