Yesterday, I had to run an errand over in Napa.
I’d just experienced a beautiful morning hike before I left my house, and I was in an easy-breezy mood. If you’ve been following my blog for awhile now, then you know how much my morning hikes mean to me, and…you also know how much I fear driving our enormous Chevy pickup truck that I named Pat. But because I was all calm and peaceful inside, I felt safe and strong in Pat as I turned onto the main road that connects Sonoma to Napa.
It really was a lovely day yesterday, and even though it was quite hot, there’s definitely a Fall feeling stirring in the breeze. But as I was rounding a sweeping bend in the road, I saw a cluster of road bikers all decked out in their helmets and fancy gear on my right. They were mostly gathered together at an awkward T-intersection, and I knew they were waiting for traffic to clear on both sides before they zipped across my road to the other side.
Suddenly, two of the bikers decided to make a break for it, and they darted out in front of me, but I could see that most of the other people in the group were holding back. (Thank you, Lord!) But it all happened pretty fast, and once Pat gets her roll-on, she’s a force to be sure! So I pushed on my breaks in time to let the last of the two bikers whiz in front of me, but these two insane bikers were cutting it so close that I could see that the one biker was a little rattled by his decision to follow the other.
And maybe he could see that I was a little rattled, too!
I felt like rolling down my window and shouting, “Watch out you dumbass biker!!” but I didn’t. I just shouted that out in the confines of the cab of my massive pickup truck. But seriously!!! When it comes to a bike versus a king cab Chevy pickup truck, the bike will never win, and that totally freaked me out. And fear and anger are those twin emotions that both have a way of throttling me when I’m driving the truck.
Now I’m not exaggerating when I say it took a good five minutes for the adrenaline to settle in my thighs after that whole incident. What was that (dumbass) biker thinking? And why was it so important to cross the road at that exact moment, when waiting for me to pass would’ve left the road wide open on both sides and much safer to cross?!!
I bet it was momentum.
The two bikers who crossed probably rolled up on the intersection and saw a gap that would allow them to keep their momentum, and so they took it. And there’s a part of me that totally gets that — even though I still maintain my position on how stupid that was. But when you’re rolling along in life, and it took you a long time to build up your flow, when you see a gap up ahead, you take it simply so you don’t have to stop, wait, and start all over again.
For the record, I’m really not a fan of sharing the road with Wine Country bikers. I don’t like it when I’m sharing a single lane road with a swarm of them decked out in helmets and those ass-padded onesies with logos all over them, and, I really don’t like it when it’s groups of tourists who seem to be peddling along with regret about how “unromantic” it turns out to be to ride your bike from winery to winery in the heat after having twenty or so “sips” of wine. But I get that everyone is allowed to do what they need to do. The world doesn’t revolve around me, and for the most part, I’m pretty good at sharing — and that even includes sharing the road.
But that whole incident stuck with me for hours after it happened because we really are sharing this world with one another, and one bad decision by a guy who simply didn’t want to lose his momentum could’ve changed his life and my life in the blink of an eye. His precious momentum was worth more than mine in his mind, but my momentum was more formidable than his as our lives briefly intersected. And that really does feel like a metaphor for things these days.
I know I’m always in my own head, working out my own thoughts and plans, and when I’m in my truck, I always have a destination. And as harvest is starting up in the Wine Country, the roads are extra clogged with grape haulers and tourists in from out of town who want to be a part of this magical season. So it’s very easy to get annoyed, and, it’s also frustrating to constantly lose your momentum.
I guarantee that won’t be the only Truck vs. Bike incident I’ll encounter in my future, and there will be many more moments where someone else’s agenda will be in some kind of conflict with mine. But I guess seeing all of this play out in my spirit is still useful for me because while I know I can’t change this reality…
