Introduction

Now that it seems to be kinda out of vogue, I've decided to start blogging. I want to share my thoughts with the world and to me, Facebook and Twitter are a little too limiting for some of my thoughts. I'm gonna run the gamut and talk about all kinds of things; commuting to work by bicycle, bicycles, cyclo-cross, playing the oboe (past hobby), dance, weight-lifting, gardening, divorce, primary school, college, graphic design, gymnastics, figure skating, baking, pie crusts, buttermilk cake, roller skating, diy house projects, grammar, spelling and punctuation and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Let me start by saying that I commute to work by bicycle in all kinds of weather. It started when I lived 8 blocks from my job and my boyfriend reintroduced me to bicycling. Then we worked on my fear of bicycling in an urban setting - an urban setting that isn't exactly pro-bicycle - Kansas City. Oh yes, where I work, you have to pay for parking. So this was a no-brainer. I felt free and young again when I was riding a bicycle and it was a way to save gas and get some exercise. I also started doing mid-day bicycle rides for fun and then we tried cyclo-cross and strangely enough, I liked it. Then we got a fixer-upper that was a little bit farther from work and that changed our cycling habits a little bit. We have mostly stopped racing and just focus on our commute. Racing got so expensive and time consuming and working on the house became our main focus. Our commute is a good workout - it has challenging hills, the occasional dog chase and some rude drivers. I do ~7.5 miles a day and it seems to be enough.

I'm learning not to take my health for granted. I work at a desk job and I know what it can do to the body and I've seen people who don't take care of themselves - it's a continuous wake-up call. I want to be physically active as long as I can. There are days when I don't want to ride my bicycle to work - when it's pouring down rain, or really cold, or there's ice or I'm just really tired that day. I do it anyway and know that I'm better for it. Sometimes people ask me; "isn't that dangerous?" Living is dangerous and not exercising is dangerous. I've been very lucky - I've never been hit by a car, or had a really bad crash. I try to be careful, signal my turns, wear a helmet and visible clothing and be aware. In spite of all that, I may still get killed riding my bicycle, but I'm not going to stop.