Saturday, January 20, 2007

Seeing Things Differently (Footprints)

Happy Birthday Kristin. I found this picture from my bike this morning.



Today is investment club Saturday. I didn’t want to ride my bike. The limited Saturday schedule tossed the bus option out the window. I was this close (picture me holding my thumb and index finger really close together) to driving.

But someone sent me an e-mail last night and sometimes stuff I read on the Internets changes things.

Apparently there’s a longtime MinusCar reader in Sacramento that bought a $69 Toys R Us bike. A reasonable decision considering she hadn’t ridden in 50 years. Did she hate the bike so much that she gave up trying to ride? Nope. Instead she purchased a new bike and sold her car.

Most days she does the bike and bus thing which gets her 10 miles on the bike a day. Somewhere along the way she began to see the environment and some other things differently. This adds evidence for me that, much like from the seat of a bicycle, the world looks different out a bus window.

She set a new goal: she’d ride all the way to work, 44 miles round trip and she’d do it before she turned 60. Last summer she achieved her goal and she’s re-achieved her goal numerous times since.

She turned 60 last week.

Later today, along with gracious permission for me to use her story, she mentioned the value of leaving footprints on people’s lives.

There are new footprints on my life.

7 comments:

Michelle said...

NICE! Cool story, cool phote

Snakebite said...

VERY cool!

Sophia's Dad said...

44 miles is a long commute, even by car driving standards. It is important to emphasize that she took a lemon (her nasty commute) and made lemonaide (physical fitness and heightened awareness), as the cliche goes.
I hope I am still pedaling when I am 60 years old. Awesome!

peddlinshutterbug said...

Mr MC.. GREAT PHOTO! Investment club OOOHH!... i'll have to pick your brain sometime!

Anonymous said...

inspiring story. Thanks for sharing your footprint.

Woo

Anonymous said...

What are some good mutual funds?

SiouxGeonz said...

Inspiring... yet I have resigned myself to using the car tonight because it's icy, snowy, and foggy, and cycling isn't *quite* common enough around here for people to expect to see me, and an ambulance almost ran over me this morning. However, I'm being very drawn to studded tyres, and if my brother's recent car trouble (he's an independent cabbie) costs enough for him to decide it's time to buy mine, I won't be replacing it right away...