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Smile
Today, between trying to get into some sort of shape another disastrous manuscript, I perused biking blogs (I found a very cool new-to-me one, CarFree Family). There is so much advice out there for commuters, I don't feel like I need to add anything right now to the debates over biking etiquette or whether or not you should wear a helmet, but I do want to give one piece of advice: smile. What you are doing is so much better than what people in cars are doing, you owe it to them to smile at them. This morning I arrived at Lakeside and McCarran first and stopped to wait for the red light. An older guy in a pickup truck pulled alongside to turn right. I was a little over the line in the crosswalk so I pulled my bike back so he could have a better line of sight, then looked over at him and smiled. He was ignoring me until then, but when he saw what I did, he made eye contact, and then an amazing thing happened, he smiled back!
being a poor soul trapped in a box sounds pretty appealing to me right now...having the freedom to go anywhere i pleased. you're lucky in that you have the option to drive that metal box when the bike ride is inconvenient, but awesome in that you usually opt not to. and smiling always makes things better :)
ReplyDeletebear
haha, well you're also in the human mice laboratory! :) the box is definitely convenient sometimes, but i wouldn't say it gives freedom, more like it promises it and sometimes delivers . . . at high cost.
ReplyDeletebut i'll definitely be happy to take it when I go to get bodie's ultrasound on fri. :)
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