Good lord, woman, where have you been? I'll tell you where I haven't been, and that's here. I haven't stopped writing, for the most part, I just haven't been posting.

Did you notice?

Dad once asked me why I blog, why have such a public journal. I told him that it helps me keep my thoughts in order. I've found that it also helps me be closer to my friends who stop by to read what I wrote. They may not live close, we may not talk every day, but my having stopped posting as much as I had been has made me realize that, hey, they're still very much in my life (which makes me happy!). And when I do see them, or talk to them, we always have something to talk about (though, honestly, I wish more of my friends also blogged so that I knew more about what's going on in their lives, but that's a different plea).

Maybe the one way postings of a blog aren't really so one way after all.

With all of that out of the way, hey, guess what happened today.

Yup.

A visitor! Whoo!

I forgot to tell Kris about her visit, though. Whoops.

Anyway, I've given up on the keep all the posts in order, and plan on backfilling for the last month. Go ahead, read away.

I'm really enjoying the flower arrangements from the CSA.

Heather called early this evening, asking if I'd be up for going on a hike. Kris and I have been going to Fremont Older frequently recently, me for the non-running exercise because of my knee, Kris for his hard-running training for his leg of the Wildflower Triathlon that Kris, Andy, and Kris' coworker and best hugger in the world, Marc; so I suggested Fremont Older.

I suspect with so many people having extra free time, I shouldn't be telling so many people about Fremont Older, lest they all discover the parking lot with (shock) parking spaces next to a great hiking spot.

I convinced Heather Fremont Older over Rancho San Antonio (where I seem never to be able to find parking), and off we went.

Oh, my, did the weather cooperate with us. Where the day was previously cloudy, windy and cold, our hike was cool, sunny and very nice. We even managed to see not one or two but THREE deer!

We made it to the top of Hunter's Point, and continued on to hike the Seven Sprints trail. As we started walking down various hills, my knee started acting up, hurting and locking up. Frustrated, I stopped us a couple times to adjust my knee brace, trying to follow the instructions from the knee doctor to adjust my kneecap to the inside of my knee.

I adjusted the straps, and again, and again, and again, and HOLY MOLY, the clouds parted, the sun shined and the angels sang as I found the sweet spot on my brace. I needed to pull the kneecap to the inside, sure, but also UP. UP! That's all I needed, up.

At least so far. I managed to finish the hike knee-pain free. Here's hoping this is, indeed, the (temporary) answer to my knee locks.

Andy Fisher came over today to work on a site of mine. On our way to lunch, we passed an SUV which had slowed in the right lane as it waited for a biker to ride around a parked car. While the biker was riding around a parked car and using the right lane, the SUV honked at the rider with a long "I'm irritated at you!" honk.

Making me instantly irritated at the driver.

Bikes and their riders are considered full vehicles in California. If they want to ride down the middle of the lane, they are legally allowed to do so. If they're riding slowly, find, move around the bike and pass, but don't honk at them. Good lord, honking is probably just going to startle the biker, possibly leading to an accident. Regardless, idiot driver, you should realize YOU'RE IN A 3 TON VEHICLE. The worst the biker can do to you is dent your fender. YOU CAN KILL THE BIKER.

The event reminded me of another driver being an asshole around a biker, only I was the biker in the other incident. My roommate at the time, Kristi McAdams, and I were waiting at a light to turn left across a fairly big road, at least three lanes going the other directions. When the arrow turned green, we hopped up on our bikes and started biking left.

Apparently we weren't fast enough in our biking, though, because the idiot Asian woman driver pulled between the two of us, nearly hitting both of us on either side of her car before accelerating away down the street. I was immediately stunned. Could someone have really just done that? I was then angry. I knew there were two stop signs and a stop light on the street. I knew she'd have to stop. I took off after her, to the cries of Kristi yelling "No!"

Well, nearly injuring two bikers with her recklessness wasn't enough for the idiot driver. She also ran both stop signs without slowing. She was caught, however, by the red light at the end of the street, which is where I caught her, too.

I rolled around to the front of her car, slammed my hands on her hood and yelled, "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!" I then continued for a short while, yelling at her, accentuating my points with slams on her hood, until my anger exhausted itself. I have no idea if she understood how much of an idiot she was, or if she merely went away thinking, "Wow, bikers are morons. I should run over more of them."