9 posts tagged “bikes”
I was with my mum in Amsterdam, starting our four-day rock 'n' roll tour of that great city. Read it here.
Photos of the day include:
And my watercolor box...
I should warn you that Mum and I are planning a trip driving down the California seacoast, along Highway 1, next spring... It will be another crazy wild time!
Pearl
Recent blogposts on my "Other" blog:
Changes If you haven't noticed, I've changed the title of da blog. Since I won't be in Paris this fall, but at My U in DFW (not bitter, not bitter, not bitter), I thought that it would be appropriate... I'll keep the same name of the Vox blog--the original one--and work around the idea of "Paris" while not being there. (8.19.09)
Skirting the Bike First, I love the skort. It's shorts, it's a skirt... it's a skort. (8.18.09)
Favorite Things: Family Style This album by Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my favorite's of the SRV canon. I fell in love with his music just before he died, when I was in grad school (for the last time), but didn't come across this album until much later, when I was gathering up all the studio and live work I could. (8.14.09)
David Byrne on biking If biking wasn't cool enough (environment, freedom, wind in your face, etc.) David Byrne has published The Bicycle Diaries, his personal observations on biking. (8.13.09)
Review: Split Pea Soup Cafe Tuesday night I ate at this new branch of an El Paso-based chain. I had read about it in Daily Candy Dallas, where I get a number of good tips about new places to eat. (8.13.09)
Dreams One good result of this summer is that I am dreaming again. (8.11.09)
Pearl
Now that I am a proud bike owner-rider, I have been scouting bike-friendly information.
A CUP OF JO: NYCity Bike Types
GWADZILLA: D.C. guy who rides bikes and writes philosophy about riding bikes....
ECOVELO: I love this blog for its style as well as its commitment to green living.
VELIBE: Paris's system of rent your own bikes, available all over town for short term rentals.
FAT CYCLIST: Funny guy, interesting blog.
COPENHAGEN CYCLE CHIC: Wonderful pictures, and not all "spandex" stuff, for riders lite like me.
NEW YORK TIMES: Urban cycling and the gender gap.
CHANGE YOUR LIFE. RIDE A BIKE: A great blog about people across the country riding bikes for lots of reasons.
BIKE SKIRT: Girls and bikes.
SHE RIDES A BIKE: Flagstaff, Arizona woman writes about biking and style. My kind of blog.
Pearl
'Cause I know everyone is waiting: pictures of The Bike.
I've been out riding it the last two days, and it goes like a dream. Next: covered panniers with a rear rack.
Oh, and here's the new sofa, too:
Pearl
Here it is.
Well, it would be, but I am being restrained by my computer for "administrative issues" so it won't let me download photos. It doesn't recognize me an administrator... which basically means that my computer is telling me that I am not the boss of it.
Which is true... but I digress.
The blue bike in the foreground: my exact bike.
I rode The Bike home and felt the wind flying through my hair. Whee!
OK, I have short hair cut extra short for summer heat and wore a ball cap... but still: Wheeeeeee!
Remember this post on frugality back this spring? Well, I got the front basket (detachable, too!)
the bell
and even light blue color-coordinated grips.
All on monies saved from coupons, deals, EBates, and selling books on Amazon. Now I'm goin to start saving for the next "big" project: a new mattress and box spring. Good times.
Whhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Pearl
Yes, it is Friday, which is a No Class Day. My big plans include:
1. Picking up THE BIKE: walking to the shop, getting my photo taken (the shop's Friday ritual!), then riding home. Ah, exercise... in the blazing/relentless/nasty DFW midday heat... good plan, eh?
2. Dinner out with girlfriends at chic local eatery featuring pizza and salads: Fireside Pies.
3. Laundry (gotta love the No Class Day, which translates to Home Rituals and Cleaning Day).
4. Reading the latest issue of Dwell magazine, my new favorite magazine. I dream of buying/building a small pre-fab house... also Entertainment Weekly and Fast Company.
5. Reading about Parisian visual culture of the 19th century. More interesting than it sounds, perhaps.
6. Replying to emails I have neglected all week.
7. Tuning my radio to Michael Jackson tribute stations, hopefully for the pre-scary years. Rest in peace, MJ.
8. Feeling envy about my friends' trip to Scotland: weeks in that lovely country, visiting Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the B&B I stayed in the Mactalla.
9. Did I mention picking up THE BIKE? Oh, I did.
Pearl
Tomorrow--Friday--I will pick up my NEW BIKE!
Yes. I ordered it on Tuesday, and will pick it up TOMORROW!
Can you tell I am excited EXCITED!
I hope I will have pictures, but my camera is refusing to intersect interrogate interact interface with the laptop, so it may not be immediately possible.
HOWEVER
it is a light blue Cruiser bike, with light blue rubber grips, a white front basket, a side mirror, a zingy bell, and, yes, the LOCK OF LOCKS so that it doesn't go walkabout.
I will be very cool, in a short-middle-aged-lady-in-a-skirt cool manner.
Pearl
Ok, I am obsessed.
