Daniel's Place

For those of you who don’t know, I’m 23 today. One step closer to being older than I was one step ago. Age doesn’t concern me in my youth, though it is disturbing how quickly these 20’s are moving. 

Yesterday was Earth day and tomorrow is my friend’s birthday. I can’t think of a better time to be born. 

If you have too much time on your hands, check out what other wonderful and not so wonderful things happened today. I’ll summarize the main points below: 

Births

1564 – William Shakespeare, English writer and actor (d. 1616)

1923 – Dolph Briscoe, Governor of Texas

1958 – Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Icelandic music composer

1987 – Emily Fox, American cupstacking champion (how she got in Wikipedia amazes even me, I need my own page)

Deaths

303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and Christian martyr

1124 – King Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078)

1616 – William Shakespeare, English writer and actor (b. 1564) (date according to the Julian calendar, hence 10 days later than death of Cervantes or Garcilaso, by the Gregorian calendar)

2007 – Boris Yeltsin, first President of the Russian Federation (b. 1931) (sad to see you go, Boris)

Holidays

Canada Book Day

UNESCO International Day of the Book in honor of the death of both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes on April 23, 1616.

Closing thoughts

If Boris Yeltsin and Shakespere kicking buckets isn’t enough reason to celebrate then just remember that you can make it into Wikipedia if you stack cups. 

Incidentally, Warren Zanes of the Del Fuegos doesn’t have his own Wikipedia page either (though his wife, April March, does have a page). Zanes, you and I are one of a kind: famous without the fame.

Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.  -Simone Weil

Sometime around when the rest of the world is blooming, the weather here takes an interesting turn. A merciful display of care as the heavens open up, pause the rain, and pour forth a morsel of sunlight. It may just be a drop, but it’s enough to send citizens bustling into the sidewalks and streets. Best to apply sunscreen for skin will certainly combust in the face of so many photons. Now venture forth and join all the Seattle polite* folks out there; this reprieve will not last.

They typical Seattle skyline looks like something out of a game environment with the sky switched off:

Depth of field gives way to an endless, uniform grey. Don’t bother looking for the horizon, you won’t find it.

But on this beautiful tax day, as others were celebrating a Boston tea party, I found the texture and blue in the sky promising and invigorating. 

Maybe it was the caffeine from all the tea I drank at work, maybe it was something else. Something more primal. I raced home in a frenzy, music cranked to the max, tolerance for slow drivers to the min.

Like a drug addict clambering for a fix, I <events involving tight shorts removed> and was out on the street in short order. My blood cooled from boiling as my legs pushed the pedals.

Flying best describes it. Good, zero-carbon-footprint, old-fashioned, <tight shorts reference removed> fun.

Crossing the I-90 bridge was a little ironic when I waved at and passed cars traveling on the highway. On the other side was a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier:

The camera in my phone is admittedly not very good. But you can see something undeniably beautiful: a blue sky over Seattle.

It won’t be long before we’re stuck under Edgar Allen Poe’s oppressively low hanging clouds. This kind of weather won’t come around again until July 5th.

For one moment, on this day day, I snatched a few rays from the sky and called them my own. And beauty delivered on its promise.

* Seattle Polite is a behavior observed frequently in the northwest. It is characterized by an overt and impractical attempt to display niceness. Typically requiring little or no effort on the displayer (see this blog entry for example and analysis).

There are many reasons to complain about driving in the Seattle area. This is one such particularly compelling story.

For those of you who aren’t aware, many drivers in the Seattle area demonstrate an uncanny proficiency in inattentive, dangerous, drunk, and distracted (not the same as inattentive) driving. These make for a rather hazardous environment for cars, bicycles, and pedestrians alike. (Annecdotally: nearly every time I drive at night, I observe at least one car with its headlights turned completely off.)

I was riding home from work today (4/8/2009) along the well regulated streets of Bellevue. The ride was smooth by comparsion to other rides with a surprising amount of legal compliance on the part of car drivers. Two blocks away from home, I found myself impressed with the drivers around me. Nobody unnecessarily endangered my life. Until…

Brrrr WOOSH!Millisecond reflexes saved my life as an individual driving a grey Infiniti (license plate 953-RCV, male driver in his twenties, brown and bleached yellow hair) shot past. Another inch and his rear view mirror would’ve struck my elbow. The adrenaline took hold. Obviously, our kindly driver was not in full understanding of his actions.

I stomped on my pedals to catch up. The driver parked at the next intersection. Most folks don’t know what they’re doing when they do something stupid, I reasoned to myself, perhaps I should explain myself to the driver. By now, I reached the driver who was parked at the red light. Cautiously, I sidled along side the driver’s window which was cracked slightly.

“Pardon me, sir, do you realize how dangerous that was?” I said, keeping my cool. “What?” came the reply. “Do you realize how dangerous and illegal that was?” my voice elevated slightly. “Then you shouldn’t be on the road,” the kindly driver stated nonchalantly. The light turned green, he sped off.

Stunned, shocked, fascinated. I was these things. How does a driver demonstrate such willful ignorance?

RCW 46.61.110 states (interesting part in bold):

The following rules shall govern the overtaking and passing of vehicles proceeding in the same direction, subject to those limitations, exceptions and special rules hereinafter stated:

     (1) The driver of a vehicle overtaking other traffic proceeding in the same direction shall pass to the left thereof at a safe distance and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken traffic.

     (2) The driver of a vehicle approaching a pedestrian or bicycle that is on the roadway or on the right-hand shoulder or bicycle lane of the roadway shall pass to the left at a safe distance to clearly avoid coming into contact with the pedestrian or bicyclist, and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken pedestrian or bicyclist.

     (3) Except when overtaking and passing on the right is permitted, overtaken traffic shall give way to the right in favor of an overtaking vehicle on audible signal and shall not increase speed until completely passed by the overtaking vehicle.

Even lawyers would have trouble finding a way to construe almost killing me as a “safe distance.”

Lesson Learned

If you ever find yourself in a car needing to pass a cyclist, please observe a couple simple rules:

• Unless it’s unsafe, impossible, etc. give the cyclist 3 feet of room while passing.
• Don’t almost hit the cyclist.

We all want to get where we’re going. We want to get there on time. Most of us want to get there alive.

To the driver of the Infiniti: you are truly a precious snowflake. Don’t be a dumbass snowflake. BTW, my carbon footprint pwns yours. Kthxbai!