10 DFABW – Fuel

I’m sitting on the back porch fueling up–oatmeal with banana today.

Thinking of my rocky ride on dirt roads, so challenging, yet so fun,
It is a joy to be healthy enough to work and ride my bicycle so hard.

After a long, fatiguing trek today, chai and breakfast are satisfying,
Now I’m refreshed and invigorated, ready for the rest of my day.
It looks like my e-bike battery finished charging too.

I had fun with my cherita today. I hope when you read that last line, you maybe had a bit of my former attitude about e-bikes. I used to think electric-motored, pedal-assisted transportation was cheating. The first time (and only time before this year) that I rode one was on a Lime bike in Seattle a few years ago. I thought it was magical and like I didn’t have to work at all.

Then I moved to the desert, where loose sand, rocky paths, steep hills, dirt roads and more greeted me on my bicycle rides. Those first months, it was a major workout for me to ride three miles on my regular bicycle. Then we got e-bikes, and I’ve learned that they really can give a great workout! Now, I encounter all of the same road difficulties, but I have help. I can ride 15 or 20 miles, for an hour or two at a time. I often push myself to use less power than last time. I am getting stronger. An added bonus are the occasional “fuel” stops we make while out on our rides–donuts, Starbucks, or breakfast out.

Riding a Lime bike in 2018

During each day in the months of August and September, I am responding to a different word from Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. Today’s word is Fuel. I had fun taking the word “fuel” literally, rather than metaphorically, as Charles Waters did on page 40 in Dictionary for a Better World. A small group of people wanting to make the world a better place are reading and responding together. Join us! Visit Common Threads: Patchwork Prose and Verse by Kim Haynes Johnson for more information. Here is the word list I’ll be following for August and September.