I must have missed the idiot day warnings

I tell you gang, today's roads here were just brimming with idiots.
They were not the garden variety distracted or flustered moron types
today, instead they were the what planet did you say you were from variety.

It started this morning, I'm about to ride the bike around the
corner, down a block, turn and three blocks down the gas station when
I hear this car coming up my street. Now when I say hear the car
coming I'm not quite accurate since all I can hear is the scraping of
the metal parts of the seat belt dragging on the asphalt. I mean its
louder the engine of this battered Taurus wagon. As the vehicle
passes I point at the belt and yell, "Your Belt is dragging", Both my
next door neighbor and the teenager from across the street hear me.
the car goes almost three more houses down the street and then stops
with a screeching of brakes and skidding of tires. The driver rolls
his window down and says loudly, "the speed limit on this street is
25 miles per hour".
I responded a little bit louder this time, "Okay, Your seat belt is
dragging on the ground". The drive now leans his head out of the car,
but stays facing away from me (it's amazing how they think the mirror
will make their voices carry in the right direction) and this time
yells, "the speed limit on this street is 25 miles per hour". As he
says that the car lurches off down the street struggling to build any speed.
I quickly jog across my neighbors property and stand on the edge of
the curb and Yell, "That's right, but your seat belt is out in the street".
Shrieking brakes, skidding tires like you hear from the background
just before a movie or TV car crash scene, the car stops at the end
of the block barely. With a horrendous crunch of gears and a big
lurch, the car settles and the drivers door is flung open. Now this
moron jumps out of the car and screams at the top of his lungs, "the
speed limit on this street is 25 miles per hour". He sucks a huge
breath and dives back into the car, slamming the door shut on the
seat belt again.
Now I bellow, "wake up you moron, your seat belt is hanging out of
your car". He responds by sticking his entire arm out of the window
to wave his middle finger around in a circle. Then with another
crunch and jolt takes off.
Both my neighbors are laughing like crazy as I shrug and walk back to my bike.
Pull on my helmet and gloves, while the bike warms up then head out.
Its hot and I'm only going a couple of blocks in the heat, so I don't
put my visor down. A left around the corner up to the end of the
block, hang a right and go three blocks to the gas station. It almost
seems magical because what do I see a block from the gas station, the
white Taurus pulled over with a borough police Explorer behind, its
lights flashing. As I ride by this loser starts shaking his fist at
me, like I had something to do with it.
I pulled into the gas station headed to the back for the compressor
line to fill my tires first. I'm sort of friends (aka a very regular
and customer), so he lets me use the "free air" compressor hose
instead of the coin-op fill station. The downside is that it is
seldom full, so you have to wait for the compressor to cycle. I flip
the shield down to cut the glare from all the glass of the bank
across the street.
Going over to put air in the tires kind of worked out to be a miracle
and a mistake at the same time as the white Taurus comes by, pulls
into the front of the station. Again he stop the car so hard you
swear he's about to have and accident.
I see him staring at me, and my SA index goes up from blue to orange,
or down from DefCon five to three. He notices that I'm watching him,
so he starts pointing at me and shaking his fist. When I finish
filling up the rear tire with air, I decide that it is not a good day
to have deal with this lunatic and the resulting BS. As I pull on my
gloves and start my bike, I can hear this madman revving the crap out
the motor. I pull away, hoping that this guy is too stupid to have
realized that the back lot has more than one exit unlike the front of
the station.
I feed out the clutch to the sounds of car engine screaming its life
away and one tire howling as it spins. I can't even hear my VFR over
the noise this car is making around the structure of the gas station
mini-mart. As I clear the far side of the building, I see Mr. Taurus
sliding around the outside of the last pump Island and head on what
he thinks is an intercept course.

