Just Dumb

The fog was thick at around 5 am Monday morning as I drove to the bus stop. I didn’t go any faster than 35 miles per hour on Highway 33 because, as Yukon Cornelius says, “that fog’s as thick as peanut butter.”

I have to go up the hill on south Second East to get to the bus stop. The LDS temple, ordinarily a beacon, could not be seen through the fog until I was past the Hinckley Building on the BYU-Idaho campus, a scant ¼ mile north of the temple.

Then I saw him.

Not the Angel Moroni atop the temple steeple, but some black-clad gink walking in the middle of the northbound traffic lane – yes, ladies and gentlemen, with his back to traffic – as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

I can’t assume, of course, that this individual was a BYU-Idaho student. I can assume, however, that he/she just didn’t want to walk on the nice, wide sidewalk, just six or eight feet to the right, rather than walking down the middle of a black street while wearing black clothing in the middle of a rather dense fog. A dense fog that, I might add, scatters light and scatters sound, so any hope that the pedestrian had of hearing or seeing traffic coming his way would be greatly reduced, while at the same time his unexpected location in the street, while wearing black clothing on a densely foggy morning, reduced his or her chances of being seen until it was too late.

Maybe this individual was looking to become a speed bump. I’m not sure. But his or her choice of clothing and walking location Monday morning certainly was, in two words, just dumb.

Attention BYU-Idaho Students: You Stink at Driving. And Walking. And Cycling.

Some dim bulb of a BYU-Idaho student pedaled his bike in front of our bus tonight.

I was sitting in the front seat, and twitched just as the driver did, trying not to hit the cyclist. I don't know who you are, cyclist, but bear this in mind: Only an experienced bus driver stopped you from getting hit tonight. You were not visible, you on your dark bike with a dark jacket on.

We got off the bus, about ten or so of us. There was quite a stream of cars behind the bus, and our vehicles were parked on the other side of the street. So we waited. And waited. But that's what you do for traffic, right?

Not if you're a BYU-Idaho student. We saw several dart into traffic -- slow-moving, yes, but moving nonetheless, at dusk. We figured that was the thing to do. But being the silly safety-is-drilled-into-us-because-we-work-at-an-industrial-plant types that we are, we waited for the traffic to clear before we crossed.

But that's par for the course at BYU-Idaho. Driving near campus you encounter two things: Stupid pedestrians and stupid drivers.

Some idiot from Washington state passed my wife and I tonight and nearly rear-ended the slow-moving vehicle in front of us because obviously we weren't going fast enough for him. Yeah, you in the white Diamante. Get that pole out of your keister and learn how to drive.