Oh, My Gosh!

"Oh, my gosh!" exclaimed the girl standing with her mother in school morning sidewalk silhouette in the Glenora neighbourhood, her voice rising, as I pedalled by.

"It's beautiful!"

It was my bicycle, its main triangle now wrapped in festive LED lights (from a Michigan company called Brightz) that caused her happy verdict, which, in turn, made her mother laugh, and me, as I rode through the oatmeal streets, smile out loud, ring my bell and say: "Good morning! Hello!"

Winter 2015
Just saying hello, or good morning, or nice dog, or thanks for pushing the crosswalk button—these little bits of human sound in the otherwise quiet commute remain one of the joys of riding a bicycle, the social vehicle.

The lights help that mission like nothing else. They certainly work faster than the speed of sound, print, or law.

Only a few blocks after the young girl had shared her joy, a voice in a park yelled, "whoooah, cool!" and then a few minutes later a driver untangling his limbs for the driver's seat of his car emerged and said "nice bike."

Yesterday, an intoxicated man saw the lights and insisted that I stop to hand out presents. A woman near Railtown said "great lights," and a boy on his way to school waved.

Bike tripping the light fantastic
I wonder if the way ahead on the road to becoming a winter city that doesn't sit winter out has something to do with having more fun with light.





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