On the road again

Rode my bike today for the first time in a while, and really for the first time with any level of intensity this year. It's late for me to get started with this, but I found that you don't need to know exactly what a hip flexor is in order to have an injured one. Is is a muscle? A tendon? A ligament? Gristle? No matter, it's stiff sometimes and hurts sometimes and is just all-round bad company.

But today I decided I was better enough to try. On the bad side, it was so windy and there's so much crap in the air that I spent half the time rubbing stuff out of my eyes. I really should have worn ski goggles instead of sunglasses. Wouldn't that have looked awesome? On the good side, I'm reminded of why I like biking so much more than other endurance exercises like running (you never get to go "wheee!" when you run) or swimming (boring, unless you're afraid of drowning). The main attraction, aside from feeling what a cool machine a bicycle is, is seeing little vignettes along the way.

Today, I saw people trying to set up a birthday party at a playground, dealing with balloons and paper tablecloths in a 20 mph wind, and then a couple blocks away, I saw kids headed to that party. After I rode by, I was just imagining what their moms were hearing, "Do I have to go? It's cold out! It's too windy! How long do I have to stay?" Good luck to that party.

Then, a few blocks later, I saw one of these things that I'm sure was more interesting to imagine than the reality. I saw a grown man, holding a hockey stick, facing, standing across the lawn between two flags, a two year-old boy. I'm sure it wasn't what it looked like, but fun to think about.

Finally, I found myself ruminating on the people who complain about bikes using the roads. "Well, I'm not going to give them any consideration because they don't follow the rules of the road like cars do." First of all, why not give consideration because it's another person, just as a general rule? But disregarding even that fundamental guiding principle, what's the problem with bikes? Oh, I'm sorry? I don't stop at stop signs the way, oh, 0% of cars do? You're right. Just run me down right now.