Thanks for softening me up, temperatures over 50 degrees. It made getting on the bike in 18 degree-weather that much colder. And in all honesty it wasn't that bad today. The effort it took to pull on those extra layers was something I will not miss when it's finally spring though.

For whatever reason I decided to try something a little different this morning, and take Belmont to Clark and straight down. There was a lot less road grit, but that's only b/c there's a lot more cars blowing it off to the curb. But it was fine, other than a tight squeeze by a bus as a light was turning green.

I should have known better than to try and follow my right of way in that situation, especially after last night. The wife and I were taking the dog out just as it was starting to rain, but it was still pretty warm and no one wanted to stay inside. Keeping to some side streets with four-way stops instead of lights, we started walking south. After a few blocks we were all almost run over by some chick texting instead of looking to see if anyone was in the intersection. She was close enough for me to kick her VW bug as hard as I could after pulling the dog out of the way. Scary.

It was a close enough call that my legs were shaking for a number of blocks after. I was mad enough that I tried to hand the leash to the wife so I could run after the car that was stopped in a line of traffic waiting for a light to change on Southport. She was at least level-headed enough to not take it. I don't know what I would have done if she actually had taken the leash, but it wouldn't have been pretty. That was an encounter I'm going to have a hard time shaking off anytime soon.

So I was hyper-cautious this morning, but the killer is I had the right of way to try and get through an intersection blocked by a bus and some moron who couldn't figure out how to go around a bus, and still thought the bus got way too close for comfort as it started into the intersection as soon as I had space to do the same. What the hell. I can't wait to hop back on this evening and see what else can happen. Oh boy.

Current beer-scale: 7.1