ouchie

i hit a bump on bluebonnet going south....broad daylight totally sober. i just didn't see the bump and wasn't expecting an asphalt bubble in the middle of the bike lane. it knocked me off my bike and i totally superman-ed. i skinned the left side of my chest and my left knee through my clothes. hands and elbows par for the course i suppose, skinned and goopy with blood and road grit. all in all it's the kind of thing that you don't need to go to an ER for but that totally sucks...and hurts.

motherflip

dudes

today i met with a prosecutor who told me that bargaining for community service was not an option for my running-a-red-light ticket. i had three options:
1) have the ticket not go to my record by paying $150 to the city and taking a defensive driving course.
2) plead guilty and do community service.
3) continue to contest and go to trial.
i chose option #1 for some reason. but who the fuck cares if i have a conviction for running a red light....i was scared that if i ever want to become a pedicabber i wouldn't have a clean "driving record"....

lame.

i hate giving the city money for this type of shit. AND I HATE TAKING A DEFENSIVE DRIVING COURSE FOR A BIKE TICKET.
i have one month to pay the 150 and three months to take the course and i can't get a moving citation for three months.....
i'm so angry with myself for giving up so early in the process, but to me it feels like it's been going on forever. it's already been three months since i was cited, i don't want this bullshit to go on infinitely.

also, last week i found out my road bike has a cracked head tube!

also also, did i tell you that i got jumped! the other week while on my bike. on red river between 4th and cesar chavez....i got knocked onto my fucking face and then i hit the dude with my u-lock in the gut....


these past thirty days get the big "WHATEVS...."

Book of Lenny

I recently saw Jonathan Marshall's work at AMOA, a video with accompanying installation called the 'Book of Lenny' a chronicle of one survivor of a fictionalized apocalyptic-scale weather phenomenon called El Nada. Lenny the protagonist, builds among other things, this cycle-boat. It's a converted Schwinn Varsity married to a floorbase of salvaged fenceplanks on top of pontoons. Attention to detail is in no small supply: for example, rudder functions are taken into consideration, by connecting guidewires to the bike's front fork.

The amazing thing about this cycle-boat is that it is not all fiction. From the video, we see that it actually functions on water.



There is a certain way in which the contemporary cycling community values itself as a DIY bastion. "If the shit hit the fan, we could fix things ourselves." Or at least we could fix our bikes ourselves. If everything ran on bike principles then we could fix everything. The bike rider and the survivalist are not so distinct in society, Marshall brings attention to that connection through his fiction.

Peticab

here's a photo of Comrade and me during Critical Mass.....it's not the best shot of Comrade but you get the idea. my pedicabbing friend timothy remarked on our setup saying, "oh look. it's sort of like a little pedicab for dogs." and i, who am usually the last person to make a pun, said, "yes. you might call it a 'peticab' mightn't you?" harharhar....

ANYWAY, there had been a call for people to "pup their rides," but i was the only one with a critter on this particular ride. i was a little worried about being able to maneuver through traffic and whatnot downtown but we managed just fine.

i think i will try to organize a doggie ride cuz doggies are cute and they like to ride around town too....maybe sometime in the late summer, in the evening. we'll stop at dogparks and waterholes/ponds/pools/fountains to keep the pups cool. it'll be so much fun....

May is bike month

And I want to take it really seriously this year. I want a partner in crime, though. Roncal and Arwyn won't work because they already are both allstars at not using cars.

Here's the deal, I want to bike and bus more and I would love to even bus a ton more this month. The obstacles to overcome: being at the bus stop by 5:55 am and riding the bus/biking 1.5 hours each way if I want to avoid using my car. BUT i can do it and it sounds more horrible than it is. When my car was at the shop, I actually enjoyed turning my brain off completely and getting on the bus. Recreation: I run late. all the time. cedar tardy sexton. that's me. in order to bike/bus on the weekends, i need to step up my organizational/scheduling skills by about 50%. or more.

Sooo, I am hoping there's someone out there who will enter a challenge with me to bike &/or bus blank days a week to work and we can offer each other moral support. If we surpass our goals, we get to do something super fun (could be go out of town, alcohol, chocolate...some cool something) and if we miss a day we were supposed to bike/bus we owe the other person money or we have to contribute a few bucks to a bike org...

I know the biggest obstacle is breaking out of my routine, I really think the rest can be fun.

Anyone in or know anyone who would be in?

ps-I use bike/bus interchangeably because either way, you are leaving a car at home and to me, that's the most important goal.

resources

My prius has sort of eclipsed my bicycle but I'm headed back around. The weather is so gorgeous, why would I want to be in a car if I don't have to? I'm really looking forward to a full night of riding for Roncal's birthday--it was such a marvelous time last year. Here's a few resources for all (two) of us. I'm looking forward to ordering my hard copy of the most recent Austin bike map since I have yet to successfully make it from work to home without dangerous highway crossings and spontaneous dump-outs on the deathly roads I was trying so hard to avoid.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/bikemap.htm
A friend sent this one...
http://www.bicyclecity.com/

astrid