Wheeling and Dealing

Yesterday was the Fast of the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av), a very sad and disastrous day in the Hebrew Calendar.  Actually, yesterday was the 10th day of the month of Av, except that the 9th fell on the Sabbath, when we do not fast (except if it is Yom Kippur).  That's 2 days without anything resembling a physical workout.  I really didn't want to go for a third day without some sort of significant exercise.

Not to worry.  As mentioned previously, I am not all gung-ho excited over the city of Tel Aviv.  Nevertheless, to give credit where credit is due, Tel Aviv is a very bicycle-friendly city, with ample racks to lock up bikes, dedicated bicycling lanes and trails, and plenty of entrepreneurs in the business of selling and servicing bicycles.

Thursday I was at a meeting in Tel Aviv.  A number of us from that meeting had planned to (and in fact did) go to another function a bit more informal today.  One of the other persons who went to today's function suggested that I ride my bike, and noted that he and probably about half of the other meeting attendees would be dressed in their summer athletic gear.

And so, I rode my bike to the meeting.  It was about a 16 kilometer ride.  Good workout, meeting was better than average, maybe some business deals shall come of it (too early to tell).  And with all of the time I would have waited to change busses, it probably didn't extend my commute by more than about 15 minutes.  Had I waited until I got home, my workout would have killed almost another hour at minimum.

I'm not saying that I will ride my bike into Tel Aviv every time I need to go, nor even a majority of such occasions.  It can very safely be said, however, that this is likely not my last bike ride into Tel Aviv.