34 posts tagged “biking”
I'm just going to ignore the gender politics/stereotypes here, and confess that last night I gave up 10 pairs of shoes, out of 44 pairs. I thought I owned more, and wanted to give away 10%, but I ended up getting rid of 23%! YES. Math. I am both ashamed and happy, and what better way to celebrate than by airing my shame for all? It was hard, and I don't really know why I still need 34 pairs of shoes. I'm working on it, okay? I GAVE UP A PAIR OF NEON PINK PUMPS FOR GOD'S SAKE.
Anyway, um, that was embarrassing.
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A handful of open letters:
You, in the pink shorts: I get it. You are a Serious, and Seriously Fast, Cyclist. I know I'm a Fred: My bike rattles, I'm wearing my work pants with the legs rolled up, I have a bag strapped to the back of my bike, I repaired my broken fender with a zip tie and I have pink reflective dots scattered at random on my helmet. You're hanging out in my five-way intersection, by the way, where month after month in the cold I have to defend my turf from depressed, insolent drivers, and here you are, and you won't even smile or say hello. Who are you and why can't you just be friendly? It's a beautiful goddam day! Get off my road! Eat a sandwich! I shake my fist heartily at you!
You, two little old ladies: I don't mind waiting for you to pass to make my turn. In fact, it warmed my cold, bitter heart (recently frozen by pink-shorts) when you parted ways and said, "See you later, Leonore!" and thanked me for waiting. Someday I hope to ride around town with my friends, with a backpack on and a box on my rear rack, full of robot parts or tomatoes or whatever.
You, ten-dollar bill: Thanks for being obviously money, so that I made a quick u-turn and picked you up. Not quite as awesome as when I found $20 outside the Domino's in Ames, Iowa (poor kid who lost his pizza money), but still pretty dang awesome.
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Well, alright, now that I've taken/given my daily dose of uncomfortably revealing truths, I guess I'll get back to work.
Well, as I have already bemoaned, the weather got cold. The outside got mean. The sun is shining and the wind is biting. This led to two realizations today:
- The one (and so far only) thing I am grateful to George Bush for is his random change of the daylight savings period. One of my favorite days is December 21, the shortest day of the year--because after that I get more sunlight! And really, when I think about it, December 21 is not so far away. I have no idea why he changed it, but I don't care! SUNLIGHT.
- Man, who am I to bitch? It's almost the middle of November and I just now had to put on real gloves and my facemask. Shut it, Tara, you ingrate.
- Okay, three realizations: Winter is SO not as hard as I make myself think.
- Okay, four but that's IT: It takes forever to get dressed in this much clothing, and then it takes forever to bike. Sigh. I should probably allow an extra 30 minutes in the morning to get out of the house.
In other news, it was pretty fascinating to make chicken stock. I confess here, for all to see, my sin: Though I often partook of the fleshly delights of the chicken breast or thigh, I never ventured farther to the scapula, the vertebrae. The back of the chicken grossed me out. Yesterday I spent about ten minutes picking the flesh from its bones, and at the end of the whole process, spent another ten minutes picking the bones from the stock. It was fascinating and disquieting to recognize so many of my own bones in the chicken. It led me to wonder about how many chickens each American would need to keep to supply themselves with the amount of meat they eat in a year (I think it is a LOT, even with the power of freezers). I'm not going to start an urban chicken coop (yet), but the Incident of the Chicken Broth is one more incremental step in my food-awesomeness policy: food that I make, from ingredients I recognize. Preferably from ingredients I created out of some dirt and seeds. God, I'm such a dirty hippie these days.
Minneapolis regularly comes in 2nd in the nation for percentage of bike commuters (only Portland is ahead of us). And let's not forget that Portland bikers aren't riding in the dark through inches of snow, slush, and ice for six months out of the year.
This year the number of people in Minneapolis who are bike commuting DOUBLED. We are nipping at your heels, Portland! Hear our tires and feel our frost-bitten wrath!
I've had Lysander the Bike, kind of, more or less, one year.
I fell in love with Minneapolis from the seat of this bike. The city of cars is different from the city of bikes, even when they're the same place.
I've gotten a few scars from embarrassing falls. I've ridden 1460+ miles. I haven't lost a scrap of weight, but my legs and lungs are stronger and bigger.
For my birthday, I rode my bike wearing a sparkly mini-dress and my sea anemone costume, all while hauling a frosted birthday cake, three bottles of champagne and a bag of ice. Port-a-party? (Sorry, that was bad.)
Anyway, I love my bike. Even when I'm tired and frustrated, Lysander makes it worthwhile to get on my bike. Hooray bicycles!
Are you effing kidding me? Did this guy send out press releases or something? The only thing that is unusual is that he's calculating the money he will save and then sending it to Africa (which you don't find out until the end of the article). While LaFave sounds like a great guy who has made a smart decision, please do some research. Thousands of people have given up their cars...not just for thirty-one days, but for life.SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days — he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.
"The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days," LaFave said, calling it his personal stand against the oil companies.
Now LaFave, 31, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes. He won't even let friends pick him up unless they already planned on being in the neighborhood.
