More bicycle investigations

Yesterday was busy and stressful, but I managed to squeeze in 20 minutes for a bike ride before I had to take Delia to Girl Scouts. I am getting steadier. I added my purse to the back pannier and was pleased to discover that I was able to do it with no trouble now.

I rode to the 38th street station light rail stop, just to see how long it would take. The trip took only five minutes. I see that some people park and lock up their bicycles there. I would prefer to take my bike on the train, since I have a little ways to go once I get off the train to get to my office, and that way I would have my bike with me down town, to run to the bank machine, to ride during lunch, maybe over the Stone Arch Bridge or to the farmers' market. The thing is, although I know I can take my bike on the train, I don't know how really feasible it is, since I believe it can be rather crowded in the morning.

Timing is another issue. How long would it take me to ride to work and back, once I get my stamina up? Would taking the bike on the rail part of the way be that much faster? Going by car, I'll admit, is faster still. I get up at 6:00 a.m. as it is, and given that I have a lot of trouble fitting enough sleep into my busy schedule, and given that I have to stay at the dojo late cleaning several nights a week as it is, I am worried about cutting into my sleep even further. I get off work at 4:30 and I have to be home in time to get the girls to the dojo by 5:40 for lessons on Monday and Friday. Right now, during Lent, we are supposed to be at the church for soup supper by 5:15 and we have to be there then since Delia is taking classes to prepare for First Communion. I don't think I could possibly bike home on Wednesdays and get her there in time. Once Lent is over, we revert to karate at 5:40 on Wednesdays again.

Then cost: parking is $115 per month (with in and out privileges, very handy if I'm going out for lunch or to the bank machine), or $5 if I purchase by day (no in and out privileges). Light rail and/or bus is $2.75 each way. It is hard not to look at this and think, gee, it's just about the same cost as driving, although I'll admit that doesn't factor in the cost of gasoline. And yet, I don't want to pay anything at all, since I'm so damned freaked out about Rob's layoff, which argues for bicycling. Yet can I hack resorting only to the bike, both timewise and staminawise?

Just bicycling allows me to get physically conditioned faster, which is a strong consideration--I still want to lose ten more pounds. Light rail allows me to listen to the radio or my iPod--I had mentioned that I would miss the radio dreadfully in the morning. (Is it a bad idea to fasten a transistor radio to the bike handlebars and listen to that, as long as I am not using ear buds and so I can hear traffic? Or is that too annoying to passersby, or still dangerously too distracting for me? annieways or johnridley, what do you think?)

So it looks like, as I'm getting my stamina built up, I'll bike to the light rail station in the mornings, and take my bike on it, and then try to bike back home on days that I have time to do so: Tuesday and Thursday, and if I can do it fast enough, Mondays and Fridays. I will probably have to drive on Wednesdays through the end of Lent.

So the first day I plan to try this is tomorrow. Annoyingly, it is supposed to drop in temperature and be raining, maybe even snowing.

Germaine Greer on Jane Austen

Here is a lovely tribute.

Moods

I am experiencing an almost overwhelming urge to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and gorge on dark chocolate.

Alas, this is not an option for me at work today.

My pictures of the characters in The Wild Swans

I posted this over at bookworms_inc as part of the discussion of The Wild Swans, and I thought I'd cross-post it here for my own reference.

***

I thought it might be interesting for people, as they read the book, to take a look at the pictures of the characters that I collected. Often, when I am in the very beginning process of developing a character, I get a vague impression of the person's appearance--and then I see a picture in a magazine, or pass someone in the street, and think, "Oh, so THAT'S what he looks like!" I have been known to go up to total strangers to ask to take their picture because they remind me of someone in my book.

Sometimes the picture I see can have a striking influence. For example, I "saw" Sean one day in the downtown Minneapolis public library (unfortunately, I had no camera with me at the time). He was a handsome young man with a sensitive face and mustache. The key thing was that he was wearing a cream wool Irish sweater. It was that little detail that made me decide to make Sean an Irish musician.

If he had been wearing a Hawaiian shirt, it would have been a completely different book.

This is the picture which started it all:

Loreena McKennitt This picture of Loreena McKennitt was the image that crystallized the character of Eliza in my imagination. I kept this picture and referred to it throughout the writing of the novel. Note the hooded eyes, wide mouth, "feathery" hair and strong jaw line, all part of Eliza's characterization.

A few days after I had the dream that I mentioned in the book's afterward, of a silent woman with a striking face, sitting on a park bench in a deserted city park, I ran across this picture in the newspaper. I thought, "Huh, she kind of looks like the woman in my dream." I didn't cut the picture out. A few days later, I was listening to "The Thistle and Shamrock" and a gorgeous woman's voice was singing, "The Bonny Swans." I turned up the radio, wondering who was it who was singing so beautifully. "That was Loreena McKennitt" the announcer said, "who will appearing in concert next week." Loreena McKennitt? I was sure I had read that name recently. Then it occurred to me: that was the name of the woman in the picture in the newspaper. I went and dug it out of the stack and cut it out. The face and the swans: it must be a sign. I went to the phone and ordered tickets to the concert. Her music blew me away: I bought all of her CDs and listened to them over and over while writing the book.

( Other character pictures )