Tales of Slow Brave Athena

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June 13, 2006

grumble

I had all sorts of good news to report. Then yesterday, my lower back went out.

I can still walk and sit and stand—it's just painful, all of it. Sigh...

But last week was a lovely bikey week. I bike commuted every day, and on Wednesday, I had commuted out to the meeting and then home.

The Kickass Parade report
Thursday was the Kickass Parade, which was wonderful—a couple hundred bicyclists, from spandex wearers to bikefun folks to bike messengers to tall and long bike riders.

Thursday afternoon, Sweetie and meet and had conveyor belt sushi in the Pearl, our new fancy expensive industrial-loft district. While we were eating, it was pouring outside. And I had left my rain poncho at work.

So I ended up jumping on Sweetie's scooter, and running back to work. Well, running is the wrong word, as I suspect I could have walked it in the time it took. But once I had the poncho in hand, the rain stopped. And I headed over to Jamison Park.

By the time I got to the park, it was all but teeming with bicyclists. There were a couple of people that I recognized from the night before, but I was too shy to go over and say hi. I should have. I was just all caught up in that will-they-remember-me? they-won't-remember-me bullcrap. I talked to Jon briefly, and to Ayleen, and then introduced myself to a couple other people.

And then I saw Vespabelle and her husband, so I went over to chat with them. Nice!!

The parade went from the park down to Broadway and then south to Salmon, and then east to 4th, by the mall, etc, through Chinatown, and then west onto Glisan to 21st, and 21st to Northrup or somewhere close by, and back to the park.

For the most part, people cheered. One woman stomped noisy out of her SUV to talk to the policeman about having to wait.

I can't even tell you the pure joy I felt, riding in a sea of bicycles. Even really knowing nobody. I felt safe, and like I owned the road. Which isn't to say that riding in that sort of parade is easy, because people are moving around, speeding up, slowing down. But I felt euphoric.

While we were passing by House of Louie, an elderly chinese man was standing by the road, and I heard him say something. Maybe it was chinese? And then a couple blocks later I realized he said Pedal Power. Yeah!!

When we got back to the park, folks started riding through the aquifer at Jamison park.

The Breakfast on the Bridges Report—Hawthorne
As usual, I got to BonB at the very end, so I didn't stop and get coffee. But I introduced myself to Patrick and recognized Kristy, and should have introduced myself to the Police Officer who rides in Slug Velo. It was cool to see so many folks there.

Mocktails on the Bridge
okay, now this is the coolest. They had several tables of snacks and drinks, and were encouraging all bicyclists to stop and socialize. It was great. I recognized some people who don't know me. And then, I saw Jon (of course). Ian from the Bike Fair meeting reintroduced himself, and we chatted, and he in turn introduced me to several others.

While we were hanging out, a couple of Portland Police bike cops came through and stopped, had something to drink and chatted. Totally cool.

Jon ended up riding part of the way with me, which was just so nice. I'm so slow, I feel so guilty. In chatting, he said he has two bikes: a three-speed cruiser that is S-L-O-W, and his regular road bike which is fast. It made me feel better to hear that his three speed is slow too. So maybe it's not just me. (or, maybe it is!).

I ended up not doing the pub crawl. I suck. Basically, I had gotten an email from the host who was feeling well, and I didn't get the impression my services were needed. But I still felt like I should go, even though I was wore out from the week and just want to stay home with my Sweetie.

So I rode over to the pub, and rode around it several times. There wasn't really any legal bike parking and I didn't recognize anyone in the pub. Bad sign. My shyness took over and I turned tail and went home.

And that was all of my bikeyness. I don't even know if I could ride a bike now. Riding the scooter is pretty unpleasant, but realistically, being awake is pretty unpleasant. My body is thoroughly unhappy.

Which sucks. By the end of the week, I noticed that while I still appear to be growing exponentially, many parts of me, or, lets say all parts that don't need a bra were feeling significantly firmer. Like there might be muscles there. Even my belly appeared to slightly have some muscle tone. That's exciting stuff that I need to keep up.

Posted at June 13, 2006

Comments

Posted by: Jonathan Maus at June 13, 2006 3:34 PM

Posted by: Fran at June 15, 2006 4:33 PM