Saturday, September 8, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Patrick and I drove to Santa Cruz to get away for a few hours before he leaves for China on Wednesday. On the way down Highway 1 we encountered bicyclists riding side-by-side and the one on the left was clearly not passing the other. This behavior of bicyclists creates a dangerous situation because it's not safe for our car to cross the yellow line in order to bypass two side-by-side bicyclists. Nor is it safe for us to slow down to their speed when we have a trail of cars following us. The thin lanes of Highway 1 are treacherous enough when cars share the road with bicyclists riding single-file. This is an excellent example of the uneasy relationship we have with bicyclists. We mean them no harm and are as friendly as possible when we see they are riding within the law. However, in San Francisco every day I see bicyclists running red lights and stop signs, riding on the sidewalk, and commiting other acts which are illegal yet I never see policemen stopping them for violations even when I see them observe the violations. To these particular bicyclists on Highway 1, I wanted to yell "Share the road!", throwing a frequent message from bicyclists to drivers back at them. Bicyclists frequently expect friendly behavior from cars but do not always behave within the law or are friendly to drivers. In Santa Cruz, we walked the Pacific Garden Mall and saw how everything had changed and stayed the same. We got a coffee drink at Santa Cruz Roasting Company. We happened upon the 2007 Greek Festival and ate Greek food which was mostly delicious. We listened to Greek music. We watched a young boy try to climb a rock wall which was set up for the event. Patrick's $9 sunglasses mysteriously broke, so he bought a new, inexpensive pair. We watched the surfers from West Cliff Drive. Drove home. I napped while Patrick drove. We stopped to buy some local honey to see if it will help with preventing allergy symptoms. Home. Patrick left to spend the evening with Aaron. I worked on Danny's website and cooked dinner: steamed rice with leftovers. More work on Danny's website. Archived documents. Finished initial work on Danny's website, sent link and instructions to Drew for review.