Does Either Streak Matter?

Six years ago today, after what I thought was an impressive streak of 49 consecutive days bicycling to work, I hopped on my bike and rode to work, which was a fairly normal occurrence at that point.  Six years, and 1,559 consecutive days later, it might be considered a compulsion to continue to do so.

Maybe it is.  After all, I have had a handful of days that I must have taken stupid pills to be on a bike.   Days of torrential downpour rains, roads so icy that I couldn't even stop the bike, snow so deep that my jeans were wet from the knee down by the time I got to work, just to name a couple.

Part of that can also be attributed to a second streak that will have an anniversary in three days:  the decision to sell our second vehicle five years ago.  I really didn't drive it, it sat in the driveway or on the street just taking up space.  Remove one vehicle, remove the possibility of driving to work, right?   Here we are, five years and with two of three kids in their teens and still we are doing just fine with one vehicle. Well, at least I think so.

Why does either streak matter?  Well, not really.  The cycling to work streak is my OCD side not wanting to let it die.  I like the fact that sometimes people stumble across my blog and I receive messages that it's very motivational to see people "do what I do" on a daily basis and it hopefully motivates some to drive less.

What "I do" seems natural to me.  I've retrained my brain to not think of a vehicle as my first transportation option. The purchase of a pull behind cart, or grocery getter if you will, was one of my biggest purchases in leaving a vehicle behind.  I learned I could go to the store and pick up things just fine without a vehicle.  Unfortunately I don't do as much of the grocery shopping as I used to so it's time to get back in the habit of hooking up the cart more often.

When will the streak end?  I don't truly know.  There is a possibility that it may be sooner than later depending on how a certain doctor visit goes tomorrow.  At this point, it would make me sad to see the streak end as it has been a source of pride, but it would never end my love or my advocacy for cycling.

At any rate, for those of you who occasionally pop out to check out my blog, I hope you do try to bike more for short errands and not drive so much.  I see so much foolish driving in our small town.  People who literally drive three blocks to the college campus, people who go less than a mile to the store for one simple thing, just to name a couple.  Let's not forget one of the best reasons to bike somewhere:  As long as they have a bike rack, you have no "parking lot amnesia" to worry about. At least not until my dream of this happens: