biking in skirt

I am really enjoying riding my bike to work.  I do it any day that I can work it out.  There is the weather to figure, and then there are scheduling issues - some days there just isn't an extra half hour to ride my bike home before I do the next thing.  Nonetheless, I am getting to ride a lot!  


It is exactly 4 miles from my door to work, via the route I ride.  I have a choice between the Centennial bridge or crossing Arsenal island.  The Centennial is quite a hill, and the pedestrian area where I would ride is prohibitively narrow, IMHO.  So I ride the Arsenal bridge.  It terrified me at first (I met a nice kid today on the bridge who was doing as I was the first time I crossed it...standing there looking worried and trying to work the nerve up.  It was fun encouraging him, and he seemed grateful.) but now it's easy.  But there are TWO bridges for the island - the big one, that everybody notices, and the smaller one, that just feels like a road if you're in a car.  Bikes, on the other hand, cross that portion on a little silver mesh grating sort of bridge that is WAY TOO SEE-THRU, and despite the massive progress the Lord has caused in me, healing my fear of heights, this one is tough.  I sing hymns while I cross it, as the heights I cannot help from seeing in my peripheral vision scare the poop out of me.  I keep thinking that will get better, but thus far it doesn't.  But it's not enough to keep me from crossing, so all is well.


It's a great way to commute.  It's too easy to be in a Big Damned Hurry in a car and to be irritable with traffic.  On a bike, I just soak in everything around me with a big stupid grin on my face and it really sets a nice tone for my morning...and is a nice de-stresser at the end of my busiest days.


Today I did my first ride in a skirt.  I've been seeing gorgeous ladies on bikes in dresses for awhile on the "Bicycle Chic" websites, so I knew it was possible.  And let's face it...sexy Lulu NEEDS a skirted rider!  Here she is at today's train delay, bragging about how cute she is and smiling that I wore my skirt...

There's just something I love about this pic...

Anyway, riding in a skirt was fine.  I did my first ride in a long one with black footless tights underneath.  That turned out to be a good choice, as after work I drove straight into a strong headwind for most of the ride, and it worked hard on my skirt.  It went from long, to acceptably knee-ish length, and when I looked down and saw it was at micro-mini I stopped to hike it back down.  The tights look like what some people wear to ride in, so it was no biggie...but at my size, still not much of anyone really wants to SEE that, you know?  (And if you're one of those critical voices who goes around saying that, please be convicted that people like me feel like slaves to believing and avoiding it, and you could even consider knocking it off already...)  

Really and truly, I've been ashamed of my legs since I was 12 years old and was 5'2" and 96 pounds.  It's those darn touching thighs.  I saw this picture tonight on a FB friend's wall and it just about made me cheer.  It's a good note for the end of a Wednesday.