Stacking Funk-tions

Bonus points if you get the permaculture pun referenced in the title ;)

Before I continue, some sad news to report: my #365daysofbiking quest ended after 75 days on June 11th. Due to poor planning on my part, I was unable to tow a bike with me to Canada, so I took 8 days off. Still, 75 days is pretty damn impressive, right? If I only miss 8 throughout the whole year, I'll call it a wash.

My last day of this consecutive streak was the first day of my vacation up north. After we had settled in and spent a couple hours out in the boat, I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. Delta is a small town of about 300 people, but believe it or not, they still have a town hall with regular social gatherings. There happened to be one on that Saturday night, when I spied this outside:

That's a bike, unlocked, just chillin'. I took it for a quick spin around the block...ya know, just in case I was able to find a bike the next day. Hey, even .1 mile counts! I put it back where it was when I started, no fuss, no muss. So the quest is officially over, but at least it ended on a somewhat bizarre note.

Back to work this week, and though there have been some snafus as expected, for the most part, things are going well. Nothing too crazy, except for this:

Some of you have seen that already, but here's the back story in case you care: I service Outward Bound during the Summer months, a non-profit outdoor education school that regularly requires large volumes of laundry. This week was no exception. I was pressed for time on Tuesday, so I needed a way to get 12 bags to them in one trip without the use of our larger trailer, which was already in use. Well, half of it was anyway. Time to get creative, which, as you can see above, was successful.

Without a doubt, this was the most stressful 2 miles of biking I've ever undertaken. I couldn't turn right, because the top-heavy load would have surely tipped over. The laundry team told me it weighed 254 pounds before washing. Combined with the weight of the rig, the whole thing outweighs me more than 2 to 1. When I got to the final hill at the school, I had to take the bin off the top to avoid tipping backwards. Among crazy things I've done on a bike this is definitely up there...

On a semi-related note, I was locking up my bike and just about to go to dinner with a friend when a fellow Wash Cyclist spotted me on the street. What are the odds? He told me there was music happening at the Boom Room in Fishtown/Olde Kensington and I should stop by after dinner. So I did:

2 things: it was fun, and how the hell this is the first time I've been to the Boom Room is beyond me. I lived 10 minutes away from there when I first moved to Philly. Anyway, the band is Jae, all female emotionally-charged and totally awesome. The more ya know...

So even though 365 Days of Biking didn't happen, I still have plenty of biking fun-ness happening, and several adventures planned for the rest of the Summer. Ride on and rock on, ladies and gents.

Give me a Break

The last 2 weeks before vacation were extremely hectic. I'm not gonna lie to you, they've easily been the most stressful since I took this job.

Things will even out eventually, because most of the hectic-ness has been due to hang-ups in starting a new venture with a new client. Getting large projects off the ground takes time and effort and all of that, y'know?

Most days I've been so busy that I've had to ignore one of the most important macrobiotic guidelines: sit down to eat without doing other things. Friday before vacation, I was fortunate enough to have ZERO setbacks AND enough time to stop at the Art Museum to enjoy a relaxing lunch. Kinda a fitting pre-cursor to my ultimate disconnect.

While I was sitting there, a young woman approached me, riding a large rental bike with her two sons, about 5 and 8 if I had to guess ages. She asked me if I would watch their bike while they ran the "Rocky Steps." I said of course, and they did.

Of course, she didn't know how long it takes me to eat lunch, so she was worried they wouldn't make it back before I finished, but I assured her I'd still be there. While finishing the last few bites, we talked a little about Philly. Turns out, she went to school here and used to live in a row home in South Philly. Go figure.

We chatted for a little while as I cleaned up. They said thank you and went on their merry way, and 24 hours later, I was in Canada, on a boat in the middle of nowhere. I'll likely never see them again, and I don't even know their names, but I'll always remember this. I was more strung out than you might think at the time...