30 posts tagged “biking”

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.

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.

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!

Seriously.  It's bad.  The grapefruit I brought today was a touch bitter, so I decided to put sugar on it. 

But the curiously unmarked container contained powdered creamer, which was now loving sprinkled on my citrus.  Ick.
Anyway, here is my properly sugared fruit:

And here are some amazing bike tricks to pass the time:

Anyway they made me feel a little better about Monday morning. ICK.  I need some flair.

You know you live in a hardcore city when you feel kind of guilty for taking the bus instead of biking in weather like this:

This weekend I was imagining a bike/boat that you could pedal around and then take the bike out of and ride.  This isn't quite the same but it's pretty amazing....coolest commute ever.

In other news, it was -12 F this morning when I came to work, so I guess I'm glad I didn't ride.  I GUESS.  If I have to be glad about something, I'll be glad about that.  Bah.

• I'm trying hard to not freak out about all the clothes I'm getting rid of.  It feels like I'm throwing out memories, like I am devaluing my life.  And--in case that wasn't enough--I have to essentially not think at all while I'm doing it, because if I think about it, I start to panic because I'm sort of in the midst of a survivalist crisis.
• My quarter-life crisis is totally mounting.
• We have performed five nights at the Bryant Lake Bowl this month and there is yet another show coming up for us.  Some nice people from NYC asked us to be in Catch! with them. 
  
• Then we were asked to be in anooother show at the Walker.
• And that same weekend we're MCing Twister at Intermedia's fundraiser, LoveROX.
  
• Then we have anoooother show in February.
• And then another in late February.
• And then yet another sometime in February or March.
• In other words, it is insane how busy Mad King Thomas has been lately.  When it rains, it pours, but I love getting wet?  I think I may be taking this metaphor a little too far.
• I am going to cut all of my hair off! 
  
• It was so cold today that the gears on my bike froze and I couldn't ride.  :(  The guy at the bike shop said there's not really anything you can do when it's zero degrees out.  But doesn't he know I have to ride??  I think I have to go back and ask again.  He was a nice guy but clearly a hater of winter. 
  
• I went in today for the first of the HPV vaccine series.  (In Kool-Aid Man voice:) Ohhh yeah.
• United Airlines customer complaint site is STILL. BROKEN.