Third blog in a single day. I was just about to leave school, on the front step tying my shoes, when the rain just fell out of the sky like the gods turned their shower on. It's monsoon season here and you never know when it's going to go from sunny to incredibly rainy in a matter of hours. I really don't like driving my scooter in that kind of rain, because it is a genuinely dangerous thing to do. It rains so hard that, when I'm driving in it, I can open my mouth and get a pretty good drink.

I know they say motorcycles (and scooters to a smaller extent) are for crazy people; just look at the injury and death statistics, right? Well yes, but I think those statistics reflect to a degree the kind of people who are inclined to buy motorcycles in the first place. In other words, if motorcycles didn't exist, people who would otherwise have bought them are probably the same people who will get into more car accidents on average anyway. Motorcycles get into more accidents for the same reason muscle cars do; those sorts of people have a need for speed, and they're looking to be dangerous and push the limits of what is rational for self-preserving humans to be doing. I am not one of those people. For me the scooter is a cheap conveyance.

But the other thing that I really do concern myself about is the fact that motorcycle injuries are a lot more unpleasant on average, because the machine has absolutely no protection built in. It's a calculated risk that I take, like the many calculated risks we take every day when we drive, cross a street, take a cab, get on a plane, use a power tool, eat at a restaurant (coming from a former Denny's employee), or have sex with someone we don't know all that well (not that I do that every day!).