Today’s ride: 49.14 miles. Lots of riders on the bike path today, because the streets going south from Marina Del Rey have been graded in preparation for new blacktop, and they’re a nightmare to ride on. We (X and I) went south on our usual route, varied slightly as always, into Palos Verdes and turned around at Hawthorne Boulevard. For a change, no cyclists power-challenged us, the whole day. It was very peaceful.

Until we were descending PV Drive into Malaga Cove at about 38 mph, and a white Mustang came out of a driveway on the other side of the street, directly in our path, and slowed down to 15 mph—while veering crazily into the right shoulder, preventing us from passing.

So we went around on the left, because no one was coming from that direction. Bad move. This apparently irritated the (possibly heavily medicated or insane) driver so much that he chased us down and buzzed me, so close I could have reached out and touched his car.

When I’m on the bike I try to consider what it’s like to be in a car and a cyclist gets in your way (and we were never in this freak’s way), costing you precious seconds … and when I’m driving a car, I try to consider what it’s like to be defenseless against a potential freakin’ deadly weapon. I wish more people would do the same.