One Nerve Left

When I was younger I was a lot more anxious and irritable, but I might be mellowing with age, and I think bicycling has helped to smooth out my nerves, or else deaden them.


I never liked dogs much and naturally find them much more fearsome when I'm on my bike. Barking back seems to confuse and discourage them, but it frightened my riding companions when I tried it on a group ride. Dog-lovers tell me the beasts only want to play and will stop chasing if I stop moving, but I've never wanted to experiment, until this afternoon when I had an encounter with a yappy little dog in Cornwall Park.


I was riding kind of fast, up to 10 mph, on a park bike trail, when some sort of little rat terrier or chihuahua-type thing came tearing out of the bushes after me. It was smaller than my cat and would have had to make a wild leap to reach my knee, but looked like it could leave some nasty puncture wounds in my ankle with its ratty little teeth. I thought I could get away easily, but it ran along side me, then dropped behind, came around my right side, and got ahead of my front wheel so I had to brake suddenly. A rather large women who had been sitting in the grass near the path followed, calling uselessly after the little monster, which was running circles around me as I slowed down.


"He's gonna get hit!" I warned her in alarm. Figuring the dog wouldn't stop until I did, but not wanting to risk my ankles, I rode a loop around some rhododendrons and doubled back toward the woman with the dog following. She looked a little apprehensive, expecting maybe to face a rant from a self-righteous cyclist in addition to having to chase down her dog. I meant to lead it back to her but the perverse little thing took off into the bushes instead, so I just laughed and said, "I thought I could out-run him, but he's fast!"

No. 27 Ferndale via Northwest

 When I do my day-off errand running I usually find it's more efficient to take my bike in to Bellingham if I need to make several stops in different neighborhoods, rather than walking or riding the bus here and there around town. But if I only need to make one or two stops I often leave the bike at home and just ride the #27 bus, giving my bones a chance to settle back in to a more typical upright bi-pedal posture.

On a sunny day last week the bus filled up with bikes going both directions - three on the front rack, one inside in a wheel chair space up front, and then the driver had to turn away a fifth passenger because there was no room for another bike. Lucky I decided to be a pedestrian that day. I would have felt guilty crowding someone else out.




Whatcom Transit has installed these very well-thought-out lights at two stops along Northwest Drive. They are powered by a solar battery on top, and have push-button switches for an over-head light and a light to signal the driver to stop.

I have been meaning to join a Tuesday morning social group-ride that starts from the Ferndale Library and goes about 20-30 miles, I'm not sure where. I had it fixed on my calendar for today, but it was pouring rain all morning. Instead I went out for a random ramble after dinner, and ended meeting up with a Tuesday evening group that rides a 35-mile loop from the Whidbey Island Bank at Bakerview & Northwest. Both rides are co-ordinated by the Mount Baker Bicycle Club. It was nice to see familiar people in bright-colored spandex after spending so much of the day alone with my computer.

With all this rain, and warm temperatures in the mountains, the river is running high and fast. I'm developing a fascination with this log-pile. Every time I walk across the bridge I stop to look for changes. Today several big, bare tree trunks with broken roots attached came down the river.

a final thought