Save the Earth!

May 12th, 2007

"Are you gonna bike to work this Friday, Canuck? Its Bike-to-Work day"

"Of course!" I responded, absent mindedly.

"Really? I didn't take you to be the physically active kind"

"Neither does my health insurance agent!"

"Seriously, if you're gonna bike on Friday, register on this website".

Not willing to back down from a self-imposed challenge.."Sure, I'll do it right now, in front of you. Any thing to Save the Earth", as I signed up at SavetheEarth.com (or some variant of that)


May 16, 2007

I got home around 10pm from work.. (yes, I like to work a full 8hr shift on Thursdays!), all gung-ho to ride my bike in anticipation of Saving the Earth. I figured I'd go for a 5mile bike ride.

Note that I hadn't ridden a bike in about 15 years, so I wasn't sure where I stood in the biking ability. I had just bought a bike helmet, so I decided to bust that out.

The bike helmet is the most complicated headgear I ever wore.. and I actually had to put on a turban for an event! Honestly, the helmet seemed to fit both ways.. (pun not intended, DBs, bite your tongues). I couldn't figure out which way was the right one.. 5 minutes and 2 pages from the Power of Google, later, I knew which way Front was. As I looked at my helmet, I saw the "Front" sign right in the middle of the inside.

Regardless, helmet on, I broke out the bike from its cobwebs, only to find both tires completely out of air. With an inspiration of genius, I placed the bike in the backseat of my car, thanking myself for buying a soft-top vehicle..and then whizzed away to the gas station.

Only to find that the gas station air-valves were not compatible with mountain-bike valves. Score!

I called my buddy who inspired this entire ordeal, and he volunteered his air-pump's services.. Caveat, his place was about 9 miles away. I went and got my tires filled up.

May 17th

I woke up early morning at 7am, all set to bike to work the entire 5 miles. and then I decided to sleep in for a few minutes, "cuz I'm worth it".

BEEEEP BEEP BEEEEEP
The alarm jolted me out of bed at 10 am.. So much for the early breakfast. I showered in record time and sun-screened my entire body.. packed my office wear in the backpack I had acquired the night before from DB#3's sister-in-law. It was the only backpack available, even though it had a huge 'Hello Kitty' sign on it.... in Pink..

I was man enough.. I was gonna Bike to Work!

I got on the bike and bike about 2 miles in, when I heard this hissing sound..

Uh oh.. it was my front tire, doing most snakes proud! it was losing air, and there was nothing I could do about it. So now i'm halfway between work and home.. with a useless bike on my hands.

I decided to walk all the way back with the bike! One hour, and a sweaty t-shirt, later, I got in my car and reached work.

Typical 1 day mileage of Canuck Engineer; 5m to work + 5m back = 10m
Save the Earth Mileage for Canuck Engineer: 2m to Gas Station + 9m to friend + 9m back + 5m to work + 5m back = 30m.

Hey I tried Saving the Earth...Instead I pulled a

-Canuck Engineer!