a bicycling event in October, thank you!

Finally someone got it right, or listened to other Georgians on the seasons/weather down here. it's a bicycling event with lots of interest and opportunities to participate from all over the state NOT held in the scorching summers we have here in the deep south. bravo! and yes' i'm in. and blogging it.
http://www.cleanaircampaign.org/Blog/Biking-to-Work-It-s-Not-Just-Economical-it-s-a-Lifestyle

what's great is october is truly autumn here and colorful, crisp, and sunny which is such a welcome relief from swampy, hot, humid, sticky summers. so holding a bicycling challenge now might actually get some participants...AND more importantly they'll like it and do it again. this one is called:
Bike to Work Challenge by the Clean Air Campaign.

update: our little team in griffin, georgia placed 7th in the state! now that frickin rocks, all of ATL was competing and a few outlying cities, anyone could, but most thought it was an ATL thang. well, we are only 45 minutes south or so and on some days even get included in the metro ATl boundary, so we entered.
we rocked it, Traci H on our team even placed 7th individually!!! go october.

but alas, there are other, not so brilliantly timed events:

• BRAG - bike ride across Georgia held every year in early June when the asphalt cant get much hotter...and then it does.
• Peachtree Road Race - hot July 4th, but mostly for the slow cabooses b/c at least the race does start early.
• Bike Tour de Farm - held on Memorial Day weekend, fabulous event but even the organizers were in the SAG van by the end of it, too hot.
• Athens Triathlon Tri to beat Cancer- held annually now in late August, probably just b/c one dare not challenge the fall SEC calendar dates.

and luckily we have a few on the horizon that seem to have consulted the farmers almanac:

• Cohutta Springs Triathlon, which given that it was at the extreme northern border of GA, might be borderline cool if staged early October, reported 2 chilly dudes last weekend
• cLips of Faith bike/beer/film tour by New Belgium, runs all summer, but doesnt get to GA til October (smart)
• Presidents and Patriots bike ride / camp out across peanut country in way south GA and thru 2 state parks in early November :)
• Atlanta Beltline tour by bike - held in early May before it heats up
• Firefly Trail tour - held in late march in Athens to inspire folks to dust off the wheels and spring out

And the coup de grace, just to prove how brilliant October is for gathering and holding events in Georgia...the statewide annual bike summit is held mid month. i'm so glad we got that right! see you there. Oh, and dont mind me, I just like to whine about the heat...meanwhile I ride yearround, admittedly slower and with less layers in summer.
peace.

but how do you dress for work and cycle?

Me and Jeff biking w/Muscogee indians in Macon, 2012

its easy once you embrace it. just buy a-line skirts, boots, skinny leg pants, lots of fun $1 gloves at target, and scarves for winter. a good jacket with windbloc is pretty key to winter riding. i dont deal so much with the rain gear b/c i dont live in seattle or portland. if i did, i'd be gettin some new gear.
meanwhile i leave enough time to cover my 2-4 mile ride such that i roll leisurely thru my community, check out folks mailbox gardens, wave at neighbors, and enjoy the cruise to work. i'm not sweaty b/c i'm not rushing, even in summer. now i do have a desk fan at work just in case a commute gets sticky. but really a quick freshen up with say a lovely scented baby wipe, a moment in front of the fan and one is ready to go.
oh, i also have crazy curly hair and i havent met a helmet yet that can defy it, so no muss with the hair.
all in all, you have to want to be out there on the bike, you dress for it, you ride like you own it, and you love it. pave your own way, and fill it with your own style. it gives you a good excuse to transform a wardrobe with a specific goal in mind. oh, a some velcro leg wrap bands are key for keeping the cuffs outta the chain. and those 'slap band' styles, wrap right around the bike tube when not is use. keep it all loaded and a bike station by the door of your house so when you head out you have all you need.
here's some facebook album pix over the years of how i've dressed for commuting to work, my bike (a hybrid with city tires), and a link to the real cycle chic going on over in copenhagen. enjoy the ride!

out and about in the autumn-like weather

15 folks jogging the sidewalks or streets of griffin on the way to work this morning! family of 4 biking home today with kids in the cargo pull along...did the weather change or what? hellooooo griffin.

