I seem to have lost control of my brain, lately. I’ll be tired, and I’ll go to bed, and then my brain will start churning away on work, or a potential side project, and I will “wake up” more, and subsequently be unable to sleep. This would not be uncommon for me, except that over the years I’ve developed a routine for dealing with my brain, and now it seems to not be working. Normally, my routine goes like this:

• First, I take Melatonin supplements, because my brain seems to be short on that (and I had a seriously messed up sleep schedule, for many, many years, to go with it).
• Second, I try to watch at least a couple hours of television, up until I go to bed (sometimes a book will work, but not a particularly thought-provoking book). This helps crank down my brain.
• Third, while in bed trying to sleep, if I’m not tired enough to fall asleep quickly (which is rare), I set my brain to work on a regular “project” that allows me to think on something repetitive that I never really progress with (for ages, this has been how I want to work out my homebrew RPG).

These steps have served me well for many years, but lately I can’t seem to get my brain to deactivate enough to avoid jumping onto issues that keep me up, and putting my brain to work on the “project” isn’t possible when my brain is racing around wildly on its own. This is annoying me greatly, and causing me to get up later in the day than I’d like.

Sometimes, I dislike my brain.

Bicyclists are expected to ride in the street and obey all the traffic laws, as per cars. When there are bike lanes, they’re supposed to use them. For the most part, I see cyclists doing exactly that. However, I also see that it’s nearly impossible for those poor cyclists to make a left turn at many intersections, or even to go straight at other intersections. Why? Because, while the bikes are expected to use the traffic lanes for such things, there is no consideration by the road-builders for them. There are no traffic sensors in use that will pick up the bikes when they’re in the left-turn lane, or even when they’re on a side street and the traffic signal requires a sensor to trip before it’ll change.

I frequently see and hear people getting mad at cyclists for ignoring traffic rules. And sometimes they do deserve that anger. But I also see cyclists who are often left with no alternative. Today, for example, I saw a small group of riders sit through two cycles of traffic signals without being able to make the left turn they wanted to make, because no car helpfully appeared behind them to trigger the left turn signal. They finally did exactly what most cars do when the signal appears to be broken, and went through when it looked safe. However, the signal wasn’t broken, it simply doesn’t allow for the possibility that a bicycle might ever need to turn left.

In many situations like this, a cyclist has to hope that there is a handy car to trigger the signals correctly, otherwise they have to decide either to go through anyway, or use the crosswalks. On the occasions when I’m out biking around (casually, I’m not like many of these folks with the fancy gear and all), I personally end up using the crosswalks, because the only intersection I usually pass through is too dangerous to do otherwise, and it’s dangerous enough just being a cyclist. Frankly, that’s just a bit absurd. Bicyclists shouldn’t have to use the crosswalks any more than motorcyclists or scooterists, but the only alternative is to break the law because the light won’t change (or, I guess, wait indefinitely for some car to use the lane and trigger the signal).

Sure, there are bad cyclists who do what they want, switching between traffic or pedestrian crossings at a whim, and blowing through stop signs. But there are many who try to obey the laws and get stymied because nobody, still, really considers them. And that’s not right either.

(I live in suburbia, where most traffic signals are controlled by the sensors. In other areas, this is less of an issue because the lights are simply timed, instead, allowing for everyone to move along, regardless of their mode of transportation.)

Today was a rather remarkable four golf-ball day. Since I shifted my schedule to take a morning constitutional, I also usually do my grocery shopping in the morning. That means I don’t find golf balls very often any more. Today, however, I braved the heat to get a Subway sandwich for lunch, so I was plodding along past the golf course at around noon. And, quite unexpectedly, I found two golf balls on the way up to Subway, and then two more on the way back. And those two on the way back materialized in the few minutes I was at Subway, because I could not have missed them on the first pass. Someone was having a bad golf day.