Friday, November 9, 2007

Bike Rides and Butt Cramps

I jumped on the bike this afternoon to run my errands. I blogged earlier this week about the insane gas prices, and if I had any second thoughts about running errands on my bike, they were sucked into my fuel tank yesterday along with the $47.03 I spent to fill up the VW. I paid three dollars and thirty-seven freaking cents a gallon for diesel.

My first errand was to the Missouri Avenue Post Office. I stopped at the light (see that, Chuck?) at Lakeland Police Department. A Ford Explorer coming out of the LPD lot got tired of waiting for the light to turn green and ran it. Yes, right in front of the Police Department.

I dropped off my envelope at the Post Office, and headed down to The Ledger to pick up a print version of Polk Voice. I don't know why I want the print version. It's all on this site, but I'm still kind of old-fashioned, in that I prefer my news on newsprint. I've tried uneventfully to get it delivered to my home, but gave up on that notion months ago.

The powers-that-be at The Ledger mean well. But they obviously can't convince my paper carrier to deliver the Polk Voice to me on Wednesday, every Wednesday. I often wonder if other people have the same complaint. I got tired of complaining. Before I gave up completely, I had the district supervisor's cell phone number, and every Wednesday morning I would call him to request the Polk Voice after it didn't arrive with my paper.

There were times when I'd get the paper religiously for two weeks, then nothing. No rhyme or reason to it. So now I pick it up via bicycle.

From there, I rode through Dixieland on Missouri and then got onto S. Florida Avenue. I rode to the Southgate Publix and got cash for tonight's Dreadnaughts game. It's going to be chilly and I want a black LHS hoodie.

I rode back up South Florida Avenue and turned onto Poinsettia, then meandered my way down to Lake Hollingsworth. I debated on whether to ride up that mother of a hill on Success Avenue. Since I didn't want to do it, I felt like I really should do it anyway. Coming around the lake, I was feeling really tired and was about to wuss out when my cell phone rang. A break!

It was my partner in laser hair removal crime, wanting to talk about our next appointment. I stopped to chat for a couple of minutes, got my second wind, and tackled the hill on Success.
I pass the swans on Lake Morton and make it up another hill just in time to get a butt cramp. Apparently, riding my bike rigorously five out of the last seven days has ticked off my muscles. Luckily, the rest of the way home was mostly downhill.

Speaking of bike riding, Chuck Welch at Lakeland Local wrote a great blog about bicycle safety rules today. You can check it out here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lorrie, you expect some of these morons to understand there are rules for BIKES AND CARS? Shoot, they don't even have the pedestrian rules down pat yet.
The Mom's pet peeve: When did they stop teaching children in school that pedestrians are to walk on the left side facing traffic. Back in the dinosaur days here in Florida, there were even the b/w regulatory signs on HIGHWAYS stating such. Before I could drive I remember reading them.