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People say the #1 advantage of bicycle commuting is that you get to notice things more. Scenery rolls by, not flashes away in a blur; people waiting at bus stops come to recognize you and wave; smells like grass and honeysuckle, swimming pools, and grazing cows and horses materialize.
Take yesterday morning, while riding through a park with a "lake" in the middle, on the shore stood a heron. Just out for a morning fishing trip in the middle of the city. Totally unperturbed by the neighboring apartments and traffic noise. What a send-off for a work day!
And then in the afternoon, a car fire. Not such a tranquil sight; rather, exciting to witness (although that may be because I've spent the past year and a half editing fire reference materials). Here was a car in a parking lot sprouting flames from the hood, black smoke belching upward, a policeman calmly diverting customers to park on the other side of the blacktop. A group of employess stood around, smoking on their bonus break, chatting, as if this is something that regularly happens at the bank. The approaching fire truck seemed to be the only one taking the incident seriously.
Which brings me to my #1 good thing about riding a bicycle: It will never catch fire in a parking lot.
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