Making a Difference

Photo Credit: Google Image Search

It doesn’t happen all that often, I guess this is what makes it such a special occurrence. Today I was talking to one of the guys I work with and he mentioned that he needed to go to the post office at lunch. I let him know that the post office had moved and he should make sure he knows where it was. At lunch he let me know that he was going to make the trip sans car.

It's a good feeling.

the Post Office isn’t all that far from our office (perhaps a mile) and it is one of those trips that can easily be made either on a bike or on foot without much trouble. We had been talking about the idea of being Car-free and the idea that there is a sliding scale between Bike-Free and Car-Free and each day you make choices that moves you along the scale one way or another. He talked about how he could never be ‘Car-Free’. My answer was that most people could never be ‘Car-Free’ and that the idea was to end up less dependent on an automobile.

The Idea, My Idea is not to be ‘Car-Free’ but to make choices that allows you to be ‘Less Dependent’ on your Automobile.

I wanted to repeat that not just for you but also for myself. To often we take the view of ‘All or Nothing’ and I think we do a huge disservice to ourselves and those around us.  By taking that ‘All or Nothing’ view we end up alienating those we could be reaching. By accepting the fact that not everyone could be ‘Car-Free’  and even accepting the fact that not many people WANT to be ‘Car-Free’  I can then help people to move out and accept the idea of stepping out of the thought process that says. ‘Everywhere I go has to be by car.’ and once people believe that they can do things without using a car I believe that they will do things without relying on a car.

That one thing is my fondest wish. I am tired of people believing that they can’t [fill in the blank].

Quite Upsetting

Photo Credit: Turkinator

My last post ‘little of this’ I talked about how surprised I was when a teen girl told me she believed that she couldn’t ride a bike for two miles. I have been thinking about this a lot and trying (without much success) to understand how this could happen.

Today I found the answer. Karl Marx is quoted as saying “Religion is the Opiate of the Masses” I have always taken this as meeting that Religion (not faith) is what keeps people docile, controllable, predictable. While I am willing to admit that there still is an ‘Opiate of the Masses’ it is no longer Religion. Today as I sat in a booth at a local Eat-n-Park with my sister and her family (daughter, son-in-law, grand babies) I walked back to the salad bar and passed a young family with two young kids. Both kids sat staring into portable DVD players with headphones on.

My friends, you would of been proud of me. I wanted to slap the parents and call CYS and report a serious case of Child Neglect. I paused only long enough to realize that both kids were watching the same show, at a table, in Eat-n-Park, on DVD players.

These are the kids who are raised to believe in not what they can do, instead they are raised by what they can’t do. After work I usually head out, either going for a walk, or taken my bike for a ride. What shocks me about my time outside isn’t what I see, but what I don’t see.

I don’t see any other bikes outside.
I don’t see any one outside.
No kids playing.
No one walking.

Parents won’t walk the mile to the drugstore and take the car instead, this teaches the children that they can’t walk the mile. This teaches the young pretty fit teen aged girl at shop and save that not only is she incapable of riding a bike two miles to the store but there is no reason for her to ride those two miles.

After all that is what the car is for.

A little of this

Photo Credit: Flickr Commons

I got to riding last night and I have to tell you all that simply the act of getting on the bike and leaving my cell phone (and my problems) behind was enough to get the creative juices flowing.

My plan (as loose as it was) was to head out to the Gym for a workout (got to get back into the groove) and then off to the grocery store to pick up lunches for work. This was the first time that I choose to ride my bike to the grocery store and I learned a few things.

1. Why doesn’t the Store have a bike rack? I ended up with the Hobson’s choice of locking my bike up on a rusty handicapped parking sign or a on the railing of the cart return. I really didn’t like either option but I more afraid of the idea of all of the buggies slamming into my pretty orange bike. So I locked it up to the signpost.

2. I was surprised at how quickly I began to think of things in terms of weight. Apples and noodles good. Watermelon and Steaks Bad. I piked up a hand basket when I walked into the store and I ended up putting everything I bought (other than a bottle of water) in my back pack and riding home.

I noticed that I garnered more than my share of attention walking through the store with my backpack and helmet hanging of the strap. Maybe it is the fact that I am firmly ensconced in the suburbs, but the idea of going anywhere and not using a car is just completely foreign.

Case in Point
When I checked out I told the girl that was bagging the items that I didn't need them bagged as I was going to be putting them in my backpack.

She bagged them anyway.

In plastic.

As I was taking my stuff out of the plastic bags and putting them in my backpack she noticed the helmet hanging on the strap.

"You rode a bike here?" She asked.

"Yes." I answered and prepared myself for the conversation that always follows.

"Where from?"

"Not far, by the Library." (that is 2 miles away, on the same road)

"Wow, that's far."

"Not really, a bit under 2 miles is all."

What invariably follows that statement is the reason I grieve for youth of the nation.

"I could never ride that far."

Read that statement over again, slowly if you need to. The statement wasn't

I would never ride that far
or
Isn't it dangerous to ride on Saltsburg? (a little but not much)
or
I couldn't make it up and down the hills. (not much in the way of hills)

The statement was "I COULD never ride that far". A teen aged girl, trim, healthy, and pretty, showing no outward sign of any physical ailment actually didn't believe that she could ride a bike on a rolling hills road two miles to get some groceries and then ride back.

Am I that much of stranger in my own land?

