Another shorts to work day

It seems as if my blog is bogged down in "what did I ride to work today" posts--at least, it seems hard to generate a different title for each post. I guess part of the point of doing this blog, for me, was to create something of a diary of riding to work. I envision the ability to look back on posts and figure out how much I'm riding if I want. Or not.


Got some curiosity-based flack from a co-worker today, as I was loading my stuff into my packs. I had to attend what will be a weekly meeting at the main office, and had to change clothes for this meeting (I get fussed at for wearing "bikers' clothes, ect." (sic) to the office for meetings). I had brought some foodstuffs for lunch and snacks, and had put them in the fridge for the duration of the meeting. It took me a couple of trips from the staff break room to the area where I park my bike to get everything ready.

I park my bike in what the staff calls the "butt hutt," or the smoking area. It is outdoors, but under a roof, so the bike is protected from rain (especially helpfull when the bags are open). The co-worker in question was on a smoke break (reminding me once again how glad I am to have quit that nasty habit over twenty years ago), and opined that my trips (and changing clothes twice for a half-hour meeting) seemed a lot of trouble for riding to work. I chose to not be nasty about her colleague (my supervisor) or her manager and their unfortunate views on meeting wear (in a meeting that is not likely to be observed by tenants).

I suppose I could segue into a rant about how people who drive instead of ride for transport just don't "get it" when it comes to the different ways bicycle commuters do things. It is not an imposition for me to change clothes when I get to work, nor to do so when I prepare to leave the office. I am becoming more comfortable for the upcoming stage of my day.

As far as stopping at a grocery for snacks on my way to work being an oddity, well, I just don't know what to say. I suppose I could stock such things at home, and get them the night before (or the weekend before), and I often do just that. It just so happened that we were out of what I wanted, and my timing worked out in such a way that I could stop easily.


My "take-away" from this is that it takes a different sort of planning to ride a bike to work instead of driving. It seems to me that people don't often think about the planning they have invested in driving instead of cycling, so they think in terms of planning for cycling as being an insurmountable task for themselves. Planning for driving to work involves buying the car, insuring the car, paying taxes on the car, fueling the car, finding a place to park the car and so on. Planning for cycling involves acquiring the bike(s) and gear, finding a place to haul and/or store clothes for work, arranging a place to clean up once at (or near) the work place, and so on.

Not harder, not easier, just different. I find the cycling to work much more fun.