Ok, I kind of can’t believe it, but apparently it is already the last day of classes for the fall semester. How did it go by so quickly? I put on most of what I have in my closet (I am seriously terrible at dressing for cold weather), hopped on the bike, and thought about what to say to the students, pedaling up St. Charles for the zillionth time, a ride where I do much of my class planning. I love the last day of class almost as much as the first day. Continue reading
Uptown
Lighted Fountain at Audubon Park
We’ve got some wild weather in New Orleans right now, so I put on a tank top and tossed a rain jacket and a wool sweater in my panniers and headed to work. It was windy, that kind of wind that buffets you around as you maintain an unusually firm grasp on the handlebars. I pedaled as fast as I could, dancing to a song, working up a hot sweat when only a few days ago I declared a welcome to winter. Oh well. Continue reading
Commuting Down St. Charles
I’ve been out of town for a few days for a conference, catching up with old friends and new, which means I haven’t been riding my bike. In fact, I was off my bike for four whole days. Four whole days. I can’t remember the last time I went that long without pedaling. I was looking forward to getting home and taking a nice long ride, but the airplane gave me some kind of sick, the kind that makes you feel out of balance and nauseated and weak. Sadly, that’s not the kind of sick I feel like riding through. Today’s ride, then, was confined to the commute, but even that was a relief. My cadence feels like coming home, so I let myself spin along, concentrating on the rhythm, happy to be back in New Orleans.
Adventurous Asphalt at Robert & Camp
It has been too long since a good old fashioned blog about how hard it is to ride a bicycle in New Orleans. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love riding a bicycle here. I do it almost every day, sixty, seventy, eighty miles a week. I ride for exercise and transportation, for fun and for pleasure. Becoming a daily bike rider has been a life-changing experience, and it all happened here in New Orleans. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But these streets suck. Continue reading
Rain on St. Charles
And then some days you are at work for 14 hours, the last two of which are spent discussing the dismal job prospects in your field, and then you get to ride home in a dark and heavy rain, slowly, slowly. Meh, can’t win ’em all.
Yellow Flowering Tree at Constance & Annunciation
Do you ever have those days where you just feel exhausted in the very marrow of your bones? Today was that kind of day for me. Which meant that as much as I wanted to ride my bike to the Po Boy Fest or the Congo Square Rhythms Festival or out to Chalmette, I walked to brunch and then straight back home to laze about with my cats and The Grapes of Wrath. I can’t believe they let high school kids read this anti-capitalist, anti-private property, anti-disciplinary state apparatus screed, or that there isn’t a revolution of the working class led by high school juniors every year. Everybody should read this book. Anyway. Continue reading
Tulane VS South Alabama Women’s Basketball Game at Fogelman Arena
I teach a lot of student athletes at Tulane–basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, football, I teach them all. Athletes get a bad rap sometimes for blowing off coursework for the culture of the game. Well, all kinds of students manage to blow off coursework, so it hardly seems fair to lay that on the athletes. And in my experience, athletes balance an incredible number of commitments, often impressively. So when the football team invited me to go behind the scenes at a game, I eagerly said yes, because I wanted to show my support for my students, and because who doesn’t want to watch the game from the field! My body was requesting a rest from the bike, so I thought I’d drive, but alas, when you leave your car idle for weeks because you’d rather ride your bike, the battery dies. So I put on the bike shoes, climbed on the Surly, and headed down to the Superdome with N. in tow. Continue reading
Speaking Out for Education at First Grace United Methodist Church
Today I got to ride my bike in a skirt and a tank top. Thank you, New Orleans, for giving me another day of summer, in November. I pedaled down to the Bywater to meet J. for a meeting to talk about planning a bigger meeting. And then I headed over to Canal and Jeff Davis to First Grace United Methodist Church, for a the event Post-Katrina Education in New Orleans: A Human Rights Violation. There’s a lot of talk about how education in New Orleans has improved since the takeover of schools by the state and their decentralization through charter schools. There has surely been improvement for some kids, but the picture is just more complicated than that. Continue reading
Seafood For Sale at Louisiana & Baronne
First, it’s amazing what a day off the bike and a freshly-lubed chain can do for your ride. I was happy to get on the bike and stretch out for a surprisingly mild commute to work, but strangely, I forgot my helmet. My helmet! I know there’s a debate about helmets, but I wear one, and I felt positively naked without it. I didn’t have time to go back home to pick it up, but after almost being cut off by an errant parker on St. Charles, I stopped at home to put it on before my evening ride to the gym. Tonight riding felt like flying, and it was good. Continue reading
Train Crossing at the Uptown Levee Bike Path Entrance
I woke up early this morning and spent all day teaching and teaching and teaching and by the time it was done I really needed to just put it in high gear and pedal as hard as I could for twenty miles. So that’s what I did. I headed over to the entrance to the levee bike path behind the zoo, looking forward to just going. But just as I rode up the train gate went down, red lights flashing, and I snapped this picture just as the train was zooming by. I wasn’t in the mood to wait, and neither were the soccer moms–moms bringing their kids to soccer practice. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 