I take the cue and snap open the throttle as I jink just slightly to
the right, and bolt out the back exit of the station. The exit ramp
rapidly rises to just about two feet higher than the back of the
station lot, but apparently Mr. Taurus has target fixation and fails
to notice. He slams the car into the berm, vaulting the front wheels
up onto the ramp. but the rear of the car is not clear. I keep going
but hearing the motor continue rev at it limit and the tires shriek,
I check my mirrors to see the him dragging the rear of the wagon up
over both the curbs.
The exit from the back of the gas station goes about thirty feet and
dumps into a driveway that allows access to a small grocery store and
a public storage site. I considered hiding in the PS, but pass on it
quickly, I want out of here. I ride across and behind the back of the
store. There are loading docks back there and truck entrance on the
other side. It "T" into the street near a corner so I duck left and
then right. I'm over the borough line in the next township, but I
want to get back over the line into the borough where the cop that
had just stopped him is based. I'm trying to balance riding like a
lunatic up a residential street against getting run down by this guy.
Then I spot a Township cop sitting in the shade of the cross street
about four blocks up. I swing a left up that street and then do a
quick U-turn. I pull right up next to the cruiser and stop. I flip up
the front of my helmet before I say anything just so I can look the
cop in the eye.
Well, the cop is a guy that I went to High School with so I know that
I'll be able to convince him that I'm in a sh!tload of trouble. He
was surprised enough at first that he did not roll the window down
when I stopped, but when he see's my face, one hand jumps to the
window buttons and the other grabs for the radio Mic.
I blurt out his name and that I need some help, just as Mr. Taurus
comes sliding around the corner, the back end of the wagon a total
disaster. He slides by the police cruiser and my bike way wide, over
on the other side of the street with the right rear tire humping and
banging on the curb, then I guess his brain registers the police
cruiser and he buries the throttle. Unfortunately for him this street
is almost three blocks long but has no cross streets and dead ends in
lot with a house foundation in it and huge dirt berm back stopping it.
I still don't know what this loon thought, but he just barreled full
bore up onto the lot and out over the foundation. The wagon carried
the full basement section at the front of the house and almost
cleared the crawl space wall at the back.
But instead of jumping the foundation, the nose hit the back wall
about three feet down with a slightly nose down attitude. The poured
concrete foundation wall gave less than a foot and flipped the car
over. It crashes down on the rear hatch and digs into the soft berm.
My buddy tries to radio the incident in requesting not only the
regular fire and rescue unit, but the special recovery truck as swell
as the EMS and EMT units. "Come on, follow me" he says as he puts the
cruiser in gear and does a k-turn to go back to the dead end. By the
time we roll back there, the first of the fire trucks (from the
station three blocks away) are thunder up the street. The front wheel
on what was the passenger side is still spinning so fast that you
cannot read the lettering on the tire.
It takes the firemen about ten minutes to rig a scaffold supported
platform to reach over the hole so they can work on freeing this guy
and another twenty to get him out. His neck is probably broken, his
left shoulder is dislocated, the collarbone on that side is sticking
out through his shirt. His one leg is all twisted so the either the
knee was horribly dislocated or the femur was broken and he screamed
every time anyone touched any part of his other leg. By that time
three other township cops had arrived, one having been called to the
gas station first then getting to the scene.
I was standing off to the side where I could get a pretty good look
at him while I made my statement to my buddies Sergeant. He started
with the What of what happened, asking questions about how the guy
came after me. My buddy had already run my records and handed them to
the Sergeant. As we are ending the part about the chase and what I
witnessed of the crashed Mr. Taurus sudden seems to come out of his
shock a bit. He points at me with his right hand and screams "This Is
All Your Fault". He takes a shuddering breath, winces and screams
again "This Is All Your Fault", only this time he passes out. The one
EMT shoots me a look as the other quickly checks the guy's vitals.
The Sergeant looks at me, then my info, then me, then the papers
again, before he draws pulls himself up and asks me "What started all this".
I tell him straight up just like I told it here, and I can see that
he really doesn't believe me. "Look, my one next door neighbor and
the Kid from across the street were right there and I'm pretty sure
that old Ms. Hanes from up the street was doing her usual busybody
bit and heard it all. Call them if you need to verify it".
So he calls my neighbor, who he happens to know and Steve tells it
exactly like I did. About that time a borough police Explorer pulls
up to see if, they need assistance (The firemen were from the Borough
station house so the cop was following up on their call). It turns
out he was the guy that stopped Mr. Taurus in the first place. He
tells the township cop that the guy became very agitated when a
motorcycle passed the traffic stop. The Sergeant asks the Borough cop
if my bike parked to the side was the bike he saw pass them. The
Borough cop confirms that he saw a red bike with a rider wearing a
red jacket and silver helmet go by, then he glances at me and
realizes that I was that rider.
Now I have to tell the whole episode to him and by the time I'm done
my buddy the cop can't stop giggling. Even a couple of the firemen
who have been standing around us start to loose it.
The EMT's load this guy into the ambulance and as it pulls away most
of people who know the whole story start to break up laughing.

I ride home and load the vfr onto the trailer for the trip. I set the
wheel dock, cable lock the front wheel to the mounting base, use
ratcheting tie downs to anchor the rear to the trailer and lock the
ratchets with padlocks and then it hits me. I still did not get gas.
I yell, "I don't believe this" to air and just sit on one of the
cargo boxes on the trailer.
Steve comes around from behind his house (where he's building a deck
around his new pool). He wants to did everything workout. So I tell
him "Yeah but after all that I still didn't get gas, it just goes to
prove no good deed goes un-punished".
He doubles over unable to not laugh and finally I join him.
He grabs his five gallon gas can and runs over to the gas station and
fills it up. He insists that I fill my bike and then won't even take
any money for it.
"best entertainment I've had all month" he said as he walks back to
the posts of his future deck.

As I pack my gear in the cargo box for the trip, I glance at my cell
phone and realize it is only 10:30, "Its gonna be a looonnnggg day".


