MFM Day 13: Motor Free Love

September 11th, 2009, Motor Free Month Day 13


Getting ready for a night on the town, gonna impress my lady-friend:

• Black dress shoes, only slightly-scuffed from pedal baskets. Women don't look at shoes anyway, right? Check.




• Dress slacks, chain grease stain mostly washed out, thank goodness the slacks are black. Check.




• Shirt and Tie, 50s-style tie clip necessary due to forward lean position on bikecycle. Check.




• Hair gelled to within an inch of it's life in order to withstand constant breeze. Check.




• Sexy sexy bike helmet. Girls dig safety. Check.
  



• His-n-hers cruisers. Check.

I am ready for my hot date tonight! I can not help but to think of this movie scene from The 40-Year-Old Virgin:

• C_: "Okay, what time do you want to pick me up?"
  



• Me: "Um, uh, let's see. Um, that's actually kind of a problem because I ride a bike."
  
  


• C_: "That's cool. Are you kidding me? I love getting on the back of a motorcycle. My boyfriend in college drove a motorcycle. So, I mean, I'm cool."

• Me: "Yeah. Yeah, I bet that was cool. I ride a bike-- bikes-- bikecycle-- bicycle."
  



• C_: "Oh."
  

Song of the day: "Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Zero" (link removed, sorry)

(Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks on Saturday)

Wow. Motor Free Dating is tri-i-i-i-cky at best. I thank my lucky stars I found a woman who tolerates, even encourages this Motor Free behavior. I can't wait until we roll up to the Canyon Chop House tonight:

Make sure you park these cruisers in a well-lighted spot. Last time we were here some ruffian undid our brake cables and smashed my rear tire reflector. These are expensive bicycles! I demand respect!


It's tough to get respect on a bike, I tell 'ya. The irony is that I know several people who own bikes that are worth more than their cars. Maybe that says more about their cars than their bikes. In fact New Belgium keeps giving Black Sheep bikes to people who will sign over the deed to their car, and pledge a year of car-free living. They exchange one bike at each Tour de Fat festival. Black Sheep bikes are so cool and expensive that you've never even heard of them, probably. A status symbol amongst the cycling crowd, even. Sexy to a certain class of women, no doubt.


Which means that there are probably women who find a Motor Free Man attractive, date-worthy, a potential mate even. But depending on where you live that subset of women might be pretty small (Boulder, CO an obvious exception), and any dating man knows that you don't want to limit your pool of available ladies straightaway like that. It's simple statistics, my friend. On the other hand, the type of woman who would be interested in a Motor Free Man is likely an avid cyclist herself, and avid cyclist women are pretty much uniformly sexy, so although the pool might be smaller, it is undoubtedly of higher quality. But I must say that Motor Free living is probably not for the single guy or gal looking to impress another single guy or gal. Or gal or guy. Or whatever, no matter the combination, it's not recommended so much.



The question is, was the 40-Year-Old Virgin celibate because he rode a bike and didn't see the connection between riding a bike all the time and not being able to attract the ladies, or did he ride a bike because he was celibate, and had no reason to attract a mate? I actually tend to think the latter.


Which ultimately begs the question, why is a man in a car a more attractive date than a man on a bike? Anthropologically speaking, I believe the man in the car demonstrates a certain financial status, and therefore the ability to provide for the security of the mate and their offspring. It's the same reason a man in a fancy car appears is more attractive than a man in a clunker. It's all part of our mating ritual!

And I'm officially thinking about this way too much. All in the name of entertaining you, dear reader!


Thanks goodness I don't have to worry about that! I only have to convince my wife that riding our bikes to old town for her fancy birthday dinner is classy and respectable behavior. Flowers ought to seal the deal.


This of course ought to result in the "très Parisian" sight of us on our single-speed cruisers wearing formal dinner attire, not too shabby! Bring me my téléphone mobile, and my Gauloises!


Postscript:


The evening was a wonderful success! C_ was a great sport about the whole biking thing. Luckily the weather held up, it's been threatening to rain the last couple of days. There was -- shockingly -- no bike parking at the restuarant, so we tied up on the railing of their outside patio. I'm sure they loved that! After dinner we met some friends for a drink in old town. Katrinka and Jim also rode their bikes! I hope they stayed warm on their ride home, I know we were a little chilly by the time we got home last night.



