Strike three

Last week, after my bruised calf muscle was feeling much better, and my dog bite no longer ached, I invited Paz to come on our Weekly Wednesday Not-Training Ride.  He told me that bad things come in threes and that he wouldn’t feel comfortable riding with me until my third stroke of bad luck had come and gone. 

I assured him that I’d already had it, because I was having a terrible reaction to the tetanus shot, had no energy and was aching all over.  I found out Thursday the shot was part of the second stroke of bad luck, and that I was still in store for a third round of discomfort. 

This little zinger was sitting in my inbox that morning:

Another round of “get your stuff out of cubicles.” Bicycles should not be stored in any cubicles and stairwells need to be kept cleared. Purchasing of additional bike lockers will be looked into as an alternative. Everyone needs to make sure that there is adequate clearance in cubicles.

I will ignore the irony of an air quality organization having an anti-bicycle policy, and that today is Earth day and we were encouraged to take alternative forms of transportation (Why not all year?), and instead ask why must this existing policy suddenly be enforced now? 

The story is that our big boss, three levels above me, had a meeting with some industry big-shots.  She went to one conference room in our office, but it was reserved, so she went upstairs to a smaller one.  One of my co-workers had brought his mountain bike in because he is trying to sell it to another co-worker.  He had stored his bike in the smaller conference room upstairs. 

The big boss was embarrassed (I presume) that we would do be so unprofessional—we are air quality professionals, mind you—so she decided to enforce the no bicycle policy.   

What will I do?  I’ve had at least one of my bikes there in my cubicle almost every day since I started this job two years ago.  It keeps me company when the days get long.  I like to look at my bike and look forward to the fun I’ll have on my commute home. 

I’m not going to give up that security blanket and ideal parking space after such an arbitrary and capricious decision.  Besides, there are no bike racks outside and all the bike lockers are taken.  I wouldn’t want to park my bike in a bike locker anyway.  The heat in the summer makes things melt and the humidity in winter causes rust. 

Instead, I will make my high school English teach proud and practice civil disobedience.  I spent the afternoon giving my work space a thorough spring cleaning.  I made my desk look as uncluttered as possible.  I even replaced the carpet tiles under my bike to hide the salt stains that had built up over the winter. But my bicycle is staying right there next to me. 

This bicycle commuter is not going to give up without a fight.