Selah

I'll go along with Noah and say that ER's are not a fun place to hang out, especially at the moment. Sunday I rode to my Dad's and then immediately drove him to the ER. I'm sure my dad will be fine. A couple observations:

1. When I went in to get a wheel chair, I noticed that every single chair there was much wider than what I would normally consider a typical wheel chair width. Another commentary on American way of life, I suppose.


2. We camped out in an ER exam room for 24 hours before a bed in the hospital freed up. They are that busy. People were and are lined up on both sides of three hallways leading to the ER waiting room. As it turns out, I liked the exam room -- it was a private room and the care was excellent.

Sunday I took a new route that I think I'll be very happy with. Much less traffic on the side streets I followed. Still, there were occasional intersections where I played they You Go, No, You Go game. A nice article from Memphis puts it this way:

"While stop signs are an indicator for bicyclists to stop, motorists often wait for cyclists to pass through a stop sign, even if by law it is the motorist's turn to proceed."

If it isn't my turn, I still put a foot on the ground and grab my water bottle. Works for me.

"Road safety is a shared responsibility: Cyclists should give cars plenty of signals to communicate what they intend to do, and cars should provide the room necessary for bicyclists to ride in the right-hand lane of traffic, a highly visible and safe location for bicyclists."

Yes, they should ... but, especially this time of year, drivers aren't used to looking for cyclists. I still feel that the more of us that get out there, the more drivers will come to expect people on bicycles to be around.