I say this every year…

But really, spring in Denmark is a special experience. But how could it not be? If you make it through the long, dark winter, and manage to stay sane as the evidence mounts that summer is coming but yet somehow fails to arrive day after day and week after week… then suddenly you have a day where you can wear shorts and put your jacket and gloves away… it’s heavenly.

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This year we wasted no time, and went directly to a park after work for a picnic. We had a nice time, but the selection of the park is the subject of a _little_ tension between me and Lisbeth. I like the park we went to because we’ve yet to see anyone else picnic there. But to Lisbeth, that’s cause for suspicion — not a vote in its favor.

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This is because, generally speaking, Danes like to go where everyone else is going. They don’t try to find quiet spots that no one else knows about. I accept this as a preference, but it is hard for me to understand. It’s probably because I grew up in the American Southwest, but I feel much more at home if no one is around.

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I’ve become accustomed to city life, but it wasn’t a natural transition. It’s amusing to me now, but the first time I walked down the street by myself in a metropolitan area, it made me nervous that people were walking behind me. The first time I used an ATM on an urban street while someone was queued up behind me, I was sure I was going to get stabbed as soon as the cash popped out.

I’ve gotten used to sharing sidewalks with people and using cash machines in front of an impatient line of people… but for a picnic? For a picnic I’d prefer to have a whole park to myself.

3 Thoughts on “I say this every year…

  1. John Walker on May 9, 2013 at 6:12 am said:

    Beautiful kids!

    Whoa, that is one heck of a cargo bike. Yes, I have seen your posts about it before, but I must have missed where you got one of your own. Do you have to get a special operator’s license for that (what with the trailer and all)?

  2. Adam Trujillo on May 10, 2013 at 12:32 pm said:

    Thanks John!

    Oh yes, I got my own, shortly before we bought the house. And I can hardly imagine being without it now. We still don’t own a car, so it’s the kid-transport, grocery cart, luggage tote, occasional lumber truck, and sometime refuse hauler. It’s also my daily commuter — I generally put 12 kilometers on it every day.

    It’s heavier than a regular bike (about 50 pounds), but still lighter than most cargo bikes. And it’s geared perfectly for the weight so I don’t mind taking it into the heart of the city at all. With the trailer, on the other hand, it’s fine for the suburbs but on the rare occasion we haul both kids into the center, it feels like you’re steering a semi-truck through a tightly packed parking lot.

  3. John Walker on June 28, 2013 at 5:39 am said:

    Nothing surprised me until you said “daily commuter”. I’ve got some bad news for you, you had better sit down.

    Are you seated? Okay, here we go.

    You have become the equivalent of a big pickup truck driver. “Commuter car? Nope! I just drive my (bicycle) F350.” :-D

    Yah yah, it is still a bicycle, but I will get many chuckles over thinking of you tooling down trails with your “truck” passing other bicycle commuters riding the equivalent of a prius while they roll their eyes…

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