You not gonna make my car wait

I'm riding back to my office about 6:30pm on an unusual route for me. As I stop for a light, I hear a loud male voice, "You not gonna make my car wait."

An older male passenger in a pick up truck passed me. He repeated this in his low, loud voice several more times. His truck stopped at the next light too, this time in my lane. I stayed back. What do I need with trouble?

I don't even know what he means. Was he being supportive? Was I in the way? Was he trying to be creepy? I felt creeped out. Why do you think this happened? Would he have said anything if I was a pedestrian?

Beware the Minivan

I'm riding my regular route approaching a stop sign. The road ends. I have to turn right. As I approach, maybe within 15 ft, Lady Minivan passes me and slants back into the lane to stop in front of me. I have to escape the lane because she's cutting it so close - and what do I care about riding on the grass? As we clear the intersection, she pulls up next to me again, rolls down her window, and intensely tells me how I have to obey all the traffic rules of the road. I gave her fantastic retort! I was so ON!

"You're driving a car! Please don't kill me!"

I mean, I think she needed the reminder.

MS150 - New Bern

I signed up to marshal the MS150 in New Bern this year. The organizer of the marshals asked me how MS has touched my life. The simple answer is: I don't know anybody with MS. I have several friends with moms who have MS. But no, I've not met them.

There was a day that I collapsed at work. My knees left me, and I couldn't get up. I had sheering, paralyzing pain through my shoulders. My family came to get me from work and took me to the doctor. The symptoms had abated, and the guy offered me a bunch of muscle relaxers. That's not my bag, so I went to get another opinion.

This new doctor interviewed me for almost an hour. She asked me about my life, my habits, my family. She listened. I cried. At the end, she had some ideas. First step was blood work. My blood work came back perfect - healthy liver function, good iron, great cholesterol levels. This is when she suggested that I start the tests to rule out MS.

This is the scary part. Things were bad at home. My husband was having an affair and not working at the time. I asked him how we could find the $1k to meet my insurance deductible. I was scared, and I needed not just his financial support but some emotional support. He laughed at me.

What could have happened if different parts of this nightmare had been true? Let's not think too far down that story because it isn't mine. I'm divorced, and I'm healthy. MS didn't touch my life, and I am so thankful.

I ride charity rides because I can. I love the sport of cycling. I know the importance of spirit, attitude, and ambition. If you're not riding, please support the riders who are. If you're riding, I'll see you there.

Those Bees!

I'm out mowing my lawn because I live in a typical suburban neighborhood with an HOA. They insist on it. When I planted a garden in my front yard, they told me I wasn't allowed to have a fence. Well, you can't have a garden in North Carolina without a fence. Bambi likes veggies even if your suburban children don't. You can't have a lawn at home with an HOA without mowing it. So, back to the lawn mowing.

I'm mowing my lawn with my self-propelled, gas-powered mower because I have an acre to mow. Can I say I was wearing a bathing suit because the neighbors like it and still be a feminist? No? Well, it was easily above 95 degrees. I was wearing attire to match the weather. Right as the mower crossed a hole, I thought to myself, "that looks like a bee's n... OH MY GOD THAT HURTS! RUN, FEET! SWING HEAD SIDE TO SIDE! OWWWWCHCHCHCH"

These thoughts were quickly followed by, "I'm going to get back at those bees. They can't still be there tomorrow. My kids play there! My hammock is there! I'm getting the gasoline."

I'd like to tell you it took less than overnight for those thoughts to sink in. But anyway - the next day, I was overwhelmed with the guilt of destroying the natural habitat of possible honey-producing bees. Google taught me that 70% of the 20,000 species of bees are ground-nesting. Most of them produce honey. And their population numbers are devastated because of oil and gas.

Oh. I'm a bad person.

I'm going to get a push mower and wear more clothes. Dear bees, I'm sorry.