Archive for Ponderings & Miscellany
Someone’s Sweetheart
The kind of text you DO NOT want to get from your sweetheart: “Car turned left in front. Hit car. Bike effed up. Phys. OK. Going to work.” — Barb Chamberlain (@barbchamberlain) April 8, 2017 This text set my heart racing Saturday morning at 10:14 a.m., just as I was preparing to set off on […]
I Came to a Fork in the Road
This post is a lightly edited version of my storytelling at the 2017 National Bike Summit. Pedal Love founder Melissa Balmer organized several members of the Pedal Love Culture & Lifestyle Council to tell stories for the opening plenary session under the theme “Bicycling Makes Lemonade: A Tall Glass of Storytelling.” This story begins when […]
Personal Privilege and Biking: It Takes More than a Bike Lane to Start Riding (2016 update)
A 2012 version of this post appeared on this blog. I updated it in 2014 for the Washington Bikes blog. This is yet another light update with some “as of 2016” notes. The way I used to tell the story of how I started bike commuting, it was an infrastructure story: I started riding because the […]
Personal Safety and Privilege: A Vignette
Setting: A separated trail running between the Duwamish River and a corridor thick with truck traffic spilling over from the Port of Seattle, part of my regular route to work. A row of bushes and trees and an active heavy rail line separate the trail from the road on the west side of the trail. On […]
A Blogspedition of My Bike Travels: Olympia, Enumclaw, Lake Forest Park & More
My work at Washington Bikes has me traveling the state quite a bit, often by car. I always haul my bike with me, however, working toward my goal of biking in every county in the state. I may bike around a town by myself, checking out the vibes and the infrastructure. I participate in official […]
To Track or Not to Track: A Blogspedition
I believe I’ve landed firmly in the “tracking” camp, after a few moments of Zen clarity about non-attachment, the joy of bicycling, living in the moment, and letting go of a very Western mileage-as-accomplishment attitude. I like to record my bike mileage. I don’t go all-out intense/obsessive (at least not in this arena). I just like […]
Zen and the Art of Bicycle Riding
A Zen teacher saw five of his students returning from the market, riding their bicycles. When they arrived at the monastery and had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your bicycles?” The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying the sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have […]
One Word for 2014 Bicycling
A related post of mine appeared on the Washington Bikes blog and another one on my personal random-life-and-stuff blog I haven’t made New Year’s resolutions for years because I recognize how quickly those good intentions start paving a road to somewhere. A couple of years ago I decided that as an alternative I would focus on three words […]
Faster, Higher, Stronger
Yesterday was a red-letter day: I rode my bike for the full round trip to and from work for the first time since we moved so much farther from the office. When I rode to work the first Monday after we moved it took me something like 1:40 to go just over 11 miles for […]
What Biking Gives Me
What a bike ride home gives me at the end of the day: exercise fresh air direct experience of neighborhoods I don’t live in and wouldn’t otherwise see up close the chance to smile at a little kid holding his dad’s hand an overheard snippet of another dad coaching his tween on skateboard skills enjoyment […]
30 Days of Biking April 2013: Final Report
Setting up the goal (and links to those previous April outcomes): 30 Days of Biking April 2013: Yes We Can! First couple of weeks: 30 Days of Biking April 2013: Almost Halfway Ride Report, 34.4 miles Made it through week 3: 30 Days of Biking: 9 Days to Go, 8.64 miles Heading to the finish […]
