My New Bike! & Why Having a Bike is Important to Me

Sun EZ - Rider

My bike was stolen recently. It was a red Giant Rincon mountain bike that I'd bought roughly twenty years ago, when I was fifteen. I'm still disappointed that my bike is gone; however, I excited to finally have a recumbent.

I found the pictured Sun EZ - Rider used. The bike runs well, and I've already put more than twenty miles on it, since yesterday. It is a fun ride. However, the real test will be Monday. On Monday, I will ride to work, Minneapolis to Mendota Heights. I couldn't be more excited.

I still need to fix the bike up a bit. It is missing one of the chain guides and the handlebars are bent. The bent handlebars make steering difficult, and I'm prone to over steering which slows my ride. Yet, I do feel speedy, perhaps because I'm so low to the ground. I have passed a couple of people while riding around The Lake of the Isles, but they were out leisure riding. Monday, everyone on The Greenway will be all business, commuting to work.

Having a bike is important to me. Riding a bike is a simple form of nonviolent direct action. The more often I ride my bike, the less often I drive my car. Fewer trips in my car equals less money for big oil and less CO2 emitted. I just wish that there were more days that I felt comfortable riding my bike to and from work. Right now, the plan is Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I miss a few of those days each week because some life-event seems to get in the way. I wish I rode as often as my boss. He is my biking hero. He bikes to work (and everywhere else) everyday of the week despite strange life-events.

In order to get ready for Monday's commute, I still need to figure out how I'm going to attach my luggage to the back of the bike. I don't have the cash for a bike rack right now, but I do have bungee cargo net. So, before I eat lunch here, in a few minutes, I'm headed down stairs to how I'm going to attach my gear in the meantime.

Happy Trails!

     

Green Is the New Red by Will Potter @will_potter

Green Is the New Red -- Book Trailer from Will Potter on Vimeo.

Bad Day for the Environment, Bad Day for us all

Today, the United States House of Representatives began debating the future of the Environmental Protection Agency (2:03 PM & 6:21 PM as reported by the New York Times) as part of the ongoing discussion of our budget and economic woes. The debate over funding for the EPA saddens me. The EPA was created in an era when our government understood that its most important role was to protect the American people from threats both foreign and domestic. With bipartisan support, President Nixon and the both houses of Congress signed into law one of our country's greatest human protection services, the Environmental Protection Agency. Without healthy and productive ecosystems, humanity's health will suffer.

Humans need clean water. Humans need clean air. Humans need clean food. Without healthy ecosystems, we - humans - will need to create systems to replace the natural capital and services that the ecosystems provide to us for free. Not to sound like a crackpot conspiracy theorist, but big business is attempting the largest market share and complete control over our basic abilities to find clean water, air, and food. Just take a look at the power grab for water: The Story of Bottled Water. Nothing would make industrial executives happier than to have use dependent on them water, a fundamental necessity. And if the House wins this budget debate, they will move to defund the one regulatory body set up to not only protect the environment but also humans from polluting industries.

On Friday, Mother Jones reported that the House GOP Moves to Gut the Clean Water Act. If the clean water act is gutted, our water will be at risk. We will not have save drinking water. We will not be able to drink from our own taps and wells. Industry will have freedom to use our rivers and watersheds for toxic waste removal.

Our budget and economic worries are serious. I agree that something must be done to lower United States debt, but to lower that debt by putting the health of every American at risk is shameful and unjust. Please help take action against United States House of Representatives by calling your Representative and telling him or her that if he or she does not act in favor of funding the EPA, she or he will lose his or her job. We can not sell the environment and thus our health to big business and toxic industry.

If you want to know who is leading the fight against the Clean Water act and the EPA, follow the money. Check out Maplight.org 's coverage of the votes: H.R. 2018 - Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011

Please, call now.

My Bookshelf posted @1Bookshelf

Submition Guide Lines
Blog - 1 Bookshelf
Twitter - @1Bookshelf

1 Bookshelf is seeking posts about your favorite bookshelf. I love books. I love booshelves. Thus, I had to get in on the action, and I wrote a quick essay and sent over a picture the bookshelf above my desk. Check it out, Aaron M. Wilson's Bookshelf, and then write and submit your own 1 Booshelf essay.

TRANSFER by Darci Dawn

Vagabondage Press - $5.99
All Romance - $5.99
Amazon - $5.99
B&N - $5.99

A good writer friend of mine, who uses the pen-name, Darci Dawn, has a new short story in the collection titled, Lyrotica. Seeing a story go through the workshop-and-revision process and then be accepted for publication is excitingly rewarding, especially when I took part in the process.

Lyrotica, "with special guest editor, Rebecca Ammon, syndicated sex and relationships blogger/columnist" (Vagabondage Press),  is a sexy anthology of prose and poetry that is sure to perk your interest.

Darci Dawn’s story, “Transfer,” is about a woman named Priscilla who first falls in love with man’s hands: “When Priscilla first saw him, it was his hands that made her want him. They were tan, thick, and his nail beds were rimmed with a thin layer of permanent dirt.” She liked his hands because they looked like they were working hands, hands that belonged to a real man. However, he did were a silver band, perhaps a wedding band.

I don’t want to ruin the story for you in this review. The story is worth the price of the collection. The story succeeds in two goals of a story found with in the pages of a collection titled Lyrotica. First, “Transfer” is a good story, an entertaining fiction with solid characters that drive the plot. Two, once seduced by quality writing, I was able to enjoy Priscilla’s seductions and become, myself, aroused.

Beyond being an arousing story, “Transfer” succeeds in making a statement about the harsh realities of commitment. Commitment, the main character argues is series of disappointments and compromises. And, here is what Priscilla thinks about compromise, “Compromise, she thought, was what happened when you started giving pieces of yourself away.” This sentiment mirrors the theme found in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Thus, my ending question is to muse about what Chopin’s character, Louise Mallard, would have thought about Priscilla’s inner strength to retain her self fully – no compromise. I think that Louise would have envied Priscilla had Louise survived the reemergence of her husband.

So if you're looking for a good time, check out Lyrotica and Darci Dawn's "Transfer."