I used to cycle to work but I kept getting run into the
weeds by a coughing Amazonian death-cyclist.
bm
(a delightful read, Deb!)
I tried cycling to work but was too paranoid, I thought people were aiming at me. Oh, wait, I wasn't paranoid...
In a nutshell; I've always drove to work, except when I worked for Florsheim Shoe Company in Chicago. I took the train from Naperville to Central Station, then walked across the street to the office. Always drove to my other jobs.
dlowan wrote:Thanks folks!
So, what were the little adventures that spiced your commute today?
Did Didj see a special bird?
well i'm not sure about Didj, but i've seen some very nice birds, the best being one like this
an indigo bunting
So...in my old job, it took TWO HOURS to get to work, and TWO HOURS back, by bus. For thirty kilometres. And involving 6 buses.
Pluses: Where I worked, which is a social hell hole, was a visual delight, often, from a bus.
When driving, it was suicidal to lose focus...on a bus, you could look around and enjoy the backdrop of the hills, the huge sky on the way down the hill, the sunsets (I always enjoyed them from the car, anyway, I adore sky and clouds. Apparently that is a real divide amongst people, some of us are very sensitive and aware to all that, some very much not so), all that.
Where I work now is central, and I live centrally. I have a real choice of buses...bliss!
How it will be in the heat, I do not know....
I suspect I may walk to work, and bus home entirely when it is hot...the buses are air conditioned.
I think living in Silicon Valley is somewhat unique for commuters. Since the cost of homes have always been relatively high in this area, many commute long distances to come here to work. Many drive from San Joaquin Valley (Modesto) and fly in from Oregon to work here. The traffic on the major highways during commute hours are horrendous every day, and I wonder how those people do it all year long and keep their sanity. The people flying in from Oregon usually fly in to work a 3 or 4 day week, stay in hotels, then fly home.
My wife attended a conference about 30 miles from home a couple of weeks ago, but stayed in a hotel, because she didn't want to fight the traffic from Tuesday through Saturday. That's how bad it gets around here.
in the spring i usually have to duck the red wing blackbirds, they are very territorial and will attack anything regardless of size, i've seen one scare off a great blue heron
Yeh, CI, I have to pay attention to that traffic when I drive from north north down to the LA area - I need to pass through at non peak hours.
Wonderful bird, djjd..
I am in a work hiatus, but up til very recently I've taken my car the fifteen blocks - primarily because it is the easiest way to transport Pacco through city streets. When I walk him on the main busy streets I end up exhausted. (I know, I know, obedience training.) Plus, I am often, or was often, carting sometimes sizeable stuff from home to office or back. And stopping at the coop for groceries.. or dropping off stuff to thrift shops, or recyclables to the dump.
Once I'm at work, I walk around the town, sans the Pacc, who I otherwise take to more verdant spaces. Besides, he gets a whole lot of exercise running with the dobie within the long studio space, or in my side yard, which is generous. Too generous, actually.. re keeping up with weeds et al. Since there are new dogs in the neighborhood, most of whom bark, he has motive to go from fence to fence to fence.
Walking around work is terrific for a human, as we are on Second Street, First St. being the street facing the bay...
which is wonderful in all weather, fog or rain or late afternoon sun or crystalline blue.
what can i say amazing birds
here's a thought, do you consider them to be spectacular or are they just local birds to you?
i'm one of those people who take delight in everything, i see about a billion mourning doves in the course of a year but i still think they are an absolutely beautiful bird
I looooooove mourning doves, they are so precious.
Here in north north we have an extravagant blanket of wetland and somewhat wet meadow in front of mostly redwood covered low mountains, all facing Arcata Bay if one is going north from Eureka to Arcata. Dairy cattle (organic et al) in the inland meadows, egrets and herons dropping in along the highway, all manner of birds at the wetland sanctuary. The bay itself goes from dark blue grey to mudflatty to silver foil to plain old blue, like a continuous tape of incremental color changes.
However - that is not my work route, unless I've been involved in seeing our pc masters, Renaissance, up in Arcata. Mostly I go there to the market once a month or so, as even the view upon leaving the market parking lot is great down towards the bay... and the market has neat products, for example a major wall of fairly local somewhat boutique beers and ales, great cheese counter, flower stall, coffee bar, acoustic musician in the area as you come in on Saturdays.. I like that market so much I take people visiting me there as a local sight.
So, I digress. I suppose I could complain about/expound on/praise my old work route in LA...
and I probably will.
Haven't seen a grackle, don't know about them. There's a certain crow affect I detect...
Djjd, I luckily do not generally get blase about ANYTHING.
I love seeing those fabulous birds and stop for them each time.
I was not a bird watcher until my second African safari. There were so many birds in South Africa, most in our group boght bird books. That's one of the reasons I like a camera with zoom lens that can capture birds that are some distance away.
I sometimes see wild turkeys on my way in.
They tend to be scrawnier than that fellow. Plus, squirrels, sometimes skunks and also chipmunks. Birds tend to be sparrows or crows but I did see a red-tailed hawk once
and I also watched a few families of Canadian geese raise their young -- they start off like this:
I wish I could walk to work, but I can't any longer. Now I have to drive kids hither and yon all day. I did walk to work before my sister moved and when I didn't have to drive anyone around.
So, in the car, my favorite part is definitely NPR. I love listening to it. the only problem is that with my schedule the way it is now, I usually get the same show twice - the second time it's a repeat. And, I also have to switch the blood and gore stories because of the kids.
Walking I do on the weekends. I walk through Harvard Yard with it's huge elms which have been painstakenly maintained for decades (because of a blight). I pass out of the brick and iron walled greeness into the bustle of harvard square and into the shops there or beyond, past yet another university to porter square to go to the drug store.
I can't wait to have the opportunity to not have to drive to work every day.
