Episcopal Church at Cathedral & Read

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Finally the rain stopped falling this afternoon and I got to take the Surly out for an inaugural ride in Baltimore. I headed up a few blocks to grab lunch, then over to the coffee shoppe for some work–yes,  I do have things to do besides unpack–and then to Mt. Vernon to meet V., my new colleague and future drinking buddy, for a large iced tea and some conversation. Man, the bike going downhill is a trip! I was seriously flying, and it felt fantastic, if a bit scary. I’m just not used to hills, but I won’t be saying that for long. Just being on the bike made me feel more at home, and I am seriously pumped to spend the next however many years doing laps, using gears, yelling on the inside for the Bolt bus to get out of my bike lane, it’s all I have. I was early to our date–the downhill ride took about three minutes, and I sat outside, looking up at the cloudy sky, thinking this church is awfully old and pretty, knowing that in the not-too-distant future I will take myself on a tour of the thing. So much new! I rode back on the uphill, grateful for my many gears and the part where I am not at all in a hurry.

Empty Lot For Sale at Prytania & Josephine

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Today’s ride took me up to the office and back, with a couple stops along the way. It started with sun, but by the time I got Uptown the skies had that steely blue thing going on, and I could mostly just think about my car down on Frenchman, parked in a spot still wet from earlier in the week, and you know what that means. I wonder what it’s like to live in a place with an infrastructure you can trust not to flood in a hard rain. Those places exist, right?

Anyway, I wrote a couple of recommendation letters and threw the rest of my office stuff in to one more box before pedaling home as fast as I could to beat the rain. Annnnnd the clouds were breaking up. Phew. I slowed my roll to enjoy the ride and stopped to take a picture of this lot for sale at Prytania and Josephine. There was a beautiful old church here until January when the place burned down. It had been empty and for sale since Katrina, but I guess there’s not much of a market for a church. The fire was intense, but walls and rubble were left strewn about the place. That lot was cleared in record time, and now here it is, just the ironwork sign and a leaning tree on empty land. Sometimes the bulldozers move quick; we’ll see if the property does. I continued on my way, happy for a day without rain.

Fenced-Off Parking Lot at the New Orleans Mission

It was another hot and muggy early summer day in New Orleans, so I was a bit of a mess by the time I got to campus for class this morning. I dropped off some paperwork with an administrator who told me she wants to ride her bike, but she just can’t stand feeling like, you know–(insert gesture at me)–that. Fair enough, fair enough. But I actually love that warm-all-over feeling you get after a brisk short ride in our thick, sweaty air. Fortunately, I am able to ride, and she doesn’t have to. Continue reading

French Quarter Skyline from Barracks and Burgundy

Oh, it was another beautiful day in New Orleans! So why was I so grumpy? It was the last day of my introductory course up at school, and even though I love school’s-out-for-summer as much as the next one, I get a little sad to see each group go. After a nice lunch and a ride home for some pleasure reading, I headed back out on the bike to meet J. at the gym. Continue reading