Saturday Morning, Pedaling, Good Heartache, a great talk, and a skinny dog in a cargo bike

It's been a good week!

Bronchitis, a less than-impressive back, lots of rain, and mediocre e-bike building skills made this summer a less-than stellar time for mesquite hugger bike commuting. But things have been looking up this fall. This week I hit my standard weekly goal for bike commuting - 60% of my commute was done on a standard bicycle. (And that makes life better when you're me.)

I've also been pro-actively seeking a better outlook. [Feel free to skip down to the next paragraph - not much to see here.] I don't seek out news until after 9am. I've spent more time with a pen or a book in my hand and less with a phone in my hand. Did I mention that I spent more time on a bike? I've been making lists and marking things off the lists. And (most important) I've deliberately spent time with the people I love. Plus, I've scratched the dogs a lot.

It may sound simplistic, but simplistic works better and better for me.

Yesterday, in my quest to mentally ingest good stuff, I watched a Ted Talk that inspired me and turned the corners of my mouth up. It also broke my heart a bit. It'll shock you, but it was about the healthy changes that come about when people choose to pedal.

The Amazing Ways Bicycles Change You

If you want to learn about the Amazing Ways Bicycles Change You, watch the whole thing - I highly recommend it! If you want to see my good heartache, skip forward to 15:55 and watch to the end.

Around 1994 I was blessed to adopt a 9-month-old greyhound named Patience, and for the next 25 years greyhounds napping on the couch would be a permanent permanent and joyful fixture in our home.

So there I was watching the TedTalk when the speaker went to video and showed himself cruising along on his bakfeits cargo bike while his beloved greyhound napped happily on her own mobile couch. Yep, sometimes heartaches are good. Anthony, may you and Lucy (who looks a lot like our Condo who passed away last year) pedal a lot of happy, healthy miles!

And may you, dear reader, find some healthy choices that make life better for all and make life especially better for our four-footed family members.

Bonus greyhound posts:

Sashadoption

A Tiny House Even Closer to Home

When a plan comes together: The Pedal-Powered Pump

This is not a completion report by any means, but it is progress.

The people-and-pedal-powered pump project for the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden had a major leap forward - we were blessed with one of the two major components this week - the groovy retro exercycle:

Isn't she a beauty!

The exercycle has all the amenities - a seat, pedals, handledars, and the oh-so-crucial speedometer! A gentleman on 70th Street responded to our Craigslist ad and sold it to us for less $ than many of us will pay for dinner tonight. Yes, Grizz and I are thrilled!

The pump will tie into the black barrel

An overall garden shot - soon to be green!

(That pallet structure is a Motel 6 for solitary bees!)

Don't let the Lubbock-in-February-brown vegetation fool you - this is where the magic happens!

My favorite thing at the garden - a recycled window greenhouse!

(Why have I not built one of these yet?)

They also have some (not pictured) cold frames out there. Why haven't I built any of those yet either?

Now, we just need to come up with the other major component: pump (and some pulleys or sprockets, a  belt or chain, and some fittings to hook up the water hose).

Community Garden???

In case you just don't get this whole community garden thing, be sure to check out this Ted Radio Episode: The Food We Eat

My favorite quotes from this broadcast:

• "We do our flippin' best!" Pam Warhurst of Incredible Edible
• "A hundred years ago...you didn't eat ethnic unless you were ethnic." Mark Bittman
• "74% of all the food in the [grocery] store has been spiked with added sugar in some fashion." Dr. Robert Lustig

May you get involved with something that makes your community a healthy place to be!

Real Reasons to Ride a Bike; The Challenge Begins

When I started this blog, I had no idea how big a bike would be for Mesquite Hugger. The more I write, learn, and ride, the more I see the life-saving, earth-saving beauty of a simple bicycle.

This post has three places to look and learn:

• a great video talk
• a great blog post (someone else's blog)
• the beginning of the National Bike Challenge (just five days away)

The great video talk

Last week I ran across a TedX Talk by Zach Krapfl on Electric Bike Insider. For a seemingly low-key guy, Zach is a very engaging speaker, and I have no plans of taking a road trip with him. (Watch the video if you want to know why.)

In the video, he talks about one image that has become a screensaver in my head:

Scott at Small Potatoes Farm

 

Please watch the Change in your Transportation Future to see why. (It's 16 minutes, but it flies by on slender tires.)

 

The great blog post

 

[Feel free to skip this part, it is a blogger self-motivation sidebar: I am a semi-reformed gasoholic. While there may have been other seeds germinating, there were two events that defined my conversion: the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Both of those tragic events were direct results of our people lustfully pursuing oil in places we should not have been. That realization led me to a lot of questions that keep leading me to the need to stop seeking fossil fuels.]

 

 

One of my favorite bloggers these days is Bob Sharpe over at Bike 5. Bob is not a problem guy. Bob is a solution guy. His blog title comes from his belief that trips under 5 miles are better served by a bicycle. His most recent post asks a fuel question - What Do You Run On? It's obvious that Bob and Zach have come to a lot of the same conclusions from different directions.

 

If you pay much attention to either or both of them, you might be looking for motivation within yourself to hop on a bike more. Well, here is one that got me rolling a few years back.

 

The Challenge

 

More about the bike challenge in tomorrow's post

 

May we pedal our butts off and make the world safer, healthier, and better for all!