I have been riding my bike between Orem and Provo for work since my car is dead...
Tonight I procrastinated until after dark to ride back home to my apartment. I was wearing black which wasn't smart, so the whole way across Orem I was being extra cautious. Then I reached the hill between 800 E. in Orem to that shopping plaza below, in Provo. There were NO lights alongside that section of university parkway. I found myself riding into a black abyss being hit by high-power, invisible sprinklers.
So I cried out a desperate "WHY?!" to the universe after getting a face full of water. I immediately felt foolish for hollering like that. But Oh well. I'm alone, right? Nobody heard me...
Just then I pulled alongside two other bikers, as my yell was still dying out of the air.
They laughed and exchanged the sort of pleasantries that made me realize that these folks were the scary type of hobos on bikes, smoking who knows what.
So I was nice but rode on ahead.
However, I couldn't really ride on ahead because I really couldn't see. I had to stop because the passing headlights were blinding me over the dividing wall, making the trail pitch black.
So then these nice scary hobos let me ride in the beam of the flashlights attached to their bikes. Because they were smart enough to have flashlights attached to their bikes, and they informed me that a person could be ticketed by the Provo Police for not having one. This was news to me, but I see the wisdom in it.
They offered to ride with me to my apartment, but I declined and declined and declined and declined. They weren't being pushy; I just get the feeling that whatever was wafting through the air from the end of their smoke was confusing them a little. The conversation was a little redundant and repetitive and redundant again.
Well my new friends and I parted ways, then I continued on to my comfortable, dry apartment and to a satisfying "The End."
