Choose Strong
For Tim.
Sunday morning, after one page of the dicitonary over coffee, I watched a few
jiu-jitsu videos and around 11:00am, decided to go grocery shopping. We just ran
out of extra-soft tofu and it had been a while since I last braised mackerel. I
crossed the Caltrain track at San Antonio station and on my trusted e-bike sped
down Central Express.
After a few rainy and cloudy days last week, a clear blue sky looked cheering.
The mid-day sun was beaming down and the crisp late autumn air felt nice and
cool. Trees of splendent fall colors lined up on my right hiding the railroad
behind and canopied the thoroughfare on my left. The bike lane was wide and
with so few cars on the road, it felt like a ride in the park. In two miles, I
turned right onto Castro street and then left to continue on East Evelyn Ave on
the right side of Caltrain.
The next five miles were on the same street east bound across Sunnyvale. All
these years I rarely drove the entire length although I used to live in an
apartment at the end of Evelyn when I first landed in Silicon Valley 15 years
ago. Along the road, many shiny new homes and apartments were erected since then
but the clusters of giant redwood trees stood where they were before Reed Ave
where I took a right turn, glided through the Ponderosa neighborhood and arrived
at the Hancook Supermarket on El Camino Real.
All the goods were not equally inflated, as I found out. The frozen mackerel
fetched $2.30/lb and yet when braised and packaged, they cost $12.00/lb.
Luckily I prefered my own Korean cooking and Tim liked my kimchi and jjigae
better than store-bought. Once we had to throw away a jar of Coscto kimchi--the
cabbage was salty as hell. To the basket, I added six packs of tofu, a few
yellow onions, and a pack of brown sugar on top of the fish and paid about $25
in total. With the pannier bags bulging behind, I headed back.
The e-bike has grown on me and starting at green lights no longer fazes me. The
throttle function gives an initial boost before the pedal assist kicks in and
I would dash across an intersection as if on a scooter. Overall, the same traffic
rules for cars apply to bikes and I just need to treat them, despite of their
differences in size, as equals. Often, the motorists wait for the cyclist to
make a move and following the same rules puts everyone at ease. It has taken me
many years to get over this mind block but the freedom is well worth the wait.
It was an even better ride west-bound on Evelyn as most of the time my right
side was the train track. This allowed me to zip through red lights at the
T-junctions. Downtown Sunnyvale should be more crowded during weekdays but then
the busy Mountain View farmer's market slowed me down. The return trip took
about 40 minutes in total over eight miles and five minutes less than Google
maps predicted.
My grocery shopping was very encouraging. Starting January 2023, I plan to work
on site three days a week, as my employer required, and I will bike. The route
would be nine miles and overlap today's trip on Evelyn and Central Express. I
look forward to back-to-office.
