of course i ride recreationally.

i really do just hop on my bike and go out and ride around. but sometimes that just seems like too much effort. not the exercise itself -- deciding where to go, whether to turn here or there, deciding when to stop... it all seems like a lot of deciding. especially where i live. so a big part of my so-called 'physical conditioning program' relies on my having a destination and something to be accomplished.

besides. gas prices have gotten plain silly. and with all that gas, we're mainly moving the car. a bike takes a lot less energy to move overall, and the food we power our bikes with is mighty tasty. food prices are going up, too, but we humans on bikes burn way fewer calories than our cars, and there are some high-calorie foods that are pretty darn cheap. and have i remembered to soliloquize about the yumminess of food? [insert soliloquy: 'food is yummy' here] that's not my personal reason for riding. but eating is absolutely a fun and sanctioned activity ancillary to cycling.

i'm here to encourage everyone to start biking their errands for all kinds of reasons besides just wasting food. (but i'll probably mention what i eat from time to time, just for the heck of it.)

if you think you can't bike to the hardware store, or the grocery store, get out a map. you'd be surprised at what you can accomplish by bicycle. no, you won't be able to buy a table saw or a shop vac by bike; and i strongly advise against attempting to get a 36 x 48" sheet of foam-cor home by bike. but other stuff -- groceries and library books, for instance, are bikable objects. you can definitely bike to the bank. you can bike to the auto-parts store, if you're car's broken, and if you bike other places too, you won't have a heart attack on the way home with your new alternator.

so stay tuned. i'll be relating my adventures cycling in downers grove illinois, and environs.