Lately I’ve been walking. I have walked to work 3-4 days a week for the last month. I’m not even really sure why. I have enjoyed the slow pace. I turn on a podcast and kick it.

Today it’s been raining all day. I walked here in my rain suit; however, my bike was at work all weekend. I have to ride a few miles out of my way to drop off my rent check. I was thinking of all the ways I could get a ride. Today’s one of those days where I really did not feel like riding in the rain.

Then I decided to not be a pansy and go ride. Now I’m actually excited to get out and ride in the rain.

My girlriend just sent me a text message that said she killed a butterfly with her car. It was probably the second butterfly of the year. That my, friends, is reason enough to get rid of your car. Think about the butterflies!

The other night I stayed late after work.  The cleaning crew was there and they had a little boy of about eight with them. I was all geared up and getting ready to leave. It was pretty cold that day. I heard the kid ask the woman with him in amazement, “Why does he have a bike?”

The woman answered, “He’s going to ride it home.”

“Doesn’t he have a car?” he asked.

“No,” she replied.

I didn’t catch the rest because they went out of earshot.

Honestly, the most interesting thing to me about that exchange was his amazement.  Like I said, he was probably seven or eight years old. Even at that age he was already under the impression that cars are an expected part of life. Even at that age he thought I was abnormal for not owning a car and riding a bike. Granted, I am abnormal for riding my bike in twenty degree weather. At least in Harrisburg I am.

On my way to work today my bike took a dump.

I heard an ambulance coming up behind me, so out of habit I starting pulling over to the right. I was even slowing down to a stop like I would in a car. The sirens can be disconcerting when I’m riding. It’s a good thing I did slow down. Right when the ambulance passed me all of a sudden things popped and snapped and panniers were flying everywhere and my wheel locked up. My bike came to a grinding halt. It was bedlam!

My first thought was that it was somehow related to the ambulance. The loud siren and then my bike locking up. As far as I can tell it was a coincidence I didn’t have much time to look at it. I fiddled with it for a minute and ended up walking the bike to work.

After some investigation I sort-of found out what happened. I say “sort=of” because I found out all the symptoms, but I still can’t figure out what caused it all. A screw that holds my fender to my rack broke. I think it must have fallen out a while ago. The bracket got caught on the tire and bent the whole way back to my brakes. It locked up the tire. I’m still a little baffled as to how my pannier broke. There is s a knob type thing that tightens to the side of the rack. The entire brace that holds the knob to the pannier snapped into pieces. I’m hoping I can get just a new piece.

There are pictures explaining the aftermath below.

I must have been a  funny site later that day at work. I was outside my cubicle with my bike flipped over. I had the wheel off and my hands were covered in grease. Luckily we had the perfect sized screw in the warehouse. I got the fender all fixed up. I’ll have to see about the pannier.

To top it off, it started sleeting/snowing. I rode home in a wintery mix with a pannier that didn’t want to stay on!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I wrote a post a while back about adventure. I still consider this an adventure! Every day you don’t know what will happen. Will my bike disassemble itself? Will it sleet on me? I guess I should get used to sleet. Puxatony Phil says we’re in for six more weeks.

Yesterday, where did I find myself but the Harrisburg Car Show.

My dad asked me about a week ago if I wanted to go with him to the Car Show. I’ve mentioned before in this blog about how my dad loves cars, and it’s his primary way of connecting with me. It put a unique twist on our relationship. He and used to always talk about my car. Now he talks about what kind of car I should get.

So we go to the Car Show which was $8 to get in. I paid it to hang out with my dad. Honestly, I was interested in seeing some of the hybrids and concept cars. Below are some pictures from the car show. I only took pictures of the exotic and expensive cars. Obviously I didn’t get any shots of the camerys and accords.

About twenty minutes in I realized why my dad invited me. He swears it was an afterthought, but he is shrewd enough to plan this. He knew that once he got me sitting in new cars I would be dazzled. “Oh look, heated seats. Wouldn’t it be nice to have heated seats in your car Ryan? Or even seats at all?” “Look Ryan, this one has an auxiliary jack for your iPod.” “Mmmm, that new-car smell is wonderful, isn’t it?” “You had an Elantra for six years. Think about how reliable the new ones are!” “This color is hot!”

…and so on.

To be honest, I started getting the new-car itch. First, I rationalized it by thinking, “I make a lot of money. Even though cars depreciate it’s still a sound decision to have a reliable vehicle.” Then I’d get out of the car and look at the sticker price. New Elantras loaded were around $18,000. Then I started saying, “Even like a three or four year old Elantra would be OK.” Somewhere in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. Then I remembered my $1,100 credit card debt (that’s right! I’m down from $8,000 to $1,100 in credit card debt!) and $39,000 college loans. That $3000 (not to mention insurance, gas, yadda yadda) could go straight towards my debt. Think about all of the interest that would save me!

