Back in mid-June I had to change meds, which radically changed my life. I couldn’t drive a car or ride my bike for three months. Holy crap. You don’t realize how important this is until it’s gone. I asked my doctor, “What about hopping, can I hop? Can I use a pogo stick to work? What about dogsled? Canoe?” Nope, nope, and nope. Hopping was ok, but none of the others. Dang.
I could relate to Curious George and his health issues.
But the Gods of Wheels were smiling down on me. My son, who was about to turn 16, just finished Driver’s Ed and he became my chauffeur for the summer. He did a fabulous job by the way, taking me wherever I needed to go all summer long. Thank you T’naa, you did a most excellent job! Well done, my boy, you are a true McNeil team member.
Teenager Rite of Passage: Today was our son's first day of driving a car... I really liked the facebook feedback from friends by the way.
At any rate, we both did exceptionally well, and yesterday marked the three month freedom date, and I’m now free to bicycle commute again! I thought a good way to celebrate was to have my favorite cycle shop “George’s Cycles” do a pro tune-up on my wheels. I named my bike “My Private Jet,” by the way. When people ask whether I can make it to their art openings, I tell them, “I’ll just have to see whether My Private Jet is up to it.”
Man, there's nothing like a professional tune-up; it means the universe is spinning with attitude.
This is a true thing of beauty, almost like a new lens or laptop right out of the box. The gears are beautiful. I'm so easy to please.
My first bike ride in 3 months was awesome. Ok, so it was a bit slow & I got winded, but it felt good. I have a feeling it'll take a few weeks to get back into bike shape. This is the front of our house. Let's ride, man.
This bike is cool because it’s an all-weather machine. I pack my laptop in the canvas saddlebags along with a change of clothes for when I get to school. In my opinion, it’s worth investing in a cool commuter bike because of all the money you save on gas. I noticed that it costed $63.00 to fill up my gas tank in my little Forester this summer. Dang!
Want to know the coolest part of being a bicycle commuter? I get to spend the money I save on gas on fun stuff! Yeah man.
Today I’m a bit sore from my first ride in three months, but am ready to hit the road again, it feels good. Get a bicycle and spin. For the good of the land, for the good of the air and for the just plain good. This is part of my Boise State University Arts and Humanities Fellowship by the way, because it has to do with helping to minimize the carbon dioxide emissions belched into the atmosphere from our automobiles.
Sometimes you've just got to stop and ask about the meaning of life.
Have fun and be safe.
Story Copyright Larry McNeil, 2011, All Rights Reserved.
The world is going to hell, but stop, get out of your car and ride with me. On a bike . Or if you can afford it, something with green power.
I’m a glass half-full kind ‘a guy who’s kind of scrappy, but also tries to offer solutions to current challenges. This is a story about how energy efficient cars are essentially for the wealthy and the CO2 bomb of a car is relegated to us middle class bums. Fight back, become a bicycle commuter (if you can, that is)!
We Love our Big Cars
In my opinion, one of the epic challenges of our times has to do with simply driving our cars. How can anything so innocent be so awful for the planet? If you’re like me, you’re tired of hearing about it, and just want to get in a big 1950’s convertible and go away somewhere fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love cars, and my all-time favorite is the 1959 Cadillac, the one with the huge fins.
Yep, I lust after this car, knowing full well how awful it is for the planet. If I were a millionaire, I'd buy it and convert it to green power like Neil Young did with his big old hog of a 1959 Lincoln car. It was parked at a local school, where the young man who owns it uses it as his everyday car.
I think it’s cool what Neil Young did with his team of engineers to make this Linc-Volt one of the greenest 1950’s cars on the planet. Part of what drove him (besides the cool wheels that is) is the notion that there had to be a guilt-free energy efficient way of driving his favorite car. Well, they pulled it off. It demonstrates to the car manufacturers that the technology exists to make a dramatically greener car than exists today.
Anyway, one of the realities about the Linc-Volt was that it’s currently cost-prohibitive to convert your car to go green. You have to be a millionaire in order to drive responsibly. How stupid is that? Anyway, it’s at times like these that I just want to go to Detroit and kick some auto-executive’s dumb asses back to the 1950’s. Dang.
Auto manufacturers need to build an affordable car like Neil’s. There is a void where a car like this should be dominant. If I were Obama, I’d make it mandatory that all cars have a carbon footprint smaller than Neil’s Linc-Volt; it’s not something that should be voted or debated, we’re pretty much out of time for niceties like that.
Becoming a Bicycle Commuter
If you’re a poor boy like me, you have fewer options of going green. I sure can’t afford to convert my existing car to green fuel consumption. It seems that the only people driving green powered cars are the wealthy. February marked my third year of bicycle commuting. I like avoiding the vultures at the gas station. I always get the feeling that the oil companies are the worst drug dealers of all time and I’m there to score my fix. Shut up and do me up, man. Don’t mess with that low octane stuff, gimme the real goods.
It’s pretty clear that not everyone can bicycle commute either, especially if you live somewhere only accessible via the freeway, or in a state where winter makes it oppressively hard to get around. Or if you have kids who need rides across town nearly every day. I had to give my son a ride nearly 20 miles across town for him to play sports, and I definitely drive my car when we have bad blizzards or if I’m sick. I’m clearly not a purist when it comes to bicycle commuting, but do pedal to work most of the year.
