sunday, end of july...

thumbs up on the new tires. just rode downtown to point state park, where i read for a bit, watched the people, talked to my brother on the phone, almost lost the sternum strap on my bag. then i rode a bit on the north side, then back into downtown and into oakland so i could stop at the library (hillman, not carnegie) and check out these two books:

the wretched of the earth, frantz fanon
the god of small things, arundhati roy

(i'm starting to realize that i only have one month of summer left and a lot more than a month's worth of reading that i want to do.)

as i was riding into downtown this morning, just past the strip district on penn ave, i got yelled at for riding on the street. goddamn it! you know, last time i checked, in order to get a driver's license, you had to take a written test convincing the state/commonwealth/DMV that you understood the rules of the road. and one of those rules is that bicycles DO NOT RIDE ON THE SIDEWALK!!! now, being the target of a driver's ignorance about cycling is nothing new for me, and it happens far less frequently in pittsburgh than it did in philadelphia (where people are generally more crass and self-absorbed), but it's still really annoying. i'm usually in a pretty good mood when i'm on my bike, but nothing ruins that like some stupid mother fucker in a car telling me to "get on the sidewalk where i belong!" please.

what killed me about this woman who yelled at me today was that she waited until she was turning off of penn to yell at me! i mean, if you're going to be such an ass as to waste energy yelling at a stranger, at least have the balls to yell at her to her face! my response? i just yelled back, "oh, fuck you."

itunes is on shuffle right now and heart's "crazy on you" is up. say what you will about heart, but josh hartnett (whom i ordinarily do not find attractive) as trip fontaine in the film version of
the virgin suicides in the scenes where "crazy on you" and "magic man" are the soundtrack? hot.