De La Bicyclette

[Today I rode the bike Allen lent me on Halloween. It has been sitting unused in that weird little alcove area between my living/bedroom and bathroom. ("Studio" covers so much territory.) I've truly meant to start riding it to work, but I have a few excuses, er, valid reasons that I have yet to begin:]

[1. Except for a flukey exception about a month ago, and not counting stationary bikes back when I used to go to the gym, the ride home from Allen's on All Hallows' was the first time I'd been aboard one of the consarned contraptions since the early 1990s. It's true that you never forget how to ride a bike, you do forget how to ride one competently. San Francisco's streets are not for the faint of heart or the wobbly of balance.]

[2. I hate to sweat, and I tend to do it a lot whenever I exert myself. As a lifelong Californian, I don't need to do humidity, so I've been able very carefully to craft a lifestyle in which I keep the nasty, messy dripping to a minimum. If San Francisco were a flat city, I think I could whiz about fairly effectively without arriving at my destination both needing a shower and looking like I just stepped out of one. Sadly, San Francisco is known rather well for it's freaking HILLS, and for its insane, steep streets. I arrived to see Chris today rather yucky, and he was nice about it. But work? No.]

[But...it was gorgeous here today. Today's mild sunshine was what makes California's prices, crowds, sociocultural dysfunction and just plain looniness all worth it. So I got up, applied my SPF, hopped on the Nishiki, and went out and rode to the upper Haight and Ashbury Heights, and then back downtown. And I sweated. And it was great.]

[Tomorrow, it's back to work, and on the bus.]

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