Hello

[plumtreeblossom]

My name is Mare, and I am afraid to ride a bike, scooter, moped, or other small 2-wheeled vehicle with the cars on any busy street, most particularly the lethal Mass Ave.

I'm too spacy to be allowed on public roadways. It's why I don't drive, pretty much. Everyone knows I'm a zoned-out nut case going "Ooo! Lookit the doggie!!" while I walk into lamp posts. In Copley I coo over every parked Vespa like it was a precious baby fawn, and while I still long for one, I only want to ride it in places I can't like the walking paths of Central Park.

True enough, I've only had a bike again for two days after several years of not owning one, so I'm on the rusty side. So's the bike itself. There is an evil law in Cambridge that I broke minutes after purchasing the bike, prohibiting bikes on the sidewalk on the commercial strip of Mass Ave through Central and Harvard Squares. According to the Cambridge city website, riding bikes on the sidewalk in other parts of Cambridge is strongly discouraged but technically not illegal. That is good. But I' not that much of a wuss to be scared of residential sidestreets.

Remember yesterday's post when I said any of us could be dead tomorrow? Well, I'm likely to be dead by tonight. When espressojim challenges me to do something, my pride doesn't allow me to say no. He's gotten me to eat chicken foot, and eat mushrooms cooked in pig fat (ok, those were damn tasty). Now it's riding the bike on Mass Ave. Tonight.

Fear with me.