Taking up bike riding

It is now eleven days since I have become a bike person. In the Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge area the appellation, "bike person," is quite negative. Not surprisingly a good number of our poor residents ride bikes and they have gotten hung with a bum rap in terms of being seen as undesirables. It is fairly easy to differentiate between urban riders and poor folks: most of the former are wearing spandex riding gear and helmets and most of the latter aren't. My observations are that while there is a certain amount of drug dealing and such going on from the backs of bikes, most of the folks who are riding them in our community are doing so out of necessity and as a byproduct of that are displaying a desirable element of the diversity within our society.

I have managed to keep to the twenty or twenty-five kilometers a day goal that I set for myself when I started riding. My butt is no longer suffering, but my thighs are pretty sore. Over all I am feeling pretty good. Next week I will try to go 30 K every second day.

Almost the end of July and much has happened since my last post. I am halfway through eight weeks off on medical EI. Thank God for Canada's Employment Insurance program! The first three weeks were pretty much waiting for my increased medication to kick in. Finally happened and i slept well for the first time this year. Mind you, that sleeping well involved eight hours each night and then a roll-over and another three or four hours. Well, after a week of that I settled into about seven hours a night.

I had been using Dick's van until the 19th, when he decided that his nephew from Alberta needed it more than I did. Talk about having to bite the bullet as far as being poor goes. NO CAR!!!! Wow, first time without one since I was nineteen.

So, I dragged out the ten year old, never ridden more than a total of twenty kilometers by me, 5 years used when I got it, mountain bike. And I have ridden. I think that I am averaging about twenty-five kilometers a day and apart from a sore butt and the amount of sweat I'm pouring out there are no ill effects.

I hate to admit it, but I am now starting to have Bicycle Fantasies. Yes, Virginia, there are such things. Mostly they revolve around the thought of biking down to visit Jessie next summer. Eight thousand kilometers must surely equal fantasy. On the other hand, I have gotten a couple of books out of the library that were written by folks who have done the trip, and I've cruised the MEC catalogue looking at stuff....hmm.

Well enough of this for now. Must ride off to the library.