Paul in NZ
17th September 2009, 20:01
Dear old Aristotle – he reckoned that ‘No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.’ I tend to agree, I like to march to the beat of my own drummer and on occasion, people have thought me more than a little odd. Vicki calls it ‘quirky’ but we all know what that means…
I LIKE mad people – not crazy people but the functionally mad. Not the people who annoy us but more the valiant souls who try to perfect man powered flying machines, perpetual motion, solar powered unicycles etc etc. All usually rudderless hippies and hopeless dreamers but by and large harmless and who knows, it might just work!
Now – driving home the other night I decided to avoid the section of motorway close to the city so I took the outside lane along Aotea Quay and the Old Hutt rd to Nauranga Gorge, SH1 and home. There is a messy bit just past the Ferry terminal where two lanes come together and people usually need to swap lanes. All very civilised usually and people give each other space etc.
Last night, I need to change lanes and noticed something odd in my wing mirror, not really seen but I just thought there might be something there so I hung back… A little car crawled in front of me and on up the road.
This thing is, erm, astonishing in a fairly out there, fashion. It’s a cycle car / tricycle / whatever, its pedal powered (by a glowering angry oddball) and has an all enveloping body, two wheels up front, maybe 1 to 1.5 metres apart. Its probably a metre to the top of his head and it has a flashing white lamp up front and a similar red one at the rear. Sort of reminded me of the bastard offspring between a Morgan 3 wheeler and a pedal car with the off spring favouring the pedal car.
OK – fair enough, hes a lone crusader on a mission from the god of pedal cars or something (ie a nutter)
But hes in the traffic – its dusk – his head does not come up above the bloody doors of cars, his lights are pathetic, even by modern bicycle standards and its wide and it’s not in the dedicated cycle lane!! He certainly has the bravery of a martyr and the courage of the really insane but you could see he was angry all the time that he was not given ‘space’ and yet he is splitting lanes in what amounts to a small car! At some point, eccentric becomes insane, lovable rogue becomes a danger to himself and others. I mean I nearly drove over him in a corolla, how a person in SUV or people mover / van would see him is beyond me.
I’m still amazed….. I think even Aristotle would agree that this mans soul was not excellent but he certainly was crazy….
I LIKE mad people – not crazy people but the functionally mad. Not the people who annoy us but more the valiant souls who try to perfect man powered flying machines, perpetual motion, solar powered unicycles etc etc. All usually rudderless hippies and hopeless dreamers but by and large harmless and who knows, it might just work!
Now – driving home the other night I decided to avoid the section of motorway close to the city so I took the outside lane along Aotea Quay and the Old Hutt rd to Nauranga Gorge, SH1 and home. There is a messy bit just past the Ferry terminal where two lanes come together and people usually need to swap lanes. All very civilised usually and people give each other space etc.
Last night, I need to change lanes and noticed something odd in my wing mirror, not really seen but I just thought there might be something there so I hung back… A little car crawled in front of me and on up the road.
This thing is, erm, astonishing in a fairly out there, fashion. It’s a cycle car / tricycle / whatever, its pedal powered (by a glowering angry oddball) and has an all enveloping body, two wheels up front, maybe 1 to 1.5 metres apart. Its probably a metre to the top of his head and it has a flashing white lamp up front and a similar red one at the rear. Sort of reminded me of the bastard offspring between a Morgan 3 wheeler and a pedal car with the off spring favouring the pedal car.
OK – fair enough, hes a lone crusader on a mission from the god of pedal cars or something (ie a nutter)
But hes in the traffic – its dusk – his head does not come up above the bloody doors of cars, his lights are pathetic, even by modern bicycle standards and its wide and it’s not in the dedicated cycle lane!! He certainly has the bravery of a martyr and the courage of the really insane but you could see he was angry all the time that he was not given ‘space’ and yet he is splitting lanes in what amounts to a small car! At some point, eccentric becomes insane, lovable rogue becomes a danger to himself and others. I mean I nearly drove over him in a corolla, how a person in SUV or people mover / van would see him is beyond me.
I’m still amazed….. I think even Aristotle would agree that this mans soul was not excellent but he certainly was crazy….