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Valley Village, California
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Published On: Oct 08, 2008 10:46 PM
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Published On: Oct 08, 2008 10:46 PM
Sandra and Momo-chan's Bogus Adventure
For those who haven't been following my
blog, Momo-chan is my bicycle...
Well, it was the first day of actual classes to
teach. I got up early, took the train in, and had to "get off and push" about
four times while biking to work. 50 minutes to go 3.4 miles is not very
good.
I'd made a commitment to pick up a new key for my door at the new office I'm renting in North Hollywood, and in order to get there by 5 pm when the building office closed, I needed to catch the 3:45 train. I knew I could make it if I left my college by 3:15, but my assistant needed lots of direction today. I didn't get a lunch break, I stayed too long instructing my assistant, and didn't get out the door of my office until 3:23.
I decided to try to meet the train anyway. So, in 100 F (37.7 C) heat I pedaled downhill as fast as I could in third gear (the highest gear Momo-chan has.) I made it to the station in 22 minutes! (Average 9.2 mph, 14.9 kph; given traffic stoppages probably actual biking speed about 10 mph, 16 kph) But my watch was two minutes slow, and I missed the train.
At this point I was beginning to feel a bit picked-on. I decided to take a later train, that would leave me 3 miles(2) from my destination, instead of .75 miles(3) as the first train would have, and just bike the 3 miles. This alternate train arrived in 10 minutes. I was still out of breath from my ride to the station as I got on.
I alighted in Burbank at the downtown station at 4:05 pm. The terrain is a lot flatter there than around my college so I anticipated a 30 minute ride to my office... when I noticed the flat rear tire.
OK, so THAT was why it was so hard to pedal the last few blocks before I... didn't catch the train.
I walked the bike out of the downtown Burbank station, in the direction of my North Hollywood office. I called my husband on my cell phone while walking, hoping he could give me a lift, but he just looked up bus routes on his computer. I started heading for a stop at which I could catch a bus to take me home, which would mean abandoning my office visit. About a mile later, I reached a gasoline station, where I bought a large soft drink(1) and some chips (remember, I had no water with me, I'd had no lunch, and the temperature was still 100 F (38 C)). I chugged the soda, and put the chips in my bike pack. I decided to keep trying to reach my office. I filled the tire with air, and praying it would hold, started biking.
The tire held. I made it to my office at 5:05 pm. The final insult was that a train that I could have waited for passed me on the way to my office. But with that, my luck had finally turned.
The office manager was still in. My office lock had not been changed, so I got no new key, but she was kind enough to re-program my security code (which had somehow gotten erased from the system.) And she had a mailbox key for me, which hadn't been available last Friday.
I was shaking from dehydration and low blood sugar. I drank about two quarts of water, ate my chips, and rested for a while on my office floor. Then I biked over to the Burbank Airport train station, about .75 miles away, and caught a train back to Northridge where I'd parked my car.
If my mother were still alive, she'd ask at this point, "So, have you learned anything?" Knowing Mom, that would be a big hint that I should have learned to start using a car like a "normal" person(4). But actually, I have learned a few things:
----Update 9/03/04----
I'd made a commitment to pick up a new key for my door at the new office I'm renting in North Hollywood, and in order to get there by 5 pm when the building office closed, I needed to catch the 3:45 train. I knew I could make it if I left my college by 3:15, but my assistant needed lots of direction today. I didn't get a lunch break, I stayed too long instructing my assistant, and didn't get out the door of my office until 3:23.
I decided to try to meet the train anyway. So, in 100 F (37.7 C) heat I pedaled downhill as fast as I could in third gear (the highest gear Momo-chan has.) I made it to the station in 22 minutes! (Average 9.2 mph, 14.9 kph; given traffic stoppages probably actual biking speed about 10 mph, 16 kph) But my watch was two minutes slow, and I missed the train.
At this point I was beginning to feel a bit picked-on. I decided to take a later train, that would leave me 3 miles(2) from my destination, instead of .75 miles(3) as the first train would have, and just bike the 3 miles. This alternate train arrived in 10 minutes. I was still out of breath from my ride to the station as I got on.
I alighted in Burbank at the downtown station at 4:05 pm. The terrain is a lot flatter there than around my college so I anticipated a 30 minute ride to my office... when I noticed the flat rear tire.
OK, so THAT was why it was so hard to pedal the last few blocks before I... didn't catch the train.
I walked the bike out of the downtown Burbank station, in the direction of my North Hollywood office. I called my husband on my cell phone while walking, hoping he could give me a lift, but he just looked up bus routes on his computer. I started heading for a stop at which I could catch a bus to take me home, which would mean abandoning my office visit. About a mile later, I reached a gasoline station, where I bought a large soft drink(1) and some chips (remember, I had no water with me, I'd had no lunch, and the temperature was still 100 F (38 C)). I chugged the soda, and put the chips in my bike pack. I decided to keep trying to reach my office. I filled the tire with air, and praying it would hold, started biking.
The tire held. I made it to my office at 5:05 pm. The final insult was that a train that I could have waited for passed me on the way to my office. But with that, my luck had finally turned.
The office manager was still in. My office lock had not been changed, so I got no new key, but she was kind enough to re-program my security code (which had somehow gotten erased from the system.) And she had a mailbox key for me, which hadn't been available last Friday.
I was shaking from dehydration and low blood sugar. I drank about two quarts of water, ate my chips, and rested for a while on my office floor. Then I biked over to the Burbank Airport train station, about .75 miles away, and caught a train back to Northridge where I'd parked my car.
If my mother were still alive, she'd ask at this point, "So, have you learned anything?" Knowing Mom, that would be a big hint that I should have learned to start using a car like a "normal" person(4). But actually, I have learned a few things:
- I shouldn't skip lunch, no matter what. Hypoglycemia is not something to play with.
- Neither is dehydration.
- I should find some lightweight means to inflate a tire that I can carry with me. One of the tiny CO2 cylinders I've seen at bicycle stores may do.
- I MUST leave college at least 30 minutes before I need to catch a train.
----Update 9/03/04----
- It was a diet soda. I'm not quite crazy enough to dump sugar into my system when my body is already overreacting...
- It's 4.0 miles from the downtown Burbank metrolink station to my N.H. office, according to Yahoo! Maps.
- It's 1.0 mile from my N.H. office to the Burbank Airport Metrolink station, again according to Yahoo! Maps.
- That's "normal person my age;" Mom wanted me to act like her idea of an old lady at 25, let alone 51.
Posted: Wed - September 1, 2004 at 10:01 PM | | | | |