CaBi to the rescue!

So today was Ark weather. Seriously, I was soaked to the bone at work.

Although it was moist when I rode Betty to work, it was quite "Flood-ian" when I needed to leave. The idea of riding her through such wet weather did not please me. Tho I love Betty, she is no Jamie (and I love Jamie, as neglected as he is) and therefore in the garage at work she had to remain. It was simply pouring rain outside, and that was No Good For Her.

(I love riding in the rain, however)

So, I managed to get myself to a neighborhood bar to wait out the rain. And wait it out, I did.

And wait. And wait. And wait.

Finally, the rain let up a little bit.

But then I thought to myself,

"Self, you have a shared bike membership key! Why not use one of those bikes to ride through the crappy weather?!"

And it was so.

I grabbed a CaBi bike that was a mere two blocks away and rode towards home. The nearest docking station for home was also a mere two blocks away from my door. How handy!

And so I got home, relatively safe and "dry".

(ok, well not dry. But happy!)

Tomorrow, I get to do the reverse. And you know what? I am so grateful I don't have to pay a cabbie or walk all that way in the rain. Yay!

All of this would probably explain why today I saw the most number of CaBi bikes "in the wild" then I have seen since the launch---a grand total of 10 times today! I am quite sure the wet weather had a lot to do with it too; why ride your own Precious in the crappy weather, when you can borrow someone else's bike for cheap, right?? It was a totally crappy, rainy day today and I saw a huge number of cyclists, AND most of them were safe & sane about it too (reflective clothing, lights, signals, etc). Awesome. Today was the perfect example for cyclists who already have their own bikes to try CaBi. Why muck up your own, when you can muck up someone else's!

Still, I am really glad I had that key for CaBi. I have a feeling it will pay itself off very shortly.

Cold Wet & Rainy.

I get asked many times, 'what do you do when it rains'? The answer is, I get wet. I don't mind getting a little wet & muddy. It's not the worst thing in the world. The problem with riding in the rain isn't getting wet, it's the unpredictability of car drivers. For some reason, bad weather brings out the bad driving.

I didn't get to do any work-related riding today, so instead I watched the drivers on the road. It's amazing how unwilling people are to just Slow Down, even a little bit. So many people have zero patience. I watched one driver lay on his horn for 15 seconds continuously because he was annoyed at having to spend that 15 seconds waiting for a taxi-cab discharge his passenger. (By the way, what is it with car drivers and their horns? Do they not understand that honking will not magically clear up traffic jams, and it only serves to further grate on the nerves of those that are probably already annoyed by the jam?) A whole 15 seconds. Mind you, he then had to wait for a full two minutes at the end of the road anyway to clear the intersection at a stop sign. Was it worth it? I'm sure those 15 seconds it took to rush to the stop sign were very important.

Why is everyone in such a rush?

In yesterday's post I mentioned a quick list of expenses. Today, I'd like to explore ways of cutting back on costs (and consumption).

The first to go are cigarettes. I don't even like smoking, but I'm an addict. I really do want to quit, and not just for the cost. Today I bought a pack of cigarettes. They cost $7.49. That's $52.43 a week (assuming I buy just one pack a day, which is not always the case.). $224.70 a month. $2,733.85 a year. Yikes. So no more cigarette buying from now on.

The second area I need to look at is dining out. This includes snacks & meals at work, beer at the bar, and pizza delivery at home. I want to limit my dining out options to no more that $40 a week. I think that's do-able.

This starts tomorrow.

The rest of the stuff I'll work on later.

Today's costs:

$7.49 pack of cigarettes (goodbye!)

$23.35 pizza delivery (plus tip)

Total: $30.84

Bike Miles:

2.71