More Grown Ups On Bicycles

Gas up over $3 a gallon. Oil companies are making record profits while telling us the reason gas prices have gone up is because "some of the refineries are down" or "we had to switch to the summer blend" (yea, I guess the change of seasons caught them completely off guard). Please don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining. Are you noticing more grown ups on bicycles lately? I ride my bike to work as often as I can, not only to save on gas but it's great exercise. And it's a moving meditation. If I take my mind off the present moment even for a second, I could end up road kill. I ride on the sidewalk as much as possible. I take my time and it generally takes me the same amount of time to ride the eight and a half miles to work on my bike as it does to drive in when there's traffic...go figure.



Here's my dilemma. When I ride in the street, cars get aggravated; when I ride on the sidewalk, pedestrians get aggravated. There's no designated place for me to ride my bike to work. Other than that (and arriving to work all sweaty) it's awesome! Think about it: you get your work out, out of the way AND you're all decompressed by the time you get home because you're not sitting like a slug in bumper to bumper traffic! It sure would be nice if the oil companies would put some of their profit into new bike paths but I suppose that would defeat their purpose: to bilk the American public out of as much money as possible. A friend of mine recently asked me if I remembered the gas "shortage" in the '70's; the lines at the gas stations? Of course I do. What does that mean? I guess there's plenty if you have the money to pay for it. Me? I'd rather ride my bike.