Hot weather

So this weekend I was almost killed by a 10 year-old, but instead I got away unscathed and may have broken his shin.

The weather down here this weekend was just roasting hot, easily about 30 C each day. so what better time to get out for a couple of bike rides. My ride Saturday was uneventful, a good 60 km loop down towards San Clemente and back, the hills at the end of the ride were killer, but as always it was great. Sunday was a different story, I needed a bit of a lighter ride so I took off North along the PCH towards Long Beach.

Going North was a good idea, it was a headwind on the way out and tailwind on the way back. Well, it was a good idea until I reached Huntingdon Beach. See I hadn't quite realized that everyone who was stuck inland would be heading out to the beach to cool off. The result of which was a confluence of ignorance and distraction as drivers tried to get to parking spots near the beach and people tried to cross the highway.

The funniest part was seeing the idiots trying to get to the parking by the beach. At several intersection they would try get across the intersection, despite the obvious backlog of cars already sitting in the middle of the intersection. Of course being on a bike I really didn't mind, I could glide through the gaps that the morons left between their SUVs.

Now, the part with the kid nearly killing me. On my way North through Huntington Beach I was riding near the parked cars as I normally do, looking out for doors opening. Unfortunately kids move even faster than opening doors. In the middle of a block three of them came darting out from between a pair of SUVs. Of course their timing was impeccable, leading to two bodies trying to occupy the same space at the same time. Fortunately for me my handlebars managed to miss the kid, so I didn't pull an Armstrong and go flying into traffic. The point that made contact with the kid was my right foot, knocking me sideways but I stayed on my bike. I'm not sure what happened to the kid, he and his friends ran off when I started swearing at them (the initial reaction to that kind of experience). I'm not sure what happened to the kid, I may have broken his leg for all I know...well I guess not since he ran off. But getting hit by 180 pounds of bike and body moving at about 35 km/h can't feel good. And I feel a bit bad for the kid, but at least I wasn't a car, because we know how that would have ended for him and at least this way he learned his lesson, hopefully.