the bicycle diaries: week 1

Saturday: Buy bike at WalMart. Name her Tessa and immediately start anthromorphizing her as a sly troublemaker when she almost won't fit in the car.

Sunday: Practice riding around the creek trails, manage to avoid falling and making a giant ass of myself. Time various daily routes (bus stop, corner store, Brookvale shopping center) for future reference.

Monday: Nearly give myself a concussion trying to figure out the bus bike rack. Basket flies into the street when I go over a pothole. Trip home is less dramatic, although the bus is nearly 20 minutes late.

Tuesday: Uneventful trip to work. Ride home is extremely cold, damp, and annoying windy. Stop for case of Diet Coke at Bonfare and am asked if the cops took my license away. Unsure of how I should react to that.

Wednesday: A full bus rack necessitates biking all the way to my connecting stop. I really, really hope I never have to do that again. Legs like jelly for the rest of the day. Need to go to my credit union on the way home, this requires walking up a freeway overpass, followed by an exhilerating (read: terrifying but fun) coast down. Easy route and there's a stop right by the bank. Good to know. Still too damn cold.

Thursday: Starting to build rapport with drivers and fellow passengers, exchange short nods of greeting. Mental note: My favorite pair of jeans are no good for biking. They're too tight around the thighs and knees when I'm in a sitting position and require me to pump my legs extra hard. Get off in front of Long's in the Brookvale shopping center to get a few things and take the pedway home. My thigh muscles wave a tiny white flag with 2 blocks to go and I walk the rest of the way.

Friday (morning): Get up an hour early so I can get off work at 5:00 and hopefully do my grocery shopping and still make it home at a reasonable hour. Unintentional lulz ensue while waiting for my first bus: the stop is in front of my old high school, and a guy pulls up in a battered truck and starts berating 2 teenage boys (one of whom seems to be his son) for smoking and ditching school. He drags one of them into the truck, and the boy jumps out and runs off as soon his father gets behind the wheel. Dad chases him across the lawn to the entrance of the school, then comes back to his truck and roars off. His son immediately comes out of hiding and lights another cigarette.

Rest of the commute is uneventful.

Total injuries: Bruised left ankle, bruised inside right forearm, gash on back of right index finger. Severe muscle exhaustion and jelly legs, a little stiffness, but no real pain.

Lessons learned: Don't keep your transfer in your front pocket, or it will get severely bent.