Fridays I'm in Love

On Fridays I don't ride my folding bike, because the train tends to be a little more sparsely packed. Instead, I put on my special shoes and ride my mountain bike. Most days I only ride about 1.5 miles total, but there is a bike path that starts in at the Galatyn park station and ends at Renner road, so on Fridays I leave the office a little bit early and stretch my legs on the way home.

Riding the train with a full size bike changes things; with my folder I don't take up much more space than a regular standing rider. The mountain bike is obviously considerably larger (though not as large as my road bike) and as a result, I need to stand at the end of the car and move the bike back and forth as the train stops in order to let people in and out. As you can see, my handlebars take up a good amount of space in the doorway, so the movement is nescessary to keep the doorway clear.
I don't feel bad about taking up the doorway, because I can move the bike as needed, and it's really only an annoyance to me. No one needs that extra space taken up by the bike to stand. There are plenty of seats available

However, some people (I guess) have a need to be in the way. This guy got on and stood in the doorway (where I needed to be able to go back and forth) for most of the ride. This guy is very big, by the way. Like 2 times as wide as the average human.

Every time we stopped and the station was on his side, he had to exit to let people on and off. Every time we stopped and it was on the opposite side, I had to crowd my bicycle right up on him to let people on and off. Every time, he would let out a disgusted sigh and shoot me a look like I was the one in the wrong spot. Once again, the car looked like this for most of the ride.


On the other side of the people curve, there was this woman, who appointed herself cruise director for the morning. As people exited and entered the car she stopped reading, looked up, and either welcomed them aboard, or wished them a nice day if they were leaving. It was a refreshing change from the norm on the train; usually everyone avoids eye contact, plugs their headphones in as soon as they sit down, and pretend that no one else exists. I think the world would be a better place if we all broke out of our self imposed forcefields and said "hello" to a stranger.

Thanks, lady.

By popular request

My name is Justin, and I recently sold the car I hated in order to buy an expensive folding bicycle and utilize Dallas' public transportation to get around. I live and work close to the train line, so it seemed a natural thing to do - since my daughter was born, I have come to realize that it's time to get a little healthier than I have been, and to green up my life a little as well.

I am a people watcher, and have been since my father introduced me to the term when I was young. I am fascinated by humans, and people's actions never cease to amaze me, or incense me, as the case may be.

I can't tell you where this blog is going to go, and I can't imagine that I will come up with something good to post every day, but I will do my best to let you ride the train vicariously with me. Some days it is a beating, but some days, I see things like this:

And I'm going to have to share them with you.