It's a beautiful day in Seattle, the first one in a long, long time. I got up early this morning, looked out the window at the blue, cloudless sky, and decided this would be a perfect day to buy a bicycle. This plan has been in the works for a long time, as a way to improve my health, save a little money, and give BP and the rest of those gooey evil suit guys the finger. After all, a bike doesn't burn anything but calories. Put that in your catchment pipe and suck on it, Tony.So I walked the couple of miles to the nearby Target store at Northgate and picked out a nice little Schwinn mountain bike, a simple machine with 21 gears and caliper brakes, then saddled up and rode it home, using my cell phone to snap this pic of me and my new wheels reflected in the glass of my apartment house's front door.
Didn't stay home for long, though, as there were errands to run. So it was off to Greenwood to get a prescription refilled, go to the store and the bank, and also took time to stop for a cuppa java at my favorite coffee house, the Green Bean, a Greenwood-Phinney landmark operated by a neighborhood church which is involved in a lot of local social work. The Bean is in the process of moving across the street, and will soon take up residence in an abandoned McDonald's restaurant. The corporate fast food joint's departure was Act I of this spontaneous neighborhood improvement project, and now comes the denouement.
Going home was not as easy as getting there. The gentle downhill gradient that enables one to travel from 112th to 85th and Greenwood in a few minutes doesn't seem as gentle going back the other way, but for an old man with emphysema and Parkinson's Disease I did OK. Actually, considering the way I lived most of my life I'm lucky to be able to pump a bike up any kind of hill, even one with a .0000002 percent grade.
I figure I'm not going to have to start the car till Tuesday, when I have to drive the 20 miles to work, down by the airport, then continue on to beautiful Portland, Oregon when that's done to celebrate my daughter's birthday. But I'm already scheming on how to get to Portland without driving next time, and I've heard that taking the AmTrak is convenient, pleasant, relaxing, and affordable.
You know, folks, we can do this. We can walk right out of this oily prison we've locked ourselves into, and it won't hurt a bit.
3 comments:
Awesome, Dave!
Sometimes out here, I see busses go by with bicycles up on front-mounted racks.
Thanks Joe.
I've got to try that bus trick sometime. But the truth is, I guess I don't like the buses. I haven't ridden once in the six-plus months I've been here.
People on buses always look like they're on their way to prison.
Thanks Dave for that thoughtful feedback. I actually don't like riding the bus either. I mentioned it just in case.
For me, 99 percent of the time, I just use the bike. I like the freedom from maintenance and costs of all types, including oil addiction. And freedom from being locked in traffic. I can go at a leisurely pace, where in a car, I get the feeling of following cars pushing me.
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