so wrong

I'm sorry, but I find it incredibly wrong to hear a child say - I'm so excited. I've only ever had a fat daddy. I can't wait until it's my turn [to shine? - I forget the exact words]. Not the words about having a fat daddy - though that's a little rude. It's more seeing her, and she's 7 or 8, and really overweight, and if I'm interpreting her correctly, wanting to be on the Biggest Loser? I have to have taken that wrong. It can't be correct. It is not something to look forward to.

The title is also appropriate for my behavior. I'm a hothead. If I'm doing something wrong biking, I fully accept any consequences that may ensue. Like riding the wrong way down a road. Or riding without a helmet - even a short distance. But if I'm doing the right things and you honk at me, watch out, if I can catch you. Tonight I was biking in the roadway, on the side, with headlight and tail light and reflective vest and reflective bike bags, and I have the right of way, and the cars coming along the off ramp have a yield sign, and the car honks at me because I don't stop for it. Her.

How do I know it's a her? Because she got caught at the left turn light, and so I rode up and slapped her window. No matter what she said, all I said was YOU HAD THE YIELD SIGN. I eventually left - I would have parked myself in front of or on top of her car, had there not been other cars behind her and I didn't want them to have to pay for her sin. Yeah yeah, I'm over the top and not proud of it. This is my confession area. At least some of my sins.

My trusty steed

This is how I get to work most days. The bags on either side are big, but they help protect me from cars. And half the time people flag me down asking for a piece of pizza.

Bike to Work Day

First day back on the bike in two weeks. Didn't hurt! And I won something at the pit stop.

Here's info about Bike to Work Day. Think about it for next year.

Bike-to-Work Day is an annual event held on the third Friday of May across the United States and Canada that promotes the bicycle as an option for commuting to work. Leading up to Bike-to-Work Day, national, regional, and local bicycle advocacy groups encourage people to try bicycle commuting as a healthy and safe alternative to driving by providing route information and tips for new bicycle commuters. On Bike-to-Work Day, these groups often organize bicycle-related events, and in some areas, pit stops along bicycle routes with snacks.

Retreat

So, I have decided to not volunteer this weekend. I'm upset, but likening it to backing off of a climb. Thing is, the leader wanted people to guarantee 100% commitment, and I can't do that. I did part of the route this Sunday with 4 others, and only made it through 1.5-2 hours. My hand hurting was the biggest thing, but it also didn't help that we never stopped. These other people did not need to eat, nor really drink. I'm drinking constantly from my watercarrierthingie, and ate a cliff bar, and I think maybe one of them had a sip from their water bottle. That told me a lot. I accept these limitations of myself most of the time, but sometimes it's really frustrating, like now. But it feels like the best thing to do to back out, no matter how much I hate the idea.

So now I have a weekend free, and will help a friend who's moving, and maybe even paint some of my ceilings to start making it look like MY home.

idjit

So, I had to drive my bike somewhere to bike in since I had a dr's appointment early. Driving up this one way main road (3 lanes) saw a bicyclist coming down the sidewalk side but in the road against traffic. I said, what an idiot. Then laughed at myself, since I've done the same thing. Will there be a lesson learned??

Biking

Since I bike to work almost every day, and I like to volunteer, and need to keep myself active and out there rather than just in my house, I responded to a request for bike volunteers for an upcoming two day walkathon.

Thing is, if they just threw me into it I probably would be ok. Maybe. But it's kinda like the Peace Corps.* Huh you say? Well, they give you lots of details and the more I learn about it the more anxious I become (though I'm feeling a little better today after getting my period last night - TMI, but relevant). Seriously two 12 hour days on the bike, and they want you to sleep in a tent city and share a tent with someone you don't know - potentially a snorer or someone who kicks. My body won't be able to take that. And I refuse to pay an ungodly amount for a hotel room. So, I'm trying to figure out what to do - I might try to make the trek home to sleep, and worse comes to worse I do the first day and fall apart and can't do the second. Actually, it might be worse to start the second and fall apart after a few hours. But we'll see.

On a brighter note I asked to borrow a bell from a friend (you're asked to have a bell, and it's not something I've considered necessary since I can scream loudly if needed, and politely say 'on your left', but 2 days of that and I might lose my voice), and yesterday a bell mysteriously appeared on my bike. Which was so sweet. Of course all the way home I was singing in my head "you can ring my bellllll, ring my bell".

And my generalized anxiety transferred to me doing something different this morning. There's a spot in my commute to work that is really really dangerous, because in the morning two lanes go to the right, but during regular hours that right lane can go straight, and there really is no truly safe way for a biker to go through that intersection, but I've been doing and so far not been killed. So, I rode on the sidewalk on the other side of the road this morning, and of course there's construction so I had to go into the road at one point, against traffic. Hmmm... which is more dangerous?

Anywho, that's my biking stories today.

*I applied to the Peace Corp in the 90's. I got an offer to go to St. Kitts and Nevis, and didn't go, in part because they tell you way too much about any possible problem you might encounter. I know why they do it - to show these young idealist volunteers that it won't be as they imagine (Peace Corps has a really huge drop out rate), but for me, I need to NOT know what I'm getting into (to a certain extent). When I went to Zimbabwe - if anyone had told me what I might encounter and go through, I'm not sure I would have gone. But I survived and even did fine and dandy.

Screwed

Biking to work today, I ran over a screw. Flat tire! Luckily and amazingly I had everything I needed, so I sat in the sun on the grass and was entertainment for the commuters driving by. Three people offered to help, which restored my faith in humanity.

Please dispose of your screws properly.

Windswept hair and everything else

Biking to work this morning I was reminded of a story a former colleague told. She was biking across the country with some friends and apparently in Kansas especially (you'd think it would be Oklahoma, OK?) the wind gusts would occasionally blow her and her bike over. That would suck. I hope that doesn't happen to me today.

I dressed for the wind - tight red dress. I had to spruce myself up a bit to make me feel better - the damn pain I've had since Sat is not going away. But of course, it hasn't helped that I climbed on Sun, and then moved appliances on Tuesday. Oops. I could do it when I was younger! I also went to a new neurologist on Wed who actually said what my neither my old neurologist, back doctor, chiropractors said. Only my trainer was correct. That my migraines are caused by a pinched nerve. It even has some fancy name. I have a follow up appointment and we'll see if I'm going to live.

Image

Mother Nature has laughed in my face. The last two days I have not biked because of weather forecasts, so I was excited to bike in today. I'm 10 minutes away from going out the door and it starts snowing like crazy. The radio is talking about all the accidents in the north and west. But there was no way I was not going to bike, so I did. In the driving snow. And I survived!

Two nice things happened to me yesterday. The first - I had gotten my Levelor blinds and while the blind itself was what I wanted, the factory chose the top bar front thingie, and it is this weird green. When I called them yesterday, not only did they listen to me, but they are also shipping me a sample of a gray that they have to make sure I'd like it before sending it back for 'repairs'.

The second was when I stopped at Whole Foods after work. I didn't have a basket, and so put my wallet in my pocket. Of course I picked up way too many things to carry, so at some point my wallet fell out. I only realized when I was done shopping. I went to the customer service desk, and ta da, it was there. Nothing missing - I think, since I dont' know how much cash I had in there. Since it wasn't that long, I'm not worried about numbers being stolen.

Bus vs. Bike

Ok, so tell me if I'm in the wrong or not. I was biking to work, and as usual I had to change to the middle of the two lanes before this one light, since the right lane is right turn only in the morning. The cop had told me to do that. At the next light, before the light, a bus had stopped to pick someone up. The light was green. I went to the left of the bus, ie the middle of the road, to pass the bus. The bus toots his weak little horn and stops like I've inconvenienced him. Then as he passes me he toots again, and at the next light the light is red and he did something else before he stopped. So, I go to the left and ask the bus driver what his problem is. He was pissed off that I was between the bus and the car. I told him it made no sense that there was a problem because I'm in the friggin' road. He shut his window on me. Oh, that hurt.

So, tell me.

But it was yellow!

Biking to work this morning, light in front of me turns yellow so I gun it (metaphorically, since I was on my bike). I go through and a cop steps out into the street. I thought he was just crossing, but he stops me and starts yelling at me, literally. "blah blah blah, if you're gonna ride in the road, you have to obey the rules. blah blah you would get 4 points on your license blah blah I'll let you go this time" The thing is, I was truly surprised because I thought I had made the yellow. And I was stunned that he was yelling at me. It was kinda like my dad was yelling at me (not that my dad did, but you understand) so I was really upset afterwards, especially since I didn't think I did run a red.

Thing is, I think my nine lives of getting caught and not getting a ticket are almost used up so I think I have to lessen my aggressiveness and be conservative as well as start obeying the rules of the road when I bike. Dammit.

