My bike was stolen. It was such a drag to walk down my back stairs yesterday morning, my helmet on, ready to ride to work, and find it gone. The fucker either got through the gate or jumped one of the fences to get in. Some neighbors had their bikes stolen a few months ago, and I knew I should have been locking it up in back, but you’d think a gated yard would be safe enough, right? Not in this town. I spent all day walking around in a daze, seeing other people on bikes all over the City. I felt like Pee Wee Herman, imagining everyone on my bike!

I’m bummed--it’s not that the bike was that spectacular--I’d bought it used for $100.00 at the beginning of the summer. It was old and scuffed, and the gears weren’t perfect, and the frame was just a little too short for me, but I loved it. I’ve been biking a couple miles a day between work and home, and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s funny, I’ve actually been meaning lately to write an entry about biking, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Now’s a good time, I guess.

Me and Exercise are new acquaintances. I’d wanted to buy a bike for months and months, maybe even years, before I broke down and did it. It’s part of an overall focus I’ve been attempting to bring to my physical health and well-being. I haven’t really broached these topics in my blog yet, but something to know about me is that I’ve always been pretty sedentary, and I’ve never really chosen to exercise of my own volition. Other than occasional swimming or riding bikes around the neighborhood, my childhood was glued to the TV. Moaning in PE class, ducking behind the bleachers to skip a lap during mandatory mile-runs marked my teen years. And aside from a five-year period in which I walked around voting precincts every day, knocking on doors for the peace movement, my adulthood has shaped up to be a lot of food-based socializing (brunch anyone?), catching up on the TV shows I was “too good for” in my righteous Santa Cruz hippy phase, and, lately, a lot of writing (not a bad thing at all) and foolin’ around on the internet. These hobbies, along with my current career shifting papers around in pretty patterns on a desk, ensures most of my waking hours are spent planted firmly on my not so firm ass.

Enter one old and scuffed blue Giant Iguana mountain bike purchased at my local used bike shop. I’ve been so proud of myself these last few months--I’ve been biking every day, and in San Francisco, man, it’s a workout. The ride to work is easy, all downhill, but the ride home is all sweat and feeling my heart pump and my limbs move in a way I haven’t in so very long. Or ever. So, I’m afraid that getting my bike stolen is going to dissipate all my psychological momentum to exercise. I haven’t biked in a day, and already I’m feeling like a slug. I hate walking. It’s so slow and boring. I walk a lot to get around town, anyway, so it’s not as if I’m completely catatonic in my daily routine. But biking is so fun. It’s exhilaration, it’s feeling the wind rush over me, it’s gliding with a crunch through piles of autumn leaves on the pavement and covering miles and miles of town that I never see when I’m on my feet or on the bus. I know it sounds hokey, but biking has really empowered me, because it allows me to get from Point A to Point B with my own body -- it’s being in motion, instead of sitting in a car or a bus and being moved. And that forward momentum carries into the rest of my life--I’m active physically, and therefore I know I can be active mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

So why don’t you just quit whining and buy a new bike, already? Well, I will do that eventually. But the thing is, having my bike stolen at this moment in my life is pretty inconvenient because I’m flat broke. My hours have been cut down at work, ‘cause, along with most businesses during this economic bust period, the print shop I work for has been bleeding red ink all year. Even my boss has been stopping his paychecks in the last several months. It’s been nice, in a sense, ‘cause I have Wednesdays off, and thus can spend time writing (like now) and doing errands that I never have energy for evenings after work. And even though I’m technically working part time, I still retain my benefits, which is awesome. But the cash flow is a trickle now, and the months of supplementing with the ol’ credit card have caught up to me to the point that I can’t spend any money except on rent and bills and paying off the debt. So it’s gonna be a while.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll write more about the job situation and what I’m gonna do to straighten out the money thing in another entry.

I’m feeling okay, despite the loss of my bike. I put up a few signs around my neighborhood, and posted a lost & found message on a local online bulletin board, and put the word out at the bike shop I bought it from to warn them that if the bike comes in, it was stolen. I don’t think I’ll ever see it again, but it felt like the right thing to do, to put just a bit of energy out there. Meantime, I’ll find enjoyment in walking and bussing again. Always good people watching on San Francisco Muni.

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