elicia found a four leaf clover today

today i got home, put some laundry on, (because karey wanted my day this week so we traded), got my dusty helmet out, put on my biking outfit (i thought the gymn class hero t-shirt was appropriate) and got on my bike and rode down town to pick elicia up from work. mostly a down hill ride, and quite enjoyable. i was too chicken to figure out how to go across the bridge, so i went around the sea wall instead, and took some wrong turns along the way. there was a detour too, but a kind running man told me where to go as i was passing him. i waited for elicia by her school and generally felt good about myself. then we headed back. she showed me how to get onto the bridge, and it's pretty easy. we had this long killer hill to go up, between 5th and 10th, and just when i was going to collapse i made it to the top. i huffed and puffed and sat on the grass waitng for elicia. when she finally arrived i could tell by the slowness of her peddling (ie. the steeper the hill, the faster you peddle because you're totally geared down) that she was not even near her lowest gear. she looked really tired and discouraged. she sat down on the grass beside me to rest and i broached the subject of gears. i think this may have been the 5th or 6th time i've explained that the hardest hills are conquered by the lowest gear. this dates back to our bike hike around gabriola when her and karey walked up almost every hill. she finally admitted that she didn't know how to work her gears, and that she just randomly changed them, not knowing what did what. so i conducted a gearing tutorial, which included helpful subjects such as which knob changed which gears, and the systematic changing gears methodology. armed with her new knowledge elicia had a better ride home. she was very surprised and releived. i know how she feels. when i first started riding my bike to school in nanaimo, (it was down hill there and all up hill on the way back), i didn't figure out the gear thing until a couple of weeks later when i was totally exhausted. then i felt like a doy doy. the rest of the way home was just slightly up hill and a very nice ride through pleasant neighbourhoods. it was a good work out. elicia said she's going to ride to work once a week. but i need somewhere to ride tomorrow. i was thinking of riding to burnaby, but i have nothing to do there. i could go to a movie, but i don't have any money. my bum is so sore.