Image

Do the test

I love it. Do NOT read the comments before you do it since some[Heather]one gave it away.

A perfectly good ride home

Ruined. Due to a bunch of kids (pre-teens, not 5 year olds), one of whom had a large stick, who threatened to take my bike and bags. Stupid f*ker. Thankfully he didn't shove it into my wheel to stop me cold, and also didn't whack me with it, so I just kept going. (Maybe because I'm a speed demon? ha...) Oh, but it made me so mad. So many things I wanted to say to him. (I did look back and say f*ker to him though.) I wanted to turn around and go after him and his 'gang' but sometimes though I do have common sense. Thankfully.

So, I got home grumpy, and decided to do some retail therapy. Needed a temperpedic pillow to try and help stop migranes, so went to buy that (did you know they come in different sizes? so I had to have the store guy measure my shoulder to neck length), as well as a wedding present for a friend. And, just so happens there's a shoe store next door (how well the mall planners know their clientele), and I had a $20 coupon with me, so I bought two pairs of shoes, one of which is very practical, one of which is not so much (um, cheetah pewter reptile print heels - they didn't have the brown patent leather in my size! so had to buy the cheetah reptile ones...). I am famous for buying shoes and then returning most of them when I come to my senses, but I just may keep both.

I am not a rat

I did a search recently on tickling, because I'm one of very few people I know that really doesn't like to be tickled. I've gotten into BIG trouble twice for how hard I smacked someone when they tried to tickle me.

In any event, I came across this interesting article about rats and tickling. They enjoy it!

See for yourself.

But I *am* a squirrel. I either read or heard sometime that if you're driving down the road and a squirrel runs into the road, don't stop because he's timed it to make it across. And though I haven't googled it, I tend to believe it. Yesterday on the way home, went through a reddish-yellow light (cough), and trying to beat the cars that were starting to turn, and make it through the pedestrians that were trying to cross, and one damn woman stops dead in her tracks in the middle of the intersection when I had figured out where to go by the speed she was walking. I almost slammed right into her! I screamed and made it around, but DAMN, it was close - there was no braking to be had.

Speaking of squirrels, there's no squirrels in Australia, so the couple I met in Mexico stopped to feed them/take pictures. Ugh. Squirrels are just rats with furry tails - yucky.

But wait, but how can I be a squirrel then and not a rat??
[smoke is now coming out of ears] does not compute...

Note to Self - Biking and Pedestrians

OK, ALWAYS announce you are coming/going to pass. Pedestrians are unpredictable - in their own little worlds and just because they might start heading one way doesn't mean they can't stop dead in their tracks and decide to go the other way. And it doesn't help if you like to go as fast as you possibly can. It just might lead to you slamming on your brakes to only sort of bump the pedestrian, and you flying off your bike. Sigh. At least I didn't blame it on the pedestrian, which I had one biker do to me once.

What happens when you bike to work

So, something that happens when you bike to work is that you sometimes forget a key article of clothing. (Actually, most articles of clothing are pretty key at work, so pretty much anything you forget is an issue.) I leave all of my work shoes at work so I never have to worry about that.

Yesterday I forgot my shirt. It just so happens I had a shirt at work that went with what I brought to wear. Whew. But in the past month or two, I've also forgotten my bra, which can be more of an issue, but again, thankfully I'm an A so I can slouch or cross my arms and be sort of ok. (Though to get a smile and a shake of the head out of the receptionist, I did jump up and down in front of her...just to be weird and I suppose exhibitionist) [note to self: I have to bring in other articles of clothing to leave at work just to be safe.]

When I first started biking to work at my very first job after graduate school, the office suite had a shower. Which was GREAT. The only problem was, I have a tendency to run a little behind in the morning. So one morning I finished showering, picked up all my crap, and ran to 'my' office (shared). A few minutes later the Vice President of the company walks in dangling my sweaty underwear between two fingers - "I think these might be yours". Ack! Luckily they were in decent shape. But boy, what dedication she had to pick them up. Or something.

Bestest Favoritest Bike shirt

I have a new bestest favoritest bike shirt. What's great about it? I feel like I'm biking topless! Air flow is great. It's tight but loose - so thus not binding, but doesn't expose either. It's wicking. It has a pattern on the front for those pesky times when the headlights come on. I love it. Who woulda thunk? (btw, I'm only an A so I can do this)

That's all. Thought I'd share. Maybe I'll pitch the concept to York Peppermint Patties.