i heart Q

true story. i do.

so the other day we went to go get a late dinner on clement street. did some research and found out that Q restaurant was open until 11. since this is just what we needed, we got on the bicis and rode over.

when we got there around 10ish, we saw a sign similar to this in the window:

foto by meli...not at Q obviously

we sat down and nomnomed, happy to be ingesting Q's delicious comfort food. in doing so (i did at least), forgetting about the sign in the window. then both the host and the server came to us, told us that they saw up "roll up," and let us know they were taking $10 off our meal since we had ordered over $30. so, basically, our wine was free.

now who doesn't like that?

see the list of other i bike sf participating businesses here. the clement street deal is only good until the end of the month. maybe we can squeeze in another visit to Q before then...

next month's participating neighborhood? lower haight. oh boy. i'm gearin' up for that one wiggle-ites.

and don't forget to ride your bike in your own neighborhood. we almost, gasp, walked there. but still would have had our bike lock keys on our keychain. hmmmm.

Happy World Carfree Day!

On this first day of fall, September 22, 2010 is World Carfree Day. If you are reading this blog, chances are riding around on a bike has some how impacted how you live your life and perhaps you have thought about your influence in your immediate community. It seems that there's a similar desire for contemplation regarding the implementation of this day.

Please fill in your own thoughts on World Carfree Day 2010. Do you think we're getting there? Do you think after the oil spill (pick your favorite one!) people will rethink how they use for transportation purposes? For those of you who are car-lite, can this be one of the days you don't use the car? For those of you who are neither car(e)free nor car-lite, is it feasible for you to think about and reexamine how you use your car daily? If you are car free, maybe one can think about how food gets to the table, and ways to describe that to that one person you know who is always drinking soda with a straw out of a plastic bottle.

Let us know in the comments.

Perspective

After seeing this every day for a year,

it makes me so much happier to see this

Is it any wonder I want to get rid of my car? I know there are times cars are the best way to get "there", but 95% of the time, for me, this is not so. I rode 45 miles, partly in the rain, over mountains, on a 25 year old mixte on Sunday and it was better than the, uneventful, car ride home after.

One day, I will be car free. It is getting closer.

Are Two Heads Better Than One?

As there are many things to write about our trip to Portland, I will just wimp out on the written word for now and give you this bit of silliness.

(amazing bicycle courtesy of Metrofiets!)

Precious cargo

The other day I had a few minutes to spend and observe the recent changes to Market st. from the view of a muni rider. I decided to step out of the bike lane universe, got off frenchie and walked over to the little Muni island, which stands in the middle of the street. I luckily had my camera within reach because it was a really cool moment to see this happy mom, telling her daughter about some kind of cartoon I am not quite familiar with.
I thought that was nice. A good sign of the times and the good things to come ---- and already happening. Here and now.

Market street at 9th.

adventures in bike parking, II

seen in a SF garage in the financial district. what i like about this is not the free bike you could get in like 10 seconds, but rather is the fact that bike is super disheveled. i see plenty of mountain bikes parking in those bike rack slots (aka sorry-ass excuse for bike rack parking, but i guess we at least get this...), but never one like this. even if you moved a bike to get it out of the way to unlock your own bike, something i have done before, you would think you should move it back to how you found it. or maybe the owner left it like this in a rush to get to work. both theoretical situations exposed the underbelly of vulnerability of this bike's parking job.

in any case, i was rather fascinated by this bike for some reason. keep them bikes locked up well, mkay?

A Future Worth Working Toward

The first step is recognizing the signs. Then we have to accept it. Then we have to turn it into art.

addendum- per Todd's request