I looked back over the last two frugality posts. These are not revolutionary ideas (no fooling: and for the record I never thought so) and they need a little perspective.
Obviously, although many of us have ignored the facts, these basic ideas for saving money have been around for a while--at least since the Depression--even if most of us have played fast and loose with them. I certainly have.
Perspective on my New Frugality (which is very personal, by the way): Despite having now spent more than half my life working and earning a salary (and that includes the years in grad school when I had university-sponsored jobs and also worked part-time outside jobs to avoid racking up too many loan dollars), I have played fast and loose with my earnings. I did not live within them (that's why God gave credit cards to recently graduated students) and I did not deny myself things I wanted, although I flirted with the notion that I was responsible with my money.
Not so much. Not as bad as some, certainly but not as bad as others. Sort of like an addiction, where one manages it by being sort of honest (but not completely, so not really).
My personal point about the New Frugality is that the time has come to stop being "sort of honest," for me and to deal in the Real World. Seeing my IRA drop by 1/3, my My U retirement fund drop by a very similar percentage, and my credit card daily % rise to over 20%... that has made me get real. I called the credit card companies and "negotiated" a lower % -- by only a couple of points -- but I know they will pop back up right damn quick. I have no control there.
I hear our annual raises will be miserable -- and that admission comes from our administration, not rumor -- and I have no control there.
Until the stock market does something positive again, for an extended period of time, I cannot improve my retirement fund or my IRA... I have no control there.
Where do I have control? My spending, my saving activities, my lifestyle.
Let's talk coupons, for example.
I used to play fast and loose with coupons... sometimes I used them, sometimes forgot them, who cared? Save $.30? Who cared?
Here's my new attitude: Since January I've saved close to $400.00 by using coupons, store cards, EBates, shopping sales... and mostly from grocery, healthy, and beauty items.
How do I know? I opened a savings account, at a different bank -- one that offered nearly 3% (last May) and a $25 bonus for starting an account with as little as $2... which is what I deposited. Other than that initial $2, since I opened the account I've banked my weekly savings -- which I can document from the register receipts I used to ignore. I've banked two EBates checks and the third will come in May. I include everything, including the $.20 discount I get at Whole Foods for using my bag instead of theirs... yep, carry in in your own bag and you make money. Carry in two bags... three... See what I mean. Of course you do have to fill those bags, but still.
So my savings are no longer invisible, not just a pat on the back as I walk to the car and forgotten. They're adding up, more rapidly than I thought. Some weeks I've banked as much as $20-some while spending only $50... that's smart.
A good part of that is coupons. Specifically, manufacturer's coupons for products I use or want to try; store coupons for products I use or want to try for a specific store; or, like CVS, "extra savings" dollars I can use to discount my total receipt. Grocery stores triple or double some coupons: that's turning $.30 into $.90, or $.50 into $1. Hey! Or $1.50 off my total bill.
I don't buy things I won't use or don't like, if I can't use the coupon I don't force myself (saving $.40 while spending an unnecessary $4 is ridiculous), and I have to spend time weekly organizing the coupons before going to the store... or I forget to use them, and that's a waste. There's nothing like having to go back to the store office and explain you want money on a coupon you forgot to hand to the cashier to make you feel both smart and stupid at the same time.
I am also budgeting the time I spend feeling stupid down to a minimum, thank you.
By June I hope to have about $500.00 saved, because... I have a dream.
Not necessarily this bicycle, but a bicycle. So that I can ride it to My U daily in all weathers (possible here in Big D) without having to drive car the 1.5 miles round trip that irritates me as waste of gas, waste of everything. Instead I can ride my bike.
Sigh.
Remember these?
And these?
Of course, I had no idea what bikes cost any more. In that case I will be looking for a used bike in good condition. Because there is stuff that goes with bikes: a helmet, a lock, university registration (of course!), lights, and, purely for aesthetic purposes, a tinkling bell, a silver wire basket for the front, and panniers for the back.
With the basket and the panniers, I can ride the bike to the nearest grocery store, the nearest bookstore, the gym, and other places, thereby using the bike within a two- to three-mile range. Good for my heart, good for my figure, good for the environment... wow, I am being a good global citizen.
So suddenly I am putting in the time to clip coupons, read circulars, sign up for cards and use them... and transfer money into savings.
Rules for me:
- have a motivational and visible goal (benefits: the bike and its stuff)
- think consciously about what I will eat (benefits: health and savings)
- set a weekly time to coordinate coupons, circulars, stocks/necessities, and make lists (benefits: organized shopping where I never come home without things I really need)
- shop the list -- with only 1 extra allowed per store, something not on the list (benefits: I don't feel deprived and don't kick myself over spending)
- keep the savings somewhere I can transfer in easily but cannot get out easily (benefits: no guilt!)
And sometime in June I'll be pedaling my new bike over to your house to show off my stylin' style and my global goodness. You'll know it is me because I'll ring my tinkling bell as I coast up to your door.
Pearl
Some of the many houses, bikes, canalboats, and so forth I captured with my point-and-shoot.
See more on my page at Flickr.
Pearl
