Getting out the bike
Mar. 28th, 2004 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkGot the bike out of the shed, pumped up the tires and took my traditional spring inaugural bike ride around Lake Harriet. Had some trouble with both gear shifters and my left hip. Hip was okay after I stopped and stretched, but the gear shifters have degenerated noticeably since last year, and they weren't doing too well last fall. Fortunately you don't really HAVE to shift gears to ride around Lake Harriet.
I've been trying to decide since they went in (last year some time?) what I think about those goofy "peace markers" along the Roseway. For those of you that haven't been over here for a while, they are a series of short sandstone pillars with small rocks piled on top in a style that I think is supposed to embody artful simplicity. They look pretty much like petrified dragon droppings. Phrases like "practice simplicity" and "think peace" are engraved on all four sides in a pattern that allows you to match one verb with either of two nouns, depending on the angle of view. I thought they were pretty dumb at first, but they're growing on me. Artfully arranged dragon droppings aren't so bad, all things considered. The zen phrases are the type of new-age disingenuousness that I find more irritating than inspiring, but the way the words are arranged to lead the eye around the pillar is clever. I do kind of wonder about the one that says, "fight righteousness."
I was relieved to find that I'm not in any worse physical shape than I was last year at this time. Except for stopping to stretch out the hip, I had no trouble riding all the way around the lake, and made it up the little hill from the Rose Garden without having to slow down noticeably or downshift (fortunately, considering the state of my right shifter). That meets my Level 1 physical fitness marker. But just barely - it's only five miles, and I do feel a little tired afterwards.
I've been trying to decide since they went in (last year some time?) what I think about those goofy "peace markers" along the Roseway. For those of you that haven't been over here for a while, they are a series of short sandstone pillars with small rocks piled on top in a style that I think is supposed to embody artful simplicity. They look pretty much like petrified dragon droppings. Phrases like "practice simplicity" and "think peace" are engraved on all four sides in a pattern that allows you to match one verb with either of two nouns, depending on the angle of view. I thought they were pretty dumb at first, but they're growing on me. Artfully arranged dragon droppings aren't so bad, all things considered. The zen phrases are the type of new-age disingenuousness that I find more irritating than inspiring, but the way the words are arranged to lead the eye around the pillar is clever. I do kind of wonder about the one that says, "fight righteousness."
I was relieved to find that I'm not in any worse physical shape than I was last year at this time. Except for stopping to stretch out the hip, I had no trouble riding all the way around the lake, and made it up the little hill from the Rose Garden without having to slow down noticeably or downshift (fortunately, considering the state of my right shifter). That meets my Level 1 physical fitness marker. But just barely - it's only five miles, and I do feel a little tired afterwards.
