On my way to work yesterday morning I collided with a pedestrian. No damage was done as I was on my bicycle and not going all that fast, but that won't keep me from getting philosophical about it.

This happened on a one-way road in the middle of town which has a bike lane heading in the opposite direction to the car traffic. A young guy stepped directly into my path while looking at the cars coming the other way. I suppose legally it was his fault and he did apologize, but it's obvious he wasn't expecting any crazy weirdos to be biking in freezing temperatures and ankle-deep snow. I have to admit that this is a reasonable assumption probably everywhere outside of Scandinavia.

I'm a rather stubborn guy who bikes to work as long as there isn't too much snow on the roads to get traction and it isn't too cold to breathe normally. I'm not motivated by my health or the environment, I'm just too cheap to buy a car and too lazy to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier so I can catch the bus. I could protest that I'm not a crazy weirdo, just well-adapted to cold temperatures, but I can't help observing that doing what normal people do sometimes does have benefits, such as running over fewer pedestrians.

As another admitted weirdo observed, "normally, normality is the best bet." Being less weird more conformist about certain things is a good idea sometimes. Not that I've learned my lesson. Today it's much colder, though it stopped snowing, and I'm biking to work again. I guess I'm only a wannabe conformist.