Brew, Bees, and Bikes

I haven't yet got into my brewing experiences, but I promise I will.  I've got a lot to catch up on with the bees.  But I want to take a time out to write about another thing that consumes my everyday life: biking.

Yesterday I took the kids to a long overdue trip to the dentist.  It was a special trip for three reasons.  First, all three of us sat in the dentist's chair - my first visit in about three years (more frequently than some of you, I'll bet!).  Second, out of about 100 teeth, zero cavities.  Yahoo!  And finally, I drove the kids on my new bike. Check it out!

It's a pedal assist electric bike.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it means the harder you pedal the harder the electric motor works.  Hills melt away and headwinds feel like tailwinds.  But with two kids on the back (about 220lbs), I still worked up a good sweat.  I got the bike, which is made in the Bay Area, from a shop on Ocean Ave by a great guy, parent of SF public school kids who we just found out went to the same middle school that Lena goes to! 

If you don't already know, Tala and I sold our car a year and a half ago.  Sometimes we really miss having a car.  Particularly when it's raining, or when a trip within the city means an hour travel time, but mostly it's been a great experience.  We feel good about making a green decision like this, we are saving a bunch of money, and friends and family have been very generous about letting us borrow a car when we really need one.  I've always gotten around by biking, Tala by public transit and the kids are at the age where they are learning to get around the city by public transit as well, so the transition really wasn't that hard.  When someone

really needed a ride, like Lena coming home from Hebrew School, I would ride out with our tandem bike, and we ride home together.  But it's a lot of work for me and I can only take one rider at a time.

Now I have the minivan of bikes!  I just got the bike last Thursday, but I've already put over 30 miles on it giving rides to Tala and one of our neighbors up from Glen Park BART (almost 300 lbs!), Lena several times (once with her and little Imani), including a nice ride through the panhandle and some of Golden Gate Park after the kids Shakespeare Camp performance.

Middle Age Crisis

I think living to be about 90 sounds pretty grand.  It means possibly being able to hold my great grand kids! and who knows what else?! Human Mars landing? World peace?  I'm 45 now so I guess I have to concede that I'm middle aged.  But I'm embracing that title, and I maybe I'm using it as an excuse for all of my new ventures. But that's OK, right?  These are all good things!  I'm being green, staying active, exercising both my body and mind.  This year I've started brewing beer, keeping bees and I bought a new $XXXX (let's just say, "a very expensive") bike (Hey! at least it's not a sport's car!).  And now I've started a blog.