Post from sprocketman's Board:
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sprocketman wow. what a difference.
live in SF, school in SJ (Palmer West). I’ll be honest, I get back on the train and head home pretty quickly at the end of the day. I have friends, family, and a pregnant wife back up there. I guess I never saw SJ as “my” comm… Read Morewow. what a difference. live in SF, school in SJ (Palmer West). I’ll be honest, I get back on the train and head home pretty quickly at the end of the day. I have friends, family, and a pregnant wife back up there. I guess I never saw SJ as “my” community- my loss I guess. As I spend more time here, I like it more, but most of my social life is with other students. Most of them are from other places, as there are only 18 chiropractic schools in 12 states. I started hearing about it from some fellow students that had a lot of fun, and my first bp was last fall when we met at the auto mall. cold, but fun, missed the pack when we were late. Then my friend got a flat. oh well, we had the route, and spent the rest of the evening having fun. getting lost. riding by the velodrome. missing the meet up. meeting random people. seeing parts of the valley i would probably never have seen otherwise. finding the main group. giving my directions to someone who knew the area. getting separated from him. getting back by following a tandem bike towing a sound system. It was an all out blast. I told everyone about it, It’s everything you want critical mass to be!- planned route, meet up spots to regroup, more fun, less boozy, no cop “escort”, people following traffic rules, cars/pedestrians/neighbors cheering, an attempt to foster community rather than confrontation with drivers, later start… I could go on, but you probably already know. My next ride was August. A lot changes in a few months. I met up for a feeder ride. I learned a new, quieter route into downtown (thanks Ian!). I was amazed at how many people were there at the start. I saw a few lame things, and many, many more good things. In spite of some peoples behavior, the ride was still lots of fun. Met a lot of people, but didn’t exchange any info. The best part was when I corked an intersection- completely opposite from critical mass! I blocked BIKES to let CARS go by on their green. Heard a little bit of flack from people, but shrugged it off, and we got moving pretty soon. Told the kid that was bitching about it how I got hit running a red light back in the day. Hope it made and impression on him. Read about the negative response over the next week, but I wrote it off as people being more willing to complain about bad things than share good things. I understand the concerns and the frustration that people experience when they see their vision and their hard work turn ugly. I guess I was one of the freeloaders benefiting from the organization, time, effort, and thought that went into making bp happen. sorry. I didn’t think I would be able to make it this month, but I had a last minute cancellation and jumped on the site to check the route for tonight. Oh well, I guess I’m out. I’ll try to make it next time. 2 years ago - View |
