I've been doing a lot of bicycling to try to get off some excess pounds ... and meeting with some success, but I've been noticing something on my recent rides in my little beach town that has me scratching my head.

Cell Phones and bicycles.

The number of people here at the beach that seem to be getting around by bicycle looks to be growing. That's a good thing. Despite the insistance by our city fathers that there is no parking problem at the beach, I know you can circle Town Center for ever looking for that elusive spot. Of course, like most places in America, what we really have is a walking problem, excabberated by the lack of parking spaces.

But more and more, I see people on their bicycles taking on their cell phones. It seems to me that, to a greater extent than talking while driving ... talking while pedaling could be very dangerous. Not to mention that whomever your talking to probably has a difficult time understanding you while you're huffing and puffing trying to get to Pete's Bar on your bike.

Now, I usually carry my cell phone when I ride. It's mostly because flat tires only seem to happen at the very apogee of a circuit. I can usually count on a flat at 5 miles into a 10 mile ride. But if I were to try to actually talk and ride, I'd lose half my brakes (front or rear), and my ability to use 2/3 of my gears, not to mention the steering problem. I suppose I had a bluetooth phone ... but that would interfere with my MP3 player, the subject of another posting entirely.

I'm not against it. I don't care if you talk on your phone while bicycling. Just be careful. And please try to pay attention to what's going on around you while you ride. That's also the subject for another post. Just think for a minute if the call is REALLY so important that you HAVE to make it while riding, or if it can wait until you get where you're going. Or would it kill you to just stop and make your call. I know, that's probably asking just a bit too much. There is no putting that genie back in the bottle.

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I've been doing a lot of bicycling to try to get off some excess pounds ... and meeting with some success, but I've been noticing something on my recent rides in my little beach town that has me scratching my head.

Cell Phones and bicycles.

The number of people here at the beach that seem to be getting around by bicycle looks to be growing. That's a good thing. Despite the insistance by our city fathers that there is no parking problem at the beach, I know you can circle Town Center for ever looking for that elusive spot. Of course, like most places in America, what we really have is a walking problem, excabberated by the lack of parking spaces.

But more and more, I see people on their bicycles taking on their cell phones. It seems to me that, to a greater extent than talking while driving ... talking while pedaling could be very dangerous. Not to mention that whomever your talking to probably has a difficult time understanding you while you're huffing and puffing trying to get to Pete's Bar on your bike.

Now, I usually carry my cell phone when I ride. It's mostly because flat tires only seem to happen at the very apogee of a circuit. I can usually count on a flat at 5 miles into a 10 mile ride. But if I were to try to actually talk and ride, I'd lose half my brakes (front or rear), and my ability to use 2/3 of my gears, not to mention the steering problem. I suppose I had a bluetooth phone ... but that would interfere with my MP3 player, the subject of another posting entirely.

I'm not against it. I don't care if you talk on your phone while bicycling. Just be careful. And please try to pay attention to what's going on around you while you ride. That's also the subject for another post. Just think for a minute if the call is REALLY so important that you HAVE to make it while riding, or if it can wait until you get where you're going. Or would it kill you to just stop and make your call. I know, that's probably asking just a bit too much. There is no putting that genie back in the bottle.

-scene-

And very little that needs to be said. Down to 212. That's the best news I've had in a while, but the bike kicked my ass this afternoon. That extra mile seems to be really hurting, but I'll get used to that.

The time changes this weekend, so I won't have to race the sunset to get my ride in. This has been really good exercise, and I need to keep at it.

I'll try to post more tomorrow. Blogging is about dicipline, and what the heck, nobody's reading it anyway.

Ok, so I haven't been very good about posting. The amount of dicipline it takes to get here and write something nearly every day is more I seem to have, but I'm going to keep trying.

I'm back down to 215 ... at least if my somewhat flaky bathroom scale can be believed. Since it's good news, I choose to believe it.

Andie is coming back to the beach tonight after 6 months in Ft. Lauderdale ... on a project that was not nearly as lucrative as she was led to believe when she went down there. Nice condos, though. Just a really competative market with too many available units. Sort of what it looks like is about to happen here. As long as someone wants to buy them.

Wedding plans are what they are. I'm mostly not directly involved. Tell me where to show up, where to stand, and what to say. That's pretty much the grooms' job.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, if a little cool for late March in Florida. Only about 64 degrees out, but not cool enough to keep me from my 10 mile bike ride. As I've told many people, I'm doing my best to be sure I don't have a SECOND set of wedding pictures where I'm nearly as broad as I am tall. I MAY be able to accomplish that.

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Not exactly away, but not here either. At least not blogging. It takes an incredible amount of dedication to blog every day. I sometimes marvel at the bloggers who post multiple times each day.

It has been nearly a year since I last looked at this blog, and much has happened. Most importantly, my sister and her son (my nephew) were killed in an automobile accident last August. A semi tanker truck just crushed them, and then there was a fire. We never saw the bodies. I'm sure we wouldn't have wanted to. I can't put all the emotions about losing a sibling into one post, because even, what, 6 months after the fact, I'm still sorting through them. My other two sisters are still devistated. They were closer. It's made me think about why I've estranged myself from much of my family over the past 20 years or so. I don't know. I may never.

I found an old journal yesterday from when I lived in California with my now-ex wife. I really hated California, and I was such a bad writer 20 years ago. I hope I've gotten better.

I'm going to try to be better about posting here. Sometimes it all seems so mundane, like who the hell would care. But at least there will be some kind of chronical ... whether that's important or not.