Bike to Work Week
I rode to work today so i could do the Ride of Silence, probably would have ridden anyway. I took time off today to leave early otherwise I would have missed the ride. Since I had time to kill I rode up to Piedmont Ave to stop by and say hi to Gena and Quidich-dog. BTW I can now attest that Quid will try to eat your mtb tire left to his own devices thought she was joking about that but he's very well trained. Good dog Quid.
We had lunch together than I headed back downtown.
At first I did not see where the ride started than I saw the Yellow Jacket club jerseys. They are hard to miss.
We waited the talk turned to Bike Against the Odds and while several club members joshed that they thought it was a fluke that they beat the Velogirls in pledges last year I believe we've been challenged.
Then the ride start got serious, a moment of silence and we went round, several people said who they were riding for. A rider from Sacramento named Bikerbilly from bike journal. One of the main organisers from EBBC talked about the ride history. It's amazing the hazzards we face but even in CA flagrant and deadly drivers may get less than a commuter lane ticket for killing us.
It's just a cyclist.
We rode out, 2-3 abreast and the silence was odd, just the sound of clicking and unclipping, brakes, shifting. People signaled and silently mouthed instuctions. We rode through dowtown Oakland, Chinatown, by Laney College than around the Lake. Then out a bit south of Lake Merrit. We looped back to do the lake a second time. Near the Oakland Museum I mouthed and signaled Bye and dropped off the back. I stopped to watch them ride the few blocks back to the start than headed home.
Very poignient and emotional. I could use some cheering up. So the next day....
I had a decent ride to BART, on the way in I stood next to a construction worker probably does not think of himself as a cyclist. I usualy don't bring the road bike to work and he was eyeing it with obvious curiosity. He had an ancient steel Schwinn which I complimented, he obviously keeps it cleaned, lubed and adjusted. He shrugged (English may not be his first language) he was thinking about another bike Box Store type mountain bike. We had only two stops to go I skipped the "get a helmet" lecture and just said that he had what a lot of people feel is a classic bike, like classic cars. Told him people collect those and fix them up. He was surprised. And it's a near perfect bike for city rides. Complimented him on the work he'd done on it. I left, he was smiling.
Rude folks at the station, hey, if you let me and others GET OUT of the train first before pouring in...
I missed the pancake breakfast by 15 minutes but that's ok. I ran into some old friends including one of my first Aikido teachers, hung out a bit, since I missed pancakes I stopped for coffee and a Danish at the coffee shop near the lake. then headed home.
I was thinking of my alternate route home but glad I took the normal short one. As I got to the bike/ped overpassof the Nimitz the Caltrans workers were there cleaning up! I had been about to send off a "bike hazzard" report to EBBC that it was overdue for a cleaning and there they were, trimming the bushes, cleaning the trash, fixing the fence.
They probably think this was silly but I stopped and thanked them for doing that.
Now I'm back home and waiting for the plumber-ah the joys of home ownership.
