Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you.

The horrible events at this year’s Boston Marathon have put me in a melancholy mood, and I turned to MetaFilter to make better sense of the senseless tragedy.

After reading the thousand-or-so comments that came before, I said (in part)

I'm surprised the last main entry before this one is a note about Steve Jobs’ death. Weird.

Much time has passed since and I am finally beginning to feel I understand some of the contours of this new life outside of academia. I often boggle at my good fortune and am humbled by its challenges and privations. More rarely, I note a small success, a shift or crystallization of things into greater understanding. I can see pieces fitting together.

Having undertaken a fair share of soft and hard reboots, I’ll edge in by noting that yesterday was my first bikeaversary (not recommended practice to increase daily follower rates, I know.»Anil Dash notes the Twitter verification process “offer[s] the tidbit that ‘Live-tweeting a relevant event can increase your daily follower rate by 260%.’”«)

That is, the bike I paid Mission Bicycle to build for me was ready for pick up on 29 February 2012.

The changes that simple vehicle has brought to my life are profound. I know extolling the virtues of a bicycle will sound childish to many, but the experience has been transformative. Every time I get out on my bike I’m improving my health, I restrict my carbon footprint, I increase my sense of well-being, I see cool stuff, and I connect with others.»And, yeah, sometimes I give some people the bird. To be clear, I pretty much stay within the law including the obeying of traffic lights.« For me it’s the opposite of getting in an automobile (public or private). Looking back over the course of forty years, I realize it's always been this way.

Coming home from work yesterday, I'd finished logging my 471st ride for a total distance of 2441.07 miles, most of those miles done right here in SF.

I love it.

one last time…