Commute Loop – 2022.01.04

Sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad.

Morning ride in was great. I was dreading the torn up section of Harmon I wrote about yesterday. Imagine my surprise when I was greeted with some sweet sweet smooth as silk new asphalt. It was glorious! I was so excited I yelled to the four guys working, “Guys this is beautiful!!”. The compliment was well received with large smiles and even a thumbs up.

My end of day routine is to hit the restroom before I start getting ready for the ride home. Today when I came back I was checking the bike and found the rear was flat. Thankfully I not only carry everything needed to fix a flat on the bike, but also have everything I need in my office too. I swapped out the tube real quick and went back to resuming my normal end of day routine. Ultimately ended up leaving about 30 minutes later than usual.

The ride home was pretty nerve wracking all due to drivers not paying attention.

Right out of the gate the problems started. I was on the east side of campus trying to leave campus on Harmon. I know that if I pull up to the intersection and there are no vehicles I need to hit the pedestrian signal or I’ll never get a green. Of course once my light turned green and I tried to go I had three, almost four, cars just roll through to turn their left onto southbound Maryland Parkway. Mind you I have BOTH a solid and flashing front light to try to make myself extra visible.

Next was along Tomiyasu. I was sitting at the south end of Tomiyasu waiting to turn left onto Warm Springs. Then some bonehead traveling east on Warm Springs went to turn left on Tomiyasu and, because they were in such a hurry to beat traffic, they started to cut the turn and almost drove into me head on. Thankfully he spotted me and was able to finish their turn.

First time in a very long time that I questioned my decision to commute. The thought entered my head that I should have the wife come get me and abort the ride home. Some weird sense that the God, the universe, or some other power was trying to tell me, “Hey bud it isn’t your night.” Thankfully, it was just that, superstitious thoughts and I was able to make it home without any further incident.

Now to relax and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Mostly cloudy-Mostly clear, 34°F-50°F, Feels like 34°F-51°F, Humidity 50%-26%, Wind WNW 3mph-E 3mph – by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: 1.7%
Headwind: 62% @ 2.9-4.5mph
Longest Headwind: 42m 32s
Air Speed: 16.6mph
Temp: 32.4-46.5°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
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