Stay thirsty, my friend!

MFM Day 12: Where'd ya get that?

September 10th, 2009, Motor Free Month Day 12


There's a very interesting book I'm supposed to read called "The Omnivore's Dilemma". Apparently the author attempts to trace all the ingredients of 4 meals to their original sources. I won't spoil it for you, well, because I can't, having not read it myself, but I imagine it's quite surprising how far some of our food travels before it comes to our homes, and how often corn in some form or another appears in our food.

Song of the Day:

Puccini, Tosca, Dammi i colori; Recondita armonia

I bring this up because today is Thursday, which is the day we go pick up our Grant Family Farms CSA farm share. What is a "farm share" you ask? Or a "CSA"? Or a "farm"? Good questions, all. CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture". It is a farm at which people purchase food shares for the entire growing year. Whatever the farm produces, that's what you get. And what do you get exactly? Lots of kale, I can tell you that much. So much kale... What can one man do when faced with such pure vegetables... I digress. I don't know how all the CSAs operate out there, but I can tell you a little about Grant Family Farms, since we have a farm share with them.

We pay up front early in the year for an entire year's worth of produce from Grant. Grant needs the money ahead of time to help pay for seeds and the like. In return, during the growing season, every week we receive a box of farm-fresh produce. Probably picked that day from the farm. Grant Farms is an organic farm. In fact they say that they are the first certified organic farm in Colorado. The produce production season at Grant Farms lasts from June through November I think, so every week during that time we receive a box full of whatever they harvested that week.

Now when I say "receive", we actually have to go to a pick up location to get our weekly produce. Our pick up location is the Fort Collins Brewery, aka the "little" brewery in town (new Belgium and Odell being the big boys of course). Grant delivers the produce to the brewery every Thursday and we, along with several dozen other customers, go pick up a box and take it home.

Now Grant Farms has about 100 locations in Colorado (and 2 in Wyoming) to which they deliver produce. Even up in Steamboat Springs and Vail can one take part in this venture! The days of the week differ but the routine is the same. Every week, go to your pick up spot and get your veggies. This works out great for us because we don't have the time, inclination, or skill to garden ourselves, and we never buy vegetables at the store, so this way we are forced to eat things like kale and squash that are actually good for our health.

So to the question, "Where'd ya get that?", at least with our produce I can answer the question with "the brewery!" Or also, "14 miles north of here." We started the CSA last year after reading about it in a local newspaper. I thought it was pretty cool to support local agriculture, and I've always been a little paranoid about buying vegetables from far-flung locations like Chile. Nothing against Chile, but what happens if gas/oil prices were to skyrocket? More specifically, what happens to the price of my Chilean green beans, as opposed to the price of my Grant Family Farms green beans? I mean, heck, I could ride my bike to Grant farms and pick up my green beans myself, and then, minus the cost in oil and gas to harvest said beans, I don't really care what the price of oil is. And I know that the majority of my money is staying in the area, which can't be a bad thing. It's the same personality trait that drives me to look for a bicycle that is built in the USA, instead of the ROC. I don't know if this trait makes me conservative or liberal, probably a fiscal conservative (keep the money right here) and a social liberal (support organic farming!), but that's the way it is.

Which brings me to the point of this ramble, which is that since this is Motor Free Month, we needed to go get our weekly CSA produce from the brewery using our bikes! Normally I wouldn't think twice about jumping into a car to get this stuff. I mean, we get a lot of food, and it can get heavy, and bulky, and also some of the vegetables are fragile and do not tolerate getting jammed into a backpack very well. And I like to get a gallon of beer from the brewery while I'm there and those growlers are not light. So I could have asked C_ to go pick the produce up in the car (as she's not completely motor free. not yet.), but as that seemed very far from the spirit of this adventure, we decided to go together on our bikes to the brewery to get our produce. And just because I want to make things as difficult as possible, we took the beer growler for a gallon refill of delicious golden ale! This obviously added to the weight and took away from the available packing space, but it's worth the inconvenience.

Backpacks on, we headed down for the 1.5 mile trip to the brewery. It didn't take long at all, but it was mostly downhill too. Halfway there I realized that I'd left my wallet at home. The produce doesn't cost anything (we pre-paid at the beginning of the year) but the beer is not free. So I'm now lugging around a big glass gallon jug for no good reason. Except maybe I could start a jug band at the brewery or something. Oh well!

