After weighing options, including Shakespeare in the Park, for last night’s baby-free entertainment, I settled on a talk hosted by the St. Louis Ecovilliage Network on building intentional communities.
Once I’d made up my mind, I planned my bike route. The event was held just east of Carondolet Park, a part of town to which I’d biked several weeks ago for a job interview. On that occasion, a bike lane along most of the route I picked marred what should have been a straightforward, pleasant trip. I was not comfortable in the bike lane (with the door zone danger, intersection conflict zones, etc.), but motorists tend not to understand or have patience for cyclists shunning bike lanes.
With the foreknowledge of the bike-laned roads, I carefully mapped my route to avoid them, making for a much more pleasant ride.
I can’t remember the last time I rode at night, so before heading out, I hunted down my front and rear lights and made sure they were in working order. The rear lights were a bit tricky to find — after searching and coming up empty in the bags on both of my bikes, as well as in the garage, I turned to Matthew’s bike gear bag. Turned out someone was hoarding bike lights!
Lights found, I turned to putting together a quick dinner for myself. I’ve had reuben sandwiches on the tentative menu to quite some time, and Matthew recently bought Swiss cheese, but we were quite low on kraut (must make more!). However, while not enough for multiple sandwiches, the remainder of the kraut was perfect for one.
It was also definitely time, as the Swiss cheese had a few small moldy spots. I scraped them off with my finger nail and carried on (as much as I’m really particular about food safety in some ways, in others I’m quite a bit more relaxed — a confusing dichotomy to be sure!).
‘Twas a simple and delicious dinner, if a bit veggie-light for my preferences.
I headed out on my bike immediately after eating. Other than heavy squinting due to lack of sunglasses, I enjoyed the ride there.
A few sentences won’t due it justice, but the talk on building intentional communities was very inspiring — so glad I attended!
Afterward, I headed home, biking into the tail end of a sunset, the colors gently fading to darkness, while the full moon rose behind me. After a few blocks, my slight apprehension about riding unfamiliar streets in the dark faded as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed my own little full moon bike ride.
One possible change for the future — Matthew has been encouraging me to upgrade my front light (after doing so himself). I’m still not sure it’s worth it for very infrequent night riding, but there were some stretches last night, where the trees blocked out the streetlight almost completely, where I would have benefited from more illumination on the road ahead of me.
Her Green Life 