Reason Or Excuse

On Thursdays I drive. I drive because I have a part time job and riding home in that area of town seems unsafe late at night. I only have to drive one day a week, Thursday. Every Thursday when I walk from the parking garage, at least one person asks me if I rode my bike today. To me it always sounds like they are asking the question with a tone of "you've finally given up, haven't you, re-joined the grand system, haven't you?". It seems to me their like a drunk who needs someone on the wagon to fall off again because they couldn't do it. But of course this is just me being sensitive or maybe a bit defensive, isn't it? Or is it? The truth lies somewhere in between.

But here is what I know, if just for today. It took more than an hour for me to get 10 miles from my apartment to the Capitol Complex, our states awesome governmental headquarters. Now that's driving 10 miles which makes my average miles per hour slower than when I ride my bike. Good music in a great sound system, in a comfortable car does not match riding smoothly along the urban scenery, tasting the weather, smelling the restaurants and experiencing the feeling of pedalling along at a steady 11 mph. The stress factor of being stuck in traffic and dealing with the world at large racing to not be late is not worth the comforts of sniffing the emissions of the guy who happened to get to the congestion just ahead of me.

Bicycling is exercise which reduces stress induced by living in the world we live in. It also is less stressful to begin with so it's a double benefit.

when I finally got to my exit, it was right where the traffic was clearing. They being the police and wreckers and all had just cleaned up a rollover accident, the cause of thousands of us to be late. Which makes me think that it's better to be late than never, right?