community, fellowship, & insurance.

sunday, june 16th, 2024.

Yesterday was a scorcher of a June day. I'm not sure what the high temperature wound up being, but it was definitely in the high 90's (Fahrenheit). But— we had our second group ride in the morning and had about 10 folks show up, which I definitely count as a win given the temperature! We rode a 5-mile route to another park with a splash pad and a shaved ice truck.

I think the thing I appreciated the most about yesterday's ride was seeing folks talking, getting to know one another, and sharing ideas about things they'd like to see the city do to improve accessibility and safety for folks outside of their cars. I flitted about from conversation to conversation, but my goodness that filled my heart with joy!

Hm, what else has been going on? Friday, I took my bike to the local bike shop for a quick tune-up. The bottom bracket was making a sort of high-pitched tinking sound, plus I've ridden it about 400 miles since I got it, so I thought it wise to have a professional give it a once-over. They tightened up some loose bolts on the cranks and headset, adjusted the brakes, and gave it a clean bill of health.

We got our grocery shopping out of the way Friday and I'm going to be mowing the lawn after I finish my morning cup of joe today, hopefully before it gets too spicy out there. Summer vacation to see my folks is nearly upon us, which I'm very much looking forward to. We also got our minivan serviced in preparation. I guess the dealership sent the odometer reading to my auto insurance company's underwriters, which convinced them that, yes, in fact we are driving our car a lot less these days. So, yeah, my six-month insurance bill dropped $200. That was pretty rad.

Speaking of insurance— I wound up getting a bicycle insurance policy with Velosurance after seeing a discussion about it on the /r/bikecommuting subreddit. My policy comes out to about $40/month, but covers medical, uninsured motorist collisions (also generally covered by your auto insurance policy), and, perhaps most importantly for us, bicycle theft. It's a bit of peace of mind knowing that if someone knicks one of our rather expensive bikes, we're covered for total replacement less the $200 deductible.

Well, that's enough flapping about actuarial stuff for now!

Until next time, be well! :)