Sunday we went for a bike to my cousins (about 3 to 4 miles away, depending on route), went bowling, and then biked home. I call it prep. It only got up to about 74 on Sunday, which was just darling to bike in. My back got sweaty from my bag, but with the weather on set to be the same for Monday, I knew I was in good. And since I’d cleaned out the ground floor of all the crap left by the former first floor tenants (their condo is being foreclosed, I felt justified in trashing Playboys, junk mail and broken hairdryers), we had a handy place to lock up our bikes. That meant Monday morning, I tripped out the back door and headed off to work.
Bike to Work.
The bike to work got off to a late start, thanks to my recreationaly bulimic cat yarking on the sofa. But after that, it was a quick jaunt down stairs, out the back and, yay, on the road. The 2 miles and change trip to the train station is a nothing ride for me these days. A really quick zip down the roads, which are mostly empty on a Monday, since they clean the streets I take Monday (after I ride), so no one parks there. I apparently zipped right past my friend Rae, who was in her sister’s car and that’s my excuse why I didn’t notice them! The train was as it always was. Two guys talking, loudly, about their lives and divorces. The same two guys every day, week in, week out. The topic goes from American Idol (they watch) to Dancing With The Stars (they sometimes watch) to the weather (everyone does that, of course) to raising dogs and so on. I know far more about their life than people who read this blog know about mine!
Instead of going right to work, this morning, I went to the UIC Bike Commuter Station to celebrate Bike to Work Week. Three of us on our Dahons got there at the same time and posed for pictures (we were very popular) and got goodie bags with magazines, coupons, water bottles, reusable coffee mugs, kosher snacks, and, bonus of bonuses for me, a new rear light! I am in need of a new one, since my current one doesn’t exactly clip on right. I had a cup of organic coffee, hung out and kibitzed with everyone for a while, and headed off to work, only 15 minutes later than normal.
I get in to work every day around 7:30am. I’m not required to be there until 8am, so I figure me taking some time to be an activist is okay. I pull in my share of extra hours and promoting things on my own is generally an okay thing. I didn’t get to really delve into my goodie bag till I got into the office, and most of my time on the ride was spent telling people that, yes, this is a folding bike (one demo before I went to work), and yes, it fits in a bag, and yes, it’s allowed on the metra (I showed the bit in the pamphlet they were handing out where it specified that, which was neat).
At the office, since I was 15 minutes later than normal, a whole new group of people watched me fold up and pack up the bike, with a great deal of interest. I told them what it was, and what the week was, and basically did my duty promoting the idea that it was fun to bike more.
The rest of the day was uneventful. The weather was lovely and the biking was clear and beautiful. Tomorrow we expect rain. Woo.
The title of this post comes from Overheard in New York and … well it made me laugh:
Credit: Overheard in New York