Rolling Rally Rolls Right Over My Plans

So...I lined up two doctors' appointments back-to-back tomorrow at Mass General. Since I have to hike in from the 'burbs (time off work, traffic, etc), I try to be efficient. And then the mayor goes and announces that the Red Sox rolling rally will be tomorrow, exactly when I'm supposed to be on Cambridge St.

The mind mulls: Postpone the appointments? (It's not that easy to line up the schedule of two different offices.) Drive in and risk being barred from entering the streets I need to use? (Though they can't shut down the road in front of a big hospital, can they? Huh, huh?) Take the T down? (But by the time I need to leave for the T, parking will probably be long gone.)

I'm leaning toward biking to the T, like my hubby. You can always find a chainable location (unlike a car parking spot) and mash yourself onto a T car. It will take longer to ride to Alewife than drive, but will probably be better than trying to fight the traffic in the city itself. And if I get sweaty, I can bring an extra shirt to change into before my appointments.

Maybe I'll even get to see part of the rally between appointments (there's a little break in the middle). After all, it's Sox! In Duck Boats! What more could you want!

Hmmm...ride or cancel? I'm thinking those are my two best options right now. They posted the route on Boston.com, and it doesn't look promising for my usual drive in to MGH.

What to do, what to do?

Map courtesy of Boston.com

Darwinian Test on the Bike Path

Wednesday night, after a delicious meal with friends at Uncle Pete's--he has real Texas-style burnt ends now!!--our friend dropped my husband off in Arlington Heights. Jim had ridden his newer bike home earlier in the day after picking it up from Quad Cycles (broken spoke repair), so he'd left Frankenbike chained to a post. (Frankenbike is composed of many parts from two different bikes, hence the name.) It was about 9:30, and I expected him home in about 20 minutes.

Instead, he showed up almost a full hour later. I hadn't been too worried, since I knew he had his phone, but I was beginning to wonder. He finally came in at 10:30, so I asked where he'd been.

"I was leading some bikers down the Minuteman," he said.

"What?" I said, in my uniquely eloquent way.

"I was riding on the trail and nearly ran into two idiots who were stumbling around on the path with their bikes and no lights. They literally couldn't see the trail. So I offered to ride in front of them--slowly--so they could follow me to Lexington."

(If you've ever been on the Minuteman Trail, you might remember that it has no street--trail?--lamps and a lot of dense foliage surrounds it, which blocks out any ambient light as well.)

"But it was past 9:30--it's not like it JUST got dark--they had to know it would be too dark to ride without lights," I said.

"Whatever," he shrugged. "I guess I could have left them out there in the dark, but it wasn't safe. And going out on Mass Ave. without lights would probably be worse for them. As a driver, I don't like being on the road with bikers who don't know what they're doing."

That's what we call a "Darwinian Test" in our family--as in, these people should think twice before spawning.

Ah, what the hell--we all screw up sometimes. And at least I can say my nice-guy husband led two strangers to Lexington Town Center where they could safely walk their bikes the rest of the way. One day, he might need some help, too. I'm not sure if that gains you Darwinian points, but I think it raises your Karma score.