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Ahem ... where was I?
Aug. 12th, 2011 01:17 pmIt's not that I haven't had anything to say -- far from it! But I'm still spending a lot of time settling in to the new house and the new routine. And part of that new routine is that most of my LJ reading is done on the iPhone on BART, which is not conducive to posting long thoughtful essays. So as a way of getting back into posting, how about I review my new daily routine? This is a composite and, to some extent, an ideal (especially with regard to gym activities).
6 am - The alarm goes off. I get up, am thankful for having laid out my clothes the night before, get dressed, feed the cat, and verify that all the essentials are in my bike bag. (purse, keys, transit card, work ID, glasses case with the pair that aren't on my head, phone, and depending on other activities lunch bag, gym bag, and shopping backpack) If I've been very good and gotten to bed on time and therefore feel up to it, I've gotten dressed in my gym clothes and have the work clothes in the gym bag.
6:30 am -- Into the garage; door up; bag onto bike; helmet on; wheel out to the driveway; click the door-closer and make sure it closes; check for traffic and away we go. My ride to BART is about half on either lightly traveled residential streets or recreational paths and half on Concord Ave which has nice wide margins and not terribly heavy traffic. I get to ride past backyard roosters crowing and delinquent bunny rabbits on their way home from foraging and families of urban waterfowl swimming in the canal by the trail. The ride has one slightly hairy cut left across three lanes of traffic to make a left turn followed immediately by waiting at an intersection with a major artery (Clayton Rd) that only cycles the cross traffic every five minutes or so. (At least that's what it feels like.) Then I'm at BART, folding the bike up and waving my Clipper Card at the turnstile. I cannot say how delighted I am with the Clipper Card (eletronic transit debit card). I can remember back when I first moved to the Bay Area thinking someone should invent something like this. Especially the bit about setting it up online to auto-load when the balance gets down below a certain point.
7ish -- By now I'm on BART. The timing gets a bit loose from this point because a lot depends on the precise timing of my connections. The BART leg of the trip takes about 20 minutes, at which point I've worked my way through e-mail, facebook, and LJ. Off at MacArthur Station and switch to the Emery-go-round shuttle. In theory, at this point I've moved on to reading a magazine or book, but more often than not it's just solitaire games. The streets for this leg are a bit rough and I normally sit in the back of the shuttle to keep my bike out of people's way, so the ride is pretty bumpy.
7:30-ish -- If it's a gym day, I ride the block from the shuttle stop to the gym and spend about half an hour doing weights, showering, and changing to work clothes. (If it's not a gym day, I probably lazed in bed an extra 20 minutes or so and haven't really gotten any further ahead in the schedule.) Then ride the 3 blocks from the gym to work.
8-ish -- At work.
Lunch -- On Mon, Wed, & Fri I bike down to the Emeryville Post Office at lunch to check my PO Box (which I'm still using to transition mail from the old house to the new one). So far there's always been at least one piece of mail every time I check. On the day the box is empty, I'll go down to only checking one or two times a week. On PO Box days I often swing by Berkeley Bowl on my way back to work and pick up a few groceries (since I can keep them in the break-room fridge at work until the end of the day -- no frozen foods, though).
5-ish -- Off work. If I didn't hit the gym in the morning and I don't have to rush home for something in the evening, it does here. Otherwise, bike the few blocks to the shuttle stop, shuttle to BART, BART to Concord, repeating the "read e-mail, FB, and LJ" part as necessary. Home by 6pm if nothing else intervenes. The trickiest part of planning the commute is chosing clothing for the day: warm enough for Berkeley fog, not too warm for the afternoon bike ride home, not involving carrying multiple changes of clothing that take up too much space in the bike bag. I haven't yet mastered the trick of hitting the garage door remote while still on approach so that I can just ride up into the garage. Park the bike, put away any groceries and mail, take care of the cat, make sure stuff (clothes, food, etc.) is organized for the next morning.
Thursdays I swing by the farmers market on the way home. Wednesdays, unless I'm feeling overbooked, I'll generally go to fighter practice (odd to call it that when there isn't necessarily any fighting going on any given week). Alternate Thursdays is a sewing group. Enough other less-regular evening social events that it seems like more than half my evenings are booked. If I'm not going out for anything, I'll cook a nice meal and sit down to relax over it and try to catch up with anything online that's too awkward to do on a phone. And just about the time I'm thinking about getting some more unpacking and organization done, it's ...
10pm -- Bedtime. The computer is scheduled to automatically go to sleep. I'm less automatic about it. The later after 10pm I get to sleep, the less likely I'll get to the gym before work. If I do the gym after work, I get home proportionately later, everything gets pushed a bit later in the evening, and I'm more likely to not be in bed by 10pm. She is a vicious cycle.
