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Sunday, January 24. 2010

Self-Appraisal Myth Utilization

We’ve been getting torrential rain here in San Diego — nearly all of California actually. My friend Scott (and a few others) has been graciously providing rides to and from work during these storms, which is really nice. It beats walking to and from the bus stops in the rain, waiting at the bus stop in the rain and putting up with fellow bus riders who are just as soaked with rain and therefore just as crabby.

Having a motor vehicle makes inclement weather so much easier to bear; one can just travel from here to there without a care in the world. Well, maybe a few worries pertinent to rain-slicked roads and the California drivers who occupy them. You see, any California vehicle can and will hydroplane at any time as we have found out on a few occasions.

Years ago I owned a 1988 Mazda RX-7 GXL, one of the best production sports cars ever built. It had the famous rotary engine and could easily reach speeds of 160 MPH-plus. I could only coax it to 130 MPH before I shit my pants. Did that only once, out in the desert northeast of San Diego, on my way to a place called Borrego Springs.

The shittin’ in the pants part happened when, as I was traveling along Highway 78 through the desert, at the afore-mentioned 130 MPH, out of the corner of my right eye I saw a coyote running like a crazy man in a direction that suggested a collision with my RX-7 was imminent. I couldn’t actually glance to my right since my eyes were glued to the road ahead, the speed itself scaring the crap out of me alone!

Up ahead was what looked like an RV and wouldn’t you know it, there was an RV on that stretch of HWY 78. We were the only two vehicles I had seen since leaving Julian. More on that part of the journey later.

So, deciding it was time to slow down I took my foot off the gas pedal to let it ease to a manageable speed when all of a sudden, without me noticing in advance, the little RX-7 hit some dips in the road. I was airborne.

That was just about the time I shit my pants.

There had been some close calls earlier in the trip. Hwy 78 goes from the ocean in Oceanside, east to … I don’t know where it ends really, Indio maybe, but it doesn’t matter. As you wind your way from Escondido the terrain begins to climb into altitudes of about 5,000 to 8,000 feet. Julian is situated in some small mountains and needless to say, there are winding roads with walls of rock on one side and cliffs with long drops on the other side of the road.

So, while zipping down the Eastern slopes of the Cuyamaca Mountains, at speeds well above what would be considered prudent for mountainous winding roads, I spun out — twice. Once coming so close to the edge of one of those cliffs I thought I would shit my pants.

The other time I spun out it was into oncoming traffic. I thought I was just about to shit my pants.

Thankfully, I made it to Borrego Springs in one piece and decided that a reasonable route back to San Diego was in order, at equally reasonable and prudent speeds.

One other time while driving that RX-7, the most dangerous vehicle I’ve ever owned, I shit my pants, but this time it wasn’t due to idiocy. Well, not a lot anyway. One morning while driving 70 MPH up I-15 on my way to work in Carlsbad, it started raining, an immediate downpour! So, I took my foot off the gas pedal and voila! My little RX-7 — the most dangerous vehicle I’ve ever owned — began hydroplaning and spun three times in the early morning traffic.

Thankfully I didn’t hit anyone, but when it came to rest, the RX-7 was facing the oncoming, northbound traffic, the back bumper resting against a guard rail that may or may not have prevented me from going over the edge of the embankment onto the off ramp going down to Rancho Bernardo Rd.

That was about the time I shit my pants.

So, I drove about 45 MPH to the next exit and took a side street home. No one really wants to go to work with soiled clothes.

Southern California roads are not meant for inclement weather. When it rains, all the grease, oil and burned up rubber that’s been accumulating for months becomes as slick as ice and cars will go crashing into each other, their brakes as useless as tits on a nun.
 Sorry, just had to put that in there.

After a few days of rain some drivers begin to drive sensibly for the weather conditions. There are bigger intervals between cars and of course everyone is driving slower. But there are the usual yahoos who insist on driving 70 MPH on the freeways, without a care in the world.

California needs the rain — and snow. We’ve been in a drought for years now and the few feet of water we might get during these rainstorms will go far in relieving some of that burden, but it won’t be enough, even if it is the predicted 20 inches. We can’t expect a decade of drought to be erased by a couple weeks of rainstorms in one year.

In the past six-plus years we have had wild fires up and down the state leaving much of the landscape barren of, or sporting very little vegetation. This of course leads to mudslides and in our neighborhood that can be a problem. This area of the city is one big plot of hills, tall, steep hills, filled with homes, condos, apartments and businesses.

When it rains like this I often wonder what it would take to cause that big mountain of condos directly east of us to come crashing down on everything. There is landscaping on that portion of the hills that fronts Scripps Ranch Blvd, but is that really enough to prevent a disaster?

Maybe not, but it has stood the test of time and several other wet, rainy winters.

The scariest things about this weather are the rain-soaked roads and the people driving on them. This year I’ve elected not to ride the Trusty Trek during this kind of weather, mainly to avoid getting sick. But avoiding the drivers on rain-slick roads is another good reason to avoid riding a bicycle in the rain — and I don’t ride on the streets. These drivers could go sliding in any direction in hopes of avoiding a collision.

You should see them on the freeways; a long line of jammed cars moving roughly 10 MPH in the rain and you have those people accelerating then quickly braking, accelerating then quickly braking, accelerating then quickly braking, for what seems like an eternity, just in hopes that they can go as fast as they can without letting anyone cut in front of them. Can’t imagine what that does to a car’s engine and brakes.

They drive like that on the city streets as well, but even crazier. They cut corners, weave back and forth in their lane and often crunch over into the bike lane looking for any room to squeeze past the car in front of them, just to be one more car length ahead in the mass of vehicles parked in the traffic jam.

It would be funny if they weren’t a threat to everyone around them, including pedestrians and bicyclists. Which is one reason to buy an automobile. Be protected against the vagaries of the road as well as traveling in comfort, avoiding the rain. I could feel snobby riding past people waiting at bus stops in the rain. “Look at me! I have a car! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”

Yeah, having a car seems like the appropriate answer to all my problems today, or at least my commuting problems. No more asking friends for rides, no more leaving for work 90 minutes before my start time and I could drive at insane speeds up and down the freeways!

That’s what I call Self-appraisal myth utilization: a little lie to convince myself life would be better if [fill in the blank]. It passes the time while I’m sitting there, waiting for the bus, imagining all those drivers laughing at me and the other bus riders standing in the rain.

Maybe I should get another RX-7.

Posted by Tim Forkes in Life at 00:01 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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