After getting doored, Tuesday morning was the moment of truth. Was I going to get back on the horse, or take some time off and walk to work?

The hell with walking. Between the weather changing and looking for work, if I didn't ride who knows how long it would be before I got back on a bike. So off I went, heart pounding my chest.

The psych major in me was fascinated by the entire thought process. One, the "fuck it" attitude of mine seems to be growing to encompass more and more aspects of my life right now and explained a lot of how I found myself riding. But more importantly, both my arms started to hurt as I was riding and would actually start throbbing as I passed parked cars on the way in. Yes I have huge bruises and a wicked road rash spot, but they were relatively pain-free walking the dog and getting ready. As soon as I was on my bike, they flared up. It was all in my head.

It may have been all in my head, but this still hurt like hell yesterday.

The ride was incident-free, as my wife was also happy to hear at the end of the day. This morning was fine too. And most rides are. Think of the hundreds of rides commuters and rec-riders alike take every year. I've gone years w/o incident, and will hopefully go more years w/o another. I'm focusing on the fact that I'm fine, and gearing up for a lot of drinking this weekend at ND/USC. Now is now, and that's all that matter.

Continuing to ride lets you see how palm trees do in October in Chicago. The answer: not so hot.

Current beer-scale: 7.8