Day 29 of 30: Back to the Boulevard

I never thought I would miss riding a bus, but on the second morning of COTA's most recent schedule change, I realized that I had grown more fond of those daily 15ish minutes than I thought. It's a time I used to be passive, to read, to play games, but most importantly to relax in the midst of my hustle-and-bustle in the mornings. As I'm typing this, I'm just now remembering that I didn't even share my post from yesterday, because that's something I would typically do while riding the bus!

There have been recommendations from the Ohio governor for some businesses to reopen as soon as Friday (at their discretion, of course). My somewhat selfish hope is that this will return the bus schedule to more normalcy, but by far the most important thing these days is safety, so I'll understand if that doesn't happen. For the time being, I'll manage and hope that my car doesn't completely disintegrate.

On the 2nd day of this schedule change, I went back to a routine I started last year during 30 Days of Biking and kept up with some regularity: throwing my bike in the car and taking a ride after work. Now I know what you're thinking: why can't I just drive home and take a ride when I get back? I know I can do this. In fact, I do it all the time. There's just something relaxing about taking a ride after work before I come home that helps keep me balanced. I can clear my head, reflect positively on a good day, get out some aggression after a bad day, and be ready to tackle my 2nd full-time job as family guy. Some people go to the gym after work. The bike is my gym.

Anyway, under threatening skies, I decided to re-visit some areas in Upper Arlington that I used to pass through every day when I would commute via bike from our old house. You could call it a ride down memory lane:

Or memory boulevard, but that doesn't have the same ring to it. Anywho, I'd originally planned to take care of an errand on my way, but it turned out they were closed, so I meandered through Grandview Heights a bit instead. I avoided rain entirely (woohoo) and thankfully, the wind hadn't picked up yet either. This ride also put me over the 300 mile mark for the month! But the best part is that trees appear to finally be blooming in full after a couple weeks of colder-than-average temps:

It smelled amazing. Riding through this neighborhood is one of the few things I miss about our old house. As much as I appreciate and even enjoy riding the bus, some of the neighborhoods I ride through getting to and from it are not nearly as pleasant as this. My girlfriend has been saying for awhile that she struggles to find things she misses about our old place, and I agree. It took me this long to find one, so that's probably a good thing, right?

Speaking of my girlfriend, we did go on a ride after I got home in hopes of doing some more food foraging. Alas, the heavy rains we'd received overnight had yet to yield any significant mushroom growth in the areas we searched, and we really weren't feeling like digging up plants, so we settled for our brief 4ish mile ride before dinner. Better than nothing.

After dinner, I looked at the forecast for the next couple days and decided that since it wasn't raining, I was going to sneak in another ride before dark. I used this one to do some more reconnaissance on local business:

Yes, they're open. It's getting warmer outside (finally) and I'm going to need more incentives to get the kiddo excited about pulling herself away from her computer for a few minutes. Even a ride with a junk food reward at the end is still a ride in fresh air and so on.

Lastly, I saw this in the midst of my work day and it warmed my heart so I had to share it with you:

"There is no planet B." I'm going to have to use that one in the future. It's still Earth Month for a couple more days, by the way. Or 1.75 days as of this writing. Whatever. In any case, have a great Wednesday, and keep yourselves alive. One more day of this challenge tomorrow, and I can't believe it's already almost over, again.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 314.1