While it’s mostly been a normal week, it’s also one of weird transitions and happenings. Take last Sunday for example. We woke up to snow. It snowed all day – not too hard but enough to make it a winter wonderland – in early November.
Then it kept snowing on Monday and like the crazy person I am, I put on my warm clothes and boots and got on my bike to go to work. Why take the bike? Partly for the challenge, also for the beauty. And also, quite frankly, for the fact that much of the time the warmest way to get to work is a bike. Within 2 minutes of starting on the bike I am comfortably warm and I stay warm – sometimes even a little too warm. A bus commute requires a 5-7 min walk to the station and then a 0-10 minute wait for a bus to work. Then another 5-7 min walk to the office. During that time I can be pretty cold – and it’s almost always colder on the way home when I have to wait by the road as often packed buses go by and I can’t get on. When I finally do, it can be too full to sit or even crowded to levels approaching a Mumbai local train – but with the doors closed. I always get a seat on the bike. I even have a nice route to/from work specifically for days like this. It’s 85% off road so traffic is light. The biggest worry really is just falling – and it happens far less than you’d think. I’m too superstitious to say just how infrequent it is but let’s just say you’d be surprised. As I’ve been making more videos lately, I made one of this trip – you can see what it’s like and I talk a bit about how it is to ride in the snow:
There was a warning the next day about treacherous road conditions and dangerous squalls so I took the bus but did go by bike a few times last week and it was really pretty. Yesterday it rained a bunch, though, and now it’s 100% gone.
But that’s also made me more conscious of the upcoming winter. It’s time to get the fancy bike off the road and onto the smart trainer. This was not as easy as I expected either. First I pulled out the cassette (gears) that I got from the shop when I took the bike in last. I had to change them because the current ones have 10 speeds and the new bike has 12. But when I unpacked them I found the bike shop accidentally gave me a 10 speed one. So the first night I thought I was going to ride at home I didn’t. Then yesterday I started to set it back up. I put the shiny new gears on and it’s ready to go – except somehow when I put it away in the winter I lost some spacers and now I have to wait one more week for parts. I still have the commuter bike though.
So I’ve been posting more at TikTok as some of you have seen (or at least in the videos above and the past few entries). I get reasonably good view counts (for me). 200-300 for each video with longer ones where I show my face getting 1,000 or so. Today I thought I’d talk about what it was like to live without a car in the city and how we manage things like getting groceries. I filmed a bit on the way to the subway station, some at the destination (including lunch) and then on the way back. Along the way I talked a little about the logistics of it all and how well it works for us. When I got home I posted it and something resonated with people because within an hour there were over 1,000 views and it was going up so fast. People were commenting lots also which was weird. Often I’ll get no comments or maybe 1-2. 99% of the comments were nice or interesting, there were a couple trolls out trying to stir up things but I quietly deleted and blocked them. But let me tell you, I’m not sure I like it. I am an introvert by nature and with all this attention I feel a bit on high alert for people to be negative or mean. I’m not sure if I like this. Six hours after posting it I now have over 11,000 views, nearly 300 likes, and 50 comments and even as it is so positive I also feel a little on edge ever since posting it. It does make me wonder, though, if I would’ve been ready for this with other projects like promoting kindness or fundraising for Doctors Without Borders during the pandemic got this kind of attention. And at the same time, if I can get views and interaction for saying “Hey, I take a bundle buggy on the subway to get my groceries instead of using a car,” is it time to try getting it for something actually meaningful to me. Also, as an aside, I also am not a big fan of the fact that I have to see and hear myself talking to see comments and replies. *laughing*
Here’s the video for the curious:
It’s that double edged sword, I think. On the one hand I often have had ideas for big projects in the past: rides to raise money or even encourage people to perform acts of kindness. Much of the time I struggle to get those projects noticed but now that I’m getting something noticed I do wonder if it’s something I’d struggle with regardless. I think my dream is someday to go do a long bike ride (around the world, anyone?) and share the experience with people as I went. Now, though, I am not sure. It feels so vulnerable! Maybe that old dream of being a travel author is more my speed.
Not that I’m not having fun with it – I am just braced for the worst of the Internet that doesn’t seem to be quite as prevalent in the literary world. What about you? Do you have a certain level of attention you’re comfortable with beyond which is too much? All I know is you have no worries about me becoming a famous influencer any time soon!
