Bike-to-Work Week, Day Two – I Have Words

On the way to and from work today, I had a few words come to mind. On the way to work:

First word: Chilly! It was only about 50° when I left this morning… a bit nippy considering I wanted to not work up a sweat on this ride.

Second word: Panniers! If I had to carry my laptop, clothes, paperwork, etc., back and forth to work every day on my bike, I certainly would not want to have to do it on my back. The straps on my backpack rubbed something awful, most of what I could see in my helmet mirror was my backpack, and that darn thing was heavy!!

Third word: Traffic. Commuting in to work in downtown Durham from anywhere a few miles north of I-85 means spending at least a mile (likely more) on a fully utilized four-lane blacktop. Fully utilized by people who generally aren’t all that happy to be utilizing it at that very moment and more than likely aren’t all that happy to see a bike in front of them. Granted, I didn’t share the recent experience of my friend Adam (nor his ensuing deep thoughts, though I enjoyed reading them), but let’s just say I wasn’t feeling the love…

Once I got off Roxboro Road, everything went pretty well. Once I got to work, I thought of another word:

Fourth word: Breakfast. Sure, I didn’t want to be riding with a stomach full of eggs and sausage or anything, but i could have at least packed a PB&J or something. :/ Thankfully, a co-worker brought in cupcakes.

Around 5:45 (leaving time for some of the traffic to thin out), I went home:

And of course, a few more words:

Fifth word: Uphill. Turns out this word was wrong… the overall route was fairly flat and had an overall downhill tendency on the way home. It felt uphill though. Maybe it was that I was riding harder (knowing I could be sweaty when I got home), maybe it was that it was hotter (75°), maybe it was that it was at the end of a full day rather than at the beginning. Whatever the reason, it felt more difficult. (It wasn’t because of the bag, anyway… I left most of that stuff at work simply to I wouldn’t have to bring it back on my back the next day.)

Sixth word: Map. I tried a few slight variations on the return trip in order to avoid a few hills and some traffic. What I actually avoided for about a mile was the way home. :/

On an ironic note, today was more an exercise in exercise rather than in greener living, as my daughter still had to get home from dance lessons. After a quick shower and a haircut (thanks, sweetie!!), I got into the car and drove 2/3 of the way back to work to pick her up: something I usually do on the way home from work on Tuesdays (without taking a special trip). Then, upon arriving home, we realized that she left something rather important back at dance, so I got back into the car and went back to dance all over again. So much for saving the planet…