Brian LaFave, 1; AP, 0.
I'll be quiet now, I guess. Maybe this will inspire more people to do the same. Maybe they can get famous too!
Heck, maybe I should send out press releases about my personal life...I bet it works for Paris Hilton.
(I swear I think about other things than biking, but I haven't had a chance to write about them.)
You can tell because the lilacs are preparing to blossom and the Fearsome Fleet of Skinny Terror is back on the trail:
In sillier news, the Bike Center opened today and somebody had the seriously clever thought: What if we set up the speech-givers on one side of the trail, and the audience on the other side? Despite being separated by about six feet of pavement, this ensures that our cameras will be constantly interrupted by the bikers who actually, you know, have to get to work and stuff. It's like setting up a press conference on opposite sides of a highway. Talk about awkward.
In sadder news, I stuck a book in my pack of stuff and in my sleepy state thought that it would be secure there. Lo, I got to work and no book. It was brand new! I'd barely even cracked it! At least it's a sunny day, so assuming that everybody just leaves it where it fell, I might find it on my way home. Alas, I can't really go hunting for it till after work. Poor book. Poor me. I hope some other writerly type finds it, if I don't get to keep it.
In inspiring news, here is a blog post from a brand-new bike commuter. Hooray!! It's a success!
I crashed on my bike yesterday (don't worry, o parents of mine, I'm fine). I haven't actually fallen off my bike and hit pavement since Fall 2004 so I guess it's about time. I think I sort of might blame my PowerGrips, because usually my feet skitter out and catch me before I find myself horizontal.
I still like the PowerGrips and I'm not convinced they caused me to tumble. There was a big knot of wire in the Greenway, which I straight up didn't see. The Greenway is such a pothole-free paradise that I'm really out of the habit of looking for obstacles on it. Everything just got kind of wobbly and about six feet later I was skidding out. I smacked my head, but this is why I wear a helmet, and I have a series of bruises on the left side of my body (and the left side of my right knee). Even on a flat, dry, carfree, smooth stretch of pavement, I can still find a way to tumble. I've been coating all the tender bits in arnica gel, because it makes me feel as though I belong in the Minneapolis dance scene (and because it might help with the bruising).
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This morning at 6 a.m. Paul woke me up, because Caesar was chasing his tail. Not only was Caesar chasing his tail, he was doing it in a corner on top of a storage container that is only about 1 sq. foot. Which meant that he was also running into the wall and slipping off the edges of the box. Seeing your cat, for no known reason, at six in the morning, spin in circles and smash into walls is a rare treat that I wish everyone could experience.
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I really love this song and this video, together and separately. I can't put my finger on why, but I am reliably devastated by hearing it:
Look, I know Vox isn't a late-night-posting kind of place, but I think you should know...
....even though Spring is kind of here in Minnesota...
...and even if you are wearing a whiskey jacket or two...
...twenty-eight degrees Fahrenheit is not a temperature at which you can comfortably bike without gloves.
I am going to have to start wearing sunscreen. Hooray? I guess it's good to not be always tucked into a giant bundle of fabric. Still. Sunscreen. So onerous.
Some jerk of a yuppie tried to kill me in the crosswalk today. I hate crosswalks and I hate that trails employ them. But MOSTLY I hate that Yuppie McSelfEntitled, in his faux sportscar, yelled at me when he almost turned me into Creamy Biker Ragout with his front bumper. The only reason he didn't is because, frankly, I expect people not to see me so I was moving slow and looking out. I am the one who is legally entitled, you jerkberry!
Mr. McSelfEntitled ruined the second half of my ride. Well, I ruined it by dwelling on his boorish behavior. Cars are just so frustratingly self-enclosed. You can't hear the people in them, you can't really talk to anybody. Ugh. For all I know the yuppie was asking me if I wanted to take his car.
In other respects, though, it was a nice ride. I'm looking forward to the ride home tonight.
It's sunny and it was 33 degrees when I rode in! Beautiful.
My new riding theory is to intentionally go slow on my way to work or any time I'm feeling exhausted or stressed on the bike. I can comfortably go 4-5 mph faster, but it only adds 5-7 minutes to my commute and I get to work feeling a lot less sweaty and near to death.
Anyway it was a nice ride, employing my theory of going slower to save time. I got to work and dunked my newly shorn head in the sink, then realized that I forgot my towel, but whatevs. This is why God gave us paper towels. I think I love my new haircut because I feel like it looks okay post-ride. Two thumbs up for Stephanie at Mezzanine!
Tonight I start my new class at the Loft--Alternative Travel Writing. This involves an adventure as I try to get there by bike. I don't really understand the University area but I'm sure I will prevail. That big bridge that collapsed doesn't help matters any. Anyway, I am excited for my bike adventure and I'm excited to go back to the Loft. There is a feeling of rightness that I get there. I feel calm and confident. I think I have felt that way since the first day I went there. Classes are not terribly cheap, but they are usually good. I figure it works out.
Spring is coming! Today it will be over 42 degrees! This is so unbelievably pleasant!
