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05-24-01, 07:05 AM
My americaine girlfriend is late riser. 7:30, 8:00 find her still tucked under a mound of blankets, mumbling incoherently about the obscenity of having to get up at such an hour.
She's groggy until 10:00, hates the morning commute, despises her job, loathes workdays in general, and arrives home tired and irritable after the evening bumper-to-bumper taillamp observance ritual.
She lives for her weekends, sleeping until mid morning, and laying about in front of the tele until she absolutely HAS to move.
She's no pomme-de-canapé, as she plays 3.0 league tennis every evening, and captains a team.
So, what has this to do with cycling?
This:
She assumes that a day is "ruined" because she has to spend it at work. See, there's little difference between my workdays and my weekends...
I am up at 5:15 or thereabouts, dressed, fed, and on my bike by 6:15. I've time for a 20 mile "warmup lap" before I begin my 3 mile commute, and by the time I arrive at work, I feel as if the day is half over.
I spend eight hours ordering hardware, software, and leased circuits, make some phone calls, stamp out some fires, and start some rumours.
Then I change into my cycling clothes and slip out the back door around 4:15. I've time for another 20 mile warmup lap...
Weekends, I get up at the same time, only I've time for the local paper and a quick internet check of my investments. Then I'm out the door at 7:00, and I have time for as many miles as my legs can take me.
My point is: Bicycling has caused me to treat my job as a minor little rest period during my day... It keeps me off the streets during the hottest hours. I look forward to getting up and going to work, and I really do not mind being there. I've grown so relaxed about all of this that I sometimes bike to the office on Saturday, by mistake, or I'll begin a journey round the lake... a 45 mile aller-retour... on a Monday, forgetting that it is a workday.
I believe that if more people rode, fewer people would be so unhappy with having to work.
Disclaimer: I manage a group of nine engineers & techs, who need no real work direction. My boss is in an office 140 miles away. I make considerably more money than I really need (which compensates for wasting twenty-one years with the French Electric Company and being payed in play money) and I've a still damp from a foggy commute Trek 1220 leaning against the back wall of my office. Naturally, I'm laid back about life in general.
She's groggy until 10:00, hates the morning commute, despises her job, loathes workdays in general, and arrives home tired and irritable after the evening bumper-to-bumper taillamp observance ritual.
She lives for her weekends, sleeping until mid morning, and laying about in front of the tele until she absolutely HAS to move.
She's no pomme-de-canapé, as she plays 3.0 league tennis every evening, and captains a team.
So, what has this to do with cycling?
This:
She assumes that a day is "ruined" because she has to spend it at work. See, there's little difference between my workdays and my weekends...
I am up at 5:15 or thereabouts, dressed, fed, and on my bike by 6:15. I've time for a 20 mile "warmup lap" before I begin my 3 mile commute, and by the time I arrive at work, I feel as if the day is half over.
I spend eight hours ordering hardware, software, and leased circuits, make some phone calls, stamp out some fires, and start some rumours.
Then I change into my cycling clothes and slip out the back door around 4:15. I've time for another 20 mile warmup lap...
Weekends, I get up at the same time, only I've time for the local paper and a quick internet check of my investments. Then I'm out the door at 7:00, and I have time for as many miles as my legs can take me.
My point is: Bicycling has caused me to treat my job as a minor little rest period during my day... It keeps me off the streets during the hottest hours. I look forward to getting up and going to work, and I really do not mind being there. I've grown so relaxed about all of this that I sometimes bike to the office on Saturday, by mistake, or I'll begin a journey round the lake... a 45 mile aller-retour... on a Monday, forgetting that it is a workday.
I believe that if more people rode, fewer people would be so unhappy with having to work.
Disclaimer: I manage a group of nine engineers & techs, who need no real work direction. My boss is in an office 140 miles away. I make considerably more money than I really need (which compensates for wasting twenty-one years with the French Electric Company and being payed in play money) and I've a still damp from a foggy commute Trek 1220 leaning against the back wall of my office. Naturally, I'm laid back about life in general.