27 degrees on the 27th

This morning the temp when I left the house on the 27th of March was 27F.  A dramatic change from the mornings last week that were in the high 40's and low 50's.
Had to put my earpod ear warmers on, and wore a scarf, wool tights, boots and warm gloves in addition to my long Nau coat.  I looked almost like this:

Last week I looked like this- look ma- no sleeves!

I don't think this cold snap is going to do good things to all the flowering trees either.  I miss last week already.

Boom!

With the unseasonably warm weather we had last week, it seems like all the trees have exploded into bloom.  Normally there's a slower progression from crocuses to daffodils to hyacinths and then forsythia and magnolias.  This year it all seemed to happen at once!  

Saucer Magnolias in the north end

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but the blooms are spectacular- like fireworks.

Cherry blossoms still in bud (AM ride)

Forsythia

Redbuds (I think)

Cherry Trees PM- some of the buds were already blooming 

Normally all these flowers seem like a sign that you've made it through the long tough winter.  This year the winter was neither long nor tough, but it's still nice to have exuberant blossoms on every streetcorner, and the sweet smells of spring wafting through the air.  It's a great time to ride your bike (and everyone and their dog is out riding)

And then BOOM,  New England spring descends again!  It was cool and overcast and blustery all weekend!  The Scientist was all excited about going on a lovely spring bike ride Saturday morning, so we biked to brunch in the South end- and of course it was cold and windy and overcast.  Monday my ride in wasn't too bad, but the ride home was so cold I wished I had warm gloves and earpods- my fingers and ears were bright red and numb by the time I got home.  Didn't see many of the fresh crop of spring riders on my way home.

It's typical for the weather to shift violently back and forth this time of year, but I hope the needle shifts a bit more towards balmy and bright!

Follow up on Ride on Washington

I posted last week on the sendoff for the Ride on Washington, which I just happened to stumble across.

I just read an article about their arrival in DC, and about the focus of the ride, which I thought was especially interesting given my initial reaction.  My thought at the time was that the kitted group was a little unrepresentative of average cyclists  And I had questions about advocacy which presents only a stereotypical image of cyclists as super fit racers to policy makers who might have complicated reactions to that stereotype.

Interestingly, what I missed from my skimming of the ride's website, was that the idea behind the ride was to try to motivate roadies to have more of an activist voice.  The Bike Portland article makes the point that stereotypically roadie culture tends to be apolitical, and less involved than commuter culture in advocacy for better infrastructure.  Take the fictional example of the divergent views of Joe (roadie) and Yehuda (commuter) at the Kickstand Cyclery cartoon.

Instead of presenting themselves as advocates to the larger public, the point was for the ride to be elite athletes from the sport side of bicycling to raise awareness of advocacy issues within their community.

I wonder why there's such a divide between roadie culture attitudes towards advocacy, and commuter culture attitudes?  Is it about sport/ transport?   Is it a rural-suburban vs urban divide?  Is it about speed and the feeling that high speed long distance biking is independent of bike infrastructure?  Do commuters feel more entitled to demand infrastructure because their ability to do everyday tasks like work and grocery shop is impacted by it?

Anyway, I felt that the article really reframed my perspective, and made me think about some of the opportunities to expand and redefine advocacy.

Dutch Panniers

Full of Dutch Tulips

Not much more cheerful than a pannier full of flowers!

Hope everyone is out enjoying the spring weather!

Two upcoming events

Livable Streets and the "On the Move Coalition" are sponsoring a screening of "Boston Under"   a documentary about what happens at the T between 1:30 and 5am when all the maintenance gets done.

I'm a sucker for this kind of behind the scenes/ how things get done documentary.  Tickets are $6 and it's playing at the Central Square theater 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge.  More info here

Also another panel discussion about activism and creating more livable streets at Harvard with the slightly unwieldy title of "Become a Super Designer!  Redesign a Street, Plan a Neighborhood, Transform a City"

at the GSD (Harvard).  6:30 Monday March 26, at Piper Auditorium.  More info here. 

This is part of the "spring series on progressive urban planning" moderated by Aaron Naparstek who I met in August.

Bikey Brunch

I had a great time at the first Women who Bike Brunch on Saturday.  We had 12 grownups and a junior biker,  and the setting at Area IV was perfect for such a group- they have a giant long table that could probably seat 24.   I think that every time I've been in there they've been the perfect amount of busy- full but with one or two seats so that a group of 2 could be seated within 10 minutes.  So many of my favorite restaurants don't take reservations and also have a 45 minute wait,  which is a tough combo on a lot of nights.

Anyway,  the food and service were great, and we had a great time chatting for about 2 hours.  Topics included women-specific bike stores, and whether they could be successful,  the BU bridge bike lanes, the underpasses on River and Western,  family biking and why so many bike shops give such bad advice, and lots and lots of other stuff.

Megan, the co-sponsor, in a very cool vintage cape

Dorea and H from Car free with Kids

Me,  Dorea and H and Bikeyface (Minerva was parked down the block)

almost the whole group

As you can tell from the coats it was still a bit chilly, but the sun came out and it warmed up a lot, and of course Sunday was a fabulous day.  It's supposed to be over 70 every day this week- so lots of great riding weather.  It was great to see everyone, and I look forward to seeing people again on Arpril 21st at 11.  We liked Area IV so much we're going back.  Hope to see you all there!

Bike to Basketball

Since we don't have cable, when we want to watch a sporting event, we often have to go to a bar/ pub/ restaurant that does have cable, and nurse our dinner and drinks as long as we can in order to watch the game. Being a former basketball player, the Scientist is pretty into watching the March Madness games,  so we made plans to have dinner at a local pub/ sports bar the Tavern on the Square.

After a bit of volunteer work downtown, I rode home in what started out as pretty heavy rain, but which fortunately stopped about 1/3 of the way home.  I neglected to check the weather this morning,  so got caught semi-unprepared- in a waist length softshell, instead of my longer Nau trenchcoat. So my skirt got pretty damp, and I got a bit chilly.  I let the dog out and fed him,  and  although my skirt had mostly dried by then, I changed my damp tights out for wool stockings, and then headed back out to meet the Scientist.

I got there first, but he assured me he was leaving the lab then, so I should go ahead and take an available table.  So I sat, and I waited and waited and waited.  Although it was a 5 minute drive, he spent 15 minutes driving around looking for parking, and finally parked in a pay lot.   To me that's one of the #1 reasons to bike in the city- it's almost always easier to find bike parking than car parking around here, even at places where there isn't great bike parking.  We left the pub at the same time, and I was home long before he was too, because I was parked right outside, and could just hop on and and pedal home, whereas he had to walk to the car, deal with the parking lot, and drive home.

Truly convenient parking- I used my seat cover just in case

Despite the chilly and damp weather there were a fair number of bikes out and about at 9pm on a Friday night.  There were two guys riding along the same way as I was, one of whom asked me about my Yakkay helmet, and there were at least 4 passing the other way on my short ride home, and they seemed like they were in pairs riding together  I think it's a good sign of a robust bike culture in a place that people ride their bikes to go out on a Friday night!

So this is my last Utilitaire: 12.12.  Although I wouldn't say the event has altered my behavior in any way, I think it was kind of fun to take on the challenge of documenting it in a more rigorous way.    It's also been really fun to read all the other entries in the contest, and I've discovered some new blogs to read in the process.  I doubt that it's changed the tone of the blog, or that the tone will change much now that I'm no longer doing it,  but it's been something to add excitement to the last dregs of winter!  And I've got to say that reading all of Chasing Mailboxes links has got me thinking about how maybe I can do some longer rides on the Shogun.   I may not be fast enough to be a real Randonneur,  but it wouldn't stop me from doing some centuries.....