Tag Archives: Cambridge

Jan28

Wandering around Cambridge and Alewife

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Saturday, 25-Jan-14

So I’ve lived here for a bit over a year at this point, but I haven’t honestly taken the time to just… wander around.  I’ve taken the various dogs for long walks around town, but walking with a dog is always a bit different… for some reason, I can’t retreat quite as far into my own head when I’m walking the dog – probably because I’ve got to keep an eye out for other dogs, cyclists, etc…

So today, I just plugged in my headphones, put fresh batteries into the fancy bass-booster thing on the cord, and started walking toward the Alewife parks.  It was nice and relaxing, and a good reminder about just how much I enjoy hiking in the winter.

So I wandered for an hour or two, before heading into Davis to meet a friend for coffee.  Solid afternoon activity… and I got to see some rather cool stone placards!

Nov21

Punching Cars

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Tuesday, 12-Nov-13

 

This story makes me think of this song… so play it while you read!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemKqzILV4w

 

If you’re not a cyclist, also take a second to look at…. THIS!

 

SF-Bicycle-Coalition-Right-Turn

 

OK!  Story time!

 

I punched a car tonight.

I don’t get to do this often, and when I do it generally puts me in a quite good mood.

You see – I was biking, and I got cut off.  This isn’t really a unique occurance, but this is one situation that frustrates me to excess – it’s simply a driver making a mistake and not looking where they’re going… but it’s indicative that drivers don’t even think to check for cyclists before turning.

Now, lest this turn into some rant (which it shouldn’t), here’s the fun and simple story of how my night could have been horrid, but instead was fun and excellent:

I was biking in the bike lane, and the car directly to my left decided to make a right turn.  Fine, in most situations.  But not when there’s a bike that you have to drive THROUGH in order to turn.

So I cranked the brakes, did a bit of a dodge, and gave her side-panel a good left jab.  Couldn’t get a full swing in, unfortunately, but the impact made enough of a noise that the driver knew that something wasn’t right.  Then she looked back, and saw a cyclist.  Then, her face dropped.

In mass, hitting a cyclist is a bad thing.  I mean… it’s always a bad thing, but here the law is on our side.  Example: if you door a cyclist?  Not only can the cyclist bring a civil lawsuit against you, but you are also going to be charged with criminal assault, just the same as if you’d smashed a pedestrian with your door.

So this driver knew she had done something wrong.  But she was frozen to the wheel, looking forward and trying to not look at me.

So I did a bit of a “come on now…” hand gesture, indicating she should roll the window down.  She did, and we had a short conversation that basically amounted to “Don’t cut me off!”  “Sorry!  I didn’t see you!”  “Obviously!  Just be more careful next time”.

And then we went our separate ways.

Oct21

Trying out Bostonian Yoga

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Friday, 04-Oct-13

Prana Power Yoga

 

Yoga is one of those things that I’ve been meaning to try out.  So, on the 4th of October of the year 2013, I went to my first Yoga class.

It was held in Central Square, so parking the bike was a bit concerning… especially since the homeless guy next to me kept trying to convince me that I should go buy him some booze from the liquor store next door… Sure, he was offering to give me $1 for it, but I think I’m good without, thank you very much.

Once the bike was parked I met up with Terese and headed inside to get changed and ready.  Honestly, there isn’t much of a story to my first yoga class… it was pretty straight forward.  It was a “power yoga” class, which I learned means “cardio in a slightly-warm room, doing poses that sound like what I’d hear in a movie with yoga in it”.  It was cool, and they used phrases like “become a tree” and “upward facing dog into downward facing dog”.  We didn’t even have a teacher, we instead had a “yoga guide” to aid us in our journey for the evening.

Yeah… I enjoyed it, but I don’t think that I’ll be heading back to this particular place.  It’s the same problem that I have with just joining a gym – I don’t like working out.  I like activities and movement, but not repetitive motions for the pure goal of working out.