Here's two days of commuting in one.

Boston was maniacal yesterday, Friday. Hurricane force winds of 75 mph, thunder and lightning, in white out blizzard conditions. There were rolls of thunder that lasted a good 1/2 minute- it sounded like someone was dragging a grand piano across the sky. The combination of bolts of lightning during a complete white out was surreal. Fortunately, I suspected some bad mojo was on the way and I car pooled it into Cambridge in the morning with a friend instead of biking. When skies cleared around 3 or 4pm the traffic was abysmal so I opted to walk 3 miles to downtown Crossing in Boston where I figured it would be a good time to Christmas shop. I was right- the stores were empty.

I then walked, bags and all, another 3 miles to where my wife was working and commuted home with her and 4 of her students crammed into the car who we dropped at various locations. Walking ain't that bad.

This morning I figured I'd attempt the bike since it was sunny and I figured most of the roads would be cleared. I also thought that since I was commuting into the people's republic of Cambridge, where there is a plethora of bike lanes and facilities, that every effort would be made to make the roads passable. Newton streets were clear, Watertown clear and Cambridge was solid 1" of hard packed ice on every roadway and the drivers were none too accomodating at times. I ended up doing about 10.5 miles (16.8k) and it took almost an hour to do it. The commute home at 6pm, a mile or two with a co-worker, and then onto the bike path, which was relatively well-plowed and cleared on the Cambridge side of the Charles River. I crossed over the Charles at Harvard Square and noticed the river is getting a light coating of ice- winter is upon us. The path on the Boston/Brighton side was also relatively well cleared, at times almost comically as the plow evidently lost track of the path and cut a swath into the mud and dirt making short cuts in the usual route. A section of the path in Brighton, behind the Public Theatre (at the wooden bridge) is unplowed but if a rider stays left towards the parking lot the plowing picks up again all the way into Watertown Square- but watch for the black ice!