My morning commute

I cancelled my parking permit in May when we were gone more than half of the month, and had to drive on and off through part of June until it stopped raining, before riding my bike consistently. But now the summer is coming to a close and even my ride is evident! The mornings are cooler, leaves are on the ground and school buses are out in full force. So I ride through my neighborhood, to a multi-use path, on to a share the road street, through the capital mall then down the street that runs in front of my office, for a whopping 1.75 miles. It takes me about 12 minutes because of stop lights and stop signs, which I generally obey, but I have the lights timed! I love riding through the 'hood checking out the new paint jobs and yard work, but my favorite part is the capital. In the morning people are hustling through to get to work, squirrels are darting about, the grass is freshly watered. At lunch (the end of my work day) the fountains are on, people are picnicking and occasionally lawn bowling! But now the fountains are off for the year. No more kids splashing around and squealing with delight as the cold water shoots out of the pavers and on the other end of the park stands an empty, funny looking sculpture that looks rather odd without water.
September is ride your bike, commute to work month, or something like that. But in Salem it is also, tear apart every pathway bikes use and close them at an awkward place to go around month. So lately I'm weaving in and out of parking lots, on sidewalks, alleys or running across streets. I'm not sure how they could time it before it rains, but there has to be some way to give an alternate route, (a detour maybe!) or at least advance notice so I can go around. Once I get to the closure, I'm less likely to obey it unless it is at a place I can turn off. That being said, I still enjoy my ride, my 10 miles a week or my 1 hour and 40 minutes of making the world go by a little slower. (So far I haven't been honked at or yelled at, but I still have crazy driver stories, maybe I'll post a how to drive around a bike for those of you that aren't used to dealing with it!)