Thursday, May 08, 2008

Preparing for Bike Week

Among work, my wife's medical problems and other stuff going on, I'm also preparing for Bike Week, specifically, the commuter convoy.

It looks like one or two of the convoys might even get a quick blurb (or something, maybe more) from a local news station. Although not a lot of people have actually RSVP'd for the convoys, Eric has been sending out mail to people who have signed up for our Kansas City Car-Free challenge. I'm hoping our volunteers get a few extra that just show up.

There are a multitude of reasons to commute by bike. Many of them you can't discover in a week of riding to work. Others, you can't discover for at least a month. To this day -- now almost 2 years into my adventures of bike commuting -- I still notice things and gain an appreciation for things that I wouldn't ever know of had it not been for riding a bike as much as I have.

So, do it for fun. Do it to stick it to the oil execs or terrorists. Do it for the environment. Do it for your health or for the air your childen breathe. Do it for being able to say "hi" to passersby on the sidewalk on their morning jog or dog walk, or even just to clear your mind a bit before and after work. Give it a shot next week, at least once.

And, if you're reading this, you're probably either a bicycle commuter or considering it. Tell your friends and co-workers. Offer to ride in with them.

It was a bit of a camera-free hammerfest on the way home, but here's some stuff from this morning.


























5 comments:

  1. You could spend a long time taking pics of the stuff in the West Plaza and Brookeside areas. I think a lot of the residents are a bit pretentious, but I like the looks of it all... Not that we've done a crap-ton of work in the area or anything. ;)

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  2. Indeed. I just rarely (read: never) ride through that part of town. The only time I'm in Brookside on my bike is when I'm transferring buses from the Raytown 163 to the Metro Area Express.

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  3. I wish I could get my lawn to look like the one in the second pic.

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  4. You want a blurry yard? :P

    That was taken in Mission Hills, one of the most affluent communities in the region. It wouldn't surprise me if some Mission Hills denizens spent almost as much on lawn care as my yearly salary.

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  5. Jeff, I joined the "Bicycle to Work!" group. I like LinkedIN, so I published the comment. I almost thought it was spam at first, but you're just trying to spread the (very good) word.

    If anyone else who reads this is on linkedin, join the group, too!

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