We arrive at the brewery and get our box of vegetables. A fantastic haul this week! lettuce, broccoli, onions, potatoes, corn, parsley, eggplant, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers. All farm fresh, all organic, all delicious. Note also the relative lack of packaging, very eco-challenge. Oh yes, this reminds me; you don't know exactly what you're going to get from week to week. It depends on what's in season! This, apparently, is how everyone used to eat. Eat the fresh stuff in season, and can the rest of it for off-season eating. No fresh tomatoes in January. No pumpkins in July, for that matter.

But how to get it home? That's what the backpacks are for. We begin to stuff all the produce into our packs. Heavy, tougher things first; corn, potatoes, squash, onions. Then the fragile things; eggplant, tomatoes, broccoli. Finally the leafy items; lettuce, parsley(, sage, rosemary and thyme). Hey it all fit! Sadly we are bereft of funds, so the beer growler remains empty and forlorn in the bottom of my pack as we get back on or bikes and head back home.

Now what to do with this bounty of the field? Pizza tonight, baby!

Earlier I purchased pizza dough, cheese, and pasta sauce at the store. We decided to make "eggplant parm pizza." C_ sliced and fried up slices of eggplant, and I chopped up and sauteed broccoli, onion, and tomato. I think normally one uses a thicker tomato paste for the sauce but I just used tomato sauce (barilla organic) and mixed the sauce with the toppings like a primavera.

In fact we could have easily made eggplant parm at this point but we already had the dough out so pizza it was. Sauce on, eggplant on, cheese on, in the oven, and viola, yummy pizza at the ready.

So I don't know where the pasta sauce came from, nor the dough or the cheese, but we're getting closer. And I can say that there was no corn product of any sort in our dinner. I know that sounds like a strange statement to have to make, but again, you'd be surprised at how frequently that vegetable shows up on your table.

Until tomorrow, happy eating, and support your local farmer!

MFM Day 11: We don't need no stinkin' bicycles!

September 9th, 2009, Motor Free Month Day 11

Bicycles? We don't need no stinkin' bicycles!

I decided to ditch the bike altogether today and jog to work on foot this morning. This required some advance planning as I needed to leave a set of work clothes in the office locker room (not nearly as nice as it sounds) the night before, or run to work in my slacks, or carry a backpack with work clothes while I ran. I did opt for option one there. Of course I had to stash my work clothes surreptitiously since the lockers are supposed to be only for "9 to 5" use. Don't ask why. There's no reason.

I had to leave home earlier than usual as it takes me about 20 minutes to run to work, as opposed to 12 minutes or so on the bike (and about 8 minutes in the car, incidentally). It's nice to live two miles from work! The run in was cool and cloudy, very pleasant. All I carried with me was my work badge (we don't need no stinkin badges!!) so I could get in the door. I worked up a bit of a sweat but the locker room has a shower so no harm done there. My work clothes were still where I left them the night before so that was good. However I forgot a couple of critical items. Let's just say my job title this morning was "IT Specialist, Commando Division".

Your mission, IT Commando, should you choose to accept it, is to sit in every chair in the second floor conference room.

Wilco, ELT, captain!

Also my work shoes were up at my desk, so I had to walk from the locker room to my cube in bare feet. Also forgot socks, eeeew.

The idea was to go bike free all day and just run all over town, but I forgot we were meeting some friends for dinner after work. I really didn't want to try to run home after jamming my face full of Nepalese buffet, so I opted for the bike in the afternoon, meaning I had to run home at lunch, eat lunch, and then switch to the bike for the remainder of the day. You think Motor Free is difficult? Bike Free is just straight-up loco.

I think we'll try this "motor and bike free" day again next Wednesday. Clearly I have some logistics issues to work out!

MFM Day 10: Missing out on fun.

September 8th, 2009: Motor Free Month day 10

"Hey, I only beat you by like two minutes!" Cool!

