but I'm really thinking about trying to commute by bike a few days a week. We have a shower there, and I'm sure I could tuck my bike away in a corner, so it wouldn't be in danger.

Until I got the Volpe, I didn't think I could do the kind of distance it would involve. I'm not certain, but I *think* it'll be between 13 and 15 miles, with one huge hill on the way there. So far the longest ride I've done was just over twenty, so I'm not sure I could handle fifteen twice a day, but if I work up to it...and with the workday as a break...well...hm. It's not as impossible as I thought it might be.

However, I'm really scared of riding on the roads. I'd have wide shoulder for the first third, a bike lane beside a very busy highway for about the second third (eek!), and a multi-use sort of a trail for almost the whole of the last section. There are a few places where I'd have to make a left hand turn, and I'm thinking the easiest thing would be to just turn pedestrian at those spots and use the crosswalks.

I think I may make a dry run of the scary portion this weekend - that'd be the part on the roads, both on the shoulder and in the bike lane. My heart is in my mouth just thinking about it. It's not really logical, I suppose... But while I know that if I fall on the trail, at the worst I might break bones, on the road, it could easily be much worse. That terrifies me. Do you ever get over that fear?