Geezer Sunday promised the usual slow social ride with friendly banter. At the second re-grouping stop, I made the mistake of asking one geezer what he thought of Carly Fiorona. Vigorous discussion ensued. Another geezer shouted “No politics!”, and quickly rode off in a huff.
Geezers were not really disagreeing because, like most islanders, they’re all liberals. After about ten minutes, riders began heading up the road in pairs. Finally I departed, leaving three debating who was the farthest left winger.
Several miles up the road, I caught the rest of the group that had stopped at the next regrouping point. When asked about the other three riders, I replied that I had left them there talking about Carly and for all I knew they were still there talking. Another lively interchange about politics ensued -the election of a Republican portends a very dark future. I quickly made my escape, dashed up the road to find the first geezer who had fled this second discourse, and initiated a friendly talk about apple pie.
How would this end when we arrived for coffee at the Treehouse Cafe? Maybe people were mad at each other. More likely everyone was mad at me for stirring the pot. Saved by a windstorm, we arrived at the Lynnwood Center to find the power was out. The cafe was dark inside. No coffee, no bacon, no more debate.
I rode home alone, took a quick shower, used my iPhone app to learn the outage would be repaired before 11am. The lights came on at 10:30.
Lessons learned: sometimes I say dumb stuff. I already knew that. It’s safer not to say anything, rather than risk saying something dumb. I already knew that too. Maybe I didn’t learn anything.