And that's what my weekdays are like at the moment. The rhythms are still settling in. I've stopped worrying that I'll forget something essential, but I'm still trying to optimize what I haul around with me. Next post: the state of the unpacking.
6 am - The alarm goes off. I get up, am thankful for having laid out my clothes the night before, get dressed, feed the cat, and verify that all the essentials are in my bike bag. (purse, keys, transit card, work ID, glasses case with the pair that aren't on my head, phone, and depending on other activities lunch bag, gym bag, and shopping backpack) If I've been very good and gotten to bed on time and therefore feel up to it, I've gotten dressed in my gym clothes and have the work clothes in the gym bag.
6:30 am -- Into the garage; door up; bag onto bike; helmet on; wheel out to the driveway; click the door-closer and make sure it closes; check for traffic and away we go. My ride to BART is about half on either lightly traveled residential streets or recreational paths and half on Concord Ave which has nice wide margins and not terribly heavy traffic. I get to ride past backyard roosters crowing and delinquent bunny rabbits on their way home from foraging and families of urban waterfowl swimming in the canal by the trail. The ride has one slightly hairy cut left across three lanes of traffic to make a left turn followed immediately by waiting at an intersection with a major artery (Clayton Rd) that only cycles the cross traffic every five minutes or so. (At least that's what it feels like.) Then I'm at BART, folding the bike up and waving my Clipper Card at the turnstile. I cannot say how delighted I am with the Clipper Card (eletronic transit debit card). I can remember back when I first moved to the Bay Area thinking someone should invent something like this. Especially the bit about setting it up online to auto-load when the balance gets down below a certain point.
7ish -- By now I'm on BART. The timing gets a bit loose from this point because a lot depends on the precise timing of my connections. The BART leg of the trip takes about 20 minutes, at which point I've worked my way through e-mail, facebook, and LJ. Off at MacArthur Station and switch to the Emery-go-round shuttle. In theory, at this point I've moved on to reading a magazine or book, but more often than not it's just solitaire games. The streets for this leg are a bit rough and I normally sit in the back of the shuttle to keep my bike out of people's way, so the ride is pretty bumpy.
7:30-ish -- If it's a gym day, I ride the block from the shuttle stop to the gym and spend about half an hour doing weights, showering, and changing to work clothes. (If it's not a gym day, I probably lazed in bed an extra 20 minutes or so and haven't really gotten any further ahead in the schedule.) Then ride the 3 blocks from the gym to work.
8-ish -- At work.
Lunch -- On Mon, Wed, & Fri I bike down to the Emeryville Post Office at lunch to check my PO Box (which I'm still using to transition mail from the old house to the new one). So far there's always been at least one piece of mail every time I check. On the day the box is empty, I'll go down to only checking one or two times a week. On PO Box days I often swing by Berkeley Bowl on my way back to work and pick up a few groceries (since I can keep them in the break-room fridge at work until the end of the day -- no frozen foods, though).
5-ish -- Off work. If I didn't hit the gym in the morning and I don't have to rush home for something in the evening, it does here. Otherwise, bike the few blocks to the shuttle stop, shuttle to BART, BART to Concord, repeating the "read e-mail, FB, and LJ" part as necessary. Home by 6pm if nothing else intervenes. The trickiest part of planning the commute is chosing clothing for the day: warm enough for Berkeley fog, not too warm for the afternoon bike ride home, not involving carrying multiple changes of clothing that take up too much space in the bike bag. I haven't yet mastered the trick of hitting the garage door remote while still on approach so that I can just ride up into the garage. Park the bike, put away any groceries and mail, take care of the cat, make sure stuff (clothes, food, etc.) is organized for the next morning.
Thursdays I swing by the farmers market on the way home. Wednesdays, unless I'm feeling overbooked, I'll generally go to fighter practice (odd to call it that when there isn't necessarily any fighting going on any given week). Alternate Thursdays is a sewing group. Enough other less-regular evening social events that it seems like more than half my evenings are booked. If I'm not going out for anything, I'll cook a nice meal and sit down to relax over it and try to catch up with anything online that's too awkward to do on a phone. And just about the time I'm thinking about getting some more unpacking and organization done, it's ...
10pm -- Bedtime. The computer is scheduled to automatically go to sleep. I'm less automatic about it. The later after 10pm I get to sleep, the less likely I'll get to the gym before work. If I do the gym after work, I get home proportionately later, everything gets pushed a bit later in the evening, and I'm more likely to not be in bed by 10pm. She is a vicious cycle.
And that's what my weekdays are like at the moment. The rhythms are still settling in. I've stopped worrying that I'll forget something essential, but I'm still trying to optimize what I haul around with me. Next post: the state of the unpacking.
