I am lazy.
I hear that the first step towards recovery is admittance, so there you go. I am one lazy S.O.B. I would rather sit on my butt and scroll through purity troll diaries dropping my own little pearls of wisdom in them every once in a while, than run the risk of breaking out in a sweat from actual physical activity.
Also, I am cheap.
I hate spending money on, well, pretty much anything. I especially hate spending my hard earned dinero on fossil fuels that only serve to enrich those M-F'ers at Chevron.
It is at the nexus of these two major character flaws that I have come. It is here that I have realized that ridiculously priced gas is a good thing for me.
Follow me over the rainbow for the rest of the story, (I refuse to call it a jump, because I don't know what that means, and I hate looking stupid, but I do like rainbows)
So here I find myself, a lazy, self doubting skinflint.
Now, I could suck it up and fill up the vehicle with that sweet, sweet nectar, but I am stubborn. (This is becoming quite a list no?) So instead, I sat down and decided that in order for me to continue being employed, I am going to have to find a way to actually get to work. One can only telecommute for so long before management starts wondering where you are.
I was going to have to change one of my charming qualities, and lazy seemed to be the easiest to change. Of course I picked the easiest, I am lazy!
So I bought a bike, well actually, I already had the bike, resting comfortably in my garage, pristine, gleaming and untouched for about 3 years. I had to actually RIDE the bike!
Did I mention I was 300 lbs.? Oh yeah, I was one big, pasty blob of goo. On a bike, riding to work, sweating like a pig. Not. Pretty.
But I did it. Even when I was pretty sure I was going to vapor lock when I pulled into the campus, I kept doing it. Now there were times that I would wimp out and drive in, but that ratio has slowly been sliding towards riding more and more every month. In May and June, I have logged more miles on my bike than my car. And I have discovered some things.
- There are some beautiful sunrises that you simply cannot appreciate going 45 miles an hour in a car that you have time to savor and appreciate going 15-20 on a bike.
- Cows like it when you moo at them as you ride by.
- Going 35 mph on a bike is a LOT more exciting than going 35 in a car. (also a LOT more difficult)
- Other cyclist are usually pretty cool. Always a friendly wave, as we pass each other, a sort of comraderie, or perhaps a common bond of mutual suffering.
- Drivers are usually pretty cool when you let them know what you are doing. They don't normally want to kill you, but they really have no clue where you are going if you don't follow traffic laws. Usually.
and finally.
- I am a lot stronger than I thought I was. Since I have started this whole thing, I've lost 76 pounds, I have competed in the Race to Robie Creek 1/2 marathon, I have completed a Metric Century ride for the Federation for the Blind, and I can take one of those character flaws off my list.
I am no longer lazy. Now I'm a flip-flopper!
I think I'll do a 70 mile ride tomorrow. And I won't burn a drop of gas.
Screw the Oil Companies! Ride a bike!