Taking the Advice

I've been trying to figure out the best way to wear a bike helmet and not be annoyed about sweaty, matted, swinging-into-the-eyes hair. I looked at bike helmets with a ponytail cut-out. I looked at bike helmet airbags that you wear around your neck like a scarf, and they sense unusual/extreme motion like a car's airbag (or your MacBook's internal drive-saving-device) and pop out when needed. I read Bike Portland's advice for new riders forum, their women's forum, and various cycling fashion forums.

And in the end, I just took the overriding advice, and went for what people kept saying will work every single time, no rider excepted, for beating helmet hair, helmet sweat and helmet crankiness:

That said, there were honestly more reasons, bigger ones, that I decided to go for The Chop. But with each passing day (it's been a week now!) I love it more, and on the warm bike ride to work this morning, I was rewarded with a perfect coif at 8 AM and no need to carry brush/gel/pins/elastic bands. No matter how cliche it is, this is liberation.

Crow!!

In the same cursed stretch of road last week, I rode my bike past a crow.

A crow with a broken back or broken wing, or both - flopping around in a circle, trying to lift off in absolute vain. And as I rode past, staring in complete horror with an open mouth at this tortured creature I thought, it is too big for me to run over it and make a difference, and it is circling itself out of the way of oncoming traffic.

And then?

The sound of about twenty other crows, flying in from Hell (I assume) not to save their brother - but to put him out of his misery.

See what I'm saying about bicycling = connection to the neighborhood!? Shit's getting real, people.

Squirrel!!

To, ahem, quote the dog from "Up."

When you ride your bike, it's true what they say - you become newly connected to your neighborhood, and your route, by the smells, the sounds, the feeling of pedaling uphill each vertical foot.

And this intimacy of enjoying your route also means that a lone, dashing, daring, gutsy, inspirational and incredible squirrel - who darts from under a car in front of a bike - is actual cause for genuine alarm. It could really mess you up! Or in this case, it could really mess up the guy in front of you - who almost hit it!

Tales from the road, and my wild urban life, indeed.

Bike Updates

Me and Linus the Girl Bike (you remember her) have been commuting to work lately - the goal is two days a week, and preferably three; I have the "out" of loading Linus onto the bus if I really can't face the ride home - or if it rains!

On day three of commuting, me and Linus passed our first other biker! Felt great.

On week three of commuting, me and Linus were aggressively honked at for the first time. Felt terrifying; I almost steered INTO the car. It should be noted that the honk was intended for the biker two behind me, who was passing the biker one behind me, and I got caught in the tangle.

And on week four of commuting, I completed a real hurdle... I went to Zumba after riding home 4 miles (mostly uphill) and made it through class! Barely. Linus the Girl Bike called me Rider the Jelly Legs after that one.