The weather has gotten hotter. We passed through a rainy period, my family (4 kids) and I. We biked hard, avoiding the afternoon thunderstorms using luck and guile.
WIth the hotter weather, there are more open windows, and more irritated drivers, unhappy that they have to "share" the road with other vehicles like bikes. So we got a few honks and dirty looks since my last entry. Annoying, yes. This sort of thing is inevitable, given the state of humanity.
And, of course, we get our fair share of right hooks by inattentive/defiant drivers that we avoid. Too many to remember all at once in this entry, but not so many that I would have to take off my shoes to count all the incidents.
It can be frustrating, this cycling in traffic. So frustrating that my wife, who used to join us regularly in our cycling efforts, has given up. She refuses to cycle any more. Rightly or wrongly, I feel hurt and abandoned by her decision. We have done this together for years, but now, no more. Sitting in the car is not the same. Guzzling gasoline, when I don't have to, just doesn't feel right to me, nor should it to anyone, who is properly concerned about what sort of future our kids will inherit from us, and our energy-profligate ways.
So I soldier on, often with the kids, who do not understand as I do, but are mostly willing to go along for the ride. I, alone, may not make a difference. But one million more of me, perhaps. The "White Rose" movement in Germany to subvert Hitler and his Holocaust dreams made no difference. Does this mean they shouldn't have tried? I say it's better to try and fail than to not try at all. So I'll keep trying!
