Cheers - 2011

My intention with this blog is to give an honest account of my every day experiences as a car-less bicyclist.  I want casual cyclists (if any ever actually read this) to know they can bike to work two or three days a week, save some money, improve their health, pollute less, burn less gas, and have some fun, all without becoming a fanatic, a radical or making a complete life-style change.

I post lots of scenic photos of Bellingham's sunny winter days and beautiful bike routes and trails because riding my bike is the best therapy and escape I know when I'm frustrated, discouraged, depressed, bored, angry, stir-crazy, whatever.  But I've been avoiding posting about an unexpected blow that hit me in October - partly for fear of jinxing myself, partly because I didn't want to let loose a libelous, flaming rant that might make more trouble for me (if anyone ever actually read it).  But it seems dishonest to leave this out.

My landlord is trying to evict me for keeping my bicycle in the living room of my apartment. There is a bicycle storage area in the complex, but I was never told bicycles were banned indoors, until the manager confronted me on my doorstep in October.  I objected that the storage area wasn't secure or convenient; later I discovered that my keys don't even work in the lock.  I tried to negotiate with the owner and managers.  Too late, I was given a 20-day notice.  I am contesting the eviction and have a court date next Friday.

I think I have a good case, but people keep telling me that renters have no rights.

So, things can only get better.

Or, worse things have happened.

Or other cheerful sentiments of that nature.

Today's Ride

Bellingham Bay from Boulevard Park.  That's a bit of the Canadian Rockies in the background.  I managed to ride past The Woods coffee shop without stopping.

Wardrobe Issues

At this time last year I would have been out of bed before 7am, and out on the road before sunrise, in the wind, rain or snow, riding eighty miles a week to and from work.  This year I'm barely riding fifty miles a week, and only at mid-day when there's no snow or rain.

In August I'd made up my mind to buy a new touring bike, and was starting to shop for rain gear, UnderArmour and fleece, and new water-resistant head and tail lights.  (I've never yet found a tail light that will survive a whole winter.) I was spared all this expense when I got my layoff notice on September first.  I'm making do with last year's gear.

In the summer I almost always wore spandex cycling shorts riding to and from work, then changed to work clothes in the bathroom.  I put in enough miles that I really needed padded shorts to cushion tender portions of my anatomy, but lately I've been thinking that I might actually have lasted a little longer in my job if I'd worn baggy shorts or a cover-up skirt instead of bare-ass spandex.

I've worked with many women (and men, too) who had long-term weight problems, from twenty to sixty extra pounds, up to people I would have said were in the morbidly obese range.  I've worked in office jobs myself, and know how your weight can creep up when you gain a few (or ten) pounds every winter, then don't quite lose it all every summer.  I know it's hard to stick to an exercise program when every day is dark before and after work for four months of the year.

Luckily, as a bicycle commuter I've been spared that problem.  I'm still built more like a fireplug than a Barbie doll, but I can see now that some people probably resented seeing me strut in the front door in shiny black spandex every morning.  And there are many people conservative enough to call any woman who dresses in tight, skimpy shorts a whore, even if I think it's a recognized athletic uniform.  Weight, appearance and body image are very touchy issues.  I probably would have been more well-liked if I'd covered up more, and been seen as a team-player rather than a non-conformist.

Wet Woolie

We're Having More Weather

Saturday the 11th was the Arthritis Foundation's Jingle Bell Run.  I volunteered to be a course marshal, and got to stop traffic and wave cars through gaps in the bunch at a minor intersection.  There was a good turn-out of runners and walkers.  I was near the end of the four mile course so I stood out in the cold for about two hours until the last ones passed.

Saturday night it started raining, and raining, and raining, until late Sunday.  Apparently it was worse farther south in Seattle, but we're still pretty soggy here in Bellingham.  Monday morning I looked out my front window and saw a bit of sunshine and blue sky and decided to take advantage, quickly, and hit the road.

In the summer this is a corn field

I rode north on Hannegan Road, heading for Lynden.  I came to a sign saying the road was closed at Polinder Road because of flooding, but I rode through to see how far I could get.  There had been water over the road in a couple of places, but I crossed the bridge over the Nooksack River before I had to turn back, with Lynden in sight.


I rode back to Wiser Lake Road and headed west to Northwest Ave., where I turned south back to Bellingham.  Northwest Avenue was closed for about a month back in September, for improvements to drainage under the road, and clearly the work was well done.  There is one spot where a new asphalt driveway washed out at the base of a utility pole, and one swampy stretch that had a warning sign about water on the road, but it was dry when I passed by.

This was about a forty mile ride.  When I got to Starbuck's on W. Bakerview the sky was turning dark and ominous again.

Flood water was dammed up north of Abbott Road.

On the north side the water was still almost level with the roadway, and was boiling up through the culvert on the south side.











The water was shallower on the south side of Abbot Road , but with a pretty fast current.

This car turned back, and so did I

Washout on Northwest Avenue

Snow Holiday

Still giving my bicycle a holiday.  Here are some photos from the Thanksgiving snowstorm.  These were mostly taken along the Whatcom Creek Greenways trail.  This area was burned after a June 1999 gas pipeline leak and explosion.  The area has been cleaned up and replanted to create salmon habitat and a bike and foot path along the creek.

The snow came so early this year, the trees didn't have time to lose their leaves.

The totem below is a memorial to three boys who died in the fire, after gas flowing on the surface of the creek ignited. Below that, a restored section of the creek.  People are already trying to fish at the bend in the creek, but I doubt there are any salmon. The fish hatchery farther up the river at Whatcom Falls Park isn't operating yet.

Bellingham's Auto Row, on Iowa Street, backs up against the woods along Whatcom Creek.

In 1999 I worked at OfficeMax in Sunset Square, a shopping center a mile or two north of this area.  From the parking lot I could see a wall of black smoke moving west toward the freeway.  I thought it was a riot, that people - environmentalists or frustrated, underemployed retail workers like me - were torching cars in the lots along Iowa.

(That was before I tried bicycling.  I didn't have a car, so I rode the bus, and often walked four miles home at night because bus service to Sunset Square stopped at 7pm.)

A troll under the bridge along the trail