Weekends these days

So I was all prepared to write a post comparing recent weekends to past April weekends, complaining about how I don’t get to bike or do anything anymore but after last weekend, I can’t truthfully write such a post.

Matthew, in his infinite cleverness, discovered that we don’t actually have to disassemble the trailer to get it in and out of the basement.  If we partially flatten it and remove the hitch arm, we can then take it through the door sideways, with the wheels still in place.

While carrying a bicycle up the stairs, then hauling up the trailer, then attaching said trailer to my bike is not exactly easy while keeping tabs on a nine-month-old, this new discovery makes it a bit less of a production.

Last Friday morning, I loaded Sir into his chariot for our first solo bike outing.  On previous outings (here and here), Matthew pulled the trailer, so it was also my first time pulling the trailer with him in it.

(The hardest part was getting him into the darn baby supporter — there’s this piece that you have to pull over the baby’s head, and it’s very awkward.  They really need to tweak the design to make it more user-friendly.  I think I can modify it, but I haven’t had a chance to see if my idea will work yet.)

Anyway, we biked to the park for a short visit.  On the way home, while waiting to make our left turn onto Kingshighway, I got some kind of, “You’re not seriously going to [something unintelligible] on Kingshighway . . . ?”

Why, yes, I am going to operate my vehicle on this street, just like you’re going to operate your vehicle on this street, thank you very much.  I really need to remember to carry Cycling Savvy flyers with me and be ready to hand them out.

Later that day, we were back on the bike to check out some real estate.  I looped a cable through part of the frame of the trailer for locking up, and Sir grabbed it and seemed to be using it as an “oh shit handle” during our ride.  Sir, please, I’m not that crazy of a driver.

Our new Saturday routine involves sending Gabriel out to the garden with Matthew, which gives me some much-needed time to myself.  I spent last Saturday biking around gathering ingredients for Matthew’s birthday dinner.

Despite no baby on board, I hitched up the trailer, which allowed me to easily carry my final load of a 3+ liter tin of olive oil, a half gallon of soy milk, a half gallon of dairy milk, some bulk bin dry goods, a gallon of apple cider vinegar, and  few other odds and ends.  With just my milk crate, or even my milk crate and panniers, that load would have required some stops back at the apartment between stores.

After all the biking with the trailer, my Sunday morning ride, just me and Bub was a breeze.

While life IS very different these days, I reclaimed some of the joys of weekends past, and I hope to do more of it in the future.