posted on my site:

The Morning Commute
Riding in today on my Savage I realized something -- my commute is too short!

I hired onto Pacific Telephone and Telegraph in 1970 and started working at the Madison Complex, downtown Los Angeles, a 14.3 mile commute. About '76 I transfered to the Gardena central office as a SxS switchman and cut my commute to 3 miles. In '86 I was surplus and snagged an opening in O.C.S. at a garage on 139th street -- 1.3 miles from my house. We moved to our present location a dozen years ago which tripled my commute -- to 4 miles.

For decades I have been driving a very short distance to/from work and have really enjoyed the fact that I have such a short commute.

Until I got my motorcycle.

My morning ride ends too soon. On beautiful balmy mornings such as today I'm going to have to leave home earlier and take a round-about route to work.

While we're blogging...

It's colder than a brass monkey's balls here.  Actually it's not that cold, but rain is also threatening, and when it does start raining, the brass monkey ~will~ experience "shrinkage."  

That really sucks.  Being a Fed, I got the day off too.  So I'm sitting here in a bathrobe typing in a dark den.

My ride to work usually sucks anyway. There are 4 basic ways to get there, all between 7 and 14 miles.

1. Ride down on a very busy freeway I-71, which isn't fun until I reach a banked turn onto another interstate, I-670.  At that point I disect the curve, nailing the apexes, until I'm back into heavy freeway traffic.

2. Ride down a major artery, Cleveland Ave., stop and go, stop and go, watching out for sleepy cage operators.  Sometimes I can spot hookers on the way home. It's OK, but still about as dangerous as the freeway but less invigorating. When I take Cleveland Ave, I can also grab the banked turn onto I-670 if I want to do so on the way.

3. Ride down Joyce Ave. That means going past the seedy strip club and auto shop district, past an nice bunch of older homes, then a couple miles straight thru the junkyard, warehouse and factory district.  Not very pretty, and very dusty and dirty.

4. Ride over to and down Sunbury Road.  It's a wooded road thru an area that wasn't overdeveloped.  It's like riding in the country. Gentle hills and a few winding curves make for a relaxing and pleasant ride in.  Lots of green stuff and past a beautiful small college campus.  Ohio Dominican College probably has the most beautiful campus in the world. AND I might get a glimpse a nice looking coed. The problem is that it tacks on about 10 minutes to the commute and I'm not the kind of person who leaves the house with time to spare.  I often ride it home however and on days when I'm already late.

I have a 6-mile commute.  Too short most days.  This morning it was a bit long because I was slightly underdressed for the temperature.  I checked the official local reading after arriving at my office.  25 degrees Fahrenheit.  I've been dreaming of an Aerostich 1-piece all day.  

I live in New brunswick Canada. We are in the 30-40 degreee range most days now, and lower at night.

I took my last ride on Thursday Nov 11. Although it was only around 40 degrees, I was dressed well (nylon windsuit with fleece under) so I didn't really feel the cold.

After a couple of miles, I came accross a shady stretch, which passes through a valley, which is thickly treed. I noticed the pavement looked wet, but it had a funny sheen to it. I pulled over, got off the bike and investigated. The wet pavent was a soft ice, about half frozen.

I continued on to my destination, and managed to avoid all the wet/icey spots, sometimes driving on the dirt shoulder, just to be on the safe side.

I drove for about 20 miles, and then decided i would head back, and call it a season...

As I was near home, some kid went flying by me on a Ninja, doing about 80mph.. My first thought was OMG, he is gonna hit that ice. I turned around and went back, as it was just a couple of miles. Either God was on his side, or else he saw the ice beforehand, because he was long gone.

Went home..Had coffee and started to winterize the bike for our brutal winter. After not riding for 15 years, and then purchasing my savage in June, this was a very depressing task. I envy you folks that can ride all year.

Heres hoping for a short winter. I am already missing my riding.

On the positive side, I was wearing shorts in mid march this past spring, so contrary to popular belief, we East Canadians get 8 month riding seasons......

Gonna be a long 4 months!!!!!!!!!

cheers

Michael