My sweet new bike

Well, I've been working towards my previously stated goal of eating fewer hormone-infested foods and "leaving a smaller footprint" as my friend Rivka likes to put it. I got some extra cash yesterday, so figured it was high time I got myself a bike, for commuting purposes. I heard of this place called Bikes Not Bombs in JP, where they take used bikes and personalize the components according to your needs. In addition, they have all sorts of community programs, like the Earn-A-Bike program for neighborhood kids. It is basically an after-school program where kids learn how to fix up bikes and learn about bike safety; presumably they get a bike out of it too. They also send bikes (and their programs) off to developing and disaster-struck places, like Ghana and New Orleans. The notion is that a bike can provide an affordable means of transportation, which may help a person get out of whatever rut they are in.

The cost is $250 for the basic edition, which includes a new chain, seat, handlebars, pedals, grips, tires, and I think they replace the brakes and such too. My bike is about $450 because I got a nicer frame, for which they charged me an extra $100. I also got a front and rear fender, a new gearshift, a rack, and front and rear lights. It takes about 2 weeks for them to do the work. Oh, the bike comes with a free tune-up after 30 days, 10% off new components for a year, and a sweet bikes not bombs T-shirt. The nice part is that I got to choose all of the above-stated components. This really saved me money because I wanted a mountain bike with street tires on it, and a larger-than standard seat, of course. The bike is going to be totally cool because it is purple and has bright yellow fenders. I want to paint flames on the fenders, but we'll see how long it takes for me to do that.

There were about 3 or 4 high school students helping out, and I'm guessing that they will be fixing up my bike. There was also a younger kid running around and playing hide-and-seek with Subbu. He made sure we knew that his dad owned the shop and that I was riding around on his dad's bike. It felt pretty good to be there, like these people had really made a nice place for kids to hang out and be proud of themselves. It is a bit scary putting my faith in these kids, but there is no possible way it is any shadier than my auto mechanic. I am far from worried about it, and $450 is way less than my mechanic's screw-job.

So, after picking out my bike, I did my grocery shopping. While this is less exciting than picking out a sweet yellow and purple bike, it is something I am looking at differently. At this point, I am just testing the waters and thinking about how to change my eating habits. Last time I went shopping I noticed that lots of items have natural-sounding names, but do not actually make any claims that separate them from generic brands. I think they may have just been more expensive. Many of the organic vegetables were wrapped in cellophane or came in plastic packages, which is somewhat counterproductive from the environmental standpoint. It will just take a little time to navigate the change. Ideally, I'll start doing my shopping a little earlier in the day and not get stuck going to the 24-hour grocery store all the time.

This time I decided to stick to vegetarian items, just so that in the future I am more familiar with how to use them. I bought a few flavored tofu's and some tempeh, along with some fancy cheeses. I also bought some tea, to slowly reduce my caffeine habit. Rivka told me that coffee just sucks all the nutrients out and it is harder to replace them without meat. My bill was less than normal, probably because I didn't purchase meat. For dinner, I sauteed a bit of tempeh and put it on a salad with cranberry cheese, cilantro, vinegar, and oil. The tempeh tasted like warm crutons that were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, so I was pretty happy about that.

Overall it was a good day.