NIMBL

The start of my commute this morning seemed to have more salmon on it than a bagel with lox and everything at The Jewish Mother restaurant in Virginia Beach. Oh my, I can almost taste that chicken liver omelet that I snarfed there. First there was an instance of sweetheart bicyclist/jogger salmoning (traveling against traffic), then a dog walker, then a motorized skateboarder, then three vehicular salmon--one in my lane, two driving the wrong way on the opposite side of the street. I needed Heath Ledger as the Joker, to say, "Why so salmony?" I heard that voice the rest of the ride. At the time either it was too dark to photograph without rudely flashing the salmon in the face, or I was just too sleepy.  I was feeling very NIMBL (Not In My Bike Lane) about salmon and so on when I arrived at the scene of the ongoing dry-up. By way of a status update, they are moving dirt into piles of considerable size with large machines.

And appear (possibly, this is just a guess) to have punched a hole exactly the right size to swallow my bike tire into the sidewalk, revealing in the process interesting reinforcing fibers.

 

 
What I saw after work changed all that negative NIMBL outlook in several ways. That is, after a black Toyota Land Cruiser drove at me down the pedestrian walkway near the Scottsdale Waterfront. Again it seemed unwise to flash the salmoning pedestrian-terrorizing Land Cruiser in the beady eyes, so instead with a trembling hand I grabbed this shot two seconds later. He just wasn't in the spirit of the culture of the muddy ditch, I guess.

This is public poster copy which requires no blog-glossing. Just clicky and read it.

But my negative NIMBL orientation was washed away by the pure waters of beautiful chance encounters. First, and foremost, there's a brand new bike lane freshly painted, along a stretch that really needed it. Where one used to whip a smooth right off of the decent bike lane on Indian School onto 68th Street northbound and quickly find oneself in nobikeland, pinned between two lanes and the canal bridge on the right, now there is this bright, shiny new bike lane. So forget everything else I said before, this is fantastic, thank you responsible parties and street painters and taxpayers who made it possible.

And last, although it's not really my cup of tea any more, you don't really see street offerings like the folllowing very often. It seemed like a sign. A very clear sign. Get up. Go ride.