Felix and I both left the track for the Ethiopian restaurant at the same time, he in his auto, and me on my cruiser. And he only beat me by a couple of minutes. Nice. Motor Free works in town really well, at least in this town. I'm getting other reports too; my coworker Michael claims it actually takes him less time to ride than drive to work. And Katrinka thinks it takes the same amount of time to ride to old town from her house as it does to drive there. All of these trips are 3 or fewer miles, that seems to be the limit at which it starts to become slower to ride than drive in Fort Collins.

Motor Free Month Day 10 was fairly uneventful as predicted: home-work-home-work-track-dinner-home to sum up. Since my plan is for 35 Motor Free days, I'm now 2/7 of the way through, which pleases me, since 2/7 happens to be my favorite fraction (nerd alert). It's somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4, but no one really has a handle on how much 2/7 is, except for certain prog rock drummers perhaps.

Song of the Day:
fun., At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)

"fun." is playing in Boulder this Wednesday night, September 9th, at Club 156 in Boulder, CO. I actually have no idea where Club 156 is? Not that it matters; I can't go anyway. Oh yes, "fun." is the name of the band, and the song of the day. "fun.", by the way, is the new band from the lead singer of the Format, for those of you who obsess over that band like C_ and I do. If I were Motor Full, oh boy, I'd be down in Boulder Wednesday night to see these guys play. But on a bike it would be nearly impossible --unless I took Thursday off, rode down Wednesday after work, and stayed somewhere in Boulder after the show. Almost seems worth it... But alas no, such are the drawbacks of being Motor Free; sacrifices must be made! Having said that I encourage any of you in the area looking for something to do to go see these guys play. The irony of course being that if I could drive, I'd probably pass on the concert, begging out due to the late night it would entail! I want the one I don't have, and it's driving me mad...

Got me thinking though, about the other things I'm missing while being Motor Free. Probably the biggest was just last weekend; a dear friend of ours from out of town was in Boulder for the weekend, but we were not able to go see her, in part because I was on my motorless adventure weekend. Otherwise we probably could have worked something out. So that kind of sucked. And now this concert I'm to miss, and probably some others as well, I don't want to know what else at this point!

Someone warned me about this, I think it was Kerry or Lindsey who told me that they knew someone who was basically Motor Free all the time. By choice, mind you. And that this person, we'll call him "Eco Emo", was difficult to deal with at times, between his whining about not wanting to go anywhere out of town, and his self-righteousness about saving the environment and what not. And 10 days into my adventure I'm starting to see how you could get to that point. You do miss out on a lot of potential activities/adventures, and it is difficult to be totally spontaneous. And good luck dealing with emergencies. How would you come to the aid of your spouse if they were in trouble? Or take your pet to the animal hospital? Or bail your cousin out of jail? It's harder to be there for the people you care about. Everything has to be planned out a little bit more, or a lot more if the trip is going to be long. Eventually I think this would make you bitter about missing out on so much, and the natural reaction would be to try to justify your decision by pointing out the benefits of your lifestyle choice to make you feel better/superior in comparison. Not a healthy way to live, at least mentally.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying my Motor Free Month. This is no pity party for yours truly. I'm still having a wonderful time, enjoying this adventure, and committed to sticking it out to the end. Heck I ate Ethiopian food for the first time tonight, and only 2/7 of us drove cars to the restaurant! But I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the drawbacks of my folly in addition to the advantages. Ultimately I think I can safely say that when this experiment is over on October 3rd that I'll be happy to get back into a car again. But I imagine I'll do so with a greater appreciation as to how cars make our lives richer, and how they afford us opportunities that we just can not get on foot or on bike.

MFM Day 9: Greyrock

September 7th, 2009. Motor Free Month Day 9, Greyrock Mountain


Song of the Day:

The Decemberists, The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing.mp3


Geryrock Mountain sits North East of Fort Collins. It is a popular day hike for the residents of this fair city, and the object of today's Motor Free Month Adventure. I do love the outdoors, and hiking in the mountains is an important leisure-time activity for me, so going on a hike is a required element during Motor Free Month. The theory tested today therefore: is it possible to get good hiking in while living motor free? In short the answer is yes, but your options are probably limited to hiking options that are close, and that this lack of variety will become boring rather quickly.


