All's Well In The World

The Cost of Cruisin'

My mom is in town for GFY trainings and as part of the World Business Academy's Global MindChange Forum.  (More about that later).  She is staying at the Orrington Hotel in Evanston and offered me her Jeep as she won't be using it while there.

I dropped her off at the hotel, came home and parked the Jeep on a side street near my house.  The next day was a stay at home and write day.  When I went out to the Jeep that evening, I found a $50 parking ticket.  In the short time I had parked there (less than 24 hours) the city had come by, put up No Parking Street Cleaning signs and had given out tickets.  I had already put $30 of gas in the Jeep  The cost of using a vehicle to get me the few short miles around town was becoming exceedingly excessive.  Then the Jeep needed more gas!  I was astounded.  Another $40 dollars.  The Jeep was in my use for just a few days and it cost me $120!!!

The time it takes to find a parking spot, or wait for the valet at the hotel equals the time difference between driving and biking or public transport.

It has been a good, albeit very expensive, reinforcement of my choice to be car free.  It will be nice when we can live in true communities where work, food, socializing, etc. is all within walking distance of our homes.  I guess that is what the impending economic crash is good for.  It will force us to do what we haven't yet mustered the strength/courage/insight to choose.  I have talked with many about this who lament that they need their car to get to work.  It is an amazing cycle of needing a car to drive to the job to make the money to pay for the car to drive to the job.   I feel blessed to be free of this particular wheel.  Now for all the other wheels I am still caught on...

Back to School Biking

Crossing guards, school buses, moms in SUVs, hundreds of thousands of kids in white tops. And this is just one street in Chicago.  Traveling through the city between 2:30pm and 4pm is quite another adventure now that school is back in session.  It was amazing to me the shift in the whole pace of the city with literally millions of children now doing the same thing at the same time every week day.

This swell in population added a good ten minutes to my commute.  While I may be able to disregard a stop sign or light here and there on my bike, there is no disregarding the crossing guards.  They are dressed in Chicago police officer uniforms to I take them to be proper officers.  The only difference is they tend to be women, exclusively as far as I have seen, and tend not to look as imposing as the rest of the Chicago Police Force.  Still, they mean business and of course I will wait my turn behind 12-15 cars while moms and kids go bouncing across the walk. 

Since most of my after school yoga classes start, well, after school, I will just need to factor this flush of friendly faces into my commute time.

Loyola University is also back in session now and the quiet sidewalks I had to myself as I would cut up from the Lake Shore Trail to Roger's Park are now shoulder to shoulder with cute first year college students.  They are so cute.  I love to look at each one of them, stepping out into the world for the first time, on their own, ready to make their mark. 

AND, the panniers are AWESOME.  Much more sturdy than the milk crate and very functional.  I would recommend these to anyone who has a bike.  I have a complex carrying system now with the basket and two panniers.  I can use one, two or all three for an infinte variety of carrying options.

Self-propelled - Zero emissions

Since selling Gumby I am now officially zero emissions. As the earth tilts away from the sun and the rain poured down on Tuesday, I started to consider the realities of all season bike commuting.   I must admit to looking out at the wind and the rain and thinking, "well I do like those Sudoku puzzles, and the train is just around the corner..."  but I needed to run an errand not on the train route so I put on my totally awesome Columbia waterproof breathable jacket that I have taken on every trip I have ever been on for the last 15 years and took off.  I learned many things.  The rain pelts my face and eyes making it a bit of a challenge to see clearly at all times.  There is no way I will be able to keep my thighs dry - they are taking a direct hit the whole time.  My helmet fits perfectly over my hood.  Lots of other people ride in the rain.  It's fun.  It also occurred to me that whatever I am carrying needs to stay dry and my bike needs to be dried off when I come in. The storage room I keep my bike in is perfect for greasing the chain, drying it off and filling the tires.  Its like my own little garage.  That right there makes all season commuting easier and I know what clothing is needed to keep comfortable when wet from paddling all those years...I'll see what I still have.  From paddling to peddling.

I am also revising my carrying system. The milk create on the back is such a joke.  It pushes into my derrière and falls off the side and bounces too hard - it broke my glass soak bowl - more on that story later.

SO, today I got this cute black metal basket for my handle bars.  Now all I need is a little dog named Toto.  Its great and you probably already guessed it, the best thing is that along with my other groceries, I can open up a bag of chips and set them right in there and munch as I ride.  Ya, the handle bars are much more squirrelly with that extra weight so riding one handed is a bit risky, but you know they say, "risk everything for love and potato chips."

The whole thing lifts right off so I can wander around the store with my funky metal basket.  It doesn't hold much.  I will still look into a grocery paneer or two...Oh My Gosh!  This is the beauty of writing.  See, I was thinking Indian cheese -paneer-but looked up the proper spelling on the Internet and in doing so found the Nashbar Townie baskets, which cost US$17 each.  'scuse me while I go visit Amazon.... Ya, okay.  They are on the way.  I'll take a picture when  get them.  I did post some pictures from the teen yoga camp but don't see where my photo album shows.  I'll have to figure that out.

So now I am set for all season biking AND I have totally set myself up for serious grocery shopping.  Next time you spend $50 to fill your tank think of me out in the rain with the ducks and frogs.  Life is good.  "HA!"  you are thinking, "I can't wait to read a post after a ride in 20 degrees."  See, that is why I have so many trips planned this winter.