I didn’t ride my bike that much in 2025. I spent much of the first part of the year slowly but surely recovering from three surgeries in the second half of 2024. I could bike commute that spring, but a single ride would take me two days of recovery. I spent a lot more time on buses and in carpools than usual. And then it was summer–too hot–and fall–work was so busy. Lots of late nights, I don’t like to ride at night, my boo works ten minutes from me–we’ll carpool.
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I ride my bike all the time, but the most consistent riding I do is my commute. I ride the same way, day after day, for years. In New Orleans I rode between the Garden District and the Tremé so many times I knew the asphalt, intimately. I have spent years riding the Maryland Ave. cycletrack, right on Monument, left on Paca, right on Lombard. And then they moved the shuttle stops, and everything changed.
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Ok, this isn’t what I saw while riding my bike around *today* but I finally have a minute to write about it. I went to Miami last week to watch women’s basketball and visit some natural parks. I have no desire to spend money in a state like Florida, but I have every desire to spend money supporting women’s basketball, and I also really needed a vacation after canceling everything good last year. Thanks a lot, cancer! No clean living in capitalism, so I headed down there by myself, sunscreen and sneakers in tow.
And oh, I had such a wonderful time. I fed so many parts of myself. I went to Biscayne Bay National Park and learned about coral reefs, mangroves, and how many different histories overlap in a single place, as always. I took the bus to Miami Beach and South Beach to hobnob with rich people and the people who are meant to stay invisible while making sure the rich people don’t have to know that it takes labor to get that effortless lifestyle–and I got to learn a new bus system. I also learned, again, that yes, I like my black beans Cuban-d.
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I was worried I wouldn’t still like riding my bike around, and then I’d lose access to the part of myself that likes riding my bike around. And then I thought to myself, if you don’t like riding your bike around anymore, that’s ok! Things change! You’ll always have enjoyed that, it will always have made your life so much more interesting, and you can be on to the next thing. It’s like getting a tattoo–what if I regret it? But regret or not, it will always have marked who you were at that moment, and that’s a record worth keeping.
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It has been a really long time since I sat down and wrote about what I saw riding my bike around today. I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in June, 2024, and it has been a whirlwind. It was the best kind of cancer you can get, sort of, I guess, but the way you treat this cancer, especially the second time around, is by cutting out and off everything. I had three surgeries in five months, and even when I got on my bike between surgery #1 and surgery #2, my heart wasn’t in it. I knew as soon as I got back to my old fitness I’d get knocked down again, and also I was just still so tired.
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When I first rode my bike around east Baltimore after moving to town 13-odd years ago, I often rode through the Perkins Homes public housing development. I wondered to myself why the city let public housing and the people who live in public housing live so close to the ritzy neighborhoods of Harbor East and Fells Point. and here we are, and Perkins Homes is gone, being rebuilt like this. It is like being in a whole new place I barely recognize, and I also know that once it’s finished, it will feel like it has always been here. Because we get used to things, for good or ill.
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I haven’t been blogging much these days, too busy with work and out of the habit. But I was thinking about this blog on my ride yesterday and wanted to check back in and say thank you, bicycle and bicycle blog, for teaching me how to pay attention in new ways.
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So many bike rides until lately, when I have found myself catching rides and borrowing the car. I have long understood that my ability to commute by bike and bus is possible because my work schedule is flexible and I don’t currently care for anyone who needs me to pick them up somewhere. I spend two and half to three hours a day commuting when I go to campus. And now it’s Fall 2023, and my work life is much busier than it has been, and it’s either grab a ride with Susan or get home after dinner. I’ll take the ride. (Thanks, Susan!)
I type this not to apologize for not writing on my blog, or for not riding my bike. All of this stuff is entirely up to me. But in my therapy appointment today I talked about the frustration I feel about not getting to explore on my bike as much as I usually get to explore, so after our appointment I headed out to enjoy the cool air and the cloudy sky.
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And then it cooled down, and that has made all the difference! I took myself out for my regular Herring Run Trail ride on Monday, and it felt so good. I kept staring up at the sky. It was perfect from every angle–bright blue, fluffy clouds, offering just enough shade to keep me cool-ish. I snapped this one near the end of my ride, doing my second C around Lake Montebello.
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News flash! It’s hot out! I headed out the door to ride my bike to a dentist appointment up in Hamilton last month, and my partner implored me to use the car. “It’s not safe,” she said. I was like, I have been riding my bike in hot and humid summer heat for fifteen years, I’m fine. And I was, and she was right–it was really hot out. And I was right–I could indeed ride my bike in it.
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What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 