The road bike was the option for today's ride, as the traihead was 20 miles up the Podure canyon from our house. So this was going to be quite the day; 20 mile ride to the trailhead, 8 mile (round trip) hike to Greyrock summit and back, and then a 20 mile ride back home. But after shaking off the cobwebs from last night's festivities, I was excited and ready to go. I left the house at about 9 a.m. It took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the trailhead from home, and I had a very pleasant ride; first through town, then up the bike path to La Porte, and from La Porte to Ted's Place (not a very pleasant bit, alongside US 287), and then up the Poudre canyon to the trailhead. Since I was on the road bike which required special biking shoes with clips, I had to pack hiking shoes in my backpack. I also had to pack my lock so no one would steal the bike while I was on the hike. What a disaster that would be, to end up stranded 20 miles from home, up poudre creek without a pedal! C_, Lou, Katrinka, and Jacob, and our dog Lincoln were all to join me on the hike portion of the event, but since they were driving they did not leave the Fort until well after I had left the Fort. Incredibly, their timing was excellent; they arrived just as I finished locking my bike (for a second time, as I discovered that my first locking attempt was far from secure). Thusly met, we all started up the trail to the mountain.

The hike was a lot of fun and I did not seem to feel any adverse affects from the 20 mile ride to the trailhead. I was really happy to be in the forest and thought what a blessing it is to have this so close to where I live. Motor Free living feels bounded, constrained sometimes (bounded by a nutshell!), and I was also very happy that I decided to stretch out a bit and forge into the mountains. I began to think more about the logistics of this event. It took me a little more than one hour to reach the trailhead. How far could I have gone in one hour in the car? Certainly farther. Having the car would give me many more hiking options for the day. Fine then, what if I got up earlier and rode for two hours? How far could I make it on a bike in that time? Farther, with more options certainly, but in a car, two hours gets me from Ft Collins to Walden, or Almost to Copper Mountain! There a lot of hiking between here and there. And also the fatigue factor must set in at some point; exactly how far could one travel on a bike before one was too fatigued to go on a proper hike afterwards? And you still have to have enough energy to ride home afterwards!

Speaking of fatigue, halfway into the hike I was starting to feel some affects. Mostly I'd run out of water! Not smart. I packed two biking water bottles for the trip and figured they would last me for the bike up the canyon and the hike. Then I could refill for the ride down the canyon, which isn't as difficult anyway. But I was out of water before I even summited Geryrock, and getting thirsty. I would have borrowed some water but everyone else was out also! This was not as big of a problem for them though; when they got back to the trailhead they could restfully drive and ride in relative comfort, and simply pick up water at the store if needed. I still had about one hour's riding ahead of me and needed to stay hydrated. So that was certainly a mistake; I did not pack enough water and that is a basic and critical error.

The other issue in the back of my mind was the weather. When we approached the final summit rock, we noticed quite acutely that the weather had become rather cloudy and threatening. On the summit we could hear a lot of thunder, but we could also see that the rain seemed to be to the South of us, and moving East from there, so we were in no significant danger exposed on the top of the mountain. But that was not my chief concern. Where there rain was heading was right through my route home from the hike. So far on Motor Free Month I'd been lucky with the weather. really good weather is one of the primary reasons for choosing September as my Motor Free Month. But could my good fortune run out today? That's certainly another risk you take on a bike, particularly on a bike in the mountains. I brought a rain jacket and it wasn't that cold at any rate, but I was more concerned about wet roads and RVs with bald tires. All manner of grisly and frightening situations passed through my brain as we began to descend!

So between the lack of water in my backpack, and the surplus of water in those threatening clouds, my mood became more serious on the way down. I was still enjoying myself overall and thankful to be in the mountains, but I needed to make sure I stayed safe. I resolved to get water as soon as possible after finishing the hike. This meant I'd have to actually travel 1.5 more miles up the canyon to Poudre Park to the little store there, before making my trip back home. Essentially I was putting my hydration needs ahead of my desire to beat the weather. I figured if I got too dehydrated I'd be a mess even in good conditions, so up the canyon I went. Happily for me the store was open (no guarantees!). I wasn't too hungry, so I stocked up with a bottle of water, a Gatorade, and a coke. Everything looked good! And everything was so cold, so good when it hits your mouth! I took a huge swig of the water, and a huge swig of the Gatorade. A massive brain-freeze assaulted my skull but it hurt do good! I put the rest of the water and Gatorade in my biking bottles, and stuck the coke in my backpack. Motor Free advice: don't forget your wallet! Happily I was able to pay for these liquid delights.

