Everyday Bicycle Dates

The Beau and I have had many opportunities to ride around town together, lately. Cycling with someone creates an interesting conversation pattern, as you pause for a moment to negotiate traffic, or punctuate your thoughts with "oh, look at that". Serious points are made at traffic lights, one-word comments are tossed out as you catch up and then zoom past each other. Talk slows on steep hills and becomes intermittent on the path where we constantly ring bells and dodge dog leashes.

On Thursday, The Beau was making a trip over to A Capella Books, in Little Five Points, to pick up the newly-released, much-anticipated Southern Foodways Alliance cookbook. This was a perfect excuse to ride there together after work. We picked up the book and then wandered over to The Porter for a beer or two. We ran into several people we knew there, all cyclists. What I would call "avid" cyclists, people who put on special cycling clothes and go on organized rides and buy special bicycles just to use on those rides. There were clearly other people who had arrived there by bicycle as well - it's funny how you notice these things if you are aware of them - they guy in a button-down shirt and jeans with a reflective ankle strap on his right leg, the couple with a helmet resting on their table.

Anyway, we had a great time hanging out and socializing with folks. Afterwards, we made a stop into Sevananda for some groceries and headed off into the evening. On the way home, I discovered a gang of folks making temporary crosswalk and bike lane markings for FLUX 2010, a "one-night public art celebration in the streets and empty spaces of the Castleberry Hill Art District" that takes place tonight - October 1st.