I decided that since I was going to become a bicycle commuter, I deserved to buy myself a high-quality commuter bike that was up for the task. You can buy a good used commuter bike for the price of two tanks of gasoline. Or if bicycle commuting is going to be serious for you, there are some really cool high-tech electric versions out there that can speed up your trip dramatically, or assist with pulling a load (bike trailers). I notice that some of these are over $1,000.00, but this is dirt cheap compared to the expense of a car and the rising cost of gasoline. I’d say that these are bargains that are also good for the planet with reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere, not to mention getting you healthier with the daily workouts.
I’d emphasize getting a helmet for the chance encounter with any of those idiot drivers out there. Cars still pull right in front of me when I have the right-of way all the time, many times missing me by mere inches. Get the helmet, even if it messes up your purty hair. I’m still surprised at how many people I see bicycling without a helmet.
This is what my wheels looked like in late March on my bicycle route here in Boise. It was still chilly, but the snow was all melted and it felt great to ride. I have panniers that are great saddle bags to carry my laptop, lunch and fresh clothes for when I arrive at work.
It does feel pretty sweet to be clean. No track marks, I’m off the Bozo gasoline. Well, almost.
Pointers for getting the stuff to bicycle commute
Whichever bike you get or use should be checked out by a bike mechanic or yourself if you’re good at it. You want something efficient and there’s nothing as self-defeating as a crummy bike that breaks down or is hard to pedal. Do your research for finding the best bike for yourself, including making sure it’s a good physical fit. Mountain bikes are sometimes a literal drag for road commutes, but the main thing is to just get moving with it and find something that fits your budget and works well.
Be safe, know the rules of the road and follow them. Some bike riders are a bit on the rude side and make a bad name for all of us. As mentioned above, wear a helmet.
Get a bike with all the gizmos you need to make the commute practical, like saddle bags, extra inner tubes, tools to change a flat tire, compact tire pump, water bottle, headlight, bike clothing for the weather where you live, etc.
Have fun.
The perfect lightweight jacket for wet and stormy weather. It's waterproof and designed for extreme activities like kayaking in the Arctic Ocean in a blizzard. By Maria Abraham; it's likely the most expensive extreme activity jacket out there, but also the best, leaving modern clothing light years behind.
If you're going to bicycle commute, you've got to splurge on a good seat like this leather Brooks version from the UK. It's still one of the best ones out there, way better than any of the contemporary high tech seats. It eventually conforms to your behind and will literally fit the contours and become a the most customized part of your bike, which is just plain too cool.
From the bike trail on my commute. Hey, isn't that a pot of gold down there on the bike trail?
Get a bike and have fun with it! Ride with me…
PS: Part of my Arts and Humanities Fellowship has to do with Bicycle Commuters and I’ll post more information about it soon.
Story by Larry McNeil, Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved
This flag could be interpreted as being slightly controversial because it is so shabby. It was but one of many everyday scenes that I’d seen in my travels all over America.
I’ll have to say that the shabbiest act I’ve witnessed in recent memory has to be the assaults on our educational system from commercial entities disguised as people with knowledge about education. They’re little more than crass and cheap attacks on our educational system that are embarrassingly transparent as to their shallow money grubbing motives.
This photograph is titled “The Dumbing Down of America.” It’s about all the assaults on our educational system these past few months that does something dramatically worse than displaying a shabby flag. As a father, I’m appalled at how cheaply politicians are selling out my son’s future. Instead of writing an editorial, I decided to make a photograph of what I’m thinking about, because it’s what I do.
This flag was on my bicycle commuting route and I saw it every day, under different weather and lighting conditions. It got gradually shabbier and shabbier until it looked like this from the prevailing wind. On one chilly early morning ride I pedaled by the flagpole and gave it a quick glance. It was flapping vigorously in the brisk wind, was actually glowing and was in tatters. This was certainly not normal, so I did a U-turn and went back to take a closer look. I was running late, but stopped anyway, because after all, this was photography.
After walking the entire circumference of the flagpole with my eye focused through the viewfinder, it was clear that the most dramatic view was with the flag backlit as I’d originally seen it on my bike. The light is what helped add punch to the photo and if it were any other time of day, it would’ve looked somewhat bland. I made about five photographs, looked at my watch and pedaled to school as fast as I could to make up for lost time.
Ironically enough, it kind of looked like a battle flag, flying heroically against the onslaught. Only this time, the enemy was corporate raiders, hell bent on sucking precious funds from already depleted education budgets.
I didn’t have time to look at the photographs for a couple weeks because things got busy at school. It was shot with a Canon G9 camera that was converted to shoot black and white infrared digital photos. There wasn’t much editing needed besides sharpening and adjusting the contrast with levels.
I like how it turned out, because it looks like how I feel about what’s happening with America. It’s simple and straightforward, “pulling no punches” as the idiom goes.
“One of the reasons I love photography is because of it’s inherent ability to be sharply relevant. If they don’t get the point, you whack them with the blunt end too.”
Story and Photograph Copyright Larry McNeil, 2010, All Rights Reserved
