I thought that publishing a “Smiles” list every week might get a little boring, so I decided just to make these occasional — which means that I’ve been saving up this batch for a while!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about commuting on a Ford GoBike. Since then, I have not driven my car to the BART station a single time! What’s more, now I’m even choosing to ride a bike when I don’t have to — last night when I met a friend for dinner in Berkeley, for example. I arrived a bit sweaty and red-faced, but it felt great! Okay, I know this is not extraordinary — lots of people get around by bicycle, of course — but to me using my car less and my legs more has been a revelation and a lot of fun. So I’m starting this list with a few cycling smiles.

The happy cyclist

Q: How can you tell a happy cyclist?
A: By the number of bugs in her teeth! (old joke!)

I was biking home from BART the other day when right in front of me a Cooper’s hawk burst out of a bush in hot pursuit of a sparrow. I was amazed to see the chase — and thankful that he missed the sparrow. Not that I grudged the hawk his dinner; I’m just glad I didn’t have to witness it.

This week I finally tried something that I’d been wanting to do for ages, which was to ride a bike down to Jack London Square and take the ferry into the city. Arriving at the Ferry Building, I walked the several blocks up Market Street to my office. Avoiding the most crowded boats means I get to work a little late, which is not a big deal, and the ferry is a wonderful antidote to the cheek-by-jowl crowding of the BART trains. Even on the sort of grey overcast mornings we’ve been having of late, the view and the short ride are a treat — like a 30-minute vacation.

On Saturdays, Craig and I often take a morning ride around the Alameda estuary, where we usually see shorebirds — what the Brits call “waders” — of many varieties: great and snowy egrets, cormorants and willets, avocets and godwits and least sandpipers. (Oh my!) But last Saturday, we instead spent much of the day biking around the island of Alameda (more in a later post). Out on the former naval base, I noticed that someone had decorated the office windows of a storage company with trompe-l’oeil window boxes — a colorful and surprisingly whimsical touch on an otherwise utilitarian structure.

Last on the biking front: Craig took it up on himself to have my bike spruced up: new tubes and tires and a new chain. It rides great — and I’m grateful. Thanks, sweetie!

Booker & baby & blooms

We all now know how bad it is for us to be sitting all the time. I use a wonderful app called Stand Up! to remind me to, well, stand up every so often throughout the day. You can set the frequency of the alerts, and the paid version lets you choose from a wide array of reminder sounds. These range from a simple chime to the truly delightful 30-second recording of “Peepers and Loons.” Hearing it, I am momentarily transported to a woodland pool, where waterbirds feed in the twilight. Most fun of all is when the alert sounds during a meeting (I won’t claim that this is entirely accidental), and everyone gets to share in this momentary evocation of wildness. Oh, and I get teased about having loons in my pocket!

I can think of few things more delightful than being smiled at by a baby. What greater validation of one’s existence than receiving a bottom-teeth-only grin from a seven-month-old? One recent Saturday we got together with one of the cutest babies around — and his parents — and I discovered how difficult it is to take good pictures of a baby. Kudos to Laura and Beckett for having mastered this art! They took us to Tacolicious (in San Francisco’s Mission District) for lunch, where we ate amazing fried avocado tacos (with salsa picante, cabbage, and grapefruit mayonesa). Wow. If you’re always wishing for more guacamole on your taco, this one’s for you!

Did you know that typing CMD + Shift + t will restore that browser tab that you just accidentally closed? So helpful! Thanks to my friend Charles for teaching me this trick. I now use it all the time, and I bet you will, too.

In his On Being interview with Krista Tippett, Cory Booker said many things that resonated with me — like the value of taking some sort of action, however small, because you can never know the impact it might have. (I wrote about this idea in my last Smiles post: link below.) I also loved hearing him talk about the “spiritual practice” of making his bed every morning. I am in total agreement with this: it’s a habit I have cultivated for years, because to me a made bed feels serene while an unmade bed feels stressful.

Speaking of beds… I woke up this morning to the sweet perfume of the fresh gardenia sitting on my bedside table. My friend Lisa had gifted me with this fragrant beauty. Did you know that if you touch the petals of a gardenia they turn brown? Neither did I. But Lisa told me, and that’s why this bloom still looks perfect. Thanks, Lisa!

Blessings on Baby R. for so freely bestowing his smiles —
and to everyone who acknowledges strangers with a smile
and so makes the world a little warmer.

Connections

• I remember this silly joke from childhood. Check out We Love Cycling‘s 7 Best Cycling Jokes
• Stand Up! The Work Break Timer
• Tacolicious
• Krista Tippett’s On Being interview with Cory Booker: Civic Spiritual Evolution
• You might not have noticed, but the bedside book making such a nice background for the gardenia is Jim Henry’s Hosta Seizure: A Cozy Magical Realist Gardening Mystery. Jim is the friend of a friend, an avid gardener, and a hosta expert. Follow Jim Henry on Twitter. I have not yet read this novel but look forward to diving into it soon.

You might also like…

• The world from two wheels
• What’s making me smile this week?
• What’s making me smile this week? (#2)