Thursday, October 26, 2006
almost six weeks now....
...and i am really getting accustomed to life without a car. it's not that difficult, really. most my life occurs within a 5-mile radius of my house...and the parts outside that are places i would go with my friends, so they can drive [and i can buy the gas]. anyway, the breakthrough is that i am becoming quite accustomed to riding at night, which is something i formerly avoided completely. but, i have a tail-light, a head-light, and a flashing light on the front handlebar bag as well. plus, i wear a rain jacket with a thick silver reflective strip, i wear a flourescent velcro strip on my right leg, and there are other reflectors scattered around bucky-the-bike. i'll try to post a photo sometime soon so you can see the set-up.
one interesting thing that i haven't written about is how my genuine aversion to driving resulted in a little problem at work. last winter, i had tentatively agreed to teach an ESL-Comp class at a regional campus in delaware ohio this fall quarter...about 15 miles from my house. but by the spring i was already having second thoughts about being a car-commuter. so, i told the person in charge of this program that i couldn't do it--that i was planning to suspend my automobile insurance when i went to China, and not activate it when i returned, and therefore couldn't teach the class [because i knew i would have other ones on main campus and the bike-commuting would prevent me from teaching a full load].......at the time, i wasn't 100% sure i could pull-off this herculean feat of not driving, but i wanted to give myself a chance and not be obligated to drive to work in the fall. well, needless to say, because i've already mentioned this caused a "problem"...the guy at work who i had tentatively told i would teach the class was not pleased, and apparently didn't have a lot of respect for my reason [not driving], even though he is a bike-commuter himself.
ps. also, that guy gave me a hard time today about having my bike parked next to my cubicle inside the office....i almost never bring the bike inside, even if it is raining...and when i do bring it inside i never park it there, i always find somewhere out of the way, but today i didn't have time and didn't want to leave it in the rain, so i parked it alongside a file cabinet........believe me, it wasn't in the way at all--the only person it possibly inconvenienced was me, but still, he felt the need to tell me not to park it there. i won't park it there again, but i confess i didn't move it today.
one interesting thing that i haven't written about is how my genuine aversion to driving resulted in a little problem at work. last winter, i had tentatively agreed to teach an ESL-Comp class at a regional campus in delaware ohio this fall quarter...about 15 miles from my house. but by the spring i was already having second thoughts about being a car-commuter. so, i told the person in charge of this program that i couldn't do it--that i was planning to suspend my automobile insurance when i went to China, and not activate it when i returned, and therefore couldn't teach the class [because i knew i would have other ones on main campus and the bike-commuting would prevent me from teaching a full load].......at the time, i wasn't 100% sure i could pull-off this herculean feat of not driving, but i wanted to give myself a chance and not be obligated to drive to work in the fall. well, needless to say, because i've already mentioned this caused a "problem"...the guy at work who i had tentatively told i would teach the class was not pleased, and apparently didn't have a lot of respect for my reason [not driving], even though he is a bike-commuter himself.
ps. also, that guy gave me a hard time today about having my bike parked next to my cubicle inside the office....i almost never bring the bike inside, even if it is raining...and when i do bring it inside i never park it there, i always find somewhere out of the way, but today i didn't have time and didn't want to leave it in the rain, so i parked it alongside a file cabinet........believe me, it wasn't in the way at all--the only person it possibly inconvenienced was me, but still, he felt the need to tell me not to park it there. i won't park it there again, but i confess i didn't move it today.
