As I pedaled my way to work this muggy morning, I found myself transported, nay, transfixed, no wait .... transfigured! Just before the intersection of Division and Cleveland, a strange blip appeared in the upper left hand corner of my vision. At first it made complete sense that a misguided bug had mistaken my cornea for a beautiful flower ever ready to invite some pollinator in for breakfast.
But I felt no pain, no discomfort, so I quickly reworked my initial assumption and decided that this strange new blip within my sight line was actually some physical object out in front of me. It's at this point that my story becomes quite literary, at least for me, because what I was looking at was a mirror image of myself. There was a human being using a two-wheeled human-powered machine to get himself to work (or home from the bar ... let's not judge.)
Before I could fully grasp the import of this moment, the deus ex machina of my story appeared directly to my right ... another human being on a bicycle!! And this man, this prophet of cyclical depth and meaning, tipped his hat to me and said, "Good morning."
Good morning, indeed, my cycling friend. Good morning.
At this point in the story you should know that the Guthrie by Bike house band is really tearing it up with a melodramatic background tune. Wish you could hear it. The new pan flute player is just shredding that thing.
6 comments:
...let's not judge.
let's not judge indeed. and i'm rejoicing for you finding a co-secret-bike-riding-to-work-fan-club-member-guthrie-ite-man
rejoice!
I had a similar experience the very first day I scoped out my route to work to see what kind of commitment I was thinking about.
It was early on a Saturday morning and a scruffy looking guy was weaving around on the empty neighborhood street. As we passed each other on opposite sides of the street, he yelled at me in a gruff yet happy voice: "how are you liking the new alternative fuel?"
Immediately I thought that guy was going to prove to be some kind of prophet.
Riding a bike to work really has forced me to be a more conversational person. It's so much easier for an introvert to be an introvert in a car.
When you ignore someone while you're driving a car, you always have the excuse of "the music was too loud" or "I was in such a hurry, I didn't even notice", etc. When you're riding a bike, it's pretty much a given your not in THAT big of a hurry.
I was riding up the big hill a couple weeks ago and rode past a guy walking his bike up the hill with the chain dragging the ground ... You just can't ignore this person anymore once you start riding a bike. Turns out his bike had some issues I couldn't fix, but just having the conversation, and realizing that I enjoyed the conversation, further proved the point that bicycling really has altered how I relate to other people.
Side note: The most frequent comment I've heard over the last year ... "Hey, how's the gas mileage on that thing?" It's been a personal challenge to come up with different responses to this. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm game. I realized I was running out of ideas when I made some comment about the effects of eating beans for lunch.
Since a bike is a legal street vehicle, or whatever, can you go to jail if you ride drunk? Reminds me of the Scrubs episode were Turk's white friend gets busted riding his scooter drunk.
Justin,
Your gas mileage question reminds me of my friend that used to work at Putt Putt, and he said every group always had one guy that would grab the blue golf balls and make some lame joke. His response was to hand the worst comic standing a kiddy putter. Maybe you could say, "If I ever figure out were the gas tank is I'll let you know, or my odometer is broke so I have not been able to calculate it lately."
Jeff,
I think you actually can get ticketed for drunken biking. Seems like I've read stories about that happening. Not sure if they'd actually throw you in the slammer for it, but who knows.
I can't imagine the beatdown you'd get telling the other inmates what you're in for.
"If I ever figure out were the gas tank is I'll let you know ..."
Good suggestion. Speaking of Putt Putt, that sure is an industry that has lost the glamour it once held. I think it would be cool to combine putt putt and biking into a new sport, kinda like Putt Putt Bike Polo. Polo helmets would be required.
are you ever going to blog again????? ~Katie
Post a Comment