And on the 15th day, I rested. No biking, no running. Still Motor Free though, mind you. I spent most of the day cleaning the house/doing housework, hosting my family for lunch, and catching up on sleep! The only trips I took were to walk to dog, and to walk to the grocery store for some supplies. Going to the grocery store on foot presents an interesting challenge. On one hand, being Motor Free I'm constantly craving liquids like orange juice and chocolate milk. On the other hand, I realize that liquid items are heavy, and I'd be more comfortable carrying light-weight items back home from the store. In this case it would mean substituting Tang or oj concentrate for orange juice, and ovaltine for chocolate milk. I could bring myself to do none of those things, so I ended up stressing the tensile strength of those recycled shopping bags fairly severely with oj, milk, and soy milk in the bag on the way home.
So two plus weeks into this experiment, it must be time to reflect and sum up the adventure so far.
Song of the Day: Nina Simone, My Baby Just Cares for Me
No real relevance here, except I suppose this is the sort of song I enjoy listening to on a quiet Sunday morning.
First of all, I think that it is much more difficult to be motor free on the weekends than it is during the week. My work week is pretty straightforward and most of the things I do are located within a 4 mile radius of my house. The weekends present all sorts of far-flung opportunities for frivolity, and I find myself running all over town trying to cram them all in on bike. I think a more sustainable (in a self-sanity way, not environmentally) motor free existence would be one that excludes weekends! I just realized that "Everybody's workin' for the Weekend" is not a Huey Lewis song, but rather a Loverboy song. Huey Lewis is funnier though, so I'm sticking with him.Second, although biking around town is not
a terribly strenuous activity, I think that it does have a cumulative affect on my energy level. I can tell you that I've been sleeping very well, and falling asleep on the couch before bedtime more frequently than usual. Let's face it, I'm pooped! I'm of course hoping that this also means that I'm improving my fitness and losing a little weight, but as much of a stats geek that I am, I have not been weighing myself so I'm not certain that this is helping me lose weight.Third, weather plays a critical role when one is motor free. I feel like I'm outside all the time these days, certainly more so than I am usually. Overall this is a good thing; it's nice to get fresh air; particularly when the weather is pleasant. When the weather is not good, life is considerably
more difficult motor free. Cold I can handle pretty well. The main motor free climatic enemies are rain and wind. And snow, although we've not encountered it yet this month, is not so bad in the air, provided it's not accompanied by wind, but it is problematic on the ground. As the days get shorter throughout the month and Autumn comes upon us, the chance of worse weather increases and I find myself casting frequent glances towards the sky. It is refreshing in some ways to be more affected by the weather. It feels a little more, I don't know, primal at times. Man vs. elements type stuff. Why it's almost like camping sometimes!Well, that's 3/7 of the Motor Free Month in the bank. I hope you've enjoyed following along so far, and I hope this has made you think about opportunities where you might be able to leave the car at home, and bike or walk to your destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment