As I wrote this for my journal/mailing list I thought that it might be appreciated here as well.
...
On my way out the front door every morning I grab my cycle computer and my bicycle keys.
The computer has nifty functions like the ability to tell me how fast I am going. I don't find this
all that necessary. The main purpose of the computer, for me, is to see how far I've gone. My
bicycle gets far more use as something for exercise than it does as something for transportation. I
currently live in the downtown area. This is where things are happening. Even with my bum leg, I can
get to all of the local places of interest on foot.
I unlock my bicycle and snap the computer into place.
When I am at the school I usually only use one of the locks. It has a lock built into the bike.
There is a second lock that immobilizes the rear wheel. And the third lock is a cable lock. The
second lock gets used when I am parking in the daylight in an unguarded lot or when I plan to be
somewhere for a good long while. The third lock is only used when I am parking at night or in an
area where I don't trust the safety of my bike.
Now, I creep out of the school rather slowly while trying to be unobtrusive. Possibly because of the
speeds with which I am known to go racing through the compound the school has instituted a new rule
about not taking bicycles into the compound during school hours. I'm not taking the bicycle into the
compound during school hours. I'm taking the bicycle -out- of the compound during school hours.
Once out on the street I head north to start a long, slow, circle around the block. I could go
south and make it to breakfast quicker, but I like to be going the same direction as the majority
of the traffic.
I usually end up almost completely circling the block rather than waiting for the green light to
cross Zhongshan Street at Likang Road. I normally cross at Pingan Road where the lights change far
more frequently and go back down Zhongshan Street. At the first pedestrian bridge I turn right into
a small alley. This hutong probably has a name but it doesn't have a sign.
Here I stop my bicycle.
I do not get off.
I order my breakfast from a man whose resteraunt is mounted on the back of a cargo bicycle. After
lunch is over, he will pack up his resteraunt into the cargo area and bicycle away.
I rest while he makes my bai ji mou. These are a muslim dish originally from Xi'An. They are
basically pita bread baked in a coal fired oven (also on the back of the bicycle) and filled with
chopped meat and hot pepper.
I eat the first and put the second in my basket.
Now, I bicycle farther down the alley and get sweet fried pastry filled with red bean paste. This
shop is actually in a building - for now. The block is being knocked down. The one across the
street, which sells the same kind of fried pastries, is only there in the mornings and is bicycle
mounted. It is a big shop. Three bicycles for one resteraunt.
I get my four or five sweet pastries at whichever resteraunt has the shortest line and bicycle out
of the hutong. At no point have I yet gotten off my bicycle. So far I have spent the equivalent of
37.5 cents American.
As I go along slowly with the morning rush crowd I periodically reach into my basket and pull out a
sweet pastry. When I am finished the sweet pastries and am at a traffic light I pull out the now
cool pita pocket. I usually pull to the side of the road to eat this. I can eat it while moving but
have found that I drop an unacceptable amount of the greasy meat on my shirt if I do this.
Then I bicycle back to the school and park out front among 200 or so other faculty, staff, and
visitor bicycles. The students have their own bicycle parking area. It's at the back of the school.
-M