Here are a few things that have come across my email lately:

Flour City Invitational Bicycle Polo, August. 27-29. Go here for the schedule. Most events happen tomorrow, August 28.

World Canals Conference Flotilla Bicycle Ride, September 19. Bicycle along the Erie Canal alongside a flotilla of boats to kick off the World Canals Conference happening right here in Rochester.

MCC Ride for Scholarships, September 25. This one requires pre-registration, and is a fundraiser for scholarships to Monroe Community College students in need. Only $18, plus a free t-shirt. Route is a pleasant 15-mile tour of MCC’s campuses and facilities around the area, and is largely on trails (map is available for download at the website). I’m helping out with this one, so I’ll definitely be there! (I wrote about the previous ride here.)

Not only that, but the Rochester Master Bike Plan is also moving along! Go to the website to review and leave comments.

City government says they’re aiming for full “Bicycle Friendly Community” status from the League of American Bicyclists (we got honorable mention for 2009). I’d say we’re getting there!

I’m famous, for a day, on BikeRumor.

…happy that when the apocalypse comes, I’ll have a head start because I already get around by bicycle.

An updated version of my bicycling poem “this two-wheeled life” will appear in the next issue of Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac. I’ll post details here when it comes out, which will likely be in October.

I made up this song on Lake, near Madison, this morning, while cycling through the wet streets of Albany. I don’t know why I sing so much when I’m riding. Usually I do so with this almost cheesy, shower voice, like a big, slow Sinatra. Anyway.

You – can pass me – if you want to
You – can just go – around
I don’t – appreciate – being followed
So please, just safely go around

Poet Alan Casline rides the sardine bike in Belfast, Maine. Photo by Mark O’Brien.

Click for Super Sardine Size!

Digging these tweed messenger bags from SF. Eighty bucks? Seems like a steal to me.

I bike past this sign every day on the way to the post office. Today I finally took a photo of it:

…and waiting for the bus.

From Crossing The Brooklyn Bridge By Bicycle

• After a week riding the Dahon Speed D7, getting back on my Xtracycle today felt like riding a sofa bed. On the one hand, it has the most comfortable seat in the world. The Dahon’s isn’t bad, but the seat on the Packet Boat is like a La-Z-Boy recliner. On the other hand, the Dahon weighs 27.6 lbs and my Xtracycle weighs about 60 lbs. The difference is, shall we say, noticeable. On the other other hand (the “Beeblebrox” hand), the Xtracycle is so stable that it feels like you could take a nap on the Snapdeck and it would keep going on autopilot.
• The Dahon performed extremely well during my trip. It fit easily on the bus, unfolded and folded in seconds, handled the Manhattan and Brooklyn streets like a champ, and even did fine on the ridiculously hilly ride I took in State College, PA, over the weekend. Highly recommended.
• This was the first time I’ve gone away from home and taken a bike with me (other than when I first moved to Albany and was commuting back and forth to Rochester to see my family). I was pleasantly surprised by just how darn useful the bike was the whole time I was in NYC. I went to a jazz show on my bike, ran errands, conducted interviews, got from one transportation mode to another — all by bike.