wow, the first sunny morning I’ve seen in a long time. I saw the dimly lit aura that was the sun peaking from behind my blinds this morning, and thought, ‘I swear the sun didn’t start rising earlier all of a sudden’. and it didn’t but it sure as hell was a lot brighter outside because of the clear sky. no fog at all, though there was a bit of haze in the air. I saw my shadow for the first time in weeks, it was scary. usually, the fog diffuses all the light into a blinding white sheet of sky, which means no shadows and no direct sunlight. needless to say, I was feeling amped to ride.
on the backside of camino alto, as I was descending, the same car as yesterday was in front of me again. the guy lives on one of the homes on the side of the road, and I guess he pulled out as I was just cresting the top. not sure if he even noticed me behind him, but his car was so distinct, it’ll be hard for me to not remember it. a dark blue volvo wagon with 2 upright brown paper bags in the trunk, pushed to the left side, and a tailpipe that’s smoking for a good amount of time. probably just water vapor though. there were a fair amount of cars out as well, going down paradise drive towards the school. I guess it’s the first day back since the summer, there was a pretty long line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. but then after that, it was quiet all the way down into tiburon.
I headed back in towards the bridge, and was passed a guy in a bike nook kit, and another guy in a white and orange kit with a timbuk2 backpack. they were chatting along, and then the sausalito climb came, and the bike nook guy took off. I passed the backpack guy, knowing he’d catch me on the bridge when I stopped to take the photo. I was calling it before it even happened: cat and mouse all the way back into san francisco. not intentionally to ruin his commute, or act like a weekend warrior type, but just because our paces were so similar, it was nearly impossible to stay behind him, and to pass, would be less of a pain, but would possibly instigate some sort of competitiveness. I passed him on the climb (gave him the friendly ’4-finger wave’), he passed me on the bridge as I took this photo, and then I passed him on the marina greens path, right after he almost got into a t-bone with a busted up toyota corolla that turned without yielding to the people on the multi-use bike/walk/run lanes. he prevailed though, swerving to avoid the car, but staying calm and cool about it. respect.
