Volvos and Putty Knives

This morning I was riding my bike down 19th St. toward Valencia when I came upon a large truck stopped on the right side of the road, leaving just one lane open, which I entered with confidence, as there was no one coming toward me. When I was halfway or so through the constricted area, a Volvo entered it from the other side. Since I was already occupying the stretch of road that was wide enough for only one vehicle, I kept going. So did the Volvo. I suppose the driver was thinking, "Why would this be dangerous? I'm in a Volvo!" I kept going and at the last possible moment, the Volvo paused to let me by. I just realized I didn't even bother to give the driver a stern look.

This reminded me that yesterday, on Market Street, I saw a Volvo sedan coming perilously close to cyclists, not speeding, but passing with just inches to spare. It was a wet day and had any cyclist slipped, he or she could have been hurt, as I noticed every one of them had forgotten to put on a nice, safe Volvo. In years past, I might have pulled up to the driver's window, tapped on the glass and given him a brief course in safe driving, but instead when I found myself next to the car, I merely peered in and took a look at him. I'm always curious to see who these people are who are so oblivious to the presence and safety of those around them; also, I thought it would be handy in case I ever had to identify him in court.

As for the putty knives, I have to move to a new cube at work. I don't know what the previous occupant used to do in there, but there was some stuff crusted on the flat surfaces that yielded not to a wet paper towel and reasonable amount of scrubbing, so today I brought in a putty knife for scraping and that did the trick. Three of my coworkers are moving to the same area, but they haven't started cleaning yet. I thought it was just as well to do the putty-knife thing before they arrived, as once I was trying to remove the hairs and dust and other unsavory bits of debris from a computer keyboard by turning it upside down and banging on it, and a coworker came over and said, "I think I hear an OCD episode in progress."