apple juice

Further solidifying my place as one of the stranger people at my place of employment… I rolled up to work today on my mountain bike. I was the only person in the building of about 300 employees that rode to work today. The trip from my garage to work took 14 minutes. This is quite amazing because it takes me 10 minutes door to door to drive there in my car.

And the car, why was I not driving it to work today? Well, I dropped off my car yesterday at Park Place VW for it’s routine 20,000 mile service. There was no estimate of time needed to complete the car, but I assumed (you should never assume) that it would be done by the end of the day, or at least I could call in the mid-afternoon and find out the status.

Well, long story short, I didn’t hear from them and couldn’t get ahold of the service person I spoke with. Got a ride home last night from a friend, and I biked to work this morning.

I biked to work on principle basically, as another co-worker put it, so I could tell the dealership, “I had to ride my bike to work today!”. On the other hand, I enjoyed riding my bike in. I just need to give my self ten more minutes for a slightly more leisurely ride, and remember to pack a lunch and I’ll be ready to go. Anyone want to take me to lunch today?

A couple weeks ago I had a lunchtime conversation with another co-worker about riding my bike around when I was studying abroad in Sweden. In the town where I lived, Lulea, you could ride your bike everywhere. It was almost as if the town was designed for it. Not only that, but the population there is on the same order as Rochester (~70,000 vs. ~90,000) We wondered about the lack of bike trails, and general friendliness towards bikers in this country. We solved nothing and simply shook our fists at the Rochester Urban Planner, (if there is one… if not they should hire me as a consultant… I’m a master at SimCity).

It’s happened to me, and I’ve heard stories from friends and family about getting honked at, swerved at, cursed at and generally harrassed while riding their bikes around towns. Why do people have to be like that? I don’t understand. I know that around Minneapolis they have bike lanes on many of the streets, but as my brother says, you’re risking death anytime you venture into one.

So I biked to work today… will I tomorrow? Sure I’d like to, but if I have my car back, I won’t guarantee it. The weather is getting cold!