I haven’t blogged in awhile, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been biking. It’s absolutely biking season in Baltimore–cooler temps, still light out after six, and besides, biking is the best way to get around. Most of my rides have been to and from work or to and from the place where I get my haircut, but at least once a week I’ve managed to take the long way and get just lost enough.

I also got to spend a few days bicycling around Milwaukee. I was there for a conference, and the hotel was four miles from the conference venues. They had buses to take us to and from, but guess what–they also had bikeshare. Total no brainer to pony up $15 to tour the city, and I caught some great views. I also bumped up against that thing that plagues bikeshares everywhere. When I tried to bike over to the Wisconsin Black Historical Society I ended up walking almost an hour because bikeshare stations didn’t extend over there. When we set up the stations where we imagine users, we also make the argument that other users aren’t important. Maybe a chicken-egg thing, but it was a bummer in an otherwise lovely weekend biking around the city.

And now I’m back, enjoying unseasonably hot weather–a second summer, almost. I had an appointment in West Baltimore–at the very western start of Pratt Street–so that meant a bike ride through neighborhoods not on my direct route to work. It was early, and folks were already out on their stoops, enjoying the sunshine. I zipped here and there, taking turns on a whim, exactly what I needed this morning. I stopped just before crossing over the highway to nowhere to snap this picture of this big steel something or other, part of some kind of construction happening in Harlem Park. Somebody knows what that thing is, put it there, and may–or may not–move it later. The rest of us will go past and around it indefinitely, I suppose.

I spent the later part of the morning zipping around southwest Baltimore and bumping up against railroad tracks as I snapped pictures of our fall colors. On my way back north and east I followed sounds to piles of rubble on Argyle Street, where they’re in the process of knocking down and dismantling a whole block of homes. I wonder what will go there afterward. Parks and gardens take labor and resources, and we seem to be pretty terrible of sticking to that for the long haul. I made a note to come back and check on Argyle Street again soon.

I don’t just need days with some hours with nothing to do. I also need days where I’m not sure what’s going to happen. What a treat that I got five hours of that today. I needed it.