Beer + Bicycles = : )

Stepping out of a party late friday night, a friend asked jokingly, "you okay to drive?" We both laughed as I clearly wasn't but then again i wasn't about to get behind the wheel of a car.

Call it an unspoken perk of riding - being under the influence simply isn't as big of a deal. In fact, it's rather enjoyable. It's also a de facto sobriety test, you have to be really fucking wasted not be able to ride. That is to say, you'll find out real quick if you're too drunk/high to ride when you can't get on the saddle. At which point, you'll be forced to a) call a cab; b) wait till you sober up; c) walk home. Either way, you won't have to deal with the b.s. that comes w/ worrying about parking tickets and picking up your car the next day.

Of course, there are plenty of pro-bike anti-fun folks who will cry "think of the children!" (helmet nazis I'm talking to you) but such priggishness belongs at a Pilgrim convention.

Let's get real - You're just not as likely to maim, kill, or die in a drunken biking accident as you are in a drunken car accident. It's a difference of technology. Bikes are light, small, require a certain level of dexterity to operate, and don't go too fast (unless you're Lance). Cars are heavy, large, simple to operate, and very fast. That's why I don't think bicyclists should have to adhere to the same vehicle laws that cars do and why most of us don't.

Cruzing through the Santa Cruz streets past 1am, feeling the sweet ocean breeze, what a fantastic feeling. And yeah, I made it home just fine, just a little sweaty.

Pulling flats

One of these days I'm going to listen to my inner voice and put a little extra air in my tires before heading out the door...that, and verify that I am carrying tire irons. Between 3 bicycles, it gets to be a pain in the arse making sure each has a lock, patch kit, working lights, and yes, tire irons...and well, sometimes I get neglectful. But flats are to bike commuting what dings are to a car's paint job - inevitable I suppose, but why do flats come in series?

Finding myself walking my bike a quarter of a mile in the rain twice within the last two weeks wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the bloody cars. The noise is unbearable and stains whatever natural beauty I can take in on a crisp Santa Cruz morning.

Still, there's so much to be thankful for...

US Automobile Sales Plummet
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/03/200933202145636939.html

Demand for Oil Collapsing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_bi_ge/awash_in_oil

Many many years from now, I will sit with my grandchildren around a campfire, surrounded by wild grasses that have almost completely erased the semblance of the parking lot beneath us, and I will tell the story of the mechanical monster that once tried to own the world and devour everything it could see....Forests, mountains, rivers, oceans, everything. Then one day, it was eating too fast and started to choke. Many whom had fed off the scraps that the monster had let "trickle down" its massive mouth, panicked and tried to stop the monster from choking but it was too late. Yes, I hope to tell that story many years from now.