Shopping the "Metro Metric."

    Having been a single parent for nearly 20 years, I live with the dubious pleasure/responsibility of decorating any way I please.  While this does bring one a sense of stability knowing that the furniture does not require frequent rearrangement based on somebody else's whim, I have the responsibility of  making decisions.   I am looking for new window treatments. That means wandering around  in a department where men are completely ignored.  Most of the time I have the luxury of losing myself since the sales people in those departments assume that a man is not alone, but abandoned by a mate who actually knows the language.  It's not a bad life, and for a one who likes to spend a Sunday taking a long ride it can be a useful excuse.
     I have developed a route I refer to as the Metro Metric.   It's a long ride in which takes me on a figure 8 pattern through the whole town and passes two malls where I can take a break and do a little shopping.  It's not exactly suited for the spandex hamster and the pretend competition of the Sunday morning coffee shop ride, but it gets me a nice ride and I actually accomplish something in the bargain.  Here in the mythical borough of Kalamazoo we have enough infrastructure that I can cover a 60 mile route with only 5-6 miles on the streets. The rest is ridden over dedicated bike infrastructure; bike lanes, routes and mup's.

      While Sunday on the mup is not the best of all possible worlds for a cyclist, it can still be fun to take a moderate speed, enjoy the day and think of the multi-taskers strolling the baby while walking the dog, texting friends and listening to music on roller blades as a different tactical challenge than negotiating a 20 mph curve in the middle of a pack.
   As you can see, it was a beautiful day, perfectly temped in the low 70's with little to no humidity.  The multi-taskers were elsewhere.  There was a big plus to this afternoon.  A few weeks ago, I was in Washington and on the day THE cherry trees were at full bloom.  I was in  a hurry to catch my train, but did take a ride past the national mall.   There were throngs of captivated tourists with whom I could not relate.  I was so unimpressed that I didn't bother to take photos.Yesterday made me realize why.

I live where the springtime color rivals the fall.  Our town is covered with flowering trees of all kinds.  I was expecting too much from Washington. The cherry trees were pretty and all, but when I see it all the time I think my expectations were too great.