Simple Pleasure of the Day: My walk to work

My new awesome walk to work as today's SPOTD is SOOOOOO much better than stupid driving commute traffic. Twenty-five minutes one-way through a residential neighborhood to downtown in Palo Alto feels like I'm high up in  a little mountain town somewhere in a particularly flat part of the mountain with clean streets, cute cafe's, squirrels that are afraid of people, and cars that actually know the right of way.  Coming from the city to here has a visual improvement thus far for sure.  And once my bike is set up it will be an even shorter commute, and that just makes my driving-hating self sigh with relief.

Walking / biking to work is soooooo much better than:

- Driving to work.  It's better for the planet blah blah blah, but also great for your body exercise-wise.  Sitting on my butt and moving a petal and steering wheel for an hour and a half does nothing for you compared to moving your body with your legs either with one foot in front of the other or on pedals in a constant circular motion.

- Taking a bus / train.  Tons of people funneling in and out of a compartmentalized commuting machine is not a great way to start and end your day.  Accidentally overhearing conversations you can't un-hear, the smells you have to hold your breath from, and the occasional unruly passenger are only a few of the sucky elements of multiple-person commuting.  Riding by yourself or biking by yourself breaks you away from all said sucky elements.

- Bumming rides from others.  You're alone with your thoughts, have complete control of music or no music preferences, and there's no backseat driving from either you being a horrible driver or your ride almost killing you on the way to work.