Spotted on Today's Commute

Being an Engineer, I live and work on Busch Campus (aka "The Cool Kids' Campus"). However, a lot of the things I need to do, like sing karaoke or get race reimbursements for my teammates, require trips across the Raritan River to the College Ave Campus.

I really like this commute. There's a hugemongous curb after the pedestrian bridge (which I can now ride down on my fixie), but other than that it's scenic and rolling and pleasant.

Today's scenery was a little unusual. Gather 'round, childrens, while I tell you all about it.

1. First there were the kids on fixies. They must've been 15 or so. Sure as hell, they were cooler than me, because their bikes were brakeless, their bars were un-taped, and the flowing of their oh-so-emo hair was unchecked by helmets. They were Busch-bound on the pedestrian bridge, and our paths crossed at the very narrow section. Lacking any faith in other human beings' ability to control a bicycle, I slowed and got as far right as possible. When they noticed me a good 2 seconds later, they moved to their right... but they didn't (or couldn't?) slow. One of them clipped the wall with a pedal, but managed to stay upright. Color me impressed.


2. Then there was the family swimming in the Raritan, where the canal spills into the river. Weird, but I was a little jealous... until I realized that 80 fafillion infectious bacteria had just crawled up their excretory orifices.


3. I met Will with his long-overdue reimbursement check (thanks, RU-Screw). As I locked my bike up, we heard a shout - a lady, on her cell phone, was backing her van up and stopped a few inches short of a little old man. Onlookers, including Will and I, were dumbstruck and befuddled, not to mention flabbergasted. Then the old man broke the tension with a comic (albeit unintentionally so) outburst: "Women drivers!!!"


4. On the return trip, I was treated to a second oddball-sighting on the pedestrian bridge. I looked down at the river and saw a new family had waded in... and this one had fishing rods. They were about 50m from the shore. I think they were planning on fly fishing. No news on whether they caught anything, but you will be updated as soon as information becomes available.


5. So finally I got back to Busch. I was climbing up the hill from the pedestrian walkway to the main road when I saw something barreling towards me. Some crazy guy (sans helmet, of course) on a BMX bike was flying down the descent, riding in the shoulder of his lane. No problem. He starts drifting left. Um, okay, still not a problem. Now he's in the wrong lane, and a car is headed straight for him. Oh shit. It is only in the last possible second that the dives to his right, off-roading briefly to get on the pedestrian path. This is when I started breathing again.

I'll tell you what, though, it's nice to get out of the lab.