I was on my way home from work today (on my bike), when a beige Cadillac all but buzzed me in slow motion. I was a little miffed, but saw the handicap hangtag on the rearview and chocked it up to elderly driving. I continued up the road, approaching a stoplight at a busy cross-street. As I’m pedaling through the green light, I hear “Ma’am!” from my right , and see that the driver of the beige Cadillac has parked in the right lane of the busy cross street and is standing behind her car waving at me! I continue through the intersection and pull over to the gutter on the other side to find out what this woman wants.

The first thing I hear her say is “What are you doing all the way out here?”

Me (thinking she’s just a really crazy anti-bike person): “Uh… Riding home from work”

Her: “Are you Tim Taylor?” (I couldn’t understand her very well at that point, but she wandered into the street a little closer to me and yelled it a couple of times)

Me: No!

She starts trying to explain something to me, but I can’t hear what she’s saying because she’s on the other side of a busy road. By this time, the light has cycled, and she abandons her car on the side of the road and comes over to me. Apparently, she thought that I was her son, Tim Taylor, who lives in Midtown. He’s ridden a bike for more than 20 years, and she thought I was him.

Hmmm…
I know that it’s easy to mistake me for a guy from the back when I’m on my bike & wearing a helmet.
I know she said Ma’am when she was trying to get my attention.
I am confused as to how she thought I was her son while driving by and pulled over, used a female term to get my attention, then once again asked if I was Tim Taylor. Is he a transgender of some sort? I’m confused. I doubt that Tim’s bike is as ugly as the Mule, though.

Tim, if you’re out there, maybe you should give your mother a call.