Night riding, the loss of cycling funds, and other random musings.

So thus far, I'm actually failing reasonably hard at the whole blogging things for the very few people I'm sure that have stumbled across this, my most sincere apologies.  Anyway, on to the subject(s) at hand.

The first, night riding

Don't ask me why, mostly because I couldn't really tell you; but I love riding at night.  Maybe it's because I feel like I'm some sort of crazy bike ninja stealthily swerving through traffic (Unlikely, because I use both a blinkie light and a head light so I feel like I make my presence known, and I obey traffic laws so long as it is within reason). Or, maybe it's the way the city slows down a bit, and I feel like I catch more of it ( Not that my city is all that happening to begin with).

Regardless, I honestly just love riding at night.  As I'm writing this right now, I've just finished roughly a little three mile or so ride. That's purely an estimation, I don't have a fancy distance computer or anything, just basing it off of what I know so far as distances traveled, in the past. I feel good, great actually.  I don't think I ever feel better than after I've been on a ride, regardless of the distance.

Let's see what else... Oh yeah, loss of cycling funds.

By no means am I hugely political dude.  In fact, more often than not I'm more likely to just shrug my shoulders and move on when the subject of politics comes up.  It's not that I don't have my own opinion, trust me I do, it's that I've learned that talking about politics with almost anyone is a recipe for disaster.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned at some point I live in Wisconsin, or at least Milwaukee.  As I'm sure most people in the country know (those with a tv or internet connection), our governor is making some changes around the state.  More or less the big news worthy part of it is he is attempting to take away the collective bargaining rights of state employees. They are obviously not happy about this.  I'm not too fond of it myself, but again, I stayed out of any major discussions on the subject amongst friends and random strangers.  I'm far too much of a pacifist for all that jazz.  What did piss me off considerably is the fact that Governor Walker has cut the funding for future cycling and pedestrian path development, something to the tune of 2.4 million annually.  I feel like in the big scheme of things that's a drop in the bucket that could have been left alone. Let's face it, Wisconsinites are fat fuckers most of us could use all the incentive we can get to get our tubby asses out of the house and doing something.  On top of that, those paths and bike lanes were making the city a much safer place for the likes of myself who are just starting to learn to navigate the traffic on a bike.  It sucks, and so does our Governor for taking that away, regardless of the other stuff he has planned.

That's it for tonight, keep riding folks!   

Warm Weather

So the warm weather has spurred me to initiate more changes in my life in pursuit of my love of biking.  The first one is I'm going to quit smoking.  At 23 I still consider myself quite young, however, I've smoked in a closeted fashion since I was about 16 and openly a pack a day since I was 18. 

Smoking started off as the "cool" thing to do when younger as a kid interested in the whole "punk rock scene" now it's more a hindrance upon something I'm trying to do out of love for the activity and a desire to become an overall healthier and more active individual. That being said, as of this evening I'm putting on the nicotine patch and not looking back as I continue my trip down this road on two wheels.


The warm weather has also brought out some good rides.  It has been nice to just jump on the bike and go for a little spin where as with the winter weather I've kept my cycling more need based.  As in if I needed to take a trip to the store then I rode there, or if I needed to head to a friends place, I rode there.  Yeah I could have just as easily jumped in my car and gotten to either place without snot frozen to my face, but the point is to rely more on the bike as a means of transportation as opposed to the car wherever possible.

I was a little disappointed today to see that the Hank Aaron trail which is one of my favorite destinations for a random leisurely rides was still covered in snow, though hopefully a few more days of this warm weather will change all that.

Hope the rest of you out there are getting some of this warm weather too and you're taking advantage of it by cycling!

Entering a new world...

So as of the writing of this post right here, I've been cycling for roughly one year.  Only about 6 months of that have I spent any measurable amount of time trying to learn the ins and outs of what cycling in a city such as Milwaukee is really all about.  

I guess I got into the who thing for a couple of different reasons.  One is I thought it was cool, I like the idea of traveling through the city released from the constraints imposed upon us by our vehicles. I get a real sense of freedom when I'm out there on my bike as opposed to stuck in my car waiting for traffic, lights, pedestrians, etc.  The second reason was my own health.  Up to this point I've been a pack a day smoker, and I'm admittedly overweight.  My thought was if I'm going to exercise it may as well be something I enjoy. As stated above, I enjoy cycling quite a bit.

I suppose my aim for this blog is a means to track my progression towards being a healthier individual as well as my progression towards being less of an admitted newb in the world of cycling.  I hope that anyone that reads this finds it interesting or perhaps inspiring as getting out there and riding a bike regardless of what they know in terms of jargon and what is "right and wrong" in the world of cycling.