Monthly Archives: November 2015

This commute

As I mentioned in my #30daysofbiking post (can’t believe it’s been TWO months since I wrote that — talk about time flying!), I’ve really enjoyed having a regular bike commute again.  The weather has been quite accommodating this fall — until this week, I’ve only driven the car to campus once (a rainy day where I had to be across town right after class).

My previous regular bike commute ended in December 2009 when I took a job in Jefferson County (promoting biking, somewhat ironically) and ditched the bike for the car.  While my current commute is a similar route to that last commute, there are some major differences that I’m dealing with this time around, including some things that I knew were nice, but didn’t fully appreciate about my last set-up.

Until now, I’ve always had a “home base” at my final destination.  For a couple of years, that was just a cubicle, which wasn’t as nice as having my own office (a rare luxury these days, I know), but even with just the cubicle, it was something — a place where I could leave my stuff and not have to lug it around with me all day (think change of clothes, rain gear, cold weather clothing, etc.).  As a non-employee student, that place to off-load is a luxury I don’t have.

During the 2.5 years that I had a private office, I had a built-in place to change clothes (rather than attempting to do so within the confines of a bathroom stall).  I was also spoiled by being able to bring my bike right into my office with me — no need for my trusty steed to have to weather the elements.  With my current commute, I’m lucky if I can cram Midnight into the partially covered bike rack on days when wet weather looms.

Similar to my previous commutes, I do have access to a locker room and shower on the other end.  I’m able to leave a padlock on a locker, so I stashed a pair of shower sandals and a bar of soap.  Unfortunately, all of the lockers are half-size, so it limits the usefulness as far as stashing gear on a daily basis (might need to get a second padlock and just claim another locker, as I’m about the only person to use the space anyway!).

I’ve used the locker room to change and freshen up a number of times, and in October I finally got around to trying the showers.  All went well the first time, but on the second occasion, there were no towels available (there had been previously, so I hadn’t brought my own), and I was forced to ditch the shower plan in favor of a less comprehensive clean-up regimen — guess I need to stash a towel there, too!

The other big difference is that on my previous commute, I had a fairly easy public transit back-up plan: a short walk to a bus that ran every 20 minutes -> bus ride to MetroLink (light rail) -> MetroLink to within a block of my office.  That meant that if the weather looked iffy later in the day (storms, heavy rain, winter weather), I could confidently bike to work, knowing I could leave my bike locked IN my office and rely on transit to get home.  And on totally rotten days, I could leave both the bike and car at home and enjoy transit (to be fair, not always a perfect experience, neither as fun nor convenient as biking, but it usually worked out well).

I haven’t even looked at my transit options for my current commute, but I know it’s nowhere near that nice, and while technically doable, it starts bordering on ridiculous when I do have access to a car.

Weather_20151116

Anyhow, that’s a snapshot of the forecast for the beginning of this week (taken on Monday).  I drove to class on Monday night and I’m car-bound today as well.  Fortunately, Thursday looks better.

I have biked in rain a few times this semester, once or twice in fairly light stuff (but you still get pretty wet after 40 minutes) and once in an all-out downpour.  Doable, but it requires hauling my wet stuff around all day (or cramming it into a half-size locker where it doesn’t really have a chance to dry), and no nice transit back-up if things get really nasty, so it’s definitely a harder sell.

We’ll have to see how the weather plays out in the new year.  January and February usually bring our worst winter weather.  Between getting myself and Gabriel where we need to go, I may need to accept being in the car more than I’d really like for the first several weeks of the spring semester.

Regardless of what the new year brings, I’m quite happy to have established this new bike commute.  I’m definitely stronger and faster than I was just a few months ago, and I’m reaping the mental health benefits of the regular physical activity as well.  At the end of the day, there’s something so rewarding about getting somewhere under my own power!

 

Halloween weekend

The weather was lovely on Friday night, so we kicked off the weekend with a family bike ride to check out the neighborhood Halloween decorations.  The forecast for Saturday night looked less than ideal for trick-or-treating, so I wanted to make the most of it, and we did.  All was well, despite the fact that I didn’t realized my rear bike lights weren’t on until four blocks into the ride — oops!

Saturday dawned drizzly and gray, as promised.  We made the most of it by baking bread (Matthew) and making chickpea dumpling soup (me).  My food lab instructor mentioned chickpea flour dumplings last week in class (I was probably the only one in the room who had every actually consumed them), and I realized I’d completely forgotten about that recipe, which is quite tasty.  Fun to bring it back!

After some post-lunch quiet time, Matthew and Gabriel got into full tiger costume.

HalloweenTigers

I’ve got the two cutest tigers in town, and that’s no lion!

After a quick visit to Nana and Papa’s, we returned home for dinner (something nice and healthy before all that candy!).  Despite my fears, the weather mostly cooperated for trick-or-treating.  It was damp when we headed out, but no active precipitation.  We walked a few blocks to a street that is very active in trick-or-treating.  There were some great decorations, including this kid dressed up as a creepy jester who looked like a statue until he jumped at you.  The house with what had been G’s favorite decorations added an animated werewolf for Halloween night, and it was too creepy for my little tiger.  About halfway through, it started spitting, and there was a very light drizzle just as we finished.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend shared Ellyn Satter’s recommendation for handling Halloween candy, basically putting the child in charge (at least to some degree) to help him/her learn self-regulation.  I really like a lot of Satter’s work (mentioned in my “Avoiding Pitfalls in Raising a Healthy Eater” post), so, despite some qualms about these particular recommendations, I decided to give it a try that first night.

I told G he could pick out what he wanted, and also that if he was hungry for something else (we don’t usually do a snack before bed, because bedtime is so close to dinner, but we were up late and he had done a lot of walking), he could have a piece of the [fresh-baked] bread.  In the end, G picked 4-5 pieces of candy and then asked for a piece of bread.

I’ll admit that after each piece of candy, I was wondering, “Will this piece be the last one?” and I wouldn’t have minded if he’d chosen even less candy (yes, I might have some control issues), but as a “sometimes” thing, this was not at all unreasonable.

We’re now doing a bit more direction with the candy, and I’m not going for the “as much as he wants at snack time” thing.  Mostly I feel like there’s SO MUCH candy for a 4-year-old, and I’m wishing we’d visited fewer houses, as neither Matthew nor I are particularly interested in helping consume the candy stash (we’d prefer our sugar and fat calories from our homemade treats!).  Looking ahead to next year, I think it might be more fun (and lead to less candy) if we host a Halloween party, which would include some trick-or-treating for the kids, but would also include games and Halloween-themed food items.

Saturday’s rain delayed gardening until Sunday (yes, the garden is still alive and kicking!), and my tigers worked in the garden while I stayed home and did homework.  They returned as I was finishing dinner preparations, and G happily munched on some extra kohlrabi before showing me the big ol’ kohlrabi that Matthew had just harvested.

G with kohl rabi
“Make it quick, Mom. This is heavy!”

And that’s a wrap on our weekend!  I have a number of other posts in the works, including one on my no-longer-so-new bike commute, but I also have lots of school-related writing due in the next few weeks, so no promises!