I came to a conclusion.

The car will come eventually. When I set out to be car-free I pretty much knew it wouldn’t be forever. I don’t have a plan in mind. I did picture it being for at least a year or so. Plus, by that time I will hopefully be married. Joy is not as hardcore as I am. So we will have at least one car. So my conclusion is, don’t get a car! Pay off my debt!

I have been starting a photography business. I figured it was a good way to flex my creativity muscle and make a few extra bucks on the side. I booked two weddings just yesterday.

It’s easy for me to book the weddings. I just take a few calls and answer a few emails. Here’s the real challenge. Getting to the weddings! One wedding that I locked in is right up the street from me. I could literally walk there. The other is in Pittsburgh. That’s almost a four hour drive! Joy (my girlfriend) already said I could use her car for that one. A constant theme of being car-free for me is not relying on anyone. Every time I book a wedding I start with the notion that I will be responsible for getting there on my own.

I will rent cars. I am already getting deposit checks for the weddings I’ve booked. I have created a separate savings account. I am just sitting on that money. That way I can keep it straight what money is spent on what. I am already factoring in car rentals as an expense of doing business. One of the few in a digital world. I figure I can rent the car on Friday and use it to visit family on Sunday (most of the weddings are on Saturday). That way the business essentially pays for visits and any other errands I may need a vehicle for, like getting cases of beer.

I haven’t rented a car yet. But I was doing the math. Even with increasing the car rentals to (hopefully) twice a month I am still making out by not owning my own car. This is because of the increased revenue generated by the business. The wedding pays for the car rental and then still brings me in a profit. So in the end I will actually be making more money than I make now. I figure if I were to pay for a car off of my photography earnings alone I would have to do quite a few more in order to pay for the car, insurance, and everything else. Not only that I would have to rent a car for the first few weddings because the earnings will not be enough to purchase a car by then.

In the end though, I believe I could own a modest car completely off of my photography income, but that defeats the purpose. A large percentage of the photography income would go right into the car. I don’t want to work for a car. I would rather rent the car and use the rest to 1) legalize the business with the IRS 2) invest in better photography equipment 3) pay my debt!

Can you think of any other creative ways to get to the weddings? Any advice on how to handle the photography money?

We got hit by a pretty gnarely winter storm Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. As you know I decided to walk on Tuesday because there was no gaurantee what the weather would be like for the ride home. On Wednesday I decided to work from home because the roads were nearly un-ridable. On Thursday I decided to walk because the roads were still pretty bad. I took some pictures of my Thursday walk (below).

Where it looks like water it is actually ice. I have never ridden in ice and doubt my ability. I don’t have studded tires. Shoot I don’t even have a mountain bike! All I have is my Giant road bike.

Today I thought the roads were better. I was all geared up to ride, literally. Well, for some reason I got the smart idea to check my spokes before before I rode. One had come completly unscrewed. Rather than ride on it I decided to walk today. So that’s three out of five days this week that I walked to work (not to mention the times people offered rides).

To be honest I quite like walking. It’s a refreshing way to start the morning. It is a time for me to decompress at the end of the day. I use it as a time to think and pray. This morning I chatted with a guy about the edible properties of cattails. He has some growing in his yard and I told him that he could eat them in about five different ways. He didn’t seem about to try them.

At first I saw walking as a last resort. Now I think there will be times where I will choose walking as a way to relax over riding my bike, even when the roads are fine.

Yesterday morning I woke up to some snow on the ground. Just enough to suck. Plus, they were calling for more snow to start in the late afternoon/early evening. Since I had already walked to work once, I decided to just walk.

I was about three quarters of the way there when a van pulled up in front of me. It was a co-worker (co-worker 3 [it's a running theme]) on her way in. It turns out she turned around to get me. I feel a little sneaky. I was wearing my balaclava in such a way that my entire face was showing. I did that in case a co-worker might pass and pick me up. It worked. I thanked her profusely for turning around.

Then at the end of the day co-worker 4 asked me if I wanted a ride home. He heard that I walked in. I accepted the ride. I thanked him profusely too. Tomorrow I’m even going to put a thank you note in both of their mailboxes. I don’t want there to be any doubt I appreciate every ride I’m given.

