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Sep. 13th, 2020 12:36 amToday I went on an ADVENTURE!
It was a bike adventure, and I decided to do it because I wasn't gonna see Austin this weekend and it felt like a good idea to get out of the house. Plus, we've been at the hotel nearly two weeks it was long past time to get my bicycle out of Rey's car. Doubleplus, I had errands to do.
So I biked from Burlington to Davis Sq to pick up my meds. Looking casually at the google map, it appeared to be a large amount of winding through little suburbanish streets until I finally made it to the minuteman. Not the worst path (after the first chunk, which involved riding on the sidewalk of the Big Road hotel is tucked off of and then riding not on the sidewalk because this area is a fuckass nightmare for pedestrians) but also not anything I was particularly excited for.
Except! It turns out that I did that terrible first chunk, made a turn onto a less busy road, and then the very next turn was a bike path I did not know existed! Lexington has paths all over itself, and they are shaded and lovely and I got to spend a bunch of time alongside a gentle creek! After a turn or two, I found a signpost full of maps and gleefully acquired one! I managed to ride paths all the way to the Minuteman, meaning my ten mile journey that I expected to be fully half on streets was actually like...80% bike path!
Pharmacy in Davis (no meds drama except that my meds are up to 54 dollars, and I need to call insurance and be "yeah what the fuck, these were $30 earlier this year and $12.50 the years before that" and just generally adult at this problem.) and then bookstore in Porter to grab my pre-order of the newest October Daye book. The original version of this plan involved me like...fucking around at this point and maybe just arbitrarily biking (quite plausible I would've wound up at the Great Meadows or something) but Austin reminded me last night that he was doing a peal attempt with ringing friends and they were having a (very small) outdoor party after and would I care to join.
So I biked up to Winchester (which involved biking alongside the lakes and *oh* that was a lovely ride! Why can't we have one lane roads with wider-than-normal bike lanes and 25mph speed limits *everywhere*?) and hung out with seven other adults and one baby. I spent a bit of time reading in a hammock while listening to bells, and I spent time chatting one-on-one with friends Dale and Greg, and then when the ringing was over, got to have lovely takeout dinner with everyone scattered across the lawn.
A quiet house in the suburbs with a big lawn is not actually a longtime goal, but wow is it nice to have access to one occasionally.
The bike ride home turned out to be terrible. The first half very entertainingly so --it was very quiet roads with few cars and WOW were they hills damn. Then I got to the last two miles or so, which was along aforementioned Busy Road and I got to discover the full extent of how hostile the neighborhood I'm in is to pedestrians got damn.
(I had a "get out of bike free" card, in that Ezri had already agreed to come pick me up from anywhere, but by the time I actually wanted to use it I was only about a half mile from the hotel and knew that there *was* sidewalk I could ride on again once I got past the Deeply Shitty quarter mile or so. It was not fun, but I am glad I got the chance to check and see.)
So that was today! I got home and curled up on the phone playing dumb games for like...three hours straight or so, in between trading memes and tweets and goofy conversation with the roommates. I am happy to be home, but even happier to have gotten some outside time in the good weather.
Also, I am _really_ happy to have done biking. I don't generally think of myself as someone who seeks out or enjoys pleasure-biking, and I'm glad to have had clear destinations that I could try biking to, because I am absolute shite at going biking without a plan in mind.
But biking is a Freedom, and I am a creature who values their personal freedom1 more than nearly any other intangible. Driving a car may be faster, but it's more complicated and requires more accountability --to Rey (who owns the thing) to parking enforcement, to traffic. Riding the T may be more calming, but I lose huge amounts of flexibility in exchange. My bike is small enough to navigate the traffic without getting stuck in it, light enough to park just about anywhere, and fast enough that I can reasonably get into the city in the hour (a feat impossible on foot).
And I have so much _control_ over the bike -- I decide when and where I go, and am not *really* stopped by lack of an obvious path because I can go on sidewalks if I need, or grass, or carefully on the shoulder. When I'm riding by myself, there is no pressure to match speed --I don't have to push myself uncomfortably to keep up with a faster cyclist, nor do I have to dawdle to match a pedestrian walking with me.
(Note to self: Freedom vs Control, write that up sometime.)
So yeah. Having access to the bike again, since it's no longer in the car? Amazing. Excellent decision. Very much looking forward to continuing that through the rest of the hoteltimes. And maybe even more Adventures, until it gets too chilled.
I hope you're doing okay and finding good things.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Including and especially the freedom to help people and to make the world a better place. I love having access to communities, and being capable of personal sacrifice to make those communities a better place, especially when that sacrifice is something that's really not a big deal to me, like wearing a damn mask.
