Woman on her bike has been off line for a while, as she figures out how to manage living in a new city. Having a busted shoulder since April hasn't really helped. I stopped riding, because my shoulder hurt. It still hurts. So I've gone back to bike commuting. Last week was the first 5 days in a row I've done in months. My shoulder still hurts like heck, but my spirits are 100 per cent improved. I'm in for months of physio therapy, so I decided I may as well ride.
I've figured out a safe route to work where I won't get sideswiped by Adelaide Metro busses, and where I can manoeuvre relatively smoothly up the super narrow curb cuts built as an afterthought into the sidewalks around here. These cuts in footpath are theoretically built for wheelchairs, but I can tell you that a wheelchair user would have one hell of a time using them, as they're too steep sided.
My route to work is about the same number of kilometres I was covering by bus, and doesn't involve bus drivers who drive in the vomit inducing jerky stop/start manner that flings passengers who try to stand up too early straight into the windscreen. I also have learned that a lot of the bus riders on my normal route to work really really need to stop peeing their pants and take a shower more often. I'd forgotten how, in car-centric Australia, it's somewhat low class to use public transport.
I hook into the Torrens Linear path, which toodles along the Torrens river, winding through pretty trees, and a phalanx of huge magpies, which I know will soon start attacking me as an intruder, as spring is nesting season, and these little beauties are super-territorial. Perhaps I will be painting my helmet to have a set of evil eyes on the lid to scare the buggers off.
I've also figured out a place to keep my bike, inside the building, with access to a locker and a shower.
It's been a matter of trial and error, plenty of the latter, but I've done this all before, and, because I know it's worth it, I just stuck with it, and will keep on going until it's perfect.
I just realised that it's coming up to the 10 year anniversary of when I first started bike commuting year round. My oh my, what a lot has happened in the past 10 years.
