Getting ready for the car-free July. Did my first night ride yesterday. Correction: did my first night ride with my new headlight and rear LED reflector. Some things I noticed that I'd forgotten since last year's travels:
stagnant rainwater smells like fish caught from the Mohawk River
this is primo roadkill season
teenagers - fresh out of school - find nothing more novel or hilarious than a biker*
biking is a really intimate way to get to know the landscape; slow & immediate, but, like a car, you also retain a sense of power and remove. It's like the difference between watching a movie and a movie in HD. Bikes are Hi-Def. And extensions of the self. I think biking is akin to what a cyborg feels.
* I think the teenagers were just jealous of my LED reflector. It has three settings. One of them looks just like the front red lights on Kit.
Years ago, a guy who played pick-up basketball with me railed against news of a teacher strike in Schenectady:
"Oh, God! Bunch of whiny bastards. I wish we could all work from 8-3 for nine months of the year. What do they want now? Everybody knows they're overpaid."
He had no idea I was a teacher and I had no interest in disabusing him of what is a commonly-held opinion.
I don't typically get too defensive when it comes to doing what I do. Some of the criticism is valid, at least from the perspective of the layperson. I'll admit, one of the BIG perks of teaching is the schedule. However, I flatly reject any claim that I work "only 180 days a year." Yes, that's the number of school days, but what (good) teacher leaves her work at school?
Not that your typical taxpayer understands that. Nor should he be expected to. We're not martyrs. And those of us overly concerned about what others think of our chosen profession might want to consider another career.
But, like anybody else, we do occasionally need a boost. Or some time to recharge our batteries. Summer works just fine. As does this YouTube video sent to me by a former student:
It's a poetry slam, so histrionics are par for the course, but it's really satisfying how animated he gets over spelling and final paper drafts. Plus the bad guy in the poem is a lawyer and everybody knows they're overpaid.
Even so, I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to endorse a business. Namely: Plaine & Son. This bike & ski superstore has been nothing but uninterrupted fair dealing and premium service since I bought my two-wheeled slice of heaven there last April.
Everyone in the store is an expert, which is typical of specialty shops. What is NOT typical is the degree to which they are forgiving of your lack of expertise. Have you seen High Fidelity? The John Cusack movie based on the Nick Hornby novel of the same name about Rob the Music Store Snob? That resonates with me. Because I love music and I know a little bit about it. Enough, for instance, that I know when someone is condescending to me in a record store. It is an all-too-regular occurrence, part of the "fetish properties" industry.
Well, not so over at Plaine & Son. Maybe that's not abnormal for bike shops. Last summer I had a bad run of flat tubes and finally had to bring the bike into (the now-defunct) Capital Board & Board for a diagnosis. Not only did they charge me a mere $4+ for the service (turns out there was a renegade staple fragment eluding my examinations) AND a new tube, but they were exceedingly kind about the whole thing.
This is the vibe I get over at Plaine & Son, too. P&S is a little pricier, to be sure, but if a little extra change helps keep that place running on all cylinders, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
In the interest of getting ready for my car-free July, I headed over there yesterday to buy a light for the front and a blinking reflector for the back. On the phone they said service might take 3-4 days. They had it back to me, fully-installed, in 3 hours. The service tech told me - if I wanted to wait - he could have it back to me in a half hour.
"Can you stick around, brah? I'll get ya right in the rotaysh..."
And, unfortunately, brah, I couldn't stick around. But it made my day.
