No April showers

At least not this week, which has meant the best spring training week I’ve had, I think, ever. If I didn’t get on my bike, I got out the canoe — earliest entry into the Hudson ever, too. Normally, it would be running too high, fast and dirty to make me want to deal with it, but without the spring rains, it was lovely, flat and relatively easy. (You still forget that the Hudson is tidal at your peril when you’re pushing a muscle-powered boat. Tide charts are here; don’t leave home without them.) I even got through another hundred miles without a flat, so my week was good.

It’s also the time of year when some of the little errands can be done by bike, though nothing makes it easy. Of the three places I had to stop today, exactly none of them had anything like a place to lock up my bike. At one place I used a light pole, at the bank I used their flag pole, and at the Post Office I gave up and took a chance on having my bike stolen (I truly only had to run in, drop a prepaid package, and run out) because there was absolutely nothing to lock it to. Very frustrating. No convenience stores ever have a bike rack anymore, so the best I can do usually is to lock to a picnic table. I know it’s not news that the car is king, but really, what would it take to have a little bike post for us to lock to?