Transportation, Continued.

I just got back from my second day riding my new bike to work! Last I wrote I had just fixed my car, and just gotten a flat tire on my bike.  But then I took a one-week intermission from working in order to drive said car to Minnesota, hitch a ride with CJ's parents to Ontario, and experience my first ever Fishing Trip.

Thanks to some quick-draw emailing and fancy footwork just before leaving on vacation, I am now in possession of what very well may be my dream bike.

I have to thank craigslist for introducing me to Bob, who not only sold me a great bike for $35, but also entertained CJ and me with stories of family trips to civil rights protests when he was a kid.  Bob also expressed some concerns that perhaps our generation is apathetic and, therefore, that our world is headed for disaster.  CJ and I did our best to reassure Bob that not everyone in our generation is (as he fears) obsessed with Paris Hilton, and that in spite of the lag in peace protests in comparison to the 60s, there are many of us who are socially active. ...Although Bob (a self-described "recovering attorney") only laughed when I described law school as part of my plan to make the world a better place.  Anyway, we finally said goodbye to Bob and drove away with my new bike:

Part of the low price was because of brittle tires that were beyond any hope of inflation, but a visit to my local bike shop supplied me with the tires and tubes to fix her up.  I even cleaned out the gears with q-tips and WD-40, and wiped the whole frame down.   2 hours later I took my first ride around the block, and if it hadn't been 102 degrees outside, I would have found an excuse to just keep going.

As you can see from the pictures, this bike satisfies pretty much all of last post's wish list, and more! I added a bell and lights to it (still no rearview mirror), it came with an awesome folding basket, and the hybrid tires are perfect for the not-so-well-maintained streets of East Lawrence.

Plus, it's such a lovely color of light blue!!


I shared with CJ my recently-discovered additional evidence that this bike and I are soul mates.  "Look, it's a Mirada!" He just stared at me.  "Get it? MIR-ada!"  I think maybe he raised an eyebrow... at any rate, he wasn't getting it or he wasn't impressed, so I thought I'd better up the cleverness a level.   "Plus, the word for bike in German is RAD! So it's like, MIR-RAD... Mir's bike, get it?"

....Sigh.... I need to pick a more appreciative audience for my incredible wit.

Speaking of which, last Wednesday I thought up a clever plan for saving myself a few blocks of riding:  First, I would ride to work, and then afterwards, continue the ride to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner.

Well, I spent a couple of hours that day pulling up onions in a waterlogged field that was full of weeds taller than I am, the top 8-10 inches of which were heavy-laden with pollen.  Afterwards my jeans and shoes were caked with mud up to my thighs, my arms were covered with itchy bumps and scratches, and I had yellow powdery polkadots glued to me with sweat from head to toe.

I don't know why I ever think that working six hours in 100 degree heat could be followed by anything other than a shower.

I wasn't sure it was kind of me to expose strangers to my general disgustingness, but I figured I might as well get all my sweating and exercise out at once, so I rode to the store as is.  I just tried to avoid aisles where there were other shoppers...

I got to the counter as soon as possible, only to catch a bit of disappointing conversation: On the occasion of my first bike ride to Dillons, the only grocery store in East Lawrence, I found out that the store will be officially closing at the beginning of August... two weeks from now.  

Theoretically, it's for a good reason: Dillons plans to rebuild its Mass Street store, in a more attractive, more energy-efficient, and more community-oriented style.  I guess that will be nice.  But until then, East Lawrence, and my current Personal Biking Radius, will be without a grocery store.  It's weird to me that in a place with so many establishments for eating and drinking, there's not a single place to buy just plain food.

The next closest grocery store is Checkers, another mile South.  I actually prefer Checkers, mostly because it sells meat and milk from local farms.  So maybe this is just the motivation I need to get working hard on expanding the bikeable radius.  Hey, if my little brother can run 6 miles before 8am, surely I can make it to Checkers on my bike.

...Which reminds me of some errands I need to run (exchanging Isaiah's birthday-present running shorts for a bigger size so they're not QUITE so short...), and if I want to get them done, I need to get out the door and on my sweet new ride.