summertime bike-to-work scene around griffin

so far i've biked to work every day of June and July, not that those are the most preferred or pleasant months in the south mind you. it's dang hot and sticky so i try to ride early. and home is a downhill coast so even tho 530pm is blazing hot, its working out fine and a quick journey home.
now when i relocated here, i searched for a house less than 2-2.5 miles from work which is downtown. knowing that the streets felt pretty flat and many had sidewalks and gorgeous tree lined lanes, i knew it'd be a scenic, easy, pleasant and downright enjoyable route to work. and it is. indeed. i can tell you when neighbors change out their flower bed, when another repositions their sprinklers (woo!), when the nannies take the babies out for walks, and if the public works crew is lining up a project. i have several errands on my route if need to stop like: Ace hardware for essentials like felt pads for furniture legs, extra citronella candles; RiteAid to grab a Rx or pack of gum; the dry cleaner (best to pick up things like boxed up wool sweaters) and put them in bike basket; and even the local bottle shop.
the real challenge is just getting folks used to seeing me on the road and respecting cyclists they encounter. after that we'll tackle actual bike/pedestrian installations (bike lanes, sidewalks, bike racks, busses w/bike racks, links to city parks and schools) to make it safer and easier. in GA, bikes are legal on the roads and have enacted a 3-foot passing law but many motorists are not aware of this.
so i do my part and, i obey all traffic signals, i wave at friendly folks, i signal my every move, and i dress in work clothes. employing a bit of the 'mary poppin effect' there. (the idea is that motorists see folks in dress clothes headed somewhere by bike and are simply more likely to identify with and thus respect them and thus not endanger them or get as fed up if delay them 10 seconds or so.) folks in lycra often appear to motorists as simply 'that guy trying to go fast for pleasure on a bike' and in my way. note, i've adopted this philosophy of attire ever since i left DC bike commuting behind in the late 90s. in those days my workplace built showers and offered free metro cards for folks willing to try an alternate commute. and i did live further away back then.
nowadays i make all career/home moves in life with my commute in mind and i design it as best i can to fit withing the 2 mile radius rule. data shows that 40% of all auto trips we take in the US are under 2 miles and yes, that includes going to work, errands, school, eating out etc. so those are the ones to target as easily doable by bike! yes, i have a car and i turn the key every couple of weeks just to make sure it cranks. :)

