Late last February I signed-on with another employment/placement
agency. They sent me out to this warehouse located in the Forgotten
Wastelands (east Richmond, BC -- @ No. 8 Road and where Blundell
Road would be. Hbc Logistics, to be precise.)
When I signed on, during the interview the matter of my un-driver-ness
came up. My employer asked me how I expected to get there; I suggested
cycling. She expressed serious doubts as to the viability of that
approach, and insisted I hook up with another employee to get a
car-pooling ride part of the way, with me taking public transit to get
to the meeting point with the guy who drives. So, fool that I am, I
heeded her Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt, and it's been costing me between
$22.50 and $32.50 per week in carfare and gasoline stipends. When
talking to other folks about the feasability of riding to work, I've
been getting the same pessimism.
Yesterday, my ride found another job, apparently leaving me high & dry
transportation-wise. So today, just for laffs and a change of scenery,
I rode to the job site. Y'know what? No sweat! Piece o' cake. In
fact, the ride was a little boringingly unchallenging. The first third
is just bombing down Vancouver's South Hill, to the brief ugliness of
crossing the Knight Street bridge. The other two thirds are on flat,
quiet roads (Jacombs Road going to the destination, and No. 6 Road
coming back) and the shared pathway that used to be the Westminster
Highway. After looking at the map I determined it's a mere 8-miler,
one way -- from Main & 41st in Vancouver to No. 8 Road & Blundell
in Ditchmond. Actually, the ride was fairly pleasant, and punctuated
with sightings of wild mallards and wring-neck pheasants, and short,
little April sprinkles of precipitation that didn't get me wet but
refreshingly cooled me off a little.
Don't listen to non-riders' opinions about the do-ability of riding
to places. But I allow much of their concern is because the ride
into work would be at night. It seems a lot of folks don't believe
cycling can be safely done at night.
Anyways, it feels good to be transportationally independent again,
and I'm looking forward to my ride to work tomorrow night. I'm
good-naturedly trying not to rue the time & money I've wasted
because I let people convince me that I have to get to work by
car. Whadda momentary lapse of reason on my part. But I'm prone
to those :-)
In the meantime, I'm gonna get some fresh AA cells for my blinkie
and my Planet Bike Beamer-3. And maybe a reflective vest. The
generator lights are still functioning well, as per usual.
The ride home in the morning after work is likely going to be
the tough part. Especially the crawl back up the South Hill
after a shift of hand-bombing heavy freight. But the job site
has a Coke machine in the lunch room, so I can snag a can of
Coke on the way out. And maybe a Coffee Crisp.
I don't have to worry 'bout suits 'n ties & sweatin', so I
can ride to work in my work clothes :-p
And good riddance to crowded buses and SkyTrain, and freezing
my ass off, standing around at the 22nd St. Station while
waiting for my ride into work.
cheers,
Tom
--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca