Lisa Albers

Biking the Burke, #3

Naysayers, back off: I DID bike the Burke on Thursday. Yes indeedy. The morning haul was hella painful, and I wanted a nap by the time I got to Nintendo. However, the evening ride seemed suddenly shorter, do-able. It took me only 30 minutes. Notably, there wasn't the Ballard headwind that made me feel as if I were pedaling through molasses on Tuesday night.

Four commute trips, and I've already accumulated pet peeves:

1. Walkers with un-leashed dogs that zig-zag right in front of your bike.

2. Runners who push to the front of the queue at the stop light so that you're forced to pass them AGAIN on your bike when the light changes.

3. Gear snobs. Don't think I can't sense your attitude as you fly past me on your few-thousand-dollar, tricked-out bike, your legs clad in special pants. Especially you, with your race number still pinned to your back on a weekday, with no other racers in sight.

4. UW students who walk four- or five-abreast.

The hub thinks I need a new bike, as my 12-year-old mountain bike is too small for me, and the gears work sporadically. It's on the list, but the list is LONG.

(Not) biking the burke, #2

Well, as I knew it would be, the day dawned cold and rainy here in Seattle. I decided to drive this morning, partly because of the weather but mostly because a couple months ago, I developed a stress fracture in my left foot, and yesterday taxed the healing foot a bit. Starting off with twice-per-week riding is a good idea anyway, since I'm not really conditioned for two 40-minute rides per day. Let's see if tomorrow, which proposes to dawn cold and rainy as well, proves to be another bike-commuting day.

Biking the Burke, #1

Today I biked part of the way to and from work, joining the 4,000 to 8,000 Seattleites who commute by bike each day (according to Metro King County transit). The weather here is gorgeous right now (sunny, high of 72), which is a highly motivating factor.

I've done this before, in Miami, while attending grad school. I rode a shorter distance then, through mostly residential streets. Miami is entirely flat, which sounds like it would be easier, but you're constantly pedaling because there are no downhill glides.

Biking the Burke-Gilman Trail this morning required a greater variety of gears than I ever needed in Miami, beginning with my suicide-descent down Ballard's steepest hill and culminating in a deceptive-looking but definitely steep incline near Wallingford. I'm certainly in need of some--uh--conditioning, as the 45-minute ride turned my legs to jelly and nearly cost me a lung.

A streetlight to read by — from your living room

We'd noticed the excessive lighting in the front yard of our Seattle house before we bought it in 2005. Its obnoxiousness weighed heavily as a negative strike against our decision to buy, but since the only other house that met our criteria and price range at the time had a backyard that butted up against a Pizza Hut parking lot, we decided to ignore it, even though it illuminates the living room so strongly, you can read by it:

A few months after moving in, we discovered a line item on our bill for the streetlight. We were, in fact, PAYING for the privilege of having our living room blasted with streetlight rays. A call to Seattle City Light revealed that the previous owner of the house had arranged to have the streetlight installed, for security reasons. Her monthly fee had been passed onto us, with no one at City Light informing us of the arrangement when we called to have service set up in our names. We asked to have the light taken down, and City Light agreed to refund us the charges for the light.

Career trajectory

I began working at the age of 15 as a commissioned sales associate at J.C. Penney. Numerous other part-time jobs rounded out my collegiate years, but what I mostly spent my time on was politics. Eventually, I chaired what was at the time Missouri's largest environmental organization. We helped pass the Clean Air Act nationally, and legislation for pollution penalties and energy efficiency at the state level. In 1991, I went to DC as the arms control and media intern for Union of Concerned Scientists.