my latest flyer to get neighbor ladies involved

dedication to bike commuting isnt always fun, but i'll never be short on stories

kaboom! thunder rattles the 2nd floor office building and Aronda confirms, yep typical summer-in-the-south, 5pm afternoon t-storm overhead. 'you want a ride home?' nah, i'll wait it out and work on a facebook pitch i'm designing for the boss. should be fun, thanks anyway. i'll call a taxi later if it doesnt pass.
5 hours later...i'm finally home and drying out and boy do i have a story for you.
so i met the only taxi driver in griffin and surrounding area, mary dee. but she's not the only one i called, i let my fingers do the walkin and YP told me there were a few...but none of them answered. so 2-3 hours into my delay (i forget exactly b/c i was watching the olympic videos and ben harper online since i dont have a TV at home). anyway 2-3 hours after 5pm, the rain, or shall i say the big ass hovering thunderstorm, full of lightening is not moving and radar shows its settled in over griffin. so i am calling taxis and watching the olympics...and watching the sky, and no one is answering the taxi line.
so with what little fading light there is, i decide to grab my umbrella, and my bike with bright flashing taillight ON, and start walking the 1.5 miles home on the sidewalk. 3 blocks into the walk, and conveniently in front of a favorite bar/restaurant of mine (6th Street Pier) i feel the heat of a few lightening strikes and decide that walkin about all mary poppins with my brolly is not the wisest move and i would like to live to tell this story.
so, pop into 6th Street Pier, wave at the regulars and ask the owner if she knows of a taxi company in town that answers their phone. surprisingly and thankfully, she says yes, i have this one lady's number and the coppers gave it to me to send home the drunks when noone else would. great i say and ring up Mary!
and as jackie gleason used to say "and away we go", the fun really begins now. mary says she'll be 10 minutes or so and in the meantime the 9pm crowd is now finishing dinner and sees me outside under awning with bright flashy bike lights and averts their eyes and whisper, 'what is that all about' or some such confused, never seen that in griffin look. at this point mary pulls up to the curb and buckets begin to pour out of the sky as she asks me if she should let the seats down to fit the bike or just shove it in the back and tie the van door closed? i assure her it will fit and that I even know how to lift it in just so.
we shove off and i remind her that i have no cash, as i mentioned on the phone, and that we'll have to pull thru a drive-thru ATM down the block. we do and are all set to drive the now 1.25 miles to the house. and lucky enough she lives nearby too, and says she doesnt feel right charging me much, so how bout $5 bucks. deal i say and we roll to bieze street. upon arrival she turns off the elderly van to assist me with the unload and even holds the brolly over me while i pop out the bike, and head to the porch which is now 15 feet away...but before i can get there, i hear that definitive sound, grind, grind, click, click, click, click, silence. dead battery. but not totally silent b/c thunder & lightening are still booming and lighting up the sky which helps us locate the battery under the hood.
'um, mary, you want help?' 'no, its fine, i just hit these cables with the wrench sometimes and she fires right up.' i go in to let anxious charlie brown see that mom has indeed finally come home, albeit with a new friend, and learn that the wrench trick isnt working and lazy boyfriend who was called, advises mary, 'check the fuses'. mary insists i go in but i say the only reason you are out in the bitchin storm is me, so lets figure this out. an expert  manuever of the subaru thru the front yard grass (which the lease says i'm not supposed to drive/park on) positions little roo well to assist old tired mary van and what's required is actually a combo of jumper cables AND the wrench tap tap, which i expertly deliver and VROOM, she fires right up.
mary now rolls off into the night, telling me not to worry if i never call her again, she knows i think she's crazy and its okay. of course i assure her that even if she is, she is the only one who answered and given my dedication to bike commuting, i'll likely be seeing her again.

