Okay, to be honest, this post is me bragging. If you can't stomach that sort of thing, just move along, and have a great day.
I saw this sign this morning while riding to work. It must be all the biking!
Each gold circle represents a day when I took a bike ride in August. 27 Days!!!
I am notoriously bad about exercising. I don't believe in paying for a gym because I know I would not go anyway, and it seems like a lot of wasted energy that could be used for something else - like making ice cream (Customers can pedal for a scoop at this bicycle-churned artisanal ice cream parlor) or mowing weeds with my trusty rusty old reel mower. The sad part is that instead of wasting energy at the gym, I just haven't expended that energy on anything.
So, when I joined the National Bike Challenge, I had pretty low expectations for myself.
And I have surprised myself. I have lost 13 pounds since the challenge began. More important, my heart and lungs don't hurt when I exert myself these days. I have more energy and more ambition. I have noticed that my mood is better on the days I bike to work - even while dealing with back-to-school traffic. And the dogs are in a better mood and sleeping better - I now have the energy and motivation to walk them every evening. Life is better. And life is good!
On a more Mesquite-Hugger note, Every trip I take on a bicycle is a trip where I do not burn any fossil fuels. And I feel immensely better about that, especially after reading about the new U.N. Climate Report last week: Global warming is already here and could be irreversible, UN panel says.
On a more cheap b!@#$d note, The bike was cheaper than free when all was said and done. And it costs very little to maintain. I also figured out that I was using the bicycle in place of the electric motorcycle most of the time, so I sold the motorcycle last week and was able to cancel that insurance and put the money into the buy-my-lovely-bride-a-newer-and-more-efficient-vehicle fund. That has inspired me to clear out the garage of un/under-used objects for the reasons listed above. Score one more for the bike!
(I pulled this pre-war beauty out of the garage and prepared it for sale on Labor Day.)
So, there is the long-winded August update on the National Bike Challenge. Life is better (for me) on a bike!
May you find the equivalent of a bike in your own life!
Thank you for reading this!
No comments:
Post a Comment