With all that has happened in the past two weeks I neglected to talk about a happy occasion that occurred on October 15th. October 15th my wife and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary of wedded bliss. If you are running the math in your head let make it easy for you….yes we got married when we were 20.
We are in the middle of a warm streak here in the “Mitten” it was 60’ish yesterday, 60’ish today and is rumored to be in the 70’s tomorrow. I took advantage of yesterday by riding the Clinton River Trail to the Paint Creek Trail and not having to bundle up like an Eskimo was a nice change. Today is my first day back on duty since my dad died so I am struggling just to be here today. Tomorrow I am planning on a super evil long distance ride and will probably obsess all day today on where this super evil long distance ride will occur. I noticed something yesterday whilst riding….all of the other cyclists on these particular tails are antisocial buttholes. Two hours of riding crossing paths with countless other cyclists and nary a wave was seen. I don’t get it, I waved at the first dozen or so that I saw only to be skunked on a return gesture after that I became buttholish and didn’t wave anymore and neither did anyone else. Seems like I read on another blog a person noticing the same trend although I can’t remember where? Seriously I am a crappy rider but I can still muster to take one hand off the bars for a quick second. Jerks.
EDIT: CycleChef was the person that wrote about non wavers here
100 Pounds Ago 
Only in America is cycling such a peculiar past-time that we see kindred spirits in all others who participate, thus we wave. In all other parts of the world, a cyclist is merely a person in transit, and you would no more wave at one another than we wave at all passing motorists. That said, I’ve noticed that male cyclists are far, far, far less likely to smile or return a wave than female cyclists. I’m just sayin’…
Happy Anniversary!! Wishing you many, many more.
My wife and I were married at 20 also. This past summer it was year 27. whew! Definately the best thing to happen to me is marrying her.
Glad we could send you are warm weather it is 50 and chance of rain here in Utah.
Does this thought sound familiar, “Hey A$$hole, you’re in spandex, you shave yor legs, and you won’t return my wave?”
I once made the mistake when I got my first road bike of waving at a co-ed paceline of 6-7 riders. It was a Sunday morning not a car around and not one return wave, not even a nod of the head. The elbow twitch from the lead rider was not, I found out years later, a wave. “Style Man” essentially wrote that road bicyclists are too cool to wave.
Even Harley riders would wave when I went by them on my Rice Rocket. What gives with roadies?
Australia is full of wavers. Mostly I greet people verbally, “good morning” or somesuch. But you’re right about the decline in wavers. I think the problem is that the world’s population of arseholes is growing on a daily basis. For me, cycling is about leaving behind all the jerks of the world, if only for an hour. It’s a shame some elitists ruin it for others.
Oh, and congrats on your wedding anniversary!!!! 😀
I mentioned the same thing on one of my first blogs. Ironically, it seems the number of waves you get in inversely proportional to the amount spent on the bike, i.e. $1000 bike=lots of waves; $10,000 bike=I’m too friggin’ elite to wave at you.
I’m going to keep waving anyway.
http://web.me.com/chefjt/CycleChef/Blog/Entries/2009/8/14_Say_Hi!_When_you_ride.html
Yeah, ok, so I’m still learning how to paste in links. The one above doesn’t work, but if anyone is interested, click on ChefJT, and it will take you to my site. The blog entry is in the archive from August of this year.
Glad to know it’s not just here in California. I thought maybe it was my shorts. Or hygiene. Or baldness.
I’m with Chef on this though. I wave. And smile. And say “Nice day huh?”
Congrats on the anniversary. Here’s to many, many more. At the risk of giving my age away, we celebrated 31 last August.