Biking Beats Buying Gas

Last night I rode my bike to babysit for some friends. Getting it down the stairs works fine, but getting back up, is just about impossible. It's far too awkward for me in shape and weight and I end up with bruises and grease on my clothes. There is nowhere to lock it up outside, literally no bike racks anywhere nearby... perhaps because I live in a bicycle theft crime zone! So, it must go in. I eagerly await the judicious response of my building manager to my request to use the closet on the main floor. This up and down the stairs bit is more than half the battle of why I so rarely use my bike. The other bit is I don't like arriving places drenched in sweat and, actually, I sort of hate bike riding....

So far, I've managed to last out the week on my bus riding, no gas buying mission. My car, after being parked all week, was covered in a layer of sap and seeds from the trees overheard. Yesterday I was forced to take it out in order to haul a very heavy box of books, files, magazines to school and then to take about 30 books back to the library (in an equally heavy box). It's the "hauling" of things and errand running where the bus ceases to be useful... or the bike for that matter. Fortunately for me, my mom was running errands in the precise direction as me so when I stopped over to pick up a desk for my craft room... as long as I was "hauling stuff"... I hopped in with her and we used her car, so as not to deplete my emergency stash unnecessarily.

Tomorrow I plan to buy an unlimited bus pass, good for 31 days.... this is the best deal for the long term in our local public transport system. And it looks like I'm in this for the long haul... gas just went up to $3.14.

My babysitting adventures were fun... I played tag at the park, read stories, played pictionary junior and more. With this family I am known as "Big Carmyn" .... the youngest in their family is Carmen too. I might start going by this everywhere... It has a certain ring to it! (tee hee)