The weather was still iffy but holding. I got back on the bike and started down the canyon. For the most part it was a very pleasant ride, which was somewhat surprising. The Poudre can get clogged up pretty badly with cars and campers, particularly on a holiday weekend. In a car you are almost guaranteed to get stuck in a train of 15 cars and campers, all impatiently coasting behind an old RV belching black smoke as its driver blissfully cruises home. I think on a bike this situation worked to my advantage. There were short moments of relative terror when all the angry cars and campers would pass, but for the most part the road was nice and quiet actually. I'd always been nervous about biking the Poudre because of the lack of shoulder and the heavy traffic, but I have to say it wasn't really that bad. Maybe I'm just getting used to being on a bike though.

The ride home passed uneventfully enough until I got back through La Porte. I was cruising down the bike path over this really cool bridge over the Poudre. It looks like an old railroad iron trestle bridge, with wooden slats as the bridge surface. It had rained there recently, and most of the wooden slats had pools of water in them. the water was reflecting the tops of the bridge trestles and the blue sky overhead, and it all looked really beautiful. I thought, "how about a picture," and reached back to get my camera out of my back pocket. But by the time I got the camera out and took a picture, I had nearly reached a part on the bridge where it makes a sharp left hand turn. I realized I was going too fast to make the turn, and I had only one hand on the brake (the other was trying to take a picture), and I couldn't brake hard anyway because of the wet surface conditions, and I was heading for a crash! The bridge had a shoulder-high railing so there was no danger of falling into the river. I braked as much as I dared while making the turn on the wet wooden bridge surface, and careened into the railing! Ouch, right into my shoulder and rib cage, that metal doesn't give. Off I bounced from the right rail, and the force of the collision sent me back across the bridge to the left rail. Somehow I stayed on and was able to stabilize and keep moving. How about putting the camera away! Safety first and stuff, you know. Here is the picture I took right before crashing into the rail. In fact, this picture caused me to crash into the rail!

So no harm done (well a little harm; my shoulder and rib cage are a little sore this next morning!), and I was able to make back to town without any more major mishaps. Except I also got my first flat tire of Motor Free Month! I was wondering how long that would take to happen. I was literally one block from home and making a broad right turn when I noticed that I could hardly turn my stupid bike! What, am I that fatigued? Then I looked down and could see way too much front tire squeezing out from under my front rim. Ahhh, a flat. Well thank goodness that didn't happen up the canyon! I took Riverside home which I don't normally do since it is a busy street, and I think I must have rolled over something sharp on that stretch of road. Note to self, avoid Riverside, it's not bike-friendly.


Well that was quite the day, and quite the weekend! It's back to work today, where my Motor Free Adventures will seem quite tame in comparison. I'm therefore going to write about the activities I've had to give up by going Motor Free.

MFM Day 8: Fore!

September 6th, 2009, MFM Day 8


Song of the Day: Guns N' Roses, Patience.mp3



Well the golf was bad, but I can't blame the commute, although it's nice to have yet another excuse for yet another poor showing on the links. When I dreamed up the Motor Free Month I thought, "what would be something to do motor free that would be absolutely stupid?" Right away golf and bowling came to mind. As I don't like bowling, golf it was! Really no one in their right mind over the age of 15 would ride a bike to the golf course. Excepting also golf addicts who have lost their licence for one too many 19th holes, if you know what I mean. The theory being tested of course is how difficult life becomes when one is motor free. And nothing comes easy when you're motor free.


So I picked the course I usually go to for golfing torture, Collindale GC, in sunny Fort Collins. It's about 3.5 miles from my house. My friend Lou joined me, as well as another friend Joe and his son Tyler. I packed up my golf bag and started rooting around in it for any items that I might be able to unload for the journey. Although I used to bike to the golf course all the time when I was a kid, back then I had an "odds only" set of irons, and no 5 wood, and the bag itself was smaller and lighter. And the course I played on as a kid was only about 1 mile away. So jettisoning cargo was an important exercise. I thought about ditching the even irons and the 5 wood, but thought that would need all the clubs I could get, so I left them all in (Turns out I did use all my clubs, even the sand wedge, sadly, in the same trap I always hit on #8). I had about a dozen golf balls in the bag, and thought about ditching most of those, but thought it extremely bad karma to throw out golf balls before going to the course. As it turns out I lost only one ball on course that day so what do you know, I could have gotten away with only 2. But it's best not to tempt fate in these matters. The rain jacket, umbrella, and winter hat all got removed but they didn't weigh much. I found two full plastic bottles of water so they got removed, and also a spare set of keys to my VW car which I sold a year ago, so that could safely get dropped as well.


