Wednesday, July 18

It was supposed to rain...

The radar in the morning showed a swath of rain on our doorstep. Resigned to driving, I was met with rain drops when I walked out the door.

Now, let me explain. I really like to bike. It is the fastest feasible method of commuting I have (if I were to drive, and hit zero traffic, I could probably make the trip in 25 minutes, but then I'd have to find parking in Davis, which is hellish. Plus, I'd have to either sit in the Alewife traffic (which sucks) or go down Lake Street and try to get across the Alewife Brook Parkway, which is slightly better. I could take the T, but my options are the Express Bus in to the city, which sits in traffic anyway and costs $4 and the the Red Line to Davis, of the Green Line, which is more cost effective ($1.70) but is a nightmare with the summer construction. No way am I going to spend 1:30 to get in. So what I do is drive down Route 2 to Lake Street, park in Arlington (generally no parking restrictions and take the 87 bus to Davis. (I can also walk to Clarendon Hill and take the 88). If I time it right, the bus comes about three minutes after I get to Arlington and generally gets to Davis by 9. It is a tolerable rainy day option, at least this summer, and if all the connections work takes as little as 32 minutes. Plus, parking is free. Now, as to the cost of driving...

So I did the latter today. And the rain never hit. Sure, it rained, but from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., right when I wasn't biking. Blast. By the time I got out, it was drying up, and just cool and foggy. At least I had brought my rollerskis and was able to head out for 15k on the Rail Trail. Tomorrow, I won't let the rain scare me. And, with my luck, I'll pay dearly.

I did get the T experience today. When you drive alone, you miss all the human interaction which makes commuting somewhat enjoyable. When you bike, you can rarely, if ever, have a conversation. But today I got to wait for the bus with Arlington Townies (the ones always walking four abreast on the rail trail, although when I passed them today their reaction was "word").

The scene: three Joeys sitting on a stoop, waiting for the bus, and an aging, domestic car pulls up with a local woman at the wheel:

Woman: What are you guys doing this morning
Townie [excitedly]: Going to court!
Woman: Oooh. Have fun.
— pause —
hey did you get your, uh, probation?
Townie: nah I gotta go talk to my PO today.

Brilliant. As my mom said "someone's gotta live there."