Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Bike Rides and the Northwest

My sister and I just went on a two hour bike ride. It was probably the longest ride I've ever been on without feeling like I was going to die by the time we got home. I even got to wear some of her padded butt/cheech biker shorts for the trip!

I have briefly seen the a world of a biker, sorry cyclist. (Brian is a biker, Pea is a cyclist. I always get those two mixed up.) I think my expectations were much greater in respect to how the cyclists treat each other when meeting on the trail. No head nod, smile, or hellos. Bikers have a strange wave where they point their left hand index finger out at a 45 degree angle to every biker that passes. Nothing of the sort exists among cyclists. Funny, even though they all dress the same and are doing the same activity in a confined space, they don't acknowledge each other.

Is that just the way of the Northwest? I have noticed that cashiers, coffee shack workers, clerks, etc. are extremely overly friendly, while in most other situations, people are very guarded. Maybe it is my small-town upbringing that is making it difficult for me to understand, but this behavior seems quite opposite from what I am used to. Unless you know someone, you don't ask them how their day is going or what their plans are for the weekend. These are common questions asked by my coffee shack man or the checkout lady at Walgreens. Why would I want to converse with someone I don't know and that really doesn't care about what I'm doing or how my day is going? On the other hand, people in the work place or in other social situations seem leary of asking these simple questions. Odd. Is it just me or the Northwest?

1 Comments:

Blogger April said...

When he bought a motorcycle

4:28 PM  

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