It was a bike adventure, and I decided to do it because I wasn't gonna see Austin this weekend and it felt like a good idea to get out of the house. Plus, we've been at the hotel nearly two weeks it was long past time to get my bicycle out of Rey's car. Doubleplus, I had errands to do.
So I biked from Burlington to Davis Sq to pick up my meds. Looking casually at the google map, it appeared to be a large amount of winding through little suburbanish streets until I finally made it to the minuteman. Not the worst path (after the first chunk, which involved riding on the sidewalk of the Big Road hotel is tucked off of and then riding not on the sidewalk because this area is a fuckass nightmare for pedestrians) but also not anything I was particularly excited for.
Except! It turns out that I did that terrible first chunk, made a turn onto a less busy road, and then the very next turn was a bike path I did not know existed! Lexington has paths all over itself, and they are shaded and lovely and I got to spend a bunch of time alongside a gentle creek! After a turn or two, I found a signpost full of maps and gleefully acquired one! I managed to ride paths all the way to the Minuteman, meaning my ten mile journey that I expected to be fully half on streets was actually like...80% bike path!
Pharmacy in Davis (no meds drama except that my meds are up to 54 dollars, and I need to call insurance and be "yeah what the fuck, these were $30 earlier this year and $12.50 the years before that" and just generally adult at this problem.) and then bookstore in Porter to grab my pre-order of the newest October Daye book. The original version of this plan involved me like...fucking around at this point and maybe just arbitrarily biking (quite plausible I would've wound up at the Great Meadows or something) but Austin reminded me last night that he was doing a peal attempt with ringing friends and they were having a (very small) outdoor party after and would I care to join.
So I biked up to Winchester (which involved biking alongside the lakes and *oh* that was a lovely ride! Why can't we have one lane roads with wider-than-normal bike lanes and 25mph speed limits *everywhere*?) and hung out with seven other adults and one baby. I spent a bit of time reading in a hammock while listening to bells, and I spent time chatting one-on-one with friends Dale and Greg, and then when the ringing was over, got to have lovely takeout dinner with everyone scattered across the lawn.
A quiet house in the suburbs with a big lawn is not actually a longtime goal, but wow is it nice to have access to one occasionally.
The bike ride home turned out to be terrible. The first half very entertainingly so --it was very quiet roads with few cars and WOW were they hills damn. Then I got to the last two miles or so, which was along aforementioned Busy Road and I got to discover the full extent of how hostile the neighborhood I'm in is to pedestrians got damn.
(I had a "get out of bike free" card, in that Ezri had already agreed to come pick me up from anywhere, but by the time I actually wanted to use it I was only about a half mile from the hotel and knew that there *was* sidewalk I could ride on again once I got past the Deeply Shitty quarter mile or so. It was not fun, but I am glad I got the chance to check and see.)
So that was today! I got home and curled up on the phone playing dumb games for like...three hours straight or so, in between trading memes and tweets and goofy conversation with the roommates. I am happy to be home, but even happier to have gotten some outside time in the good weather.
Also, I am _really_ happy to have done biking. I don't generally think of myself as someone who seeks out or enjoys pleasure-biking, and I'm glad to have had clear destinations that I could try biking to, because I am absolute shite at going biking without a plan in mind.
But biking is a Freedom, and I am a creature who values their personal freedom1 more than nearly any other intangible. Driving a car may be faster, but it's more complicated and requires more accountability --to Rey (who owns the thing) to parking enforcement, to traffic. Riding the T may be more calming, but I lose huge amounts of flexibility in exchange. My bike is small enough to navigate the traffic without getting stuck in it, light enough to park just about anywhere, and fast enough that I can reasonably get into the city in the hour (a feat impossible on foot).
And I have so much _control_ over the bike -- I decide when and where I go, and am not *really* stopped by lack of an obvious path because I can go on sidewalks if I need, or grass, or carefully on the shoulder. When I'm riding by myself, there is no pressure to match speed --I don't have to push myself uncomfortably to keep up with a faster cyclist, nor do I have to dawdle to match a pedestrian walking with me.
(Note to self: Freedom vs Control, write that up sometime.)
So yeah. Having access to the bike again, since it's no longer in the car? Amazing. Excellent decision. Very much looking forward to continuing that through the rest of the hoteltimes. And maybe even more Adventures, until it gets too chilled.
I hope you're doing okay and finding good things.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Including and especially the freedom to help people and to make the world a better place. I love having access to communities, and being capable of personal sacrifice to make those communities a better place, especially when that sacrifice is something that's really not a big deal to me, like wearing a damn mask.