riding as therapy. (edit)

There was a time when I used to drive to work from San Jose to Mountain View and back on the daily.  Not only was the commute rough, but imagine being stuck in traffic for hours on end after a long and exhausting day of office monotony.

Although my commute now isn’t nearly as bad, only 4 miles each way, riding is still a great way to decompress immediately after work.  One of my co-workers even said that he would start biking to work!

On another note, if you have not seen (500) Days of Summer yet, you’re an idiot.  I’m going to watch it for a 4th time tomorrow, so that’s like 2000 days of summer, with no signs of winter.

Edit:

Dude, so I was going through my old posts, and I came across this gem back from 2005.  Sucwidit!  I knewww this guy was going to be a star.

http://zero255zero.wordpress.com/2005/06/07/mysterious-skin/

Super green week.

I had to travel to Cupertino today for work related training, and will be going there for the rest of this week.

Since I had to get there super early, I decided to get there by bike and bus to forego the early morning traffic.  It only took about 35 minutes!  I think that it would have taken even longer if I had driven on the freeway.

For those of you who don’t know, Cupertino is home to the mother of all Whole Foods.  I would have to say that it is at least twice the size of your regular Whole Foods.

The instructor gave us an hour for lunch, so I biked over to Whole Foods, and grabbed lunch.  It was kind of pricey, but it was fresh and healthy.  I packed everything into my bag and went back to campus to eat.

I bought a bunch of vegetarian food, and threw it into a box.  By the time I got back to campus, it was all nicely mixed from the ride haha.  I pulled out my trusty point and shoot to document.

Along with the main entree, I snagged an Odwalla bar and some sushi.  My beverage of choice was water filled up from the campus break room in my Klean Kanteen.

regain some of those lost wages.

It is now estimated that some Americans spend about 20% of their salary on gas.

Well just think, what if you didn’t drive for one or even two days out of the work week?

You could take public transportation (which most jobs will happily pay for), carpool, bike, or even telecommute.

Just doing that for two days out of the week would bring that percentage down to 12%. You would be doing your part by being green, and spending less of your hard earned green on gasoline. I know this is an extreme case, but think about your situation. I’m sure you’re spending way more on gas than you would like.  Those living in the San Francisco Bay Area can use 511.org, which is a great resource for driving alternatives.

reinventing the wheel.

It’s been a while since I upgraded any parts on my bike, which is my main source of transportation during the work week.

So I ran into a couple of guys on the street while I was riding, and they happened to be selling a wheel. Nothing fancy, just a machined Velocity Deep V laced to a Surly hub. Definitely better than what I was rolling on.

I was able to get the entire wheel for $60, which should make my commute just a little better. Make friends, and make a deal.