My Trials and Tribulations on Two Wheels

Remember as a little kid when you had no problem riding your bike all over town? Going 2-3 miles to the softball field, park, the city pool or your best friend’s house?

 Don’t you ever wish you could go back to those days?

 Oh, wait, that’s right. You have car now.

 Well, I recently reintroduced myself to life behind the handlebars. Appearantly getting the transmission in a car fixed costs quite the pretty penny. A pretty penny  more than the VISTA living stipend covers.

The daily three-mile pedal to work hasn’t been all that bad. It’s great exercise, I’m saving money on gas, I’m reducing that nasty little carbon footprint and it’s a really nice pick-me-up for an anti-morning person like me.

This isn’t to say I haven’t had my share of two-wheeled mishaps and near-death experiences. Phoenix isn’t exactly ‘bike friendly.’  Here are some pictures to help you visualize.

This is the bike path on 15th Ave. In case you didn’t notice, the path goes between two driving lanes. Thanks, but I think I’ll stick to the sidewalk, especially during rush hour.

 

 
Sometimes I consider waiting to rinse the shampoo out of my hair from my morning shower and letting this sprinkler system take care of it. On the bright side of things, the sprits of cold water have an even better effect than morning coffee! 

  

Cars coming out of this garage never seem to notice me. Perhaps I should invest in an air horn to get their attention.  

 

 

The dreaded hedge. It’s unavoidable, literally. I often find shrubbery in my hair when I get to the office. 

 

 

 

Even with the unobservant traffic, unwanted cool-downs and the  occasional plant-made obstacle course, I’m still proud being a biker. Just do the math:

3 miles to work + 3 miles home= 6 miles. 6 miles x 5 days a week=
30 miles peddling away per week!

The New Life Thus Far

I’m now two months into my year service with Americorps VISTA.

In case you’re wondering,
VISTA =Volunteer In Service to America. Our mission=Fight poverty

In otherwords, I’m a professional volunteer with the government.  (Please disregard any talk from Michele Bachmann about “re-education camps” that you may have heard. I can tell you from first hand experience, certainly not the case, her son must agree).

I recommend checking out the website, you might find a service site perfect for you. I did. I’m doing marketing and communications. Not only do I get warm fuzzies from giving back, I also get to do what I love. Pretty sweet deal. You should be jealous. 

I moved to Phoenix from South Dakota for my service project. Don’t so much love the heat of summer and the breeze that resembles a blowdryer, but I’m really enjoying the lack of blizzards and scraping ice off the car windshield in the morning. (Yes friends form home, you can hate me for a few moments).

I haven’t seemd to have been able to stay put these past few years (De Smet to Spearfish, SD, to Mexico, back to Spearfish, off to a summer in Minneapolis, one more time to Spearfish and now Phoenix). I’ll probably explain this in more detail sometime in the future. I plan to use this blog to keep  my friends and family from all of these different corners updated on what’s going on in my life, along with the random thoughts that are going through my mind.  Anyway, enjoy the tidbits from my life.