I put the bag over my shoulders and got on the bike. The single-speed today. Steady as she goes, I made my way down Stover towards the golf course. The bag was nicely balanced on my back and did not cause any serious stability or navigational problems. I was impressed! It was darn heavy though, and about 2 miles into it I could feel its weight pounding on my shoulders. Note to self; do more chin ups and push ups. Scratch that. Do chin ups and push ups, full stop. I found myself far more annoyed than usual waiting at red lights. But eventually I made it to the course with nary the loss of club nor limb.

Yea the golf was bad, but that's mostly because this was the first time I've played all year, and my inconsistent performance had far more to do with the little voices in my head than with the weight on my shoulders. But I had fun and got a few nice swings in, so the day was a success. And obviously no golf cart was used, but you really don't need one at Collindale anyway. Also noteworthy was the fact that it was the first time in 5 years I've gone an entire round of golf without anyone in the group quoting Caddyshack, so I've got that going for me, which is nice (oh what a giveaway!).


After the round Lou went straightaway to my house in his car, while I took my bike. I wanted to see how much longer it would take me than him to accomplish the same task. Turns out is was pretty significant; it probably took me 20 minutes to get home, and Lou about 10 minutes. So again we're finding out that on longer journeys the time penalty for living motor free can add up.


After golf I took a trip to old town to do some shopping with C_, and then to the bank. Then it was back home, and then another trip to old town to watch the annual CU-CSU game at the Stake Out Saloon. All on bike of course. After the game (23-17, good guys!) Lou, C_, and I rode down to campus to see if the students were burning any couches after the historic win. For those of you who aren't aware, couch sacrifice through immolation is a traditional CSU celebration ritual. It's usually rather quickly followed by the running of the tear gas cloud. We arrived at a point where I think a couch was about to be brought forth to the frenzied mass of coeds for glorious sacrifice, but alas Fort Collins' finest were in no mood to let the Fire Department in on the fun, and were making preparations to start the tear gas stampede before the couch could be given its rightful place in eternal glory. So we busted out of there before the fun really began. The cycles proved very useful in this riot situation. One, we were able to slip past the (admittedly loose) police cordon easily on bikes, and would not have been able to in a car. Two, we were able to get close to the action, and yet high-tail it out of there quickly as the riot gear was produced at the scene.


CSU Fans Take To The Streets


So I learned some valuable motor free lessons today. Riding to the golf course is possible, tolerable for short distances, but not pleasurable with the clubs on your back. A bike trailer would be useful in this situation. Also bikes are absolutely the preferred mode of transport for civil unrest scenarios. However broken glass could quickly render a bike a liability in a riot situation. Get run flat tires in this case. Or a skateboard or (shudder) roller blades would work also, and they have the benefit of solid puncture-proof tires.


So why "Patience" for the song of the day? I don't really even like this song but I thought it fit well with the actions of the day. For starters, you need a lot of patience if you're going to play golf. It's a difficult sport to master, no question. Second, watching CSU on television reminded my of my time at the University in the late 80s, and you couldn't set foot in a house party in those days without hearing Axl and Co. Lastly I have to think Guns N' Roses know a thing or two about rioting!

MFM Day 7: Tour de Fat

September 5th, 2009, MFM Day 7


Tour de Fat, Fort Collins, CO, 2009. Denverites, the Tour de Fat hits your town next Saturday! Wow. Hope the pictures do it justice. I highly recommend it. Folly of the highest order.


Song of the day: Blur, The Debt Collector.mp3





So it's been 7 full days of motor free living for yours truly. One week down, and only 4 more weeks to go! Tomorrow I'm in for one of my greatest challenges; going golfing at Collindale GC in Fort Collins. Somehow I have to transport my golf clubs to the course without the aid of motorized transport. Heck I used to do it all the time when I was a kid. How hard can it be, right?