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AG: Aunt Granny's Advice, or How to become an elderly cyclist:



 
 
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Old September 16th 18, 03:12 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default AG: pickup trucks


Once upon a time I happened to mention somewhere on Usenet that
getting rid of one of our two internal-combustion vehicles would
increase our carbon footprint, because we can do car things with the
pickup truck, but we couldn't do truck things with the car.

An anti-truck fanatic told me, with a perfectly-straight face and
absolute sincerity, that adding a trailer to my car would render it
capable of towing trailers.

I drive the truck now and again, but I pulled a trailer a few blocks
exactly once, and I'm never, ever going to tow a trailer on a public
road again. Luckily, my spouse doesn't mind.

I don't drive the truck very often. I fetched a sheet of plywood with
it several years ago, once I fetched bottled water for a church event,
and twice I drove it to Nappanee intending to ride to Bremen. Well,
the second time I drove to Bremen intending to ride to Nappanee.

Didn't make it either time. The first trip went very well at first --
I rode east on a deserted county road to a fabric shop, then returned
to Nappanee. On the return leg I met an Amish man on a pedestrian
accelerator, and we waved to one another. Nothing to do with whatever
that virulent exchange about "waiving" was -- I think that that was
some other newsgroup -- but simply "I observe that another human being
is present."

After putting my thread and bodkin into the truck and buying a bottle
of tea, I headed west toward Bremen.

After the first turn, I stopped to consult my map, and a scrap of
paper fell out. I tried to pick it up without dismounting, lost my
balance, and, being tangled in the bike, landed like a sack of wet
cement. I got so banged up that after I'd made it as far as the bike
shop (and consternated the children left to watch it; since my vehicle
made no noise, they didn't notice that I was there until I was
preparing to leave) I turned back and returned to Martin's.

Whereupon I discovered that I was so sore that I couldn't lift the
bike into the truck. A young man who was passing by noticed my
difficulty and loaded it for me. I was, at least, capable of climbing
into the truck bed to bungee the bike.

In the above incident, the wet-leaves-under-dry-leaves incident, and
the black-ice-on-the-sidewalk incident, I landed on my left hip.
(After stepping on the ice, I re-wrote the scene in _Vorjack_ in which
the title character conceals a crippling injury.) I don't think all
those impacts did my current condition any good.

The second trip was a year or so later; I'd hardly gotten onto US 30
before I realized that my rotator cuff hadn't recovered from driving
to Frankfort and back a few months earlier. It quit hurting when I
quit driving, but it had put me out of the mood to ride in cold damp,
so instead of exploring, I rode in a straight line to a country store
and the same straight line back. The store was not open on that day
of the week, but I found some white cheddar at a store I passed on the
way, and I bought lots of goodies at Rentown, which is where I had
parked. I wish I could go back and get some more coarse-ground almond
butter, but I'm still afraid to drive that far.

For quite a while after that, my range in a car was a fraction of my
range on a bike. I really should drive more often, for the exercise.
We need to stock up on frozen foods, which should be motivation. Last
time I drove to the grocery stores, I went out to 250 East on Wooster
and came back to town on Thirty. Perhaps next time, I should go to
350 East.

Umm . . . I've done that on the bike many times -- usually in the
other direction -- but is the 350 E railroad crossing open to *cars*?
I do remember one time that it wasn't, therefore not being blocked
must be the normal state.

--------------------------------

Tour d'Warsaw today: two farmer's markets, two groceries, the
library, and the dollar store. I skipped the side-trip up Detroit and
ate "rye" rolls and cream cheese in the parking lot of Owen's West.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/


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