Occasionally after posting something — especially something that required such deep rummaging around in the nostalgia bin as my post about my 1989 birth as a bike commuter — I find a note in my mental inbox wondering what all that was about? It’s a contrivance I call me-mail:
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 :23:01 -0700 From: Me To: Me Subject: WTF Dude,
Just wanted to touch base because I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a larger point to that long ass post about your dawn as a bike commutationalist that you may have left off. You know like an “epilogue” or a “moral of the story.” If not, there sure should have been. Srsly.
Best,
MeP.S. On a tangental note — you’re certainly familiar with tangents since you go off on so many in the course of an entry — did you see the mad increase in visits to the site yesterday? WTF!? & FTW!? -M
So yeah. Now that me made me think of it there was a point to the piece, but nothing earth shattering. Just that I’m a firm believer in getting on your bike instead of in your car — whether it’s to get to work or to a movie or the market or just to discover what’s around your neighborhood or your city, once a week or twice a day, four miles or 40. Because the way I see it, ultimately it’s gonna happen. Los Angeles is getting more and more over-populated and there’s no way for the traffic grid to absorb that no matter how many billions of dollars are thrown at diamond lanes or left turn signals or street reconfigurations.
Whatever reason brings it about, that $800 transmission job, the deteriorating air quality, insurance costs, gas prices or gridlock, the day will come when you’re going to need to explore the options. The sooner the better. Maybe it’ll stem from a sense of personal responsibility. Maybe it’ll be because you got fed up with the status quo. For me that day came way back in 1989, brought on by financial hardship, a desire to begin reversing an unhealthy lifestyle, a bit of a pioneering spirit, and remembrances that bicycling was not only a breathtaking joy as a child but as I got older and got my first job as a paperboy bicycling became a conveyance between me and money I earned.
As to the staggering increase in hits my site got, I have my Bike Writers Collective compatriot Alex Thompson to thank for that. He tacked up my post to stumbleupon.com and dang if yesterday’s visitors topped the 500 mark. So thanks Alex and all who might have ventured by (or maybe came back again today).
As my bike idol Stephen Box says: See You On The Streets!
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