Blooming spring

Perfect day for a postal run. For a while, reduced car traffic because of business and school closures has meant better road conditions for bicycling, but in the past few days that has seemed to be wearing off. Although car traffic is still light, more drivers are passing too close, crowding bike lanes and cutting off bikes and pedestrians at corners and crossings. And giving me irritable glares as they go by.

Since the border crossing is closed there are few Canadian drivers in town - they are famously polite, but often confused in local traffic. Today I noticed a lot of (ok, several) out-of-state license plates. People new to the area might not know our road conditions, traffic laws, bicycle lane conventions, signage and so forth. Besides, people who scoff at social distancing rules are probably not inclined to share the road nicely, either.

I'm not scoffing myself, of course. I wear a scarf or balaclava to cover my nose and mouth when I enter stores or the PO and keep six feet away from others on bike paths and sidewalks. But I need to get outside daily for exercise, and because I get so tired of looking out my windows, to see only the alley, dumpsters and back ends of other peoples' oversize pick-up trucks. Lonely and bored sometimes, too.

Beautiful day, though, temperatures in the low 70's, birds chattering everywhere, and blooming dogwoods and cherry trees.