JohnS
A Dragon Ascending
"Forging my body in the Fires of my Will"

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John: That was no idiot! That was a raving lunatic! I meet idiots daily,
but fortunately for all of us, that the lunatics are rare.
I'm very sorry you had an encounter with one, but very glad you got out
of it without getting seriously hurt!

best,
-turgut

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At 03:15 AM 8/17/2007, you wrote:

>John: That was no idiot! That was a raving lunatic! I meet idiots daily,
>but fortunately for all of us, that the lunatics are rare.
>I'm very sorry you had an encounter with one, but very glad you got out
>of it without getting seriously hurt!
>
>best,
> -turgut

Its not the first time I've had to deal with a loon like that. It
seems that I run into some major maniac about every six months.
I just really get worked up sometimes over the best place to make a stand.
I get into the state where I'm ready to confront the maniac and
either shock them back to sanity or fight it out.
But deciding whether you want a lot of people around or if you really
need and isolated spot is occasionally a challenge.
I mean there is always the possibility that the Bastage is really so
crazy that he might have a gun and start shooting potential witnesses.
Other times calling them out in a very public place can make them
change modes and run away.

I've done both before
Called one guy out at a gas station, while the attendant called 911.
Heard the sirens and fled the scene.

Another time used a UPS way station as big empty maze, ducking and
hiding, frustrating the woman until she crashed her Buick then I
called the cops and split.



JohnS
A Dragon Ascending
"Forging my body in the Fires of my Will"

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>> As I pack my gear in the cargo box for the trip, I glance at my cell
phone and realize it is only 10:30, "Its gonna be a looonnnggg day". <<


LMAO! DAYUM John! And here I thought the tropical storm that hit us here in
Houston yesterday made for an interesting day. You should tell this tale to
some producer in Hollywood.
__________________________
Mick McHam Houston, TX
'01 ST1100 ABS, STOC# 1134
'00 VFR800FI
http://www.hal-pc.org/~mmcham

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Good day then?
:-)
----- Original Message -----
From: "JES_VFR"
To:
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 4:58 PM
Subject: I must have missed the idiot day warnings


>I tell you gang, today's roads here were just brimming with idiots.
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On 8/16/07, JES_VFR wrote:
> I tell you gang, today's roads here were just brimming with idiots.

Some days the sky just opens up and the stupid rays do shine down.
Be careful out there people.
You're making LA look like the sane place to ride. :)

JohnA in LA
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Well, I certainly feel like an idiot today. Went to a store to buy a
backpack and a bigger camelback, got them both, left and put the backpack on
the bike, just the strap mind you, hanging from the rear passenger grab
handle. I don't know why but I totally forgot about it, got on and rode off,
200 feet or so to the road, its clear of traffic so I take off, get up to
about 65mph and then it gets caught in the rear wheel, totally locking it
up. So now I'm skidding, going slowly side to side but I manage to keep it
up. Now I'm in the middle of the road and cars are coming at me, luckily
they avoided me, I manage to get it off to the side with the help of a
passing motorist, and manage to get the backpack out by letting the air out
and pushing it through. I'm lucky, very lucky, I don't think I would have
kept it up 10 years ago. $100 down the drain with the backpack and camelback
but a lot less than the cost of the bike and hospital would have been.

I tell you, if I would have had a front brake lock on I probably would have
left that damn thing on too.

Just a reminder to keep a clear head, I got a big reminder today.

Eric Jaramillo

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I seem to remember that "in summers, there are more casualties but fewer
accidents. In winters, there are less casualties but more accidents!"

Glad to see that the summer is passing - it's been brutally hot this
year. However, the "wet bandanna around neck" works miracles, feels like
a real air conditioner around your neck! -turgut

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Sorry to hear it Eric! I have done plenty of such stuff in the past, so
don't feel bad!
I'm very glad that nothing terrible happened!
I had forgotten the disc locks on before and attempted to ride - clunk!
worse, it got wedged between the disc and the break pads, and had a heck
of a time getting it out.
I read somewhere that you should attach a wire to the lock which you
bring to the handlebars..
Seeing that wire won't let you forget the lock..
-turgut

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So the real irony here is if he could have avoided all the injuries had he
been wearing his seatbelt. Of course the whole thing wouldn't have
transpired anyway if he was wearing the belt and not dragging on the ground.
:>D

Paul Kolbo


----- Original Message -----
From: "JES_VFR"
To:
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 1:58 AM
Subject: I must have missed the idiot day warnings


> As the vehicle
> passes I point at the belt and yell, "Your Belt is dragging",

> His neck is probably broken, his
> left shoulder is dislocated, the collarbone on that side is sticking
> out through his shirt. His one leg is all twisted so the either the
> knee was horribly dislocated or the femur was broken and he screamed
> every time anyone touched any part of his other leg. By that time
> three other township cops had arrived, one having been called to the
> gas station first then getting to the scene.

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