Despite making little or no inroads into encouraging cycling — to the best of my knowledge — Richmond has proven herself rather amenable to a bicycle based commute. Many of the streets in The Fan are quite pleasantly wide enough to allow a cyclist ample space apart from traffic. Speed limits, tempered by abundant stop signs, are low. A great majority of the drivers on the road are mindful of cyclist’s rights.

I have, however, experienced a number of close calls. Many of these were squarely my fault and I accept all responsibility for them. A few were solely the fault of selfish drivers to whom I have angrily displayed my middle finger. While surely not the best tactic to foster good will towards the operators of two-ton crushing machines, this act did provide some solace.

I have been yelled at once, by an older fellow as I squeezed past a line of cars awaiting a left-turner. I was in the parking lane quite content to maintain momentum through a green light when this asshat decided he needed to move directly into my path to skirt around the turning automobile. Despite inconveniencing him for no more than a second or two he felt the need to shout something at me. I only caught the word “idiot” as the rest was utter gibberish.

A jerkwad towing a trailer forced me off the road in a turn. Unmindful of the swath of space his trailer occupied he whipped about the curve at full speed. I narrowly avoided being sideswiped into the dirt.

Just the other day a woman at a stop sign decided I mattered less than any oncoming motorized vehicle and turned directly into me. Or would have, had I not come to a screeching halt in the center of the intersection. I would point out that I had no such stop sign to contend with.

Yet, apart from these few incidents my commute has been pleasant. I catch more admiring glances than angry glares, or so it seems to me. Were the heat not so oppressive of late I would have nothing to complain about.

You may notice a few awkward changes around here. I’m in the midst of a redesign with very little inspiration to guide me. I decided to go ahead and cut clean my script.aculo.us usage that I might use the lighter mootools instead. Not knowing what to do with the content that once got served as JavaScript menus I set them free along the side. I’m none too pleased with the outcome, but will make efforts to repair it shortly.

God dammit! It’s August? And I have not posted here since June? My deepest condolences, dear reader, for having abandoned you for so long. I wonder what you must have thought, scowling at your computer screens in disgust.

“Just who does he think he is? Has he better things to do? Better company? Flesh and blood friends? What sort of blogomeister does he think he is?” (Blogomeister: I just made that up, from the German bürgemeister, feel free to use it.)

I don’t, gentle reader. My excuses are lame, and serve only to further illuminate my laziness.

God, I’m such a slacker!

I might, for instance, blame the heat. The upper-90’s and above summers replete with back-stickening humidity of central Virginia drain all the life out of a fellow. Coupled with my newfound love of cycling I desired little else than to collapse into a seat directly in front of the air conditioner once I returned home.

Or, perhaps, I might blame Square Enix. They developed the inexplicably addictive Kingdom Hearts II, which I recently completed last Friday. No, I did not fill in Jiminy’s fucking journal. That little asshole. They also developed Final Fantasy XII, which I have also started playing again. I only got a few hours into it the first time, as I got distracted by the Wii.

But we all know the true culprit is none other than yours truly. I let my responsibilities slip from my mind, and off into the realm of distractions and laziness. I apologize.