Back in Business

My morning routine has changed a bit.

My commute is just a little bit longer (about 10 minutes). I'm sure that no matter where I moved, there's no way it could have gotten any shorter, since Rachel and I both had 30- or 45-second commutes most mornings in Bentonville, depending on whether or not we had to wait for one car or two cars before we could turn left into the newspaper parking lot.

I wouldn't trade my 10 minutes for the 30 seconds again. No way.

I spend the first 10 minutes of the day on the seat of my bike, weaving in and out of traffic going 25 mph straight down 16th Street, all the way to work.

Here's what I see all the way to work now: The Washington Monument poking up just behind the visible front of the White House. That's right, we just live about 2.5 miles directly north of Dubya. We're actually a little offended; because he and Laura haven't invited us over to dinner yet. The saving grace for the 100 degree mornings on the bike has been the fact that it's basically straight downhill all the way there.

Which makes for a sweaty ride home in the afternoon, riding all the way back up to our home in the 'Heights.

I still have a hard time getting used to the massive number of bikes on the road everywhere I go here in DC. I probably pass 50 or 60 people on bikes every morning. Yesterday, we were in Adams Morgan, and we saw a herd of 100-150 bikes cruise through on 18th Street. Reminded me of those "Critical Mass" bike events in Athens, when all the bikers would get together en masse to make a show of force. Of course, that was in a city where the government was slow to realize the need of making complete streets in the city that are suitable for bikes, cars, and pedestrians.

Anyway, there are bike lanes everywhere in the city, and drivers seem to know to look out for them/us on a regular basis. There's tons of places to lock up your bike on city sidewalks, and my building has a secured bike rack just inside the back that's monitored by camera.

I'm pretty sure that I can get to work faster in the morning via bike than bus or even driving. Takes about 10 minutes or so.

The only problem is that the hotter it gets, the sweatier I am when I get to work. Which is why its nice that I discovered a shower in the building....

Hopefully it's not monitored by camera as well.