The Ink-Pot and the Palette

First of all it's October, and truly October-ish outside--cool, sunny, smells like apples and leaves? You know.

Second of all, I had to work today. You'd think this would be a bad thing, but I don't actually mind working on Saturday once in a while*. I get a lot done. I got a lot done. I like the quiet.

Third of all, two bike rides in the perfect. One of them took me past the goats again.

Fourth of all, a hot order of fish and chips from the Irish pub on the corner, and Volume Two of S.U. Pacat (aka freece)'s Captive Prince (which, dear god, where-have-you-been-all-my-life, is fantastic) just queued up all fresh.

So really, my life is perfect.

*And also? There are only thirteen Saturdays left in the whole world where this job will be an issue.

Fun with privilege:

Dottie, the blogger-in-chief of my favorite bike blog, Chicago's Let's Go Ride a Bike, wrote a wonderful post today about the positive impact bike-riding can have on the self-esteem as well as the health of people who participate in it. She's a leading advocate of everyday biking for everyday people (with a cycle-chic slant endorsing the wearing of nice street clothes while doing it).

The most salient point of her post today is this:

When your body carries you several miles to and from work every day, you appreciate your body as a tool and a workhorse. When your lungs fill with air and your heart pumps energetically, you know your body is good, without having to examine it in the mirror, searching for flaws. If society declares that your body is not ideal because you are not skinny enough or muscular enough, or your hips or thighs are too big, you know that society is wrong because your body works for you admirably every day.

Words to bike by.

( So of course some asshole has to weigh in. )

The more I ride my bike, the sharper my retorting skills become, I swear. (Also, I've been listening to Sian Phillips reading a Georgette Heyer novel, and those Regency cadences are stuck in my head.)

This idea of not writing for a few days is genius! Thank you to everyone who suggested it.

In honor of Eleanor's--or maybe Odette's--first ride to work, I wore a skirt and high heels this morning, and felt like a million bucks cruising along in the chilly sunshine.

( A high-heel kind of day. )

So my mind is clearing, and Chapter 31 is brewing in the background. I can feel it! And meanwhile this not-writing is doing me a world of good.

I'm still tracking my bike commuting, ( even though it's monotonous ) because for years my employer has paid for a portion of my annual bus pass, which I no longer use, and I think I should get some equivalent benefit, so I'm prepared to show documentation of my itty-bitty transportation carbon footprint.

This just came over the wire from my favorite bike blog, BikePortland: US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced a new set of federal transportation recommendations designed to integrate the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities into transportation planning.

It's pretty awesome.

US federal transportation policy since the 1950s has been so exclusively about creating more roadways for more motor vehicles that when LaHood calls this set of recommendations a "sea change" he's not exaggerating.

Even though it clearly arises from recession, inflation, and scary, scary peak oil, the sudden burgeoning of attention to bikes as transportation in the US in recent months seems very positive to me.

I'm hearing rumors in the bike blogosphere today suggesting that Google is about to announce a new GoogleMaps feature: Bike Routes!

Someone from Google has been scheduled last-minute as a speaker at the plenary opening session of League of American Bicyclists annual summit tomorrow.

I've got decent local bike-route mapping already, but if Google takes it on, rumor suggests that it will include things like elevation gain (kind of a crucial cycling consideration), and it will be rolled out nationwide in the US--with UK and Europe rollout coming soon.

It would give a fantastic boost to bike-riding if it's true. Google has had pedestrian route-mapping for quite a while now, and they added public-transit route mapping more recently. Every time anyone goes to map a route, they see those options. It's gotta have a subliminal effect even for people who don't USE those options. "Oh! there are sidewalks and buses!" Now maybe they'll think, "Bike route...hm."*

Google may be the Evil Overlords of the Internet, but this kind of on-the-ground (literally) tool for real people wanting to live sustainably strikes me as a genuine good.

*idea for Google: make "route with fewest bikes" an option for motorists!

A wonderful thing just happened.

