Change the Locks
As I returned home from two sets of errands today, each time I found myself trying to regain entry into my apartment by using my bike lock key. Bike on shoulder, backpack brimming with groceries, my brain dictated that my fingers sort the small, odd-looking stainless steel key with the ovular black handle from the standard brass house keys and then pushed my hand towards the door. Granted my eyes recognized the mistake almost immediately, and prevented me from attempting to feed the key into the tumblers, but already precious micro-seconds had been lost.
Somehow the mistake never presents itself in reverse; I never find myself trying to unlock my u-lock with a house key. Nor have I ever mistaken my car key for anything other than the bulbous, heavy, displaced object that it is. The car key does not have a regular place in my nest of keys, but rather finds itself occasionally placed there by the parasitizing mother of necessity, and I’m wary the entire time it’s there, lest it hatch and begin ejecting the true inhabitants from the nest like some awful Cuckoo chick - I’m no unwitting songbird, ready to give my energies over to the raising of bad habits such as excess reliance on the automobile…
However, sometimes I slip up, and today - Earth Day - I nearly took the car out on my errands.
In anticipation of driving to my Wednesday night soccer league across town, I’d obtained the car from my sister (we’ve comfortably shared one vehicle for going on three years), and I figured that, since I’d have it, I might as well use it to take care of my errands as well. Fortunately my morning blog readings reminded me of the sanctity of this particular day, and I resolved to do my shopping as usual, on bicycle, and also to take the bus down to my soccer game.
Aside from just being there with the gravity, terrain, and physics against which I happily propel myself and machine (and not unleashing the pending rainstorm a day early), I wasn’t particularly rewarded by Earth for my eco-travel intentions. No, heading West on Post St. towards Masonic was still the same uphill slog into an uncanny headwind as ever, and the subsequent left turn onto Presidio Ave. chimed in with the usual ‘yes’ answer to my usual ‘can this be any harder’ query. But it was, as always, an amazing day to be on the bike and I think the fact that my mind is inclined to reach for the bike lock key is some sort of testament to the happiness I experience when unhobbling my bike for the next leg of a journey.
Someday, when and if I’m a homeowner, I think I’ll pay to have the locks in my house changed to match my bike lock, so that I can use the one strange key for all. This ought to make things ever so much easier for my brain and also shed a couple-few grams from the heft of my keychain.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Hooray for the “Selfish Gene” referance and strong work on maintaining the car-free approach
May 1st, 2009 at 10:39 am
I suppose it’s fair that Mother Earth didn’t give you a break on her day, but what do you suppose the odds are that she will on yours? No wind, lower gravity? No?
I suppose it’s all part of what makes riding the bike worth it: you feel like you’ve actually *done* something when you get there.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 am
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June 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
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