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When I say, “me,” I mean my brain
And when I say, “Give me the cure,” I mean to kill the pain
And when I say, “Kill the pain,” I mean to get the devil out
And when I say, “Devil,” I mean all manifestation of doubt

– Ted Leo

It’s amazing how much better I feel after I ride my bike. Even on days when I’m totally worn out from working on the computer all day. Or horribly hormonally depressed from PMS. If I can get out for 30-60 minutes on my bike, everything’s good.

I think maybe the days when I ride and work up a bit of a sweat are the best days, though. I mentioned this to Daniel and he said, “Oh yeah, you’ve gotta sweat. It gets the demons out.”

I ride really lazily. If I work up a sweat, it’s not because I’m riding really hard. It’s because it’s hot out. That’s what’s nice about a beach cruiser—you just cruise.

I have to laugh every time some really old person passes me on their bike, though.

One thing that surprised me about my bike rides is how completely empty my brain seems. I mean, if I were to go for a walk, I’d be thinking and pondering all kinds of things. I guess riding a bike takes too much of my attention (maneuvering around stuff, looking out for cars that might kill me), because my thoughts during a bike ride are completely scattered. Often I find myself with just a lyric from a song I’d been listening to running through my brain over and over.

One day it’s Sam Cooke, “You Were Made For Me.”

The next day, Ted Leo.

Anyway, here are a couple videos from my bike ride today with Nathaniel. I purposely waited till late in the day to film so we’d have long shadows. The first is of us starting at a small park near the kids’ high school and going down McFadden St:

Soundtrack: Admantium “Electric Chill”

In the second, I turned the camera towards the street, so you could see my shadow as I rode. It came out kinda cool:

Soundtrack: RJD2 - “Ghostwriter”

Dang, the youtube compression looks horrible!