Hardy Tardy Suburbianites are Paying the Price!

Well, they voted down the extension of the Metro out into their neighborhood when the federal funds were available. I think they were afraid blacks would ride the train out to the suburbs and steal their TVs. Hey, I can see them now on the trains holding big TV's in their laps heading back into the city!

The hardy tardies wanted the Page Avenue bridge built instead. Well, they got it. And they drove their big ass SUVs back and forth speeding down the road in a rage and spewing pollution. Single drivers, each in their own huge condo size capsule each one thinking they are uping the Jones. Whoever they are. Boy are they competitive. They all look cookie cutter alike. No individuality there! Little clones - suburbanites. One more deeper in debt than the other. Big egos small brains and even less self love but pretended high self-esteem. If it takes someone's elses thought about you to make you who you are than you are in trouble. My mother was like that "what will people think?". If I heard it once I heard it a thousand times. As a result I had no self worth or positive self esteem and thought everyone else was more important than me. I about drove myself nuts trying to second guess what other people wanted or what they were thinking. I lived my life to please others. Totally wrong! I hate the church! Any Church!

Personally, I love to see people with their own look! A look that fits there "unique" personality. I love what I call the academic, artists topped with a tame look. The slender or even slightly rounded gentleman with the beard and a book in toll. Or the artist with pad and charcoal. If I were a straight woman he would be the man for me. A tender intellect who loves Shakespeare in the park while sipping wine, nibbling on chucks of cheese and small bunches of sweet grapes. He who loves a play and late night candle light dinners of small portions of healthy meat and vegetables. There are women like that I know. I hope! With her own look, her own class; that certain sense of pride and intelligence that says I've been here long enough to know but I don't feel the need to have to share. I just know. I'm confident and my slender straight back and lifted head and bright eyes says I am. She's excited about the future!

I'm excited about the future. Those living in the city are way ahead of the game. Those working who ride the Metro or peddle to work or walk or way ahead of the game! I'm with them. There is a certain sense of pride in getting from one place to another under your own steam. A certain pride. It's wonderful - try it!

I'm excited about the future because I'm going to meet someone very soon who is into the arts, the symphony, plays, art and books. I'm excited because she loves life and life loves her. She'll live in the city. Perhaps in the CWE or mid-town close to it all. The lofts are so exciting and fun. She has hers decorated in her own style, her own art. She sings. She plays the cello. She plays more than one instrument. She teaches and plays in a small group for their own enjoyment mostly. She loves to run and ride her bicycle down to the river and up the trail. And when she has me for dinner she'll wear a long dark skirt or dressy pants and I'll be dressing that way soon myself. She'll show me. I'll love the look! I'll love being with her. I'll love her humor. Her profile by candle light - sipping wine right before we....

Yes, urban living is where the action is, especially as gas prices near $4.00 and that's this just week. I predict by end of summer or before we'll see $6.00 per gallon. Too bad for the poor stubborn elitist suburbanite who can't cut loose of the super sized SUV. No matter he won't get anything for it anyway. I blogged over a year ago that suggesting it's time to unload while you can still get something for it. But, who am I? Just the 800 pound gorilla in the room who loves to blog.

Yes, times are a changing and prices are a rising and the USA government is as stubborn as can be. Where are the incentive for inventive alternative fuel people. Where are the electric cars? Hello! Old white man, stubborn Ford motor corporation. You could be in the green by more, more ways then just monetary! If only you weren't so greedy and frozen stuck in oil. Your problem is lack of pro activeness. You know Ford motor company could be up to their eye balls in electric car profits by now. Get with it backward boys of old who build only stupid looking "retro" cars that only dying WWII vets could ever love.

In a way the high price of fuel is very exciting because it forces people who are stuck to cannot change their thinking to finally make changes. People are so crippled in their own minds! This forces them to think about walking - to get healthy because they have decided to walk to the markets on Saturday morning as a fun and healthy thing. To walk to work - god forbid! I ride my bicycle with back pack in toll to run errands are I walk. I love it! I'm proud not to be a lard ass or a hardy tardy. I don't make excuses - I just do it! Gee you people are hard on yourselves and why?

Trust me, if you ride with a backpack and go shopping you absolutely cannot buy more than you can put in the pack. Thus you save money and eat less! And it can't be too heavy or you'll end up with a backache and it can throw your central distribution of weight off while riding. So be careful out there and use common sense.

A tip. The first thing to do before trying to add air to your bike tires is to decide if you really need to add air. Push down on the tread on the tire with your thumb, if it doesn't go in or only very slightly don't add air. Another way, would be to get on the bike and while sitting and riding look down at your bike tires and if they look okay you are good to go.

I'm saying this because my friend saw a pump at a rental bike stand nearby and decided to add air to the back tire of her bike. She didn't do the thumb check first. In other words she really didn't need air at all! But, by the time she got done messing around with the defective pump - oh she needed air alright with no means to get it! Hello! She had no pump on her bike. I had to come to her rescue by taking my pump off my bike. Which is rather a pain in itself. Oh, it was the principle of the thing because people are idealistic and not practical and certainly do not use common sense or precautions. Yes, I am perfect! But, I "use my head" and bought a decent pump (and always carry a spare and cab phone number). I have a bicycle mounted tire pump with a handle that turns out and a foot stand that you turn out and that you stand on. It makes it so much easier to pump air into a tire. Yes, you can get either schaefer (car) or presto valve pumps heads so pumps have both.

Yes! So, I proceeded, even though it was tough to do, to pump in 120 psi. Good thing I work out at the gym and do push ups. She couldn't believe it would take that much. Then I explained to her that the skinnier the tire the more pressure that it takes. Small space, lots of pressure. It always made sense to me. I got it! Car tires takes about 60 psi. Why, because of the wider space. A bigger balloon. But have you ever tried to pump up a car tire with a hand pump? A tire that is on the car without a jack? You'll only try it once! Yes, it's very hard because a corner of a car usually waits 550 pounds or more. Each of the four tires is holding up at least 550 pounds. Get it! She didn't. She probably does now.

So I am excited about the future. Life is only going to get more interesting and people healthier and thinner because, and only because, they are going to be forced to. And stop that stupid smoking it makes you look as stupid as someone driving a super sized pick-up or SUV. Get with the 21 century will you!