lucy24 - 2:44 am on Sep 12, 2012 (gmt 0)

I used to read while walking. Books. Remember those? Dead trees? From the library? But you learn to keep half an eye on the road so you don't step in something that's, uhm, a different color from the surrounding pavement.

Where I live, they have a special kind of bike helmet that's blessed by the Vatican so when you're wearing it you are safe from all harm no matter what you do. (I'm not sure of this detail; it may be some other entity performing an analogous function.) I wish I knew where they sell them. I'm stuck just following the law. I walk across the busier intersections, which gives me the legal right to give dirty looks to the long stream of cars that don't stop.

Helps, of course, that the local police don't "do" traffic. So cars can zip past the police station or courthouse and make an unsignaled left turn without stopping, and nothing will happen to them. And yes, those non-stopping cars include police cars in ordinary, non-active-pursuit mode.

I once saw a fire truck stopped at a red light. An active one, in lights-and-sirens mode. It was only for a moment-- the cars with the green light all duly stopped-- but it was still depressing that it had to stop at all.

:: now back to worrying because forum next door has been offline all day and I'm sure there wasn't any announcement about planned maintenance ::