Sculpin

It only became electric when I accidentally turned on the motor before starting. That was unnerving.

Josh and I went down a few minutes earlier than usual to the parking lot today, which is when I found out that early is not so great. The lot was about half full of cars and there was more activity than I was comfortable with. I really didn’t want to be biking around while people were pulling out of parking spaces. So, after some harrumphing, I suggested that we go down the block to the playground, where I thought I remembered a smallish circuit of pavement that I could use. Unfortunately, there’d been some wooden bollards put in since the last time I’d been that way, and when I came to a certain sharpish right turn, I didn’t have confidence that I could take it without running into a post. So instead I headed into territory that I hadn’t scouted and wound up riding widdershins around the empty wading pool for a while, congratulating myself on turning left.

The park was packed with kids. Wow, there’s nothing like learning to ride a bike to make a bunch of cute little children seem like a writhing, screeching, unpredictable, pestilential mass of fleshy obstacles. It was very distracting, which was useful practice.

After a while, we wandered back to the parking lot, which had mostly cleared, and I rode around that a few times. This time I turned left downhill into blinding sunlight. Once I had the opportunity to handle an oncoming minivan, and I did fine — it probably didn’t hurt that I was gritting my teeth and grimacing maniacally, which seemed to put him off a bit, judging by his shocked pallor. Overall, I think I’ve roughly doubled my biking time from yesterday, and quadrupled it from Day 1. Pretty soon I’ll need a bigger course.

I’m getting better at picking a line and keeping to it, though I’m still having a hard time doing that in turns. Starting is coming along really well — I had been sort of shimmying and skooching awkwardly onto the seat before starting off, and now I can push off and get onto the seat in one motion. (This does, of course, feel like taking my life in my hands.) Stopping, well… stopping I’m not so good at yet. Sometimes I make a beautiful smooth stop and elegantly put a foot down; sometimes I brake too quickly and fall forward off the seat. (Thank you, generous standover clearance.) I should take some time to just start and stop and start and stop until I get the bugs worked out of that.

I managed to retain a less frantic heartrate today, which left me much less adrenaline-addled. Also, I made a number of interesting new and different noises of dismay, including an involuntary “YARRRR!” that Desolina would probably recognize from back in the day.

Thanks very much to the folks who’ve cheered me on! Oh, and Naomi — those Electra Townies sure do look sweet. I was looking one over at Gregg’s a few weeks ago and hefting it to see if I could lift it onto a bus rack. (Sure, no problem.) Another bike that Josh has suggested is the Breezer Villager with a U frame — isn’t it pretty? And hey, next to an Oma it almost seems inexpensive. Almost.

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