Tired

Photo Credit: Assbach

Yep the photo above pretty much says it all. I'm just wiped out today, I tried all weekend long to find something to write about today and pretty much drew a big fat zero. I am in the middle of a conversation about electric bikes over at the Bike-PGH Forums and I am noodling with the idea of putting my thoughts on the concept here i.e. it would be great but it is destined to fail because of government intervention. I am however way to tired to put those thoughts in a coherent order so those posts will just have to wait.

I haven't been riding much over the past weeks and I am to change that tonight. So hopefully tomorrow I will have a better grasp of the english language.

Bondo - Evil Project

Photo Credit: Google Image Search

Well well well, last night I continued my work on the evil art project. I noticed after priming and sanding the frame a few hundred times that I had some deep marks left by the Angle Grinder of Death (AGD) that the filler primer I was using just couldn't handle. So really there was only one thing I could think of - Bondo

Let me first say that this whole project has been an adventure. Each aspect of this project has been an education, since I am constantly being faced with problems whose solutions I know intellectually but not in practice.

Bondo is just that.

I know in theory what to do and how to do but last night as I attempted it I had no idea how to really do what I was trying to do. I learn fast. After many a mistake and having to start over twice I got the effect I was looking for.

Deep scratches and cuts from AGD - Gone
Dents from dropping the frame - Gone
Pinholes from cutting off braze ons - Filled
Brain cells - Dead

Yeah if you wonder about that last one let me just say that the fumes that this puts off are formidable and thankfully I was outside at the time, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would still be there staring at all the pretty colors. Even with being outside there were a few moments where I had to remind myself that I really can't fly and no the grass under the balcony did not look soft and fluffy

Hey Fatso Part II

Photo Credit: Cribbe

This is Part II of a post, read the first part here.

Left of Sanity wrote in a comment for yesterday’s post

“Well I at least appreciate reading the struggle

This is like my struggle with academics. Always easier to surf the web than to try and solve complex (to me) math\physics\chemistry, etc problems”

When I read this I knew that I had touched a nerve, and as I talked to others about it over the past few days I heard similar stories with only the subject that varied. I found some comfort in the fact that I am not alone in this feeling. As the day went on I knew there was something I missed. I realized what it is and I am going to risk getting all biblical.

Romans 7:15
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do

Sound Familiar?

Now before you turn your brain off just because I quoted the bible I have to ask you to read Left of Sanity’s comment again and read the Quote from the book of Romans. This is the very thing I was talking about in yesterday’s post. The Idea that I know just what I should be doing, as well as knowing that those things I choose to do are unhealthy for me (unproductive - the case of Left of Sanity)

Still the question remains, What am I to do?

I could give the Sunday School Bible answer, and in a way I am beginning to think that the Sunday School Bible answer is the right one.

Wait, don’t hit the back button, Hear Me Out. Im not going to get all theological.

I promise.

The Sunday School Bible Answer is “Ask God to forgive you and get on with doing the best you can.” That is just what I need to do when I realized that I have, once again, let myself down. When I realize that instead of getting the veggie hoagie from subway for lunch I got the pepperoni Pizza and Chicken wings from the ‘Burgh. I have to give myself permission to forgive myself, and get on with making the next hour better than the last.

In the end I am getting the feeling that it is all about making better (healthier, productive) choices over time. I believe that it is over time that these choices (Healthier, Productive) become more and more natural. As I sit here and contemplate this I begin to see some things.

A year ago I would not have even thought about the idea that I need to make better choices. So the simple fact that I recognize my struggle may be the first steps in actually making a change that make take the rest of my life to full realize.

And if you think about it, taking the rest of my life to battle with the joy of bike riding is ok with me.

Hey Fatso

Photo Credit: Cribbe


The past few weeks have been rough for me. I won’t lie. Trying to get into shape is tough, trying to keep what little gains I have managed to achieve is even tougher.  For two weeks I was first away from home and without my bike and then on a cruise ship where I'm pretty sure the deck hands snuck into your room at night and fed you creampuffs while you were sleeping.

Why is it so hard to loose weight and so easy to gain it back.

This was brought home clearly to me yesterday as I picked my bike (the orange beast) up from my sister’s house where I had left it before going away and rode it the 2 miles home. This is not a difficult ride home. 15 min in I was sort of hoping someone would come along and perform a drive by mercy killing on me.

No really, I would be Tots cool with it.

As I was laying, gasping, on my bed after I got home I had one of those moments of cruel clarity where I am brutally honest with myself.  I try not to let this happen to often as I am really good at being really brutal.

I’m no good at being good to myself.

I admit it. I would much rather do the things that are bad for me, knowing they are bad for me instead of the things that are good for me. Even the things I enjoy like bike riding and going for walks.  These self-destructive choices are the same ones I make over and over again. I don’t know if the problem is that I don’t know how to make better choices or that I don’t really want to make better choices.  I know what the better choices are and still I choose (it is my choice)

I choose Lil Caesar's pizza over a healthy hoagie
I choose computer over biking
I choose blogging over going out walking at lunch
(I’m doing that right now)

How does one change? Truthfully I don’t know.

I have made peace with the fact that I will always be a Fat Guy on an Orange Bike. My struggle is keep from becoming a really Fat Guy on an Orange Bike.

It shouldn’t be this hard.

You can read Part II of this post here