Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Super Commuter or Super Idiot?

Tis the question of the morning. I decided that I am low on gas and poor. Besides that, I would much rather ride my bike than drive. My bike gets better traction than my truck anyways. (S-10: rear-wheel drive + no weight = constant slippage)

The problem however, was that there was a foot of snow on the ground. Better yet, beneath that was last night's freezing rain. And in true Emporia fashion not a single road had been cleared. Way to go city. Regardless, I bundled up and drug out the Monocog. (Gears would just complicate things.) I should interject here that this is at 6 in the a.m. I gotta work early.

The worst stretch actually was the street I'm on, Neosho. I was fishtailing everywhere and was already beginning to think this was a bad idea. (yes I kept my butt on the seat and was applying even pressure, I know how to ride a bike) However, once I reached 12th things looked a little more promising. The few cars that had been out before me had packed the road down a bit. Once I got on campus (I work at the student Rec Center.) things got a little hairy again. In an effort to clear sidewalks (amazingly the clean-up crew was already out on campus) they created snow drifts that were unavoidable. These proved to be more fun than challenging though. I slid up to the front doors of the rec center got 'em unlocked and started getting the building opened up and ready for business. When to my surprise, my boss came out to inform me that school was canceled. No, I did not forget to check. ESU just does not deem it that important to post on their website that school is closed until 7:30. Well guess what, some of us work early. I suppose I could have called police and safety, but I can count on one hand the number of times ESU has actually closed doors due to weather and today did not quite seem bad enough for me to consider school might be called off.

Not a big deal though. Bundled back up, I headed up hill back to my house. (This isn't one of those "I had to walk to school uphill both ways" stories. It's downhill going to school and uphill coming home for me.) The ride home was made a bit easier by the fact that the wind was behind me and the snow was no longer blowing directly in my face. Needless to say I am going with Super Commuter, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

grandma says "what a bummer"!