Perspective

The other day, Mike and I were riding our bikes when a guy carrying a long stick carelessly walked out in front of him.

Thankfully, Mike has cat-like reflexes and was able to deftly swerve and miss the pedestrian.

Despite the catastrophe’s avoidance, Mike was about to verbalize his considerable irritation in this man’s direction, when he realized what the guy’s stick was for.

He was blind.

Oops.

My theory of relativity

I was super pissed this morning when a squirrel ran out in front of me while I was on my bike.

“You wretched little animal!” I thought. “You almost made me crash!”

Now that I’ve had most of the day to think about it and consider the fact that I almost squished, flattened and killed that little squirrel, I’ve come to the conclusion that he was probably a whole lot more pissed about our encounter than I was.

And perhaps rightly so.

Cars vs. cyclists

It’s a little bit irritating when a person with a bike sticker on their car almost runs me over (twice!) while I’m on my bike.

Only in Boulder

On an early morning bike ride yesterday, I saw a woman running. And she was running fast!

Which made me think: Wow. She’s running faster of her own volition that I would be running if I was being chased by a bear.

Yup. I'd be a goner for sure. Pic by Daisyree Bakker on Flickr.

Biking with a smile

A couple days ago, I noticed something black in Mike’s teeth.

I looked at him more closely, a bit confused. I knew he hadn’t recently eaten a kiwi fruit or a poppy seed muffin.

So I looked again.

And I noticed a couple of wings jutting out from what I now realized was an ebony body.

Augh. A bug.

I gasped, thoroughly grossed out, and pointed out the protein he had lodged between two of his teeth.

“Oh,” he laughed. “That’s how you know I’m a happy biker.”

Touché.

New Years Resolution 2011, Number 2

So I live in Boulder. That means that, theoretically, I’m a bad-ass athlete.

That (wrong) conclusion led me on a “Damn the torpedoes” kind of bike ride this morning where I pedaled into the blustery wind for three miles, despite the fact that those same howling gusts woke me up last night.

Bad decision.

But one that inspired my new resolution: I will not bike to school on days where the wind speed is 35 mph.

Here’s New Years Resolution 2011 Number 1.

Perhaps I’m especially tart because in the process of heading to school, I fell over because of said (fricking) wind. And I recently discovered that in the process of doing so, I managed to squish the orange I’d packed for a mid-morning snack.

I have orange juice in my backpack.

(It’s the pulpy kind.)