Cycling in Venice

As we considered what we wanted in a place to live, "bicycle friendly" was one of the top qualities -- and a surprisingly hard thing to find.  The Netherlands got it right, the US in general not so much.

Bike-friendly is many things, but in a nutshell we were looking for a place where you could ride a bike without worrying (too much) about being run over.  A place where you could use a bike for local errands, or ride just for the joy of riding.

You do have to be careful and aware of cars, but especially on the island part of town Venice is a pretty great environment for cycling.

Went for a group ride yesterday, led by the city's Bicycle Pedestrian Coordinator -- the woman in bright green shirt. (She was riding an electric, her commuter bike.)

A section of dedicated bike and pedestrian path, down towards southern end of island. Not much traffic that afternoon -- you could ride left, right or center.








Maintained for your cycling pleasure by:

Because TRUCK

Chronicle of our moving adventure stopped pretty abruptly about 2 weeks ago, with our arrival in Venice and first visit to beach.

Volvo big enough that it has a living room behind driver.

Why?  In a nutshell:  because TRUCK.

We did our deal and bought the house, camped out in it for a couple nights... then the TRUCK arrived.  I think it was the biggest truck I've ever seen in person.  I know they make bigger ones for moving moon rockets and stuff, but even if this wasn't the worlds largest truck it was still pretty impressive.  And our stuff was inside.  Our worldly goods only took up about 1/3 of the TRUCK, but still it was a mountain of boxes, and sofas, and boxes, and machine tools, and boxes, and clothes, and some more boxes, and bicycles, and boxes.

Half a block of moving van?

So our life for the past couple weeks has been basically beavering away at the boxes -- then jumping in the pool or walking to the beach -- then more boxes.  But we are finally feeling kind of moved in.  Or maybe we are just getting used to living amidst chaos?

Quality of life is pretty good!  Cycled to a yoga class on the 'downtown' beach this morning, then had a great conversation with neighbors.  Conversation started with speculation on why a huge heron was standing on a Honda hood, and went from there.

The beach down the street.

So, about this phrase "Because TRUCK".

I'm a curmudgeon about new stuff in general, but also fascinated by the evolution of English -- the "language that never met a word it didn't like."

So naturally I thought this new "Because ____." construction was stupid and pointless.  But I also found that it exactly captures the impact of the TRUCK on our lives.! Everything for past couple of weeks has been because TRUCK.  The grammatical construction is almost as objectionable as baseball hats worn backward -- except that it works.  So, guess I am a convert.

I decided to check it out.  The construction has become a recognized (legitimized?) element of English, even provoking snarky argument active discussion among academics as to what part of speech is represented, and syntactical lineage of the usage.  Hard to believe?  Check it out, but wait until just before bedtime...  this article is a real snoozer: Because Syntax