Friday, February 19, 2010

crackling with weevils

Snow. Cold. Cold. Snow. Slush. Mud. Salt. Cold. Muddy salt slush. Grey.

It's starting to crack me. The weather has been bad for so damn long now. I'm tired of cars splashing dirty slush on me, getting ice in my goat scruff and nose hairs, and not being able to ride off road. Actually, not being able to mountain bike is the thing that's really getting me. But there's 40 inches of snow on the ground, and there's another storm on the way. I can't even put my bike in the rack at school anymore.
  
That little thing under the pile of snow was once a functional bike rack. Apparently 12 grand a year does not include winter bike parking. I guess if I really want to use it I should stop whining and go dig it out since there are only three people on the entire campus that ride bikes to school.

After riding home from my first set of classes, I drove back to the school yesterday. And I felt like a lazy asshole. But as I found out that morning, there are people who live on campus and still drive to class. And they're fine with it. The future of America:

"I have to drive to class. I live in courts across the street."
"There's not a sidewalk?"
"Yeah I guess there is. But it would be a really far walk. I have to drive."
(the walk is half of a mile. and that includes a stop in the cafeteria for coffee.)

UPG better start including motorized wheel chairs in the tuition so people don't have to put wear and tear on their cars (they need those for more vital tasks, like running* to the choice for cigarettes.) (*"running somewhere" means that the person is going to drive. people who run with their legs are considered "fitness nuts", which insinuates that they are insane)

And why the hell does Pandora have an ad that interrupts the music every three minutes now? Even free internet radio isn't free anymore. And my backspace key just got stuck, forcing me to retype this sentence. Yarrrg.

Alright. I'm done bitching. But like most people on the east coast, I'm also done with winter. I'm gonna go ride my bike now.      

3 comments:

aaron said...

dude...in undergrad there were apartments on one corner of the campus. Parking in the center of campus. People would drive their cars to the parking in the center of campus for those classes, then drive to the far end of campus and spend 20m driving in circles for a spot to open up, end up late for class, then drive home. The entire campus was a half mile long.

At my current job we have two buildings separated by 1/4 mile. I've seen the director and deputy directors actually drive between the buildings...in separate cars.

They think I'm crazy for riding a bike 3 miles to work.

David Sopko said...

Road Frick yesterday. The dog walkers beat down a nice solid ridable track.

Montana said...

Aaron- it's insane. I've always know that people were lazy, but this just takes it to a whole new level. The average Walmart shopper is willing to walk farther across a parking lot than these kids

And thanks for le tip Dave.