Thoughts while biking in the cold

My cheeks are freezing, my thumbs are burning from what I can only imagine is the beginning stages of frostbite and my first thought as I am riding down the hill toward New Circle Road is, "This is not all that bad.  I prefer biking in 40+ degree weather, but I can manage the single digits for the 30 minutes I have to do it."  And sure enough I managed it.

Several of my fellow students, instructors and even a few random strangers commented on how much braver I was than they were.  They struggled to even want to leave their house to go to the car and then from the car to class.  My thought was, "I am not brave."

When I made the decision to quit my job and return to graduate school, J and I took a long hard look at the budget.  We could do it, but there were sacrifices that would have to be made.  One of those was essentially that I could have a parking pass or I could have my audiobook subscription.  As I had already started biking to work fairly regularly just because I wanted to, I decided that the audiobook subscription was more important to me.

I love biking.  I feel good cycling in every day.  I love the feel of it, the freedom of it, and I actually kind of enjoy seeing just how hard I can push myself up the hill between Vine and High Street.  I enjoy the muscle soreness when I have pushed myself really hard.  Someday I would like to feel confident enough in my ability to balance that I can do moments of "no hands," but mostly I just enjoy the ride.

I could make up a lot of logical reasons for why I started biking to work, but mostly it came down to having had a shift in my spiritual sense of self that made me really want to bike.  Don't ask me to explain it, I am not sure that I can.  But there it was, this sense that I really needed to bike rather than drive in every day.  There was no environmental motivation (I am not doing it because it is more green, though it is an added benefit).  I wasn't doing it for the exercise (I was using elliptical runners and running without it).  I didn't do it because we couldn't afford a new car (our cars were fine).  I just decided it was more me and more what I wanted to be than driving.  So, I biked.

When I started graduate school it was already established that I was biking more, so I should just carry that over and forget the high cost of parking.

So now, here I am in the midst of winter and cold weather, and I am still biking.  It isn't about bravery, or pushing myself to my limits (trust me, if it is icing and looking nasty, I will either jump on the bus and hope I make it to school in time, or just not go to class, I don't plan on being stupid).  I bike because I really do love doing it, and cold is something I can survive.  Plus it isn't worth the threat of a ticket or being towed to risk parking close enough to campus that I wouldn't have to leave extra early to find a spot.

But even the enjoyment isn't the only thing that keeps me biking.  It is the budget.

Putting together a budget, keeping track of it and sticking to it, is not an easy thing to do, but I have found that I actually love that too.  And I find that I look at the weather, I look at what I have to wear and I realize that I have what I need to make it in the cold.  I don't need to drive in and risk the ticket/towing.  That potential extra expense just isn't worth it in this case.  I am cheap.

I heard people tell me that I was going to find living on a budget hard.  It is so easy to go from making a little money to making a lot of money, but it is not easy to cut back once you are used to having the money.  My truth, I look back on the last few years and wonder where exactly all that extra money I was making went.  How is it that we didn't save a ton of money?  The fact, that I know what I cut out (and don't miss) and the fact that the stuff I cut out doesn't add up to enough to cover all the money we spent, poses a bit of a problem for me.  It means I bought a lot of stuff I didn't care about.

Living on a budget means thinking.  It means that I can't just go buy something because I want it. It means I can't just fly to New York or whatever.  It means that I have to think before I decide to buy something.  And my truth is, that I find that a lot more freeing than I thought it would.  I no longer have to worry about whether or not I am going to read that book I see on the shelf at the bookstore.  I can't justify buying it if I am not dying to read it, I have a ton of other books I haven't read.  I don't have to worry about that new electronic device that looks so cool, I don't want it enough to blow the budget.  I don't have to worry about where everyone is going for lunch today and whether or not they are going to ask me to go, I budget for a meal or two out and go along, but I don't have to worry about it.  I am free of the worry about "keeping up with the Joneses."  I can't afford to keep up with the Joneses.

Biking rather than driving is a sacrifice in the way that I can't really afford the risk of driving in, but it too is freeing.  I can go anywhere I want and often don't have to worry about where to park or even paying for parking.  I get in exercise, I am helping the environment and I am doing my part in clearing the glass off the road (three flats in 2 weeks has proven that).  I love biking though, even in  the cold.

I could have made logical reasons and justifications for extending the budget to cover a parking pass.  I could have argued for it and even potentially won, but it would have stretched the budget.  It would have made things more difficult, especially with the tax hike.  It could have meant dipping into the savings and potentially not saving anything.  I could make the choice, "Is having the parking pass worth me stressing more than I already am over the budget?"  For me the answer was no.

I don't bike because I am brave.  I bike because I am practical.  I bike because financial security is more important to me than convenience.  I bike because I love it.  I bike because I want to teach my kids that doing what you love and loving yourself in the process is far more important than making money and surrounding yourself with a ton of conveniences you don't really need or want.

Plus, I really like that I can dress all frumpy and have an excuse to wear "comfortable" clothing rather than feeling the need to dress to impress.  :)