Have some manners!

After the sorry excuses presented in my last post, the stars aligned and I was able to get one ride in this week. Hooray! It was a bit of a game time decision to go for the bike commute since the morning preparations that day were moving along a bit ahead of schedule.

It wasn't all gravy, though. I lost a good 5 minutes on my drive time since I had missed a turn I should've and could've made to get to the park-and-ride lot where I leave my car. I also got a bit nervous when it appeared that the lot was nearly full. Thankfully I did find a space to park and started to unload my bike. I hadn't really prepped much for the ride, so I did a quick check of tire pressure. Sure enough, the tires were a little soft. There went another couple minutes lost as I aired up the tires. With that done, I was ready to go, and set off down the road.

The ride into work was pretty uneventful. I did see a few cyclists going in the opposite direction, though encountered no one riding the same way I was. A couple of the guys gave me a friendly head nod, as to say, "Hey there, fellow comrade in cycling, way to go!" I reciprocated by signaling with a thumbs-up to say, "Hi, brother. Ride on!"

Good habits are...hard to make

So let's recap: I decided to try to work cycling into my commute for all it's inherent benefits. I decided I would keep a blog about it. I came up with a name and theme for my blog that is tied to this concept of habits.
Perfect motivation I thought.

I went through a little effort to tweak the design and make a logo for my blog. I'd tested out the bike commute a couple times. My kid drop-off routine seemed (on paper) to be simplified since the kids were now at the same school.

Well, post-blog launch I think I've biked to work one and a half times. Or maybe just half a time (see bike commute #2), I can't remember exactly. However you count it, anything but a success to this point. It turns out I've had a harder time than I anticipated nailing down the morning routine so that I could leave early enough to bike to work. We went on vacation. Twice. I needed to pick up the kids in the afternoon (I don't usually). It's been hotter than hell this past August. I guess I don't need much of an excuse. Anyway, I will continue to try and figure this into my routine somehow.

On another front, my previous walk-kids-to-school habit, which has earned a massive FAIL in 2009, is beginning anew. I think we walked 4 of 5 days this past week. Even if the bike commuting venture becomes hopeless (not yet!) I will try to remain steadfast in the walking.

Then again I am tempted to just get an Xtracycle (PeaPod LT!) and just bike the kids to school. Hmmmmm...