I couldn't have asked for a nicer day for my first commute--sunny and remarkably cool for this time of year. Actually I *did* ask for a nicer day--I was supposed to bike in yesterday but woke up to pouring rain. I'm not that hard core yet.

Turns out the route is 13.44 miles--about a mile more than I calculated, but I forgot to add in the ring road around campus to get to the fitness center to change. Took a bit over an hour, and I don't like to think of how much of that time was spent at traffic lights (including one where I was the only one waiting for the light to change and my bike couldn't trigger the change, so I waited through three cycles then crossed at the crosswalk). My employer, bless their liberal save-the-earth hearts, is starting to encourage people to ride to work and has put in bike racks around the main quad to make it easier. But they didn't put any by the fitness center! So I locked up to a bench, changed quickly, then rode across campus in my little summer skirt, looking even more like a dork than I did in my spandex-and-yellow getup.

There are two spots on the route where I have to turn left and go straight uphill, starting from a dead stop. I didn't make it the whole way either time--on the longer one I had to stop and rest and on the steeper one I had to stop and walk a bit. Except for those hills, the commute was fun. Now if only I could figure out a way to add in coffee and NPR--my two indulgences that make my commute by car enjoyable.

Oh, one more thing--last night I put in a new battery in my old Ciclomaster II computer. It was stuck in bottom of my panniers for the last 17 years and I figured there was no way it would still work. Miraculously, it still does! I love old technology.

Sarah