Today I tried an alternative to my usual commute. It was rather pleasant in some ways - instead of getting 6 km of a very busy major street with long stretches of NASTY pavement job I had to get only 2 km of it (and avoided the worst of the pavement too). However, other kinds of difficulties arose. First, I was confronted with a lot more stop signs. Stop signs are annoying! Also I discovered that this alternative route goes by an elementary school, and, my, was the street bustling with cars unloading the little passengers! I remember, when *I* went to school (not so long ago but in a different country) there was at most ONE car in the parking lot at any time - that of the shop teacher. A few parents dropped the kids off and drove away immediately, but the vast majority of students took a bus or walked. The school was about a mile from my house and I walked there and back every single day, not once was I driven there. When I was too little to walk there by myself, one of my parents accompanied me to school before heading off to work (yes, by foot also)... Oh well, anyway, just a little rant...

All in all, some variety in the route was nice though - taking the same old streets, especially if they are boring and unremarkable, gets very tiresome. I welcomed the change, despite the fact that this new route takes a few minutes longer.