to my friend John that I was indeed riding "like in the olde days."
In the process, I have met a few homeless people and seen many more. I imagined a few hundred were living nearby, but was told by a social worker that more than 1000 folks were homefree within a radius of a few miles. Many of them recycle for a living, while others panhandle. Lots of them have bicycles, and even more have dogs.
MUSTANG CONVERTIBLES
I've seen several hundred different Mustang Convertibles in my 100 days of riding. Why? I know not.
I've dialed in my old bikes. I bought new shoes for myself and "new shoes" for the tandem. I tried out a $10,000+ plus state-of-the-art Holland bike. I've located lots of the bike parts I didn't know I still had - kept some and threw away others. And I built myself a bike shed.
Bikes take you to the rough parts of town. You find all the potholes, construction sites, littered glass shards and rude drivers. You learn that many (most?) other cyclists are scoff-laws who, immersed in their own journey, ignore other cyclists, irritate drivers, and break traffic laws with impunity.
Other cyclists, more than drivers, make me NOT want to ride my bike anymore. I have to continually remind myself of a saying I learned earlier this year from Father Maximos of Mt. Athos;
"Yes, they are doing irritating things - but what is that to me?"
The most exciting thing to report at the end of this 100th day? The family of hawks that nested in the great eucalyptus (now gone) have come back. And they are feasting tonight, in my rubber trees.
So that about brings this blog to a close ... but as I check my clock and calendar, I see a need for one more photo:
