Drag

I went out to dinner the other night with a friend. You have to sort of picture this. I have this wagon. In this area, pretty much every woman who can afford one has the same wagon. A lot of men have them, too, just not the more macho types. This is the sort of wagon one expects friendly dogs, groceries, and gardening stuff to ride around in, perhaps with a small child in a car seat or something.

We're both middle aged women. Really. Middle-aged. Except that it's night, and I had on my nice warm stupid hat that I got to bike with, which happens to basically be a black, tight, skull cap, semi-worthy of someone half my age and at least twice as tough. I can imagine, in the dark, with my cap, that an outsider might be a little uncertain. My friend, though, had no stupid skull cap thing on, and has generous, wavy hair, even in the dark.

We rolled up to a stop light, chatting. Then we heard the loud revving. Vroom, VRRRROOOM. We looked over to see a hot rod, with a young male driver, and several other young folks (it was dark, I didn't bother to count). The male driver looked over at me. VRROOM! He eyed me, he eyed my car, and mostly, he eyed my friend in the passenger's seat. He nodded at me, silently clinching a deal.

My friend and I started helplessly laughing. The people in the other car started laughing too.

Then the light changed, and they zoomed off. My wagon eased sedately forward, humming quietly.

So what I'd like to know: in the world of young male car driving, exactly how many coolness points do you lose for trying to rev up against two middle aged women in a wagon?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I left town for a couple of days, and have been semi-internet-less, and hanging out with people whose ages work in the single digits. I have no clue what they're talking about at least half the time.

But, I have begun testing my new biking shorts, but not yet the way you're supposed to use them because it's too danged cold and I need all the strategic layerage I can get.