It is 6am Monday morning and I am finishing my breakfast when Lao Ma (Yang's mom) asks me what I want for breakfast. Nodding at my plate I say that I already ate. She asks me if I want some eggs or a steamed bun. I say no. I get up and start to get ready for work. Lao Ma asks me how I will get to work and I say I will ride my new bike. She says it is raining. I look outside and say it is not raining. She says a big rain is coming. I say maybe not till later. In the hallway outside out front door I am tying down my backpack to my bike and Lao Ma suggests I take a taxi. She says it will be very fast to my office this time of the morning. I tell her that I want to ride to work and she repeats that the taxi is very fast. I tell her that I know the taxi is fast in the morning, that I've taken it many times. She reminds me that it is raining. I clumsily finish tying down my backpack and push my bike to the elevator. Somehow she got in front of me and is standing in front of the elevator door. Hey eyes light up with a great insight. She tells me that if it rains very hard then I can spend the night at her apartment, since her apartment is just a five minute walk from my office. I tell her "maybe" which means "no" and she repeats how hard will rain later and how close her apartment is to my office. I go from "maybe" to "we'll see" which means "no".

I bought a new bike over the weekend as my old bike's rims got out of roundness. It was time to move on anyway. I bought my old bike in the spring of 2006 and for a relatively cheap road bike it had served me well. It had seen me bike Lydia and then Elisa around our neighborhoods until they were too big to sit on the back. Elisa's last ride was not long before the wheels started wobbling and it felt like the bike had lost its purpose in life. My new bike cost about the same but was a hybrid bike with slightly fatter tires and a lighter frame. When I pushed off Monday morning it was the first time I had ridden to work in a year and the second time in maybe four years (although I did a 15 minute ride to the subway every day for about a year 18 months ago). Biking to work takes almost exactly as long as taking the subway to work, maybe even a little faster in the morning when I can ride faster. The advantage of course is the exercise which is getting more and more difficult for me to do during the day with lunch meetings and what not. The down side is the pollution and riding in the exhaust fumes of buses. To deal with the exhaust I have a mask which lets me look darth vadarish while protecting my lungs.

About 40 minutes into the ride people passing me on electronic scooters look at me and say something. I cannot hear them well because I have headphones on and I cannot understand them well because I am illiterate here. Finally someone slows down as he passes me and makes the point to say "BAG" in English. "Your BAG" he says. I stop and turn my head and my backpack is gone. The only thing left on the rack is the torn bungee cord. I turn the bike around and do not see my bag anywhere. No worries. It only has my wallet, driver's license, and laptop in it. I start biking in the direction I came. I do not feel panic which as I've aged is a good personality trait of mine when bad things happen. Others would call it denial. I bike for maybe 200 yards when I see my bag. A street vendor has just picked it up. And by street vendor I don't mean someone selling food or newspapers. I mean someone who sells other peoples stuff he found on the road. He does not notice me as I approach and I reach him just as he is reaching into the compartment with my wallet in it. His face is full of anticipation, like an American child on Christmas morning although he is not American and we are a long way from Christmas. I say "ni hao" to him twice. Once so I could hear my own voice and the second time for him to hear it. He recognizes me as the bag owner and sheepishly says "xièxiè to me twice. I wasn't sure if he was asking for some kind of reward or if he was thanking me for not being angry with him. He handed me my bag, I nodded, and turned back towards work.

It did not rain at all on my way to work if you don't count backpacks. On my ride home, well, I got wet.