This weekend is the annual Chilly Hilly bike ride, an early wake-up call to bicyclists in the Seattle area to get their act together and hit the road.

Last year, I joined my 2999 closest friends up and down the hills of Bainbridge Island. Unfortunately, the hills had grown taller in the two years since my last ride.

There was an announcement on the ferry. It went something like this: “Your attention please. There is a bicycle on the car deck that has fallen over onto its side. Repeat: A bicycle has fallen onto its side.”

It took a few seconds for the joke to sink in with all the people on the ferry, but after a short while, the passenger deck was chuckling.