Thursday, May 26, 2005

Emission Free Since 5/27

I brought the bike along today. Putting the bike on and off all went pretty smoothly. The racks are new for the drivers too so some silent negotiations were involved. My driver in the morning had already carried one bike; I was the first for my afternoon driver. I told them both it was my intent to use them heavily.

Today was going to be complex, but it rained. It turned into a simple commute; bike to bus, bus to work, bus from work, bike to home. It was raining at the end of the day and that changed everything. I was prepared for the complexity of the day so I brought more gear than I usually will. I bet my backpack weighed 30 pounds, especially after I filled two water bottles with Gatorade in anticipation of a long bike ride after work.

I’m thinking about having a storage box at work with a pair of brown and a pair of black shoes so I don’t have to lug those around. A storage box will look inconspicuous on the shelf at work too…until someone opens it and likely finds a spare pair of underwear. Icky.

I was way early for the catch to work. I think I waited half an hour. I wonder how close I was to catching the earlier bus. That would have been nice. The wait for the catch on the way home was a few minutes longer than ideal, but it wasn’t unreasonable, especially after the troubles I had Tuesday catching (or not) that one.

Today’s activities included reading this article: “Doubt: The Tides of Faith” by Brian McLaren. It’s beside the point, but the most interesting thing to me was that the Young Earth Theory is a very old theory. I’d previously thought it was very new.

I also meticulously marked timings to better help me judge future catch points.

Prospects are good to have an emission free day again tomorrow. Prospects for the weekend are very, very bleak, but emission free wasn’t the goal, eliminating my single occupancy auto trips is.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You the man. Tell Alonzo congrats on the training wheelless bike.

Anonymous said...

In two weeks you probably won't have long waits for busses at all. You will know the schedule of every bus you ride, the bus drivers and other riders. I know if I leave my house at 6:51 I will have to wait about 2 minutes at my bus stop in the morning.

I find it so admirable what you are doing. SD is not exactly the easiest place to get around without a car. Personally, I live on 4 bus lines and I still find myself having to use my car, and I don't have kids. The key is always to plan ahead.

Good Luck on the experiment.