Bachelor Weekend Almost Over

I'm now awaiting the return of my beloved OYH, Madster and 'Nika. The weekend went pretty much as described. I did finally get out on my bike and rode back out to work on Saturday just to see how long/far it was. I took me about half an hour to ride 7 miles. 15mph isn't too bad for someone as old, fat and out of shape as me. On the way home I found a couple of shortcuts that will lop nearly a mile off the commute. Now it's a matter of getting up the gumption to get up early enough to ride to work for a 5 a.m. start.

I really want to start up bike commuting again. I can't tell you how much it grates on me to be sitting alone in a car driving to work. It seems so wasteful. That old beater of a car has 177,000 miles on it and it feels like every trip is bringing it's demise more quickly. Unfortunately, I probably won't be biking to work this week. It looks like rain and crappy weather nearly every day I work.

I ended up going into work today, my day off. They needed extra help, and since everyone else in the fam is gone, I figured, "Why not?" Plus, time and a half isn't too bad either.

TOYH is going to stop on the way home and pick up some charcoal for grilling tonight, mmmmmm.

One last observation I want to get out there. A week or so ago in the Strib there was an article about the drop in traffic congestion during rush hours due in part to the rise in unemployment. Part of the article talked about traffic reaching a tipping point, whereby a small decrease in actual cars on the road results in a rather significant drop in commute times. My own observations will attest to this. Twice last week, I had to be out in rush hour traffic and planned according to how long it typically takes to get somewhere at this time of day. Eastbound Hwy 36 and southbound 35W were a breeze. The article in the paper also had testimonials saying the same thing about people's commutes. Now when the economy picks up again, how can the number of cars on the road be kept at the same level so traffic will be just this much smoother in the future? It would be nice if some folks were able to carpool or take transit, but I doubt that smoother rush hours will be a feature of life around here. Once people start working again, and see in the beginning that their commutes are relatively easy, the roads will fill up and we'll be back to being stuck in traffic all over again. Tipping point the other way.