Of bottlenecks and goosenecks

I tend to be impatient with other drivers, not because I'm in such a hurry myself, but because if the number of them is great enough, it is inevitable that among their number will be a member of the Anti-Destination League, waiting for the exact moment to cause brake lights to flash for miles at a time.

I was northbound on I-35 around NE 36th when the 60-mph traffic, which hitherto had been doing an actual 60 mph, abruptly dropped to about half that. No obstructions anywhere: just a League member, discovering he was in the wrong lane, and remembering that having a Plan B at times like this would get him drummed out of the ranks. (I couldn't tell if the miscreant was from around here or not; if he was, he had even less excuse.)

About 100 feet west of the Classen Circle, I was inclined to be a great deal more forgiving. The problem this time? Geese. A couple of dozen of them across three lanes, three more in the median, migrating north on foot. (This was right in front of Horn Seed Company, so maybe they were looking for dinner.) I don't know if these are the same geese which occasionally hang around Temple B'nai Israel, about a mile to the west, but I knew that if they were, it was pointless to try to distract them; I've tangled with them before, and they will not be moved. One woman actually got out of her car and stared, her face screwed into the very incarnation of "WTF?" I think she suspected, though, that she and her car were no match for twenty-odd birds with both size and attitude.

Posted at 5:35 PM to City Scene