Wow, what a fun day!
I drove up to West LA this morning a bit early to drop off a birthday card and gift at my mother-in-law's house in Venice. Visited with her for a bit, and then off to the bike store. Then I realized that I had no change for the parking meters, so decided to see if anybody was home at my mom and dad's.
Everybody was home, so my dad drove me to the bike store and hung out while I picked up my bike. He was mightily impressed. Eric was there and talked to my dad about electric bikes (?), but he (Eric) ignored me. OK, fine, maybe he doesn't remember from 2 weeks ago. Whatever. Instead, James, the guy I talked to on Tuesday, talked with me and also Max. Max helped me adjust the clip things on the pedals. Then, I gave my dad my eyeglass case and wallet, strapped on my helmet, and hit the crazy streets of Culver City.
I took the only logical route: straight down Sepulveda. It was around 3:15 p.m., and there was quite a lot of traffic on that stretch of Sepulveda between Washington Blvd. and Sawtelle. I've been reading a few articles about riding in traffic, so I pretended I was confident and also made myself as big as I could. I wanted those cars to see me. I tried to remember how I did it way back in the 90s when I rode all over the place, but then I realized that back in those days I didn't drive, and I wondered if my mentality as a driver instead of a rider would be detrimental, and then I realized that there was a car that wanted to pass me but there was no room for me to get over so I sped up instead and then I realized that while I had only ever had one sort of bad crash from the old days, that the chances of me falling now were rather high, and then I made it through all the green lights without having to stop and then I was there and it was all fine.
I arrived home about five minutes after my dad, and after showing off my bike to my mom and my brother, filled up my water bottle and headed east on the bike path to see if Patty was home.
She was home (I interrupted her practicing: long tones, which she claims to love. How can you love long tones? I get so bored! But this might be why she's a much more talented flutist than I am, and why she works so much! And maybe I have undiagnosed ADHD or something), and came out to the driveway to check out my bike. We chatted for awhile until her student arrived, and then I set off again, this time west, back to my mom and dad's.
My dad showed me how to take the front tire off (as easy as I remember) and after lowering the rear seat of the Honda (totally cool feature!) and loading in the bike, I headed home.
Patrick was suitably impressed with the bike, and I set off for another quick ride.
Both rides were about 30 minutes each. I got a really cool speedometer that I'm still trying to figure out. My average speed for the hour I rode is 10 MPH, but there were definitely some really fast times (for me) there a couple of times. When I was coming back from my ride here in LB, I was waiting to cross Woodruff with these three teenage boys (they all looked like extras from that movie "Napoleon Dynamite." One kid was actually wearing huge white sunglasses). They were all riding old 10 speeds, and they all had their shorts or pants rolled up to their knees. While they sound totally dorky, they were actually kind of cool looking. They were ahead of me at the light, so I could hear their whole conversation. They were talking about drafting, and one kid (the one in the sunglasses) said, "I think I get it now!" Then the light changed, and they noticed me, so they moved over so I could cross the street, too. I was behind them for a second, and then I decided to pass them (it's a super wide street there, with a bike path, and there were no parked cars to worry about). One of them was kind of in the way, and I am still a bit shy about announcing my presence with "On your left!" but his buddy said, "Hey, man, look out." So I passed them, and it's such a nice straight stretch of road there, decided to show off a little. I got up to 17 miles per hour, but then when I was just about to the street where I would turn to go home, I heard another bike behind me.
It was one of those teenage boys, drafting off me.
He stayed with me, and when I realized what he was doing, I started cracking up.
I waved and made the turn to go home.
I think this is going to be a LOT of fun.
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