2014 was a great year for bicycling. I rode in new places, got a new commute, and did a whole lot of exploring. I blogged less this year than the last few, but that’s because I’ve been writing more in other places, writing gigs I’ve picked up only because I’ve blogged regularly for the past five or six years. Turns out writing gets easier by writing more and regularly. Same goes for biking–it became my primary form of transportation back in 2008, and I am just so terrifically grateful that the bike and I found each other, and that now it is just common sense that if we’re going there, we’re going by bike. What a gift, to see the world from two wheels like that. Continue reading
personal
Salt Truck Unloading at 32nd & Greenmount
I’ve been off the bike since last Wednesday, off in San Juan, Puerto Rico for work. I swear–for work. I left bikes at home and spent my time traveling the city on the bus–just 75 cents per ride!–and on foot, walking around the old city with N., eating too much mofongo and staring at the layers of a different city. There were a lot of views, of huge lizards, feminist theorists (it was NWSA, after all), blue skies, cruise ships, police officers, stray cats, forts that have been used as military installations from the 1500s to the 1950s, happy hours at all hours (this is a tourist destination, after all), and candy colored everything. There were a few bike racks, but I only saw a couple people on bikes. Continue reading
Waiting for the MARC Train at the Halethorpe Station
Tuesday opened to frozen roads and school delays due to an overnight snow shower, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have to head into work for meetings and lunches and meetings and such. And there’s no car anymore. I bundled up in two of everything–socks, pants, baselayers, gloves–and headed down the hill on the Brompton. It wasn’t the cold that got me as much as the ice in the bike lane, so I took the lane next to it, bought a stack of tickets, folded up the bike, answered work emails for 15 minutes, unfolded the bike, and climbed the hill to campus. There was no road rage, no parking, and I was reminded again of how that driving habit had gotten to be a habit, and now this will be a new habit. I made my meetings, did some work, and then reversed course, snapping this picture while I waited for the train. The sky just never looks this blue in a car. Thanks for dying, sweet old Hyundai Accent. You’re making the bike feel brand new.
Tree Growing Out of a Building on Tyson Near Mulberry
The unthinkable has happened: I’ve misplaced my bike helmet. Now, I know there’s controversy about whether or not bike helmets really help, and I also know that in some of the most common accidents, a bike helmet will do little to keep me safe, but I also know that I feel naked without one. I am somewhat skeptical of the helmet’s ability to keep my egg uncracked in the case of a serious crash, but I also know that I always wear one, I don’t think they make things worse, and if, god forbid, I should ever be seriously hurt or killed when riding a bike, the last think I want E. to have to do is shake her head when asked the inevitable question, “Was she wearing a helmet?” Continue reading
Bicycle Float in Chewbacchus Parade on Frenchman Just Off St. Claude
Saturday was a perfect bike riding day in New Orleans: sunny, warm, plenty of parades to ride between. I rode from Treme to Uptown on my old route to meet up with C. and P. for our usual parade gawking, only this year they brought their Carnival bait~seven month old A. R. and C. joined with their kid, and wow, things can change in just a couple of years once the sweet babies start rolling in. Then again, it was the same floats, same dancing troupes~looking good, Gold Dusters!~same bands~Xavier Prep Yellow Jackets in the house!~and the same sense of family, and oh it was good to see everybody. Then it was time to roll downtown. I took OC Haley to see the changes there as the stretch tries to become a Main Street. It’s still trying, some blocks more than others, and I hope the new Cafe Reconcile’s as good as it is in my head. After a pit stop, a dog walk over to the Marigny for the parade of tiny floats (insert squeal), and a delicious home cooked meal eaten too fast, we were back on our bikes and headed to Frenchman Street to catch the Krewe of Chewbacchus and its giant nerd parade. I snapped this picture of a bicycle float that just made me so happy. It was the bikes, the detailed helmet on our fighter, the lights, the rest of the crowd, and the pleasure there is in a world where people will do such things to put on a show. We left our bikes, wandered around looking for everybody, saw all the people, and then headed home. It was a perfect day for riding a bike around New Orleans, but I need better walking shoes. As S. would say, my dogs are barking. Carnival’s a marathon, not a sprint, a lesson I have already forgotten. I’m happily heading home Monday, though, so I’m thinking the lesson doesn’t really apply in my particular circumstances.
Fluid Movement Parade at Howard & Lexington
Today was the last day of my spring break, and oh, it was a delightful one. I hardly did a lick of work, except insofar as visits to museums sort of count as “research.” I got in a visit with my sister, lunch with friends, eyefuls of flowery trees, a whole bunch of visits to museums and historic sites, and even more bike rides. Today featured a long morning in bed, a little reading, coffee with a friend, and then a bike ride over to Howard and Lexington for Fluid Movement‘s Howard & Lex, the perfect end to a positively lovely vacation. Continue reading
Flower Detritus at Guilford & McAlister
As I’m sure you know, we’ve all been having a heat wave of science fiction proportions. Yesterday in Baltimore it was EIGHTY FIVE DEGREES. That’s summertime weather, and we’re just on March’s downhill. I loved having that weather for my week off. I got in some wonderful bike rides, and Thursday’s trip to DC was a feast with all those cherry blossoms and 15 miles of strolling through neighborhoods, monuments, and museums (a perfect situation for a tiny clown bike, I must say). This morning, though, started with a thunderstorm and rained off and on all day long, giving it the feel of spring instead of summer. Continue reading
View Down the River From the Bridge at the Appalachian Trail Crossing at Harper’s Ferry
The first few days of the week were rained out, and the week has ended on vacation with E., who doesn’t ride a bike, so I haven’t gotten to pedal in forever.but I have gotten to walk, which I did today, all over Antietam National Battlefield and Harper’s Ferry, where I snapped this picture. Oh, it was a beautiful day, and I learned the heck out of it. I’m not on my bike, but I’m nursing the curiosity I’ve been cultivating from that seat. Yep, life is better since I started riding, and I can’t wait to get back on the Surly and spiiiin. Can’t. Wait.
The Surly in a Baltimore Row House Stairwell
I haven’t ridden my bike in an entire week. A week. That’s what moving will do to you–sitting in the car for days and then all the busy that comes with moving all your stuff to your third floor walkup, unpacking, painting, shopping, painting, giving up, starting over, etc. But the bike has a spot, in the hallway, between the stairwell and the wall, with the ladder. We will ride again tomorrow. Patience, patience, moving is an exercise in it.
Clear Instructions on a Conference Table at Tulane
Some days you just ride your bike to work, teach all day, really hard stuff, hear really hard stories, and try to balance all the feelings that come out on a day like this one. And then you bike across campus to a faculty seminar and stare at the cup in front of you, wishing teaching days like this one came with better instructions, like this tea bag. “Pull tag to release string.” Thank you for just telling me how to do it. These no-answer days are rough. And that’s when you’re grateful that you get to ride your bike home as hard as you can listening to this song and that, because they have beats that feel how it feels when you’re angry and frustrated that things don’t really seem to change all that much. Pedal, pedal, pedal, thank you, bicycle, for being at the beginning and end of every day.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 