Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Two wheels is all I need.

Winston from Nobody Asked wrote recently of scooters and bicycles in this age of rising gas prices. His roomie bought a bicycle and he,Winston, like me, really, really wants to buy a scooter.

With thoughts of moving to the lovely and scooter/bicycle-friendly beach town of Fernandina Beach, Florida, I've had a great time imagining myself, um, scooting around with no need for a car as I go about my daily routine, whatever it may be. However, it looks like that move won't be happening this year and so I'll remain a Nashvillian for the time being. The want for a scooter is still strong, but Nashville still feels like a bit of a challenging habitat for owning such a transportation device.

I wonder where I'd park it safely in my apartment complex, at work, or pretty much anywhere else. (I'd most assuredly use scootrak.com to keep track of it.) I wonder if I'd get a boo-boo. I wonder how I'll feel about it being my only vehicle on rainy/cold/snowy days. At least I imagine that folks are getting better about sharing the road with scooters. They're in the news and I see more and more of them out there everyday.

As for bicycles, I'd like to own on of those as well. Riding to and from work on one wouldn't be advised (six miles each way, no bike lanes, and a ride home at close to midnight each night), but I'd love to ride one on the local Greenways as often as possible. Bell Road at Percy Priest Dam to Lebanon Pike to Two Rivers Park to Shelby Bottoms Park anyone? A regular dose of that might get me back into my 32 waist pants. Or at least I wouldn't have to work so hard to button the 34s that I like so much.

Anyway, I'm just writing when I should be sleeping. The kids will have me up early in the morning and I can't stay up writing about being healthy if it'll just lead to me waking up tomorrow all sleepy and cranky.

Here's hoping your day is better than you thought possible. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Pen Ultimate said...

Yes, I'm embarrassed about the boo-boo. I've not dumped a bike in a long time, but for some reason, it got away from me when I was stopped at that intersection. At least I was able to grunt it to a soft landing. :)

I think what it was was that the ground was too far from my left foot when I went to plant -- farther than I had calculated, mentally, anyway! That allowed inertia to do the rest. 367lbs. of Taiwanese machinery vs. 215lbs. of Jeffraham!

I swear, as soon as I win the lottery (and Taiwan hires Santa's elves, to make some more freakin' scooters), I'm buyin' you one.
.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link... I live in Franklin and my office is in Nashville on Trousdale, so I have a good opportunity everyday to see how many folks are riding motorized 2-wheelers of some sort. The number is fast growing. Soon we'll look like those scenes from Calcutta and Ho Chi Minh City and Rome etc. etc., -- streets clogged with thousands of Vespas, Hondas, Harleys, Suzukis, etc., all jockeying for position and advantage...