Category Archives: Biking

Three for three

Well, this is the first full week of my new gig.  I spent yesterday dealing with — can you guess?

If you said garden produce, you’re right!  Much like the last two Mondays, I sorted, chopped, and cooked produce from the weekend’s haul  — no photos, but it was impressive: tomatoes, sweet peppers, squash, eggplant . . . .

Back to the end of last week, though, I started the month well by going three mornings in a row getting out on my bike first thing in the morning.  Two with baby on board, and one solo trip.  More on biking with baby to come soon, but he’s doing very well in the front seat and doesn’t fight the helmet, and I really enjoy having him close as we travel.

I also went almost 72 hours without getting in the car last week!  A few years ago, that wouldn’t have been much to write about, but these past two-and-a-half years?  Pretty rare.

Just another manic Monday

Wish it were Saturday . . .

Self-portrait on the bike

Or Sunday . . .

First-of-the-season Caprese sandwiches

. . . but the mania is mostly of my own making.  I took the day off to “relax,” which quickly turned into a long to-do list, which mostly involves wrangling fresh produce.  There were also some adventures with grilling — in the end, I prevailed, though it made the day much crazier than planned.  Off to deal with a HUGE zucchini.

Bike bans, cuteness, and fun in the kitchen

A couple more photos from our trip at the beginning of the month before returning to the home scene.

Very bummed to see this sign on a road in Ames, Iowa:

Sec. 4.15. BICYCLES PROHIBITED ON GRAND AVENUE.
The riding of bicycles, tricycles or unicycles on the roadway of Grand Avenue in the City of Ames, Iowa, is prohibited. Any person who shall ride a bicycle on the traveled portion of the roadway of Grand Avenue between Lincoln Way and 30th Street in the City of Ames shall be in violation of this section.

Ugh.

On to happier things, my beautiful boy after spending some time in the wading pool with his cousin.

Despite more rounds of sickness, the refrigerator drama, and job hunting (and with it, the search for new child care arrangements), we’ve found time to continue settling in to the new apartment.

Finally hanging the pot rack was a big deal for us.  We need every bit of counter top and cabinet space in the kitchen, and this is a great solution.

We’ve debated adding a second one, and I’ve looked at several DIY pot rack options, maybe someday.  I’d love to hang our cast iron pans, but I would worry that the rack would come crashing down under all the weight.

Tomato season is in full swing, along with eggplant, summer squash, and cucumbers.

We’re enjoying finding new ways to create delicious one-dish meals featuring toms, eggplant, and squash (some recipes coming soon), including this ratatouille-style dish that also featured our freshly dug fingerling potatoes.

The end of the car commute

I’ve planned some version of this post in my head for quite awhile, though I was beginning to think it would never happen.

Over two-and-a-half (!) years ago, I accepted a position promoting active transportation (with a focus on biking).  It was a great opportunity, with one big downside: my four-and-a-half years of biking to work came to a screeching halt.

I explored options for bike commuting, including combining biking with transit, but the location, sixteen miles away, with a river crossing that is only spanned by an interstate (if I didn’t want to travel significantly out of the way, and still be on high-speed highways), and no transit service made that an unrealistic option for me.  I know some people bike to work at that distance and longer, but spending over two hours getting to and from work, and my route options (or lack there-of), made it a nonstarter for me.

Going into it, I knew the switch from a bike commute to a car commute (about 30 minutes each way) would be hard to swallow, and it was.  Everyday, I drove past an overpass reconstruction that was set to be complete exactly a year from when I started the position, and I set an arbitrary deadline of finding something else by the time they completed the project.

A year came and went.  Then two.  I enjoyed my job and working with my coworkers, but the drive bothered me.  And I didn’t want it to NOT bother me, but it didn’t bother me enough to bite the bullet and leave without another job lined up, not in this economy.

I’ve known for several months now that continued funding for my position was uncertain, but I found out just HOW uncertain two weeks ago, when the higher-ups informed me that due to recent budget cuts, my job would be ending effective July 31.  Alrighty, then.

I’m exploring a few possibilities, and, at least for now, not even letting myself look at positions that I could not readily access without a car.  At this point, I don’t know what things will look like come August 1, but I won’t be spending an hour in the car that day, and that can only be a good thing.

Maiden voyage

So, in the midst of a final cleaning of the old apartment, unpacking and settling into the new place (we already have pictures on the walls!), and comforting a sick, teething baby, I took my iBert-outfitted bicycle on its maiden voyage with Sir.

He wore his new helmet without much complaint and smiled as he sat in front of me, holding the handle bar and intermittently ringing the bike bell.  The bike handled fairly normally, and I adjusted to any differences in weight distribution and balance without processing it.

It is ironic that I found the seat just before, and used it for the first time just after, we moved to a place with a garage, since one of my major complaints with the trailer was having to lug it up and down the basement stairs.  However, the garage is still a good thing because the mounting bar for the iBert attaches right where I usually held my bike for carrying it up and down the stairs, so not having to deal with basement bicycle storage is still a big plus.

Sir seemed much happier in the iBert than he did in our most recent trailer rides, and I imagine I was grinning like a fool as we cruised around our new neighborhood.  We just rode, and it felt right — simple, easy, and fun.

We incorporated a little errand into one of our trips, and I looked forward to more trips by bicycle with my little copilot.