Holy crap.

Not really a BAD start to the day, but nothing seems to be going according to plan.

Let's start at the beginning.

4:40 am. My evil cat, Boots, is laying right between my wife and I. I can't keep myself covered up, and he's purring loudly and kneading my wife's arm. Neither of us can sleep. I pick him up and toss him off the bed, reclaim my part of the blanket, which is warm from Boots laying on it, and quickly drift back to sleep.

5:11 am. My evil cat, Boots, is laying right between my wife and I. I can't keep myself covered up, and he's purring loudly and kneading my wife's arm. Neither of us can sleep. I decide "forget this!", grab both the cats, grab my clothes, lock them out of the bedroom so my wife can get some sleep, and get ready to leave.

I pack up my laptop, make sure all my clothes and dress shoes are in my backpack, toss on my hoodie, gloves, and helmet, take the bike out, say hi to my neighbor who's also on his way out, and I'm on the road by 5:40 or so.

I ride about 3 miles, the last mile of which is into a hellacious headwind, to the bus stop and realize I'd forgotten to put something important on. My Backpack. You know, with important stuff like paperwork for the remainder of my orientation today, work clothes, a comb and hair gel so I don't look like one of those troll dolls when I show up.

So... turn around, fight the hellacious headwind out of the north once again on my way home, get my backpack, back onto the bike.

On my way to the bus stop a second time, a soccer mom in a green Town and Country on her cellphone pulls nonchalantly out in front of me. Who the hell is she talking to on the cellphone at 6:20 in the morning anyways? I lock up my rear brake, she skids to a stop in the middle of the road, blocking my path, shrugs her shoulders as if motioning me to go. "GO WHERE?! Get the F out of the road!". I actually shook my fist at her and screamed a few colorful words, not that she could hear them, then motioned her to get out of my way. I wouldn't be so peeved, but I was running a halogen light, and my Blackburn Quadrant LED headlight intentionally aimed to shine right in the eyes of motorists, in a blinking mode (shown in photo). She probably would have pulled out, even if I were driving an 18 wheeler.

I kept moving, climbing the 127th street viaduct for the third time in the last half hour, greeted this time by two police cars zipping by below. Another battle with the hellacious headwind (of DOOM!) on the final stretch to the bus again. An ambulance passed me on the road to the bus stop, and 2 more cops and a fire truck blazed down the highway adjacent the road I was on. Helicopters started gathering above. The wreck near my old commute route (119th) was absolutely spectacular. The kind of wreck where people leave in a bucket after being mopped up off the road, and dental records are used to figure out who it was. okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was a bad wreck. Glad I wasn't on 119th this morning.

So there you have it. 9 mile morning ride, 40 minutes to get to the bus, almost killed by an inattentive driver, and saw a really bad wreck. I'd bet the rest of the day will be stellar.