Monday, June 25, 2007

THE TO-DO LIST

Anyone who travels regularly knows that before you leave, there are a multitude of things to do, arrange, or otherwise take care of before getting on the airplane or driving away. There is no escaping the To-Do list, and the goal is always the same: Get all the important things done, and as many of the not-quite-as-important ones done as possible. New York Philharmonic players are well acquainted with the routine because of the amount of touring we do, and it always involves some amount of stress.

For this trip, some days I have been able to make the list shrink, and other days, as I cross things off, it still grows. And as the departure date nears, suitcases have to get packed while still trying to make the list shrink. In the process of pulling things together for the trip, big messes are created and have to get cleaned up. Sometimes at the end of the day I feel like I got a lot done, and other days I can't really remember what it was that made me so busy.

Yesterday I got the Bike Friday overhauled, and today I took it out for a test ride before packing it up for Australia. It's always satisfying to ride a bike that I've just had apart on a worktable and then rebuilt, so it was a good ride. I'm hoping to use the bike for the commute to UNSW (n addition to some real rides). The ruler feature on Google Earth tells me it's a 2-mile commute to the university, but Joe Wolfe says to think San Francisco hills for that 2 miles. Well, this bike has the gears! I'm looking forward to putting them to good use.