Today was my birthday. All I wanted for my birthday was a bicycle ride around town. Seriously, that is all I wanted. It is such a treat to just get on a my bike and ride. I feel like such a broken record sometimes, but it’s my birthday, so I can sing whatever song I like. I spent most of my day like I spend most days–writing, teaching, riding my bicycle. Today featured a lovely lunch and ice cream date with R., who, upon looking at my scrapes and lacerations from last night’s fall, thought we best check in with the health clinic. Continue reading
New Playground Equipment at Wisner Center Park at Annuciation and Upperline
As I was getting on my bike to head home after enjoying the Laker blowout with N., I thought about what I was going to say about this picture I took tonight of new playground equipment at the park on Annunciation and Upperline. When I first moved to New Orleans this park was still filled with FEMA trailers, but that space is now a baseball diamond. The basketball courts have been redone. And now, finally, the rusted out swingset and aluminum overhang has been replaced with this colorful new equipment. Continue reading
Golden Cosmos at Joseph and Patton
I was zipping around town today, feeling good in the sunshine. I swear it’s getting cooler even though the numbers aren’t changing. After teaching and some time in the office I headed over to N.’s for some World Cup action. That is some tense sporting, my friends. I watched one of the players for Italy attempt a bicycle kick on a ball that was just a little too high. I quickly realized that all my time in the saddle has done nothing whatsoever to prepare me for my duties on the pitch. Alas. Continue reading
Lemann Pool at Lafitte and Prieur
Oh, I had a most lovely Sunday! I spent the morning finishing a book and then working on my own. Then I lathered on the sunscreen and headed out on the Surly, to the library for a replacement read, then to A.’s yard sale for a blueberry delivery. I rode to Mid-City for lunch and some iced tea and, frankly, some air conditioning. See how long it took for me to remark on the fact that it is incredibly, outrageously, downright filthy hot around here right now? Continue reading
Graffiti on a Fence at Milan and Camp
I had a most lovely day today, picking blueberries and swimming in the Bouie river under a crazy bright sun. No, I didn’t ride my bike there. But next time I visit, I am most definitely bringing the Surly for a ride on the Longleaf Trace, blueberry smoothie to follow. When I got back to town I immediately jumped on the bike and headed to a presentation at the local bookstore of a great new book about a 19th century bike randonneur. Continue reading
Exposed Pipe at Octavia and St. Charles
I have never lived in a town that wears as much of its skeleton on the outside as this place. There are the literal skeletons in their above-ground tombs scattered all over the city, but there is also the skeleton of infrastructure–outfrastructure?–that’s always poking through the surface. Continue reading
Truck and Flowering Tree at Camp and Toledano
My legs were kind of wilty today after yesterday’s ride so I kept my ride to the commute to campus for class and then back home. I pedaled along, noticing the lushness that all this heat and humidity give us. Back at the beginning of spring we got the brilliant azaleas and that insidious cat’s claw and the cloying jasmine. I always feel a little sad as the heat comes on because I know it’s the end of that first wild color, but lately as I ride around I’ve been noticing the outrageous fuschias and purples and the sparkling bright whites of these flowering trees. Continue reading
Containers at the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant on Monticello and Claiborne
Today is my blog’s second birthday. I started the blog to gently mock my sister’s daily blog of her lunch (check it out–it’s actually sublime). I certainly didn’t expect to still be writing it, almost every day, two years later. But here we are, I’m still riding and writing, and both still bring me immense amounts of pleasure. One of the things the blog has done is forced me to pay attention as I move through the world. Continue reading
Peregrine Falcon Kite With Realistic Wing Flapping Motion at the Fly
It was another hot and humid day in New Orleans, the sun was shining, and S. was still in town, so after riding our bikes to campus for class, we headed over to N.’s for po-boys at Domilise’s and a bike ride to the zoo. Well, Domilise’s was closed unexpectedly, and the zoo’s closed on Mondays, so we grabbed sandwiches at a terrible restaurant and decided to ride over to the levee to look at the Mississippi River. I could look at that river forever. Continue reading
Pink Skies Over Constance and Valence Streets
As I was cycling Uptown in my black dress under the beating sun, struggling a little to breathe in the heat and humidity, I wondered if every blog for the next six months will start with a remark about the weather. Maybe, maybe not, but today it was hot in a whole new way. It was that choking heat, the kind that makes you slow way down, reminds you why everything’s a little slower in the South. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 