Steely Dan

After a very stupid 3 year hiatus of being trapped in WFH hell (I HATED WFH, it nearly cost me my sanity), I finally got back on the saddle this morning and rode my bike to my 100% in-office job downtown.

I've had the new job for several months now, so I'm not exactly sure what took me so long to get back in the bike commuting game, but part of it is that I have a stupidly easy/convenient one-seat train ride from my home up in Lincoln Square down to Chicago's loop. And even though getting out of the house everyday for the past 5 months has worked miracles on my mental health, something was still missing.

And that missing ingredient was the bike.

Within a minute of my first bike commute in over 3 years this morning, you couldn't have chiseled the smile off my face with a jackhammer!

Biking is life, life is biking.

Oh how I've dearly missed you old friend.


(And no, for me , just doing joy rides around my neighborhood on a lunch break or whatever is not the same thing at all. I NEED the destination. I NEED the structure of "you need to be at place X by time Y". For whatever reason, I find bike commuting a thousand times more satisfying than just riding my bike to ride it, or whatever)



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ThermionicScott 

Welcome back @Steely Dan! I happen to love WFH, but it certainly threw off my old commuting habits. Now that my company is going back-to-work, you folks can expect to see me around this subforum a lot more regularly, too.

jaxy357

I think we're all wired the same in this sub-forum. Give me a destination and I'll happily ride. Welcome back!

fat biker

Well Done!

Steely Dan

I just got back from the ride home.

What a freaking fantastic way to end the workday!

I feel high. I've needed this so badly.

I'm convinced that there is no better overall health medicine in the entire world.

Body, mind, and soul: bike commuting makes them all sing in beautiful harmony together.

I'm doing this every day from now on!

BobbyG

+100

Welcome back! I know exactly what you're talking about. I did WFH for 18 months. Actually it was WFH plus LFWFH (Look For Work From Home). I also returned to bike commuting with a shorter route. I believe you were commuting up to Evanston along McCormack and by Lincoln Village.

Wishing you safe, enjoyable riding!

zacster

Biking in and home from work is the only thing I miss about working now that I've retired. Of course now I have the freedom to ride wherever I'd like whenever I'd like, but I don't. There was something about that ride in the morning that just got me going, and on the ride home I'd hammer it as much as I could on the streets of NYC.

scottfsmith

Cyyyyyyyycle
When all my dime dancin' is through
I climb on youuuuuuuu

noglider 

I’m happy for you, and I’m in a similar boat. I got a job for which bike commuting makes more sense than the alternatives. But it’s only a summer job. I need to take the lessons from the summer and figure out how to commute by bike wherever my next job is. I am so much more energetic, and I even feel I’m smarter now that I put in so many miles. It’s about 100 miles a week for me!

SkinGriz

You probably are smarter. I think exercise improves cognitive abilities.

As much as I poo pah traditional schooling*, I finished getting my BS a year and a half ago.

Usually before a final I’d go for a walk and look up at the trees. Take in the fractals in the leaves and branch shapes.

*Issues with traditional schooling is the idea that schooling = education and education = schooling.


Anyway. I’m extremely proud of you bike commuters and need to get off the bench and play.

SkinGriz

I bet it was a great decluttering for the mind before getting home.

zacster

I would forget about work as soon as I crossed 42nd St to head home.