So not too long ago I made a commitment to do as much transportation as I possibly could by bicycle saving the cars only for when no other alternative would do. Today, all day, no other alternative would do. It's a little depressing and disheartening to burn through about 4 gallons of gas in one day after barely using the same amount of gas in the last two weeks. Sure, there was justification in the absolute need to get so much done today in so little time as to rule out the bicycle. And there is fact that I can't haul 3 other people around on my bike. But it's different now, last year I would have brushed off the inefficiency.

    But today, let me tell you, today as I drove my wife, daughter and cousin through the pouring rain I found my eyes riveted on the commuter bicyclists in the morning. I really wanted to be there in the pouring rain, like them, struggling successfully against the weather and the traffic. It was a deep and visceral need to be in that wet and hectic struggle. Something about me has embraced that challenge, and suddenly I think driving is something too coddled, too pampered, too convenient. While I've always thought driving was inefficient, and endorsing a strategically wrong national obsession, I never though of it as less human, but now I don't know.

    I read several months ago that some psychologists had studied the relationship between people an their cars(which article I have unfortunately lost). And that they found that most people thought of the car as kind of a tool-like extension of themselves. I thought that was neat, but now I think maybe that is unhealthy, maybe that is kind of grotesque. Like some sort of cyborg disease of the mind that makes you associate and depend on that machine.

Very strange...

    As I tell more and more people about my switch to a bicycle as my primary means of transportation I get a whole range of responses. My favorite responses are from the people who like the idea, but are worried about getting sweaty, or wet or too cold, or too hot. It reminds me of how sheltered we've become in our modern society, that normal conditions, that our bodies can deal with quite easily, are no longer common. Sweat is mainly for the gym, to be doused with a quick shower as soon as possible. Getting wet in the rain is the small amount of water that falls on you as you race from your car to whatever building you are going to. Cold is the often the same, measured by distances between parking and shelter and the warm up times for cars parked outside.

    I know I felt the same way just a short time ago. But now it feels strange to try to wrap my mind around such conceptions.

Very strange.

I know I can get passionate about projects I work on, but I wasn't expecting this sudden shift in perception.

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