First Bike Ride

Whoo fuggin' sweaty and exhausted! I'd forgotten that biking used different muscles from walking everywhere on God's grey sidewalk. It's a good thing I'm in relatively good shape from the aforementioned walking, but my quads feel like lead.

I also have to remind myself that I can never find anything in Bethesda. Every time I see that something is close to the Bethesda Metro stop, I figure I can hop the Metro and wander around until I find it. This is never the case. Actually, it is seldom the case with places I think I can find anywhere, but wandering around Bethesda for an entire afternoon looking for the Big Planet Comics stuck in my head. Lucky thing I eventually found the entrance to the Capital Crescent Trail, because hauling a bike all that way on the Metro and not being able to find something is even worse than just going all that way et cetera.

So I rode all the way from Bethesda to Georgetown. It felt great-- working the legs, the heart, the lungs, feeling the speed and the wind past my ears... I could hardly keep from grinning the whole way. Before I knew it I was right in front of the Georgetown Loews Theaters, so I figured I'd take in a movie.

There are so many movies playing right now that I want to see that I just went in and bought a ticket for the next one that started... which happened to be "Intolerable Cruelty." Manoman the Coens still got it! An incredibly silly, yet simultaneously dark and cynical film. I was giggling like an idiot through most of the parts when I wasn't laughing out loud. (Though that could have been theresidual endorphin rush) And leave it to the Coens to have the biggest laugh (skip to beginning of next paragraph if you wish to avoid a possible spoiler) be when a guy accidentally blows his own brains out.

Poor planning moment of the day: By the time I got out of the theater (the movie had started at 5) it was already getting dark out, and most of the stores in Georgetown that actually interest me had already closed. Including the bike shop, so I couldn't drop in and buy a light for the way home.

So, eyes wide open to the point of watering, staring through the dark to avoid running over pedestrians or off the path, periodically being blinded by oncoming cyclists with more tricked out bikes, I set back for Bethesda. Which is kinda silly, seeing as it's no closer to home than Georgetown... but something in me demanded the completion of the circuit even at the risk of my own physical well-being. Between the stress and the fact that the return trip is uphill (though at a steady, gradual rate), I had to pull over once or four times to catch my breath.

But "just like riding a bicycle" is an apt cliche (as so many cliches surprisingly are, when you actually experience them). After ten minutes I was as comfortable as I'd ever been on a bike... which, sad to say, isn't really all that comfortable. But if I spend all my days off like this (getting earlier starts in future, and doing any desired shopping before the matinee) I'll soon feel ready to battle automobile traffic and commute to work! And I'll reclaim my dangerously close to outdated reputation as a cinephile in the process. (Ooh! Bike to the video store!)
- posted by Bob @ 6:36 PM