let me be clear...i'm a commuter, by design

i'm a bike commuter type cyclist. i ride to work. i dont go fast, i dont wear lycra. i do wear a helmet these days, (thanks for the gentle reminder tony eubanks) but i dont race, i'm not a hammerhead, in fact i'm the slowest rider out there. in fact i should print a shirt that says caboose.
so i just wanna make it clear, all the cycling babble that i post relentlessly on facebook and my blog, is about a lifestyle choice for health, clean energy, saving $$, and hating to drive. now i dont mind a good road trip once in a while, but that's a different story and not one i'll be doing in the middle of gas wars.
so back to cycling, yes, i am all things bike b/c i love the peace, beauty, and health it affords me every single day i do it. i even had an epiphany in graduate school, (which they let me into because i said i wanted to be a great public servant) but in what area i did not know at the time. not consciously anyway. those who know me will say, girl, you sold your car back in 1986 and have been on a bike ever since, how could you not know you would serve the cycling world one day? well i just didnt.
i simply rode for me. see cycling has always been an independent thing, just you and your bike, that's all you need. and as for jobs in the early years, i was caught up in my late 20's and floundering 30's with private sector pursuits. and oddly enough, that stint in corporate america has not only gotten me two great jobs since then, and into a #4 ranked graduate program, but it may very well provide the balance in the public sector work that nonprofits need and that i'm poised to do. we've all heard it said, government or nonprofits ought to work more like the markets or private sector. well i have one foot in each or rather i have amassed a skill set from each and maybe, just maybe, that positions me well to go lead a bicycle commuting advocacy organization. we'll see.
in the meantime, yes i'm looking for a job, a great job that aligns with my passions, and during the search you can find me commuting to work daily by bike (in regular clothes), taking a bike with me on vacation, riding in the country on the weekends with folks who go a little bit faster, and trying out every bikeshare fleet i come across in cities across America and in vacation destinations. after all, my motto is: have passport will travel (by bike). yea, i added that last part recently.
you will also hear from time to time about other modes of travel that i also love, like train journeys, with sleeper cars and showerettes, or subway, light rails, street cars. i really will do most anything to use public transit and enjoy the ride before i will jump in a car. yes, i do own one now. its a 10-year old subaru that i bought out west when i lived in snow country out of necessity. dad checked it out last weekend and said its running just fine and will for another 10 years or so. with this mentality or approach to commuting, i have managed to never have a daily drive to work, ever in my life and i have been employed since i was 18...so let's just say 3 decades or so. here's how...
GA (commute 1)
in college, i sold the aforementioned car, a v-8 ford mustang that all the men in my family took me to pick out when i graduated high school. vroom! college campuses are contained, even ones in agricultural states, and i lived nearby so i just biked to work.
DC (commute 2)
i rented from my aunt in virginia when i first got there and i worked on capitol hill, so i learned a good chunk of the metro really well. i targeted a neighborhood less than 2 miles from work (once i left the hill and went to work for mckinsey) and looked for a rental. john & lucinda offered an english basement in cleveland park (where i still visit them today) and i could bike, metro (subway or bus), and on really bad days cab it to work. mckinsey paid me to do it (commuter subsidy of metro cards) my friends remember those b/c i always had a surplus from biking. oh, and mckinsey put in 3 showers for the office. note this was back in 1989! i never owned a car, bought gas, paid parking tickets, insurance, fines, got towed, had fender benders, or had road rage. instead i read the paper, worked the puzzle, got some exercise, got super fit, saved money, and threw away the gym membership. who am i kidding, i never paid for the gym.
CA (commute 3)
in cali, i couch surfed on the peninsula at first and took the cal train, a double decker, from san carlos into SF every day for work. once the couch was claimed by new babies, i rented over in the oakland hills with friends from DC who had preceded me and scouted the scene. i biked down the hills every day to the bart station, jumped on and rode it under the bay from berkeley to san francisco and read the paper, skipped by the latte shop on the way in and tried not to look straight up like every other newbie in town as i walked 3-4 blocks to work in the bank of america building (no not the pointy one, thats the nearby transamerica building and equally as tall, 52 floors) all this joy, while millions above me drove across the bay bridge at $4 a pop each way and that only occurred after you waited in the slug line and picked up 2+ riders so you could even be allowed to drive across the bridge in rush hour once your lane got the green light, to later arrive at a parking deck in SF where the going daily rate was $25.00 per car per day.
CA (commute 4)
after 1 short year in the bay area, i ditched it all. turns out when i moved from DC to CA, i not only needed a change of scenery and CLIMATE, i needed a break too. so i ducked out to europe for a year. confession, i had leased a car that year, (to prepare for moving to tahoe, which i did later) so i put all my stuff in one of those storage PODS and they came to get it. i left some $$ in the bank and put the credit card on auto pay, (my only obligation), turned in my cell phone (that's what you did back then) and sub-leased my car to a SF coworker who wanted to explore car ownership. and left. i bought a eurail pass and trained everywhere for a year, the pass included subways, busses, funiculars, and ferries. once or twice i ended up in a vehicle when the owner of the guest house where i worked for room/board took us into town to food shop.
GA (commute 5)
then i came back...or ran out of $$. i couch surfed in GA at kim and laura's houses, both of which were near marta stations and i commuted to work in the ATL office of mckinsey for a stint. just like i had done in DC and CA, all 3 of which had a slick dress code in a high profile corporate setting. summer came and i remembered why i had left GA so i returned to CA to get my stuff.
CA (commute 6)
looked for work, squatted in dad's empty apartment left open by early upgrade. biked around foster city by the bay. figured out how to talk mckinsey into outsourcing me and moved to tahoe pronto. took the car with me and walked, biked, or skied, or hitched to work. later when i got the job working for the chamber of commerce on the 'other' side of the lake, (nevada) i drove. so yes, i did commute to work by car, in lake tahoe, wearing shorts, to work by the lake and tell folks where to have fun. i took one for the team there for sure. eventually we all worked on a ski mountain and carpooled or once i even lived at the base of the mountain and hitched rides up to the gate every morning. one road in, one road out.
GA (commute 7)
7 years ago, crap almost 8, i moved back. i scouted athens immediately to see how bike-able it still was from my college days and after house-sitting for a bit, (aint that always the way?) i bought a home within a 2-mile radius of downtown and UGA knowing i would work somewhere in that mix and bike in. i do. its intentional, its been great fun, and its totally doable. now get out there and make some choices people, ones that work for you regardless of what they look like to the rest of society. oh, and enjoy it. i know you will. in fact, holler once you're there.