Car free Sunday 3

Another weekend without the car. Strange? Yes, kinda.

Saturday was easy. Our early morning 38-miler followed by a short trip to the local Subway for lunch. Sunday was a trip to the gym (redundant, I know) followed by a Radio Shack run for an HDMI cable for my new upconvert DVD player. Fifty bucks for a 5-foot hunk of wire. The DVD's look good, though. I was going to wander into the city to see this movie I had read good things about, but I decided I wanted to be back by 3 for the final round of the U.S. Open, where Lorena Ochoa bungled her way through the final two holes to give Christie Kerr her first major in her 251st career tournament. Way to go, Christie. She's one of those players that always seems to be close, and has won 9 times (10 now), but seems to fall short. Sometimes it's because she appears to get overly emotional and other times it's because someone else is just better. Today, she held it together until the final one-foot par putt on 18, after which she broke down a little and showed the emotion that was bubbling inside.

Besides, I later found that the movie was available on DVD, so I could watch it on my upconvert DVD player for about the same price as the bus and movie ticket. So, I had that going for me.

Funny how I used to think that any time I saw someone on the road riding a bike instead of driving a car, that they were probably on the revoked list with no other choice. Now, I find myself thinking of ways to use the bike instead of the car. There are plenty of things around here that can be done without driving, and even though two-wheeled transportation is a little more risky than the car, I find that I am not intimidated about either the distance or the vehicles that whiz by, sometimes a bit too close.

Maybe it's because I am brave enough to do it or because I am not smart enough to respect the inability of people to see past their inherent rush to go - someplace - that I get some strange enjoyment out of using the bicycle. It's one of those oddly enjoyable things in life that do not represent a major life victory or a huge financial benefit. It's more like a sense of self-fulfillment. A harken back to the days when we were kids and the only way we could get somewhere was to walk or use our bikes. It's hard to explain, but I find myself longing for a way to abandon the car altogether. I also like the way people stop and stare at the bike as it is fastened securely to a rack or sign to keep me from walking home. Sometimes I wonder why I lock it up, but then I realize, hey - how long does it take to steal a bike? Get on it and ride away.

Sadly, the distance and time constraints make it impossible to get to and from work that way. As Jim Halpert said, "I started biking to work. Josh does it, and he lives a lot farther away than I do. And also, it saves gas money, keeps me in shape, helps the environment and now I know it makes me really sweaty for work."

And who wants to be sweaty for work? I do not, however, mind being sweaty when I arrive at Radio Shack (they don't seem to notice), the gym (everybody is sweaty), the sandwich shop (I blend right in), the bike shop (hey, it's a bike shop) or the local mall, where the sleeveless T-shirt and manly road/rubber/stale air smell seems to make a nice potpourri for the shoppers who look at me and wonder ...

... "he must be on the revoked list."