Bike It

Matillijas popping like mad. Love-in-a-Mist flowering and becoming seed pods. Corn coming in. Roses out our ears.

The big news, the wind. Earlier in the week we were in the mid-90s downtown, unheard of in this season. Now the northern wind seems to have picked up (and man is it picking up, the trees are swirling like mad) and is driving everything back to a reasonable 70s.

I'm on Day 8 of biking to work, with a brief drive in on Monday.

How is it? Surprisingly good.

I'd spent so much time ruminating (which I'm sure comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me) about how I'd get myself and the kids the 6 miles to their school and me 4 more miles to my work without using a car. The grand fact is, unless I want to take the bus and 1 1/2 hours to get there, it's not going to work.

There, I said it. IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK, PEOPLE!

There was a fellow who suggested on his Website taking kids in a trailer. Hey, fella, the trailer company, that is the company who manufactures the trailer to carry children, doesn't recommend taking them on streets. Why? Because your kids are eye level with the bumper of cars like the Toyota Tercel. And pretty much under the tires of anything the size of an SUV.

It's not going to work. As hard as that was to tell myself.

But I digress.

Fact is, I can haul the kids into work (which is sort of a three-fer with fuel, right?), then take the bike off the back of my car, and ride the rest of the way to work.

Now I'm not saying I'll do it every day. If I can eke out one or two days a week, that'll be good.

The reason? Well, it's manifold. (That's weird, isn't that a weird word?) a) saving gas b) getting exercise c) getting outdoors

I really don't enjoy driving cars, and I really don't enjoy traffic. I don't really even like it on the bike, as a matter of fact. But I do like riding a bike. And I love, love, love being outside. Which is how the hell I became a gardener in the first place. Trading the inside Saturday chores for the outside Saturday chores.

I do not know why I have biophilia (that is, love of the outdoors) or why I love stuff that people do under their own power, but it has fascinated me since I was a kid.

Well, here I am, 42 years old and enjoying the heck out of it.

Who'd have thought?