Summer riding, almost

Living in Portland means riding in the rain...a LOT.  It's the second week of June and still raining pretty much every day, although today was truly stunning.  But you expect rain in Portland.  Tomorrow is back to normal (meaning rain).  What you don't expect is the odd, inexplicably aggro behavior from motorists you find in many other cities.  Here's my strange motorist story du jour.  I have a favorite loop near my house that takes me over a nice little 1000 foot 'mountain' and through some picturesque wine country.  Not bad for a 24 mile loop that starts from my house.  So yesterday, I decide to go for a spin.  As I approached a stop light that is part of the few miles of suburban sprawl I must ride through in order to get to the wine country, I noticed a little blue Ford Escort that wasn't pulling away from the green.  It was just sitting there.  As I passed by in the bike lane, I noticed that two chubby teenagers, a girl and a pasty looking boy were both leaning to the right giving me the finger.  I was a bit astonished and perplexed.  They then zoomed forward and lurched to a stop at the next light a few hundred feet down the road.  This time the light was red, forcing me to stop.  I looked over again and sure enough, as we sat there, both had their middle fingers out, but this time, since they were stopped, I could see that they were staring straight forward, not looking at me, but with big, pleased with themselves grins on their faces.  Clearly they thought they were being fiendishly clever, and couldn't wait to tell their friends about their exploit with the cyclist later.  I couldn't help thinking to myself "these must be those kids who are fed too many large sugary drinks and processed food.  It mus also affect their intelligence".  Maybe I'm just being nostalgic, but it seems to me that back in my day, we really WERE clever when cruising about in our cars and antagonizing others.

Here is the link to the loop.  Watch out for a blue Escort.