The great thing about my current apartment is the location. There's a grocery store across the street, and the post office, library, bank, hospital, hardware store, and train station are all within a 10 minute walk.
The house that I am buying is not as convenient in that respect. It's a 20 minute walk to the train station, plus a little extra for shopping. That's a long way to go when transporting 10 pounds each of rice, potatoes, and sugar, not to mention what would happen to ice cream.
So, since I had yesterday off, I went to Redwood City and bought a cargo bicycle. This sucker is built to carry a load of over 200 pounds, and yet it handles like a regular bike. No more dangling grocery bags from the handlebars the way I did in Japan! I took the display model for a ride around the bicycle shop's parking lot, and it was extremely smooth, sturdy, and well-balanced. The one down side is that even without any cargo it's extremely heavy to carry, so taking it up or down stairs would be a pain. Hopefully I won't have to lift it very often.
The shop didn't have a frame in my size, so they're having one sent over from a different branch. I should be able to pick it up Monday after work. Then I won't have to worry anymore about how many books to check out of the library...
