Well, ladies, I've been haunting the commuting section of this forum pretty consistently for the last few years. That may change: Yesterday I was laid off. This is actually excellent news, because I was planning giving my 2 weeks' notice Tuesday (I have an internship in Seattle), but by waiting a day I get severance pay and unemployment benefits. It still feels really strange, though, and I already miss the routine of commuting, even if it IS below freezing and supposed to rain this afternoon. I guess I'll go out in an hour or so and just...ride. No destination. Odd.

My last commute was really quite nice, though. It was 31°F and sunny; I rode the Xtracycle so I could bring home my personal stuff from work. It seemed fitting, too, because that bike (pre-Xtracycle, of course) and I started this whole commuting thing together; it was right that we end this phase together. I walked across the wooden bridge because the wood, still wet from the previous day's rain, had frozen into a solid ice sheet with frost on top, and I have regular slicks. It took me an hour to ride the 13 miles. Even on the Xtracycle that's slow for me, but I think I was unconsciously trying to drag it out because I knew what was coming when I got to work. Then I got to ride back again less than 2 hours later, and it was even more beautiful: The sun was up but not high, so it lit up the trees and their colored leaves brilliantly. There wasn't much traffic at 9:00 compared to 7:15. It felt like I was saying goodbye to everything as I went. I'm glad I got to bike commute my last day at work. It seemed right somehow.

Today, though, and until January, I won't have any official commute. Now I have to get enough motivation to ride when I don't have to. This is really an odd feeling.