Bi Cycles

Everybody's got something to hide
 'cept for me & my bicycle..
photo by my savior of the day,
https://www.instagram.com/maryelizx/

I got this bike from a Cat in Wyoming, on my way to start college in Utah. She got it for a song and only wanted the leather saddle. It fit me perfectly, and has been more dependable than any man I've yet to meet outside of my family... (Except maybe the Holy Trinity) It has traveled with me from Utah to Ohio, from Ohio to NYC, from NYC to Ohio and back to Utah, and went to Berkeley and Yakima with me last summer. I love to ride it to work and to church and along rivers and up mountains (and down again, whee!!!) I am a speed demon, and unlike my bother J have yet to be tarred for my sins... Dad, thanks for letting me keep my training wheels until you pointed out that I wasn't even using them anyway, they were never touching the ground. Thanks for teaching me that it's about the circle, not the up and down. Thanks for teaching me that you pace yourself, and you take turns in front and turns drafting, and you go in a zig-zag up the hill so that your lungs don't explode... Mom, thanks for telling me when I was still in elementary school that giving birth was like riding your bike up a mountain to see the sunset but even better because you got to take a baby home with you afterward. SJW thanks for being the strong silent type who gets his son to sing the song "bicycle" while sweeping the garage. (Or for marrying a woman who did that.) MW thanks for having more bicycle wheels than anyone can shake a stick at, and for letting me have the pleasure of finding the long lost one. Juju, I love you and yes, sometimes it sucks. But we will never break up, ever for eternity. I'm not temple divorcing you, so don't even ask. NG, you have produced more wonderful humans and provided them with bikes and let me be the first one to see Ra roll over and sit up on a bike. PC if you don't love bikes already you will soon. Also, you may yet prove to be just as dependable or so than this bike. Why doesn't it have a name? I don't think it even has a gender...

Near George Washington Bridge in
Manhattan...
Photo by Elizabeth Leitzell,
http://eleitz.com/about/

Little v touching a bike as we pass,
with her in her stroller trike...

The bike artisans confer... 

Again, EL/LE... http://eleitz.com/about/ . My sexy legs...

Il Pleut

I should have left for home when I realized how dark it had become outside--much darker than it should be at not yet six o'clock. But I wanted to stay a little longer at work, so I tried not to think about the probability of rain.

I could have put my bike in the basement and walked home with my umbrella, but it was only sprinkling a little, and I figured I could get home before it started to rain in earnest. I passed a woman snapping the plastic cover over her toddler's stroller, and in response to his protest she said, "Il pleut" (It's raining).

There was a sheen on the road from the water, and my brakes squeaked loudly. I thought about how my grandfather Art, if he were alive, would worry about me riding in the rain. I imagined that God has let him be my guardian angel so that he can fly above me and keep me safe.

I arrive at my apartment without incident. Wet, but not soaking. How nice a warm shower will be, after I dry off my bike. My father often repeats Lt. Dan's rules of: "Don't do Anything Stupid and Take Care of your Feet." He instilled in us another rule as well, even if it was not verbalized as often: "Take Care of your Bike."

I carry my bike up the stairs and find an old towel to start cleaning my bike. M is home, so we talk as I work. I am glad that she is here. I don't like being alone too much right now.

The weather fits my mood. A little gloomy, but not oppressive. Occasional tears, but not sobbing. There have been stretches of calm and peace that last longer as the days go by. When I do feel a wave of sadness come, I try to remember the Buddhist teaching, to think "This is what it feels like to be human." It helps.

I feel like the little girl in my nursery class, who was having a hard time yesterday. She would be playing, and then tear up, and come to me with her arms outstretched. I would hold her and reassure her, until she was ready to to play again. A little while later it would happen again.

Do we ever outgrow the need to be held?

Brooklyn Loves Me

So I am almost settled in Brooklyn. I still have a few boxes to unpack, and we are playing musical rooms for the summer, but it is starting to feel like home.

I found a rec center within biking distance, where I can swim. The photo above is from a section of the bike path on the way there.

Here is another sight on the way:



a detail:



If that doesn't make you want to go to the dentist, I don't know what will.

Tour de Manhattan

Cycling is my family sport. My dad doesn't watch football games, he watches the Tour de France.
My dad, brother, and I used to ride the local bike trails on weekends. Our favorite was the path that ran up Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. In college, I started regularly riding the Jordan River Trial, along the river all the way out the to lake. Riding next to the water, with tree hanging above, was so much better than riding on the asphalt trying to avoid car fumes on the way to campus and back.
Now that I live in NYC, I enjoy riding the bike trail along the Hudson River. It does get me closer to the water and away from the cars. I need to make time for it more often.
These photos were taken by my good friend and fellow photographer Elizabeth Leitzel last summer.

Tag, you're it!

Some of you have probably seen this one going around:

Once you've been tagged, you have to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them.

The person who tagged me gave the reason that it will give me material for my blog, so here goes:

1. I like to ride my bike. In the winter, especially, for some reason.
2. I actually got up and rode my bike today before going to work.
3. I continue to believe that I can someday get up and do things in the morning regularly and cheerfully, or at least without really, really wanting to go back to
bed, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
4. I felt like a morning person over Thanksgiving, since I was getting up at 8am (which was 10 am according to my body clock) and most of the rest of the household was not up until 10 or 11am.
5. I'm not really a night owl either. I just like to sleep, mostly. Except when I have insomnia.
6. Today I saw The Tallest Man on Earth sing. He walked like a bird around the stage and didn't sound at all Swedish.
7. habit: sneakily poking, or "zotting" my siblings and those who remind me of them. (Sorry, M.D. & H.G.)
8. I've developed a love for dark chocolate, since living with my sister again after college.
9. I can't make my chocolate last nearly as long as my sister can hers.
10. I can keep my room tidier than my sister's, although I don't always.
11. Whoever designed the north exit to the bike path is sadistic. Yes, it's a great idea to end with a sharp curve around which there is a staircase! And just in case that didn't kill the cyclist, let's send them into oncoming traffic that's entering the freeway!
12. Goal: take calculus someday.
13. Goal: learn another language somewhat fluently. At least passably.
14. My French's not up to snuff.
15. Habit: staying up later than I mean to. (speaking of which, it's 1 am now...)
16. "I want to change the world, instead I sleep" borrowed from Ingrid Michaelson.

People (sorry, no names, just initials. You'll know who you are, and I'll email you):

JG: so he has an excuse not to grade papers.
JL: he'll come up with something hilarious. (no pressure. smile & wave)
JW: because she's my favorite sister ;)
FC: since we're always playing tag.
HG: so I can find out more about what she's up to.
ND: like you don't have enough assignments.
MW: because he thinks I have great style.
SW: his answers will be unexpected
HDMW: she now has 4 names.
DW: since he loves to be online
RO: she was my first blog follower.
MC: my most recent friend
MD: since I'm always poking her.
RD: I want to know what she'll write.
CW: I <3 pizza face.
KC: since we haven't met for lunch for awhile.