04/14/03’s illustrious band:

Streamers

Brought to you by a gorgeous weekend.

The weather was splendid this past weekend, so I spent a good bit of time puttering about Sensational Acres and the surrounding environs. Highlights included hauling my treasured hammock out of storage, clearing the back bedroom of garagable items that got stored there when the garage door broke, hauling an unwanted credenza to the curb and watching it disappear, and, best of all, taking my first bike ride in nearly two years.

Why so long since I biked? I’m not sure. I just never got around to it last summer. For one thing, the bike’s tires needed air, which meant I would have to find a way to get it to the filling station to get pumped up. I don’t have a bike rack on the car, so I have to stuff the bike into the trunk, which ain’t easy. I live in a flat, rather uninteresting suburb, so there aren’t many places I care to pedal to. And since I don’t currently have a lock for the bike, I wouldn’t feel comfortable riding it for errands and leaving it parked outside stores. I’m also not fond of my early-90s-era helmet, which looks like a small, round Styrofoam beer cooler on my head. So I just kept finding excuses not to ride.

This spring, however, it’s a different story. Through my work last year on a bicycling story for the Award-Winning Magazine, I acquired a map of bike trails in the metro area. I also came into possession of a set of colorful Mylar handlebar streamers. A lot of sober adults might not affix streamers to their cycles, but since I was already planning to ride in Lycra and a beer cooler, I figured what the heck. I aired up, mounted up and hit the road this weekend, colors aflutter.

I found a trail not too far from Sensational Acres. The good news was its proximity; the bad news was that it’s situated at the bottom of a loooong, loooong hill. That’s great when you’re approaching the trail, but the hill climb is a bugger coming back. Still, I tackled it and had a nice meander down by the river. There were plenty of other people out enjoying the trail, too, and I was surprised by the number of strollers who, when seeing a wheeled vehicle approaching from behind, would twitch directly into its path, think about it for a moment, then move back out of the way. I probably do the same thing when I’m on foot. Maybe I’d better invest in a little warning bell, too.

Bikes aren’t allowed on the western half of the trail, so I’ll have to return to explore that part on foot. The eastern half was shorter than I wanted it to be, but considering I’m not in great biking shape yet, that’s probably just as well. After my trek, I managed to make it all the way back up the hill with only a minimum of grunting and groaning.

I think the streamers helped. It’s hard to get too grim about exercise when there’s a cat toy sticking out from each handlebar. I also found them to be reliable wind gauges, confirming my suspicion that I was pedaling into a stiff headwind no matter which direction I faced. The Mylar makes a nice noise in the breeze, too, providing a little advance warning for people up ahead.

I’m glad I took the time to get some cycling in yesterday, because while today is beautiful, it’s supposed to be snowing again by Wednesday. Maybe I’ll bring the streamers in and tape them to the NordicTrack until the weather clears again.

E-mail the Media Sensation: jugglernaut@hotmail.com

Visit the BND archives at http://jugglernaut.blogspot.com.