Slow As Sap

Hey, remember the First Annual Rantwick Autumn Tree Smackdown? Remember how 3 lucky entrants won the awesome prize of a tiny bottle of the very best maple syrup I could find? Remember when I wrote "Congratulations you 3! Send a note to rantwick at gmale dawt cawm with your maple syrup shipping address and I will get to work."? Well, RTP, Big Oak and Paddy Anne all diligently supplied me with their addresses and I did get to work:

Those stubby tubes are from special light bulbs for photography we don't do much of any more. The longer box is from a neat thing my brother and his wife sent to the kids called a "drawdio" or Theremin. They all contain the same thing:

big picture, tiny bottle

Trouble is, that's where my work stopped. These three ready-to-go packages sit on my dining room table even as you read this. With God (or whatever floats your heartfelt pledge boat) as my witness, I'll get 'em shipped today.

Yer Pal,

 R A N T W I C K

A Public Apology for An Idiotic Move

I am just in from work. About half an hour ago (4:45 my time) I made a completely idiotic move on the bike that I am ashamed of. I have to make dinner and stuff right now, but on the tiny chance that the driver I almost crashed in front of while crossing the train tracks on Egerton at Brydges is looking me up, I am really sorry. That was the most stupid thing I've done on the bike in a very very long time. I don't know what the hell I was thinking.

I will explain all later tonight or tomorrow, but I just wanted to get my sincere sorry out there right away.

---- about five hours later ----

OK, I'm done my chores and I thought I wanted to relay every little detail, with diagrams and everything, but now I just want to try and forget it.

I don't display my "How's My Driving" sign any more, but the blue tub on the back of my bike has reflective vinyl letters spelling "R A N T W I C K" on it. That's where the tiny chance that the driver I impressed today could have looked up this blog comes in.

Let's just say I was coming in perpendicular to a long line of cars just as some railway arms were lifting and in an effort to join the traffic flow rather than wait "forever" for the traffic backup to clear I put myself badly out of position, so much so that I had to push my way in ahead of a car from the left. That established me as a jerk.

So eager was I to get to where I belonged in the lane, I then failed to handle some train tracks properly and very nearly went down right in front of that same car. That established me as a moron.


I'm really not sure how I stayed upright, but I ended up careening off to the right on to the sidewalk, where I brought myself to a stop, hung my head and waved my apology to the car. That established me as one of the reasons cyclists have no place on the road, particularly in winter in the minds of many who witnessed the event. Damn it! Other cyclists are out there saving the day.


As some of the comments have already reminded me, everybody makes a bonehead move once in a while. That of course goes for cars and bikes and everything else. I think there should be a universal "I'm sorry. My bad" hand signal of some kind so others could at least know that you know you were in the wrong and wish you could take it back.

Steve A said he hoped I learned something, as he recently did, from a riding mistake. I did. Unfortunately it was something I already knew, that saving a little time is never a good reason to take extra risks with your safety or anybody else's. Cyclists rant at motorists for not being willing to just slow down or wait a few seconds extra all the time... consider me re-schooled.

Yer Shame-Faced Pal,

R A N T W I C K