Annual First Bike Ride of the Year Post!

[shiredancer]

Today was national Bike to Work Day, so that's what I did. As always, the first bike ride of the year was nice, easy, leaving me wondering why I don't do it more often. Actually it feels that way the first three, or four, or five, times. It's not until the seventh or eighth or ninth ride that I get my answer. Oh yeah. It does get old, doesn't it? But for now, it's good. No critters this time, no bunnies hopping across the bike path. There was one blue heron-type bird way down one of the creeks, but that's all -- maybe because it was cold and drizzling and gray and gloomy this morning. Oh, and there was a dead skunk smack dab in the middle of the bike path. One has to wonder how a dead skunk gets there -- truly a scary thought, and one pities the poor bike rider, if such is the case. My money's on a dog or something, though. I mean -- ewwwwwww.

The fact that I'm on my bike *must* indicate a manic phase, right? (You know, I never even thought of myself as having "manic" phases or being the least little bit bipolar, until we all took that *&#*%&)@!!! depression quiz a while back!) Not only that, but last night I walked on the treadmill for a solid half hour, *and* used the ab thingy for a series of crunches. And today, even with the bike ride to and from work, I went to a step class at lunch! Eeeeeek! But see, I'm *so* sick of the dieting, and it just feels like it's time to actually try the dreaded exercising.

And I've taken on a commitment that will add some incentive. Our county transportation alternatives group is sponsoring the second annual Team Bike Challenge for the month of June, so -- silly me -- I took up the challenge, formed myself a team, and get to be called captain... arrrrrr! This means that we all use our bikes for things we would normally use our cars for, as much as we can during June, and log in each day that we make a round trip. For this, we get prizes. And glory! And perhaps cheers and pats on the back and things like that. Me being me, I told my team that the pressure is *off* for us -- we're in it for fun. We just need a photo so that we can have a web presence at their official site, and then we're ready for June. Whoohoo!

*********
Dashed out to the store earlier, to get a bunch of bandages and antiseptic for Kidlet, who was mowed down accidentally shoved during PE class and has a mess of scrapes and road rash everywhere. Anyway, there's this guy sitting on the ground outside the store, by the coffee shop, with stuff kind of piled up around him. Looked homeless. Then I realized he had a state-of-the-art laptop -- and grinned. Asked him if he was picking up on the wi-fi from the closed coffee shop; he laughed and said yep. Either a new brand of homeless, or his home connection's down and he's desperate to be online. Hmmmmm.

Comments

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

Yay, manic? I know that for myself, on the relative up-phase I like to get in quite a bit of exercise. It has lots of benefits for me: 1) it brings the highs down to manageable levels, so I am actually tired enough to sleep; 2) it softens the transition as I glide from UP-Up-up to down-Down-DOWN, making the Downs not so low nor so precipitous; and 3) it's just plain good for my heart/lungs/muscles and all.

So work that manic, baby!

But that homeless guy with the laptop? *sigh* It's a pretty common sight around here to see people with laptops who are really obviously living on the street. This is because one of the most commonly stolen items in the Valley is the laptop. It used to be that stolen laptops would be fenced, but the market for that dried up soomewhat with the increased surveillance by police authorities at places like pawn shops. So now there's a whole new cadre of people who don't have more than two changes of clothing and live under the freeway overpass, but who have a laptop that they plug in wherever they can find an outlet. The library is considering making their outlets a pay-for-use item.

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Wow! And I was hoping I was just kidding... This guy looked pretty well-kept, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for him. I swear, I don't know whether to laugh about this, or shake my head and sigh. What a world, what a world... It's just, I can *so* relate: if I ended up homeless, my laptop would be the last earthly possession I'd be clutching, I suspect. After all, it's the best escape from RL there is -- and homelessness has got to be RL at one of its lowest points.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the exercising! I hope it goes well - you certainly sound as if you did a lot of it. :oD

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

And therein lies the danger... I never learn how to pace myself and develop it into a good habit. Instead, I charge in on a high-energy day, exercise up a storm, and burn out like a roman candle. I'm going to *really* try to do better this time.