Turtle!

Given that it was Father’s day and threatening to rain, I decided to again take my chances on the rail trail for a ride today. With thoughts of yesterday’s rail trail accident still fresh in my head, though the engineer I met yesterday was probably still mapping the whole collision out on the whiteboard in his head, I needed an accident-free ride today to feel less guilty. And, like some manufacturing plants, I needed to boast once again, even if it was my own invisible sign, “Jean has gone one day without an accident!”

As I passed the 5-mile mark, I had seen very few riders. Thankfully, the ones I did see were not riding side-by-side; most were single riders or families riding single file like they were ducklings just about to cross Embankment Road. I knew then that the odds were in my favor; the coast was clear, and this would be a day of no riding mishaps or further job opportunities!

While I was on the lookout for any cyclist who might cause me potential problems, I began to fall deeper into thought about my “new” but “old” job tomorrow. It felt like the first day of school as I thought, “What should I wear?”, “Should I bring or buy?”, and “When’s recess?” More realistically, I then thought, “Do I remember how to build a book in FrameMaker?”, “What’s VoIP again?”, and “Gosh, I can’t wait to hit that salad bar for lunch!”

When I was at the 7-mile mark, I saw an older gentleman riding toward me, which gave me cause to be concerned. While I knew he wasn’t one of those squirrely child riders, who at any minute might veer into me, he was wildly waving his arms; I thought, “Oh, no! The rail trail police! I’m being cited for yesterday’s accident.” As he whizzed by me, I saw that he wasn’t wearing a DCR uniform; however, as he passed me, he shouted, “Turtle!!!!”

Having been temporarily lost in my own little VoIP-Salad Bar world, I had to think a few times about what he said. Turtle? What turtle? Well, that was exactly it; when I finally came to, back into the Rail Trail world, I saw a huge snapping turtle in the middle of the trail.

I said, “Oh, jeez!” I swerved to miss him, narrowly avoiding the sandy wet shoulder, which surely would have sent me flying off my bike. Yesterday, it was engineers; today, it was turtles.

As I made my way further up the trail, I saw two riders ahead of me. It was a couple riding side-by-side as couples usually do, and as I approached, I said, “Passing on your left.” When I saw him go to jerk his bike to the right, I then quickly said, “But, take your time! Don’t bump into her! I’m not in a hurry!”

He almost hit her anyway. As I passed them, he said, “Sorry,” and I assumed this was because he thought he didn’t get out of my way fast enough. I said, “Oh, no! Thank you for moving over.”

When I neared the 25-mile mark (a.k.a., home), I thanked the Great Cat Goddess for no accidents. I was able to display my invisible sign again lauding myself for not being in or causing any accidents. I was still in a fog about everything though.

I hoped that by the time I arrived at “work” tomorrow that the fog would disperse, and it’d all come back to me -- the knowledge, the confidence, and those great hard-boiled eggs at the salad bar! But, I knew there would be no one to say, “Turtle!” to me to remove me from the Rail Trail World and put me back into the VoIP-Salad Bar world. Instead, I was pretty sure it would be the Program Manager saying, “July 30th,” which I knew was my first deadline. Eeek! Turtle! Turtle! Turtle! ♥