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Three protests and a party in 22 miles
May. 15th, 2022 03:27 pmYesterday I had a bicycling adventure, first time I've ridden more than 20 miles this year. 22.84. However, I'm not looking at the average, because a lot of it was very urban, including some walking (which counts).
I started by riding to a little abortion-rights protest that we had in downtown Sharon, which was mostly because it was on the way to the train station, and the train was at 12:28. Then I took the train into Boston, and rode my bike to Boston Common. The protest was not enormous (of course, I compare everything to the women's march, which was enormous); I was actually able to find a place where I could stand with my bike and also be able to hear the speakers. Of note, Maura Healy spoke, and she was pretty good, but I'm probably still going to vote for Chang-Diaz. There was also a black woman who read a poem that was pretty powerful about how her blackness and her womanhood precedes her into a room and what the men in the room think of her or how they react to her as a result. It didn't really have much to do with abortion rights but it was good anyway.
Then, when that protest wound down around 2 PM, I got back on my bike and rode over to Copley Square, where there was another one just getting underway. That one was much smaller, a few hundred rather than a few thousand. I hung around for a little while, long enough for crowd workers to offer to put stickers on me, which I took them up on because I had completely forgotten about digging out my old buttons, and being on a bike, it was not conducive to having a sign. I was a little surprised that not many people also came over to this protest from the other one, but maybe a half mile walk is more daunting than a half mile bike ride.
Then I went to an outdoor backyard party in Bedford, 18 miles away. Turned out to be a little more than 18 miles due to a little bit of getting lost at the end. I took the Minuteman bike trail, which is lovely; the day was very hot, but the trail is very shaded. There was some bicycle traffic jams, particularly getting on in Arlington, and in the town center of Lexington where there was some do going on.
Generally, I was pretty happy with urban bicycling – Boston (and Cambridge and Arlington) really have done a great job of bike paths on the roads. Sometimes it's a little confusing; once I didn't get into the path between the parked cars and the sidewalk until I realized it was there a couple blocks after riding in the middle of the lane. No matter what, you still don't go very fast, because there are pedestrians, stoplights, other bicycles, potholes. Plus I was being more cautious than usual because I still have the string and sealing wax solution on my bicycle. I think they are getting the new shock in next week; the old shock turned out to be not repairable.
Boston Common:
I started by riding to a little abortion-rights protest that we had in downtown Sharon, which was mostly because it was on the way to the train station, and the train was at 12:28. Then I took the train into Boston, and rode my bike to Boston Common. The protest was not enormous (of course, I compare everything to the women's march, which was enormous); I was actually able to find a place where I could stand with my bike and also be able to hear the speakers. Of note, Maura Healy spoke, and she was pretty good, but I'm probably still going to vote for Chang-Diaz. There was also a black woman who read a poem that was pretty powerful about how her blackness and her womanhood precedes her into a room and what the men in the room think of her or how they react to her as a result. It didn't really have much to do with abortion rights but it was good anyway.
Then, when that protest wound down around 2 PM, I got back on my bike and rode over to Copley Square, where there was another one just getting underway. That one was much smaller, a few hundred rather than a few thousand. I hung around for a little while, long enough for crowd workers to offer to put stickers on me, which I took them up on because I had completely forgotten about digging out my old buttons, and being on a bike, it was not conducive to having a sign. I was a little surprised that not many people also came over to this protest from the other one, but maybe a half mile walk is more daunting than a half mile bike ride.
Then I went to an outdoor backyard party in Bedford, 18 miles away. Turned out to be a little more than 18 miles due to a little bit of getting lost at the end. I took the Minuteman bike trail, which is lovely; the day was very hot, but the trail is very shaded. There was some bicycle traffic jams, particularly getting on in Arlington, and in the town center of Lexington where there was some do going on.
Generally, I was pretty happy with urban bicycling – Boston (and Cambridge and Arlington) really have done a great job of bike paths on the roads. Sometimes it's a little confusing; once I didn't get into the path between the parked cars and the sidewalk until I realized it was there a couple blocks after riding in the middle of the lane. No matter what, you still don't go very fast, because there are pedestrians, stoplights, other bicycles, potholes. Plus I was being more cautious than usual because I still have the string and sealing wax solution on my bicycle. I think they are getting the new shock in next week; the old shock turned out to be not repairable.
Boston Common:
Copley Square:
Chalk quote written while I watched:
