Changes

I feel I should have been updating more. Oh well, I've been relatively busy. Riding a lot (but sadly, not daily like my goal had been...), getting ready for my tour. I got some new panniers which are going to work out great; when I got them I felt I had to test-load them, and now I'm all excited to be off. In a sense, I could pretty much pack up and leave tomorrow if I wanted to, save for a few semi-essential items (such as a tire pump).

I've also been doing some changes in my diet. Mainly cutting out dairy and eating far less sugar, snacking less too. Giving up dairy I thought was going to be hard, because I love cheese, but it wasn't too difficult. I still eat it now and then but not nearly to the same levels. And the bonus is, I have far less gas! Used to be I'd fart really often (thankfully silently) but now it's rare like it should be. I'm sure my friends, family, and coworkers all appreciate my newfound lack of stinkbombs. Cutting out sugar was (and still is) much harder. That stuff is like crack. I really haven't succeeded too well but it's a work in progress. Too much dietary change at once and you'll never be able to stick to it, so I'm doing one thing at a time. It doesn't help that there is sugar or corn syrup or whatever in almost everything. The upside is that non-processed food generally tastes better anyways, and is more sustaining.

Last, but not least, I sold my truck. I am, as of yesterday morning, officially car-free! It's exciting, though somewhat scary too. Not that I feel I need the truck, but it's a big change, to be totally dependant on the bike and my feet for transportation (aside from riding with others, which can't always be avoided). It's nice too that I can be that much less of a hypocrite when I go on about the evils of oil usage and virtues of environmentalism, although living in America I'll probably always be at least partially a hypocrite just because of how the lifestyle is structured. But it is nice to know my "ecological footprint" is that much smaller. Plus I'm saving money, which is always good. I could go on listing positives; suffice to say that I'm very pleased with this decision. Lately I've been all about simplifying my life, throwing away what I now consider to be clutter, and selling the truck was a big part of that.

O Glorious Day

Ah, what an excellent day it was for biking today! Almost perfectly sunny, hardly any wind to speak of, dry pavement, and best of all, it reached 43 degrees. I lied, best of all is that today was my day off. I could hardly contain myself, it was just so perfect. So, after just generally enjoying the morning, checking up on the news and playing with my dog, I decided I had some errands to do. I have to say, I'm proud of myself. Up till the last few rides, I've shied away from riding in the busier streets (such as 11 and 12 mile roads), but today I decided to stay off sidewalks completely. It went great, though a few cars did pass frighteningly close, especially that delivery truck that roared past me just a bit too close for comfort. I guess he decided he didn't like bikes on the road and he meant to prove how big and bad he was. Unfortunately, it's clear to all how big and bad he is, and I wish he wouldn't try to make the point with a 4,000 pound vehicle moving 35 mph. I really don't want to die just yet...

Anyways, besides that, things went well. I met a fellow biker outside the library as I was leaving and talked a bit about my bike, which he liked quite a bit. Unfortunately, he wanted to talk about components and such, which I have no time for. My mind just doesn't connect with all the details of this or that version of a brake pad or shifters or what have you. All that stuff is fine and good, and I am learning about some basic maintenance, but really, I just don't care; I'm more into riding than learning about riding. So it's hard to talk about it, being ignorant as I am.

After my errands were done and I'd eaten lunch, I went out on a long ride. I had a route I wanted to check out, sort of on the way out to Orchard Lake and Cass Lake, where there are some parks I plan to check out later in the spring (it'd be a pretty long ride for me right now, but I'm working on that). Anyways, this was part of the route I'd planned to get there. It was an extremely pleasant ride; save for that bit of road work on Beverly, which was stirring up a lot of dust; also, Lone Pine road is not in the best condition in some areas (though, happily, pretty hilly...as Michigan goes, of course), so I did break my rule and rode on the sidewalk for a ways, it being much smoother. So, that aside, I think that part of my route is pretty good, traffic isn't too bad and most of the roads are pretty decent.

I was pretty tired on the way back, though. I don't think I've ever ridden so far in one day. The ride ended up being 19.3 miles, which I'm very happy with. Happier still that, including my morning errands, I did 27 miles today. Ok, not exactly a world record but pretty good for me, as I'm still trying to get in shape. Let's all just hope my legs won't be too sore tomorrow.