slow down, my guy.

saturday, november 11th, 2023.

Last Saturday, I wrote about getting involved with my local government.

How overeager I was! I was so excited to roll my sleeves up and dig into the problems I believe that my city has. Fortunately, the folks I've been speaking with have other things to do and their responsiveness has tapered back off to a more sustainable level. Or rather, I'm not encouraged to infodump a live stream of the contents of my brain.

I believe that's for the best! I'm able to pause, reflect, and pick my proverbial battles. As I'm learning from reading Charles L. Marohn, Jr.'s Strong Towns book, city planning is an infinitely long marathon, not a sprint. That book is teaching me so much about the domain of civil engineering and how municipal cash flows work. I'm really glad to be afforded the time to read it so I don't make an utter buffoon of myself suggesting the city change everything, right now, damn the financial consequences when maintenance comes due in 10, 20, or 30 years.

The gov't folks have not been ignoring me, though! I volunteered some legwork to help write a draft grant application for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, perhaps in FY23 or FY24. The transportation planner gave me the contact information for the city's grants coordinator, who was very receptive to getting some help applying for those federal funds. The grants coordinator was busy this week, but asked if there's a time next week when we could meet up.

So, yeah! That's probably going to happen. In the meantime, I'm gonna continue doing me a learn with this Strong Towns book and poke a little more at the SS4A grant requirements so I have a better idea of what we're getting into. Probably this first meeting will be introductions and settling on collaboration methods (document formats, communication methods, schedules) and not too focused on the actual SS4A grant details.

the seasons are a-changin'.

Daylight Savings Time ended last Sunday, which meant we set our clocks back an hour. I'm not sure that the time change is 100% the cause, but I've been waking up between 5:30 and 6:00am naturally, biking to work as dawn breaks, and heading home around sunset.

Now that I've got proper bicycle lights, I'm much less worried about being seen in the dark. Still planning on adding some reflectors to my tire rims for more lateral visibility, but it's been abundantly clear that drivers see me easily from both the back and front. I must look like a darn circus with all the hi vis I'm sporting!

Waking up and riding my bike before dawn has been awesome. I've seen some beautiful sunrises, fog rolling off of the grass banks near the creek, and I don't feel rushed at all. It's like I'm being hugged close by the world around— a spiritually comforting feeling deep within.

For all the sweat and toil I've endured starting this bicycling journey in the hot Georgia summer, for all the flat tires I've fixed, for all the inattentive drivers that have given me a spook on the road— this is what makes it all worth it.

Autumn will inevitably give way to winter and I'll have to dress in more layers, but gosh this has been nice. I wish I could bottle up the way I feel biking in the morning and give a little bit of it to everyone!

But— I digress. We've a rainy weekend ahead, I've got a little tuning to do on my bike and plenty of errands to do besides. The sun is rising and the little one is rustling in her bed, so I'll wrap up my writing for now!

Until next time, be well! :)