It was back in 2007, working at a job in downtown Saint Paul, that I was able to start biking to work for the first time.

And I loved it; for most of the next four summers, I biked every morning I was able to; in 2008, that was every morning from about April 23 on (because the spring of 2008 was almost as late as this one seems to want to be) into early December; 2009, less so.

Back around election time in 2010, I went back to contracting – at a place that had no locker room.  I’m not one of those guys who can bike to work without a shower handy; cue Sammy Hagar, but I can not ride slow.  If I see someone on a bike half a mile ahead of me, I’ll try to catch them.

From there, I went to a job in Minnetonka.  The bad news; it was 16 miles each way, which after the previous winter required a little getting in shape to do the whole thing reliably.  The good news?  I did it; in late summer of 2011, after a month or two of riding from Park and Ride lots in the western subs to work, I did the whole thing for the first time, there and back…

…and as I sat at a stoplight at Prior and Marshall, after climbing the long, grueling hill up from the Marshall-Lake bridge, got a cell phone call about a family medical emergency that ended the biking season, and pretty much everything else, for the next three months.

After that, I spent a year at another contract at another building without a locker room, silently gnashing my teeth at the fates that left me commuting in a car through such a gorgeous summer for riding.

But now – knock wood – things may be looking up.

Started a new gig last week.  It’s not too far away – ten miles, by the usual bike routes.  And they’ve got a locker room.   The route is a beautiful one – a little dangerous in places, but it’s gonna be a fun ride.

I’m chomping at the bit, here.

And the weather seems to know it.