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15_the_circle) wrote2007-08-25 03:30 pm
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[OT from cottage renovations]
no entries and no images in this space all week.
I'm also way behind in email correspondence and LJ flist reading.
so what's going on?
anybody who's connected to me over on 
already knows the quick answer: I started a new job on Monday of this week.
days have been long and I haven't had focus for much else.
it's another small software company (good), located nearby (also good) and represents a shift out of information security space (very good) into health care informatics. there's been a lot to pick up and I'm at that point where most of what I know is how much I don't know, so I'm not feeling particularly effective.
the commute is transit feasible but much better by bicycle. door-to-door it's a tad under 7 miles and is downhill in the morning with a long climb back up at the end of the day. the profile is a bit undulating, crossing several watersheds. from that of Crabbs Branch to Muddy Branch is barely noticeable; thence to that of Watts Branch is the familiar summit of route 355 at Redland Road. the final southbound upgrade is a double summit in Rockville on Monroe Street, first into another fork of Watts Branch at Monroe Place and then again at Argyle Street (the 2/3 mark and coincidentally where a friend of a friend lives) into the stream valley of Cabin John Creek. after that there's a long descent down to the office complex.
about half of the distance is on side streets. it works as a bike route thanks to a short section of bike trail that loops around a sediment control basin called Stoneridge Pond and comes out onto a poorly designed crossing of Wooton Parkway. this shortcut saves distance, allows residential street running and eliminates the necessity for a circuitous run down Wooton Parkway, a dangerous and ill-graded road segment (it curves, climbs and dips all over the place so has poor sight lines; also it's new so traffic volumes are lower and automotive speeds are higher than average). there's also a shortcut through a clearing and some woods behind the office complex though the latter entails a portage but saves almost ½ mile. I am indebted to the ever thoughtful sykotec for having scouted it out.
going into this I knew I was out of shape and had regained weight but my baseline wasn't as bad as I had expected. end-to-end it's about 30 minutes in the morning and 40 at the end of the day which works out to 13.6 and 10.2 mph respectively (not too bad considering signal delays and the portage). journey times by feeder bus + subway + feeder bus are slightly longer. the far end feeder bus schedule manages to just miss the MARC commuter trains in both directions, obviating what otherwise would have been the fastest modal combination.
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