Dealing With My Baggage

09/13/12 228# m

It happens after a while. The sides soften and swell, the guts bulge, gravity and weather take their toll, physics asserts herself and eventually your once-proud and erect trunk bag becomes a sloppy tote-bag, leaning and flopping over the side of the rack, rather like a jellyfish with zippers but no discernable structure.

Today I had enough of that, so I took on the long-avoided task of dealing with my baggage and emptying out my Avenir trunk bag (which I love) and kludging a coroplast insert to reassert the original form. This is, of course, the metaphor of a middle-aged man: reluctant to inquire into my baggage, and too eager to think: I'll throw this into the mix and it'll be good as new; the truly wise will realize that it's just a vanity.

While I had all my stuff unloaded I remembered a recent post at Commuting253, What's in YOUR Pannier?, so I was inspired to document what I'm carrying around on the back of my bike for normal, around-town rides:


In addition to the absolutely essential stuff in my bag, I also carry the Trio: Wallet, Keys, Cellphone.

I have never had occasion to use the emergency blanket or the toilet paper, but I consider them preventative insurance because if I didn't carry them, sure enough I'd get injured, trapped in a snowbank, and have a physiological need.