First time: Bike To Work Day

Yes, please, it's time...

I find it hard to believe, but it's really true: tomorrow will be the first time ever that I participate in Bike To Work Day.  I'm stoked!

Long time ago, way back in the mid-90s, I was much more of a bike-person.  I commuted to work from my house in San Rafael to my job in San Rafael by way of San Geronimo, taking the long way after dropping The Kid at school by trailer.  We went everywhere by bike, all three of us.  We were regulars at Critical Mass.  We perfected tricks on the tandem, Joe clowning (no surprise), me pedaling.  But things changed: I took on a different kind of work that required a lot of travel, and my bike time dwindled.

To Zero.

And then came job after job, more travel, suits, then a bad four years of driving to work in San Francisco.

What on earth was I thinking?

Now that I'm back to working in San Rafael and things have settled, and it's not raining every single day, I've started riding my bike to work in earnest.  Well, the "in earnest" part might be a bit of an exaggeration.  This week I've been riding with Joe, who's back on his bike again and taking it easy, so I have the comfort of a mechanic riding alongside me in case anything goes wrong.  And we have a fantastic new bike path which is great, but still many hairy portions of road, squeezed between zooming cars and really shitty roadway.

But I am loving it.

I've been missing being active since Jas died, no one to walk or hike with in the mornings, and too sad to go alone and walk with his ghost for company (and tears and tissues and more tears).  But this, this riding to work thing, is perfect. I can do it without his ghost as it's a place he never could have come with me, so it's fresh, stripped of the emotion and just plain fun.

It's exactly one of the things I wanted from the job change I made at the beginning of this year, this simplicity and ease of being able to get to my job on my own steam, a little sweaty (but nothing Yogini Cleanies Lavender Body Wipes can't take care of).  I'm still working out the system, figuring out how to pack, what to pack, how to plan, but you can probably imagine I totally love that part.

So it'll be with delight tomorrow that I am part of the pack, hitting the Energizer Stations along my route to work (two of 'em!), picking up the swag, participating in the rolling party.

Yay!

XX