dump the pump

In honor of National Dump the Pump Day, I'm riding my bike to work and "reprinting" something I wrote along time ago about how much I love my bike.

Somebody overheard me singing my "I love my bike" song this afternoon. It goes:

I love my bike
I love my bike
I love my bike
I love my bike

and so on ... to the tune of Three Blind Mice. Try it. It is fun.

Almost as fun as riding your bike.

I was riding my bike and singing my song. Happy as a little bird that can ride a bike. Sailing through the neighborhood that follows along a creek all the way to the Spider House when I heard a rustle of leaves and a jingle of keys floating in the air nearbyabove. And I spied a ladder leaning against the side of a house nearbybeside.

And then legs on that ladder attached to shorts attached to a shirt attached to a neck attached to the biggest damn grin I ever did see. And he was grinning right at me. While I was singing "I love my bike. I love my bike. I love my bike."

I do love my bike. Riding is like being burned and born again. You go up a hill and your thighs feel like they'll snap off and go flying to opposite corners of the earth. Or like you might spontaneously combust. And then the hill crests and suddenly you are in heaven; the fire falls away like a phantasm and you sprout wings. Or maybe it is like a magic carpet. That may very well be it. A magic carpet. With wheels and gears.

I secretly like riding in traffic. It's like running with rhinoceri. I like to sweat. I like to roll around corners, benches, people. I like riding down the streets in downtown that nobody is on after 6 o'clock, after work is over.

I like taking my bike on and off the racks at the front of the bus. It used to scare the hell out of me, but now I feel special and important. The bus is waiting for me to take care of my business. I don't want to make other people wait and I don't dillydally, swear to GOD. But I like the fact that it is part of the bus driver's job to lower the bus so I can get my bike on the rack. I like the fact that no driver is going to get impatient and run me over. This is very important to me.

I am not a biker. I am not a racer. I am not a workout manic or a mountain biker. I am someone who loves to ride my bike.

How sleek and free you feel on the bike. How like a ghost. How faraway from the lost world of cars. How nice it is to greet passersby with a nod. To speak to nearly everyone on the street. How good it feels to be outside and alive and going nowhere in particular, slow and then fast and then slow and then really really fast.

How big the world is. How exhilirating a tiny bit of danger.

A bike ride is like an endorphin pump. A bike ride is a needle pulling thread. A bike ride is a few of my favorite things. A bike ride is like parasailing at two feet off the ground. A bike ride is a great way to see the city. A bike ride is my new best friend. A bike ride is the dream of a new century.