It started with a terrible thing. Late last night, Tom Daley, a guy about to open his shoestring bike-repair business in Southeast Portland, had his location broken into and most of his tools and inventory stolen.

( A tale of social networking and social conscience. )

Small steps, small steps. Thank you nwhepcat for making me aware, so I could pass it on. And good luck to Tom Daley, who is just trying to open a microbusiness in hard times.

From what I can gather, at least 90% of city bike-riders are also drivers and car-owners. So the concept of cyclists comprising a radical underclass that uses the roads for free and flouts authority is kind of a myth.

I mention this because it means that virtually all adult bike-riders are familiar with traffic law. They know how cars, drivers, and traffic work, whereas the reverse is decidedly not true: most motorists don't understand bike-riding. I've learned some things riding Clyde, and I want to share them.

( And your little dog too! )
I started out thinking that if I was super-cautious, I'd be safe, but it turns out that a mix of caution and aggression is critical to bike-riding safety in the city streets.

So if you're driving and you see a cyclist who's serious enough to be on the road at busy times in any weather, riding a bike with lights and a rearview mirror, wearing a helmet, using hand-signals, generally obeying traffic law and, you know, heading somewhere, the above will explain a lot of that cyclist's behavior. Most of us don't actually have flying monkeys to send after you. Unless you're on the phone.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by Emvira Gulch. Cue the theme.

If you have to turn 54 (and yes, it is better than the alternative), there are worse ways to spend the day than riding your bike to BikeCraft V, a huge, sunny warehouse full of vendors with cool bike stuff--stuff for bikes, stuff about bikes, stuff made out of bike parts.

There were HUNDREDS of bikes by the time we got there, and they had these portable bike racks so everyone could park and lock. avventura1234 bought a new saddle and a bamboo water bottle holder. Me, I just looked, feeling still a little bit of an outsider in the bike community, and aware that Clyde and I aren't the average configuration. Which is to say we are both larger than average among bikes and cyclists and things don't fit. This is the story of my life and I'm used to it.

We rode to coffee and bagels after that, and I spent at least two hours on the phone with friends and family, near and far.

As the temperature dropped, I made a nest for Dean, the more feral of the two stray cats, who won't come into the house even though it's getting dangerously cold outside (Sam is happy to hang out in the warm and is doing so now). The nest is a big hatbox with an old pillow and some fleece fabric inside. So far, he hasn't tried it out.

While the thousand new words I'd hoped for didn't materialize, I did get some good writing done on Restraint today. Note to kispexi2: new chapter tomorrow night.

And then I edited the last two chapters of my Podbang entry! \o/ Just a little stitching together and music editing to go, and I think I'll make my deadline tomorrow night.

Tomorrow, to round off the birthday fun, I have Chocolate class in the morning with str8ontilmornin! I expect there will be pictures.

I had my first negative cycling experience this morning. There's a bicycle bottleneck on my route to work, where all downtown-bound bike traffic in a certain radius has to converge on a bridge ramp.

There's a steepish downhill approach with a switchback in it, and a bit of a turn at the end of the ramp. So I'm going along pretty slowly, trying to stay out of the way of more intrepid cyclists who can take the switchback faster than I can.

I got to the bridge itself, where the bottleneck gets really narrow, and a guy behind me, trying to get around me on my right, misjudged the distance and wiped out.

I stopped, of course. He was okay (thank you helmet), but his bike probably wasn't. I think it was pretty clear to both of us that the error of judgment was his, and I also think it was pretty clear to both of us that he would have LOVED to be angry at me for being slow, or unfit, or otherwise annoying and in his way and "causing" his mistake.

It was very uncomfortable. Knowing you're right doesn't always pencil out to "feeling fine." I got to the office and had all kinds of trouble getting Clyde into the rack and locked up--it wasn't that my hands were shaking, but I was shaken, you know?

It's a case of "get back in the saddle and ride" (literally!), I guess, because I'm not giving up cycling, no matter what my stupid nerves say.