Doohickie

Let's try this as an alternative to the How Was Your Commute? thread. I get every other Friday off and sometimes I just go for a pleasure ride, and sometimes I actually get stuff done by bicycle. If you want to share your off-day errands, post away.

I'll start: We got something in the mail that said my son's college bill was messed up. After about a week of my wife *not* getting over to campus to clear it up (she works on the same side of town where my son's college is), I said I would take care of it.

I decided to ride, even though my only other foray over to that side of town took me through some scary neighborhoods. I chose a route that kept me on the west side of town for as long as possible then headed east. Fort Worth is bisected by I35W, and in just a few blocks it can go from run down, but okay, neighborhoods to totally neglected ones and basically there's no way to get to Texas Wesleyan University except to go through one of those.

So after crossing the interstate, things went okay until I spied up ahead a dog in the road at a railroad crossing. Deciding discretion is the better part of valor (and also realizing I'd left my pepper spray at home), I jogged over a block. Problem solved. Actually, not quite. About a half a block later I heard the tickety-tickety of doggie toenails on the road and realized I was being chased. Up out of the seat and two or three strokes bought me some time while I grabbed my water bottle (in the absence of pepper spray, water is the next best option). I turned around to size up my pursuer and noticed he was getting winded and easing up.

Campus was only a half mile beyond that, so I went into the cashier's office, straightened out the mess, and went home on my intended route. This time, I didn't do the jog over a block and went through where I saw the original dog. By then he was gone.

On the way home I met a friend for breakfast and stopped by the LBS, so I guess those stops weren't necessarily errands, but they were on the way home anyway. My work commute is 34 miles round trip, I did almost 28 today instead.