Carless

Carless.  I am adjusting well.  Parents asked me out to dinner, asked me to ride out to dinner and I accepted; they seemed anxious for me to come out, so I agreed.  I was tired and hot as it had been a long day and it WAS hot.  My mother bribed me with Lemon Pie.  She thought it was a bribe, I would have gone out without the bribe, but I was very tired and hot.  I figured there was a guest, otherwise she would not have tried so hard.  

The trip is about 6.5 kilometers, in the boonies of Smallville and it was very hot, about 30°C and that was outside, in the greenhouse I purposely did not check the temperature.  And it was humid.  And I had missed my lunch again and a break, so it was a long day.  Forty-five minutes later, my mother called back and offered me a drive as she just checked e temperature.  I declined.  It seemed silly for someone to drive out to pick me up and then drive me home, four trip and I would be then beholden to their time schedule.  The car would have arrived at my house twenty minutes before I wanted it and likely ten minutes before I got home, as my father is always premature, early, but premature makes it sound worse.  And then I would have to go home on his schedule, and the is the chance that they would tell me I would have to spend the night because they miss me; it has happened before.

To them having a car is like making the rules.  They are from a different time, the one where the car ruled the world and having a car was a status symbol.  Granted it is that way today too, but I have somehow slipped past that need.  The day after my car died, my father called me to make sure I was alright.  He thought I would be depressed, near suicidal, because in my place, he would be.

If I were from a small town, smaller than Smallville, say a village named for a Porn-star, I might be more put out, but I am not.  When I first started working I lived with my parents in their home and there were two cars.  Both parents used them to get to work and if I left with them I could get a ride and then I would have to call them to get home, or I could ride my bike.  So I rode my bike to work and back, to town for things and eventually to school too.  My car was my bike.  My bike represented freedom from my parents.  Freedom from cars.

When I moved to the city, for school, I used my bike to get around.  I could travel  within the city, to and from school and home, around the city.  Walking was fine but slow but the most versatile.  Step into shops with your walking shoes, into a bus or subway.  Cars can only travel on the road and require special parking locations and expensive fuels and maintenance.  Cars are fast and allow you to travel far quickly.  But, the bicycle is the happy medium, fast with good range and light and easy to move.

For me there is another side benefit of bike riding.  The exercise and the personal achievement.  I see the goals of destination and goals of speed and goals of endurance.  It should be noted that if weight loss was a goal for me, an hour of bike riding burns between 1000-1500 calories per hour.  Weight loss is not a goal for me, at least not a goal that motivates me in life, my awesome legs, well that is about it.  

So far this year my longest bike ride was about 70km, and my fastest velocity was 73.8kph, down a hill and 50kph on a straightaway.  I have joined a bike group that rides once a week and that allows me to interact with new people and ride, but I wish that I could ride refreshed like most of them, my physical job then a two hour bike ride is not as fun as it could be.  

BikeSalesPerson from Smallville Bikes, was talking to a rider while I was in a couple of weeks ago, who wanted to sell his current bike and get a new better bike.  BikeSalesPerson said that Greenpsychopomp needs a new bike, I did not, but then suddenly I did need one.  I thought about it for a second and I decided that I would bet the other bike.  A newer bike for me, I could give my bike to my father and take his bike, refurbish it and give it to my sister's Nanny, because it looked like symmetry and providence.  Then I went out and bought new shoes.

New shoes that fit my feet, size 14 EEE, or European fit 47 extra wide.  They fit my feet, but they did not fit my bicycle.  Basketball shoes.  So I thought, great, an excuse to get real bicycle shoes with clipon pedals.  Recessed touring shoes so I could bike and do grocery shopping and go to work.  And touring shoes come in size 48, 48 narrow.  So I thought get the ones that fit, 48 extra volume, but they were racing shoes, cool, unrecessed.  I thought I would get used to them and beable to do what I needed to do.  But no.  I am destroying my new shoes walking in them.  So.  My plan is in the sewer, I will have two bikes a computer bike that I use with basketball shoes and a touring bike with touring shoes.  

Clip ons.  Everyone told me that everyone falls with clipons at least once.  I fell too.

I bought bicycle shorts too.  Bicycle shorts are worn next to the skin.  They have a giant pad for comfort, that off the bike feels like a diaper.  But maybe it will be better for me.  I have been having testicular troubles with my regular shorts, so maybe this will solve this issue.  But I live in fear that I will have rod problems since it is spandex and the pad is not really that big.  Usually the hard cycling means that the blood has somewhere more important to go than to embarrassing places, but my mind wanders . . ..  But in any case, the new shorts shows off my amazing legs.  Maybe I should be cycling more so I can wear an awesome jersey too, but only when my midriff matches my legs . . .. 

I am carless.  I do my shopping and laundry, gardening by bicycle.  BikeGuru, and BikeSalesPerson are talking winter bikes and I am falling for the lure.  I don't really want to buy another car, because I don't think of a car the same way as everyone else.  I don't see it as my main transportation.  I see it as something that takes me to Big Smoke once a month and because of that it sits and rots.  I will buy a new car when I can plug it in and never use it.

One drawback is that I have stopped trying to date.  Years of talking to my friends who are girls, has taught me that most girls care if you don't have a car.  And living in Boonieland I know that girls that I like live far from Smallville, even if I had an amazing car, those girls are not interested in long distance relationships, even if I am doing all the driving, so being carless helps me just face facts.

I am happier carless, but I am not sure if it is enough.  

This was started weeks ago, but finished in a coffeeshop in Big Smoke.