Change can be bad or good...

...it just depends on how you look at it. I'm getting laid off after 10+ years working in IT at the University of California's Office of the President, Office of Technology Transfer. The actual date of exit is predicted to be sometime in January of 2009. I've always wanted to do a bicycle tour across America, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to do it. In researching the subject, I discovered recumbent bicyles and tricycles, which for long tours makes a lot of sense. When I ride my current (hybrid) two-wheel, diamond-frame bicycle, my hands become numb and my wrists and neck hurt after only riding around about 10 miles(!), so trying to ride *thousands* of miles probably would have ended in failure. At this writing, I'm 52 years old, and my body can't take the kind of stresses that my younger self could tolerate. However, even if I were younger, I'm not sure I'd want to subject my body to the accelerated degradation a long-distance bike ride would impose. In a recumbent, the rider's hands don't support the upper body's weight, and the head is in a neutral position, taking strain off the neck. The 'laid-back' position of the rider is way more comfortable than being 'hunched-over,' and it's a much more aerodynamic profile, which takes out a significant amount of effort to move forward. Bikes (two-wheel) have a narrower profile, and can slip through or along with traffic better, but trikes (three-wheel, duh!) are more stable, especially at slow speeds, in startups, and on slippery surfaces, so there is no energy spent balancing.