Shoe Monday

Nothing quite like heading back to the 9-5 after a long weekend to boost the spirits and make you realize how much fun working really is. On top of all this post-holiday season let down is the fact that today was a Shoe Monday. One of my clever tricks for regular bike commuting is to leave all of the staples of my work day persona at work in a drawer. I bring a fresh change of clothes each day and pair them with either brown or black dress shoes and a reversible belt…yes, yes say what you will about reversible belts but I still maintain they are one of the greatest creations of all mankind (Pyramids of Giza, Golden Gate Bridge, Hot Pockets, Reversible Belts). I can pull this off because I seldom use ‘dress shoes’ outside of work and therefore rarely miss them by leaving them in a drawer. When I do need them I just bring them home, bringing me full circle back to the concept of the Shoe Monday: the Monday after a weekend of swanky to-doing where you schlep your heavy dress shoes back to work adding insult to injury on top of the act of going back to work itself.

Moving on past these doldrums, I did get a bike computer from REI this weekend: a Sigma on clearance (thanks Jill and Matt) and finally have the power of information at my disposal while commuting to and from work or wherever. For the past couple years I simply estimated my daily mileage based on a Map My Ride estimate of the distance between our house and work. Each day I rode would be that distance even if I rode downtown, to Kate’s work or to McDonalds to eat several Big Mac’s. I discovered today that my estimate was nearly .5 miles off (one way!) which means I’ve had a skewed perspective of time, space and distance somewhat on par with thinking the Earth the center of the universe. Armed with my new computer I’ll now calculate my mileage electronically thus leaving the dark ages behind. I’ve put an ‘Odometer’ to the right under my profile information to track my mileage for various kinds of riding…it’s a bit rudimentary for now but will hopefully evolve. So according to my Dark Age finger counting and chest beating, I rode 201 days to work last year bringing my mileage to over 2,500. (This is really just a fact, not a goal. Beating this mark would mean going to work more which is really a feat I’m trying to avoid.)

Finally I would like to regress back to the doldrums ever so slightly to add this following piece of wisdom: there really shouldn’t be a place in this world for a pick-up truck with straight pipes mounted vertically out of the bed next to the cab. What does this accomplish? What message are you trying to send to the world? “I hope one day when I grow up to be a truck driver.” Its called a CDL: take a class and go play trucks with the big boys if you really want to. I can respect the utility of a truck, the level of comfort of driving one of our modern sedan-like trucks and all of that, but the Ram 1500 with straight pipes is a mystery to me and really serves no conceivable purpose. I suppose some birds attract mates by throwing up on their feet and stuff like that, so if it works then by all means go big.

And to the lady in the white Saturn who threw her trash out the window of her car, but politely waved me through the stop sign at Perry: you are a true American and a model citizen. May your courtesy forever be rewarded…there’s someone with straight pipes looking for you.