Bike Snot OMA: January 2023

January 22, 2023

Hello again! I hope you are having a great 2023 so far. It seems like it’s going very quickly to me. In fact, it’s already time for me to consider the Lunar New Year, since we are now living in the Year of the Water Rabbit. It is also an occasion to reflect upon the soon-to-be-departed Year of the Water Tiger. This past YoWT Mrs. Snot went out and got us 2 kittens! It has been a lot of fun having the little terrors around. They are quite spoiled and healthy. Unlike our family cat back when I was a kid, these cats just stay inside all the time. They are adept at disrupting ping pong games, but I don’t mind because their antics amuse me. So far they haven’t expressed any interest in bicycling, possibly because they never go outside.

I also did some bicycling over the YoWT and, as a moderately active individual, I’d like to enjoy some more this upcoming year. I don’t have any major bicycling goals for this year, but I am signed up for one of those “step challenges.” It’s been good so far, and I hear that steps are good for your bone density, whereas bicycling and swimming don’t really help with that, although they are great for almost all other aspects of your life. This a.m. I was out for a walk and I saw a blue jay squawking at a great-horned owl in a tree at the park! So cool! This step thing has been exciting, and I recently even looked up a Year of the Rabbit-related activity that involves steps. It’s a virtual race sponsored by the Moon Joggers. It seems like a good time, and the medal is awesome - I think there’s a t-shirt too.

Enough about my take on YoWT and YoWR, let’s take a look at some of the signs and portends that describe what we might auspiciously aspire to in YoWR. Alright, I’m back and better informed than previously. It appears that the water rabbit is a chill creature that is kind, thoughtful, sociable, and insightful. He might show up at your full moon party and hang out for a long time and enlighten you about your purpose on Earth. The rabbit is associated with the moon goddess - Chang’e. Sailor Moon may also be related to the rabbit as her real name is Usagi Tsukino (or Moon Field Rabbit). So you might want to kick back and reflect a bit, plan out some wise and kind actions and enjoy the process and consider your results.

One wise and kind action you might consider would be to donate your time or money to a worthy organization of some sort. There’s always Team Bike Rescue of Omaha, Community Bike Project Omaha, or Mode Shift Omaha. Or, in light of the tragic mass shooting at Monterrey Park, California, following a Lunar New Year celebration, supporting one of the many organizations working to reduce gun violence like the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions or Sandy Hook Promise. I think we can all agree that this senseless repetition of something that should be preventable has gone on way too long. Now we just have to work on finding and implementing the best ways to stop it.

Back to less somber musings: one rabbit-related item I can think of is ye olde and long defunct White Rabbit Bar down in Omaha’s Old Market district. It was a fun place to hang out with a hippy vibe. I believe there’s also a Jefferson Airplane song that has something to do with the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.