Bikes!

[Kitsune]

I'm hoping to get out for a bit tonight, but the forecast is for more rain here in NYC. I really should drag a camera along the next time I do a ride through central NJ - some really beautiful scenary up in the "mountains" of Princeton.

This is why my bike has sat on the deck and needed serious cleaning: we've had rain in Florida every afternoon now for two months! And while rain makes riding difficult on the roads, it has aboslutely killed what I love to do, which is ride the bike paths in the parks which are all closed due to flooding -- nearly all of them are currently underwater, so they've locked the gates and I've been forced to hit the streets. The problem is that I'm very nervous in traffic, perhaps because I'm not so used to navigating it yet and wet roads compound the danger. It didn't take me long to see why many people dish out good money for disc bakes! That, and the rain streak up the back is always ugly. Note to self: fenders wouldn't hurt.

God, I hate riding in traffic. I've never felt so close to death so many times in so few miles.

So I've taken to riding my bike around campus, which has lighter traffic in the evenings that permits lots of bicyclists and rollerbladers. And I should take my camera, too, for the, uh, "scenery". Its the only thing that breaks up the monotony of riding around in circles on the streets.