Mama and I have been commuting on the bus since we found out about Baby in mid-August. I love to cycle, but I’d much rather ride with Mama. Now that she’s on bed rest, that’s not an option. On the bright side of this week’s rollercoaster, I get to cycle more now, to work at least. Winter cycling is rewarding, and I could really use the exercise. Soon, Mama will get to ride again, too. And, in a year maybe, Baby also!
Been walking so much the bus looks fast to me.
I’ve blogged a lot about walking. I know. It’s something that I don’t do enough (because I am lazy and impatient) but something I enjoy endlessly.
Wednesday, I was at a community meeting at St. Paul Street and North Avenue in Central Baltimore. It was supposed to last until 7:30 or 8:00, but it was over at 7:04 for pizza and chatting. I’d already done my “networking” before the meeting started, so I bolted to catch my 7:53 bus at the train station. On my way from my chair to the door, I thought, “Why should I bullshit in my office until my bus? I can just walk!” So when I left the building, I made a left and headed for home.
Sure, folks will chide you for walking through “that area” at “that time of night.” Dude, 7:00pm dark is not the same as 2:00am dark — and I don’t walk around anywhere at that time (except once in Carbondale when we walked from the train station to home in the dead middle of the night after a trip to Memphis, with a tiny flashlight – but that’s another story). I didn’t see anyone sketchy and in fact was the sketchy person to lady who halted her exit from her car until after I passed her around 24th Street. And for two young ladies carrying their groceries home above 25th Street.
Instead of driving or sitting on an empty bus or pedaling uphill, I got to peak into the big, old, stately houses on St. Paul Street (think 3-story rowhomes with big basements), at folks’ bookshelves and holiday decorations. I greeted a dozen dog-walkers. I caught the exam-time buzz as I cut through JHU to University Parkway. I scared a guy on the section of University Parkway there the streetlights are out and where it is completely pitch black. And, at the top of the hill, I saw the warm glow of the LED star lights in our windows, on the corner of the building, where warmth, my wife and a pasta dinner awaited. In all, I walked 3 miles in 45 minutes. Not that far, but fast, and I was tired. That distance is small for a hike, but pretty long in a smallish city like Baltimore.
It was an exceptional night. I read before bed and slept like a baby.
We planned some similar fun walking for Saturday, which is itself worthy of a post.
Pocketful of dimes.
Due to the suspicion that my sinus infection is coming back, being tired and sore and generally feeling like crap, I took the bus to work this morning. It was definitely not the incoming rain. I like riding to work in the rain. I feel as if I should feel like a sell-out for wussing out. But I don’t exactly answer to anyone else about how I get to work. And wussing out of cycling for the first time in over a month for me means taking the bus, not driving some gas-guzzling land yacht or lounging on the backs of servants or something. I have to admit that I have been dying to take some kind of transit since the transit summit the other night. But now my pocketful of dimes is half empty.
A reading-kind-of-day.
I wish I could sit home with a good book on a day like today. I like my job. Here I am, hyped up on coffee and with a few minutes to spare. And I’m blogging on company time, on a computer that is supposed to be “monitored.” But, like I said, I like my job. A lot. Being a VISTA is great, and I have a nice little office with nice people in nice little offices up here on the top floor. I have a lot of lunch meetings, but not today. Today, I get to do my favorite thing aside from biking up to Charles Village to meet Mrs. P.: get a coffee/snack and hole up in my office for an hour reading a good book. It’s a good way to spend lunchtime.
I wussed out and took the bus to work today. I rode the bus three days last week, but that’s because The Duke was tire-less. I’ll ride my bike in the rain, and I have. But “severe storms” — no. Not if I don’t have to. Not today. The bus picks me up outside my apartment building and drops me at Penn Station, across Charles Street from my office. It’s a good deal. I am soaked now from a coffee run with a co-worker. My sandals are on the AC vent drying. My bike is at home with new rim tape, new tubes and new tires with frikkin Kevlar in them. I feel like I’m cheating or being disloyal.
I am tired. I went to see Candlebox with my brother Sunday night, tickets to which show (along with a Tshirt) were my birthday gift. It was a hell of a lot of fun, but I was beat yesterday. Yesterday, I worked from 9am – 8pm and ate pasta and green beans when I got home and watched TV and went to bed. I’m still tired, but that could be the weather now that I think of it.
This blog got all “this happened, and I did this, etc.” all the sudden.