After standing up co-worker 2 I couldn’t bring up the nerve to ask him again. I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to ask anyone for a ride. For pretty much the entire week last week, my girlfriend was “stuck” at her parents’ house. She was having her car worked on and the shop was taking his sweet time. I realized something. People that have cars are at the mercy of a very complex machine and the chosen few that can fix them. I like being car-free. I have poised myself to be self sufficient. Where I am not self sufficient I am learning creative work-arounds.

There is a lesson in all of this. It’s the same lesson I heard when I was dating around. When you stop looking is when you find a girl. It works with getting rides too. When you stop asking for rides is when you get them.

In my last post I relayed a long saga about how I didn’t have my bike at home and needed to get to work. For those of you that are wondering what I did, here’s the answer; I walked.

I read quite a few reviews about the Harrisburg cab companies. None of the reviews were positive. Every one talked about how the cab never showed up and the operators were rude when they called. I figured there is no reason to rely on someone else to get me to work on time. Plus, if they did come then I would have to pay them money. I just didn’t want to do that.

It took me 40 minutes.

Based on this morning’s walk here’s why I say cycling is so efficient.

1) It takes me 1/4 less time to travel the 2.5 miles to work. Obviously, we know that bicycles go faster. But having only driven and ridden this stretch the difference was highlighted when I walked it.

2) It is much better for my legs! I don’t have bad knees, but I have known people in the past that have developed bad knees from walking and running. However, right now my shins are in terrible pain. I have shin splints. I can hardly walk. That’s OK because I am riding home. I was even wearing my hiking boots.

3) Cycling is more fun. I love careening down a hill at 40 mph. I love passing a long line of cars waiting at the red light. I love the “I-am-one-with-my-bike” feeling I get.

To walking’s credit some of the things that I love about cycling were enhanced. I had even more time to look at the beautiful scenery, and I could take greater notice of the things along the road.

What else did I learn from walking?

I should probably get out and actually walk more. I will use different muscles I don’t use when I ride. I learned that I can walk if I need to. It’s not a mystery any more. I am more OK with having burned my bridges. I don’t need to rely on other people (that is if I can walk with my shins being in such pain).

I also learned that socks make good gloves if you are in a pinch.

I only called co-workers for rides when it was snowy, icy, or very cold (now I just ride through the cold).

I had one co-worker (co-worker A) that I relied on most heavily for rides. She only ever gave me rides three or four times, but she lives the closest to me and works about the same schedule as I do. For no inexplicable reason, last Thursday, she said that she couldn’t give me rides any more. I’m not writing this post to complain about her. I don’t fully understand why she made that decision, but she felt it was right. I sucked it up and dealt with it.

Another co-worker (co-worker B) that lives close to me offered to give me rides. Before co-worker A even told me she couldn’t give me a ride I had it lined up that I was going to hitch with co-worker B last Friday. It was very cold (now I’m kicking myself because I’ve already ridden on colder days). All he said was, “All I ask is, don’t keep me waiting.” On Thursdays a buddy crashes at my place. I forgot to tell co-worker B that my buddy was gong to give me a ride. So yeah, at 7:45 he calls me and says, “where are you?”

I kept him waiting.

I apologized profusely as soon as I got to work, but still, I won’t be calling him for a while. I don’t have the audacity. I felt terrible all day Friday.

When I finally made the decision to be car-free I said that I did not want to be a burden to anyone. That was my greatest con. Both Thursday and Friday I felt like I was a burden. At the same time, I knew what I was getting into when I sold my car. I knew that by selling my car in the end I need to rely only on myself to do what I need to do.

Here’s the interesting part. I can’t call either of these people tomorrow and my bike is at work and I am at home.

Every Wednesday some buddies and I go for wings. Buddy A (I figure I might as well stick with the theme) drives right by my work to play basketball before wings. So Buddy A picks me up with the intention of taking me back to work later, so I can ride home. We go for wings. Then we go to a Lost party. Well, I left my gloves and headband in Buddy A’s car thinking I’d be riding home with him. He didn’t realize that Lost was two hours and couldn’t stay for the second hour. So that I could stay for the second hour I had worked out another way back to the office (with Buddy A’s sister coincidentally).

So on the way back to my office to get my bike I realize I don’t have my warming implements of utmost importance to me. I can’t ride in 17 degrees without my gloves and headband. It’s just not happening.

Buddy A’s sister ended up taking me home. Now my struggle for the morning is between walking to work or calling a cab. It’s only 2.5 miles. That’s only a 45 minute walk, and I have some stuff to keep me warm. But cab is faster. I figure a 2.5 mile fare in Harrisburg is probably pretty cheap. Especially when I compare it to all of the money I’m saving by not owning a car.

I just wish my bridges weren’t burned, so I could call co-workers A and B.