So I was biking a few days ago and my pedal began to act funny. Then it just broke in half (I took a picture). It's very uncomfortable to ride with just one half of a pedal. The rod of the pedal really digs into the arch of your foot. I decided to do some work on it and order some new pedals. I ordered these on amazon and then I thought I'd try seeing how easy it is to take off a bike pedal. Turns out there's like a dozen ball bearings in pedals and they all came out and fell all over my living room. There was no way I was going to put them all back in so I just screwed the pedal back on without them. Turns out ball bearings make a HUGE difference when biking. Don't ever take these little metal balls for granted people. Now when I pedal the pedal stays frozen and doesn't allow me to rotate it around the axis. So each rotation of the pedal I have to lift my leg off and then bring it back down. It's very awkward and must be interesting to watch from an outsider. It's a very asymmetrical bicycling pattern. I kind of feel like a one man band street performer who constantly has to hit a kick drum or high hat with one leg while doing some kind of constant circular thing with the other foot.
Today was also a viciously cold day. I had some big time runny noses from my bike to and from work.
For lunch my colleague and I went to Holy Frijole's on the Avenue in Hampden. He offered to give me a ride in his car and I accepted. I told him I don't want this experiment to turn into Dan's bumming a ride from people project. I figure if people offer I'll take them up for it, but I'll always attempt to take the bike or public transit first. I also realized that the rides I bum from people will kind of be a small payback for the rides I've given to so many people over the years. During grad school I was the only one of my friends with a car so I drove people everywhere. I also would often give people rides to the airport who needed them. I also donated some drives for my local church as a fundraiser a few times. Plus it promotes carpooling which, though still not solving the problem of evil cars, still lessens it in someway. It's kind of a compromise so that I can still exist in the real world. Plus one of my main reasons for quitting the car is the anti-social nature of driving (since so many people drive alone). Carpooling allows for great conversation because the scenery is constantly changing and there's always something to talk about. Look at the sign over there!, Do you remember that building? Where are we?
Anyway, I also bummed a ride to the party in Canton. The couchsurfer I'm hosting this weekend, Alexis, stayed with a different couchsurfing host, Caroline, on Thursday night and she offered to give me a ride. I had my bus system all planned out when he called, and decided to take the easier option of just getting a ride. It was kind of sad that I won't get to test out the Baltimore bus system just yet, but I'm sure I will have to soon. It's just too damn cold out there to be waiting on the busses. I'm going to dedicate a whole blog post to bus systems so stay tuned for that one.
The party was really cool by the way. Couchsurfers apparantly know how to party. There was a keg and they made pigs in a blanket! Fun times. One of the guys who lived there had this extremely complex salt water aquarium. In retrospect, I should have taken a picture of it on my iPhone. I talked to him about it all night. For a while I was just staring into it and some girl came up to me and was like, are you okay? He had see urchins, crabs, starfish, shrimp, and even a clownfish (I guess every salt water tank has to have a clown fish nowadays - Thanks finding Nemo). I kind of felt like when Dwight Schrute went to that dinner party and all he did was test out the structure of the house. Overall it was a pretty good house party.
Anyway I'm going to bed so I can rest up for my long bike ride down to pigtown for Habitat for Humanity! I'm so excited to be working on a house. I wonder what I'll get to do - saw, hammer, staple, paint.......
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